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New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the mandatory evacuation of the city for Sunday morning--the West Bank by 8.a.m. and the East Bank by noon. According to The Times-Picayune, Nagin called Gustav "the mother of all storms...We want 100 percent evacuation. It has the potential to impact every area of this metropolitan... This is worse than a Betsy, worse that a Katrina... You need to be scared and you need to get your butts out of New Orleans right now."
The NY Times reports that Nagin "may have been trying to shock jaded residents into taking prudent steps," since his "warnings were considerably more dramatic than the forecasts issued by the National Hurricane Center." Many residents were heeding his advice by driving out of town or heading to buses, leaving their houses boarded up. FEMA had asked ambulance companies to send crews to the Gulf Coast; ambulances from NYC headed towards New Orleans on Friday.
Cat 4 Gustav hit western Cuba earlier tonight; it's weakening, but is expected to gain strength in the Gulf of Mexico. Gustav will hit Louisiana and the Gulf Coast on Monday night or early Tuesday as a Cat 3 or 4 (Katrina was a Cat 3 when it hit Louisiana in 2005). Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said, "This storm could be as bad as it gets. We could see flooding even worse than we saw in Hurricane Katrina."
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Katrina was so devastating to New Orleans because the levees failed at two or three points. The winds did relatively little damage. Had the levees held, people in New Orleans would have largely forgotten about Katrina by now. Katrina would be remembered primarily for all the damage it inflicted in Mississippi.
damn, jen. your grammer is getting worse...
Sigh, maybe I need a real vacation, instead of a staycation!
Anyway, I'm hoping that Gustav loses steam before it hits the Gulf Coast.
So are we going to have to bail them out again?
So basically half of the nation's income tax is going to go to rebuild a city that's under water AGAIN.
Awesome. We're so smart over here.
It's unfathomable that Nagin is still mayor of that city; his inaction last time was criminal.
Too bad republicans gave all the money to Alaska instead of giving the money to help New Orleans prepare for future hurricanes like Gustav.
Lesson #1: Don't live below sea level in a hurricane zone.
Actually that last link shows Katrina was a Cat 3 when it hit New Orleans, and landed a bit to the east of the city, sparing it the worst of the storm.
this storm could just as easily turn right and hit florida or go left and pound texas. i've seen it a million times. these things are never predictable.
I can't believe we might be witnessing another Katrina. How much can those poor people take? For once, I'm with Pat Robertson on this one: I'm 'praying away' this goddamn hurricane.
This is a no brainier. You live anywhere near juicy warm ocean water and you should expect a hurricane or a tropical storm every year. It might not be a category 4 or 5 every year, but still it's something strong.
If you listen to the media or watch any of the 24/7 cable news channels they make it seem like the gulf of coast never sees hurricane or a cat 4 or 5 is hitting a rare place like in New York.
I lived on the gulf coast for 22 years and never once got a cat 4 or 5. In fact there wasn't anything more than a cat 2 prior to Katrina.
if you're going to highlight a short, powerful phrase with bolding, can you please make sure it's copyedited? thanks.
Michael Moore Cackled that "god is giving the republicans what they deserve". He also forgot to mention all the innocent bystanders that will be devastated by Gustav. I wonder if Michael Moore is actually employed by the republicans?
Michael Moore would light a poor person on fire just to spite a Republican or earn himself a thin dime. He should be fortifying NOLA's levees with his enormous girth.
My fingers are crossed that everyone in the Gulf Coast region dodges Gustav's bullet and maybe we can think about helping the countries that were already hit.
#1 is spot on. I remember clearly that people around Bourbon street were dancing around, celebrating the fact that the storm wasn't so bad and that they had been spared.
Then the levees broke loose, and hell followed.
So incorrect...
Last time, I believe taxpayers in WA, MA, ME, KS...we all had to pay for New Orleans.
Here's an idea: It's called private insurance, and private charity. The government and federal taxpayer dollars are not a piggy bank for you to use. Bad things happen to everyone's home: fire, hurricanes, gas explosions, robberies, etc. But it's PRIVATE FUCKING PROPERTY.
Fuck you, New Orleans if you want to keep sucking off of everyone's teet because you live below sea level.
I do hope everyone gets out safely, though.
damn, jen. your grammer is getting worse...
Maybe, but at least she probably knows it's grammar.
The bright spot in all this is that a lot of people never returned after Katrina and many neighborhoods weren't fully rebuilt. Maybe after a couple of more of these, everybody will finally get the message and get out of the line of fire for good. Most if not all weather models say Atlantic hurricanes will only get stronger and more frequent as global warming progresses.
damn, jen. your grammer is getting worse...
Ha, talk about kicking yourself in the nuts...
hey jen, why don't you get your facts straight. it's kind of insulting for people from new orleans who evacuated up here who read this blog (me). katrina was downgraded to a cat 3 storm when it hit. clearly, you did not go to a journalism school. it's called fact checking. if you do want to use your random yet wrong tidbits of information all you have to do is throw in a "reportedly" or "allegedly" or "published reports" or write for fox. hey there is an opening at my news station for a production assistant. do you want me to get you an interview so that you can learn a little something?
