Topic: Hurricane Katrina

[Cindy]

Katrina

Such a pretty name, isn't it?  The hurricane that was once the tropical
depression everyone wrote off.  The storm that has forever changed New
Orleans.  The storm that wiped out the memory of three of the Gulf Coast's
worst-ever hurricanes in one fail-swoop - Betsy, Camille and Frederick.

We were told for a very long time here in New Orleans that this very
scenario would one day happen.  We all knew it would one day happen.  I just
don't think any of us realized it would be this bad.  And it is still bad
here.  Six months later and we still have people who have no place to live,
and are back in shelters.  We have a mayor who wants a "chocolate city" and
wants foreign countries to sponsor poor neighborhoods in the city.  The rest
of us are trying to figure out where we fit in with the mayor's plan.  WE
CAME BACK.  We came home to our city, many of us lost everything and have
been living in hotels, on cruise ships, with friends or family or in FEMA
trailers.  We came back to work here and put our money into the fledgling
economy here.  We came as soon as the city re-opened and have worked and
lived in the destruction.  But we came back to the city we love and want to
rebuild.  We came home.  But I guess that is not enough for Ray Nagin, or
Willy Nagin and the Chocolate City as he now called.  I guess I am just not
chocolate enough.  We all know we have a very long road ahead of us
rebuilding our city.  Some of us worry that it will not happen.  Some of us
worry we will get hit again this hurricane season.  We are nowhere ready. 
We are a sitting duck.

Postet at: February 13, 2006, 07:34:48 PMAs the story continues.......

Several fires have broken out this past week.  One of our oldest landmarks, the Coliseum Theater was severely damaged, and just yesterday morning we had two fires break out within an hour of each other.  Sadly, these were homes in areas hit hard by Katrina.  It has been cold here the past week, so the thinking is the fires were started accidentally by people trying to stay warm.  With the water pressure in the city still very low, the coast guard has been assisting fire fighters on the ground by dumping buckets of water from the Mississippi River onto the fires.  I have a birds-eye view of this since I work on the 43rd floor of the tallest building in the city.
Postet at: February 14, 2006, 10:01:24 AMMardi Gras parades begin tomorrow night.  You don't feel the "rush" in the air you normally feel when we are getting ready to begin parades, the excitment surrounding the events.  Maybe this will begin a healing of sorts for New Orleans.  The parades are so beautiful.  This year our celebrity monarchs are Jim Belushi and John Goodman in Endymion, Michael Keaton in Bacchus, and Stephen Segal in Orpheus.  I hope this will be a good thing for my City!

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[Richmond]

Hi .. How are you. That must have been one hell storm to have been in and for the clean up to still be going on how much do they still have to do.. or is it one of those things that will never be quite finished.  We see things on the TV but  thats like not the some as been there  well I hope things are working out as best they can for all who were effected by the storm

[Cindy]

Hi Richmond - yes, the cleanup is still going on here on the Gulf Coast.  Katrina was an amazing storm, one that will be remembered for a very long time to come.  Our recovery (meaning New Orleans, the MS Coast, and Buras/Venice Louisiana) will take a long time.  But we are also a resilient people, and won't give up easily.  We look forward to the re-building of our city(ies), and hope that we will come back better than ever!

Thank your for your kind words and warm wishes 

[sportsandweatherfreak]

one katrinia did a good deed she changed her website from katrina.com as a personal website to a website to help katrina victims... props go out to her

[piersdad]

just watching a tv programme on katrina.
it appears thatthe city was only good for a category 3 storm and they were warned the year before and the boffins were scoffed at.
then the storm arrived
so the mayor ordered an evacuation and the loss of life was reduced to a minimum

the most dramatic home movie  was the water rushing into this house looking out at the water.  It looked just like the house was in the local surf with waves 4 feet deep rushing in though the front door.

pretty scary stuff

[Cindy]

We were warned in 2004, piersdad, that this would happen.  No on believed it.  They believe now.  It's just a shame is 2,000 lost lives later.  Another sweep of the Ninth Ward is planned for after Mardi Gras.  They fully expect to find a couple hundred more bodies.  Except for the ones washed into the Gulf of Mexico.

[piersdad]

whew still looking for bodies.
they did not report the 2000 odd lives here i understood  the official tally  was in the 250 -300  lives lost
i guess they have to only count the actual  identified dead.
It seems ironic that the medical people  can spend one million dollars sving a persons life, the rescue people can search for a lost person costing another million dollars.
yet not be proactive to save hundreds of lives.
in the future we will get this sort of disaster more often and in 50 years time there will be walls around all coastal cities not just no
 

[Cindy]

2,000 here in Louisiana alone.  I think there were close to 300 on the Mississippi coast.  And that number is FOUND bodies.

Here is an intersting article from the New York Times that ran yesterday.

Critics say new levees might fail

New Orleans soil isn't the right type for task, they say

By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: February 19, 2006
BAYOU BIENVENUE, La. — It will take a staggering four million cubic yards of soil to repair the levee system around New Orleans, and nearly half of it will go here, a battered 12-mile stretch along the navigational canal, east of the city, known as the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet.

Yet critics of the Army Corps of Engineers say the new construction is likely to fail again. The sandy local dirt being used for levee construction is too weak, they say, and not enough thick clay is being imported by barge from Mississippi to strengthen it.

