Katrina swamps New Orleans

[BeFree]

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/083005/new_katrina001.shtml

About 200 people were rescued from attics and rooftops in Orleans and Jefferson parishes. However, rescue boats were not able to cover the entire area before nightfall, especially St. Bernard Parish, where Gov. Kathleen Blanco called the damage "catastrophic."

<snip>
"Unfortunately, we have reports of some bodies floating," New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass said late Monday afternoon.

<snip>

Blanco said she could confirm no deaths in greater New Orleans, much of which is below sea level and was flooded by a 12-to-15-foot wall of water the storm pushed over levees.

<snip>

"The worst-case scenario," said New Orleans City Council member Cynthia Willard-Lewis, invoking the horrific term for the long-predicted "big one" that authorities have feared for decades would devastate the Crescent City and its suburbs.

[melody]

1. I love how the press whores are "covering" the crisis

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050830/ap_on_re_us/katrina_looting

[BeFree]

Yeah, they don't want to touch it with a ten foot pole, eh?

The Advocate story I linked to is one of the best reports I have seen. I wonder how long it will last before FEMA makes them take it down?

[tom_paine]

13. Remember, in Totalitarian States all things serve Der Fuhrer

So will MediaWhore "coverage" of all things.

Just like the SAME Busheviks who "covered" the Democratic Convention (pretty much bashing it nonstop), "covered" their own (with peans of glory and all hail the Fearless and Godly Fuhrer)

Basically, Imperial Amerika is a Reality Show now, and a very rigged and scary one, at that.

[rocktivity]

30. I smell a meme: this is the fault of

all the (poor looting black) people who stayed and are therefore "wasting" taxpayer money on being rescued, sheltered and fed.

At a Walgreen's drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers.
If they're taking jewelery, they're looting. If they're taking edible food and necessary supplies that would only end up underwater anyway, they're not. If taking soda seems gratuitous, remember that there's no safe drinking water.

...a tourist from Philadelphia, stood outside and snapped pictures in amazement.
And what the heck are YOU still doing in town, anyway?

:eyes:
rocknation

[phantom power]

2. The damned thing is, this was NOT the worse-case scenario.

They were spared a direct hit.

[redsoxliberal]

3. a direct hit would have been better

This is the realistic worst case scenario... the only worse scenario would be a track from just south of due east to just north of due west across new orleans, keeping the city and the lake in the northern eyewall the entire time, but that is an extremely unlikely track, and the storm could not have been this strong if it had taken such a track, so, realisticly, this was the worst case scenario.

This was worse than a direct hit because of the wind angle after landfall over lake ponchatrain.

[BeFree]

4. Good point, redsox

Indeed, the wind began coming from the north driving the lake water south into NO.

Some may say it was not worst case, sitting here 100's of miles away, but those on the scene would disagree, as the article so clearly points out. The only thing NO was spared was the 140 mile per hour winds. NO only got 110 mph winds.

Being as NO is in a depression, and the winds for the most part blew well overhead, it would have been better for more wind and less water.

[redsoxliberal]

5. exactly.

[ClintonTyree]

25. AFTER the storm surge had already been pushed up the river....

then the winds drove all that water back! It couldn't be possible to have a worse case.

[Mithras61]

6. New Orleans swamped?

Is that supposed to be funny? That may qualify as one of the worst headline puns I've ever seen/heard!

[BeFree]

8. Eh?

Swamped means this: Covered with water. No pun, it's the truth.

[Mithras61]

10. Last time I checked...

most of New Orelans was "dry land" only because the swamps had been pumped out after the levees were built.

[BeFree]

12. A matter of verbs then?

But still, you reinfoce the term: If it was swamp, but dried out, and now it's wet, it was swamped by this storm.

Too, the land has shrunk (subsided is the real term) because it had dried out, and because no new sediment had been introduced since the levees were built.

Frankly, not a good place to build a city, eh? Must have been cheap land back then?

[Mithras61]

14. I feel that a better term would have been flooded...

or any one of a dozen other descriptions than "swamped" to refer to what has happened. Yes, it's accurate, but the implied humor stinks!

[Eloriel]

7. TERRIBLE inaccuracy among those excerpts

Blanco said she could confirm no deaths in greater New Orleans, much of which is below sea level and was flooded by a 12-to-15-foot wall of water the storm pushed over levees.

That's what they worried about, that's what they avoided when Katrina veered to the right (Eastward). What is flooding NO is a breech in the levee along Lake Pontchartrain (how'd I do on spelling that?).

Ticks me off to see inaccuracies like that.

[BeFree]

11. Actually

There was water that went over the levee on the river. Not sure about how high the water was, but wave height could have been that high. Also, having once seen the levee at the river, we saw it would have taken about 10 extra feet of water to breech that levee.

Remember that parts of NO were flooded before the levee on the lake began leaking. So you may be getting ticked off for nothing, eh, Eloriel?

[LeftyElvis]

9. The looting is disgusting

but I guess if you are oppressed your whole life there is some justice there.

[melody]

15. It's still disgusting

But that's one small corner of the overall event. Most poor and middle class people are just suffering period...only the minority do the looting, but there seems to be this need to demean the "less than wealthy" in the mainstream press.

[geckosfeet]

20. They have no food or clean water. They also have no help from

the crippled and starved FEMA.

The BushCo administration promotes "ownership" societies. And they define ownership by the size of your gun and your bank account.

[LeftyElvis]

34. Alot

of the stores being looted are small business owned; very sad.

[raccoon]

36. and it appears that the media hoes are HARPING on the looting. nt

[Binka]

16. Give It A Rest

BTW change your profile it is spelled Karl not Carl. If your gonna be a Lefty Elvis at least get the talking points right. Okie Dokie.

[LeftyElvis]

21. Thanks for the wonderful advice

now maybe I can be as smart as you

[greyl]

27. Only if you try. nt

[Megahurtz]

31. Jeez!

Talk about picking lint off of an angora sweater.......:eyes:

[Streetdoc270]

17. but the majority...

are not 'looting' per sey, rather procuring survival rations. For example, all the shots of the 'looters' that I have seen on TV are people carring water and food from the stores. This is called basic survival, not looting. Granted there are probably a few who are taking undue advantage of the situation, like the man with the jeans, but I beleive that for the most part people are getting needed supplies.

[tedzbear]

18. They are not looting, they are desperate survivors in a flooded town.

They are finding much needed food, drinkable fluids, and clothing. Give them a break.

If you were trapped in a flooded city with no government assistance, and your basic needs are not yet being met, then tell me you won't wade or swim to the nearest 7-11 or supermarket to get provisions. Most of the food is going to go bad soon anyway.

If I were in NO, I would be helping myself to food and clothing big time. The usual rules don't apply here.

[geckosfeet]

19. Where the hell are the national guard and the reserves!!

............

Oh.

[ClintonTyree]

28. Iraq....

:shrug:

[geckosfeet]

33. Rhetorical question. n/t

[Chico Man]

29. Wasn't there a mandatory evacuation?

Just wondering. I feel bad regardless... but there were options.

[BeFree]

32. Well if it was really mandatory

There wouldn't be anybody left. They would have provided transportation, and made it so people felt safe in the hands of the government. As it is, the government failed it's primary duty to 'Serve and Protect'.

This current situation has been realized as a possibility for a long time. But the Superdome was a last resort shelter. There was no real concrete planning for this event except to hope the levees didn't fail, and you expect people to have trust in the government and leave their homes?

Most people who have had to leave during other events had nothing but contempt for the way the government treated them on their arrival back home.

So really, there were no other options for a large number of people who REALLY needed help, and who who should have been given top priority. That's what good governments do: Take care of those who need help the most. This government is a miserable failure.

[SoCalDem]

35. Mandatory evacuation:semantics

Officials make those declarations to "prove" the severity, but they do not have the manpower nor the will to go door to door dragging people out of their homes..So they say it..but they don;t MEAN it, and people know this..

Some stay no matter what, and once found to have "made it", they are always rescued..

That's the falacy..

If they really meant mandatory, they would cruise neighborhoods with big buses, and hand out hotel-food vouchers for the poor and physically take them to safety.. No one want to spend the money for that, so they announce mandatory with a wink and a nod..

The ones with plastic or money , leave...some others don't (usually the poor)

[Poll_Blind]

22. On WWL: Pumping house at 17th street canal failing- water to rise ~15 feet

Just saw this on TV- pumping house at 17th street canal failing (will fail soon). WWL reports that water is expected to raise up to 3 feet above sea level (may raise water in New Orleans to ~15 feet).

I will post something more when I find it- it's all over WWL right now because they're trying to get people out ASAP!

Streaming video here

PB

[Poll_Blind]

23. Also on WWL, police & fire tying bodies to light poles (can't bury)

OMG.....

PB

[skooooo]

24. nevermind..

[lovuian]

26. I have to say you guys are right the News Media are talking

about snakes and sewage and not talking about the deaths!!!