Katrina- Aftermath

[cashman]

good link cheers bazf, think recriminations at this point are cheap staggers,were talking disaster and peoples lives here, that is the main priority, blame comes later.

[Acrylic-bob]

Ermmm, possibly something of a backtrack of sorts here, I have just discovered that New Orleans, like Venice, is sinking, apparently; at the rate of three feet per century. Which would account for it currently being six feet below mean sea level. When it was originally laid out it would probably have been a couple of feet above mean sea level and there would have been little danger. However, the current flood defences were designed in 1953, so they are just a tad out of date it would seem.

It must also be said that, given a good week's warning that the storm was headed their way, the planning of the evacuation and the relief effort has been, to say the least, a mess. Lives that would otherwise have been safe, have been lost.

I was surprised to read that Sri-Lanka (formerly Ceylon), despite still struggling to cope with the effects of the Christmas Tsunami, has pledged $25,000 to the Red Cross disaster relief fund. While all that Georgies best mate, Tone, has said is that Britain stands ready to offer whatever help may be required. Not exactly a response on quite the same level as the "widow's mite" from poor Ceylon. No mention of diverting the Royal Navy to help out with the evacuation or sending helicopters - or a crack team of British Civil Engineers to help with the improvement of flood defenses for the future, when New Orleans will be NINE feet below mean sea level!

[garinda]

There was adequate warning, but where are you going to evacuate up to three million people?

New Orleans breathed a sigh of relief when it appeared to have missed most of the damage, it was only afterwards that the chaos started there.

Talking of sea-levels, it said on the BBC2 programme Coast last night that Scotland is rising by 2mm a year and the south of England is sinking by 5mm a year.

We are living in the middle of a see-saw.

[Acrylic-bob]

Ahh yes, but overall the uk and most of Europe are still in the process of rising as a result of the thawing of the last ice age.

Interestingly. I only found out the other day that there are land tides which work in the same way as sea tides and which circle the globe every twelve hours. So even on dry land we are constantly bobbing up and down! Comforting thought!

[SPUGGIE J]

I was watching the news about the aftermath births deaths shootings and all the rest of it and thinking it was like something you would unfortunately find in Africa or the Far East. Yet this is the worlds top dog and boy did it take a blow below the belt. There are people still in that place which shocked me to the point of an up chucky. Those who could get out baled those who couldnt stayed frail injured old ethnic minorities, yet why with all the resourses did it happen so far the race card has surfaced along with there was to much to do (aka unco-ordinated). The questions for answering are who takes the blame, why did it take so long to orginise, when will the rest be evacuated, what will they learn from this and god forbid where could the next one like this hit. Sobering thoughts which hurts like hell when I see those pictures.

[Bazf]

Originally Posted by garinda

There was adequate warning, but where are you going to evacuate up to three million people?

New Orleans breathed a sigh of relief when it appeared to have missed most of the damage, it was only afterwards that the chaos started there.

Talking of sea-levels, it said on the BBC2 programme Coast last night that Scotland is rising by 2mm a year and the south of England is sinking by 5mm a year.

We are living in the middle of a see-saw.

Your quite right that there was adequate warning and where would you put 3 million people?
The thing to remember is human nature, out of the ones that didn't evacuate a lot stayed because they didn't want too. Last year when we were going through it we looked at our options and the sensible thing to do was leave and find a hotel futher north but we um-ed and arr-ed and made the excuse that we had the 2 dogs and as shelters don't take them and most hotels don't we would brave it out. People feel safe in thier homes, the old saying my home is my castle etc... Luckly it didn't hit and we were ok a bit of roof damage and a new fence, but if it had who could we blame, the goverment for not sending buses, the Redcross for not airlifting us out. Remember when critizing there are always 2 sides to a story.

[staggeringman]

dont hold your breath the home gard have managed to get there and its only 7 days later, what where they doin?

[staggeringman]

Originally Posted by Bazf

Your quite right that there was adequate warning and where would you put 3 million people?
The thing to remember is human nature, out of the ones that didn't evacuate a lot stayed because they didn't want too. Last year when we were going through it we looked at our options and the sensible thing to do was leave and find a hotel futher north but we um-ed and arr-ed and made the excuse that we had the 2 dogs and as shelters don't take them and most hotels don't we would brave it out. People feel safe in thier homes, the old saying my home is my castle etc... Luckly it didn't hit and we were ok a bit of roof damage and a new fence, but if it had who could we blame, the goverment for not sending buses, the Redcross for not airlifting us out. Remember when critizing there are always 2 sides to a story.

you could shift 3 million people no probs what is left behind are looters and pillagers. the area that was hit is god knows the size of the U.K. but when people are watching it arrive on there tellys the yank government should have been ready to move in.yes all you accy webbers saying it was harsh but you are talking about the super power that puts people in space, they can wander around the moon and mars ! but they cannot get aid to someone in there own country took them 7 days. IRAQ 24 HOURS.

