Posted on 08/30/2005 10:10:45 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
It is with heavy heart I write this...
I have finally reconnected with my best friend who is a paramedic who was sent from Georgia 2 days ago to Gulf Port, Mississippi before the hurricane hit.
He just reached me within the last 10 mins via emergency cell phone to tell me he was alive.
Thousands of bodies have been discovered throughout Mississippi in Gulf Port, Waveland,Hancock County,Bay of St.Louis.
They are hanging in trees and they are pulling them out 30 at a time. Entire families found drowned in their homes and washing up on shore.
The stories he could tell me were brief. National Guard is on the scene and arresting anyone seen on the streets.
The numbers are staggering and what I have been told tonight will shake people to their foundation as the numbers will be coming out in the next 24-hours of just how many people have actually perished in these and 3 other beach communities.
More to follow....
"Only time will tell, but I hope your predictions [in http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473894/posts?page=2080#2080 ] are incorrect. I have a sinking feeling though, that you are right." RushCrush
They weren't the predictions of an amatuer like me, they were the predictions of Dr. van Heerden, et.al., and the American Red Cross, themselves -- [in 2002]:
Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20050722-18422300-bc-us-hurricanes.xml
"In 2002, an American Red Cross estimate found 25,000 to 100,000 people would be killed if a major hurricane hit the New Orleans area."
Many residents won't evacuate New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS, July 22 (UPI) -- A major hurricane, with 130 mph winds and an 18-foot-high storm surge, would not scare 60 percent of southeast Louisiana residents, a survey found.
That would be a dangerous decision, said Jesse St. Amant, emergency preparedness director for Plaquemines Parish, because Louisiana's sinking coastline and levees no longer protect residents from a Category 3 storm.
The University of New Orleans Survey Research Center and the Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Task Force survey, released Thursday, also found many who evacuated during Hurricanes Georges in 1998, Lili in 2002 or last year's Ivan might not have traveled far enough to escape danger, the New Orleans Times-Picayune said Friday.
In 2002, an American Red Cross estimate found 25,000 to 100,000 people would be killed if a major hurricane hit the New Orleans area.
If people don't evacuate when directed by officials the number of casualties would be "beyond comprehension," according to St. Amant.
Related articles here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20050722-18422300-bc-us-hurricanes.xml#
Another item of interest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
[HUGE SNIPS]
At 5:00 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on August 27, Katrina's pressure dropped to 945 mbar and it was upgraded to Category 3. The same day President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, two days before the hurricane made landfall [5].
At 12:40 a.m. CDT (0540 UTC) on August 28, Katrina was upgraded to Category 4. Later that morning, Katrina went through a period of rapid intensification, with its maximum sustained winds reaching as high as 175 mph (280 km/h) (well above the Category 5 threshold of 156 mph (250 km/h)) and a pressure of 906 mbar by 1:00 p.m. CDT. By 4:00 p.m. CDT, Katrina reached its lowest pressure reading, at 902 mbar. This made Katrina the fourth most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin, surpassing such Category 5 storms as Hurricane Ivan of 2004, Hurricane Mitch of 1998, and Hurricane Camille, the legendary hurricane that made landfall on the Mississippi coast in 1969. Katrina, however, encountered wind shear and drier air from a trough approaching from the west just before landfall, sparing the coast from a Category 5 hurricane. Nonetheless, the system made landfall as a strong Category 4 hurricane on 5:30 a.m. CDT (1030 UTC) August 29 at the mouth of the Mississippi with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. Its lowest minimum pressure at landfall was 915 mb, making it the third strongest hurricane on record to make landfall on the United States.
[picture snipped] Click to see it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
Eye of Hurricane Katrina seen from a NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft. Image taken on August 28, 2005, before the storm made landfall.
A 15- to 30-foot storm surge came ashore on virtually the entire coastline from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to Florida. The 30-foot storm surge recorded at Biloxi, Mississippi is the highest ever observed in North America.
bttt
Welcome back. It was absolute insanity that you were banned for posting what FNC and local news reports are saying.
" Like the Corp. could get anything done in 2 years - other than determine that they needed more money for another study."
That's right. It's also important to note, that the greens want the whole thing turned back to nature. From all the way up here in WI/MN to down there in NO. The greens are thrilled about this event.
Your family drive ampibious vehicles, or monster trucks hauling their own fuel supplies?
That Wikipedia is amazing. Folks were making knowledgable entries as the topic came up.
This should help you get up to speed.
