Katrina ?!?!?

[Koku]

I can not beieve it when watching TV on the Breaking News of BBC, and CNN...

What about our NS-Europa friends... Are they all fine??

 

>> Empire Francais--USA (Florida), La Belgique, Neuhansa (Mississipi), Chairman Joaquin, Endless Summer, Stoned Smurfs, Noitan Eugor?.and others...

Hope you all are fine...

 

Yell, if you are OK!!

 

 

Hunger and rage

American city becomes a Third World nightmare

NEW ORLEANS - A great city has descended into chaos.

In much of New Orleans yesterday, food and water remained in short supply. Medical help was nowhere to be found. And answers were impossible to come by.

 

At the city's convention center, a frustrated and angry mob rioted, furious that they had been dumped at a place where there was no food, no water and no one in charge.

 

At the Superdome, fights broke out in the huge crowd that assembled on an upper parking deck. The crowd jostled for position and hoped eventually to get on a bus to somewhere - anywhere.

 

Children cried.

Women fainted.

A man who asked for a cigarette got beaten with a pipe.

"People are hysterical. I'm scared. I'm upset," said Gloria Charles, 53, a school custodian.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/342810p-292645c.html

 

Military due to move in to New Orleans

Governor warns thugs: Troops 'know how to shoot and kill'

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- A fearful Friday has arrived in lawless New Orleans, with police snipers stationed on the roof of their precinct, trying to protect it from the armed thugs roaming seemingly at will through the flood-ravaged city.

 

The surreal scene comes amid wretched chaos, with incredible scenes of desperation for those people still marooned in the city more than three days after Hurricane Katrina struck a deadly and devastating blow.

 

Adding to the uncertainty Friday morning was a large explosion in the city's railroad district, possibly from a rail car.

 

Outside the Louisiana Superdome, where as many as 30,000 people sought shelter, refugees waiting for a bus out of town completely covered an outside plaza, where they waited in the heat and rain. Several people in the crowd collapsed and had to be carried away by National Guard troops.

 

The Houston Astrodome in Texas, where thousands of refugees had been bused over the past couple of days, stopped accepting refugees late Thursday.

 

A heartbreaking humanitarian catastrophe unfolded at the convention center, near the Mississippi River, where thousands of refugees with nowhere else to go gathered, seeking help and hoping for bus rides out of the city.

 

They waited in increasing frustration in hot, unsanitary conditions, with little food and water. Numerous bodies could be seen, both inside and outside the facility, and one man died of a seizure while a CNN crew was at the scene.

 

A National Guard helicopter dropped food and water to the refugees Thursday afternoon, although the amount was not nearly enough to meet the needs of the throngs that had gathered. ...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/02/katr...pact/index.html

[The Chosen Nations]

I would also like to extend my deepest sorrows for those caught up in this disaster. I hope everyone mentioned above pulls through!

[Niederoestereich]

Looks as rough as guts over there. Hopefully order can be restored from chaos soon

[Phil VII]

hmm, not nice, i hope everyone is ok, although im not sure if anyone here was from New Orleans, but still, condolences if you were caught up in anything...

 

the whole thing shows human nature thgh doesnt it, with all the looting and gangs of thugs, that happened in Iraq after the war, and now its happening in the US, just shows, when it comes down to it, we all have the same instincts at heart...

[Akiiryu]

Looting? Half the people 'looting' are trying to get food and water because they have received no aid. They are not refugees either...

[Tagmatium Rules]

Most of the people out "looting" are not doing it for personal gain. They ain't out nicking nice TV's for their (now flattened) homes, their out stealing food and water, the stuff they haven't received in aid from the authorities. They have often then given alot of this "loot" to those more needy than themselves, people who cannot find food and water for themselves. They're armed because they know the Government has ordered looters to be shot on sight. So, fair enough, get the shot in first. The looters ar helping the needy, whilst the Government shoots those attempting to do what the US should have done six days ago.