[WillowTheWhisp]

Thought you might be interested in two "inside views" which I received via my cousin. This first one is from a doctor in New Orleans:

Aug. 31, 2005

This is a dispatch from New Orleans from Dr. Greg Henderson, a pathologist who recently moved from Wilmington:

Thanks to all of you who have sent your notes of concern and your prayers. I am writing this note on Tuesday at 2 p.m.. I wanted to update all of you as to the situation here. I don't know how much information you are getting but I am certain it is more than we are getting. Be advised that almost everything I am telling you is from direct observation or rumor from reasonable sources. They are allowing limited internet access, so I hope to
send this dispatch today.

Personally, my family and I are fine. My family is safe in Jackson, Miss., and I am now a temporary resident of the Ritz Carleton Hotel in New Orleans. I figured if it was my time to go, I wanted to go in a place with a good wine list. In addition, this hotel is in a very old building on Canal Street that could and did sustain little damage. Many of the other hotels sustained significant loss of windows, and we expect that many of the guests
may be evacuated here.

Things were obviously bad yesterday, but they are much worse today. Overnight the water arrived. Now Canal Street (true to its origins) is indeed a canal. The first floor of all downtown buildings is underwater. I have heard that CharityHospital and Tulane are limited in their ability to care for patients because of water. Ochsner is the only hospital that remains fully functional. However, I spoke with them today and they too are on generator and losing food and water fast.

The city now has no clean water, no sewerage system, no electricity, and no real communications. Bodies are still being recovered floating in the floods. We are worried about a cholera epidemic. Even the police are without effective communications. We have a group of armed police here with us at the hotel that is! admirab ly trying to exert some local law enforcement. This is tough because looting is now rampant. Most of it is not malicious looting. These are poor and desperate people with no housing and no medical care and no food or water trying to take care of themselves and their families. Unfortunately, the people are armed and dangerous. We hear gunshots frequently. Most of Canal street is occupied by armed looters who have a low threshold for discharging their weapons. We hear gunshots frequently. The looters are using makeshift boats made of pieces of styrofoam to access. We are still waiting for a significant national guard presence.

The health care situation here has dramatically worsened overnight. Many people in the hotel are elderly and small children. Many other guests have unusual diseases. ... There are (Infectious Disease) physicians in at this hotel attending an HIV confection. We have commandered the world famous French Quarter Bar to turn into an makeshift clinic. There is a team of about seven doctors and PAs and pharmacists. We anticipate that this will be the major medical facility in the central business district and French Quarter.

Our biggest adventure today was raiding the Walgreens on Canal under police escort. The pharmacy was dark and full of water. We basically scooped the entire drug sets into garbage bags and removed them. All under police excort. The looters had to be held back at gunpoint. After a dose of prophylactic Cipro I hope to be fine.

In all we are faring well. We have set up a hospital in the the French Qarter bar in the hotel, and will start admitting patients today. Many will be from the hotel, but many will not. We are anticipating dealing with multiple medical problems, medications and and acute injuries. Infection and perhaps even cholera are anticipated major problems. Food and water shortages are imminent.

The biggest question to all of us is where is the National Guard. We hear jet fignters and helicopte! rs, but no real armed presence, and hence the rampant looting. There is no Red Cross and no Salvation Army.

In a sort of cliché way, this is an edifying experience. One is rapidly focused away from the transient and material to the bare necessities of life. It has been challenging to me to learn how to be a primary care phyisican. We are under martial law so return to our homes is impossible. I don't know how long it will be and this is my greatest fear. Despite it all, this is a soul-edifying experience. The greatest pain is to think about the loss. And how long the rebuid will take. And the horror of so many dead people .

PLEASE SEND THIS DISPATCH TO ALL YOU THING MAY BE INTERSTED IN A DISPATCH from the front. I will send more according to your interest. Hopefully their collective prayers will be answered. By the way, suture packs, sterile gloves and stethoscopes will be needed as the Ritz turns into a MASH

Greg Henderson



This second one is taken from a report from our church in the area:


Katrina’s devastation may be the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States. Over a million people have been displaced from their homes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama by savage winds and murky, rising floodwaters contaminated with sewage and bodies. Eighty-five percent of New Orleans is under water and rescue workers are marking X’s on houses that contain the dead.

Martial law has been declared in the city and all residents are being asked to leave. All the lanes on all the roads around New Orleans are one way—leading out. Coastal cities and towns in Mississippi and Alabama have been devastated by the tidal surge.

Ole Christensen, President of the Denham Springs Stake (of the LDS church) and chairman of the regional welfare committee, gave the most graphic description, “It reminds me of the chaos in 3 Nephi.” That completes the picture. Utter catastrophe. The face of the world changed.

