Hurricane Aftershock Facts

[twiglet4frog]

I am at a total loss of Bushes inability to deal with this type of disaster that was expected in this part of there country. They had warning, they have had hundreds of years of hurricanes and still he cant organise it to be prepared, HOWEVER, a few facts for people to try to understand the scale of the disaster for the aide workers, rescuers etc.

The Area effected is the size of Great Britain

80% of the whole of New Orleans is flooded, and at least 30% of that is under 20 feet of water (rooftop of a bungalow)

There is no form of communication of any kind short of two way radios with a range of 2 miles or very rare satelitte phones

There is no power from electricity

No fuel for 500 miles that hasnt been looted or polluted

The 2 Evacuation areas that were stated to head to were both damaged, over populated(20,000+) for any length of time over what was thought would be a maximum of 48 hours of storms and cut off from most help.

Rescuers are being shot at and attacked and cannot safely reach the areas that people need help in their homes due to a lack of equipment shipped in to the area in time

Most of the facilities and equipment emergancy services were destroyed or inaccesible

Hospitals without power, flooded and over populated under staffed and facing looting had to be evacuated.

Water will take 35-80 days to be pumped out of New Orleans

Oil Refinaries have leaked their tanks polluting the water badly, Thousands of corpes lay in the water spreading diseases, Chemical Fires burn with firemen under equipped and incapable of reaching most of the fire

[mfewell]

Yes, the scale is staggering. I have just listened to Broadcasting House on R4. As I see it there are now 2 aspects of this disaster which are going to run and run:

a) Bush-Bashing 

b) Race.

[sunflower68]

Twiglet thankyou, that is a real eye opener.   I  think Bush needs to communicate more to his people.  How can the water be pumped back into the sea?  Will it then contaminate further afield or do you think the disease-ridden water somehow becomes diluted in the sea?  Just one of many questions that keep popping up in my head.

[tigerthecat]

Bush has known that this would happen for years. He has chosen to spend the money neddede to reinforce the inadequate fortifiactions and save lives on other more 'electable' issues.

[kramshell]

I wanted to tell sunflower, my husband explained to me that the water will be pumped back into the lake above the city and the levees will be repaired. Hopefully this time to withstand a category 5 hurricane this time not a 3. I believe that they have to treat the water first or something like that. It will take up to 4 months or so for the people to get back into the city. I live in the Baltimore, MD area and we are taking in families of the hurricane. My husband and I are thinking of hosting a family for the time being. I guess that's the least I can do for these poor people.

[kramshell]

Just to clarify...when I say poor...I mean devistating disaster type of poor...

[Dom Tuk]

Jane Grove your first sentence about George Bush somehow disqualifies you from passing judgement on any others ability to summarise the situation or not.

Let me guess, you are in full support of bombing Baghdad (as many times it takes) from 32000 ft in order to get rid of Saddam and you have a large flag outside your house.

[shaneystar]

Hear Hear Domtuk.This person does nothing but spit invective on AB.See the post underneath.."More on the USA"
People sitting in their own excrement and dying in wheelchairs through dehydration and they think Bush is doing a grand job.
Rubbish.
As I have said no message of sympathy from this person.
All they seem to have to worry about is spelling mistakes and making threats to people.

.

[sunflower68]

Shaneystar I got to thinking what a treat it would be for all of us if  Jane Grove devised a question of his/her very own for us all to enjoy and mull over.

[mfewell]

And sneer over ? I got to think how delightful it was to see a (presumably) US citizen being patriotic and not jumping on the endless bandwagon of US-bashing, Blair-bashing, anything-non-pc-bashing.

 

p.s. "threats" are imaginary in AB fantasy land.

[sunflower68]

No mfewell not sneer over.  Delightful it was to hear Jane Grove's opinions on his/her fine country.The only US person I see being criticized here is Bush.  I am married to a US citizen and admire the country and its people.

However when Iraq is mentioned in the same thread as somebody saying 'you can be traced' I think it is actually something worth commenting upon.  A debate is something which makes this site so appealing to many of us; it is when it becomes so personal  and antagonising it becomes hard not to retort.

[mfewell]

Hi sf68, I haven't seen the 'can be traced' post - which of course changes the whole complexion - where is/was it ?

[sunflower68]

mfewell it was the previous post '.........more on the usa'

[mfewell]

Thanks sunflower68, got that now.

[shaneystar]

Lets get this straight .This was a light hearted thread on CB to which you added reams of stuff which you had cut and pasted from the web about high blood pressure.We asked if you were a doctor or nurse.You are not.Loads of other posts about BP.But you only chose to post on that thread.I can assure you that the person in question is not suffering from any form of dementia whatsover.Who are you to spout medical knowledge of which you know nothing.Only what you read on the web.Any innocent soul reading that could have ended up seriously worried by what you had written.FP is made of sterner stuff.thank goodness.
There is no Kingsbury in Norfolk. Get your facts straight.

You spat at me ..said I was libelous and that i could traced.
If anyone is suffering from dementia I think you are.
Now get off my case.Go and wave your flag somewhere else.
However if you wish to go to the effort of tracing me be my guest.People like you do not frighten me one little bit.

[twiglet4frog]

JANE GROVE with regards your first post on this thread about summarising stuff about the news and what have u, well all my facts are correct and your comments counted as null and void with the two posts above yours showing that 2 people actually read something they didnt fully know! which is what the thread was about, explaining the situation in a broader scale than lets moan how bush played golf for several days afterwards. I was actually pointing out that your country actually does have a huge crises on their hands that isnt the governements fault IN THE AFTERMATH. I dont have qualifications to summarise the news but then again, your not exactly a world renound critic either are u? but u choose to criticise! Called a free world tho innit!

May i suggest that instead of going around having a go at every single person that is trying to help others understand the situation with information they may not already know, or provide non offensive knowledge to anyone that CHOOSES to read this thread, u have a go at trying to become the next president of the United States as u have a similar attitude to the current one! A know-it-all with little or no clue as to how to project yourself as an actualy decent person.