Sly Bald Guys Forum
Various Non-Bald Discussions => General Discussion => Topic started by: D.A.L.U.I. on August 26, 2010, 11:51:34 AM
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It's hard to get my arms around the fact that five years ago I and my family felt secure and at peace in New Orleans. Sure a storm was out there, formed a few days before and was approaching the Gulf, but that had happened numerous times. Our youngest had just settled into her new shared house as a first year law student up river in Baton Rouge. It was hot, and we'd probably go to our camp in Waveland, MS as usual to escape the heat and humidity of the City for the weekend. It was just so ordinary for that time of year. Then, things started changing, the storm intensified rapidly and people were talking about evacuating to the north. Friday, in the afternoon a meeting was canceled at work because the storm had triggered the emergency plan, it was a plan--obviously not a plan for the event that occurred but contrary to popular belief there was a plan. A plan that assumed the levees were properly built and maintained.
Then the mayor finally concluded that although there was no clear authority for his action he would call for a mandatory evacuation. That didn't mean they put a gun to your back and marched everyone out of town, it basically was an order that would require you to stay off the streets until the order was lifted. So lots of people stayed, but some, the poor who had no other transportation sought transport out and got it. But many weren't able to get that bus, a lot of those were told that they couldn't bring their pets on board and were told to abandon their pets or they couldn't get on. The took their pets and went home. The City was deadly quiet and empty Sunday evening.
We stayed, our house was built in 1867 on the high ground. It had stood through all the hurricanes since it was built. I called a handy man who did work for me and we closed and nailed the shutters on the house--smart people back in those days, getting ready for the storm only took about an hour. We had food, ice, everything we'd need for the 3-5 days that it usually took to regain electricity. Our daughters were really upset, it was a Cat 5 storm, but I knew the house was high and that it would be safe. My wife & I stayed our older daughter went up to Baton Rouge and stayed with a friend who was a teacher there. I was more worried about them because of the experience many years before with Hurricane Andrew that turned and blasted Baton Rouge, big time. I didn't know if the places they were staying were as solidly built as our old barn.
We watched TV, checked the weather and turned in. Early the next morning, Monday, 5:30a, we still had power but the winds were whipping around rather smartly. We got the weather channel and saw that the eye was moving due north and the eastern edge would pass over the Mississippi Louisiana border, but we were on the "milder" western side of the storm. I was even more confident although I had to admit I thought the Waveland camp probably was going to be flooded.
The electricity failed about 6a or so, and the winds were at hurricane levels coming from the north. They would then turn from the west and die down by around 10a. Frankly, we didn't see much damage. A magnolia tree on the neighbor's property in back slowly went down in the west winds---I liked that, it was messy and dropped leaves in our fish pond.
We went out, and it didn't look bad, I was confident that we'd have electricity by Wednesday or Thursday, just not much damage. Then i went down the street the other way--OMG, it must have been a small twister and it creamed the steeple at the old, 1870 Methodist Church, totally in the street.
But, the sun was coming out and we started to hear bad things on the radio. WWL had pretty much lost all contact with the outside and was dependent on cell calls--calls from the eastern part of the City from people in their attics crying for help. Something had gone terribly wrong. Then there were reports of "something happening" at the 17th Street canal, but the reports said they were working on it and it would be okay soon. Those reports never stopped. My wife and the woman from next door took off on their bikes only to return about an hour later saying there was flooding about a mile from the house at Memorial (old Baptist) Hospital. Some rough looking people were riding around in cars looking things over. I let our Dobie, Mss Irma, bark her head off and she loved it. Those "tourists" knew where that big dog was. So Monday and Tuesday we cleaned up the yard, moved all the tree debris to the street and waited for normal life to commence again just as it always did. We had the neighbors for dinner Tuesday, candlelight, just like the days when the house was built. We sat in wicker chairs on the front porch after dinner finishing the wine--it was going to be a relaxing few days until things got back to normal. But they still hadn't fixed what we found out was a breach of some sort on the 17th St. Canal.
