Katrina's aftermath

When the levee breaks...

You are not alone.

This is nothing compared to most people's connections to the area, but I can mentally connect some of the pictures I'm seeing to sites I've been to on my summer road trip from spring 2002...(this is literally the day after I stayed at 3's place in Athens)... I distinctly remember being on that bridge in Mobile where the oil rig crashed into, for example.

it will take a long time, if the communities hit by ivan last year are any indication.

I think that's the way nature wanted it all along. Lake Pontchartrain is getting its way.

Although, while we all know better, there shouldn't be any finality re: sentiments relating to the city of New Orleans itself. This tragedy is unprecedented no doubt.. this is not unlike what happened in Anchorage in 1964 (The 9.0 Prince William Sound earthquake that pretty much devastated the city, even though the quake itself was relatively far away.).. but Anchorage is alive today. New Orleans is hangin' on and will remain alive.

This scientist says global warming has nothing to do with it. Der Spiegel says Katrina is emblematic of future environmental catastrophes.

Conclusion: expect this to be politicized in the following weeks and months.

Conclusion 2: this might be worthy of a separate thread.

Explain how this is unprecedented?

I mean, I've been through really mean earthquakes in L.A., but none of them ever "destroyed" L.A.

(Not to discount the large number of very small cities that get smashed by tornadoes every year.. )

(And, duh, not to discount the tsunami from half a year ago, which still dwarfs Katrina's aftermath.. as painful as it looks right now.)

Not that I want to turn this into a pet issue or anything, but it seems so obvious to me. Hurricane season is FUCKING BRUTAL every year now.
Incidentally, the Central Pacific Hurricane Season will actually be below average this year. Only two or three storms are projected to form there.

Well, it's pretty unprecedented for New Orleans, for starters.

Well, it's not Babylon. It takes a lot to kill a city. But it's fucking devastated, that's all I'm saying.

My God, who does? Who wants their friends and loved ones, or ANYONE'S friends and loved ones, to be fucking weather refugees? Or worse?

which is why the "our tsunami" rhetoric bugs me -- what, are we ENVIOUS of their disaster? do we need to reappropriate it so we can turn the sympathy we extended to them back upon ourselves? i mean, i realize this is a major catastrophe, but people were saying "our tsunami" before anything even happened.

I can't get either right now, though really I'm not too surprised...

also, how long before the early statements of "Oh don't worry; we've got ALL the National Guard we need" are visibly disproven?

Conclusion: expect this to be politicized in the following weeks and months.

...and will come up during next year's election cycle, when people start pointing figures about slashed funding, lack of troops, etc

i say it with wuv. i do think your unrepentant anglophilia is a little quirky, but hey, so is madonna's.

I was in for a while, but cut it off. You're not missing anything major. It's a bunch of clueless local newscasters. The one woman who kept pointing to a barbecue she saw as evidence of the local spirit, again and again, despite protests that that they were only doing it to get their food warm for a change... she pissed me off.

haha

they'll get funding coming out of their eyeballs. this'll be an opportunity for bush et al to prove how much they care about WHAT'S GOING ON RIGHT HERE AT HOME (tm).

Also, to cook up as much stuff from the freezer before it goes bad, probably.

i know. i was saying before that they remind me of those swinging cages on coney island's wonder wheel.

also, how long does a hurricane last? how long will it be before these people can return to their homes (what's left of them anyways)?

That was pointed out, too. But no, it's spirit! Talking point! She wants to work for Fox someday.