Check the top of THIS THREAD for all kinds of good links - both for news and relief efforts underway.
It does us old(er) folks good to hear from young'uns who give a damn !
Posted on 08/31/2005 10:28:28 AM PDT by spycatcher
Some people are saying the destruction is worse than Hurricane Camille. Others aren't saying anything, staring in wide-eyed wonder at the total devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.
Just last Thursday, Katrina hit South Florida as a Category 1 hurricane. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, she moved through the Gulf, slowly gaining strength and growing larger until she became a Category 5 with winds of 175 mph.
Monday morning, she hit Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana, then moved slowly north, slamming into the Louisiana-Missisppi line as a Category 4 storm and causing destruction of buildings and homes along the Coast and in southeastern Louisiana.
"Catastrophic is an understatement," one resident said.
South Mississippi isn't exactly the ideal tourist spot right now, but the hurricane has drawn journalists from all over the world who want to cover what could be the most costly and deadly natural disaster in U.S. history.
Kim Riseth is one of those journalists. He works for a newspaper in Norway but is based in New York City. He has covered the war in Iraq, as well as the tsunami in Sri Lanki.
He and a photographer flew to Florida on Monday and droveto South Mississippi early Tuesday to write about the damage wrought by Katrina.
Riseth found his way to the Harrison County Courthouse after walking around surveying damage for several hours.
"The destruction here is worse than the tsunami," Riseth said at the Emergency Management Agency. "It's exactly the same thing I saw in Sri Lanka. The houses were smaller and not as strong as the ones here, but this place is totally destroyed about three blocks from the beach."
When asked if the pair planned to travel to New Orleans to cover the hurricane's damage to one of America's most famous cities, Riseth said no.
"The better story is here."
Cricket chirping from most of the world...
Count our blessings: at least we had some warning beforehand.
What do we do next time is the question when it happens in Africa? Not help.
We are between a rock and a hard stop.
We are on or own. The rest of the world can't or won't help out.
How far inland did the storm surge go? There now must be satellite photos that show the extent of the inundation, as evidenced by affected buildings, trees, vegetation etc. I recall these kind of images were available within days of the Dec '04 tsunami.
I saw one satellite photo before and after but it wasn't a close up.
Anyone inside a building within the storm surge area is most likely dead under rubble or washed out to sea. If people were not kept up by the storm, they wre most likely sleeping when it hit. How extensive was the call for evacuation in Miss.?
If I ran FR, several of those posters would never get within a mile of this site again.
Pass along all our best wishes to your EMT friend, and thanks to you for reporting, dreadful news though it is...
Tom
More here: http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12517310.htm
"People ought to know not to stay here for something like this," Waldrop said. "I knew better. They gave them plenty of warning to get out of here."
Katrina's storm surge overwhelmed the community. Residents expected Camille; they were wrong.
"We've been through Camille," said resident David McCaleb. "We've been through everything. But I ain't never seen anything like this in my life."
Added Richard Wright, who floated to a perch in his neighbor's attic and rode out the storm there: "It looked like a tsunami with hurricane winds."
When the water's subsided, Wright found the body of his 90-year-old neighbor, Francis Odessa Saucier, in her living room.
This is my first time on this site(my dad recommended me here...I am a student at Chico State, and I have been watching the coverage on the destruction Katrina has caused. I am a part of a sorority that wants to help. The problem is (being college kids), we don't have alot of cash money to give, and would like to give "in-kind" perhaps stuffed animals and coloring books for kids. As far as I can tell though, no one is accepting donations like these- I would appreciate any suggestions- we want to help!
There was the Weather Channel guy in a retirement home over one-half mile inland and 25 feet above sealevel. The retirement home had to evacuate the first floor when the storm surge arrived.
Good place to start:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003440.htm
These Katrina-tsunami comparisons are well-meaning but inaccurate.
Katrina is a disaster no doubt, but we had warming and LOTS of time to flee. The tsunami struck out of nowhere.
The dead here will likely be counted in the hundreds, not hundreds of thousands.
Check the top of THIS THREAD for all kinds of good links - both for news and relief efforts underway.
It does us old(er) folks good to hear from young'uns who give a damn !
No, actually, they are blaming it on our Environmental policies.
Sad, sad, sad.
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