Wednesday morning, 9:30a, just sitting on the porch, my wife was cleaning up from the dinner. Then the words that started our life down a slope, "The water just stopped running!" Well, you can live w/o electricity, but you have to have water. So we decided to pack up and leave. Relatively easy departure, got to Baton Rouge and finally saw what the nation already knew--devastation. Looking at the reports on television was awful, it was something that we didn't even know was going on. Our world, without television is so small. We called friends in Austin, and moved over there. It would be 10 days before I was called back to work at my job in the City Attorney's office, but it wasn't in City Hall anymore--that was flooded. We were lucky, the flooding stopped several blocks from our house. And so a new phase in our life began, and like all the other citizens of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, our life is defined pre-Storm and post-Storm and will be forever after. I think everyone who was involved in this storm is thinking about where they were and what they were doing five years ago, and we'll remember 8/29 every year as a divide in our lives.
[img width= height= alt=Live Science looks at Hurricane Katrina's aftermath on the 5 year anniversary of the storm." width="400" border="1]http://www.livescience.com/images/hurricane-katrina-disaster-aftermath-facts.jpg[/img] (http://www.livescience.com/hurricane-katrina-new-orleans-aftermath-infographic.html)
Source LiveScience.com, Science, Health & Technology News for Curious People. (http://www.livescience.com)
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.....and as Saint remembers, let us all stop for a moment and remember those in ALL corners of the world who have been victims of the worst that Mother Nature can throw at us.
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Saint,
Thanks for sharing your story and memories of such a tragic event. I always get so sick of hearing the "why didnt they all just leave....they knew a storm was coming" attitude that a lot of people who weren't there have. You really put a personal "face" to what so many of us only heard about on the news.
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Saint...... thanks for sharing your story.
Last year when I visited Morgan City, La. we drove thru N.O. ......... we could see areas off to the sides that were still devastated.
My wife and I made a conscious decision NOT to go into N.O. to look at those areas that had been hardest hit. We thought that it just wasn't appropriate to gawk at the devastation that had once been home to so many.
I vividly remember when we were headed home my wife looked out her window as we were entering N.O. and off to the right there was an area that showed the devastation even four years later. She said, "My God.... those poor people lost everything.... that's so sad."..... and she cried.
Peace and Prayers..........
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Just saw your new "surge protector" on CNN saint. Impressive.
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Saint, those were and are some tough times you guys in that area of the country have been going through. I hope eventually things can get back to some sense of normalcy. You have my thoughts and prayers, that it will be sooner than later.
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I wish the ones that moved to Houston and are still here living on welfare and subsidized and free housing and food stamps and so forth were thinking every year on 8/29 that it is time to head back to NOLA. We will keep the good transplants that have found become productive members of our communities.
We had a very devastating Hurricane 2 years ago along the Texas Gulf coast and in Houston called Ike, and my experience with that storm was very similar to yours. My wife was pregnant at the time, and I had a badly broken foot that happened a week before Ike, I was scheduled for surgery and that was postponed 2 days because of the storm. I had a lisfranc fracture which is one of the most painful fractures you can have. I had a total of 9 bones broken requiring 3 screws and 3 pins.
After the surgery I returned home to Texas heat and no power for about 2 weeks. Life was pretty miserable hobbling around on crutches not being able to do any cleanup. We lost part of our roof, 2/3 of our fence and had substantial upstairs water damage.
I had to put my German Shepard on a run line in the back yard because the fence was gone and she was a real escape artist and would get off the line at least once every other day. You should have seen me with my casted foot and my wife which was 7 months pregnant trying to catch my Shepherd.
2 years later and Houston is very much normal as well as Galveston. There are coastal cities between Galveston and High Island that will never be the same and thousands of homes that will never be rebuilt because of changes in the shoreline due to the storm combined with the total absence of their homes after the storm.
