My Two Cents on New Orleans and Katrina (Vanity)

[carrier-aviator]

I've been reading, listening, and watching the events on the Gulf Coast unfold all week. I need to vent.

GLOBAL WARMING: The lefties, especially that lunatic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. are blaming the President for not sending the Kyoto Accord to the Senate. Al Gore initialed the document in 1996, and carried it back to the U.S. Clinton never sent it to the Senate though, as the Senators, by a vote of 95-0, told him it would be dead on arrival if he did. So, why is Bush blamed for emulating the actions of the esteemed, impeached, fornicating ex-democrat President?

Help me out here. The global warming theorists have long said the following: "the greenhouse gases will warm the atmosphere, melting the ice caps, COOLING the oceans, causing great climate change" (remember that idiotic movie, "The Day After Tomorrow," from last year where the earth, essentially froze, because of this?). Yet Kennedy and the other enviro-kooks say it was an overly warm ocean and Gulf of Mexico that fueled Katrina. Which is it? Cool oceans or warm oceans? If we follow the long-held theories of these nuts, then global warming will cool the oceans and REDUCE hurricane intensity.

THE CHRONOLOGY: The Hurricane battered the Gulf Coast on Monday morning and afternoon. New Orleans escaped the worst of it. No significant flooding. No need for massive federal help (if any place needed the help at that point it was Mississippi). CNN proclaimed that NOLA had "dodged a bullet." It wasn't 'til Tuesday that the levee burst.

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CITY AND STATE: The foul-mouthed democrat mayor ordered evacuation. He, more than anyone, knew that some of the city's residents didn't have the means to get out. So, what did he do? He opened the Superdome to a small fraction of them. He could've rented busses to haul them all to safety, but he didn't. I guess he expected President Bush to do that. He could have provided food, water, toilet paper, and port-a-potties to the Superdome. But, he didn't. I guess the racist President Bush prevented the mayor from issuing that order. The inept democrat governor could have had the National Guard standing by, but she didn't. I guess the security of a city 1000 miles from Washington is the responsibility of the federal government and of President Bush personally.

THE SUPER DOME: I have read of murders, rapes, sex, drugs, and theft there (not to mention feces everywhere). I presume this is the fault of the President, as well?

THE RACIAL ISSUE: When I first heard that politicians were mentioning the "racial aspect," I thought, "Wow, someone has the guts to point out that all the looters are black." But, no, that wasn't the racial issue that was mentioned. It was the fact that the evil President Bush knew that blacks were suffering, causing him to purposely delay the provision of aid. Of course, if the black mayor truly cared for his people he would have ensured they had been hauled to safety. The lefty establishment whined that "the poor and the blacks were disproportionately affected." Rocket science there...the population is 67% black, so, of course blacks were disproportionately affected. If a natural disaster had struck Fargo, ND, I guarantee that white people would have been disproportionately affected. One other note I heard on the radio: one reason why so many residents in NOLA are poor and carless is because most of that black population consists of single mothers and their children. If you don't want to be poor, and in a situation where you can't react to unexpected events, don't have children out of wedlock.

LOOTING: We haven't seen Law Enforcement shoot at looters since the riots of the late 60s. Of course, the reason is racial. Almost ALL looting in the U.S. since that era has been by blacks. But, society dares not establish order and protect property by shooting blacks. It would be racist. Yeah right.

THE LEVEE: The left is howling that evil President Bush cut levee funding by some $70 million during his presidency. Well, he didn't cut anything. He reduced the rate of growth. Of course, it is the city of New Orleans that depends on the levees. How much did it spend? How much did the state spend? NOLA has 700,000 people. To have made up for that $70 million shortfall the city government could have taxed each of its residents an average of $20 per resident per year for the five years of the Bush presidency. Or it could have raised the tourist or booze or gambling tax. But, it, evidently, chose to depend totally on the feds. Is there NO responsibility at the local level?

BEING READY: "Bush was unprepared," is the cry of the left. Should he have had helicopters, and cargo planes on the tarmac at the NOLA airport (only to be blown apart by the wind)? Should he have had equipment and tents and supplies pre-positioned, only to be blown away by the wind? Rescuers MUST stay away from the scene, and when the NATURAL phenomenon has passed, they can then approach the damaged area. USAF jets could land no closer than 150 miles from NOLA, then they had to take their aid and supplies overland some 150 miles over battered roads, and over the few remaining bridges to NOLA. This takes time. Of course, in the instant world of 24/7 news, anything but instant reaction is deemed inadequate. The news people know this but don't say it. And the lefties know it too, yet decry Bush's supposed ineptitude (for political gain, of course).

Alright, I'm done. Comments?

[Muzzle_em]

I'd be willing to bet that their statement that the break occured in a recently upgraded area was a lie just to take some of the heat off themselves.

I think NO should not be rebuilt.

[Polybius]

I think NO should not be rebuilt.

A house in the New Orleans flood basin is like my brother's condo in Key Largo:

My brother knows that, if a Category 4 hurricane hits it, his condo will be utterly destroyed by the storm surge.

He also knows that, if he tries to rides out such a hurricane in his condo instead of evacuationg to higher ground on mainland, we will surely die.

