The Energon Pub

Two years ago one of the greatest natural disasters occurred in the New Orleans area and south west Mississippi..
Millions of people became homeless as we fled our residences as Hurricane Katrina ravished southern Louisiana then Mississippi.
I and my family evacuated with friends to Alabama, that is where we stayed for the next month until we were allowed to return home.

There were plenty of beautiful people in Alabama that helped up while we were there, they just came up to us and gave us things..

On September 23rd we drove home (during Hurricane Rita) and began to pick up our lives and continue on.

So what is life like where I live (Jefferson parish right next to New Orleans) 2 years post Katirna?
Crime is up in my area as so many people migrated from New Orleans to Jefferson.
Contractors are screwing people still (we fell victim to this in 06)
There are still plenty of areas in New Orleans that are not livable.
Some areas of the 9th ward look as they did when the water went down in 05
I have never witnessed so many people putting their houses up for sale and moving out of state

Other than that (for me) life is somewhat back to normal.

What I remember about it more then what I had seen on TV was the day before it hit the Big Easy

A freind and I were on I-4 driving from Orlando back to Tampa after spending most of the day in Disney world

As we were driving west we could see this massive wall and even the news stations said "Yep folks that Katrina you see out there in the Gulf"

It was like seeing this monster ala Godzilla approaching but from the side veiew of it.I don't know what it was like going through that and I still don't want to know even though people have said the Tampa area is due for one

While we were in Alabama we still got hit by the remnants of the storm too.

Biloxi and Gulfport are really depressing to visit now too..

Hurricane Katrina was a very chaotic hurricane. And it's very sad that so many people died. I could have imagine how the family in New Orleans have been through for the last 2 years.

Tampa has been due for about 40+ years now.

My uncle lost everything he owned in Katrina. He lived in Gulfport MS . He and his wife were getting a divorce. She had the house on stilts that had a killer view of the gulf. He was staying in a cheesy apartment a few miles away. His soon to be Ex-mother-in-law lived across the street from the house on the gulf.

He lost everything, I mean, nothing was left, no pictures, no house, no stilts, no apartment, no mother-in-laws house, nothing.

He moved out to Idaho .

My in laws live in Lafayette LA. They had no trouble w/the storm. However, the population has doubled and is working on tripling the population prior to Katrina. Crime is up, the roads(that were already sh!ty) are now worse, there is very limited housing and jobs. My mom-in-law works in retail and she says she gets almost a 50 job apps a day, but can't hire anyone else. My bro-in-law has been getting in trouble w/the cops. What normally would have been ignored, has now been cracked down on.

Life is hard, but you have to keep moving.

I don't want to draw out a huge post, but, I feel very little pity for those effected.

I am a Floridian, I have know about Hurricanes my entire life, like someone in CA knows about Earthquakes and ppl up north know about blizzards. They are a part of life and you have to have a plan if one comes your way.

If you live below sea level, then you have to know you're f#cked if a hurricane comes your way. If you are too poor to move(no car, can't leave a job) well, that sux for you, but you better still have a plan.

The f#ckin' city should have had a plan, the f#cking state should have had a plan. The f#ckin' ppl should have had plans.

Instead things went to f#ck 'cause no body had a plan. I feel sorry for anyone who had a plan a and got f#ck'd by someone else. However, if you had no plan and got f#ck'd,. then you got what you deserve. I know that sounds bad, but, you gotta keep think'n. You can't expect others to think for you.

...As I read the post above, I realize that it sounds high and mighty. I don't mean to sound that way. I just don't understand why ppl let it get so f#ck'd up.

Actually, I do understand, I lived in LA for two years. It's just a different way of life(slow), but that's still no reason not to think out a real plan for survival and whatnot.

Let the barrage begin...

DJDrew&ScoobyDoo wrote:Tampa has been due for about 40+ years now.

My uncle lost everything he owned in Katrina. He lived in Gulfport MS . He and his wife were getting a divorce. She had the house on stilts that had a killer view of the gulf. He was staying in a cheesy apartment a few miles away. His soon to be Ex-mother-in-law lived across the street from the house on the gulf.

He lost everything, I mean, nothing was left, no pictures, no house, no stilts, no apartment, no mother-in-laws house, nothing.

He moved out to Idaho .