(https://www.slybaldguys.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uscg.mil%2Flantarea%2Fmsst91104%2Fimg%2FIKE%2Fap_hurricane_ike_080915_ssh.jpg&hash=94a4756aae17c12a014ecb03c78ea9a2d2957bd7)
There were hundreds of homes in the area where this picture was taken before the storm hit and in many cases not even a board was left as evidence to testify to the beautiful homes that were there. The same images could bee seen in both directions for miles from where this picture was taken.
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Definetly Devestating times for the gulf, suprising that not more was done.
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Being a fireman here in Jefferson Parish ( a neighboring parish to Orleans Parish), I, along with every other off-duty fireman, (and all other Emergency-Related Services Personnel) was notified to take care of all the necessary preparations that we had to do to see that our families were securely on their way to their evacuation destinations, then report to work and prepare to try and deal with whatever type hell Katrina was about to throw at us.
To make a long story short, it would be almost 3 1/2 weeks before any of us could be relieved of duty, in order to try and locate our families and reconnect w/them, but we were given strict orders to be back within two-three days, so that the others could do the same. But one nightmare led to another as many of us would soon learn, that our loved ones were re-routed to destinations unknown and it was anyone's guess, who was where. Communication through cell phones was basically impossible due to the fact that Katrina took out the cell towers as she came onto shore, and what the towers didn't ruin, the flood waters did!!
I hope this city (nor any other one) has to experience a tragic incident of this magnitude ever again!!
- Cap'n Noodles -
It's the little things that we take for granted every day (like ICE WATER) that we don't realize how FORTUNATE we are to have, until it's GONE and NOWHERE to be found!!
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It is indeed sad what Mother Nature can do. I almost lost my lunch today when I heard your illustrious ex-Mayor Nucklehead recently talking about how he had done everything he could, and the federal government had failed him! I guess he forgot about those dozens of school buses that were never commissioned to go round up people and take them to safety before the storm ever came ashore. Don't let any facts get in the way. What a moron! Sorry, but the people of NO deserved better.
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It is indeed sad what Mother Nature can do. I almost lost my lunch today when I heard your illustrious ex-Mayor Nucklehead recently talking about how he had done everything he could, and the federal government had failed him! I guess he forgot about those dozens of school buses that were never commissioned to go round up people and take them to safety before the storm ever came ashore. Don't let any facts get in the way. What a moron! Sorry, but the people of NO deserved better.
As usual........ I agree with Stu 100%...........
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(https://www.slybaldguys.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi884.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac50%2Fndystorms%2Fkatrina-superdome.jpg&hash=4603154974b1c5af56b1cd50576415a2686db029)
Yep - the loss of so many lives were unnecessary and could have been so easily prevented.
The building pictured above (The New Orleans Superdome) has its own tragic stories that happened within its walls, during that time period filled with desperation, devastation, and despair.
... It's simply amazing how the same walls of such desperation could later turn into such great hope once the Saints led this city to victory on their way to the SuperBowl World Championship! The team's winning streak had a way of bringing ALL the people of this city together, and gave the city a reason to stand strong and move forward TOGETHER!!
It may sound real strange to most that a football team could brighten up people's lives after experiencing such a devastating series of life-changing events, but if you lived here, you'd know the reason why.
It's hard to put into words, but it's just a feeling that residents have, in their gut, deep down inside.
- Cap'n Noodles -
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I have to correct the impression about the school buses. They were owned by a private company and the company wouldn't use them to evacuate because they had liability concerns. Other problems like that were the refusal of Amtrak to use the trains that were in the City for essentially the same reason. At that time no system of refugee centers existed to take in evacuees who didn't have the means to rent hotel rooms etc. After Katrina extensive work was done to establish such centers and take care of other problems. What is often overlooked is that until Katrina, an extended evacuation of a large city hadn't ever been done in the US. The buses that were available wouldn't permit pets, nor were they allowed in the Dome, so people with pets returned to their homes and some died for that reason. Laws have since been changed at the federal and state level that mandates plans for the evacuation of pets. Other problems were caused by the magnitude of the flooding--emergency equipment was stored where it hadn't ever flooded before but did when the levees failed. New Orleans was not flooded because of a hurricane, it was flooded because of the largest engineering failure in the history of the country.
