Katrina-

[Hawkeye]

I'm sorry you guys. I know a lot of us come to get free from the stuff in the world. I just have to sort this out in my own head.

Wow. Thats all I can say is wow. The closest I've ever seen to this scale is Suwetta but that was nothing compared to this. I literally feel so wow. I mean.

I feel so many emotions right now. Anger, fear, frustration, hope. I can only imagine what they are going through. When I went on a mission trip a few years ago I went without a shower for 10 days, but we always had food, and something to drink. Nothing like this. I mean i know this may be TMI but we had no Toilet paper or nuthin but compared to the images of catrina, you'd think I was living a kings life.

Wow. I mean. It's so hard for me. My values-even though I am only watching this my own values are being challenged. Used to I would find flat out wrong for looters and those who would shoot at rescuers, but seeing the images, I find it excuseable for looting ONLY in the cases of food and things necessary to survive.

The shooters I can only equate it to the people beginning to feel like animals in cages or wounded or hurt. They know what people do and if you have had no communication to the outside world, well anyone who looks like someone could be for all you know trying to kill you uniform and all.

I mean shit like this-seriously, can make even the most rational of men irrational. It fucks up your head.

I mean we're really seeing in this country something baffling. We're seeing our own morals challenged and crazy stuff.

It hurts me because all I can say is DAMN.

This is something that we have never seen in our country. This is apparently worse than camille.

I feel so frustraited because one of my army members (though im still mad at the boys) this one is a girl wrote to me about her having family down there. She has no idea if they are alive and shes in Iraq. I want to help her, and GOd I'll do my best.

I got a chance to go down and volunteer but when a coworker said he had family down there and could he take my place i let him. I feel so useless and so helpless but I know I gotta do something and many are scared. I mean yeah there is going to be some conservation that has to be done in this country-its been being saying that for YEARS but maybe this will make us listen.

I also feel hope because i know that deep down in the human spirit we can all help each other out. I know we can. I know we'll get through this. I know we will I'm more than confident, its almost like a given. Because we're strong, but at the same time, just because we got hit doesnt mean we dont feel pain in our hearts

OK im sorry i just had to rationalize and get that out. I couldn't write about my fear to my marines-i try to keep them upbeat and stuff. I cant talk to anyone at my house because DH has been glued to the TV my best friend starts bawling her eyes out and my other friend tries to top me off with being i know better than you shit.

Thanks for letting me talk to you.

 

[mac_obsession]

Ok so I feel pretty much total devestation about Katrina.
When I was a little girl, my dad got transferred around a lot. It made it hard to grow roots anywhere.

The place I loved the most, where I did actually have a "life" was Baton Rouge, La. We spent every weekend in New Orleans, and every Mardi Gras there, and just about all my childhood memories took place in NO.
Ive lived in NJ for 20 years, and I visited more places in NO than I have in NY. Every summer I would go back to NO or BR and spend my summer there.
I am so saddened by Katrina, so hurt, so angry, just like you Amie, I am devestated. I turned on the tv the other night, and Runaway Jury was on, and I couldnt even watch it because those beautiful streets are now all gone..
What makes me so angry about it is that thousands of people hoard bourbon street every February for Mardi Gras...But now, where are they? where are they to help?

My bf keeps taking the remote away from me, I obsess over things like this, and all day yesterday when I was in bed after my drs appt, I was watching this...I saw the most horrific things..Things that are commonplace in places like Somalia, and Iraq, and places in africa...I spent hours crying, and yet I couldnt turn it off. I saw the looters, the shooters, the wounded, young and old, the poverty stricken, the doctors that had been working for 4 days straight, without a break, the nurses, the newsmen and cameramen that have to have security just to show us, the rest of the world the catastrophic effect this has tolled.
Dead bodies floating in water, dead women in wheel chairs, with another body laying on the ground behind it wrapped in a sheet, dead children laying in their devestated mothers arms. People afraid to goto shelters, for fear of being raped, or beaten...They beat a 10 year old girl and broke both her ankles to take her sneakers. WTF IS THAT??????

This didnt affect the millionaires or billionaires. This affects everyone, but the worst affected the poorest of the poor. The people that had little to begin with and now have NOTHING.

