Support Katrina Victims

[IrishEyes]

Tormod started a thread in the Admin forum, linking to the Red Cross. http://www.redcross.org

 

That's a great idea, and I hope that some of you guys will consider donating to this cause. I'm sure that many of you have seen the widespread devastation of New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport, and other towns/cities in the Gulf area. The cleanup will take a massive and combined effort, and it will not be a quick thing.

 

This tragedy strikes very close to home for me. My younger brother and his daughter live in New Orleans. They were able to get as far as Baton Rouge on Saturday. They now have made it to Lafayette. However, it will be at least weeks before he can get back in to see what they have left. And it could be at least a year before the place is livable again.

 

So his 30th birthday (9/7) is going to be a bummer, to say the least. He's staying with friends, looking for a job, and trying to figure out what the heck to do about college. Needless to say, his normal birthday presents of golf accessories will be replaced by a 'hurricane relief' check from Virginia (and Oklahoma, according to my Grandma, who NEVER sends money to 'big' kids! :eek2: ). If any of you know people in the area, I would encourage you to send what you can, as FEMA and other relief efforts will take time. My niece is getting a Wal-Mart gift card for her birthday (9/15), so she can pick ot what she most wants.

 

If you have people in the area, or you live near the area, and are willing, please share your stories here. Seeing the people on tv is not quite the same as knowing personal stories.

[rockytriton]

I have a friend who lived in New Orleans, I talked to him yesterday, it turns out that he just sold his house 2 weeks before the hurricane hit and moved to Texas. By the way, I'd suggest maybe trying for another place to donote, such as the salvation army. The redcross doesn't always use your money for what you think. I remember when everyone donted money to them for sept 11th, they said that they were going to use some of that money for other things as well, which caused a lot of outrage. Personally, I wouldn't want the money I give to the hurricane victims to go to feed some some tribe in Africa.

[IrishEyes]

Personally, I wouldn't want the money I give to the hurricane victims to go to feed some some tribe in Africa.

Strange how things we discuss are shared by so many others. Or maybe not so strange, eh?

I was just telling nemo this same thing. As great as the Red Cross is, and as much good as they do, I think I'll be sending my donations straight to my brother. :eek2:

[Buffy]

From a friend of mine:

Take a look at this video by helecopter. My sister's place was about 1 mile inland from the images shown at the very start of this video. The destruction is pretty complete.

 

http://www.wlbt.com

 

Thankfully, she got out with her daughter and grand daughter - in a borrowed camper, no less! So she's mobile and has a place to sleep... Her house, however? Gone.

The link is in there somewhere, but all the video adds up. We've seen so much now, and its not pretty. When the reporters covering it start breaking down, you know its monumental.

 

I've been through a similar disaster and it really takes its toll on you, for a long time after the fact. Do what you can to help, using the agency of your choice, but everything that everyone does will help.

 

And to pass along something that I'm hearing from a bunch of different directions: Lets try to resist this opportunity to play the political or armageddon cards here. Lets help the people and try to learn what we can and better prepare for the future.

 

Moved,

Buffy

[Dark Mind]

...And to pass along something that I'm hearing from a bunch of different directions: Lets try to resist this opportunity to play the political or armageddon cards here. Lets help the people and try to learn what we can and better prepare for the future.

 

Moved,

Buffy

Great mind do think alike :eek2:.

[Tormod]

Support the Red Cross or whatever organisation you feel is more appropriate for the cause. The point was to raise the awareness here and show some sympathy. I urge people to support this in any way they can. It is a tragedy of incredible proportions.

[Southtown]

It is a tragedy of incredible proportions.

Indeed! I'm shocked. I thought since it was reduced to a cat 3 as it hit that things were going to be ok. Last I heard there was minor flooding. Now I hear multitudes of horror stories. I'm sorry for all your relatives and will pray for all victims. I plan on giving some, but I don't yet know where to. Time is of the essence, though, of course. Incidentally, I just found this site for reviewing charities recently. God bless.

 

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/3277.htm

[infamous]

Support the Red Cross or whatever organisation you feel is more appropriate for the cause. The point was to raise the awareness here and show some sympathy. I urge people to support this in any way they can. It is a tragedy of incredible proportions.

Absolutely Tormod, and I don't think we have yet realized how tragic an event this truly was and is becoming as time goes by. Unless these refugees can find a way to rebuild their lives to some meaningful extent, the tragedy will not end, it will in fact grow considerably worse.

[IrishEyes]

I agree with all but the term 'refugees'. I know what you mean to imply by that term, but we're talking about American citizens going to another part of America. I don't think 'refugee' is accurate.

 

And yes, support the RC, or whatever organization you wish. They will all take the cash happily.