 

Although, there obviously will be a small minority of nutters, going round shooting, stealing and causing general havoc. There always are in these situations, but it's the ones trying their best who will suffer at the ands of these crazies, and at the hands of the police and National Guard.

[Europa]

A human tragedy indeed. The latest estimates I heard was an estimated death toll of over tenthousand. Lots of people lost their homes, belongings, got seperated from their family.. The response was slow and inadequate. It took several days before help became in action.

 

 

In case of big emergencies, calling in the army is a good option. The local police men lost their home, they have families too, maybe don't even know what happened to them. So not all of them will be able to do their job like usual. Though, the army should be used to help the population, the population is not an enemy. Their shoot-&-kill talk disturbed me ("with authorisation to shoot and kill hoodlums?. ?These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced, battle-tested and under my orders to restore order in the streets?. "They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded?). Their first concern should be evacuating people, dropping food, setting up emergeny camps, temporary hospitals, transporting supplies to the area, pumping out the water, rebuiling roads, clearing the rubble, helping the injured, recover corpses.. Without doubt the army's got amphibious vehicles, helicopters, busses, ships, men...

 

Surely, law and order need to be restored as quick as possible. But there's a difference between:

- People having no food and no water stealing food to survive. That I can understand. Without food, water, medical care, electric power, phones, or any way out of there, it's no wonder the city descends into chaos, violence & looting.

- People looting shops stealing electric appliances (tv,..), taking advantage of the lawlessness, the shortage of police is another thing.

 

 

 

Some other remarqs:

- New Orleans's a city below sea level, in a vulnerable area, with dykes designed to only hold category 3 huricanes. Wasn't it to be expected?

- Bush diverted funding from dykes..

- Will global warming be taken more seriously in the future?

 

 

[Phil VII]

oh global warming global shwarming, i hate it when people blame ANY disaster on global warming, there were hurricanes like this a hundred years ago, there will be in a hundred years time, it wasnt the hurricane that was the direct cause of the peoples deaths, it was the massive flooding and all its effects that caused the deaths. Look at florida, they get hurricanes every year and have maybe 100 people die a year, but when the hurricane hits and causes a problem like the flooding, people drown, many people in hospitals die as essential medical supplies cant get through, theyve been isolated from clean drinking water and medicine for 6 days now, people are dying from disease and illness caused by the floods, not by the hurricane itself. You cannot blame global warming for this.

[Niederoestereich]

Wasn't there a lvl 4 Hurricane like this in Texas about 100 years ago, before a majority of motor cars, aircraft, etc where around adding CO2 to the atmosphere.

I doubt this hurricane was directly caused by global warming. Cyclones and Hurricanes like this have happened before, and they will happen again, its just nature.

[Koku]

Timeline: How the hurricane crisis unfolded

A day-by-day look at how the crisis has unfolded in New Orleans, after the city was battered by Hurricane Katrina.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4211404.stm

 

So many people are still in despair...

 

 

[Tamurin]

Hurricanes are every year in the Carribean Sea...that's nothing new...this time, one caused extreme problems...

 

Well, this can happen to every nation on this world. BUT: It's really astonishing, how the US government reacted to this. Extremely slow and with very limited manpower...

 

The US has enough forces to conquer any small country in the world. The ministry of homeland security is a very powerful agency. But it seems that they were not prepared for a natural desaster.

 

Well, it's of no use to blame anyone. The most important thing is to rescue all people still alive and still in the area and to support all refugees. Then, the area has to be "cleaned" of the water, the mud, the rubble and the cities and towns have to be rebuild (if that is possible everywhere).

 

The next thing should be an overhaul to all natural desaster countermeasures and a new strategy to react to this. The nationalguard is a good thing, but their first task is not fighting natural desasters. Germany has an agency for this, the "Katastrophenschutz" (catastrophe protection agency), a civilian organization. I'm missing something like that in the US. If it exists, it's not very present in the area and/or the media.

[Haken]

The affected areas are 10 times the size of Belgium. For people in small countries such disasters seem even more massive.

