I think this is a good time

Post #222,297 by danreck 9/1/05 5:30:59 PM Reply	I think this is a good time to point out that when I lived in New Orleans 15 years ago, all the politicians were campaigning on "fixing the levees". It's not like it wasn't known... Check out this site [link\|http://www.publichealth.hurricane.lsu.edu/\|http://www.publichea...urricane.lsu.edu/] to see how excruciatingly accurate the detail is in the models that they have... The schools, the poor, potholes, etc. and any issue that could be used to buy votes seemed to always take precedence over "fixing the levees". If you believe that the reason this huricane response was bad was because of the "current administration", I think you are being rather simplistic and trying to politicize this tragedy. Why? While I don't like the "current administration" I think you are referring to, I really don't like the former or current administrations that have run Louisana politics (and especially New Orleans)for the past few centuries. Napoleonic law and numerous other smokescreens, deals, Huey P. Long, etc... have kept Louisana in the backwoods of America for many years. The Big Easy has been viewed as "party central" by the rest of the country for most of the last century instead of a cultural music mecca and the largest and most vital port city in the US. Here in lies the rub. Everyone talked about "the worst case scenario" of a major hurricane on New Orleans. No one really prepared for it. It was just a political football. "If the red team were in charge, then we could stop hurricanes" and other bullshit hyperbole. Jake, I think we are fighting against our human nature, not politics. It doesn't take FEMA or the National Guard or any organization with a collective IQ above 70 to determine that people who are stranded in a dome or on a roof in 95 degree heat with no food or fresh water just might be thirsty when you got there... Does the President of the United States have to tell his military officers that "they might be thirsty, bring water"? How about the Red Cross? I've been giving money to these people for years thinking they sort of knew how to handle these types of things... Maybe they weren't prepared for the scale? Maybe they thought New Orleans was "spared" and sent all the stuff to Biloxi and Mobile and Gulf Shores and all the other places (some former) first... I don't know, I'm rambling... If anyone is going to New Orleans, "please take some water with you and maybe a few bottles of Jack Daniels for once they are hydrated". Just a few thoughts, Danno
Post #222,298 by Nightowl 9/1/05 5:35:46 PM Reply	I'll tell my cousin-in-law that He's going with some friends and other people as part of an Emergency Response Team sent from Texas. They are going by boat. He's part of the Volunteer Fire Dept there as well as has helped out with other Emergency scenarios. I hope he can help, him and the whole team. Brenda "Excel is to math what a Microwave Oven is to cooking!"
Post #222,301 by danreck 9/1/05 5:44:26 PM Reply	Re: I'll tell my cousin-in-law that I'll say hi to him personally, if I get a chance. I'm trying to volunteer with the Red Cross. Last night they said to send money, "they need heavy equipment, ships and cranes, not hands". I asked them if they changed their mind... They took my information and said to stand by. Just a few thoughts, Danno
Post #222,302 by Nightowl 9/1/05 5:46:05 PM Reply	I hope you get to help It seems to mean a lot to you. His name is Rankin Ramsey. Brenda "Excel is to math what a Microwave Oven is to cooking!"
Post #222,320 by Nightowl 9/1/05 6:18:50 PM 9/1/05 6:33:27 PM Reply	Supplies and volunteers Hey Danreck, I just heard on the news that there are supplies being all packed up to ship to New Orleans, medical supplies, food, water, etc. Looks like they are mobilizing things now, maybe they just needed a little time to get it all organized. Also, in addition to my cousin-in-law Rankin Ramsey, who is going there with a Fire/Rescue crew on a boat from Texas, I also learned that my cousin-in-law Joesph Peck is being deployed to New Orlean's. He's in the military police National Guard. He is to keep people from looting. I'm amazed about my family stepping up like this, I didn't know these things about these particular people. Brenda Edit: I had meant to branch this off to the Water Cooler but I goofed. :( Sorry. "Excel is to math what a Microwave Oven is to cooking!" Edited by Nightowl Sept. 1, 2005, 06:33:27 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #222,328 by tuberculosis 9/1/05 6:31:45 PM 8/21/07 6:07:46 AM Reply	Why don't you an mmoffit fly over and drop water bottles? "Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect" --Mark Twain "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." --Albert Einstein "This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." --George W. Bush Edited by tuberculosis Aug. 21, 2007, 06:07:46 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #223,197 by mmoffitt 9/6/05 4:37:23 PM Reply	I've got oil pressure problems at the moment. :0( bcnu, Mikem It would seem, therefore, that the three human impulses embodied in religion are fear, conceit, and hatred. The purpose of religion, one might say, is to give an air of respectibility to these passions. -- Bertrand Russell
Post #222,343 by jake123 9/1/05 7:17:16 PM 9/1/05 7:27:09 PM Reply	I'm not talking about the fact that the levees failed I'm talking about the fact that the rescue efforts post failure seem to be so badly badly organised... and that seems to be related to the fact that the usual coordinating agency (FEMA) has largely been gutted of its mandate, funding, and people by the current US administration. Edit: I gotta stop being so fast on that button. Anyway, the levees failing leaves plenty of blame to go around... and it's not particularly any better up here. It's like that guy from Holland said "over there they designed to defend against the 100 year event, but we've designed for the 10,000 year event" when he was speaking about their dike system vs. the one around New Orleans. It's a problem of vision, and it seems pretty widespread to NA... but the problem I'm talking about is specific to the aftermath and how well it's been organised. To be honest, and having seen both the CBC and the BBC version as well as the CNN version, to the outsider it looks like the poor people of the Gulf Coast and (even moreso) of New Orleans were left to literally twist in the wind. --\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca \n [link\|http://consultron.ca\|http://consultron.ca] [link\|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca\|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] \n Kingston Ontario Canada [link\|news://news.consultron.ca\|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited by jake123 Sept. 1, 2005, 07:27:09 PM EDT Expand All History

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