My in laws live in Lafayette LA. They had no trouble w/the storm. However, the population has doubled and is working on tripling the population prior to Katrina. Crime is up, the roads(that were already sh!ty) are now worse, there is very limited housing and jobs. My mom-in-law works in retail and she says she gets almost a 50 job apps a day, but can't hire anyone else. My bro-in-law has been getting in trouble w/the cops. What normally would have been ignored, has now been cracked down on.

Life is hard, but you have to keep moving.

I don't want to draw out a huge post, but, I feel very little pity for those effected.

I am a Floridian, I have know about Hurricanes my entire life, like someone in CA knows about Earthquakes and ppl up north know about blizzards. They are a part of life and you have to have a plan if one comes your way.

If you live below sea level, then you have to know you're f#cked if a hurricane comes your way. If you are too poor to move(no car, can't leave a job) well, that sux for you, but you better still have a plan.

The f#ckin' city should have had a plan, the f#cking state should have had a plan. The f#ckin' ppl should have had plans.

Instead things went to f#ck 'cause no body had a plan. I feel sorry for anyone who had a plan a and got f#ck'd by someone else. However, if you had no plan and got f#ck'd,. then you got what you deserve. I know that sounds bad, but, you gotta keep think'n. You can't expect others to think for you.

...As I read the post above, I realize that it sounds high and mighty. I don't mean to sound that way. I just don't understand why ppl let it get so f#ck'd up.

Actually, I do understand, I lived in LA for two years. It's just a different way of life(slow), but that's still no reason not to think out a real plan for survival and whatnot.

Let the barrage begin...

Wow! That must be very hard for you.

DJDrew&ScoobyDoo wrote:Life is hard, but you have to keep moving.

I don't want to draw out a huge post, but, I feel very little pity for those effected.

Let the barrage begin...

I know plenty of people that lost everything (a couple of co-workers lived in Chalmette).
And it is not fun or funny.

Your first point is pretty much what everyone I know including myself is doing right now. It is hard but we are moving along.

Your second point is your opinion. I will not go any further with this one in order to keep some sort of "professionalism".
Most people did have a plan to leave that is why over 1,000,000 people evacuated. The local governments are the ones that fell apart.

third, "let the Barrage begin" eh..
It almost seems like you posted that to bait someone into an argument.. And baiting is against the rules.

Again the post would have been fine except for the last part which seems to me as if you want to start something.

Just to relate how bad things actually were from a statistical standpoint...

Katrina had a >80% evacuation rate. That's unheard of. It's the most successful evacuation in FEMA history.

And still, the human devestation was unheard of.

Counterpunch wrote:Just to relate how bad things actually were from a statistical standpoint...

Katrina had a >80% evacuation rate. That's unheard of. It's the most successful evacuation in FEMA history.

And still, the human devestation was unheard of.

They said for us to evacuate and we did.
Only a handful stayed to "ride it out"..
And those poor souls..

DJDrew&ScoobyDoo wrote:Tampa has been due for about 40+ years now.

I have been hearing that from the Tampa natives for about 6 years now As I say to them don't become too complacent it just might happen

My mother went through one in our hometown in 1955 and she tells of stories how it tore through town taken out buildings and now where there was buildings are now part of a river

My hometown? a place called Norwalk Connecticut..Yes hurricanes hit the north too. In 1984 Hurricane Gloria hit us along with NYC

Bartmanhomer wrote:

DJDrew&ScoobyDoo wrote:Tampa has been due for about 40+ years now.

My uncle lost everything he owned in Katrina. He lived in Gulfport MS . He and his wife were getting a divorce. She had the house on stilts that had a killer view of the gulf. He was staying in a cheesy apartment a few miles away. His soon to be Ex-mother-in-law lived across the street from the house on the gulf.

He lost everything, I mean, nothing was left, no pictures, no house, no stilts, no apartment, no mother-in-laws house, nothing.

He moved out to Idaho .

My in laws live in Lafayette LA. They had no trouble w/the storm. However, the population has doubled and is working on tripling the population prior to Katrina. Crime is up, the roads(that were already sh!ty) are now worse, there is very limited housing and jobs. My mom-in-law works in retail and she says she gets almost a 50 job apps a day, but can't hire anyone else. My bro-in-law has been getting in trouble w/the cops. What normally would have been ignored, has now been cracked down on.

Life is hard, but you have to keep moving.

I don't want to draw out a huge post, but, I feel very little pity for those effected.

I am a Floridian, I have know about Hurricanes my entire life, like someone in CA knows about Earthquakes and ppl up north know about blizzards. They are a part of life and you have to have a plan if one comes your way.

