Hurricane Katrina: Political Aftermath

[MODU]

No negative political aftermath for any politician, unless they had said "Stay home, you'll be ok." 

[MODU]

Yeah, but Mobile was slammed.  Personally, I wouldn't have minded if New Orleans was reclaimed by the sea.  That's what they get for building a city 6 feet below sea level, and bordered from the north and south by bodies of water.

[MODU]

That's exactly why they want it wiped out. It looks like the Republicans' wishes are coming true.

Republicans want New Orleans to be destroyed?  That is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I've heard you say yet.

Look at the source.  hahaha

[MODU]

I found a link to an interview with the New Orleans Mayor.  It's about 22 minutes long, and he just goes down item by item detailing what has happened to the city.  It's a good watch/listen.  It is grimm, but very informative.

"Mayor Interview"

[MODU]

HAHAHA . . . that's classic, States.  

On a different tangent, I think the owners of the Superdome created the hurricane in order to get a modern, replacement stadium built to rival Ford and Reliant Stadiums.    

Looking and listening to the damage done to the stadium, I can't see how they could repair the facility and still have the insurance companies or the NFL pass on it as being safe.  I expect to hear by the end of next month that the stadium will be torn down and the Saints play the full season out at LSU or somewhere.  Anyone think otherwise?

[MODU]

Well, it's not as if jfern invented this (though Republican was wrong, he shoulda said conservative.)

Personally, I wouldn't have minded if New Orleans was reclaimed by the sea. 

I have a question, States and Gabu. If you had the chance to verify something jfern said before slamming him, would you? Seriously.

MODU isn't a republican...

Nope, I'm not.    But I think I'll be investigated for this natural disaster.    New Orleans is now under water, and was the Port where I first boarded the SS Green Island years ago.  In December, Sumatra was under water, a place I had visited on the SS Green Island.  A few years ago, the SS Green Island nearly sunk at sea when a tropical storm ripped a 90+ foot long hole in the side of her hull.  It's either my fault or my old ships fault.  hahaha

But seriously, this thing with New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen.  Who in their right mind builds a city below sea level and surrounds it with two large bodies of water???  Maybe this time they'll fill in the area between the levies with dirt and THEN rebuild.  Hello!?!?!?  Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how stupid the city planners were.

[MODU]

If Modus not a Republican then i stick carrots up George Bushs bottom

Pervert.

[MODU]

If Modus not a Republican then i stick carrots up George Bushs bottom

Pervert.

I don't find you funny anymore. your a complete fraud.

HAHAHA

Question, what is it with Democrats, Presidents, and inanimate objects?  Clinton had an intern with a cigar, and you have Bush with a carrot.  Is there something in the water you folks drink?  hahaha

[MODU]

If Modus not a Republican then i stick carrots up George Bushs bottom

hahaha . . . you're desperate today. 

[MODU]

how long has modu been bitching like a hurricane about democrats on this forum?

I complain about both parties, as well as how a two-party dominated system is bad for the nation.  I've also coached the Libertarians on how to boost their base to make them competitive to get the political landscape back to normal.  Gee, sounds a lot like a Reformist, doesn't it?  Of course, you tend to forget that part.  hahaha . . . it's ok though, we understand your lack of reading comprehension.  Enjoy. 

Back to hurricanes . . . the Mayor said in his last report on WWL news that they won't be doing body counts until the levee can be blocked and the water drained.  I don't think the 3000 or so sandbags they are flying in are going to do the trick.  That hole is growing bigger.  They need to fly in physical damns (3+ foot thick concrete slabs) to block this hole, or wait till the city fills with water and then build a permanent levee before draining.

[MODU]

Who does that? The French did that.
Then again, who builds a major city on a narrow rocky island? The Dutch.
They also built their largest home city on some logs in a swamp by the coast.
Oh, and look at the Italians at Venice.

Obviously, cities become great cities for their location on trade routes, at strategic points such as harbours and rivermouths etc...also (in the past) defendability...not for safety from natural desasters.