I was talking to my mother yesterday, and we were trying to figure out how to get in touch with our friends and family down there, to find out where they are and if they were ok..But they say the phone systems may be down for months, and obviously there is no electricity, so we cant send emails, or anything like that. Her ending comment to me was, this makes you thankful for what you have doesnt it Janice.
It doesnt. It just breaks my heart that I cant help in some sort of form or fashion due to monitary constraints, health issues, etc. It makes me feel helpless and hurt.

My heart is breaking over this, and I HATE our president for not being there the DAY this happened..Why are our marines in Iraq, our armies are there fighting a war that is based on lies! Where is our military and why arent they there now? We are always dropping food to africa and iraq, and yet they dont do it for our own people?

Watching CNN I cant remember who the woman was, but she was talking to a rep from the white house, who said "WE didnt know about the people at the convention center" and she called him on it and said "SIR are you actually trying to tell me that YOU & The WHITEHOUSE do not know about the 3000 people at the convention center?" his response was "NO, we just found out about them today" Wtf is that? I knew about them and I am noone.

Well finally our military has stepped in. Thankfully, because of them this will be handled efficiantly and without further harm.

I cannot say that I agree with the looting or the shooting..I think its horrible, insane, that they would shoot at hospitals trying to evacuate the sick and infirm before the healthy. Thats why they are pissed, because they were trying to get the hospital patients out before the people stranded on top of buildings, so they shoot at them? Holy god...wtf is wrong with people. I understand the devestation, I feel it not physically but mentally, because that was my home too at one point in time.

I can never forget how I felt when I lived there, or visited there, but now it is tainted, for the first time in history there will not be a mardi gras, and I find this terrible not because of mardi gras, but because of the devestation that is to follow after the water is removed.

Once the land is dried out, what then? The buildings that are 100-200 years old will most likely have structural damage, if they are even in tact, people have no homes, no JOBS, what happens when it is cleaned up? Will there be jobs for people? Will they have homes, or anything? Most likely not..I just cant believe this..I can go on and on but Im upset enough so Ill end my rant.
Thank god for the people that are helping Louisiana, mississippi and all the places devestated by this, because if it werent for them who knows what would be..

 

[MACgirl]

I'm at a loss for words, I was watching the late news and see all this devastation, i could;ve sworn it was then end of the world movie, i began to tear when i saw an old lady in her wheelchair, with a blanket over her head...dead, and when the nurse got choked up when she said she is trying to help as much as she can but thier is only so much she can do. I felt helpless that these girls my age are on the streets with nothing now, when weeks before they lived a normal life like me. It's hard to imagin that all the tears and cries in the world wont give them thier home or life back. The footage that was shown was many older women crying for help, why can't they do anything t ohelp them?? it bothers and angers me that they were saying bush plans to tour new orleans or something, when its liek fuck touring DO SOMETHING!!!! these people are covered with dirt, the river's water, no shower, kids are gonig hungry!!!!!! sorry for my lanugage but this is inhuman. Its so hard to think without crying of women being pregnate or newborns, and small kids having to sleep without food or even water!. With the world trade center tagedy, war in iraq, Tsunami, london bombings, and now this, i dont know how much heartbreak i can actually take. I pray for these victims every night, and wish them luck, love and god help them.

 

[Hawkeye]

YAY!!!! THE MILITARY IS THERE! *sighs in releif*

I know that sounds stupid but the military showing up is a good sign. Law and order is now going to happen. I woek up this morning and saw them and I burst out in tears.

You guys dont understand that even though these guys are going to get verbal lashings and shit but the greatest thing ever is that they are there and you know they are greatly appreciated.

Politics fucks everyone over. Politics is what caused so much insanity with the evacuees the refugees and shit. POLITICS IS BAD but once the military came in that was as if they were saying, Politics has no place here, we're in charge and notice that with THEM there things are going SO MUCH EASIER!! YAY MILITARY!!!!!!

Its definately a sign of hope.

 

[mac_obsession]

I agree, finally, some help is arriving. People getting killed - ugh - Amie, you said it right they went from civilized people to animal instincts...They even paraphrased it on cnn...

I am so PRO military its insane...Its not the military I hate..its bush, always have, and I am so disgusted by his lack of urgency in this whole situation. People are dead, dying, and having babies that die because no one is helping.

