Katrina - Has America Forgotten?

[Audrey2Katrina]

However, it does get annoying when I travel elsewhere and people ask things like, "So, you guys are back to normal now, right?"

Isn't THAT the truth???

A2K

[Audrey2Katrina]

The fact is, and dont give me this category 5 surge stuff, as it does not hold water,

Couldn't have said it any better myself... j/k pun intended!

A2K

[Air Force Met]

I WILL NEVER FORGET HURRICANE KATRINA! SHE TOOK MY SISTER'S LIFE....

Sorry to hear about your loss. How many brothers and sisters do you have?

I'm an only child myself...so it's hard to imagine.

[arcticfire]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/05/AR2006050501744_2.html

The situation is still very dire in New Orleans and the MGC area but the media has moved on, viewers send angry e-mails to news outlets blasting them for covering Katrina "too much", people are still living in trailers.

After Katrina in September/October, it was going to be America's mission to restore New Orleans and the MGC. To make those areas even better than they were before Katrina.

Empty words? I think that people who live far away from NO can't even begin to imagine just how bad the situation still is. Where is the media reporting on this? Where are the reconstruction efforts?

Where is the "Marshall Plan" that was going to rebuild NO? Read that above article and tell me it's not needed.

Will the New Orleans Levees be able to withstand whatever comes their way this hurricane season? I think that is still questionable.

I could go on.

NOLA should not be rebuilt. Whoever's mission it might have been it certainly was not mine nor anyone else who uses simple logic.

[Audrey2Katrina]

NOLA should not be rebuilt. Whoever's mission it might have been it certainly was not mine nor anyone else who uses simple logic.

Actually, when it was chosen for a site to develop "logic" had everything to do with it's selection (Granted, this was long before Katrina). Additionally, in its over 200 year history as a United States Port, I'd say she has more than paid her way in uncountable revenues she has generated. Fiscal logic seems to have had something to do with it as well. There are danger zones, and there are danger zones. One might well make the same statement for quite a few other cities built in the path of an eventual calamity that is but a matter of time. The question should be, "Do we save a city that has contributed so much, both economically and culturally?" For me, while admittedly biased, that's not a difficult question to answer. The only qualification is to what extent, and what mitigating measures can be made?

Missions to aid an American city/area devastated by a natural catastrophe might not always seem "logical" but in the final analysis, the potential return is still there. And sometimes we need to rise a little above the abstractions and limitations that logic alone would constrain us to--lest we all become as impersonal as Spock --sometimes you just have to do the right thing.

A2K

[HurryKane]

I concur with Audrey2Katrina. You cannot build a life, nor a city, on logic alone. If we were to only look at mitigating loss as a reason to build or rebuild, then the entire Bay Area should be shut down and evacuated pronto because you never know when that big one is going to hit.

[Steve]

>>That's a huge cost...and when Americans see how much that will be...are they really going to be in a giving mood? I'm not so sure. All I do know is I am glad we have not done anything there too hasty...because at the rate things are happening in the environment...we would be just setting up a greater disaster in the future if we just simply rebuilt. That's what they did in Indianola, Texas.

Are they in a giving mood to spend $300 billion on Iraq? This is America baby. We're not even asking for that much. New Orleans is not equatable with Indianola FWIW. I think the rest of your post included an honest assessment.

>>NOLA should not be rebuilt. Whoever's mission it might have been it certainly was not mine nor anyone else who uses simple logic.

Maybe if the Valdez spill would have happened on top of your house, you'd have a frame of reference. It's not about logic. It's about strategic importance. When originally settled, it was the highest sturdy ground up the river that traverses the country from the Gulf up to Minnesota. Outside of raw materials, what good is Alaska? Yeah, I know people who Salmon fish and halibut fish up there, but maybe we could sell that state to another country to raise enough money to fix part of the real and nearly original United States. We go back to Thomas Jefferson (as a purchase) not 50 years ago. /similar logic?

Steve

[CajunMama]

NOLA should not be rebuilt. Whoever's mission it might have been it certainly was not mine nor anyone else who uses simple logic.

I concur with Audrey2Katrina. You cannot build a life, nor a city, on logic alone. If we were to only look at mitigating loss as a reason to build or rebuild, then the entire Bay Area should be shut down and evacuated pronto because you never know when that big one is going to hit.

Guess they should also consider moving Los Angeles, Houston, NYC, Miami...they're all potential cities waiting for catastrophic weather/nature events, waiting for their "big one" to happen. We're talking cities that are centuries years old. You just can't decide not to rebuild because a tragedy occurred. You rebuild using todays technology and knowledge. The gulfcoast will be rebuilt, abet slowly but definately better.

