Hurricane!

[Titosros]

I heard on the news that 40k homes are flooded (w00t). I just hope those ppl can get back on there feet.

[LoneWolf16]

I heard on the news that 40k homes are flooded  (w00t).  I just hope those ppl can get back on there feet.

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Somehow, the smiley seems a bit too festive...considering the situtation.

[Cantousent]

It looked more like a surprise icon.

[Darth Drabek]

This is really unbelievable. Maybe some of you have seen the footage from Gulfport, Miss. Well, I was down south two spring breaks ago working with Habitat for Humanity and we visited Gulfport for a few hours. Nice town, really. Lot of beautiful homes on the water. Too bad it's GONE now. The whole area is absolutely destroyed. Wiped off the map.

 

I saw video on the news of the Hard Rock Cafe that we drove by when we were down there.... it was pretty impressive, as Hard Rock Cafes go .... it's just rubble now though. Rubble that could piece together a 50 foot guitar, that is.

[Cantousent]

I seem to recall an Assyrian inscription that read something to the effect that they'd destroyed a city "as if by flood." Floods can truly destroy a place. They're talking about the city just being... gone. I'm sure they'll rebuild, but it ain't going to be the same place.

[Walsingham]

No disrespect intended, but by comparison I read this morning that the Indonesian state of Aceh lost 160,000 people in the tsunami last year. 160,000. Jeez.

 

More importantly I'm perturbed by the fact that 20% of residents didn't leave when issued a compulsory evacuation order. Makes rather a mockery of planning for other mass disasters. Could we expect 20% disobedience if a quarantine were established, for example?

[kumquatq3]

No disrespect intended, but by comparison I read this morning that the Indonesian state of Aceh lost 160,000 people in the tsunami last year. 160,000. Jeez.

 

I certainly don't think I compared it to the tsunami. While certainly many people died in the hurricane, I think the "amazing" part of this disaster is that a world famous city is now mostly underwater. It's certainly not as destructive in human life or (I would assume) in property.

[Walsingham]

It certainly does suck. I hope I didn't give the impression my thoughts weren't with the little critters.

 

However, I do have to ask if it is such a smart place to have a city.

[Calax]

Well I guess the Giant American Mardi Gras party will have to move somewhere else...

[metadigital]

It certainly does suck. I hope I didn't give the impression my thoughts weren't with the little critters.

 

However, I do have to ask if it is such a smart place to have a city.

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I blame those French!

 

The did it on purpose, putting the French Quarrter there under the sea level. What were the citizens meant to do? Build the 3/4 of New Orleans somewhere else? Dispicable, those French knew this would happen, three hundred years ago!

[Deraldin]

It certainly does suck. I hope I didn't give the impression my thoughts weren't with the little critters.

 

However, I do have to ask if it is such a smart place to have a city.

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I blame those French!

 

The did it on purpose, putting the French Quarrter there under the sea level. What were the citizens meant to do? Build the 3/4 of New Orleans somewhere else? Dispicable, those French knew this would happen, three hundred years ago!

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The mayor of New Orleans has decided that when the city is rebuilt it will be called New Venice and all the building will be on stilts so that they are above the water level.

[Walsingham]

It certainly does suck. I hope I didn't give the impression my thoughts weren't with the little critters.

 

However, I do have to ask if it is such a smart place to have a city.

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I blame those French!

 

The did it on purpose, putting the French Quarrter there under the sea level. What were the citizens meant to do? Build the 3/4 of New Orleans somewhere else? Dispicable, those French knew this would happen, three hundred years ago!

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Oui, certainement, mon ami! Er... yes, good show.

[Child of Flame]

No disrespect intended, but by comparison I read this morning that the Indonesian state of Aceh lost 160,000 people in the tsunami last year. 160,000. Jeez.

 

More importantly I'm perturbed by the fact that 20% of residents didn't leave when issued a compulsory evacuation order. Makes rather a mockery of planning for other mass disasters. Could we expect 20% disobedience if a quarantine were established, for example?

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Not really, see, in the case of a quarantine one would have to assume that something is contagious, that means that if anyone leaves the quarantine, they'd be endangering someone other than their idiotic selves.

 

That's when you start bringing out the firearms.

 

 

Well I guess the Giant American Mardi Gras party will have to move somewhere else...

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NO! This was a sign from GOD! Like Sodom and Gomorrah, the Mardi Gras parties were too out of hand!

 

Okay, maybe not.

[metadigital]

Who got turned into a pillar of salt?