One of the things that bothered me the most was when they moved the people to the intrastate, there was a woman begging the police for help for her husband who was very ill, and they told her we cant do anything and left, he died a few minutes later, and they said to her, you might wanna move him so he doesnt stink...
How horrible...I feel like the movie "the day after tomorrow" is coming to life. I told my bf when we first watched it that it was gonna happen in time, and it has...not on a global scale but if you look at it realistically it is a global scale. Things like this happen in other parts of the world on a daily basis..We just go about our lives and think hell, it isnt us...but now it is

sigh.
Now they are talking about west nile, the mosquito disease cause they pool in water...

At least the military is there, and they have stk orders whch is sad, but effective.

 

[Hawkeye]

I have to admit im a bush fan. I hate the way how his administration has handled this. But I dont think it was just him. I think it was also congress where the hell were they? I think what we have seen is just a total meltdown in washington DC. Nobody it seems was available.

I know it seems like the apocolypse. But I truely feel that now that the military is here there is hope. I mean.

THe good thing about being an american is that you automatically have this knowledge that even if hell came to visit Americans would fight back and the love and outpouring of people our fellow americans is coming. it was slow as hell but as i talked to my MSgt he told me that what he heard from one of his buddies was that nobody knew what to do until the national guard came in and told them what to do-THEY were the ones who just saidl, " We got the guns, we're in charge". YAY for that mentality at this moment!

I think im so elated, I lieterally fell on my knees thanking God for the military.

I mean. Seriously, the love, the compassion of our fellow americans, hell could come and quite frankly, america would just turn around and flip it off. Thats what is happening here I'm seeing and i'm feeling more and more comfortable and satisifed.

I truely think now that I was panicing because I truely believe that the military is very stable. Right now they are the most stabile part in the lives of the refugees right now.

The police officers, theres no excuse for what they did but at the time I think they had no idea what the hell they were doing or supposed to do and I think they felt useless. Still no excuse.

It's ok though because I truely believe that Americans are like a phoenix or a boxer. We get knocked down but damnit we'll give hell the bird because we're going to rebuild and there is nothing thats going to stop us. It's going be better. It's going to be bigger. It's going to safer. It may take time but we'll do it.

We are lucky to have that spirit. Where the faith of those refugees in New Orleans has ended they have millions of people who do have faith that are making up for it.

Yeah the military has given me new hope now. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

 

[mac_obsession]

Yeah I agree, thank god for our military. The police too, theyve done all they can really, I mean there was a Chief of Police on saying how devestated they were, that they lost a lot of officers by gunfire, drowning, and different reasons...

Im just grateful that they gave all they could, even though it wasnt enough, they did what they were capable of.

I agree, with the fact the administration blundered with how this was handled. Hopefully now that the military has arrived people will get the help and the resources they need. I dont think anyone knew how bad this really got till it was on tv or just didnt want to admit it

yay for blackhawks!!

 

[Hawkeye]

I seriously dont think anybody could've ever imagined this was going to happen.

But YAY FOR BLACK HAWKS!
YAY FOR THE MILITARY!
YAY for the MEDIA WHO GOT WORD OUT THAT PEOPLE NEEDED HELP!
YAY For AMERICANS who are GIVING help!

 

[singinmys0ng]

sigh, its so sad..i dont even think anyone can explain how we feel for those people. My Goverment teacher mentioned they turned off the little capitons at the bottem and just showed the pictures that you would prob think that you were seeing a third world country. the sad part is that it's true. Those people need so much help and im 100% sure that there could be tons of more help there than it is now. people are dying,starving, people are helpless and the thing is..they are in america and this is happening to them. LA needs our help more than anything right now imo. My high school is going to start a fundraiser where everyone brings in things from dipers,water,canned food and so on to help the people there. maybe if where you are doesnt have something like that started maybe you could start it? because like i said before..they need all the help that they can get.

 

[joytheobscure]

We have an elderly Uncle in Vancleave which is very close to where it hit very very hard. He went to a church - our one cousin was in Nashville but no word on our Uncle, Aunt and Cousins, we are assuming they are safe but wi thout power. We also have another Aunt further away from the worst but still in Southern Mississippi- Our cousin's in Jackson are back online. Its very sad though

 

[leppy]

There has been movies made of this scenario. The Red Cross predicted it all down to a t. Government engineers have known it would be like this if a hurricane of this scale hit since the 1960's.

In short, its absolutely horrifying what happened, the human toll is just unmeasurable. It was however, absolutely predictable and very imaginable.