[sunny]

NOLA should not be rebuilt. Whoever's mission it might have been it certainly was not mine nor anyone else who uses simple logic.

I concur with Audrey2Katrina. You cannot build a life, nor a city, on logic alone. If we were to only look at mitigating loss as a reason to build or rebuild, then the entire Bay Area should be shut down and evacuated pronto because you never know when that big one is going to hit.

Guess they should also consider moving Los Angeles, Houston, NYC, Miami...they're all potential cities waiting for catastrophic weather/nature events, waiting for their "big one" to happen. We're talking cities that are centuries years old. You just can't decide not to rebuild because a tragedy occurred. You rebuild using todays technology and knowledge. The gulfcoast will be rebuilt, abet slowly but definately better.

Thank you Mama, for saying that! It means a lot to us along the ENTIRE GULF COAST who hear this day after day after day after day. It begins to get disheartening after a while.

[gatorcane]

Yes I think they have. Look at this article. I can't believe it. Greedy real estate investors continue to ruin things

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/sfl-zkatrinareal09may09,0,117700.story?coll=sfla-busrealestate-headlines

[JTD]

NOLA should not be rebuilt. Whoever's mission it might have been it certainly was not mine nor anyone else who uses simple logic.

I concur with Audrey2Katrina. You cannot build a life, nor a city, on logic alone. If we were to only look at mitigating loss as a reason to build or rebuild, then the entire Bay Area should be shut down and evacuated pronto because you never know when that big one is going to hit.

Guess they should also consider moving Los Angeles, Houston, NYC, Miami...they're all potential cities waiting for catastrophic weather/nature events, waiting for their "big one" to happen. We're talking cities that are centuries years old. You just can't decide not to rebuild because a tragedy occurred. You rebuild using todays technology and knowledge. The gulfcoast will be rebuilt, abet slowly but definately better.

Amen CM to that. I agree 100%.

On another point, I started thinking about doing a post on this a couple of weeks ago when Brian Williams in New Orleans read a e-mail from a viewer in North Dakota saying that North Dakota had disasters that were just as major as the one in New Orleans. I was like what? I mean I know they have the Red River but the destruction of that pales in comparison to N.O./MGC

[Stormcenter]

I don't think anyone will ever really forget something of this magnitude. It is human nature, however, to want to simply "move-on". Believe me, few know it any better than I what it's like to ride through mile after depressing mile of wrecked homes and debris--it's a daily ritual here, and I know it's got to be just inconceivably depressing for those folks living along the Mississippi Coast, and the residents of St. Bernard, which I'm glad the article gave good coverage to. I, too lost a dear family member to this storm, also a friend and a physician for many of my children. No, it's not something anyone will ever forget; it's just that dwelling on it isn't going to make things happen any faster. The folks in Mississippi, to their credit, are well underway but given the magnitude of the disaster it will take literally years for her coasts to get something akin to her erstwhile grandeur. As far as New Orleans--that city is going through crisis after crisis simply in dealing with the aftermath, and unless they stop fooling around with band-aids and snake-oil remedies and truly go after the cause of the infection, the city is ultimately going to be doomed to a sliver of land along the river while almost everyone else relocates to higher (and safer) ground while nature reclaims much of what once was that city. Recovery there will take literally decades--if ever! This was truly an event of historical proportions so it will be impossible to "forget" it.

That said, while I listen daily to recovery talk over local radio, I can see why some people in other areas of the country don't want to hear the same depessing thing day in, and day out. I do find it a sad testimony, however, that there seems to be a national voyeurism and obsession with far more trivial matters that certain media have made into causes celebre. For purposes of discretion I shan't mention any names; but for those who watch the news (specifically cable news channels), you know whereof I speak.

A2K

Good post and by the way do you really think the same questions about whether to rebuild or not would be asked had the same type of disaster had happened here in the Houston or Miami area? The city of New Orleans should and will be rebuilt. The city sinking theory has been around since I was kid and that was a long time ago.

[Derek Ortt]

but should we rebuild below sea level? That is the main difference from the other cities listed

[CajunMama]

Yes they should rebuild there. This was the first time something like this has ever happened to the city of NO. It may never ever happen again. Do you tell people in the midwest whose lives have been devasted by a tornado not to rebuild there? Did the people of Homestead leave? Did the San Francisco earthquake keep people from rebuilding on a faultline? Did the Galveston Hurricane stop those people from rebuilding there? No and now it's more populated than ever. Land in a finite thing in life and people are going to build on whatever little speck of land they can find. Also, do you have any solution for the job market for all these people you think shouldn't rebuild? Where do you suggest they rebuild their entire life? Before you say they shouldn't rebuild there's alot of questions you need to answer.

