A good friend of mine’s father owns a huge funeral home in the erea, and as far as he knows the (already dead) bodies floating around is a myth. He won’t know for certain until later, of course, but this is first hand account which I will take more seriously than anyone else until I see video.
I’ve said it before: The argument that “Hurricanes are less bad than earthquakes because you can prepare for them” is crap. I’d take a 9.5 any day over this.
I can’t yet fathom the long-term effects of this. My heart goes out to every resident, alive or otherwise. Also some $$ to the relief fund, as soon as I get my paycheck.
Incidentally, where can I send to a relief fund?
It’s eery to me…
I believe there are already many hundreds, or god forbid, thousands dead, but it almost seems like nobody is taking it seriously.
After all, it’s just a bunch of hicks :rolleyes:
or something… I just don’t get it
[apologies around for my late… shit… I’m still in a state of shock]
I’m curious, have other countries offered to help out?
I’m sitting here, stunned, because it doesn’t look like this is going to get fixed. After Charley-Frances-Jeanne, we were without power, but things got better. It’s unbelievable that we may be looking at a world without New Orleans.
I think you’re right. If the most aggressive engineering feat in the history of this country actually plays out, the flavor of that city is still forever lost. It is irreplaceable in so many ways. Utterly depressing…
I think the whole country is taking it seriously. It’s being heavily is poorly covered by the cable news and the Red Cross and Emergency crews are responding.
I know as an example than Con Ed of NY is sending ten trucks down. They left yesterday morning but it will take them 2-3 days to get there. They are experts in safely handling live downed wires.
Hugo Chavez, so much in the news lately thanks to Pat Robertson, has offered aid to hurricane victims.
I was wondering about this also. I’d hope that there’s at least a symbolic gesture from countries affected by the tsunami, but I wouldn’t count on it. It’s not getting huge coverage in the Thai English language dailies, as far as I can see. A colleague in England that I spoke with yesterday mentioned that he hadn’t seen that much about it in the news as of yesterday, and there’s been a bit of “well, it’s caused by Global Warming so it’s karma for not signing on with the Kyoto Accord.”
I do know you’re right… but I’ve personally witnessed otherwise from our “friends” in other countries.
FWIW, I started a pit thread.
Florida is sending police officers and electricians. I heard they’re using Orlando as a staging area for rescue and recovery efforts since it’s close enough to get people there quickly but untouched by the devastation.
I’ll still take the hurricane. The destruction that this one did was mostly due to the place it entered and hit (low lying coastal areas prone to flooding).
I’ll take the hurricane. Thousands of people were able to leave New Orleans as a prevention. These are people who would be stuck at work, school, or home in case an earthquake had hit.
Incidentally, do you think that NO and neighboring areas would have done that much better with a 9.4 quake? I don’t think so, I think the devastation would be equal or worse… not to mention, you know… tsunamis.
I have never been to New Orleans, but I’ve always intended on going. My girlfriend and I planned on taking a trip there in the next year or so, so she could show me this great hole-in-the-wall jazz club she had literally stumbled upon during one of her past visits.
In all of the chaotic emotions of conflicting shock, grief, horror, despair, hope, and resolve that I feel pouring out of me towards all of the impacted gulf states…the one palpable perception I can clearly feel is as if Katrina took a shovel and dug New Orleans, as it has always been known, out of our future realities. The loss of a city with such a presence, so rich with culture, music, and history…with such a signifigant and widespread impact on the collective consciousness of this country and beyond…is a potential loss and emptiness I deeply and sincerely hope we can somehow avoid.
Helluva standard you’ve set there.
You said it, honeydewgrrl. I was privileged to be able to visit NoLa in February for a business trip and tacked on some personal time so I could take in the city. It’s one of those cities that stay in your soul, and I couldn’t wait to schedule a long weekend trip for me and my hubby come this fall. Last night I broke down thinking that neither he nor our 13-month old son will ever experience the same New Orleans I experienced. It will rebuild, but it will never, ever be the same.
New Orleans will be back. And it will be remarkably like the New Orleans we remember. The biggest difference may be that it’s without a few thousand of its worst citizens, which frankly doesn’t break my heart.
Yes, there’s flooding. But New Orleans has been there for a long, long time. Many of the buildings that are flooding have been flooded before – don’t forget, the levees are a fairly recent addition to the city. People are going to clean them out and start afresh. It will be old and grungy again, and Bourbon Street will smell of beer and piss again, sooner than we all can believe possible.
My husband was able to contact former coworkers at the electric company, where he worked in their IT operations while we lived down there. They’ve got all the control equipment safe and protected and ready to go again to get the grid up as soon as they can replace the physical lines. (Also, everyone is safe and sound, which for us was a huge relief.)
New Orleans will be back. What makes it most special isn’t just the buildings. It’s the people, the people who can’t imagine living anywhere else, who create that special magic you feel when you’re there. Buildings may be messed up, but the people aren’t. They’ll take a deep breath and get to work putting things back to rights.
I’m willing to bet that by this time next year, New Orleans will be back up and functioning as a city again, and not just as any city, but as the unique place we all love so much.
Sentimental rubbish.
If the city stays offline for one year, it will never reach 10% of its pre-Katrina size again.
People will begin their lives elsewhere.
It was Miller, not me, who put the quake she would prefer as 9.5. 
Certainly, a less harsh earthquake will cause less harsh devastation. Just as a category 1 (or tropical storm) Katrina would have caused less damage.
Unfortunately, we have no modern reference for what happens when a large city is completely evacuated. Tens of thousands of these people will likely never return, because their jobs have drowned. I predict New Orleans will be a much smaller, poorer city, perhaps with Disneyesque reconstructed area for the tourists. I suspect the powers that be will take this opportunity to clean up the sleaze and decadence in the French Quarter, which was a large part of its charm. Too bad.
One thing the NO looters aren’t thinking about: They will have to be trucked out of there and I don’t think the NG is going to let them take their big screen TVs and carts of Nikes onto the trucks. After several months sitting in waterlogged houses they will just be garbage.