If this was a disaster waiting to happen, it was remarkably slow in coming too...after all New Orleans has been one of the US largest cities for 200 years. Other cities around the Caribbean such as Mobile ... Havanna ... have taken damage from a hell of a lot more hurricanes. Maybe New Orleans has just been grotesquely lucky all this time...

Ahhh, but they forgot that 1600 years before them, a smart person said the Wise Man builds his house upon the rock, while the foolish man buids his house upon the sand. 

[MODU]

That's exactly why they want it wiped out. It looks like the Republicans' wishes are coming true.

Republicans want New Orleans to be destroyed?  That is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I've heard you say yet.

Ummm....

Yeah, but Mobile was slammed.  Personally, I wouldn't have minded if New Orleans was reclaimed by the sea.  That's what they get for building a city 6 feet below sea level, and bordered from the north and south by bodies of water.

There is a big difference between wanting a city destroyed and not minding if it is destroyed . . . just like there is a big difference between being a Republican and a Reformist, but then again you have the same genetic flaw as Miss Catholic.  

[MODU]

Notice MODU is not a Republican.

hehehe . . . some folks will believe what they want.  In their case, just because I don't agree with Democrats on ever issue, I must be a Republican.  Sadly, they fail to understand that the world is not black or white, yet a nice happy rainbow full of colors.    Which is ok, if being a "Republican" means I'm not a Jfern or MC, then I guess I can embrace that label.  hahaha

[MODU]

There's not much of a difference between not minding it destroyed and wanting it destroyed, and no, you're not much of a reformist.

Oh you poor little man, how wrong you are.  The big difference is intent.  While I wouldn't want people to lose their homes and valuables in New Orleans (I do have friends that live in New Orleans, btw), I don't mind that they do.  They knew the risk of living in a city below sea level and surrounded by water.  It was just a matter of time that the walls gave way and the Earth reclaimed what's hers.  Those people were foolish to live there, and if this serves as a lesson to all the other cities begging to be swollowed up by the seas, then good.  It's time for New Orleans to be rebuilt, but this time above sea level AND above flood plane. 

[MODU]

MODU is not a Republican, nor is he (as far as I know) more than one person, so saying "conservatives" would not exactly have worked, either.  Taking his statement in context, as well, it appears that he was saying that he wouldn't have minded purely because it's bound to happen sometime, not because it's liberal in nature.

I can't find anything in your statement that holds an ounce of truth.

Thanks Gabu. 

New Orleans was much higher when it was founded in 1718, long before the dangers of such a place were known.

Surprisingly, this part of your message is correct.  The problem is that the city, even then, was built on silt.  As the city grew in size, it grew in weight.  That weight compressed the silt, sinking the city.  Levee's were built, channelling the water around the city.  However, with the increased hieght of the water, the weight increased more, sinking the city further, which lead to taller levee's, leading to more weight . . . so on and so forth.  Once the flooding is under control, people should be allowed in to reclaim what is left of their possessions, and once that is done, a clean-up crew should go in and scrape the land clean.  Once all the debris and trucks are out of the area, blow the rest of the levees and let the Earth reclaim the land.  New Orleans can be rebuilt, but not between the lake and the river, and definitely not on silt.  It will be a smaller city, but it will carry the name on into the future.

[MODU]

Oh you poor little man, how wrong you are.  The big difference is intent.  While I wouldn't want people to lose their homes and valuables in New Orleans (I do have friends that live in New Orleans, btw), I don't mind that they do.  They knew the risk of living in a city below sea level and surrounded by water.  It was just a matter of time that the walls gave way and the Earth reclaimed what's hers.  Those people were foolish to live there, and if this serves as a lesson to all the other cities begging to be swollowed up by the seas, then good.  It's time for New Orleans to be rebuilt, but this time above sea level AND above flood plane. 

Geez man .... you're cold.