[Steve]

>>but should we rebuild below sea level? That is the main difference from the other cities listed

Apparently the nation of Holland/The Netherlands thought it was worthwhile to protect below-sea-level land. We weren't always completely below sea level, but energy concerns for the rest of the nation have helped settle the land and its former protection.

The question is - do we want a homogenous country with everything being urban, suburban, exurban and mostly the same or do we want to try to preserve unique culture and contribution. Let's face it, South Louisiana pretty much owns food; we invented the only music unique to America (Jazz), we can throw parties better than anyone else, and we have ethnic groups - Creoles, Cajuns, Islenos, etc. that are not found anywhere else. Also, our architectural mix is different from anywhere (including Charleston), and we also produce a large chunk of energy for the rest of the nation and even a larger chunk of its seafood.

Really, what other city and region gives so much back while being bent over time and time again by everyone else? Nobody. Like I said above, if we can spend $300B (probably end up being closer to $500B) on a muslim country with which we don't share a whole lot of common interests, why can't we spend $50B or protecting ourselves (Cat 5 swing gates or whatever)?

Steve

[Audrey2Katrina]

Thank you Mama, for saying that! It means a lot to us along the ENTIRE GULF COAST who hear this day after day after day after day. It begins to get disheartening after a while.

Roger that!

Brian Williams in New Orleans read a e-mail from a viewer in North Dakota saying that North Dakota had disasters that were just as major as the one in New Orleans.

THAT particular e-mail/comment has since circulated all over the internet. One clown not realizing I was New Orleans native sent a copy to me, and for obvious reasons I will refrain from telling you the reply they got. Suffice it to say the analogy was pathetic, the reasoning twisted, and the tenor BIGOTED in the extreme. They went on to talk about how they had "hurricane" winds, and blizzards, and yet nobody was stomping their feet demanding the government come bail them out. Well excuse me; but I distinctly recall the floods (early 90's I think) wherein FEMA had to go in and bail out quite a few Midwesterners--and ya know what? I didn't begrudge them a penny of it. THEY WERE AMERICANS! To compare a blizzard in the Dakota region to what the central Gulf Coast endured with Katrina (while I empathize with the difficulties it clearly precipitaties) is tantamount to comparing the hiccups to cancer. There simply was no comparison. You didn't have a major metropolitan area 80% under water, you didn't have nearly 100,000 people stranded looking for food and water. The comparison was patently racist IMHO, and utterly inappropriate.

Look, I make absolutely NO apologist efforts for the criminals and their heinous activities after the storm, but that's absolutely NO reason to blanket condemn the innocent masses of people who only saw their whole world ruined on Aug. 29, whether it be in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, or Louisiana--it was UN-precedented and the e-mailer was for lack of a more appropriate term, way off base.

And as blanket statements go, while I fully sympathize with Steve's comments, (I felt a well of rage coming up my throat too while reading the insensitivity in the aforementioned comment) I would likewise never indict the entire state of N. Dakota, S. Dakota, OR Alaska, for the over-the-top comments of one (or a few). Alaska is a beautiful state and a national treasure, I would NEVER want it to be a part of anywhere but the good ol' USA. I recall Anchorage being utterly devastated by one of the worst earthquakes in recent history (early 60's I believe), and I can tell you I'm very glad the community banded together and came back. (Actually she's been a part of the U.S. since the presidency of Andrew Johnson, ca. 1867, and was well worth the price. I guess all I'm saying is that I personally know people living up there and have received countless e-mails of concern from them over my plight, and offers of help. There are those who are capable of empathy and compassion from ALL of our wonderful United States, just as there are those whose capacity to put themselves in another's shoes is relatively non-existent.

CajunMama has articulated a wonderful point about places being built in the path of disasters, and there should never be a doubt that if/when those occur, the good citizens, by-and-large, will circle the wagons to help their compatriots. Of COURSE New Orleans should and will be rebuilt. I just saw my own mother, bless her heart, and we went over our family history here. She gets misty-eyed whenever the topic comes up; but tell her that New Orleans shouldn't be rebuilt and that Cajun/Creole blood in her stock rises to the surface and she emphatically pronounces "There isn't a scintilla of doubt in my mind, New Orleans WILL be rebuilt."

And I am in no position to gainsay her!

A lot of good points have been made in here, by people on every side of the issue; but the ones nearest and dearest to my heart are those from the people with a spirit I also espouse--this IS my Louisiana, it is my heritage, and God-willing I will do everything in my power so long as He gives me the strength to help her resurrect from this ruin.