“I’m sure the people then were probably numb too,” said President Christensen. You really don’t have time to think about it because the phone never stops ringing.”

“This is something you think will never happen,” said his wife, Joyce.

Most of us are experiencing Katrina’s wake through television images of desperate people who have become refugees with no place to go, huddled in the Superdome or climbing, drenched out of water, saying they have no food, no water and no one to tell them what to do.

Latter-day Saints knew immediately knew what to do. When the storm hit, Priesthood leaders began what is an ongoing assessment of the whereabouts and well-being of the members. The Church has announced that all missionaries were evacuated before the storm hit. There are no reported deaths or injuries of members although many have not been accounted for.

President Christensen said the Baton Rouge temple was undamaged, though it lost its power for a period of time. Of the 43 buildings in the five stakes of his region, most of buildings sustained little or slight damage, except for those buildings in the areas hardest hit—the New Orleans Stake and the Slidell Stake. Because communications has been nearly impossible with those regions, the fate of many of those buildings is still uncertain.

“My best guess” said President Christensen, “is that two of the buildings in the Slidell area have some water in them. We do not have reports out of some areas—even by satellite phone.

“The New Orleans Stake is a whole different story. We believe that the New Orleans stake center has water in it We have no idea what has happened to the chapel in Port Sulphur. The worst scenario is that it is now part of the Gulf of Mexico, but, of course, we just don’t know.

“We received a report that some members were stranded on the west bank of New Orleans and that President Scott Conlin has organized a caravan of vans to see if he can go pick them up.

As of Wednesday, approximately 10 meetinghouses throughout the disaster area were being used as emergency shelters for members and their neighbors. Many of these had two or three hundred people or more in them.

President Conlin had also developed a warning system and evacuation plan for the New Orleans stake which was put into place this past weekend. This stake has an automated phone system so that the stake president put in a prerecorded message on Saturday and again on Sunday morning that rang into 1700 homes. The message was to evacuate the city. If they weren’t leaving their homes, they were given an 800 number so they could report where they were going to me.

The evacuation plan called for people to go to three different stake centers—two in Mississippi and one in Louisiana that were near the three major arteries that lead out of the city. A member knew which one to go based on the highway that was closest to him.

Of course, there is no way to estimate at this point how many people have lost their homes. “These people are displaced,” said Joyce Christensen. They can’t go home. They have nothing to go home to. We’re still just processing what has happened.”

Though Slidell was one of the hardest hit areas, the Bishop’s Storehouse, which is nearly new, only suffered a bit of water damage when water from the storm leaked through the waters and doors. The power grid was badly damaged and it may take as many as eight to twelve weeks to restore electricity. (Bishop’s Storehouse is part of the LDS church welfare system which helps out members who are out of work/ill etc and run into temporary difficulties. Members contribute monthly towards the storehouse which in turn then helps out those in need.)

At the storehouse, a generator was immediately put to work and commodities continued to roll out the door.

Kevin Nield, director of Bishops' Storehouse Services, said that to this point the Church had responded with 14 semi-trailers full of necessities like water, tents, sleeping bags, tarps, chainsaws, generators, canned food and hygiene kits. When the Church saw the storm danger, “simultaneously we sent supplies to be pre-positioned in those locations to be close to the needs.”

Needs are assessed by priesthood leaders with some guidance based on the experience of the welfare department. Every evening priesthood leaders have been on a conference call with officers in SaltLake so that the Church can be appropriately responsive to needs.

Bennie Lilly, Area Welfare Manager for the North American Southeast Area, talked to Meridian from the Slidell bishop’s storehouse. “It’s hot and humid here. People are tired. About 10,000 members live in this area who have been affected by Katrina.

“Where I am standing, I see a tree that has fallen through the roof of a house and just beyond that a church that has lost its roof. There is no water, but still Bishop David Navo of the Mississipi Picayune Ward is here getting commodities for his hard-struck members.”

Housed in a Church

Bishop Navo’s ward members have no communications whatsoever. (an LDS “ward” is like a C of E parish and the LDS Bishop the equivalent of the C of E vicar) No cell phones. No pay phones. No electricity. Stores are closed, but Wal-Mart is letting a few people in at a time to buy items with cash.

Limbs, trees and branches are down everywhere and many of the roads are nearly impassable. Katrina’s eye passed over Picayune and so they were hit hard.

“Oak trees so big that you couldn’t put your arms around their trunk went down,” he said.

Bishop Navo cannot contact every ward member, so the night before the storm hit, he and his family moved into the Church to be there in case any members had to find shelter there. Come they did, by the scores. They pooled what food they had. The storm hit and the next day misery set in with soaring temperatures and no water and food.

Thus Bishop Navo came to the Slidell bishop’s storehouse for food, water and generators to supply the needs of those living in the church.

