New Orleans Tragedy

[Lizzie G]

New Orleans Tragedy:
I was wondering how everyone felt about the tragedy? Has it affected you?

I’m sorry I have not made a long post about this but I’m sure everyone is aware of the situation and the desperation of the people who are in those areas. Also The 52 Australians missing. In some ways I don’t believe its happening because its America and right now it looks more like a 3rd world country with people stealing, looting, and killing each other for food.
Lizzie

[Melb_Raverkid]

Looting, stealing, understandable. Rape and murder? Something is wrong.

Dont take this as racial prejudice but simply an observation. There are no whites raping, looting or commiting acts of violence. The whites have packed their **** and driven out of there.

Everyone's like 'why the hell isn't the government helping these poor people blah blah blah'.. How much does a government which acts more like a corporation care about it's lowest socio-economic group in the nation's poorest city?

It's doing stuff, but I reckon if there was an earthquake or a fire in California (a state which generates a GDP per capita more than twice that of australia) threatening the same number of lives, there'd be a much bigger response from the government.

[AnIsA- - *^seXc wog 4 u^*]

I think it's sooo sad, when i watched it on the news last night it was shocking on how much damage was done and i feel especially sorry for the baby's=(

[~RaVn ItAlIaN~]

I think it's stupid how America can let that kinda thing happen it one of it's cities, if that happened here in Australia i'm sure it wouldn't take us this long to get relief to those who need it.
I think its absolutely appauling how people are killing each other for food and other crap like that, it was sad to see what people are like when they don't get the help they need.
George Bush sucks!

[Melb_Raverkid]

[QUOTE=~RaVn ItAlIaN~]
George Bush sucks!

[QUOTE]

:dance: Let's jump on the George Bush-bashing bandwagon!!

Countries are run by one person after all... right?

[shaheen]

Michael Moores letter to Bush


Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.

[lil_bro]

befor i read any others posts i saying what tihink
i do not feel sorry for these people one bit
a society in my opininon is judged on how it a) treats the poor b) its prison system c how ti deals with disasters.
these people are killing raping and looting regardless of how hungry they are they are still killing which you do not need to do

I feel only compasion for the children and eldery the rest of the socity is a deplorable wreack and i think that it could be seen like a noah type disaster because it got rid of all these *****

aksi they dont eat for ONE day and they start going nuts....pathetic

[sikunt]

now they know what a real terrorist attack is!

wonder what this will do to our petrol prices.

September 4: Petrol prices rise to help in america aid...

[sikunt]

The Age...

Motorists can expect petrol prices to continue to rise in the wake of damage to oil refineries caused by Hurricane Katrina.

World oil prices fell late last week as a number of energy groups began increasing operations after the devastation caused by the hurricane.

Economists, however, say Australians are yet to see the flow-through of record oil prices reached a day after Katrina battered the Gulf of Mexico.

"The pain for motorists doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon," said CommSec chief economist Craig James.

"The price of petrol rose to a record high over the past week, the previous high was $1.21 per litre and no doubt this week we'll see something in the order of $1.23 - $1.25 on average."

In New York, oil fell 42 cents to $US69.05 per barrel on Friday, however a record high of $US70.85 was reached earlier in the week.

Winds measured up to 225kph shut down eight oil refineries and crippled others, and motorists in Australia are likely to continue seeing the effects in coming weeks.
AdvertisementAdvertisement

"That will take another week or so to flow through to prices at the petrol pump, so motorists will have to get used to paying $1.25, perhaps higher on a regular basis," Mr James said.

[stretch_135]

The question is, what would the government response have been like if Katrina had hit the northern, MOSTLY WHITE, states of America? You'll notice that in pretty much all of the footage you watch, the victims are black. If no footage had gotten out, would the government have done anything? Or would they have left all the blacks to rot? You've gotta remember that alot of America's history was defined by race; the American Civil War was fought by the liberals in the north and the slavers in the south (someone want to confirm my history? I think I'm right, but I'm not sure)

So, the white government was slow to react to a national disaster in a MOSTLY BLACK city. Pity the blacks, because they're not going to get any pity from their government

[sikunt]

slow to re-act, have they re-acted?

[jason_]

Dont take this as racial prejudice but simply an observation. There are no whites raping, looting or commiting acts of violence. The whites have packed their **** and driven out of there.


Not taking it as racial prejudice as you've said, but you do realise that New Orleans is i think 80 - 90% black? And on top of that, i'm guessing most of the whites that are there are actually just tourists, which is why so many of them have been rescued or air lifted out of the area. That reason only being because their country's government took action, not American government.