[Dark Moth]

No disrespect intended, but by comparison I read this morning that the Indonesian state of Aceh lost 160,000 people in the tsunami last year. 160,000. Jeez.

 

I certainly don't think I compared it to the tsunami. While certainly many people died in the hurricane, I think the "amazing" part of this disaster is that a world famous city is now mostly underwater. It's certainly not as destructive in human life or (I would assume) in property.

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Besides, it's a tragedy no matter how you look at it. It's not as if people are going to look and say: "Oh, it's nothing. We've seen worse." And as Kumquat said, New Orleans is like a lake now.

[SteveThaiBinh]

The mayor of New Orleans says that 'hundreds, probably thousands' of people died. This is insane - it's a wealthy, developed country with vast resources, an educated population and excellent infrastructure. How could this have happened?

[Child of Flame]

Oh geez. I'm watching CNN and there's a fire in one of the buildings in the Historic French Quarter.

 

They've got two fire engines and lots of firemen that, but the hilarious thing (in a morbid sort of way) is that even though there's water all around them, the hydrants aren't working, so they can't fill up the engines.

 

If they don't put out the fire, the buildings there are placed so closely together that it will take out the entire block if it spreads beyond the building it's in right now.

[Commissar]

...an educated population...

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Heh.

 

Anyway, welcome to hurricanes. This is what they do, especially to towns built below sea-level where it's impossible for water to drain.

[Child of Flame]

...an educated population...

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Heh.

 

Anyway, welcome to hurricanes. This is what they do, especially to towns built below sea-level where it's impossible for water to drain.

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On the bright side, I hear the literacy population in the US has skyrocketed in the past couple days.

 

Also, on CNN, they said Gas Prices are going to rise again, because of the loss of oil rigs along the Gulf Coast.

 

Poop.

[metadigital]

Oh geez.  I'm watching CNN and there's a fire in one of the buildings in the Historic French Quarter. 

 

They've got two fire engines and lots of firemen that, but the hilarious thing (in a morbid sort of way) is that even though there's water all around them, the hydrants aren't working, so they can't fill up the engines. 

 

If they don't put out the fire, the buildings there are placed so closely together that it will take out the entire block if it spreads beyond the building it's in right now.

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They should be able to pump the water from the surrounds. The only drawback is filtering it, there is apparently loads of polutants, like oil and human and animal wastes.

 

No point in pumping oil onto a fire. And I'm sure the people who own the building would rather it burnt down then got soaked in f

[SteveThaiBinh]

Anyway, welcome to hurricanes.  This is what they do, especially to towns built below sea-level where it's impossible for water to drain.

The destruction of property was probably unavoidable, but the loss of life? There was plenty of warning, and as I said, the means of getting all these people out was there. Did people choose to stay in their houses out of ignorance? We saw the pictures of the football stadium, and it didn't look completely full. I guess we'll learn more in the days to come.

 

The people of the US are largely literate, I believe.

[metadigital]

The mayor of New Orleans says that 'hundreds, probably thousands' of people died.  This is insane - it's a wealthy, developed country with vast resources, an educated population and excellent infrastructure.  How could this have happened?

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Nothing made by humans can withstand a natural disaster. The point about this catastrophe is that the US will be able to deal with it more adroitly than any less-well-off nation could ever hope to.

 

The people would probably have been the poorer residents, and not wanting to leave their homes to the mercy of looters and not believing the ferocity of the storm, decided to stay.

 

Aparently there were in the order of a hundred people sheltering on the lev

[draakh_kimera]

Well, I don't know if this has been said, but now some people are fearing an epidemic as well. Apparentley a mosquito carried virus, west nile virus, could become a problem, especially now that water is everywhere. It would be terrible for the people that were evacuated to find out that their home city's got an epidemic, and even more terrible for those that are still there.

[SteveThaiBinh]

The people would probably have been the poorer residents, and not wanting to leave their homes to the mercy of looters and not believing the ferocity of the storm, decided to stay.

As I said, we will find out in time who they were. People too poor to afford house insurance does make some sense, alas. But there have been so many severe hurricanes in the US recently, I'm still surprised that people chose to stay, even to protect their property.

 

Dead bodies in the water always carries the risk of disease and further death - this was a big worry after the Asian tsunami and most similar disasters. We always assume that the US is big and rich enough to look after itself, but perhaps they will need some of the rescue workers from other countries that specialise in this kind of thing.

[metadigital]

They have already said that the National Guard is stretched pretty thin because of their ranks in Iraq.