Hurricane Katrina

[Bane~Child]

There's a problem with the whole "Don't build in an area that can have natural disasters" line of thought - it pretty much excludes most of the planet.

Just curious, but what do the Mormons have to do with natural disasters?  Just thought it looked amusing that they were notated.

There is a little white triangle in North Texas that seems to be exclusive - this is clearly not the case.  If anything the entire region of North Texas from New Mexico to Ark-La-Tex should be in an overlapped area of colors  Also, there is a fault line running down through the big middle of it, too.

Despite this, there is nowhere that is truly safe except maybe Burlington, Vermont, but you have to like lots of snow.

[witch]

Natural hazards - yes New Zealand straddles a nice volcanic fault line almost the length of the country. Is there anywhere on the planet that is NOT risky?

[J. M. Pescado]

There's a problem with the whole "Don't build in an area that can have natural disasters" line of thought - it pretty much excludes most of the planet.

Taking the USA alone - in the Pacific Northwest there is more than one active volcano - St. Helens is obviously active, Rainier is due to blow, as is Hood... the coastline of the area is also at risk for tsunamis. Hawaii pretty much is volcanos. There's also a caldera sitting just a bit to the side of the midwest due to go 'splody. We all know that California is rife with fault lines, but don't think you're safe if you're on the other side of the country - the New Madrid fault is due for a nasty quake. Tornadoes go all through the middle of the country, go north and you get blizzards, the east coast - well, if the ice caps go, there it goes -

Blizzards aren't a disaster, blizzards are just routine weather. Up here, we get those every winter, doesn't bother me at all. So what if everything is buried in 3 feet of snow? It doesn't stop the Russians, and it doesn't stop me. Tornadoes are merely a minor nuisance. If I had a tornado here, I would have nothing to fear from it, either. Tornadoes can't touch you when you're over 800 feet underground beneath solid rock. You just have to pick the local problems you can manage.

And do you know why I don't have to worry about this? BECAUSE I PLANNED AHEAD. I saw these things happen to OTHER PEOPLE and made sure to take precautions to MAKE SURE IT DOES NOT HAPPEN TO ME.

and it's unknown if our technology level is good enough to make a pressure dome that could resist an ice age.

An ice age isn't a problem. It'll just get cold. Ever been to Siberia? That's cold. People live there just fine.

[Renatus]

BaneChild, it's this little thing called a joke. Tongue in cheek, wot? Although Utah does have a number of active fault lines...

Witch, no! Price we pay for being alive is the constant risk of death, I guess.

JM, Siberia of now is rather balmy compared to an ice age. Never mind the other problems one encounters when the entire planet is encased in a ball of ice, like food. But you don't have to eat - right?

[witch]

Witch, no! Price we pay for being alive is the constant risk of death, I guess.

Life is a sexually transmitted disease with 100% mortality rate. 

[J. M. Pescado]

JM, Siberia of now is rather balmy compared to an ice age. Never mind the other problems one encounters when the entire planet is encased in a ball of ice, like food. But you don't have to eat - right?

People survived the last ice age just fine. I, for one, subsist off of the rats I raise and on potatoes grown hydroponically in underground chambers. I could likely keep this up indefinitely. I mean, sure, some people who didn't bother to prepare are going to starve as a result of widespread food shortages, but remember: Soylent Green is made from people!

[laeshanin]

Well, if Homo Sapiens wasn't so busy outbreeding every other species with the exception of bacterium, then we wouldn't need to build in dangerous areas. Roll on extinction, say I...

As a Brit, I don't feel I have the necessary qualifications to make a comment about America's internal political wrangling, but I do agree that spin and bitching do not help matters in an emergency. Finger pointing is always counterproductive in whatever level of life it is indulged in. Suck it up, for Heaven's sake, and act like responsible adults! There are people dying.