The situation is fucked, they send thousands of soldiers worth of help to a pointless war in Iraq but they can't take control over their own country. If what George Bush says is true about 'those arabs' ... then don't you think such a large stadium with such a vast group of people occupying it would be like throwing in the stick to the crazed Iraqi bombers? It's pretty much like fukn ASKING them to come. Idiots.

Nuff said.

[Nate]

The question is, what would the government response have been like if Katrina had hit the northern, MOSTLY WHITE, states of America? You'll notice that in pretty much all of the footage you watch, the victims are black. If no footage had gotten out, would the government have done anything? Or would they have left all the blacks to rot? You've gotta remember that alot of America's history was defined by race; the American Civil War was fought by the liberals in the north and the slavers in the south (someone want to confirm my history? I think I'm right, but I'm not sure)

So, the white government was slow to react to a national disaster in a MOSTLY BLACK city. Pity the blacks, because they're not going to get any pity from their government

I'm pretty sure it was the Liberals in the north, who's jobs weren't dependant on crops/manual labour that were backing the blacks. They were fighting the whites in the south that wanted to keep the slaves, because it meant so much to them economically. But then again if it wasn't for international pressure and countless protests, then maybe the blacks would still be slaves.

[K.BRO]

why the hell didnt these people leave new orleans when they were warned that it was coming? Why the hell would u stay if you knew a hurricane was coming? I would pack my bags and leave! whoever decided to stay when they were warned deserves what they got because in the end their stupidity cost them their lives. I dont feel bad for them, only for the people that were clueless and didnt actually know that it was coming or didnt have a way to get out.

[Nate]

^^I'm pretty sure most of them did, but not everyone can afford a car...

[K.BRO]

then walk. They still could have made it to a safer place...

[Nate]

^You obviously have no concept of the magnitude of such a storm...you can't just walk away from it...lol *pats u* :p

[heidi]

2/3 of New Orleans is black- so ofcourse most of the victims are going to be black. And the majority of these people are below the poverty line (hence the no cars thing).

And yes you can't walk away from this thing, don't forget it did spread across 3 states...thats not a few kms..

Also there are too whites looting. Stealing food from a grocery store to survive is looting. They even had those australians admitting to the fact they were lotters to live. You telling me you wouldn't loot?
The whole shoot to kill all looters by the nation guard thing is majorly FVCKED...like honestly, what are these people meant to do? Starve?
I understand there's a lot of violence and probably unneccessary looting but killing people?

AND GOD, I hate all you little people jhust LOVE to jump on the fucking bandwagon and say GEORGE BUSH JOHN HOWARD ETC is a fucktard. wehy aren't they doing anything. Yes george bush is the president but he isnt solely responsible for goes on in the country. A lot of the time he probbaly doesnt even make decisions, people TELL him what to do.
I'm not saying that the situation at the moment i acceptable. It's horrible. It truely boggles the mind. And now they are talking of digging mass graves, which means missing australians may never be found if they are the dead.
This whole rescue effort is so indredibly disorganised compared to the tsunami thing. That said, it seemed to be a lot easier getting help because it was a third world country we were helping but with the US, the rest of the world is pretty tied up in what they can do.

I seriously am not one to play the race card ever because i think thats the lamest excuse in the world to go 'oh its becaue they're balck' but we really do have no idea what it's like in the US in relation to racism towards blacks, the attitude towards the southern states in general and to the black people who live there. So for once maybe it does have something to do with it...

Oh I'm pretty sure the whole emancipation of the slaves thing was started by Abraham Lincoln..

In conclusion, yes this is utterly screwed up.

[heidi]

The situation is fucked, they send thousands of soldiers worth of help to a pointless war in Iraq but they can't take control over their own country. If what George Bush says is true about 'those arabs' ... then don't you think such a large stadium with such a vast group of people occupying it would be like throwing in the stick to the crazed Iraqi bombers? It's pretty much like fukn ASKING them to come. Idiots.

Nuff said.

And in reltion to the violence and all that sh.it being commited ofcourse it's going to happen. I mean imagine what these people have just been through. They have been separated from their families had loved ones killed, living in extremely hot and uncomfortable weather, have no easy access to water and food, no toilet facilities, no electricity, just nothing. I think you'd start to go a bit crazy and act violent to. Not that it's an excuse, just all the factors do add up..

[heidi]

befor i read any others posts i saying what tihink
i do not feel sorry for these people one bit
a society in my opininon is judged on how it a) treats the poor b) its prison system c how ti deals with disasters.
these people are killing raping and looting regardless of how hungry they are they are still killing which you do not need to do

I feel only compasion for the children and eldery the rest of the socity is a deplorable wreack and i think that it could be seen like a noah type disaster because it got rid of all these *****

aksi they dont eat for ONE day and they start going nuts....pathetic

Well if you're going to be like that why do the elderly get discounted? They were working adults of society once too...Like wtf.