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It is still curious to me why or who decided to build a city below sea level. Very strange I think.
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Regarding pets. I own 2 Labradors and if anybody told me we can save you but not your dogs I would have made the same decision as those folks.
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New Orleans was not flooded because of a hurricane, it was flooded because of the largest engineering failure in the history of the country.
I was going to say that. From everything I saw, the city weathered the actual hurricane pretty well. It was the day after that things went downhill fast with the failure of the levees.
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It was an Epic fail all the way around. Decades of corrupt local government officials funneling Federal money that was designated for the upkeep of the levees into their own pockets and programs didn't help either.
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It is still curious to me why or who decided to build a city below sea level. Very strange I think.
The City didn't expand into the lower lying areas until 1876 when Baldwin Wood a local engineer designed what are called the Wood pumps, extremely powerful and efficient pumps. In fact the design was also used in the Netherlands, where a significant portion of the country is below sea level. The problem is that the levees were supposed to withstand a 100 year storm and failed. Currently the City and State are urging the adoption of a 500 year standard. New Orleans is not the only port city to be partially below sea level. It's common. And since it is otherwise surrounded by water it was the only means available to expand.
But the problem was further complicated by the fact that the levees weren't properly designed either. In the lower 9th ward and elsewhere, as the water overtopped the levees, it poured down the outside of the levee and scoured out the foundation that wasn't properly armored, and when that overflowing water scoured out enough of the base, the levee footing explosively gave way. Those footings are now being armored. At the 17th Street canal, not only was the sheet piling not driven to refusal at the location of the breach because it was stopped by an ancient cypress stump and bayou, but since it was built the interior of the canal was dug deeper than originally designed to accommodate more water when additional drainage canals were added. That dig permitted the water pressure to go under the weak section and wash it out.
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Thanks , Saint for your well informed narrative on the history and legality of New Orleans problems, during and after the storm.
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Horrible time, indeed. I was spared as a person due to being in the hospital, working, for 5 days and nights.....my home, on the other hand, was not so fortunate. Funny how a week can seem like a big BLUR!....all days run together. There are still many homes not rebuilt due to "insurance" problems.....AND almost 800,00,000 bucks still sitting in the Katrina fund. Wonder who is using that---and for what. Sorry for my rant, but I suppose I am a bit presuaded on the side I have chosen in this matter-----and Kojack---I know you are sick of them!!! We all are.
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I have to correct the impression about the school buses. They were owned by a private company and the company wouldn't use them to evacuate because they had liability concerns. Other problems like that were the refusal of Amtrak to use the trains that were in the City for essentially the same reason.
This is a snapshot of what is wrong with America today. The whole damn country is run by lawyers so most people are afraid to do the "right thing". It's time for peolple to say "F" it and do the right thing.... for God's sake.... help your neighbors, strangers, and anyone else in dire need.
Someoone should have said.... "Damn the liability! Send those buses in and get those people out!"
Balls.... that's what this Country needs right now.... people with a lot of Balls.............
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This is a snapshot of what is wrong with America today. The whole damn country is run by lawyers so most people are afraid to do the "right thing". It's time for peolple to say "F" it and do the right thing.... for God's sake.... help your neighbors, strangers, and anyone else in dire need.
Someoone should have said.... "Damn the liability! Send those buses in and get those people out!"
Balls.... that's what this Country needs right now.... people with a lot of Balls.............
YR*(k
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AMEN, Koz....AMEN!
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Sounds about right with me! Go Koz !! O0
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It's the thing to do.
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I have to correct the impression about the school buses. They were owned by a private company and the company wouldn't use them to evacuate because they had liability concerns. Other problems like that were the refusal of Amtrak to use the trains that were in the City for essentially the same reason.
This is a snapshot of what is wrong with America today. The whole damn country is run by lawyers so most people are afraid to do the "right thing". It's time for peolple to say "F" it and do the right thing.... for God's sake.... help your neighbors, strangers, and anyone else in dire need.
Someoone should have said.... "Damn the liability! Send those buses in and get those people out!"
Balls.... that's what this Country needs right now.... people with a lot of Balls.............
Perhaps I'll be called defensive, that may be, but I am a lawyer, I was a member of the City of New Orleans' legal staff before and after Katrina, and I have to say that it's a much more complicated process than just putting people on buses--whoever owns or controls them, a whole lot more complicated. The company parked the buses and it was at that time the right decision. The planning for the use of buses in evacuation has innumerable details, and if those details don't work people are in a worse situation than not taking the buses. For instance, drivers--need trained drivers. But the company drivers have families, they need to be taken care of too. Fuel, slow buses burning a lot of fuel, you have to have depots for assured refilling, also school buses don't have sanitary facilities, so there have to be locations for the people to relieve themselves. Food and water--the trip to Tuscaloosa for example, ordinarily five hours took 19 hours in the evacuation traffic--the evacuees need to eat, and babies and elderly and the chronically ill have other necessities. Remember also, the people needing buses are the poorest residents, they have little if any money for a hotel. Where are the buses supposed to take them, the drivers need to know. And that's just the school buses--for pets the problem is greater because you have to have staff to feed and water the animals, they need rest stops too. Then, school buses aren't built or maintained for general highway use--more issues--many even here aren't air conditioned not to mention flat tire repair--no mechanics out there for changing tires, much less a spare bus to pick up the stranded who would otherwise sit abandoned and exposed at the roadside at the mercy of the oncoming storm. Believe me when I tell you that evacuation is a rubic's cube, or maybe a rubic dodecahedron. And, before you hit the road you need to know who is on which bus and where that bus is going--try putting together a spreadsheet that works in chaos, and responds to everyone. When you play with that many variables it's daunting. Yes the lawyers objected and rightfully so--just putting people on buses, it doesn't work unless there is a lot of back up and preparation. Katrina was the first mandatory evacuation of an American city, there was no plan to do it--and I can't say anyone in New Orleans or elsewhere foresaw the need to plan for it. Remember the incident of the bus leaving Houston during Hurricane Rita, it burned possibly because of inadequate supervision of the passengers. You have to have supervision on each bus, some leadership.
When I decided in 2002 that I could afford to work for the City, I had some ideas on how simple it was going to be to straighten things out--I learned quickly that every solution bought out another 10 problems. Governance, as opposed to politics, is details and coordination on a scale that defies description. If you ever get the chance to do it, work in government can be frustrating beyond belief, but you learn to appreciate small improvements. I hope I made one or two small ones in my five years, I really learned a lot, and I have much more to learn.
Others have said New Orleans wasn't prepared. Not for the largest engineering failure in our nations history, no it wasn't. It was prepared for hurricanes, it had survived countless hurricanes and tropical storms. It's really complex. The City would have had some supplies in an ordinary situation, there would have been supplies and equipment for the National Guard to start imposing order, there would have been medical supplies at local hospitals, at least, and there would have been water, even if a boil order was in place, and natural gas to boil it. But Katrina and the levee failure flooded areas of the City never flooded before taking with it all the supplies, equipment and shutting down the water system and gas systems--totally unprecedented. Add to that the flooding made transportation almost impossible, the radio stations and emergency communications failed because of flooding to their emergency generators, every system necessary for the City and state to function was flooded out. Add to that the unprecedented request by the Feds that the governor surrender authority over the National Guard--frankly in hindsight she should have done it. But the Feds arrived surrounded with political suspicions and the dialogue went downhill fast.
