Since Katrina .......

[JPK]

.....god's wrath decended upon NOLA for its sinful ways.......at least according to Jerry Falwell when he was "alive".......what does it mean....from a god's view point and when the recent tornados in the deep south killing people and destroying lives and property in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and the oil spill that will soon spoil the environment in Louisiana, Missisppi, Alabama and possibly Florida, is god handling this one too? If he is what is his reasoning? Is he still pissed? And if he is, what is it that he is pissed about? Hmmmmmm. Louisiana has tittie bars, gambling, NOLA,(nuff said there), Mississippi has gambling and tittie bars. Alabama has tittie bars too but no gambling...well Lotto. Is that really gambling though? Florida has all the above too. And what about the hurricane that hit Houston.....not much of a religious outcry there. Hey....I know Houston must have tittie bars and Texas must have Lotto, right? Maybe even drugs and prostitutes? The NFL and MLB wouldn't be there if they didn't have these recreational activities now would they? Maybe god doesn't think those things are so bad...just a little bit and maybe not worth a real heavy hand kind of thing like NO but just a friemdly reminder? So what does god have to say to you about all this stuff going on?

Here's what I have to say. Hey god, cut that shit out. If you don't stop doing this shit I'm going to stop praying to you and I will tell my friends to stop also. I'm sick and tired of you kicking our ass and we keep apologizing and saying it's our fault and we'll try to be better, get on our knees, yada, yada, yada.....well, fuck you. Find another planet with stupid shit ass holes like we used to be and fuck with them. Leave us alone. So scram, go check out what's happening on Alpha Centauri. I always thought your fat assed book was a bunch of fairytales anyway.

I'm sorry, god can be a female too.....and I had to vent.

[SargeUNN]

1. I always have to state this if not mentioned about Katrina

Katrina actually hit Mississippi. Mississippi was so battered that many still are suffering the aftermath of it to this day. I lived in Mississippi close to New Orleans until 3 years ago when I moved here to Arizona, and the whole region suffered regardless of party choice.

[pitohui]

3. katrina made landfall three times, in florida, miss, and louisiana

the whole event was so huge that it still stuns people

the landfall at florida where a handfull of people were killed has been forgotten by everyone but their families

the landfall at buras, louisiana was a cat 4 and wiped the town off the map, i do not know the words to describe this

i know it was as terrible on the gulf coast of mississippi but do not forget us, some of these towns will never come back and will be forgotten forever except for those of us who knew them

this post has some pix of what i saw in buras:

http://www.angelfire.com/la/dwalker/katrina.html

[SargeUNN]

4. Yes it did

I was there in Mississippi. It hit went into a marshy area of La. then hit in Waveland Mississippi. New Orleans was on the west part of the eyewall and the flooding from the failure to take of the levees caused New Orleans it's problems. Mississippi not only flooded but caught the northeast quad and why counties like Jackson, Harrison and Hancock looked like a megaton bomb had hit it. Even as far north as Jackson was hit hard. Katrina is why I live in Arizona now. I forced Haley Barbour to back off an eviction notice of 2 section 8 housing complexes that some corporations wanted for commerical use so when I did that I was targeted for death.

[pitohui]

2. angry much? (well so i am)

i know exactly how you feel, i said after katrina that there was no excuse for god, just no excuse for it, because if you're a god (all powerful) and all you have to do is lift a finger to make the storm turn aside-- what decent person would NOT turn the storm aside? i mean, i'm a total fuck-up and if i had the power i would turn the storm aside, if i was a GOD there would be no camille, no katrina and so on

god says well fuck i'll drown a couple thousand folks but to make up for it after waiting 40 years you can win the superbowl? is that god? not that i'm mad about winning the superbowl, of course i'm crazy/grateful for that! i just don't think it's god, i think it's people, our people, struggling to do the best we can in the face of a difficult world -- struggling to overcome

[nolabear]