[bluecatvon]

Natural hazards - yes New Zealand straddles a nice volcanic fault line almost the length of the country. Is there anywhere on the planet that is NOT risky?

i think my country can be counted as a non-risky country. the only bad stuffs that happen to us Malaysians is when our neighbouring country, the BIG islands-country, gets earthquakes or decides that burning huge pieces of land is a great and efficient way of clearing the land. lots of haze here a while back. oh and the scorching heat. if you love summer you'll love it here

[J. M. Pescado]

Finger pointing is always counterproductive in whatever level of life it is indulged in. Suck it up, for Heaven's sake, and act like responsible adults! There are people dying.

I disagree. Finger-pointing is absolutely essential, but equally important is making sure all the fingers are pointed in advance. For this reason, somebody must be chosen to be blamed for things, preferrably in advance. That way, we know that if anything goes horribly wrong, it's automatically his fault. To do otherwise would be extremely bad for morale. Sometimes you just gotta take a stand and go, "I have no idea what just happened here, but I know this is your fault somehow."

[Mystique]

Finger pointing is always counterproductive in whatever level of life it is indulged in. Suck it up, for Heaven's sake, and act like responsible adults! There are people dying.

I disagree. Finger-pointing is absolutely essential, but equally important is making sure all the fingers are pointed in advance. For this reason, somebody must be chosen to be blamed for things, preferrably in advance. That way, we know that if anything goes horribly wrong, it's automatically his fault. To do otherwise would be extremely bad for morale. Sometimes you just gotta take a stand and go, "I have no idea what just happened here, but I know this is your fault somehow."

I daresay it seems alot of people seem to have gone to the J. M. Pescado School of Finger-Pointing, and most of them graduated with honors. You must have trained them well. But is it me or do most of them seem to be Democrats?

[laeshanin]

lol... what a complete git you are, J.M. I've often found hiding behind a wall is quite productive in ensuring someone else gets the blame for a error, especially if the other person looks guilty (as they often do). And the ready words spring to mind: "Prove it".

[laeshanin]

www.illwillpress.com

Do not go here if you are likely to be offended even a teeny weeny bit.

[J. M. Pescado]

I daresay it seems alot of people seem to have gone to the J. M. Pescado School of Finger-Pointing, and most of them graduated with honors. You must have trained them well. But is it me or do most of them seem to be Democrats?

Not true. If they had truly been graduates of the my school of finger-pointing, they wouldn't be disagreeing about who to blame for it. They'd just blame him for it and get on with it. Like with Draklixa. It's always his fault.

[Judecat]

Keep an old tin bath in the outhouse, and you've something to keep you afloat till the water levels drop!

On a more serious note, it seems odd that the US Federal government could go into Afghanistan and Iraq without permission from their Governments (ostensibly to sort out life-threatening situations) but couldn't override a state government in the US itself!  Surely, to prevent this kind of thing ever happening again, there needs to be a rider added to the constitution to allow a takeover by the state if a local government is not handling a situation?  What, in fact, would have been the case had the state government actually been wiped out by the disaster, and there was no government to make the decision to ask for assistance?

Last time the federal goverment tried to take over states rights,  we had a civi war.


laeshanin -- that squirell took the words right out of my head.

[Diala]

About what that squirrel said:

If you watched the news in the early days of the disaster, you would've seen that the news people were trying to help the best they could. However, they had a JOB to do, and it was rather important: to report the full extent of the disaster, to share information about it, and to inform others on how they could help and where. You can't just expect them to throw their cameras into the water and help these people willy-nilly, especially when they were helping by letting their pleas be known acrossed the country. Besides, many of those newspeople didn't have the skills or the equipment to take care many of the needs. Their lack of expertise could've screwed up things.

[SJActress]

Now I know why I'll never vote Democrat again.

Bitch.

Kidding!
(I really am kidding...love you Momthing...)

[ZephyrZodiac]

I agree about the media people, it's their job to report the news and often they risk their lives just to do that!  Think how many news men and women have been killed in Iraq, just for trying to keep the world informed as to what was happening.