What especially pleased him, however, was that a woman who had adopted two special needs children received something she desperately needed. When the children got too hot, they had a tendency to go into seizures, and she needed a generator to keep them cool. Bishop Navo made sure she received the first generator from the Church’s supplies.

Of course people will need more than commodities as the awful realization bears down day in and out of what they’ve lost. LDS Social Services is sending help into the area to support member’s emotional needs—almost a kind of grief counseling. People are reaching out to each other with open homes and open hearts.

And in the long run? How will people rebuild lost homes and opportunities, swallowed under floodwaters or howling winds? That will take a longer assessment.

For New Orleans to be habitable again, they will have to start from the ground up with a completely new infrastructure—including roads and power.

Personally I'm totally lost for words to express how I feel about this disaster. I cannot begin to imagine the horror of it although hearing reports from inside the area makes it all the more real and personal somehow.. I totally agree that those who are looting for food etc to stay alive cannot be regarded in the same light as criminals who are stealing things they do not need. It's all about survival. Perhaps New Orleans just simply won't exist after this. Looking at the aerial photographs it is difficult to imagine how it can ever be restored. Would people want to live there again with the danger hanging over them? Would it be possible to rehouse them in a safer area?

[cashman]

thanks for that willow! i would think that if new orleans is rebuilt,the first job should be bigger stronger levees, we all know the force of nature is terrible,but it would be madness not to take this into account. still havent heard anything about old algiers,imagine its gone but would appreciate any info.

[Bazf]

So the good news the vast resources of the United States are finally rolling in. Now there are almost as many supplies on the ground as politicians taking credit or pointing fingers before they get sacked for being incompetent in the first place. Just some things about New Orleans, for sheer poverty and desperation, New Orleans more than held its own. One of the most striking figures from the U.S. Census of 2000 was the one noting that 40.5 percent of the children of New Orleans are living in poverty and 90% of them are black.
New Orleans was one of those cities - I would match it with Toxteth and Brixton - as places you wouldn't want to get lost in at night.I remember being a cab driver in Brighton and one of the rules was no picking up or dropping off in Brixton after dark. Drive out of the Garden District and go the wrong way, and within two blocks you would be in a Third World country of people just sitting in doorways or hanging around in the sultry heat that envelops the city for months. The poverty would go on block after block, through endless neighborhoods of project apartments, the equivalent of council housing only worse, and people whose American Dream was a dank and non airconditioned nightmare.
So maybe we expected better when the waters rose and desperation became violent anarchy in only hours. But that's because we don't really understand poverty.
That same poverty to a lesser degree can be found on the edges of Tampa, where I live, and out into the county of Hillsborough. We drove through Suitcase City (great name) the other night while going out to the vist friends at the University of South Florida and saw much of the same desperation. You can see that same hopelessness in every city. It is more obvious here in the South where you have to escape unairconditioned homes just to survive the heat, but it is there you won't see it in Orlando on the way to the parks but it is there. It took the awful disaster of Katrina to expose the side of New Orleans that tourists don't usually get - or want - to see. It was frightening to sit in front of the tube and watch just how quickly anarchy can sweep across a city. It was all the more so because in New Orleans' sorrow we can see our own.
It is going to take more than building powerful levees and repairing ruined neighborhoods to fix this one. It's going to take more than just giving money to the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. It's going to be more than National Guard troops and ready-to-eat meals.It is going to require a closer examination of just who we are as a people and whether we're going to be in this thing together.

[garinda]

I agree some places are no go areas after dark, and I had to get the tube in Brixton for two years. If however you were a cabbie in Brighton and got a sixty mile job to Brixton, I'd have foregone the no drop off after dark rule for that fare.

[cashman]

got to respond bazf new orleans does have desparetley poor districts, but must say as for going out at night, my missus and i went to a blues bar by cab into slidell-which i,m led to believe is one of the poorer/run down places, we got out of the cab looked around and it certainly did look iffy, we went into the bar, was made unbelievably welcome,great band on had a great night, left in the early hours,the barstaff had rang a cab for us, i certainly wouldnt think twice about returning to such a area, not thats likely given the devastion. oh and the patrons were 90% negro.

[baby boo]

Originally Posted by staggeringman

SORRY HARWOOD THE YANKS PUT THE STORM ON OUR SCREENS AT HOME AND THEY KNEW WHAT WAS COMMING!SO WHY ARE THEY NOT PREPARED FOR THIS ? THE ONE AND ONLY ALMIGHTY POWER CANT STOP A BIT OF WATER? beggers belief, 4 days later and they have still done jack sh-ite come on lyndsey whats happening.they can send a task force to any corner of the world, but they cant look after there own?

i agree too! (god dad something we both agree on! first time ever hehe)

[SPUGGIE J]

They think that they are invinsible abroad yet because of this there aint enough people with the ability help at home. Now thats a poor set of affairs.