5. Look, I grew up on the Mississippi Coast and in New Orelans and I love them like family.

But one of the things about us is that we have been screwed over by man and nature and God for so long that we've made an art of fatalism and living in a crazy kind of grace. I thought I was going to DIE when Katrina hit (while I was, and am, far away), and again thought I was going to die when I went back and saw the sheer awesome power of what wind and water and the sheer avarice and neglect of man did to the coast and the city. But, and not to romanticize the horror of it too much, that's what NO is; coming back when you can't imagine coming back. My sister's freind died in the tornado; my cousin's house was spared when every one around it was not. That's some shit right there. I don't believe in a God the Father, but many down there do, and it sustains them and gives them something to sing to, dance to, drink to, pray to, scream at, hate and love. I think they ARE God, if it exists. God is the wind and the water and everything they wash and tear away and everything that comes back out of sheer orneriness.

Jerry Falwell, now that's another matter. I can't figure out why HE exists at all.

[susanna]

7. Beautiful, nolabear. So says me. n/t

[JPK]

8. I went there just a year after......

I was down in the 9th ward and saw the total destruction. TOTAL destruction. It was a year after Katrina and there were still overturned cars, houses looking like crippled people tossed to a side with the markings showing what the rescuers found when they searched them. Empty slabs where houses were, wiped clean by the force of the rushing water. The contents of those houses scattered amongst the uprooted trees. Pots and pans. Personal stuff. Children's toys. There was a huge barge that must have been 20 feet tall and 80 feet long that had been tossed over the levi and came to rest in the neighborhood. I walked up the massive mound of dirt the engineers piled up to the top of the wall of the levi where the breech happened. I had no idea it was so tall. The water was just barely even then below the top of the repaired levi. The corp people told me I couldn't stay. I had a video camera and I guess they didn't like it that I was shooting. It must have been like a tsunami when the levi broke. For those that do not know, the levi wall is like 20-30 feet tall. That is from the ground level to the top of the levi wall. It must have been a nightmare for those at the base when it gave way. Now I'm not a huge fan of NO, I can take it or leave it but when there is the human suffering on the scale that happened there, in the 9th ward and at the superdome and else where along the gulf coast and to have so called religious "leaders" condemn what happened there as an act of god in retribution for sins and hearing of the atrocoties commited by some of the law enforcement people, I really can't say what I would like to do to those people. As supposed people of law enforcement and god they were selfish, egotistical, self rightous, hypocrites. If there is a god which there is not, because if there was he would smite them all dead for their horrible actions. It's funny when god doesn't act against them it makes them feel like he's on their side or they're on the side of right.

I want back last year and went down to the 9th ward. There is little reconstruction but almost all of the debris has been removed. I'm sure the bad economy hasn't helped that area come back but it is coming back. Slowly and there are a few intrepid folks there that had the means to rebuild. The huge mound of dirt was gone and there was the tall concrete wall of the reconstructed levi holding back the water. I hope it can hold if another storm comes.

[SargeUNN]

6. Since Katrina changed my life completely I must say

I have been angry, disappointed, insulted and yet I have been proud, grateful, and felt lucky as well.

I was one of the lucky ones, I got to get out before it killed me, got a radio show on Nova M Radio Network, had many good people help me get settled, and today alive to help fight this horrendous law in Arizona.

The other side of that is the attitudes of some who have made such statements as we are tired of having Katrina rubbed in our faces, just shut up about it. The ones who on the right refused to do anything but blame us for what happened to us, the ones who would imply that when we told of something going on that we were liars for saying it. Sadly this came from not just the right. One group was due to help launch a project to build back homes for people in Mississippi but because they had a bus that had the sign "Impeach Bush" on it and due to the fact the shelter housing workers was owned by the city, they were asked to park their bus in the lot where the sign would be against the wall to keep the organization doing the rebuilding project from being evicted of a city ordinance about such things. The group was welcomed to film and could feel free to put in it's films, "this is what Bush isn't doing here" as well as to protest in the city, but that the organization needed to be left out of it since it would kill their project. The group had been informed of this when it was planned but at the last minutes changed the agreement and refused to understand the reasons and declared they were being denied their free speech so they did not come help rebuild homes and too bad. They would have been covered in Mississippi with their protest and their work on putting people into building homes would have done a lot for both groups.