[laeshanin]

Diala/Z.Z. - That's true. Many correspondents have died doing their job, and most of them wouldn't have a clue. However, most of the hacks I'm aquainted with are miserable cynical bastards who like nothing more than to get their teeth into some good squalid human misery. And they are very manipulative, as well as being able to put spin on almost anything that comes out of someone's mouth. Not to mention all those lovely high tech editing techniques. But that's not to say that the majority of journo's aren't solid decent people...  Also, much as we may dislike this there is a serious flaw in human nature as we all like to dwell on other people's misfortune, and who hasn't rubbernecked?

Anyway, I thought the squirrel was amusing, but also knew it would be contentious.

[Danni]

Grrr... why haven't they picked up on it yet? Katrina was all my fault! I stamped my foot too hard while yelling at Samantha and it caused a catergory 5 hurricane. So they can stop finger pointing, because I've admitted to it, and get on with saving lives and cleaning up.

[Kristalrose]

Well, he's the only president you've got at the moment, I believe!  Comes of voting in a son of an already discredited father!  Like father, like son I say, and if father is a twit, then is it likely the son won't be?

I didn't vote for the man, and I personally do not know anyone who voted for the man.  I still believe, and will never be convinced, that he and his took the White House by hook and by crook.  I'm sorry to anyone here who I may have offended.  That's just my opinion.

[Kristalrose]

Reg, (((hugs))) to you girl!!  I've been thinking about you, just haven't had a chance to get over here and check until today. 

I keep threatening to drive to some of the evacuation centers and take some babies who have been orphaned home to foster, but Hubby says that they'd never let me near them and that he'd divorce me.  I sent some baby formula and went on local radio asking other parents to do the same thing.  It was a little thing, and I wish I could do more.  I can't stand seeing their little faces on CNN!!  My heart goes out to everyone suffering down there, but the little orphaned babies!!!!!!  OMIGAWD!!!

 

[witch]

As a non-American, these sites are very reassuring to me...

http://www.sorryeverybody.com/

http://www.apologiesaccepted.com/index.html

New Zealand is a small country and has little world power. It is very scarey to many of us here that someone like Bush is in charge of such a large world power, terrifying, the man cannot even speak logical grammatical sentences, he invades oil-rich countries for no other reason than he can and refuses to sign treaties that will help the world environmentally - given that America is responsible for so much pollution.

[SJActress]

As a non-American, these sites are very reassuring to me...

http://www.sorryeverybody.com/

http://www.apologiesaccepted.com/index.html

New Zealand is a small country and has little world power. It is very scarey to many of us here that someone like Bush is in charge of such a large world power, terrifying, the man cannot even speak logical grammatical sentences, he invades oil-rich countries for no other reason than he can and refuses to sign treaties that will help the world environmentally - given that America is responsible for so much pollution.

Yeah, he's that scary to the 49% of us who DIDN'T vote for him...and probably most of the morons--excuse me--PEOPLE who DID vote for him too.

[KellyQ]

When Bush was elected my husband and I predicted that America would be in a war within a year..sometimes it sucks to be right. As an American it is disheartening to see our country so poorly represented by a man who has such difficulty forming a coherant sentence and seems bewildered by his job and responsibilites. I watched every debate during the presidential election and while John Kerry was not the most charismatic personality I've ever seen, he was at least able to form articulate and well thought out opinions. I am sure had he been elected he also would be facing a firestorm of attacks from his critics. The thing is, none of these politicians actually give a shit about any of us "ordinary" people, they just want to further their own agendas and will use any opportunity to do so. I think it is sad that the feeling of unity and non-partisanship that we had after September 11 cannot be duplicated in the face of a natural disaster that will leave thousands and thousands dead simply because so many politicians just want to pad their own careers.

[Judecat]

Rather have a president with a speach inpediment than a Socialist.   This country has been going down the tubes since we started paying people to breed.