Posted on 12/14/2005 10:43:09 AM PST by Leatherneck_MT
For those of you who are not aware, North Dakota and southwestern Montana got hit with their first blizzard of the season a couple of weeks ago)
This text is from county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota state after the storm.
Amusing...
WEATHER BULLETIN
Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 24" inches of snow and winds to 50 MPH that broke trees in half, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed all roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.
George Bush did not come.... FEMA staged nothing.... No one howled for the government... No one even uttered an expletive on TV... Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards..... No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.... No news anchors moved in. No looting No killing Jessie did not show up We just melted snow for water, sent out caravans to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars, fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Aladdin lamps and put on an extra layer of clothes.
Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early...we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
Everybody is fine
How can a poor state like Louisiana or Mississippi foot the bill? In case you haven't heard Louisiana is one of the poorest states in the nation. It's why most of the people I know like me left when they got the chance.
How would you like to deal with rising water that forces you into attic where you drown because you can't get out? Or perhaps your house was knocked off its foundations by rushing water or 150 MPH winds.
The number of people killed by tornadoes or blizzards in the past century don't even come close to those killed in just a few hurricanes of the past two decades.
I've got news for you: FEMA shows up for tornadoes and other disasters. They are just never on a scale like this.
Is it unreasonable to think that people could have enough food and water for themselves and their families for three to five days?
Is that really such an unreasonable thing to contemplate?
FYI, when there is a couple feet of snow the likelihood of losing your electricity is quite high.
Don't get me started. It still pisses me off that the gooberment fell all over themselves for Katrina (Louisiana) victims and you hardly hear a whisper from Mississippi whose coast was all but obliterated or those affected by Rita in Eastern Texas in September. North Dakota and Montana can at least hold their heads up and tell the media and the government to go to blazes. God Bless all of you affected by this blizzard.
yes you say it is silly because you dismiss the blizzards as the same kind of danger and dilemma that a flood causes. The reason you do so is because where blizzards come PEOPLE PREPARE FOR THEM and where there is hurricanes many do not.
In blizzards people do what they have to do to start again as soon as they can, and they do so because it is all they can do. Whereas in NOLA folks want to claim racism and BLAH BLAH BLAH.....
you are trying to claim you are not dismissing blizzards as a threat like hurricanes......but you indeed are doing exactly that.
I have been through two tornadoes and have yet to see them.
Poor state or not you choose to live there and you foot the bill. Take responsibilty.
I am not ill-informed enough to climb into my attic. I also do not run a hair dryer in the tub etc...
But not all of us lived through the worst natural disaster in the nation's history.
But surely you are not comparing an evacuation of Grand Forks to an evac of NOLA, are you?
Devastation.
I'm not talking about hurricanes. I'm talking about floods.
My sister experienced that flood. She lived on the west side of town in student housing, and had to evacuate to the Grand Forks AFB. Fortunately for her, she suffered little property damage, though she did have some water damage, even though her apartment was on the second story of the apartment building.
It does apply to me and my mother and my father and just about every relative I have. In my life I have lived five years off of the gulf coast. I have beern through twelve hurricanes that hit within at least fifty miles of me. I have lived through just one blizzard that stranded me for six days in Boise.
I'll take the blizzard.
I agree that the mentality is different in the two places. New Orleans was French afterall. And now it's 67 %,,, well, you know. But it is easy to say that people in one place don't take the handout when it isn't offered in the first place. If big spender Bush showed up in Helena, it might not be the same result as you are bragging about. This is just a little pop psychology on my part.
North America has the most extreme weather on the globe-- hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, blizzards--I like to include to earthquakes, but they aren't weather related. It happens all over the continent. People shrug it off for the most part.
Katrina and Rita are just some that couldn't be shrugged off--the damage was on a scale that normally isn't scene in the area. Just remeber that the entire state of Louisiana is only a few times more populated than Montana and ND combined and the residents in the affected areas aren't exactly wealthy.
That and I bet the governors and mayors in Montana and ND are probably another order of magnitude more competent than those in LA.
No, its not a direct comparison but there are some similarities to learn or observe. I menioned GF simply because it was an evacuation of a city due to a flood but any natural disaster could be used for comparison on people behavior. Also becuase the thread is based on events that happen up north here.
