New Orleans

[rklenseth]

Yo, be very careful with the water. The news is already reporting that people who have come in contact with the water have died and are getting sick from it. It could be just isolated but just in case you should really limit your contact with the water especially exposed skin. Supposedly the people that died had a rare form of bacteria related to collera (sp? not sure on the spelling but sound it out and you'll know what I'm talking about).

[rklenseth]

How much notice did the people of New Orleans have?

At early estimates perhaps Friday some forecasters were saying it could hit that area as a Category 2 or 3.

It didn't become a full fledge Category 5 by late Saturday and they didn't know where it was headed until perhaps early Sunday and the hurricane hit on Monday. So perhaps, they had the best notice about 24 hours before the storm hit.

One thing you have to keep in mind about Hurricanes are that they are extremely unpredictable. Once minute you can be in the clear and next it could be bearing right down on you. At best you might have a few days warning at the least perhaps only 24 hours.

Right now Tropical Storm Ophelia is churning off the coast of Florida in stationary mode (it isn't moving) and is expected to become a hurricane soon but no one has a frellin' clue where it is going to go. It could hit the Carolinas or Florida or even go as far as hit the Gulf or go out to sea and the problem is that it is sitting right off the coast (only a stones throw away) from Florida.

Another problem with Hurricanes especially after last years season where a record 5 storms hit the US is that people get sick of having to leave all the time. It's called storm fatigue and it really kicks in when the storm doesn't hit or hits less than expected. So a lot of people will simply stay put just because they feel they survived the last one they can survive this one.

Another problem is that it is impossible to evacuate everyone, especially when a major city is involved, in a matter of 24 hours or even 48 hours. It cannot be done. So Hurricane Katrina gave about a 24 hour window to prepare (when forecasters were certain it would hit as Cat 5 or 4 and where). If you saw the news coverage on Sunday and all the traffic jams of people trying to get out it would have been even worse if they tried to get everyone out and potentially fatal if the storm hit while trying to do so.

[kinvoya]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/katrina/ ... .asp#nagin

snopes.com is a site that tries to verify whether rumors are true or not. It has some interesting pieces about Katrina and New Orleans.

Remember these aren't all true, although most of them are as indicated by the green balls on the left.

Also, wow!!!

http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/hurseas2005/Ka ... -1kg12.jpg

[rklenseth]

Nothing surprising there. I didn't even hear some of the stuff that were false on the news.

Anyways, I would say that Governor Blanco screwed up. The one thing that you guys are forgetting here are the politics involved between the State and Federal government. The Federal government can only become involved at the request of the governor of the State. So to claim that Bush should ahve done something before or even immediately after the Hurricane is moot because his hands were tie by Constitutional law. State's especially those in the South (remember the Civil War; it wasn't just about slavery; that was just a cosemtic issue) hate it when the Federal government (which according to the founders of the nation was always suppose to have little power) intervenes into their affairs.

So the blame for preparations and immediately after the storm must be solely pinned on the State and Local governments. Now the Federal government didn't really screw up but ran into a number of problems such as no communications (cells, hardlines, radios did not work) and debris covered the roads and some roads were completely gone. The only thing that I could fault the Federal government for is the fact that they never provided the money to build up the levees in the first place.

[kinvoya]

According to some people money was provided (I don't know how much) to improve the levees but due to corruption in New Orleans (which has a pretty bad reputation as being corrupt on many levels) it was supposedly diverted into building gambling barges and some other stuff I can't remember right now.

Also (supposedly) money provided to New Orleans for evacuation and other emergency planning was used for other things (lining people's pockets, maybe?). Sorry I don't have the details. If I find that info again, I'll link it.

EDIT: OK, at least some of that comes from this unconfirmed info on scopes.com

Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past decade to NO for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the gambling ships. Toss in the investigation that will look into why the emergency preparedness plan submitted to the federal government for funding and published on the city's web site was never implemented and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of gaining additional federal funding as we now learn that the organizations identified in the plan were never contacted or coordinating into any planning - though the document implies that they were.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/katrina/nagin.asp

EDIT: Snopes has now declared the information about the NO officials refusing help to be false. They don't comment about the money diversion.

[Pie]

So, might i ask everyone, is it Bushes fault?

First of, Bush wasent the only presedant to deny funding into the levys, it was clinton, sinior bush, regen, all of those guys.

and really, it isn't bushes call to give any help to new orleons. I'ts the GOVENOURS CALL. I mean, DIFERENT COUNTRYS have been offering help, AND THE RED CROSS WAS TURNED BACK!! And whos call is it to recev federal and organasations help?

[Cookie]

These things rock!

[Stan]

Sorry to burst your bubble Cookie...but one thing Bush cannot be accused of is doing nothing.

[kinvoya]

PIE!!!!! Where have you been, you little misinformed annoyance? I missed you.

[nitefyre]

It's the President's (executive's) call.

Edit: Well, I guess afterwards the judicial can rule if it is constitutional or not...but that's about it

[Pie]

It's the President's (executive's) call.

Edit: Well, I guess afterwards the judicial can rule if it is constitutional or not...but that's about it

Or the governers call when it comes to reseving help.

ooo, i was always here kinvoya, thinking of ways to misspell everybodys name. MUAHAHAHAHA!!

[kinvoya]

Were you deliberately trying to misspell my name just now? Because it's the first time you've spelled it right, ever.

[nitefyre]

The Federal authority can over-rule the State, if the legal means allow it.

For example, during the intergration of schools during the Civil Rights movement, regular army units were called in to make sure it happened.

[Cookie]

Sorry to burst your bubble Cookie...but one thing Bush cannot be accused of is doing nothing.

lol, he doesn't get it!

[Nixit]

*shrugs* Neither do I.