Korean Job Discussion Forums

[otis]

I hear a lot of people on the board talk about Katrina. So I thought I'd give you my tale since I lived through her. This is going to be a long and boring post. If you aren't interested in Katrina, please stop here.

It was a Friday in August. I was teaching at the time. We had an afterschool meeting regarding the storm. She was a Cat one and had just crossed Florida. She was now in the Gulf. Again, however, she was Cat 1, and nobody really gave a crap. We do Cat 1's on our heads.

That night, my family and I go to downtown Houma. We listen to a band play in the town park. It's nice. Nobody is thinking about Katrina.

Now this is the strange part. We go to sleep. When I wake up, I turn on the tube. Katrina, in a matter of hours, is filling up the Gulf. It went from a baby storm to an all out monster in that time. It's now a high Cat 3 and gaining strength. It's predicted to hit Monday morning. So everyone now has a mere 48 hours to get out. I can't remember if it actually made landfall that monday or if it held out to Tuesday early morning. It hit in the wee morning hours.

Anyway the projected path is heading directly to my house. It was supposed to make landfall around the Fourchon area and work its way up on a Easterly curve.

I call my mom. My mom calls my sister. My sister gets us reservations for a hotel at the Ramada in Houston. Nice location. Right next to the Galleria. My sister is good at that kind of stuff.

We hop in our cars and take off. It's not long till Katrina is rated at a full-bore Cat-five. See, they flew all those oil-boys off the rigs in the Gulf. And they are actually missing rigs. Katrina was so powerful that she took those multi-million dollar structures right to the bottom of the Gulf.

Anyway, I'm listening to the radio. Ray Nagin and Sheriff Harry Lee are urging all Orleans, St. Bernard, and Jefferson Parish residents to hit the road. They are using blunt language. Harry Lee said something like this:

Folks, you gotta go. If you decide to stay, we won't be able to help. Furthermore, we don't have enough body bags for everyone.

President Bush got on the tube and the radio imploring everyone to leave the Gulf Coast.

It was scary. The traffic was heavy. It was hell.

We get to the Ramada. My wife takes the boy for a dip.

And I remember sitting in the hotel bar at about 11 pm the night before the storm hit. I was fully expecting to lose my house. But the path changed. I was spared.

I slept well that night.

My mother wasn't that lucky. She lost her condo in Mississippi.

Anyway, people needed to be rescued. So the Coast Guard got sent in. But you have to understand something. New Orleans is filled with a lot of bad people. And when those helicopters first tried to rescue people, they were taking automatic machine gun fire from the looters.

Furthermore, nobody did a good job in the aftermath.

Nagin was hiding under a table in Houston.

Blanco was getting bad information. She wasn't sure what kind of federal aid she needed. She gave absolutely no specifics.

After a few days, her response was "Send everything you can", which is amateur hour.

Bush screwed up by not being there the next day to lend support.

Louisiana is still screwed up. Venice, Buras, and Port Sulphur no longer exist. New Orleans East is a ghost town. Chalmette looks like it was hit by a bomb.

However, Mississippi took the worst of Katrina. The storm was so strong that she literally pushed a five-star hotel-casino two hundred yards into the middle of a highway.

Everyone forgets Mississippi because the race-card was played during Katrina. The storm was politicized. Let's blame the conservatives! They hate black people! Let's blame the liberals! They want the government to handle everything!

The only entity to blame is nature. She created a monster storm.

I go to these places that were hit by Katrina and her ugly little sister, Rita. You would absolutely be amazed. What shocks me is that more people didn't die.

Somebody did something right when all is said and done. I don't know who. But when you see the damage first hand, it's amazing that tens of thousands of people didn't buy the farm.

[Yo!Chingo]

I didn't know that you were a survivor. I'm really happy that you and your family made it out in time. I'm also really happy to see the people who lived through it admitting that it wasn't only the Feds the screwed up. Unfortunately bad things happen; we've all got to be prepared whether it's a hurricane or a terrorist attack, and we all need to take responsibility for ourselves in those times. Maybe the Katrina disaster woke people up and made them realize the government can't and won't do everything. People actually have to take care of themselves and their loved ones.

[otis]

[Yo!Chingo]

I consider anyone who lived in that general viscinity to be a survivor.

[blaseblasphemener]

Interesting take, Otis. It's always great to hear the take of those who were actually there, instead of through a news filter.

I agree that the storm happened with little warning, and that New Orleans had a well-armed bad element.

What I will never get is how the Superdome could be ignored for that long. How can the military, anyone, not manage to have someone, anyone, commandir water and food and get them dropped in there? How does a situation like that get run on the news 24/7 for days and days before the army gets in there? I don't think I can think of something so appaling inept or agregious happening in America, ever. Where was the will to act? I just cannot imagine that happening in New York City or Chicago. There would be too many people who would make something, anything happen. Instead, everyone just did nothing for days and days.

Glad you came through unscathed. That's beautiful country down there, as I've seen first-hand myself. It's just too bad Bush and co. thought FEMA was a patronage party, instead of the life-line it needed to be for so many people.

[djsmnc]

Hurricanes are frightening, and so are tornadoes.

Tornadoes cause a lot of damage, and so do hurricanes.

Hurricanes can spawn tornadoes, so they are more frightening.