Comparing Iowa flooding to Katrina

[uppityperson]

I have had to get offline due to reading about the flooding in Iowa. It is catastrophic. And where is FEMA? I live in earthquake and forest (fire) country, we each live in some sort of disaster area and we have to help each other.

This flooding is major, and I think will impact all of us in some way. In many ways the pictures of flooding reminds me of New Orleans being flooded.

But. This is a different disaster, a disaster in it's own right.

There is a difference. I think. Unless I am wrong, which I have been. This is in NO WAY meant to downplay this disaster in any way. I grew up where it floods and spent hours doing sandbagging to try to save friends homes and this flood is really really really really bad.

Katrina washed away much of the Mississippi coast as well as flooded New Orleans when the levess failed. Thousands of people were stuck in very hot weather on highways, at the NO Convention Center while mrbush ate cake and said everything is under control. People, esp those at Convention Center were ignored for days, in the heat. Blocks were destroyed by being blasted when the levees broke in NO. Has this happened in Iowa?

Tell me I am wrong, please. Or rather, please tell me I am not. Are there Iowanians stuck on overpasses? Was the evacuation carried out in a better manner? I haven't heard of people being stranded, but instead being forced to leave, though those who remained behind are told to conserve water usage because it will run out soon.

Homes will be destroyed, time to take out stock in sheetrock companies. And mold abatement.

Similarities, yes. Differences, yes.

It has been a wild week. From Kucinich to boy scouts getting firsthand practice dealing with horrible deaths of their friends to major flooding. I will check back later, after working in garden for a bit.

[Dark]

1. They do have several important similarities. The infrastructure failed (how many levees broke now?)

And both are the tremors of an increasingly hostile climate.

That said, for Iowa, it is their Katrina, in the sense that it's a devastating disaster that has destroyed at least one major city and is threatening their largest city.

[jwirr]

4. In NO the levee broke because it needed fixing - *ss and co. knew

this. In Iowa the levees broke because of excess rain which was not expected to crest this high ever. I too have been troubled when it is compared to NO. That is like comparing negligence to a natural disaster. Also in Iowa the Democratic governor did not wait for *ss to come to the rescue - he knew better. Also NO was a sudden break that flooded the city in a rush. The Iowa floods have come gradually as the rain caused the rivers to rise and eventually break through the levees. Iowans had time to get out of harms way. Iowa would NEVER make some of the decisions that were made in LA: nursing homes left to drown, evacuees stopped at the bridges to be trapped in the flood waters, buses left standing while people had no transportation out of the cities. These things just would never happen in Iowa, my former home state.

[Blue Gardener]

2. There are enough shelters

And, at least in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, the animal shelters have been taking in the pets. Still, there are people who have not wanted to leave their homes, and I am afraid of what will be found once the waters recede.

[PeaceNikki]

3. I said it last night: Apples vs Jeeps

It's devastating, tragic, horrible and a nightmare. Things and homes and businesses and agriculture are ruined. Several people have perished. However, there are no bodies floating by them in the streets. There are no people trapped on rooftops for days. They may have lost everything, but have safe places of refuge.

I say this as someone in the affected area of SE Wisconsin. I know IA is MUCH worse off and my heart is with them. But my community, friends, family and co-workers are directly impacted. More storms are moving through as I type. Our rivers and lakes are overflowing, wells are contaminated, crops ruined, tourism devastated.

This is awful, but Katrina it's not.

[StClone]

5. I think you are underestimating the situation.

In cost alone Cedar Rapids has billions of $ loss and Wisconsin is not far behind.

In lives lost, no they are on different scales. But these are epic scale disasters. Every person I know in Cedar Rapids has been affected and some have been told ALREADY their home is lost and they will not have jobs to return to. My niece's restaurant will not reopen and it is miles from the Cedar River and inundated. I live in Wisconsin less touched by the waters. Vernon Co. has my sympathies for the calamity that has befell them.

[Skidmore]

6. Tragedies of this scale are just that--tragedies.

We have lost lives, property, jobs, and infrastructure on a huge scale. It has not just been the catastrophic flooding but the horrific killer storms that have flattened whole communities too. All this following a devastating winter with record snowfalls and ice storms from which we had barely recovered. It's not just Iowa, but several other states as well and will roll down the Mississippi to NOLA eventually, affecting many communities along the rivers this long summer. Yes, it is like Katrina and more, and sometimes an apple and a jeep are a more similar than they are different.

[madrchsod]

7. katrina was a governmental disaster not a natural disaster

the worse natural disaster in america were the floods in 1993.
this years floods are not as widespread but in terms of water levels, destruction,and cost could be worse than 1993...

[CODemocrat]

8. Glad I live......

In the mountains...

My insurer wanted me to buy flood insurance....LOL

I live at 9500ft....sure, call me when that 'Noah' dude
is sailing in...

Why beotch if your house gets wet, and you live below sea level? or
next to a huge azz river?

Get real. Floods happen.

Peace

[Skidmore]

10. So how do yo feel about earthquakes and avalanches?

How about blizzards or fires?

I'm glad you are immune.

[Skidmore]

9. Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio

for now. As waters move downstream and larger rivers join the Mississippi from its watershed, more and more states will be affected all the way to the Delta. I think if you bother to dig you will find that there is a governmental disaster here too. Infrastructure that should ahve been shored up or built after 1993 has not necessarily been funded or supported by legislation.

[skooooo]

11. Infrastructure projects funded??

If we did that we wouldn't have money to fight the terrorists and Amurikans might die!