It’s not as though this is the first time in recent memory San Diego county’s had a large-scale wildfire. They seem to happen every 3-4 years or so, and frankly I don’t see why this one’s getting any more attention than the ones in 2003 and 1997.
My favorite dumb part about the over reporting is the reports on ESPN of wealthy famous athletes who have had to evacuate- poor Phil Mickelson! He had to leave his sprawling mansion in San Diego and seek shelter in his sprawling mansion in Florida! The poor man! :rolleyes:
Question: aside from the unpleasant physical environment, didn’t the entire Seuperdome issue more or less turn out to be a total media phone-tag hoax? That there were few problems and the whole place turned out to be pretty quiet and orderly until they were evacuated?
“media phone-tag hoax”? IIRC, people DIED there, and the systems weregrotesquely crowded and overwhelmed and stopped functioning, and people had no water. It’s quiet in the sense that there was no riot or wholeasale mayhem, but that’s far from “pretty quiet” and “media hoax”
I don’t think it was the rape and murder fest many people said it was, but I doubt it was a week at the Ritz, either.
Awesome, they can work on their tans.
We did get over 6 inches of rain on Monday, and we did get some street flooding in isolated places. This due largely to the fact that the pumps can handle 1" of rain per hour for the first hour and 1/2" of rain per hour after that, and at times the rainfall rate exceeded that. Still, only a few homes and businesses got any water in them and the pumps caught up by the late afternoon. No catastrophe, in other words.
But thank you very much for the level of contempt I see in your post. To refresh your memory, the Federally built and maintained levee system turned out to be inadequately designed and shoddily constructed, the multiple failures of which (over 70 breaches from the upper end of Orleans Parish to the mouth of the river) led to the inundation of 80% of the city. There was no power, no land line telephone service, no cell service, limited police and fire and other emergency radio service. The gas, water, and sewage systems were all compromised. Well over 200,000 structures were impacted by the flood (compared to recent figures of 1,300 homes burned in So. Cal.). All of the major highway routes in to and out of New Orleans were under water for several days. With two exceptions, every major hospital in the area was without power and accessible only by boat.
You might debate the efficacy of the evacuation, but compared to what we experienced in the near miss from Ivan in 2004, and compared to Houston’s problematic evacuation for Rita in 2005 (which thankfully missed the people near there who had been idling in bumper-to-bumper traffic so long that they ran out of gas), but the vast majority of people who wanted to get out of New Orleans prior to Katrina were able to do so. In fact, many of the people who sheltered in the Dome drove themselves there, and hard hit neighborhoods after the storm were awash in damaged cars that could have been used to drive their owners to safety.
As has been stated by others in the thread, the situation is nowhere near analagous. However, get ready for the insurance rates to go up, for providers to pull out, and for condemnation from some people (mainly those who have not recently experienced a calamity of their own) that you’re stupid to live in areas that are prone to catastrophic brush fires on a semi-annual basis. Personally, I hope that none of that happens, that the Santa Ana winds subside, firefighters get control of the blazes, nobody gets hurt, and no more homes are lost.
There were six deaths at the Dome - four from natural causes; one suicide by jumping; one drug overdose. There were four bodies recovered at the Convention Center. Cite.
From the same source: ‘“I think 99 percent of it is bulls—,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney, who played a key role in security and humanitarian work inside the Dome. “Don’t get me wrong, bad things happened, but I didn’t see any killing and raping and cutting of throats or anything. … Ninety-nine percent of the people in the Dome were very well-behaved.”’
Update …
Source: Fires create electricity "island" in San Diego | Reuters
Well, the one that ate up my best friend’s house while she watched it on television was indeed arson (the Santiago Canyon fire). But yeah, kinda lame.
And Ivorybill, I really don’t have contempt for the “regular” people of New Orleans, nor would I belittle the tragedy that happened there. I sure as hell have contempt for the politicos from the ground up who knew damned well that things were going to go exactly the way they did with those levees. Hell, I read it in National Geographic before Katrina ever hit!
Any snark in my post was directed to the “OMG HOLY CRAP ANOTHER KATRINA!” bullshit floating around. No, this isn’t another Katrina.
Sorry if my post was poorly worded, or if I offended you. It wasn’t meant. Peace?
We have fires, earthquakes and landslides every year. We are getting pretty good at dealing with them, all things considered. But if I read one more news story about how much FEMA learned from Katrina and applied here, I will vomit. Just write a check, Chertoff.
Sure thing. My apologies for misinterpreting. As you’re finding out, the media attention that comes with a big disaster can cause a person to get a bit touchy. Good luck and stay safe.
We’re cool. Power situation is a bit iffy, and everyone who can is running their AC, trying to filter the air they’re breathing in their homes. It’s gross.
Yeah, the media coverage is pretty… interesting.
Not to worry, the people who lost their homes were apparently America-haters anyway:
There aren’t enough :rolleyes: in the world.
I think the most :rolleyes: inducing part was the walkback from CNN (from here):
Of course, Beck didn’t just say “unfortunately”, in the sense of “what a tragedy,” he said “unfortunately for them,” in the sense of chickens-coming-home-to-roost.
I thought, when I heard that Chertoff and Paulson were on their way out there, “Yeah, that’ll really assure people.” I know Paulson actually should know what he’s doing, but still, does anyone trust either of those organizations these days?
Not to diminish the destruction and tragedy, but I read in the L.A. Times today that the people staying in Qualcomm are receiving plenty of provisions and extras–food, water, Caesar salads, Starbucks coffee, massages and acupuncture–and whatever else they need supplied by donors and volunteers who patrol constantly, asking people if they need anything.
People are playing cards, playing music, watching TV, and so on in an effort to combat boredom and try to reduce anxiety.
The Superdome it ain't. Thank goodness.When the inevitable “Big One” comes, I think my largest source of entertainment as I’m cooking hotdogs on a duraflame log in my driveway will be orgasmic fits of joy these people are having as they revel in the destruction of a whole city of hippie godless gay liberal heathens (and their little yip yap dogs, too).
Well, to be fair, they will have a point about the little yip yap dogs.
Here’s the thing. Southern California burns EVERY YEAR. When you get wildfires burning mansions down every single year, that can’t be called a natural disaster any more. This is like the Governor of Minnesota declaring an emergency because temperatures dropped below freezing. This isn’t news, this is just the way the climate and vegetation of Southern California works…plants grow, they die, they leave behind dry tinder, and it either burns or builds up and burns next year twice as hot.
True dat. And so many of the brushfires and landslides seem to center in Malibu… I guess God hates Barbra Streisand too!