The behavior of the people for one during first a moment of crisis...and second a time of rebuilding.
FYI:
My father was flooded (basement apt) and moved away for work...similar to what many in NO have done.
My grandparents have stayed and were flooded just in their basement....just inches below where the ground floor level was...very fortunate.
Old decrepit levees and pump infrastructure is what caused this sir not the hurricane. If you wanna go there I suppose we can. Who holds the bag for that? The local PEOPLE do for the votes they cast to elect corrupt local public officials that didn't address these issues for years and years and years. The same local people that scream racism today!
Yes some refineries were offline for a short period of time but there was no interuption in overall supply. Care to say that isn't a fact? I would love to see you post something to the effect that supply itself was deminished. Cuz it wasn't for a whole host of reasons that inclue aid by other nations and reserve supplies here at home that were accessed. You know it and I know it so concede that point please.
Living in Illinois and for a time in northeastern Oklahoma I know a little bit about tornadoes and what they do also. Guess what no FEMA for those issues either. Just alot of people helping one another help each other. See how the GOBMINT didn't play into that equation and how the tax dollar wasn't a factor?
Denigrate? I put it bluntl;y that folks got trapped in a place they were TOLD TO LEAVE FROM and you call that denigration? I point out that they made their OWN choice and now want to blame someone else and you call that denigration?
Denigration: To attack the character or reputation of; speak ill of; defame.
Please sir tell me how the comments I made fit that DEFENITION or retract your statement as inaccurate. What i have said is blunt truth....and often times that blunt truth tends to hurt a bit. That sir, isn't my fault and i hold no blame for that. I simply Said it. I did so because it is factual in nature. Care to point out that what i have said isn;t factual? I would love to see it. Maybe you could start by showing me how the economy stalled after the storms....ooops STILL had growth for the nation didn't we........ooooops rigs are still offline and there is NO supply shortage today and there never was one ....oooops, local issues do not equate the national picture.
You can feel free to reply to anything I say, I look forward to it actually.
How about you start out by qualifying your post that I have denigrated anyone. I eagerly await your reply that you say you will provide.
I do not dispute that what happened was a disaster. I dispute that people caught within it get to blame everyone else. That is where I draw the line and I REPLY. Hurricanes are not something new and the idea that NOLA could flood is not new and damage caused by hurricanes is not a new idea.
Point is that folks were warned and they didn't head that warning. Now those very folks want to blame everyone else but themselves.
Can you provide to me a quote or interview where even ONE person from the 9th ward in NOLA that stayed there blamed themselves for staying? Or are they blaming Bush? Are they blaming racism? Dude, they made a choice to stay there and that is on them....not anyone else. Why should I or anyone else be forced to pay money to these folks for the choices they made?
Why should anyone pay one dime to anyone that didn't pay homeowners insurance? Does this mean that I can drop my bill for insurance and just have the taxpayers pick up the tab????If they didn't OWN then they didn't really LOSE that property at all did they?
I am all for a victim when they are actually a victim of something other than their own choices. It sure seems to me that you attempt to label these folks victims when they indeed had another choice and simply chose not to take an alternate path...and now that things went poorly you will jump on a bandwagon with them and blame everyone else aside from the folks that chose to live there and chose to stay there even though they knew a huge storm was coming.
I will grant you the population of LA is larger than MT and ND combined, but the median income rate of a typical household in LA is $120,883/year, compared to North Dakota at $18,114/year and $24,949/year in Montana.
How many days were people on the I 10 over pass? How is it they were claiming to be dying of food and thirst?
Your relatives sounded like they were fortunate. I saw some of the devastation, and it was pretty amazing to note the water line on some of the houses in the residential neighborhoods in GF. Some two story houses had waterlines near the roofline.
Devestation eh'? That is what INSURANCE is for right?
See how I didn't mention loss of life? For when you are warned of a coming storm you either chose to stay or you chose to go. When you make that choice the devestation you experience is your own choice.
Chose not to have insurance then quit complaining.
Chose to stay thru a storm then quit complaining.
Make these two choices together , damn sure do not DEMAND that people fix it FOR YOU and take care of you for years afterwords.
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