If you live below sea level, then you have to know you're f#cked if a hurricane comes your way. If you are too poor to move(no car, can't leave a job) well, that sux for you, but you better still have a plan.

The f#ckin' city should have had a plan, the f#cking state should have had a plan. The f#ckin' ppl should have had plans.

Instead things went to f#ck 'cause no body had a plan. I feel sorry for anyone who had a plan a and got f#ck'd by someone else. However, if you had no plan and got f#ck'd,. then you got what you deserve. I know that sounds bad, but, you gotta keep think'n. You can't expect others to think for you.

...As I read the post above, I realize that it sounds high and mighty. I don't mean to sound that way. I just don't understand why ppl let it get so f#ck'd up.

Actually, I do understand, I lived in LA for two years. It's just a different way of life(slow), but that's still no reason not to think out a real plan for survival and whatnot.

Let the barrage begin...

Wow! That must be very hard for you.

What must be hard for him? He does not live in New Orleans.

And just a FYI No matter what the natural disaster would be, my heart would go out to ANYONE that it affected.

I wasn't trying to bait or anything like that. I actually sat on my post for a day to make sure it was what I wanted to say, not just an outburst.

I edited a few lines out but not many. I realized that my post would get responses. It was just one of those posts. So I added the last line.


I have seen towns devastated by Hurricanes. I know suffering and I do feel sorry for loss of life and all that comes from disasters.

Maybe, I should have said something like, "I don't feel sorry for anyone who decides to stay". But that is not completely true. Many HAD to stay, no car, had to take care of sick G.ma, etc...

What my main concern is(and I still don't think that I can express it correctly) is that many stayed on purpose, not just for the hurricane party(which I have celebrated before), but because they didn't think it was dangerous, and they got seriously f#cked.

The city half @ssed it, sure evacuate to the Superdome, but then what? The local government, should have had a better plan, they should have coordinated with the state government. How long were people there, a few days, a Friggin' week?!? WTF?!?

Maybe I'm spoiled, we have a top notch rescue and repair force here in FL. Get the immediate's, working, i.e. Power, Water, sewer.

N.O. had the huge pumps to pump the overflow water out, but no one thought what would happen if the water was in(broken levee), and that's my whole point about knowing you are below Sea Level.

I don't know, maybe I'm biased to LA. I lived there for two years and couldn't get past the fact that they still have Napoleonic Laws, I know the history, but come'on get a system that worx. Too much corruption and favouritism.

Everyone knows N.O. is below sea level but no one thought it would happen to them. Well guess what folks, it can happen to anybody(Connecticut, as pointed out).

I know, I know, just another ramble. I just can't get over how big a cluster f#ck the whole thing was. I also, feel that it would not have happened the same way in any other state. That is why I feel hardly any pity for those effected. People knew the danger, and didn't care, locals, city, and state. They let themselves get f#cked, and little helpless people w/ crippled G.ma got hurt, i.e. Mentally and physically.

Trust me we still can't figure how much of a CF it ended up being.

One thing about the pumps, the Jefferson Parish President could have turned them on to "empty" the parts of my area that were flooded and have caused so much less house flooding but he did not.
People pretty much loathe him now.

Nagin and Blanco did drop the ball and for the life of me I don't understand how Nagin got re-elected. Now Blanco, she knows that if she ran again no one would vote for her so she is not even running for re-election next year.

They got caught with their pants down plain and simple.

And also it was not so much the local government that did not get there but the US government.

Prompted by your last reply, I did some research. http://thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline

The font was really small on my screen so I pasted it into a word document to read it.

I already hate bush, but d@mn, he did let the ball drop.

However, I still feel that it is more the city and states duty to take care of their own first.

Yeah, call a state of emergency and call for mandatory evacuations. However, there was still no plan for after that.

You can blame Bush for not sending troops to quell the violence, but with that many people in one place, what do you expect. That's where the city and state should have stepped up.

Either way, it was a big cluster F#ck and many people got hurt and lost a lot.

...but MS and AL got their sh!t together and got things moving fast. Also, they had more square miles to secure.

DJDrew&ScoobyDoo wrote:but MS and AL got their sh!t together and got things moving fast. Also, they had more square miles to secure.

The MS beach (the main area to be affected) is moving about the same pace as we are. We have taken 3 trips to the beach this year and their progress is pretty slow (I expected more especially with the casino revinue the state brings in).