Steve_Seattle:This is a good article, and shows that the blame for this is widespread and goes back many years, involving both local and federal agencies. It may be quite true that the Bush admin was not sufficiently proactive on this issue, but it appears that no one else was, either."
Here's the bottom line from the article:
"It's been 36 years since Hurricane Betsy buried New Orleans 8 feet deep. Since then a deteriorating ecosystem and increased development have left the city in an ever more precarious position.
Yet the problem went unaddressed for decades by a laissez-faire government, experts said.
"...A plan to restore the Florida Everglades attracted $4 billion in federal funding, but the state had to match it dollar for dollar.
In Louisiana, so far, there's only been a willingness to match 15 or 25 cents. "Our state still looks for a 100 percent federal bailout, but that's just not going to happen," said University of New Orleans geologist Shea Penland, a delta expert.
"We have an image and credibility problem.
We have to convince our country that they need to take us seriously, that they can trust us to do a science-based restoration program."
True...but we need someone from LA, MS, etc with their leadership skills and ability to communicate with and reassure the public.
i note that no offer of revolution was extended. with the bush admin and its supporters howling for "no politicization" of this tragedy, here's a great example of where that should and could be practiced. after all, people are dying. poor people are dying, who need the help and couldnt care less where it comes from.
the original poster called for "long memories," i was merely pointing out that hugo chavez, whose death was called for by a major bush supporter (and, strangely, a christian) offered help to these victims not a week afterward. id say that that calls for someone to remember that down the road, as well.
i would think that no reporting of casualties and limited reporting of the chaos would benefit bush, no?
I think you'd be more at home with the DUmmies.
how so?
Although we here see the Democrats as the Party of Government, the bureaucracy itself sees itself as non-partisan. Controlling what the people know is more important than mere party politics. FEMA as an especially unaccountable bureaucracy, sees nothing at all wrong with manhandling the truth if it is in their plan to handle disasters on this scale.
The lack of candor we see here will only be multiplied if something with evil intent behind it happens. Do you think, for example, that you can trust the government if there is a bioterror attack?
The MSM all owe their existence to FCC licensing and government permission to be exempt from anti-monopoly laws. They WILL obey when told what to say and not say.
Looks like you might be a sleeper ZOT to me.
i never implied that we should thank chavez. go back and read what i wrote. i simply said that those who reflexively crucify the "usual suspects" should see that sometimes the usual suspects arent the bogeymen that some would have us believe.
i do think its relevant, and i think that a man of god calling for an assassination isnt right.
i suggested no such thing. the usual cries of "its the media! its the media!" just dont apply when a quick search of the internet shows stories of hostage taking situations, riots for food, death everywhere, and i dont really hear anyone (fox, cnn or msnbc) saying that bush is in any way responsible. i just dont think it rings true at this point.
all in all, sorry i dont agree with the usual ad hominem responses.
September 1, 2005 1:00 p.m. EST
The nightmarish scenario in Louisiana is paralled by the dire situation in Mississippi, where reports coming in from rescue workers show a desperate situation.
Residents from the state are being deputized by local sheriffs to go into the rubble and reach the coastline to recover bodies of victims from the storm who were killed by the massive storm surge.
Firefighters from around the country are filling up refrigerated 18-wheeler trucks with bodies. According to one firefighter on Fox News, the bodies are "being treated with dignity and not tossed around", but the official death toll remains at 185 for the time being.
Local county coroners give the low number of fatalities due to a lack of electricity, forcing recovery operations to move all bodies to trucks until a more subtle way can be found for identification.
In some cases, entire families are discovered by rescuers in closets where they were drowned by the surge. Local forecasters had advised residents to go into a closet and put a mattress over themselves to protect from damaging winds in-case their roof blew off during the storm.
Firefighters can be seen spray painting numbers on homes as a way of leaving notice for others that the home has been checked. There are homes with anywhere from three to as high as thirteen bodies contained inside. These codes are then seen and trucks can come by later to pick up bodies and bring them to a central location.
"Just for your information I was called up to active duty after Hurricane Andrew went through South Dade County. I spent 9 weeks down there. Now I will certify for the benefit of our audience here that the death figures that were officially published are totally inaccurate. According to the information which I received from my own sources within the National Guard, the figure I was quoted when I was down there 5,280 something. And they were quietly disposed of in incinerators that were hurriedly put together by both the National Guard and F.E.M.A."... Chief Petty Officer Roy Howard stated publicly, during the Clearwater Convention held in Florida, November 1999.
Thanks for the info.
In any event, we need to get this story out.
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