At times.  And like I said earlier, I am sorry to hear about all the loss, and wouldn't wish that upon anyone, but now that it's done, let's fix it so it won't happen ever again.  As humans, we should learn from our mistakes.  This isn't like Sumatra, where a tsunami came in and wiped out town after town without warning.  In this case, there was almost a full week heads up notice, and a mandatory evacuation notice was given.  They were warned that the levee's would give with this size storm and all would be lost.  PLUS, New Orleans has a history of destruction from flooding.  Put all those pieced together, there was no exucse for anyone to stay behind. 

But, the blame doesn't rest solely on the residents.  The city planners as well as the state government hold some responsibility for never calling for growth control as well as requiring homes to be built above sea level.  In fact, they did just the opposite by cramming as many houses and businesses they could behind the levee's.  If you look at some of these photo's, the homes were right at the base of the levee, meaning that either a land-based crane or a barge-based crane would have been required to work on the levee in order to get around the house.  Additionally, these levee's were rather narrow, relying too much on manufactured walls to hold back the water pressure.  Successful levee's are a mix on concrete, steel, and a lot of dirt.  These levee's needed to be at least 4 times as wide with enough dirt, anchored by steel and concrete, to provide more than enough counterforce to keep back the water even under the worse conditions.  (But then again, we're not suppose to be building cities below sea level to begin with.)

City planners and developers around the world better be taking notes on this whole event and incorporate it in their regions to ensure a blunder this big doesn't happen again.

[MODU]

It didn't take long for one talking head to blame a politician for this:

"For They That Sow the Wind Shall Reap the Whirlwind" by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

And while I have to shake my head in disbelief as to Kennedy's rant, I am even more shocked by some of the comments after the article. 

[MODU]

Heard an interesting comment today which rang so true.  Last year, people we calling for the strategic oil reserve to be opened to lower the price at the pumps, despite critics saying that wouldn't nearly make the dent that it was hyped as providing.  Now, after the storm, if the reserves were opened last year or the beginning of this year, there would not be enough oil in this time of crisis.

[MODU]

I would say 9/11 and New Orleans are ultimate catastrophies in different ways.  9/11 was a war-time attack which hit our economic system right at a vulnerable time when our economy was trying to come back from a recession.  This of course led to war.

New Orleans was a natural attack on the population, wiping a city off the map.  The people will be sent all over the US to start new homes and new lives (one of my friends made it to VA last night and have decided to stay up here and find a job rather than going back to Louisiana).  Outside of the port in New Orleans, the city will become nothing less than a mere shadow of it's former self.  It will not become the residential mecca for so many as in the past.

Body counts?  They'll probably be close to each other if the mayor of New Orleans is right about his projection.  Lasting economic effect?  About the same, since both will impact the economy on a national level.  However, they are two different tragedies affecting "life" in different ways.

[MODU]

Nope, they should not attempt to rebuild New Orleans as it was.  Make it back into the port town that it historically was, but move most of the residential and tourism stuff away and to higher ground (where it should be).

[MODU]

The following is funny, but also very true, and I wish some people would actually follow the advice mentioned (requires audio.  Rated-R for language.):

"Hurricane Katrina Update"

Gotta love animated squirrels with smarts.

[MODU]

You gotta feel for the president when you realize that in his administration alone he's had both the worst interior attack and possibly the worst natural disaster of American History.

He had the information to prevent one and help neutralize the other. 44% cut in spending for flood control in New Orleans.

*yawn*

[MODU]

You gotta feel for the president when you realize that in his administration alone he's had both the worst interior attack and possibly the worst natural disaster of American History.

He had the information to prevent one and help neutralize the other. 44% cut in spending for flood control in New Orleans.

Well, that's moronic.  Welcome to the loony left, riceowl.

No, I think you meant Scoonie.  Riceowl was merely saying how it must suck to have two of the biggest disasters in modern US history occur during his Presidency.

[MODU]

This president is the biggest failure of our times. Bush loyalists will make excuses and call me names, as it is easier than facing reality.

Depends on whose interpretation of reality we are discussing.  It is obvious that there are two distinctly separate views on this board, with a few minor ones as well.