*triple post!*

[heidi]

*quadruple post* Sorry reallllly cant be bothered editing.
SOme news guy that just said that heaps of people went stayed inside during the storm, then when the water started the rise they went into the attic, except the water kept rising, so officials will be searching through attics for weeks to come....


EDIT: I just read on another forum, which was posted by some people who live(d) in the baton Rouge area of New Orleans, that they were going to 'wait out' the storm and since NO has gotten a lot of storm warnings before with no actual incident a lot of people didn't take this seriously.

Interesting...

[Gabbo]

http://s93489168.onlinehome.us/flood.html

[shaheen]

Whats that image show? I'm not really getting what I'm seeing, is it the electricity going out or what?

[K.BRO]

its the water rising

[K.BRO]

and yeah I suppose I wouldnt know the magnitude of this storm nate, I would have walked lol. Still a warning should have been taken seriously, and they shouldnt have been so ignorant and thought "oh yeah we always get warnings but nothing happens", also I heard that its going to take 80days for them to pump all of the water out of new orleans. because a significant area of new orleans is below sea level, and pumps keep the water out, and when the hurricane hit apparently the power went out and the pumps stopped working:S, Its insane! and they said that until they have pumped out all the water they wont know the total number of victims because many are pressumed to be sunken at the bottom of the flooded streets in the mud. I would hate to think of the amount of disease this will equate to.

[jason_]

To those saying things about the lack of concern from the people actually occupying the area (or occupied), does it really matter whether they were warned or not? Especially at a time like this i find it extremely uncompassionate to even look into the past like that, and without naming names, even say stuff regarding it's their fault if they didn't move. People a dying here... it's a crisis. Not saying that i'm the most knowledgeable person on the topic but where's your intelligence/sympathy?

F*ck not giving an opinion in these factual threads, it's just becoming sickening.

*Fun Fact*: Did you know that the American equivalent to our S.E.S (Not sure what the U.S one is named), decided to take all the elderly out of the hospitals and put them on the roof to clear up beds for badly injured people. They planned to air lift them off the roof, but in the last minute decided to leave them there and focus on other areas. Now isn't that fantastic!

[K.BRO]

pffft they are old they are going to die soon anyway... lol, jk but yeah the injured people deserve the beds more i think.

[heidi]

To those saying things about the lack of concern from the people actually occupying the area (or occupied), does it really matter whether they were warned or not? Especially at a time like this i find it extremely uncompassionate to even look into the past like that, and without naming names, even say stuff regarding it's their fault if they didn't move. People a dying here... it's a crisis. Not saying that i'm the most knowledgeable person on the topic but where's your intelligence/sympathy?


...it's called dsicussing an issue from all angles.
I guess saying you flat out don't care about those who just stayed there as it's their fault is a bit harsh but it's just someone's opinion.

[dj_stick]

i heard on the radio that aligators are now roaming the flooded streets

that's good news in a way, they'll eat all the bodies and help stem the spread of disease

[jason_]

...it's called dsicussing an issue from all angles.
I guess saying you flat out don't care about those who just stayed there as it's their fault is a bit harsh but it's just someone's opinion.

Agreed, but i still stick to my point of those few being uncompassionate... lol is it possible to agree and still stick to my point? Hehe.

heard on the radio that aligators are now roaming the flooded streets

that's good news in a way, they'll eat all the bodies and help stem the spread of disease

L ... M ... A ... O.

[dj_stick]

L ... M ... A ... O.
no, i'm serious - where dead bodies collect is a haven for disease, so getting rid of them will help prevent disease

[K.BRO]

I said that disease thing too *looks all proud and smart*

[heidi]

Yes but you said "help stem" the spread of disease, so ah...you're contradicitng yourself darling.


Oh yay Oprah has donated $1 million....and so she should!

[Tanele]

Yeah these natural disasters seemes to have come in one big hit. With the Tsunami and Earthquake in Japan that killed many many people.

It would be so devestating to lose eveything and in some cases everyone you love.

[^Sweet_Kisses^]

Oh yay Oprah has donated $1 million....and so she should!


geez i love oprah. although, the damage was estimated at about $1.36 billion..


imagine, once they start to clear the water and the wreckage and stuff, how many corpses theyre going to find?? *shudders at the thought*

[jason_]

no, i'm serious - where dead bodies collect is a haven for disease, so getting rid of them will help prevent disease
Yeah i know, just the way you worded it man, sounded pretty funny lol.

Yeah these natural disasters seemes to have come in one big hit. With the Tsunami and Earthquake in Japan that killed many many people.

It would be so devestating to lose eveything and in some cases everyone you love.
F*CK! We must be nearing Judgement Day! Get on your knees and pray bitches!