When General Honore finally arrived 4-5 days after the storm, even his troops panicked & pointed loaded guns at people huddling on the only dry land they could find until he countermanded the order and made them get out of their armored vehicles and start loading the sickest into the vehicles that could move them out through the flood. The people whose houses had flooded and weren't trapped and those who could get away from the Dome that was also flooded gathered at the Convention Center near the River so it was on a little dry land--but it wasn't equipped or built to function as a refugee center and it didn't have water or sewers either by the time they got there. They couldn't get helicopters from the federal government because Rumsfeld held them in Florida because they might be needed in the middle east-might, not were. The National Guard was depleted of men and equipment because of deployments to the middle east. The police equipment was flooded out, the transit busses likewise. School buses, they having been parked by the company, flooded out anyway. Some transit busses had been stolen during the storm by people desperate to leave and wound up as far away as Dallas--strange.
As a result of this there have been many new laws and many others amended permitting and encouraging other means of response, but 8/29/05 it wasn't in place. It's not a John Wayne movie, and after the storm, when most of the water was gone and we got back to the Emergency Operation Center--City Hall was flooded, I learned a whole different world was out there. People scattered to the four winds. One elderly friend of the family had serious hip surgery Friday before the storm, she was airlifted out the following Friday after surviving hell at Memorial Hospital to Slidell, and finally wound up in Memphis--she's still alive and kicking. She's quite a lady. Stories abound of personal sacrifice and dedication to duty, but also police and firemen abandoning their posts, over reacting under stress then covering it up when everything calmed down. I had more than five police death claims based on suicide from stress when I was appointed risk manager for the City. And the mayor, a nice guy really, overwhelmed and essentially ruined by a situation that was beyond what he could handle, but I don't know if anyone could have done better. There were people doing work beyond what they thought they could, and others grabbing and thieving with both hands. Selfless contribution and wanton greed lived together in the City's struggle to survive.
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Saintc-
I understand all the things that you wrote above............. BUT!................... When people's lives are at stake one must do whatever needs to be done.
That's what made America great... people doing whatever needed to be done. Unfortunately a large part of our society just doesn't get it.
If my Mom was stranded in a similar situation I would Pray that her community would step up. I'll repeat what I posted earlier. It's time for the people with balls to step up.
Be one of those people Gentlemen.............. opportunities will present themselves........... be the guy with the balls to do the right thing.
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Saintc-
I understand all the things that you wrote above............. BUT!................... When people's lives are at stake one must do whatever needs to be done.
That's what made America great... people doing whatever needed to be done. Unfortunately a large part of our society just doesn't get it.
If my Mom was stranded in a similar situation I would Pray that her community would step up. I'll repeat what I posted earlier. It's time for the people with balls to step up.
Be one of those people Gentlemen.............. opportunities will present themselves........... be the guy with the balls to do the right thing.
Maybe you should make a run for the White House . ? !
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Saintc-
I understand all the things that you wrote above............. BUT!................... When people's lives are at stake one must do whatever needs to be done.
That's what made America great... people doing whatever needed to be done. Unfortunately a large part of our society just doesn't get it.
If my Mom was stranded in a similar situation I would Pray that her community would step up. I'll repeat what I posted earlier. It's time for the people with balls to step up.
Be one of those people Gentlemen.............. opportunities will present themselves........... be the guy with the balls to do the right thing.
Maybe you should make a run for the White House . ? !
Koz would have my vote.
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Saintc-
I understand all the things that you wrote above............. BUT!................... When people's lives are at stake one must do whatever needs to be done.
That's what made America great... people doing whatever needed to be done. Unfortunately a large part of our society just doesn't get it.
If my Mom was stranded in a similar situation I would Pray that her community would step up. I'll repeat what I posted earlier. It's time for the people with balls to step up.
Be one of those people Gentlemen.............. opportunities will present themselves........... be the guy with the balls to do the right thing.
Maybe you should make a run for the White House . ? !
Koz would have my vote.
+2
I think you would be hard pressed to find a resident of New Orleans that would have done a worse job than Mayor Ray Nagin. The rampage that he went on with his profane dialog was a major embarrassment to the office that he held and the city of New Orleans.
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Quote from: schro on August 31, 2010, 10:09:59 PM
Quote from: aarrggh on August 31, 2010, 10:02:57 PM
Quote from: Mikekoz13 on August 31, 2010, 09:40:34 PM
Saintc-
I understand all the things that you wrote above............. BUT!................... When people's lives are at stake one must do whatever needs to be done.
That's what made America great... people doing whatever needed to be done. Unfortunately a large part of our society just doesn't get it.
If my Mom was stranded in a similar situation I would Pray that her community would step up. I'll repeat what I posted earlier. It's time for the people with balls to step up.
Be one of those people Gentlemen.............. opportunities will present themselves........... be the guy with the balls to do the right thing.
Maybe you should make a run for the White House . ? !
Koz would have my vote.
+2
Couldn't do much worse than the president at the time.
(https://www.slybaldguys.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpubrecord.org%2Fwordpress%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2009%2F08%2FBush_e_Katrina_2.jpg&hash=57df67ea415852b823abe14024be17b1cb00cd60)
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Saintc-
I understand all the things that you wrote above............. BUT!................... When people's lives are at stake one must do whatever needs to be done.
That's what made America great... people doing whatever needed to be done. Unfortunately a large part of our society just doesn't get it.
If my Mom was stranded in a similar situation I would Pray that her community would step up. I'll repeat what I posted earlier. It's time for the people with balls to step up.
Be one of those people Gentlemen.............. opportunities will present themselves........... be the guy with the balls to do the right thing.
Maybe you should make a run for the White House . ? !
Well I'm not sure I would be a big success. As soon as I started talking about doing away with entitlements, working toward term limits, making the politicians take the same health care as the rest of us, exporting illegals, arming our boarders and fining companies that send jobs overseas I would probably be done.
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Quote from: schro on August 31, 2010, 10:09:59 PM
Quote from: aarrggh on August 31, 2010, 10:02:57 PM
Quote from: Mikekoz13 on August 31, 2010, 09:40:34 PM
Saintc-
I understand all the things that you wrote above............. BUT!................... When people's lives are at stake one must do whatever needs to be done.
That's what made America great... people doing whatever needed to be done. Unfortunately a large part of our society just doesn't get it.
If my Mom was stranded in a similar situation I would Pray that her community would step up. I'll repeat what I posted earlier. It's time for the people with balls to step up.
Be one of those people Gentlemen.............. opportunities will present themselves........... be the guy with the balls to do the right thing.
Maybe you should make a run for the White House . ? !
Koz would have my vote.
+2
Couldn't do much worse than the president at the time.
(https://www.slybaldguys.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpubrecord.org%2Fwordpress%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2009%2F08%2FBush_e_Katrina_2.jpg&hash=57df67ea415852b823abe14024be17b1cb00cd60)
Well I resisted making a comment on this as long as I could............
George Bush took a lot of heat for the way he handled the Katrina situation. Some of the heat was warranted and some was not IMO.
So how come our current President basically got a free pass for how he pretty much ignored the entire BP fiasco in the Gulf? Follow the money boys and girls..................
This thread is rapidly reaching the point that it will be pulled and I realize that I just contributed to it. Many times as Mods we bite our tongues but I've had enough of STILL hearing how GWB "F'd" everything up. Get over it.
I have a lot more to say but I'll stop with that...........
My apologies to Tyler and all the Mods for this post...... and to SAINTC for hijacking his thread.
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One thing that I cannot forget about Katrina is how the sucker WOULD NOT GO AWAY!! It was massive and just lingered....could not get it to leave. Most storms I have been in, and there have been many, they hit like George Foreman and then thy get out of the area. Katrina hit like an atomic bomb and STAYED. Still a cat 3 150 miles inshore.....A monster and a day no one down here will ever forget.