[piersdad]

the sandy local dirt being used for levee construction is too weak,

seems like sand dunes
here if we need a dirt levee we cover the outside with a sort of metal and concrete mesh this stops erosion,allows plant growth,and stops people and animals from damaging it.
so often the supply of local materials determines the construction and it appears that the supply of good clay is difficult.

i see the same thing when i see earthquake disasters and large concrete buildings collapsed and  i see some one able to whack a piece of concrete off with a single blow of a hammer.
it appears there is very little cement or stone aggregate in the concrete so no wonder it collapsed in the earth quake.
so  it is often the availability of local materials that determines the strength of a structure

[dbackfan]

Hi Weatherchick, I'm a few states away from you, in Arizona, where we're facing the longest drought on our state's record, I understand.  Not a disaster, of course, as local plants are built for such thirst and some can "drink" passing humidity in the air.  Your story is so sad, but is well-written.  I'm not sure I understand the term "chocolate city."  I certainly hope your city is spared another hurricane attack.  Terri

[Cindy]

Hi Terri!  A drought is never good, but I would think it especially bad in Arizona.  I hope things get better there real soon.

The "chocolate city" remark was made by Mayor Nagin in a speech he gave on Martin Luther King Day - his meaning, which he did clarify later in the speech, is that "God wants New Orleans to be majority African American".  Over half the city's population has yet to return to New Orleans, with a good many of them being African American.  This is, or at least it is thought, that this is Mayor Nagin's way of encouraging the African American population to return to New Orleans. 

Thank you for your kind thoughts 

Cindy
Postet at: February 21, 2006, 07:53:36 AMThe Escalator

I work in the tallest building in New Orleans.  Both sides of the escalator were trashed by the flood and glass from the two enormous windows that were blown out during the hurricane.  We came home as soon as our building opened, which was November 7.  The escalator work also began at that time.  It was quite an interesting project to watch, I had never seen an entire escalator system removed and a new one installed.  So we had to take the stairs, which are locked under normal circumstances, to get from the ground floor to plaza level.  This had become "normal" for us, we had done it for over two months! Upon arriving for work on Wednesday, people are, as usual, heading for the stairs, not really noticing that the fencing around the escalators had been removed.  The doors to the stairs were locked!  People are looking around in confusion when, WHAT!, the escalators were working!  YAY!!!  People were laughing and clapping, almost celebratory    The construction workers, who were finishing up a few odds and ends, were standing there with these big grins on their faces!  They looked like they were proud, something accomplished finally!  You'd have thought they put up the Taj Mahal!!

Sometimes it's the little things in life that make people happy 

[piersdad]

[ the stairs   are locked under normal circumstances,]

a different land a diferent culture, in New Zealand the stairs are  never locked due to fire hazards,  but we do have an  occasion where we get what we call 'stair dancers'
these are thieves that use the stairs to prey on offices and steal things like cell phones or lap tops.
i think it is actually illegal here to lock the stairs.

I bet the workers were grinning,  they would have been really proud of their project.

[Cindy]

In the event of a fire, our building access cards will unlock the doors from the inside.  The door on the ground level is always kept locked to prevent unauthorized people from entering the stairwell (so to prevent them from entering the offices that way).  While the escalator project was in process, a security guard manned the door to the stairs at all times.
Postet at: February 22, 2006, 01:02:38 PMThe final sweep of the Ninth Ward has begun before they begin demolishing homes, where they expect to find up to 400 more bodies.  The way this poor man died   Story Here

Mayor Ray Nagin continues his, *ahem*, comments.  Latest regarding the mayorial candidates:  Only two of them look like "us".  Story here

Finally, I officially have the Katrina cough.  Feel like I've been beat with a baseball bat.  I'm not as bad as my friend, Kristin.  She is coughing up black from the mold in her lungs.  Katrina Cough

[piersdad]

 

The way this poor man died

i expect a few more of these sad tales will come to light soon

its some time the aftermath that is just as bad as the hurricane
the katrina cough would be an extra nasty that they wont want.

[Cindy]

Here is a breakdown/update on just a few things happening here in New Orleans:

- The city is about to run out of money.

- The money for recovering bodies is almost gone, and this with the sweep of the lower Ninth Ward STILL not completed. I'm not sure exactly what is supposed to happen to the poor people who are most likely still lying under the debris there.

- Our healthcare system is in critical condition. We lost 4 major hospitals. Our trauma center, which was nationally recognized, is being run out of a vacated department store. The surrounding hospitals are so overloaded it is unreal. About 5 weeks ago, my 11-year-old niece was seriously injured in school. She was actually paralyzed for a short period (something called a stinger). The paramedics debated on where to take the child for fastest treatment, not the closest hospital. She was fast tracked - and still waited for eight hours.

- Over 3/4 of our criminals are housed in a vacated telecommunications building. The majority of the jail was flooded.

- The population of the city is half of what it was pre-Katrina. No place to live. Businesses are reluctant to return until they can be assured that their businesses and employees will be safe. Can't guarantee that at the moment, so many have not yet returned.

- The lower Ninth Ward will most likely never be rebuilt. There are those who doubt Lakeview will come back. Gentilly is still not livable. Mid city is still not livable. There are still sections of the city where traffic lights do not work.

All I can say is it is one big mess down here. And it is unbelievable.


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