[Nevareion]

The next thing should be an overhaul to all natural desaster countermeasures and a new strategy to react to this. The nationalguard is a good thing, but their first task is not fighting natural desasters. Germany has an agency for this, the "Katastrophenschutz" (catastrophe protection agency), a civilian organization. I'm missing something like that in the US. If it exists, it's not very present in the area and/or the media.

They do, FEMA. It wasn't prepared for the scale of it. They hadn't planned for the worst case disaster.

[Tamurin]

FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency

 

Found it, thanks.

 

Well, this was somehow too big for them...

[Pirilao]

Daunting task of body counting after Katrina

 

As the floodwaters recede, rescuers face the grim task of recovering bodies, with the expectation the death toll is going to rise into the thousands.

 

Heavily criticised for his administration's slow response to Hurricane Katrina's destruction, President Bush is due to visit relief efforts again today - the second time in a week.

 

Other top officials were in the disaster zone over the weekend, pledging to do more to help those who have lost their homes.

 

One trapped resident said: "There've been people passing in boats, giving us whatever. It's very beautiful. Whoever is giving it to us, I don't know, but God bless them."

 

Authorities say Louisiana's official death toll of 59 could rise into the thousands. Well over 100 deaths have been confirmed in Mississippi, with many people unaccounted for.

 

Evacuees have now been cleared from the New Orleans superdome football stadium and the convention centre. Conditions had become unbearable and dangerous with reports of violent attacks, even rape and killing.

 

Many people have been taken to Houston, while the governor of Texas says he wants to airlift some homeless people to other states such as Utah and Michigan.

 

US troops have been trying to restore order in many areas, and there have been reports of police shooting dead a handful of people seen carrying guns. As well as police officers resigning, there have been reports of suicides in their ranks.

 

Lawless misery continues for many people still to be rescued, and for those in temporary shelter, it is a case of doing the best they can.

 

Officials warn it is going to take many months for things to return to some kind of normality.

 

[Koku]

Bush to lead inquiry into Katrina

US President George W Bush says he will lead an investigation into how the Hurricane Katrina disaster was handled.

"I'm going to find out over time what went right and what went wrong," he said in reply to criticism that the authorities were too slow to respond.

 

The US Senate is to hold two inquiries of its own into the disaster which hit the Gulf Coast and New Orleans.

 

Officials in New Orleans have urged its last residents to leave the swamped city, saying it is now uninhabitable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4220246.stm

[Europa]

oh global warming global shwarming, i hate it when people blame ANY disaster on global warming, there were hurricanes like this a hundred years ago, there will be in a hundred years time, it wasnt the hurricane that was the direct cause of the peoples deaths, it was the massive flooding and all its effects that caused the deaths. Look at florida, they get hurricanes every year and have maybe 100 people die a year, but when the hurricane hits and causes a problem like the flooding, people drown, many people in hospitals die as essential medical supplies cant get through, theyve been isolated from clean drinking water and medicine for 6 days now, people are dying from disease and illness caused by  the floods, not by the hurricane itself. You cannot blame global warming for this.

 

I didn't imply that without polution there wouldn't be any hurricanes.. but I heared somewhere this was a rather busy hurricane season, more hurricanes then usual. Can't find that source back, though here's a similar, albeit older, article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4671535.stm

[Phil VII]

yes, its busy hurricane season, no reason to immedietly blame global warming, as many people seem to do... (not taking any pot shots, but some people do blame global warming for almost anything that happens, temperature slightly higher than last year, ooh, global warming, temp slightly lower, ooh, global warming... )

[Koku]

Yea...agree...we can't blame the Global warming...

 

Whenever I turn to watch CNN in this week, I still see people in desparate situations

 

Americans really doubt the speed authorities reacted (despite such early weather warning), how good their system of operation under cathastrophy, and why so many people are still left in trouble until now...many are very furious...

Things should have been better...

 

Thailand, though we are small country, are sending 100 doctors and 100 nurses to help.. and the King has sent a quantity of rice to help aswell.

