Tough day in N.O.

[phyco126]

Katrina was severely over hyped. GameFaQs (or should I say, Cjay) even made a board especially for it. 40,000+ estimated dead, and as of now I don't think I've heard of any casualties. Of course, the body count will probably come a few days after the storm hits anyway.

Not to say that I think Katrina was anything less than devastating, I just don't think she was nearly as bad as the "End of the World Destroyer" that CNN and many online news sources were making her out to be.

Actually, I think you missed the point of why people claimed it was the "End of the World Destoryer." It nearly was, it breached several levies in New Orleans, flooding the city and damaging building severally. If the hurrican stayed a Category 5 hurrican and hit New Orleans directly, it may have completely destoryed all of the levies protecting the city, and boom! Over 70% of the city would have been destroyed or severaly damaged.

As a matter of fact, around 10,000 people crammed into that Super Dome (forgot the name if it had one) and part of the roof got whipped off. That's only when the storm missed New Orleans slightly (err, missed as in not a direct hit.) If the storm made a direct it as a category 5, perhapes the entire roof would have collapsed, potentially killing thousands.

And no death toll for you, perhapes you should read CNN.com more. By 5:00AM this morning the death toll was a confirmed 56 dead. Even now Drumlord (Not G1, cause he sucks ) said that the death toll has hit over 80. This is just the begginning. Like you said, the death toll will wise in time.

Just because the hurrican leaves doesn't mean the worst is over. If anything, it's yet to come. Lake water is still breaching the levies, causeing massive flooding. Misquitos might breed and then it'll be like locusts, only attacking people instead of crops. Sewage is out, probably overflowing its system, which probably means theirs raw sewage in the streets, in the flood waters. That sort of damage will cause diesease that could kill many if they returned or never left.

I don't think the hurrican was over hyped. I believe that if the conditions where right, it could have been just as they predicted. Besides, it might still end up that way, we just have to wait and see.

(Note, who bets that New Orleans rebuilds their Levies higher and possibly with concrete?)

[GhaleonOne]

Edit: Just checked. Over 80 dead so far.

Even now G1 said that the death toll has hit over 80.

I did?

[phyco126]

Hehehe, whoops I must have read that edit part and saw your name below while scrolling through to the botton, effectively confusing me! Err, I blame the Fire Dept

[Monde Luna]

Hehe, it's intresting, because did you know that hurrican & tropical storm names have been picked, in alphabetical order, for the next 10 years? (Or close to that number at least.) Oh, and to top that off, if the storm was truely devestating, they retire the name, since the names get recycled after so many years

I learned that last year ^_^

That's pretty cool I didn't know that they retired storm names. Interesting. Or that the names are prepicked that far in advance.

My husband is going to buy a shirt that says I survived Katrina. He thinks it's funny.

[localflick]

Henry Rollins of all people, made a great point about the naming system.

It sucks.

Having these huge ferocious storms with cutesy names like "Katrina," or even "El Nino" for that matter almost mocks the situation. Could a girl named Katrina kick your town's ass?

He suggested better names like "The first four Black Sabbath albums" So straight faced meterologists across the country could say "the coast has been ravaged by The first four Black Sabbath Albums." Hell yeah it was, have you heard Paranoid?

[phyco126]

Uh.... riiiiiiight. Here, have a friendship ring! *runs*

Seriously though, I don't see the big deal. We just name the storms to identify them, not to say what they can and will do. If a storm is named Micky Mouse, then it's Micky Mouse. I fail to see why it's such a big deal to hate the naming system. I mean, if you want to play that game, then lets name a storm Zophar and rename the southern region of the US Lunar.

[localflick]

Grain of salt man. He's not being serious.

If a storm destroys Disney world (or land) we should call it Mickey Mouse. And if there was a part of the US that was Lunar we wouldn't need an MB. This little online community would live in a perfect utopia built around the awesomeness of Lunar.

[Sonic#]

Grain of salt man. He's not being serious.

If a storm destroys Disney world (or land) we should call it Mickey Mouse. And if there was a part of the US that was Lunar we wouldn't need an MB. This little online community would live in a perfect utopia built around the awesomeness of Lunar.

A utopia if you gloss over the events of the two games, the subjugation of the Vile Tribe, and the comeuppance of magic users over normal folk.

But, as far as the hurricane goes... it sucks. I hadn't been following the story until the hurricane had hit, but... all those people without power, without homes, without basic amenities ... not too much we can do, except give our moral and monetary (if we can spare it) support.

[GhaleonOne]

Speaking of the gas prices, I had thought it only went up 20 cents. Apparently there's places in town around here that rose from $2.57 to $2.99.

[Kizyr]

Yeah I didn't expect gas prices to spike this much.

