You may compare and contrast the types of people at both venues and while that certainly figured into the overall experience, there were other factors at work in New Orleans that precluded an easy denouement to the problems that arose.
Posted on 10/24/2007 8:07:35 PM PDT by yorkie
It doesn't bring back lost family heirlooms, a child's favourite toy or photos of your daughter's wedding but evacuees of the fires raging around San Diego, California can take solace in the fact that their home away from home is safe, comfortable and even has a few extra frills.
CanWest correspondent Sheldon Alberts reports about conditions from the Qualcomm Centre, which is housing thousands who have left their homes because of the massive fires in California:
Instead of chaos, there was relative calm as evacuees arrived to discover a carnival-like atmosphere that included live music performances, a makeshift pre-school and "Kids Zone," ample stacks of diapers and baby wipes, and food stations offering everything from bagged lunches to chocolate chip cookies and potato chips.
In keeping with southern California's reputation for new age living, volunteers had also set up a massage and acupuncture centre, a tent for yoga and meditation and even a station where evacuees could receive reflexology treatments.
Compare it with this eye-witness account of the conditions inside New Orlean's Superdome during Katrina:
(Excerpt) Read more at communities.canada.com ...
“If you fill the stadium with people from the projects and crime ridden areas of L.A., you would have a much different scenario.”
Exactly. Don’t people realize there were hundreds of gang members who ended up at the New Orleans Superdome? It’s probably a miracle things were not even worse there.
I remember reading reports from tourists who had to go to the Superdome, especially one family from England. They were terrified, in constant fear for their lives because of the groups of “young men” roaming the Dome and doing other such activities I won’t even mention here.
Those tourists were so glad to get back to England. Can’t blame them. Locked in the Dome with thugs and gang members for days......
This So. Cal event is completely different.
The supplies, food, diapers, etc ALL came from volunteer organizations. Walmart committed $1 million worth of products. A Hyatt sent one of their Chefs who proceeded to cook, out in the open, a sumptuous dinner...for 10, 500 of his closest friends.
Bands showed up, unbidden, to play for the evacuees. A masseuse arrived. She said that she didn't have much to give but she would give free massages, which she proceeded to do for the elderly, for firefighters and for the police.
People like my son who is a student, his girlfiend, his roommate and a friend, made sandwiches, bought water, diapers and baby wipes and took them down to Qualcomm...and waited in a long line for almost an hour to deliver what they had brought.
And then? They stayed...helping others to unload the things that they had brought in their cars and trucks.
Later Monday night, at about 1:30 he received a call from a friend. He and his Mom had to evacuate their home in Spring Valley and didn't have enough space in the car to load their things.
The Sofalad told them to leave what they wanted him to pick up in the front room, go to the shelter, and he and another friend that he called and woke, active Navy, I might add, drove out to Spring Valley at 2am, found the key that his buddy had left, loaded up their things and brought it home.
Spring Valley is anything but an affluent neighborhood. It's a blue collar neighborhood, filled with folks who bust their hump to make a living...people who are the salt of the earth...our friends and neighbors. People from every walk of life, from the extremely affluent to the homeless were affected by this fire. Everyone from LaDainian Tomlinson to the homeless.
The difference between San Diego and New Orleans is stark and quite simple to explain.
We want to help each other. When the fit hit the shan, we wanted, and needed, to help. We're proud of our city, we're proud of our people and we're proud of the fact that we are a 3 million person community.
And today, even more than I was on Sunday, I am so proud of my city and her people. This disaster has brought our city together. White, Black, Brown, Pink, Blue and Yellow..no-one cared. Homeless, Celebrity, gay, straight, we're San Diegans, and we'll rebuild together.
We have our gangs and we have our celebrities. We have poor folks and we have immensely affluent folks. But when we have a problem? We just have San Diegans. We get off our arse and we help each other.
I've quoted this several times over the past 2 days. One evacuee at Qualcomm said, "We can deal with this or we can whine about it". He evac'd with just the clothes on his back, and he was helping volunteers set up tents for other evacuees at the time.
The difference between San Diego & New Orleans? We get up and "do". We don't wait for the government to arrive.
Well said sofa and just wonderful the work sofalad and his friends did for the citizens of San Diego.
Also not said, you opened your home to evacs and gave a
place for them to be safe.
Yes, the people of San Diego of all type do because we are
proud Americans
“They learned from past experience. N.O. did not.”
Unlike California, which has unfortunately experienced at least three devastating fires in a relatively short period of time and after each has tweaked their emergency response system accordingly, New Orleans in recent times had never had to deal with a flood situation on the scale of the Katrina/Levee collapse.
Yes, there was much ineptitude on all levels, but keep in mind that as far as loss of life it could have been much worse. 80% of the city did manage to evacuate before the storm and that was no small feat. Maybe, when faced with our next hurricane catastrophe, things will go smoother. For starters, I would like to think that by that time the Corps of Engineers will have actually repaired the levees to the correct specifications so that they have a better chance of holding.
You may compare and contrast the types of people at both venues and while that certainly figured into the overall experience, there were other factors at work in New Orleans that precluded an easy denouement to the problems that arose.
“The levees were the responsibility of the New Orleans Levee Board which spent its funding on things like building a casino.”
CORPS CHIEF ADMITS TO ‘DESIGN FAILURE’
Thursday, April 06, 2006
By Bill Walsh
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — In the closest thing yet to a mea culpa, the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged Wednesday that a “design failure” led to the breach of the 17th Street Canal levee that flooded much of the city during Hurricane Katrina.
Lt. Gen. Carl Strock told a Senate committee that the corps neglected to consider the possibility that floodwalls atop the 17th Street Canal levee would lurch away from their footings under significant water pressure and eat away at the earthen barriers below.
“We did not account for that occurring,” Strock said after the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. “It could be called a design failure.”
A botched design has long been suspected by independent forensic engineers probing the levee failures. A panel of engineering experts confirmed it last month in a report saying the “I-wall” design could not withstand the force of the rising water in the canal and triggered the breach.
http://www.nola.com/frontpage/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1144306231230500.xml
Also-2005 LEVEE FAILURES IN GREATER NEW ORLEANS
http://www.nola.com/frontpage/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1144306231230500.xml
We were on our way to the Q when my DH got a phone call from a friend in Sripps Ranch. We quickly exited the freeway (I-15) and took them up on their kind offer because, contrary to popular belief, sleeping on the asphalt didn't seem like much fun.
Evacuating isn't easy, especialy when deciding what, of your precious things, must go or stay.....
As I type thins, I'm hearing sirens and fire horns (4S Ranch). fI've realized that I'm still a tad bit jumpy! I sure wish I knew what was going on.....
NO was told to get out days before the storm hit and they didn't go. I remember well that President Bush was trying to get Nagin and Blanco to get the people out BEFORE the storms hit landfall. Later, of course, Bush was blamed for everything but, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
“NO was told to get out days before the storm hit and they didn’t go.”
Please do remember that New Orleans and coast residents have been told for years to leave at certain times and no storms come. So, it’s understandable that some folks were not willing to go through the procedure again.
I am proud of the way So. Cal people have reacted (and I don’t live there). But again, I feel there are huge differences. If you crammed very large numbers of gang members on drugs and welfare recipients into a building surrounded by flood water with few supplies, the outcome most likely would be similar to the Superdome.
I can sort of see that but......even though packing up my stuff was a huge hassle and the fires didn’t come close to my house, I would still pack it up each and every time I was told to evacuate.
“NO was told to get out days before the storm hit and they didn’t go.”
80% of New Orleans( population pre Katrina of about 485,000) evacuated ahead of the storm.
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