@femiredwood, thanks for comment. I did link to the NOAA page about Katrina, which clearly states that Katrina was a 3 when it hit (and I did know and read that because I was struck by the reports that were saying Gustav would be a 4 when it would hit land), but for whatever reason, at 11:30 p.m. last night when I was writing this, I accidentally wrote "5". I apologize and appreciate your help.
There, there - in defense of Jen, it does get kind of tricky when you're plagiarizing tidbits left and right...
I think it's good that Jen is covering this despite not being necessarily New York related. It should be on everyone's mind.
Goddamn, for a beautiful holiday weekend, people are sure pissy.
the french quarter and the white areas will be fine,
it's the po black folk who will suffer again. or anyone that's poor.
You know what? All you people who are bitching and whining about "half of the nation's income tax is going to [rebuilding] a city that's under water AGAIN" are disgusting.
I saw emergency services from all over the country, NOLA included, for weeks following 9/11, and as hard as I try, I can't remember anyone from outside the metro area complain that NYC brought it on themselves, what with all those tall buildings they have.
And not for nothing, but as a city that is immobilized every time the rain falls at more than inch or two per hour, a direct hit by even a category 2 hurricane would wreak havoc here. And I can guarantee you that Bloomie would be applying for federal funds, along with residents who live in the low lying areas in some of the outer boroughs who now have the LI Sound or the Atlantic Ocean in their living rooms.
A lot of the people who live in NOLA live at a level so far below the poverty line that the majority of you running your mouths wouldn't even begin to be able to fathom life like that. And those are the people who aren't on I-10 evacuating north, or can't even make it to an evac site to get on a bus.
Yeah, it's not your fault that they're poor or underprivileged or whatever disparaging things you have to say about them, but that's no excuse to turn your backs when they need it. Last I checked, we're still the United States of America, and not the United States of those who can afford it.
I really hope this storm weakens significantly, or makes landfall somewhere that will be of less impact.
Good points, Dark Gemini.
And, Bottomless Chips, you're an ignorant ass.
Godamnit I was just there.
No. I'm much more grounded in reality than this fantasy world where we print money to pay for private property to rebuild and then wonder why inflation occurs and then blame oil companies for gas prices.
It's being cognizant of reality and that it's unsustainable for the federal government to foot bills.
You didn't address a single point I made. A lot of the money went toward infrastructure cleanup, which the city and state should have footed. Though an argument can be made that MA was reckless and the TSA was reckless on 9/11, thus should have to pay, too.
But those buildings in the financial district should have all be insured. And if not, it's not LA, WA, ME, or FL who should have to pay so a Sherson Lehman Brothers can rebuild. Same goes for the roads and MTA. This is what private insurance is for.
Why should someone in Michigan have their taxes go toward people who live in risky areas. It creates a moral hazard.
It's ignorant for you all to ignore this, and pretend that we have the money to keep paying for all of these natural disasters which are only going to continue for...FOREVER. Last time I checked, hurricanes or flooding in Manhattan isn't something that can be stopped.
I'm glad you're making up things to cement your weak argument. No one say anything disparaging about the poor in NO. Where the fuck did you get that from?
Yeah, we're the USA. We are altruistic and charitable. Thus, the money I give to the Red Cross and Salvation Army is money I feel much better about then my tax monies that go to FEMA.
What would you rather see show up in a time of need? The Red Cross, or FEMA?
Point. Me.
Though an argument can be made that MA was reckless and the TSA was reckless on 9/11, thus should have to pay, too.
Wait, the TSA existed on 9/11? That's a new one on me. I could have sworn they were created as part of Homeland Security after 9/11.
All I know is that the Bums in New Orleans are loving Gustav. Before Katrina, they were bums. After Katrina they lived like kings for a bit off of social welfare and humanitarian aid. Now the good times are back again.
This one seems wobbly. If it wobbles one way, N.O. is fucked, if it wobbles another, Cajun country is submerged like a crawfish in a culvert. Either way, "ooh dat not nice."
Clearly meant FAA, as they had information about the attacks prior. Thus, you could make a lucrative lawsuit out of it. And I meant Massachusetts in regards to their airport security, as it was negligent.
My good friend Voodoo Rue evacuated to a shit hole hotel in Mississippi - (http://voodoorue.blogspot.com/), but I'm muddling through my own staycation here (http://politenewyorker.blogspot.com/)
If Bush and Cheney fuck this up, it will be the end of the Republican's chances of winning the election.
As to addressing your arguement, while I did directly quote you, I wasn't engaging in a debate regarding your view of things, ergo my lack of comment on the rest of what you said. There was no need to, really. They spoke volumes on their own.
Will they make black people TURN BACK AT GUNPOINT during this evacuation like they did before?.
Haha okay, let's just give NOLA a trillion bucks off the printing presses. That's going to help things.
You're just playing the populist approach of let's give them money and tehy'll figure out how to properly allocate it. FEMA worked well, right? All the money given post-Katrina has been flushed away. The Army Corps of Engineers said that the city is 20% ready.
But you simply mock me when I make fun of the fact that public money is NOT how you solve the problem.