 

Sympathy to those people...and hope things get better...

 

Clinton: Government 'failed' people

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton on Monday said the government "failed" the thousands of people who lived in coastal communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and said a federal investigation was warranted in due time.

"Our government failed those people in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it," Clinton told CNN. "One hundred percent of the people recognize that -- that it was a failure."

He and former President George H. W. Bush have launched the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help raise money for those left homeless by the storm.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/05/clinton.k...cnn_allpolitics

 

New Orleans mayor sees 1st 'rays of light'

NEW ORLEANS ? The draining of New Orleans quickened Tuesday as huge pumps made headway in lowering floodwaters in a city that braced for how many victims of Hurricane Katrina the dropping waterline may reveal.

Meanwhile, President Bush was readying a request for as much as $50 billion in aid for the Gulf Coast region and made plans for a probe of the government response.

"What I intend to do is lead an investigation to find out what went right and what went wrong," he said.

In New Orleans, major flood wall breaks were at last plugged with rocks and sandbags. The Army Corps of Engineers reported its pumping efforts had reduced the scope of flooding to 60% of the low-lying city, down from 80% at the high-water mark. Mayor Ray Nagin said it offered the first "rays of light" for a city that overnight turned from tourist attraction to disaster site. But he was worried about the human toll.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-09-06-katrina_x.htm

 

[Koku]

Foreign aid for Katrina victims gets tied up in red tape

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Offers of aid from abroad for Hurricane Katrina victims, from cellular telephone networks to water purification system, have reportedly been delayed for days waiting for clearance from the US authorities.

 

Quoting European diplomats and State Department information, The Washington Post said that US Federal emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the State Department are behind the bureaucratic entanglement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usweatheraidfo...zkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

 

Americans opening homes, lives, to flood refugees lots of help, lots of compassion...

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - The offers go on and on -- "Free Rent in Oregon!!" "It's Ohio, but it's comfortable." "Rebuild your life in Cleveland." "Offering my sofa in N.H."

 

From California to Connecticut and nearly every state in between, Americans are flooding Internet Web sites with offers to open their homes, lives and wallets to evacuees fleeing flood-ravaged New Orleans.

"People have a responsibility to help each other," said Dirk Knudsen, who is providing a free furnished apartment in Beaverton, Oregon, to a New Orleans mother and her two children. "We're not wealthy, but we can provide a safe haven. A lot of people want to do that."

 

Not since the Civil War have so many Americans been forced to leave home with little but the clothes on their backs. The American Red Cross this week is providing temporary shelters in 18 states for 142,000, but said the number needing homes is much higher. Some estimates put the figure at well over a half million.

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle....REFUGEES-DC.XML

 

Oh no! Not another one..Florida Braces For Tropical Storm

(CBS/AP) Florida's Atlantic coast braced for the arrival of a tropical storm, two weeks after Hurricane Katrina first hit the state.

 

Tropical Storm Ophelia threatened to dump heavy rains, prompting tropical storm warnings along a 100-mile stretch from Sebastian Inlet to Flagler Beach. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/07/...ain821665.shtml

Edited September 7, 2005 by Koku (see edit history)

[Pirilao]

Health worries mount for Katrina survivors

 

Concerns for the health of survivors of Hurricane Katrina are increasing. Five people have died of a bacterial infection contracted through contact with the fetid water. That has raised fears for the 15,000 people holding out in squalid conditions in New Orleans despite evacuation orders.

 

Warren Riley from the city police said:

 

"We have a major concern because of the high water, the chemicals from the gas tanks leaking, and the decaying bodies that are in the water. We are concerned about e-coli, hepatitis and other things like that."

 

Police authorities say they will not start forced evacuations until everybody who is willing to go voluntarily is out.

 

While rescue missions are still underway, the search is increasingly coming up with more corpses than survivors. Makeshift morgues have been set up within and outside New Orleans.

 

According to the president of St Bernard Parish east of the city, thirty people drowned in a nursing home in the suburb.