[carrier-aviator]

I'd bet that most of the New Orleans buidlings did not have federal flood insurance. But, I will also bet that the feds will cover the re-building costs even for those buildings that didn't have it. What does this mean: all those good citizens that paid their annual flood insurance premiums were SUCKERS.

[vidbizz]

After having gone thru Hurricane Andrew, I knew this storm was going to be bad. I remember thinking that Saturday - "Why haven't they started evacuating?".

After the order to evac was put out on Sunday morn, I knew it was going to be too late.

I also think that Jeb Bush called his brother & told him he'd better call Blanco & Negin & get them husslin to get these people out.

[hiredhand]

Thanks! Glad you liked them both! :-)

[hiredhand]

Thanks! Glad you liked them both! :-)

[HiTech RedNeck]

The levees that breached, breached after the storm had well passed. They withstood the winds just fine. They could not withstand the volume of storm water that was swept into Lake Ponchartrain. Think it's best to let the civil engineers duke this one out in the real world, as to whether significantly better levees are possible.

[Polybius]

The levees that breached, breached after the storm had well passed. They withstood the winds just fine. They could not withstand the volume of storm water that was swept into Lake Ponchartrain. Think it's best to let the civil engineers duke this one out in the real world, as to whether significantly better levees are possible.

Yes, they were possible.

Given unlimited money and time, you can build Hoover Dam around New Orleans.

However, many decades ago, it was desided that the present levies were as high as could be built in a cost-efeective manner. So, what they have is what they have.

People outside of Hurricane Ally have no concept that there are different components to a hurricane.

The big-time killer is not wind.

The big-time killer is Storm Surge.

I just finished explaning the issue of "Storm Surge" to another Freeper who does not live in Hurricane Ally.

That post is reproduced below and I hope it is informative to those who think that a hurricane is a hurricane is a hurricane no matter where you happen to be.

"...... Where exactly you were going to suggest they take all these people?", he asked me:

**********************

Well, being from ( X ), you probably have very little experience with hurricanes. Since my family has lived in Hurricane Ally for over 140 years, I do.

Where do you take those people?

OUT OF THE STORM SURGE ZONE!!!!

ANYWHERE out of the Storm Surge zone!

It does not matter where they end up....in Baton Rogue, in Georgia, in Texas or in Timbuktu.

You get them the h#ll OUT OF THE STORM SURGE ZONE!

"Ummm....What's a Storm Surge?", people from ( X ) ask.

This is what a "Storm Surge" is": Post 11 of this thread

This is what a Storm Surge does:

This is how people who are left stranded in a Storm Surge area end up.....259 war veterans WPA workers aboard that train died in that 1935 Labor Day Hurricane :

The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane Storm Surge literally wiped the Town of Islamorada off the map.

A 1933 hurricane storm surge not only totally destroyed the Cuban town of Cayo Cristo and every human being and every building in that town. It also washed away the entire friggin' island! Afterwards, an entire ISLAND was no longer on navigational charts.

That is why the Mayor of New Orleans beat feet to Baton Rogue. Baton Rouge is OUT OF THE STORM SURGE ZONE.

By contrast, New Orleans is not only in the Storm Surge zone but also BELOW SEA LEVEL. It's levies were not designed for anything greater that Category 3 and Katrina was forecast as a Category 5.

"But no city offered to take them in and ....whine, whine"

BRAVO SIERRA!

Eight hundreds thousand (800,000) other resident of New Orleans got out of the Storm Surge Zone and they were just absorbed into the rest of the United States.

Another 200,000 is totally irrelevant.

On top of that, Bush requested to Federalize the entire evacuation and the Democrat Governor refused.

The New Orleans Hurricane disaster plans called for COMPLETE evacuation of New Orleans precisely BECAUSE IT WAS IN THE STORM SURGE ZONE.

The Southern Louisiana Evacuation Plan specifically stated that people without private transportation were to be transported on public buses.

There were not just "200 buses". There were 200 buses in just one photo and Freepers studying the post-Katrina satellite images have counted over 400 buses altogether at other city parking.

At 70 people per bus that is 28,000 people per round trip that could have been taken out of the storm surge area in the 48 hours prior the Katrina striking.

After the storm hit, what makes you think that buses sent from outside of New Orleans could drive through the flooded mess any better than the 145 New Orleans city buses that were parked 1.2 miles away from the Superdome?

Was Scotty supposed to beam the outside buses to the Superdome and them beam them back out so that they would not have to drive through impassable roads?

The time to evacuate those 200,000 low-income people on public buses OUT OF THE STORM SURGE ZONE was BEFORE the Category 4 storm struck.

That was what the Southern Louisiana Evacuation Plan for New Orleans specifically called for.

The Democrat Governor and the Democrat Mayor did Nothing to carry out that portion of the plan. They left 200,000 low-income resident abandoned and they now blame the Federal Government for not having Scotty beam down a massive logistics effort after a human disaster of their own making.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Given unlimited money and time, you can build Hoover Dam around New Orleans.

I understand the penal system down there is pretty vicious, as American penal systems go. Shouldn't be any problem pulling together a chain gang from those looters to ensconce New Orleans in concrete.