One reason they were able to rebuild what they have is because they were left with empty slates to rebuild upon. The tidal surge came in and took everything out.

It took a month to completely drain New Orleans and many have said it would have been better if the water took everything away and left empty slabs.
The demolition and re-building is the main problem.

Yeah.

I went to N.O. this spring, 2nd time since Katrina. It's still pretty bad. I decided to come back via SR 90. Didn't make it too far. I took a ferry across the first bridge wiped out in MS. But the second had no ferry service, so I jumped on I 10 until I could get back to SR 90.

I tried to find my uncles home, he lived near a wetland preserve, and the entire geography has changed. There's not even a road to the area anymore. He had a great view of the gulf, only had about a 100 yards of sawgrass to see it. Had a long boardwalk out so you could fish. It's really amazing how much force moving water has. Just add all the sand and debris, and then now you have a moving wall similar to cement. It's almost like a Pyroclastic flow from a volcano.

Anyway, I know it really sux to lose everything you own and to start over. But that's life. I just really bothers me to see errors made by man and everything that man does to the detriment of fellow man.

DJDrew&ScoobyDoo wrote:I just really bothers me to see errors made by man and everything that man does to the detriment of fellow man.

This is the greatest tragedy of the storm really.

Katrina related story from Australia ...

For those that don't know, March 2006 saw Cyclone Larry strike Australia, in particular the town I live in. It was one of the biggest and most powerful cyclones in recorded history and there was a fair amount of destruction, fortunately though there were no lives lost.

Suffice to say it did make news headlines around the world, an in New Orleans, a paper there featured a photo taken from a helicopter of a woman on the phone (mobile/cell) looking out the door of the remains of her house.

One New Orleans resident saw this photo and after what she went through decided to send a package (it hasn't been said what's in it) to the woman in the photo. Of course without knowing who the woman was she sent the package care of the Innisfail Post Office with the photo attached in the hopes that it would reach her.

Given that it wasn't addressed really well it finally made it's way to the post office last week, the local paper ran the story and within hours the woman had been located and the parcel delivered.

It's comforting to know that in times of devestation people can come together from across the world.

Burn wrote:Katrina related story from Australia ...

For those that don't know, March 2006 saw Cyclone Larry strike Australia, in particular the town I live in. It was one of the biggest and most powerful cyclones in recorded history and there was a fair amount of destruction, fortunately though there were no lives lost.

Suffice to say it did make news headlines around the world, an in New Orleans, a paper there featured a photo taken from a helicopter of a woman on the phone (mobile/cell) looking out the door of the remains of her house.

One New Orleans resident saw this photo and after what she went through decided to send a package (it hasn't been said what's in it) to the woman in the photo. Of course without knowing who the woman was she sent the package care of the Innisfail Post Office with the photo attached in the hopes that it would reach her.

Given that it wasn't addressed really well it finally made it's way to the post office last week, the local paper ran the story and within hours the woman had been located and the parcel delivered.

It's comforting to know that in times of devestation people can come together from across the world.

Beautiful story..
I tell you that the outpouring from the people in Alabama was literally staggering.
It was a very humbling situation..

I'll admit that when there's a big disaster and they're calling for donations I don't readily donate, I claim I don't have the money (which I normally don't but you tend to find it in times like this).

But when you're affected, you realise just how much you need that outside hand.

I was lucky, the house only lost a few windows, and it may have taken me weeks but I pretty much single handedly removed every busted tree from the yard (and even helped the neighbours!).

But what was over-whelming wasn't seeing the army roll into town to help, it was the tradesmen who up-ended their lives and travelled from one end of the country to the other to help.

You just can't put a value on that sort of gratitude, for people to jump on a plane and rush to help, or for people to open their homes to take you in, it's truly priceless.

And that was clearly evident in Katrina, and the only downside to such outpouring of help is that it takes major devestation for such generosity to emerge.

Hang in there, CB. I pray that we'll never see anything like that again.

The Mad Asshatter wrote:Hang in there, CB. I pray that we'll never see anything like that again.

Thanks. I pray that no one else has to go through anything like that.

On a positive note the inspector from the mortgage company came to check out the empty slab (where the garage used to be) so we should get the rest of the flood insurance $$ soon.
Finally we will be able to put up the new storage building for all of our crap and smaller one for the yard equipment..

Yo Burn, If the cyclone was in March and the package arrived just recently, lets hope there were no perishables in there. However, I would assume that a fellow disaster survivor would know better.