It was. Thank you for letting us know you recognized that. Politics is totally irrelvant at a time like this.
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With all due respect to the several respected posters in here commenting on the storm and its aftermath:
If you’re not from down here, you really don’t know what you’re talking about. Not saying that you guys shouldn’t post, or hash out issues. I’m just pointing out that a lot of the assumptions and what-ifs and why-didn’t-theys running through your heads are all totally incorrect and misguided.
Ah, I didn’t know that.
I thought it would be an important point if you live below sea-level, protected only by levees.
Fully in the spirit of the SDMB!
When making a decisive all-encompassing statement (“NOBODY EVER SAID it was as bad as the “tsunami”.”), it is helpful to at least check the thread you’re in.
Still we are all here to stamp out ignorance, so I look forward to your next informative contribution.
1) The disaster was inevitable.
So? It’s inevitable that California will fall victim to major earthquakes that will render affected parts of it uninhabitable. Inevitable doesn’t mean imminent. Doesn’t even mean it’ll happen in your grandkids’ lifetimes.
2) Anybody who lived in that area had a responsibility to prepare for that eventuality. I agree. But I’m not sure if that preparation HAD to include abandoning your homes on the government’s say-so when they provided no transportation assistance.
3) The people who stayed (with few exceptions) were dumber than a bag of hammers. Disagree. It’s not a question of intelligence so much as inexperience with the kind of widespread damage this kind of storm can bring to a region simply unequipped to deal with it. Logistically, the roads were jammed, gas prices were high, time was short and the storm was strong. Whattya want from people?
4) The issue of aid for the victims of this disaster is a contentious one that I would like to see addressed more thoroughly, but I will not start it because I don’t feel like getting into a fight over it. Yeah. It sounds like you think aid shouldn’t be rendered at all, or if it is, not as a top priority. Which is kinda stupid.
5) You’re getting way too carried away over this. You’re a bit too quick to blame the victims.
In a sense … no. Hurricanes in general are inevitable … Katrinas are not.
Hurricanes have come over New Orleans many times before (usually less direct hits, though). This was the worst one ever. What you’re not getting is that New Orleans had always been very resistant to huricane damage, and resilient when damage did occur.
Katrina was essentially Mother Nature making a blind-folded full court jump shot.
Mostly agree. I do think that many of New Orleans’s poorer areas need some kind assistance in the face of disaster, though.
Yes, indeed – if, and only if, they had means to get out of the city.
Keep in mind that there have been many “fire drills” in the city. The portent of Katrina was presented as worse than ever before, but that wasn’t the first time a lot of people heard something similar to that. So many times in the past, storms made last-second turns that spared the city. People who feel like they have few options (many lack knowledge of their options, regrettably) will hope against hope that the weathermen are exaggerating once again.
I sympathize with people who couldn’t evacuate, but I’m angry that rescuers have to risk their lives for people who had the means and opportunity to leave but chose to stay.
As much as I like to watch storm clouds and lightning, when the weather guy says it’s dangerous and to stay away from windows or head for the basement, that’s what I do. If they tell me the river’s rising and might reach my house, I don’t think “Well, it’s never done that before, so I’ll just stay here and protect my property.”
Why don’t people listen? It’s not just weather disasters, but other things that affect our safety. Rickety ladders, bald tires, burning candles, untied shoelaces, bare wires. Do we think we’re immune?
Yes, but if they tell you that 15 times, and it never comes to pass, you might feel differently.
Again – if you’re not from here, you haven’t got the information to speak with relevance on the issue. Sorry. I love and respect the knowledgable, inteligent folks on this board, but stuff like this is a huge information (and experiential) blind spot for almost all of you.
I live in very, very rural Alabama. We lost power for almost a day, but luckily had the foresight to pull out the generator and load up on gas. We lost some trees, and the roads were fairly hazardous for the next day, but thankfully we (and our neighbors) came out all right.
I work in Georgia. There was significant damage about a mile from where I work, and the horses I work with are pretty banged up. One of my coworkers told of the tornado that passed through the yard between her MIL and best friend’s house, crossed the road, and headed right toward her dad’s house where she was hiding in the basement with her two children, father, and invalid grandmother.
I went to school in Georgia, just down the road from one of the hardest-hit areas. The area with the chicken coops that were utterly destroyed? Less than a mile from where a good friend used to live.
My sister-in-law is from NO. The majority of her family is still there. Despite the hard-headedness and lack of common sense that comes with being a long-term drug addict, SIL’s mom managed to get her daughter, grandchildren, and invalid parents out of the city and into one of the shelters. Without a car.
Just so you don’t think I’m not up on the social situation.
And you, in one fell swoop, have gotten every single point that I have made in this thread wrong. That’s impressive. Is today opposite day or something?
Do you have car insurance? Yes? Do you anticipate being in an accident? No? Then why do you have car insurance? I’ll tell you why: being on the road makes you prone to get into an accident, and so you’re covered just in case. That eventuality increases when you live below sea level right off the sea on the Gulf Coast. Insurance in that case is an absolute must, because despite the claims that it would never happen it sure as hell did, didn’t it?
I don’t want people to stay behind if they can avoid it, and if I’m a rescuer I sure don’t want to save people because they didn’t leave even though they had a chance to. As someone else said in this thread, the Superdome had another 60,000 seats and is easy enough to walk to.
I think aid should be rendered. I absolutely and totally do. As far as international aid goes, that’s a bell that I am not going to ring, although I have my own opinion on the matter.
I’m not blaming the true victims. I am, however, blaming the dillholes that could have left but didn’t and are now screwed. Like I said before, I didn’t think it was against the rules to call a spade a spade.
Point being: people living in New Orleans in the “first place” aren’t necessarily idiots. And when disaster strikes, most of the smart people got out… but some people couldn’t for various reasons - it doesn’t make them idiots deserving of death and destruction.
Oh yeah… New Orleans serves a purpose for the nation too… all that oil refinery shit… so it’s not like the whole is city is there for no reason.
With all due respect … I don’t think you can tell the spades apart from the rakes and weed-whackers from where you’re sitting.
If you are speaking conditionally (“IF you could for sure get out and didn’t, the Coast Guard is wasting resources rescuing your sorry ass”), then I agree with you. If you are speaking in an absolute sense – and it’s kind of not clear whether you are or not – then I think you’re dead wrong.
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BTW … I don’t think rescuers are asking folks on roofs “Why didn’t you evacuate?” and refusing people who don’t have “valid” reasons.
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The “Chicken Little” effect is a big part of this. Too many warnings over the past 30 years or so … and since none of them came to pass … :shrug:
One thing you might not know if you’rer not familiar with New Orleans is that a lot of people there don’t have cars. It—like New York—is not really a car city. My friend David was lucky enough to have friends with a car, who got him (and his large dog) out (to where, I don’t know—still waiting to hear from him). David also had to board up his house and his store—though both may be total losses anyway.
Evcacuating a city is not easy if you don’t have a car, the airports are closed and the roads are all jammed.
