Your Bright Ideas (Katrina)

C

Carthage

Joined
Sep 11, 2004
Messages
249
Okay, there seems to be no shortage of folks who know what the government/officials/charities should be doing/should have done/should do.

I've got my own ideas.

If you were in charge, or if you were in charge for planning for the future, what would you do?
 
In regards to the fiscal? Or to the issue of repairs and rescues?

In regards to repairs, I would try to resolve the pressure surge that's tearing off patches by pumping water near the breech from the source, over undamaged parts of the levees, and slowing the water on the city side. This is definitely a bite-the-bullet move, considering it would cause the water to rise faster until repairs can be made, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of better alternatives.

In regards to rescues, I think they're doing what they should: send rescuers out on boats, get people, and send them to a safer area.

Fiscal. Man... open up the pocketbook.

:(
 
They need to get lots of recruiters down there representing all branches of the military.
This one step would alleviate several problems.
 
My ideas are all hindsight. :(

- don't breed like cockroaches, overpopulating and over-developing a marginal environment
- don't build below sea level, depending entirely on earthen dams that are predicted to fail
- don't build on ocean-front land
- don't live in a trailer in hurricane country
- evacuate when told
- follow instructions to store an axe in the attic
- don't go to the Superdome unless in desperate need
- follow instructions to take plenty of food and supplies to the Superdome

There is criticism today of the local and federal agencies regarding the response and planning. But in truth all of the blame can be placed squarely on the people themselves. No one's responsible for you, except you.

-Bob
 
I agree with both mike_mck2 and BobW.

It seems like nobody wants to take personal responsibility for themselves and they expect the government to solve all of their problems.

Allen.
 
Are you all idiots?

Clearly, you have no problems where you live in suburban-land.

"don't build below sea level"-I have news for you, New Orleans wasn't always below sea level, It has been sinking for at least 100 years. If you're so bright, tell me how to move Boston because it's inconviently located.
People in New Orleans are POOR. No car poor- Paycheck to paycheck at best, and 50% of the population lives below the poverty level. Show me how to evacuate people with no car, no money for gas, and no money to stay anywhere else-If by some miracle they got out of town, is the Motel 6 putting them up for free?

The Army Corps of Engineers built those levees, so blame our fine US government for cheaping out when they could have built better ones.

The devastation of the city will make 9/11 look like a bad car wreck. my friends house is under 5 feet of water. The WHOLE FREAKING THING- you'd have to dive 5 feet down to touch her roof.
My son and his mother are unaccounted for, and I am really starting to panic.
Another friend of mine got out on the second evacuation, and saw bodies floating down what was her street.
It will take ten years to rebuild, at least. Hell, the water has to stop before they can even start.

The city was there far before the US even bought it from the French, so don't give me this "you shouldn't have" Crap.
Have some sympathy, people.
 
Dijos, I'm sorry to hear your family is still missing. Hang in there. It doesn't help to panic, there's still a lot of people who just aren't in a position to check in with anyone yet.
 
Dijos, I'm terribly sorry to hear about your family being stuck there. Please let us know when you find out.
 
Dijos,

I hope that you are reunited with your family soon. It looks like help is finally on the way, so things should soon get better.

n2s
 
Bob W said:
My ideas are all hindsight. :(

- don't breed like cockroaches, overpopulating and over-developing a marginal environment
- don't build below sea level, depending entirely on earthen dams that are predicted to fail
- don't build on ocean-front land
- don't live in a trailer in hurricane country
- evacuate when told
- follow instructions to store an axe in the attic
- don't go to the Superdome unless in desperate need
- follow instructions to take plenty of food and supplies to the Superdome

There is criticism today of the local and federal agencies regarding the response and planning. But in truth all of the blame can be placed squarely on the people themselves. No one's responsible for you, except you.

-Bob
Click to expand...


Excellent points all. I would like to add one thing though:

- don't depend on the government to take care of all your needs.

I just saw a guy on Fox news complaining. He said he couldn't believe this was America. He said the government cut off the power, the phones, etc. Hello!

One of the first things that needs to be done is to restore some sense of order. Apparently martial law needs to be declared and we need troops down there to enforce it.
 
Dijos hope your family is ok

on another note; let's take a look at how this has affected the rest of the nation and prepare ourselves.

I live in a rural (desert) area that can not support the prices we are paying with the current local economy (lucky to get $10.00 per hour working on the civilian market, so I am lucky I work for the gummint as an ammunition inspector at just over $20.00 per hour) so when food prices skyrocket due to the high gas prices I suspect more crime in the form of driving off from the pumps without paying, more theft of food from our small grocery store (bigger stores 30 miles away, where most peeps here shop) more burglary so the criminal element can fence stolen goods to finance their way of life, we have a small city police department and a small county sheriff office and both are unable to take care of the real crime (gang bangers, drug dealers, and thieves)

In lieu of the situation out here in Boardman, Oregon (45 minutes or an hour west of Pendleton, three hours east of Portland on I-84) I consider myself lucky as I can get a second job paying minimum wage or higher for a few days a month to pay for the gas I need to get to my primary job, and yes I am seriously considering this as a viable option as it would also provide me money for more ammunition for my home protection, more canned food and bottled water for survival, and spare gas to get the heck out of here and into the hills where I can take meat and fish and such from the land if neccessary.

I do sincerely hope that people in the aread indirectly and directly affected by recent events are safe and well.
 
Dijos,
I'm very sorry that you've lost contact with your family. With the communications and logistics breakdown I have every hope that most people will be reunited with their loved ones eventually. Even if people evacuated to northern La. or other states, phone service and electricity in those places are out of service too.

I didn't mean to imply that the uneducated poverty-stricken are entirely to blame for the catastrophy. Bodies are being pulled from expensive ocean-front motels. Several of the videotaped rescues appeared to be from rather large roofs in middle-class neighborhoods. There was an engineer who had to be rescued from the attic of his "hurriane-proof" house. All of these people who could have evacuated but didn't are stealing time and resources from those who had no choice.

Greedy developers and politicians are primarily responsible for the over-development of the region, and are also the ones profiting from trailer-park sales where low-income people are often concentrated.

I'm also very disappointed that so many people were left behind by their neighbors. Neither of my closest neighbors have cars. If a lava flow was headed for town, I can't imagine not making room for them in my vehicle or loaning them my extra. Thousands of vehicles washed out to sea, thousands of people stranded, and none of them could have been paired up?

If you think I'm a well-off suburban type with no real-life experiences with being poor, you couldn't be more wrong. I do OK now, but there were years where everything I owned fit in the trunk of my car, I didn't have a full-time place to live, work was sketchy and low-paying, and I spent my last dollar in the world on an ice-cold beer. "The good old days."

There are several factors which simply could be predicted and weren't, but the firs and second day were minute-by-minute playing out exactly as the major described in his speech - on Saturday morning. That speech scared the hell out of me.

The violence and widespread lawlessness is a suprise to most, I bet. Not that those things are happening, but the volume of incidents and amount of time that it's taken to get troops on the streets. Probably due to the gross underestimate of the number of people who remained in the city.

But the fact remains that many aspects were predicted well in advance. It was eventual.

Very best wishes to everyone in the Southeast,
-Bob
 
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