 

I'm just very cynical when it comes to 'support organizations', as I, like Buffy, have lived few a few of these types of things. People are saying that the help is coming too little too late, but when you are in that situation, any help seems less than what you need, and much later than you need it.

 

What would have been more helpful would have been about 5000 Greyhound/Trailways busses on Saturday, ferrying those people to safety BEFORE the storm.

 

I really want to start a SocialSciences thread about some of the thoughts and questions that I've had regarding this situation and the media/political fallout since it happened, but I can't figure out a way to word what I want to say without sounding much less sympathetic than I actually feel. :eek2: Maybe tomorrow.

[damocles]

1. Give what money you can to the non-government organizations to fund the immediate rescue services.

2. If you are a believer, pray to whatever god you believe in for the people caught in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama trying to recover.

3. If you are a realist(me), do what you can to alleviate the victim's suffering, bury the dead, and restore first the necessary infrastructure as quickly as possible.(As callous as it sounds, those gulf oil platforms and pipelines supply a lot of Northeastern U.S. heating oil that the citizens of New England will need this coming January.)

4. Remember this fiasco. A lot of mistakes that should not have been made; specifically immediately failing to,

a. set up a centralized command post.

b. commandeer public and private transport to evacuate New Orleans.

c. impose martial law prior to storm landfall.

d. mandate forced evacuation.(see below)

e. prevent release of jailed criminals to roam loose into the general population.

f. set up police and fire department communications independent of fixed site base radio that could be flooded out.

g. set up a post storm main exit corridor, west toward Texas and walk out those people that were stuffed in the New Orleans Convention Center and the Astrodome.*

h. Set up a people collection point and supply dump on high ground west of New Orleans within three days march along a railhead leading into that city.(approximatelly forty kilometers by walk.)

 

*Get the able-bodied who can be transported to dry ground from those two idiotically selected concentration points(the Superdome and the Convention Center) moved and start them walking to that railhead(Buses be damned, I looked at those whiners on TV. If they can stand; they can MOVE on their own two feet.)

 

There are things that should have not been done;

a. allow the gulf coast marshlands to the south of the Katrina storm track that could have been of a drainage and storm surge buffer die.*(Over half of the acreage was wiped out by coastal development since 1950.)

b. ignore Army Corp of Engineer warnings that the levees fronting Lake Pontchartrain were seriously undermaintained.(Those warnings have gathered dust for at least ten years or more.)

c. fail to provide civil evacuation plans for large coastal cities along hurricane tracklines..(This is not just New Orleans: Mobile, Biloxi, Corpus Christi, Miami, etc.....all currently fail to plan for this.)

d. allow settlement into the below sea level bowl that surrounds the high ground of the French Quarter in New Orleans. To allow that last without a dike and builtup reefage system was INSANE civil engineering.

 

What most people forget is this....

 

While Mississippi's and Alabama's coasts were wiped out by Katrina's dome-shaped water column(Think of Katrina as a giant vacuum cleaner that sucked up a seven meter column of water almost seventy kilometers across that swept inshore at least a good thirty kilometers before it dissapated.) it was the levee breaches of Lake Pontchartrain that flooded out New Orleans and turned that city into the current disaster. The hurricane itself did survivable damage to the city. It was the Mississippi River and the Pontchartrain waters pushed south by Katrina's western winds....

 

http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/space/centrifugal/figures345.html

 

that broke the New Orleans northern levees and flooded that city. Right now there are about 130,000 people trapped in that metropolitan area of whom 5% are either dead or in immediate danger of dying if they are not moved within the week.

[Dark Mind]

Wow... such a heart felt post :eek2:.

 

Does provide good information though...

[damocles]

One cannot base one's conduct on the idea that everything is determined, because one does not know what has been determined. Instead, one has to adopt the effective theory that one has free will and that one is responsible for one's actions.

--Stephen Hawking, 1990

 

Its a good thought you cite, Dark Mind. :eek2:

 

You do what you can.

[Southtown]

2. If you are a believer, pray to whatever god you believe in for the people caught in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama trying to recover.

3. If you are a realist(me),

No need for sucker punches, one can do both, ya know.

[IrishEyes]

My brother was allowed back into Metarie today, to see if he had anything left.

He managed to salvage some clothes. He also got a large room-divider screen made of wood, that my mother purchased in Panama (where he was born), and a rocking chair that was given to her by friends when he was a baby (also from Panama). The screen and the rocking chair both had major water/mildew damage, but he got them out anyway. They are the only things he has left from my mom. All of his pictures of her were destroyed. As were all of my niece's belongings, all of the furniture, the appliances, and all personal effects.

But he is safe, as is my niece. And that is the really important thing. Thanks for your concern. :lol: