Sounds good to me. We could also use a network of mini-warehouses (on high ground) with bottled water, baby formula, MREs, etc.
Most commercial buildings around here have designated tornado shelters. What we don’t have are necessities in safe, accessible storage. Churches, schools, jails, fire departments, city halls – set aside a room and stock it for emergencies.
I’ve been watching the news reports, and I could be wrong (and often am), but it seems that aid was delivered to the tsunami region quicker than it’s getting to the Gulf coast.
In all the Katrina news, has there been any indication that the authorities had any sort of plans for dealing with evacuees/refugees at all? It seems like a big oversight not to have emergency provisions of food, clothing, or whatever for folks displaced by some catastrophic event – because how often are you going to have a catastrophic event without having folks displaced?
The news over here was saying that the number of fatalities is likely to be in the tens of thousands (it said some New Orleans official had given one hundred thousand as a possible maximum figure), it couldn’t be that high surely?
I don’t see how it could be in the hundred thousand range but I don’t think anyone really knows. People are covering New Orleans almost every second so they don’t report on some of the other stories. One is that a part of Louisiana is missing. That’s right. The 40 mile tip of Plaquemines Parish got reclaimed by the Mississipii river. Og knows how many people were there. Also, people will continue to die in New Orleans from many cause until everyone is out. Even then, disease could run rampant in the refugee facilities.
80% of 500,000 = 100,000. About 25,000 of these waited out the storm in the Superdome, and are being evacuated to nearby states. Probably another 25,000 are desperately stranded around the convention center.
100,000 - 50,000 = 50,000.
There are a lot of people still alive all around the city that still need rescuing. This still leaves the possibility of a death toll in the tens of thousands, but not hundreds of thousands, thank god.
Where did all those people who drove away from the city before the hurricane go? Just spread out among friends and relatives? Are there refugee camps for them as well?
(And why weren’t they running convoys of busses for the carless ones along the interstates, before the storm, when the mandatory evacuation was given?)
Sunspace, they went to other parts of Louisiana, and Texas. Baton Rouge is swamped with refugees. Everybody who had relatives in other parts of Louisiana went there. Those that had no family went to the refugee centers (of which Baton Rouge has a few). I think Memphis and parts of Texas also have many of their motels and hotels filled with refugees.
Much as I despise Mississippi (my current home), it’s kinda sorta in there between Louisiana and Memphis. It, you know, exists. People are stopping at shelters here, too.
Thanks. This is just heart-wrenching. If they ever need space in Canada, I’ll offer my place to a refugee. I did when the planes landed in Toronto (happily, it was not needed).
Re: my previous remarks… It may be that the mandatory evacuation was after the storm. The question about evacuating the carless ones before the storm still stands.
And there’s a little voice in the back of my head wondering, how long till the sea surface heats up again and another storm comes towards New Orleans? Even a cat-1 might have bad effects.
Joe, sorry for forgetting about Mississippi. My US geography is not very good. Although you also have to deal with your own refugees from the coast, right?
Sure, but it’s not as bad as it could have been. I know lots of churches, school gyms, and the like have been converted to use as shelters.
Right now the biggest problems around here are gasoline (insane lines, severe shortages) and electricity. One woman I work with has been told she might be out of power for WEEKS. She lives in the outskirts of the city!
Of course, she lives in what’s probably the second-poorest area of town (South Jackson for those in the know) while everyone else that works here who lives in or near the city got the power back yesterday at the latest. Of course, the rest of us live in the three least poor areas of Jackson (Brandon, Reservoir and Ridgeland for those in the know).