Journal

Okay, I’m sorry I said anything…

19 Comments

The destruction in New Orleans is staggering. Simply staggering.

It was such a beautiful day here, I felt guilty enjoying it. I paid no attention to the news, email, or anything else until just a few minutes ago. This morning I was reading about how the French Quarter came out almost unscathed. Then the levees broke. Katrina was like a “flood grenade.” The storm surge mostly missed the city, but the city was below sea level to begin with.

Regardless of what people compare this catastrophe to, it’s certainly the worst any United States city has seen during any of our lifetimes. My prayers are with all those who need evacuation, and of course with the rescue workers and law enforcement types who need to get them out.

–Howard

19 thoughts on “Okay, I’m sorry I said anything…”

  1. Got word, earlier this evening (Fla time), that a buddy, who decided to ride out the storm in his modern high-rise apartment, is alive. ‘Course, now he’s trying to figure out a way out of town. His SUV’s three floors up in a parking garage, but no way out, except through too much water. He has crash space in Houston, if I can find a way there. With the city being ordered to evacuate, hopefully, there will be a way to leave.

    Man am I pissed. This guy (and his gf, who’s with him) had the means and the knowledge to know why, to evacuate and, instead, chose not to. Gah! It’s one thing for the people that really had no where to go but he had every chance to leave and didn’t. What a goober. Reminds me of the story about the devout guy who, as the flood waters rose, kept turning down offers of rescue, saying God would help him. He dies, and, brought before God, wants to know why he wasn’t helped. “What do you want? I sent you a truck, a boat, and a helicopter!”

    2. Personally…

      I think anyone who survives this who CHOOSE to stay when they could have left should imedeately dedicate the rest of their lives to God and his service, because they only reason they DO live is because he smiled upon them…

      And even then, it was probably because he thinks they are dumb-asses…

          1. Re: Personally…

            Yes, actually, that quote works much better. (I knew there was something to that effect, but I couldn’t quite think of it.)

        2. Re: Personally…

          Largely, yes.

          If they actively choose to stay, God is teh ONLY reason tehy live, because they sure won’t be making on their wits… If they could do that, they’d have listened when the mayor said ‘Get out… Get out now…’

  2. It Is Massive…

    …and I’d suggest that I’d tell anybody in the area to load up food, water, easily-carryable valuable (jewelry, documents, papers), and a gun and/or sword and leave. Immediately.

    The area is pretty much GONE…it’ll be festering with disease within a few days at best. Unless you have a secure supply of water and food, and LOTS of DDT or similar insecticides, I’d leave.

  3. Part of me has always hoped that I would never see the fall of a modern city. This is just a staggering, it some times seems like a bad Hollywood movie. It’s almost biblical in it’s destruction. It will take 9 weeks at best to get the water out, that’s after they patch the levy. Almost every building will be uninhabitable, any wood structure will have to come down. Maybe only the oldest or highest parts of the city will survive in any recognizable form. It will basically be “New New Orleans” when it’s fully rebuilt… in a decade or two.

    This is something unknown and unheard of in modern times, and no one knows really how to deal with it.

    1. Eh, I’m sure it’ll be rebuilt faster than that. It’ll probably be rebuilt better as well. It may not be quite as big once its rebuilt but it will be much newer and shinier.

      I give it 2 to 5 years to be completely rebuilt.

      1. Eh, I’m sure it’ll be rebuilt faster than that. It’ll probably be rebuilt better as well. It may not be quite as big once its rebuilt but it will be much newer and shinier.

        And will probably lose almost everything that makes it New Orleans ….

      2. I actually half expect it to become a ghost of what it was. It won’t have the same history and people will very rightfully fear to live in a bowl surrounded by water.

        1. Well, I believe we’re both actually right for certain values of completely rebuilt. If you think of it as having everyone who wants to remain there have what they previously had rebuilt better than it was.

  4. It’s not just New Orleans that got devastated. I’ve been talking with a friend in Gulfport. That place is a beach that smells of rotting flesh except for the military base.

Comments are closed.