I'll be cutting down my driving as much as possible. Gas prices should simmer after hurricane season; I'll just sub car use for the metro for a couple weeks unless necessary. KF

[localflick]

Gas prices are REALLY bad in Chicago. We're in a location where it costs a lot to ship it to us, and Cook County is taxed heavier than anywhere else in the area. On the ride home from work I read $3.49 and $3.39 on the two gas stations I passed. Someone I went to school called me around 10:00 P.M. saying that gas in Chicago was almost at, or just above $4.00. This is really getting out of hand!

Also my friend who went to school in New Orleans no longer has a school.

[phyco126]

Well, it's getting really bad. People are killing each other, massive looting, over 10,000 troops are being called in for support. They're expecting the death toll to risein the thousands. People are litterally dieing at people's feet. It was on CBS evening news, they had a part where people where living on the bridges of the interstate and highways that run through the city of N.O. and that some of them died overnight, the police arn't helping, the one officer that somebody flagged down recommended to just move the dead people to avoid the bad smell. One guy jumped from the bridge because he couldn't take it anymore, they actually showed him covered up by a blanket with a nice big puddle of blood right next to him. The fact that nobody seemed to notice or care that there was a body there seemed surprising.

Also, gas prices rose to over $6 a gallon in some parts of the Atlanta area. There of course is a shortage of gas all over the hardest hit areas, and the waiting period to fill up is litterally hours long (the fact that anybody needs to fill up their car in a flooded city with no way out is beyond me.)

Oh, and if there was a place in the US with a Lunar utopia, I'm afraid poor Alex would never see Luna again....

[Kizyr]

Also, gas prices rose to over $6 a gallon in some parts of the Atlanta area. There of course is a shortage of gas all over the hardest hit areas, and the waiting period to fill up is litterally hours long (the fact that anybody needs to fill up their car in a flooded city with no way out is beyond me.)

That's a Georgia-specific thing. An oil pipeline was damaged and shut down that goes into Georgia, so prices across the state are really high for a little while.

If anyone can wait about three weeks before refilling your tank, do so. After hurricane season, prices should start to simmer down. Though, I didn't expect the damage to be this bad. KF

[phyco126]

Well, others did expect it to be worse. So we can be thankful that the hurrican didn't fulfil the prophecy that scientist gave it.

[Darknight]

I've been reading these boards for a while but never really posted, but since your talking about a local thing and I see the national news spreading misinformation I feel like I have to say something.

I live in a suburb of Baton Rouge, which is about 60 miles north of New Orleans, and to say that it’s a tough day in New Orleans is an understatement. I work for the Department of Health and Hospitals here in Louisiana for drinking water and sewage and that is obviously a big problem here right now. Very few places have good drinking water right now so we are all of the state testing water to make sure it isn’t dangerous, so we are seeing quite a bit. Over half the people in our office commute from New Orleans daily and are having to start over because they lost everything and they wont be able to even attempt to get back to see what can be done for another 2 months at least. So there are having to find places around Baton Rouge and surrounding areas to live temporarily/permanently. The population of Baton Rouge is expected to double within the next couple months with permanent residents alone.

Okay first off I was watching FOX news and they were talking about all the "African Americans" that were stuck on the interstates in New Orleans that no one would help. My first problem here is that these news organizations are painting it as a racist situation (as in no one is helping the black people because there black) already, but in case anyone was unaware the population of New Orleans is a majority African American so...to be blunt there is nothing racist going on. There are simply not enough police, rescue, etc workers out there to deal with the situation. The majority of the workers are in the city proper, trying to rescue people from drowning, etc. The workers are trying to save the people that are in eminent danger first then move to the rest. But there are simply not enough people. The cop someone spoke about probably had more urgent things going on at the time. And I don’t say that as a way of making excuses, there are a lot of things going on that people simply don't see on the news.

A few examples of this, the looters that all of you have heard about have broken into pawn shots, gun stores etc and they are firing on the rescue helicopters (so they are having to pull back a lot to not get them killed), the same people are breaking into to children’s hospitals armed with those guns and threatening the lives of the nurses and children to steal drugs...the list goes on and on. The police, national guard, etc have their hands full. They are being pulled off rescue jobs all of for these reasons, to handle these disgraceful people looting and killing that stayed in the city. It just pisses me off how the news is making up stories to make a news story where there isn't one. Trust me, the situation is not about race, or anything like that, its about saving as many people as possible and if you hear anything to the contrary, at least at this point it is a lie.

Also about the person who said they don’t see a reason to fill up in a flooded city. I think it should be obvious; the entire state has a shortage of gas. All over Baton Rouge if a gas station is even open there are lines out to the streets of people waiting to get gas…and it is likely to get worse because very few truck are coming in to restock to the stations. So of course no one is filling up in New Orleans itself, there is absolutely no way of even getting into or out of New Orleans except for law enforcement, rescue workers, etc. Cars cannot reach most of the routes in. Boats and helicopters are pretty much the only way. The gas you were speaking of is for the rest of the state.

Actually what is taking place in New Orleans is just as bad as what they thought it would be, but that is only because the levees broke and flooded the city. But the rest of the Louisiana isn’t quite as bad as expected.

I'll write more when I find out more.

DK

EDIT: Latest Update

Now they are evacuating downtown Baton Rouge, because refugees brought in from New Orleans are rioting, breaking into cars, stealing cars, and there has been a sharp spike in rape cases. Lots more people in a small area as well as the fact that lots of people still dont have power here so its really easy to break into house because the windows are already open.

If this keeps up, I wont be returning to work because right now our house doesn't have power and my sister is home alone...So I'm a little worried.

[Alunissage]

Wow. Thanks for the eyewitness (can't think of the best word) info. I really appreciate your taking the time to tell us.

I meant to post last night about taking care of the dead in the city. It's terrible, but the living have to take precedence, and there's nowhere near enough people to handle all of it.

Re the racism, somewhat at another board I read posted a couple of links to Yahoo pictures asking what was different about the two to merit the much more pejorative caption on the second. The first was of a couple of people wading through chest-high water returning with bread and soda from a grocery store. The second was of one man who returning from looting a grocery store. Now, to me the distinction was that he had a huge garbage bag full of stuff, while the people in the first pic did not seem excessively laden. It was only after several viewings that I realized that what the person linking it was getting at was that the couple were white and the man was black.

Riots and rape... I guess people have a lot of frustration and anger to take out on other people. I mean, of course there are always opportunists, but that sounds like hopeless rage rather than calculated criminality.

[WD RPG WD]

Thanks DK for your post. The topic title was created before the storm hit and I know its an understatement but I created the topic in respect to the situation. If we had no topic then it could look like we could care less. I hope you stick around too. The conversations here are pretty respectful and as you can see we all have sympathy for the people there.

My sister went to LSU for 4 years and I often visited and we have good friends in the area. New Orleans is special city with a lot of history and it's sad to see this happening.

[Darknight]

Sorry didn't mean to place blame on you for the name. Wasn't my intention.

A few other things I have found out, but can't confirm all of it, here it goes though:

The situation in N.O is getting worse and worse. The looters are shooting at rescue helicopters, a rescue boat captain was stabbed by a family he saved because they said he took too long. Two armed gunmen walked into the police station with AK 47's and opened fire killing two officers. The state aquarium was destroyed releasing hammerhead sharks, nurse sharks, and mako's into the flooded city streets. The sharks are now eating the bodies and some of the people there. Not to mention the alligators and now pirahna that were also housed in the aquarium.

Martial law has been enacted in N.O. and the national guard has been given the order to shoot to kill anyone who disobeys a direct military order. The people of N.O are out of control......

As if things were not getting worse as it is. A national guard soldier was shot and killed by looters. And several people have begun starting fires in the superdome in an attempt to burn it down. People have been shooting at rescue helicopters, and police are being shot at left and right.

A few things I can confirm is that people at various shelters around the state are actually "causing disturbances" aka rioting for no apparant reason. People statewide have been stealing guns, shooting people to get items(food, gas, etc.). Basically things aren't going very well, fortunatly from what I heard supposedly 30,000 national guard are on there way, and cops are in New Orleans with M16s now.

This is just crazy I can't believe civilization could degrade so quickly, just imagine if a worldwide catastrophe happened. People just overreact to everything. We are just luckly we have an entire nation trying to help otherwise we would be screwed.

Thanks to all for the help.

DK

[GhaleonOne]

That's insane. It sounds like it's far worse than the news is even making it out. It also sounds like many of the people the police, etc. are trying to help are the ones causing their own problems. How can you kill national guard soldiers, police, and riot when things are that bad? Things do sound like their degrading quickly.

I think the thing that's scariest is the aquarium being busted. Who in their right mind would be THAT stupid? Flooding sharks, pirahna's and alligators into the streets? Knowing the area, there were probably crocs and/or alligators around around (I can't remember which is native to the area), but adding sharks and the like is just idiocy at it's finest. It'll only add to the disease problem in the long run.

Hopefully the national guard will be able to calm things down with enough troops moving into it.

[SSSFan]

OMG, this is so bad. It must be so terrible to live there right now. so many people have gone insane, I mean, shooting national guards, damn... it even makes ME sad, and I'm so far away from it. I'd never thought the hurricane would turn out like this..dark knight, it must be really hard for you, too. I'm just wondering, why didn't they do anything? they knew that the hurricane would hit New Orleans.
I really beg for you all to be OK and really hope things will be alright soon. please don't lose heart....