A2K

[melhow]

This was the first time something like this has ever happened to the city of NO.

Not so sure about that:

1947 Ft Lauderdale Hurricane: From Wikpedia - The hurricane weakened over Florida, then continued, likely as a Category 1 storm, along a track very similar to that of Hurricane Andrew. It made landfall again in Louisiana as a Category 3 storm[5] at 6 AM CST along the coast on September 19, and in New Orleans two hours later. The eye of the hurricane passed directly over New Orleans, with gusts estimated at 125 mph (200 km/h). A large part of Greater New Orleans was flooded, with two feet of water shutting down Moisant Airport and six feet of water in parts of Jefferson Parish. The storm produced an estimated 100 million US dollars worth of damage to the city[8].

A 12 foot storm surge was reported along the western half of the Mississippi coastline, causing heavy damage in Bay St. Louis (which received a 15 foot storm surge[7], Gulfport, and Biloxi.

Although weaker at its second landfall, the hydrology of this location makes it particularly vulnerable to hurricanes. 12 people were killed in Louisiana and 22 in Mississippi[7].

1965 Hurricane Betsy: From Wikpedia - Hurricane Betsy slammed into New Orleans on the evening of September 9th, 1965. The eye of the storm passed to the southwest of New Orleans on a northwesterly track. The northern and western eyewalls covered Southeast Lousisana and the New Orleans area from about 8pm until 4am the next morning. Around 1am, the worst of the wind and rain was over.

Unfortunately, Betsy also drove a storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain, just north of New Orleans, and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a deep-water shipping channel to the east and south. Levees for the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet along Florida Avenue in the lower Ninth Ward and on both sides of the Industrial Canal were overtopped and failed. The flood water reached the eaves of houses in some places and over some one story roofs in the Lower Ninth Ward. Some residents drowned in their attics trying to escape the rising waters.

These levee breaches flooded parts of Gentilly, the Upper Ninth Ward, and the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans as well as Arabi and Chalmette in neighboring St. Bernard Parish.

President Lyndon Johnson visited the city, promising New Orleans Mayor Vic Schiro Federal aid.

It was ten days or more before the water level in New Orleans went down enough for people to return to their homes. It took even longer than that to restore their flooded houses to a livable condition. Those who did not have family or friends with dry homes had to sleep in the shelters at night and forage for supplies during the day, while waiting for the federal government to provide emergency relief in the form of trailers.

In all, 164,000 homes were flooded at the second landfall.

May 8th 1995 Louisiana Flood: From Wikpedia - The May 8th 1995 New Orleans Flood struck the New Orleans metropolitan area, shutting down the city for two days. It was a two-event phenomenon. It first hit the southshore of Lake Ponchartrain, including Jefferson Parish and Orleans Parish. Areas south of the lake began receiving tremendous amounts of rain at approximately 5:30 PM on May 7th, continuing into the early morning hours of May 8th. The flooding began on the Southshore, including New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner, River Ridge, and Harahan, on May 8. During a short period of twelve hours, some areas received twenty inches of rainfall. The next day, the Northshore of Lake Ponchartrain, including Slidell, Covington, etc. received similar amounts of rain and flooding.

Many compared this to the great November 1979 Louisiana Flood, or the more recent November 1989 Louisiana Flood, though the May 8th Flood was more extensive and costlier than both combined. It was the worst flooding the city had experienced between hurricanes Betsy in 1965 and Katrina in 2005. Perhaps the only comparable flood caused by rain alone was the Good Friday 1927 flood.

Six people died as a result of the flooding. The city of New Orleans had $360 million of damages, and the damage of the surrounding areas put that total above $1 billion. Tens of thousands of homes and cars were flooded. New pumping stations were built and canals were expanded to prevent further catastrophic rainfall floods. Some politicians began to push for pumping rain waters directly into the Mississippi River, but environmental groups argued against this plan. The idea has since been raised in brainstorming for ideas in how to prevent flooding in New Orleans post Katrina.

The cause of the massive rain fall totals was a stalled out frontal system from the northwest. It produced a train effect, in which squall lines continued to form over the same area. Pumping stations were overwhelmed and could not pump out the water into Lake Ponchartrain.

The flood prompted expansions and improvments of the city's drainage and pumping system, especially in the worst hit portions of the city, especially Broadmoor.

[sunny]

Mel, I remember the 95 flood. Come on, it wasn't the same thing.

It had been 40 years since Betsy. How many times has Florida been leveled in that 40 year span?

[melhow]

How many times has Florida been leveled in that 40 year span?

Which part?

[sunny]

How many times has Florida been leveled in that 40 year span?

Which part?

Take your pick!!!