 

Most pumps are out of action, and it is estimated up to 80 days will be needed to drain New Orleans and surrounding areas.

 

With the threat of diseases mounting, a vaccination programme has been launched focused on preventing the spread of tetanus and hepatitis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pirilao]

Cheney tours hurricane-ravaged region

 

Touring the regions ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, US Vice President Dick Cheney has expressed confidence in the government's handling of the crisis.

 

The administration has been strongly criticised over the way it has coped with the situation which is being described as the US's worst humanitarian crisis.

 

It remains unclear how many people have been killed - some officials said there could be up to 10,000 victims, but the actual body count so far is much lower.

 

In the ravaged city of New Orleans, the rescue operation continues to try to save those who didn't manage to leave ahead of the disaster.

 

Some 63,000 soldiers have been deployed in the region.

 

Bodies that are found are being brought to a morgue in Louisiana which is capable of processing 140 corpses a day. It is feared many bodies might never be retrieved as they have been taken away by alligators.

 

Meanwhile, efforts continue to try to block the city's burst damns with sandbags.

 

US President George W Bush has asked news agencies to treat bodies with "dignity and respect" and has announced Friday 16th September a day of prayer and remembrance for the Hurricane victims.

 

[Koku]

Flood survivors expelled by force

Police backed by troops have started to use force to remove people from their homes in the city of New Orleans.

As many as 10,000 people had refused to leave the flooded city despite the mayor's compulsory evacuation order.

 

Many are now going voluntarily - but others are being handcuffed and taken to evacuation centres, officials say.

 

Meanwhile, an opinion poll suggests that two-thirds of Americans think the president could have done more in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4228400.stm

[Koku]

Government simulation: 61,290 deaths

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As Katrina roared into the Gulf of Mexico, emergency planners pored over maps and charts of a hurricane simulation that projected 61,290 dead and 384,257 injured or sick in a catastrophic flood.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/09/katrina.p...s.ap/index.html

 

 

How has Katrina changed the US?

The following comments reflect the balance of views received:

 

The government might have failed but the people of America didn't

John, Detroit, USA

 

The government might have failed but the people of America didn't. We are as proud of our country as anyone in the world is. Our government is not what (we the people) want it to be. You can bet your life it has changed the way we look at our government and the way it does business for itself and not for the welfare of its people.

John, Detroit, USA

 

It's alright saying Bush was slow to respond to help in New Orleans, but can you imagine us in England doing any better? No.

David Parrott , Derby, England

It took the EU 24 hours to get supplies to New Orleans once Bush had formally requested it. How come it took a week for him to request outside help? And more importantly how could they respond in 24 hours while it took a week for US teams to get to work?

DW, Chicago, USA

 

....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/4218536.stm

 

Katrina fuels global warming storm

OSLO (Reuters) - Hurricane Katrina has spurred debate about global warming worldwide with some environmentalists sniping at President George W. Bush for pulling out of the main U.N. plan for braking climate change.

 

Experts agree it is impossible to say any one storm is caused by rising temperatures. Numbers of tropical cyclones like hurricanes worldwide are stable at about 90 a year although recent U.S. research shows they may be becoming more intense.

 

Still, the European Commission, the World Bank, some environmentalists, Australia's Greens and even Sweden's king said the disaster, feared to have killed thousands of people in the United States, could be a portent of worse to come.

 

In July this year, Bush launched a six-nation plan to combat climate change with Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea focused on a shift to cleaner energy technology. Unlike Kyoto, it stops short of setting caps on emissions.

 

U.N. studies say a build-up of greenhouse gases is likely to cause more storms, floods and desertification and could raise sea levels by up to a meter by 2100.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle....IRONMENT-DC.XML

[Meteorola]

I think many people here know that I monitor weather for international disasters. It is hard for me to believe that FEMA botched this so badly that the pictures that came out of New Orleans look like what I usually see from Mozambique after a (all-be-it weaker) storm slams into the coast.