







Comments     Threshold


By Manch on 6/28/2011 1:31:10 PM , Rating: 5
They're not having any luck with those plants. Hopefully in the end they'll get it sorted and get those plants shutdown and the overall contamination kept minimal at best. They have pics on CNN of a lot of the areas that were destroyed and already there's a huge difference between the aftermath and how it looks now. When you look at the aftermath of Katrina vs 4 months later it's impressive how much they've cleaned up. I really do hope thing get better for them.

RE: ...
By DanNeely on 6/28/2011 2:13:01 PM , Rating: 5
It's amazing what the difference is between people who immediately get up and start fixing their own problems and those who wait for the govt to do everything for them. If you compared against any of the other major hurricanes to trash large areas of the US, or even the damage caused by Katrina out side of New Orleans you'd see the same thing that the news networks are showing in northern Japan.

Neither top down nor bottom up solutions are complete solutions to disaster recovery; both are needed for the result to be anything but a pathetic farce. Many hands make quick work, and external monetary infusions are needed to sustain the effort.

RE: ...
By Natch on 6/28/2011 2:18:20 PM , Rating: 5
A perfect examply, currently, is the flooding going on in North Dakota.

These people did not wait for the government to move them or their household goods out of the path of the flood. They packed up their belongings, and moved them all by themselves.

They didn't wait for government assistance to find a place to live, they found their own, or others who weren't affected by the flood opened their doors (and their hearts), and helped their neighbors out when they needed help.

And there's not one person, I'd bet, standing around, holding out their hand for a $2500 debit card.....though I understand that there's plenty of folks out there that are busy filling sandbags, and helping out whichever way they can.

Tells the world of difference between some folks in this country, and other folks, doesn't it?

RE: ...
By BSMonitor on 6/28/11, Rating: -1
RE: ...
By ClownPuncher on 6/28/11, Rating: 0
RE: ...
By omnicronx on 6/28/2011 3:24:23 PM , Rating: 2
I would tend to agree, especially when you consider the Army Corps purposefully allowed the dike to breach to alleviate pressure upstream. As you stated it was a slow controlled process in which everyone knew what was going on. Clearly not Apples to Apples.

RE: ...
By seamonkey79 on 6/28/2011 4:03:27 PM , Rating: 5
No doubt, especially considering they waited until 10 minutes before Katrina hit to warn people there might be a hurricane on the way.

Wait a minute, no, as I recall, people had a fair bit of a week and more to prepare for it, still managed not to, and then complained that they weren't helped enough after the fact.

The fact is that the people who want their stuff cleaned up after disaster hits them, tend to go out and clean their stuff up to the best of their abilities, and then worry about what needs to happen afterwards, after... that's not what happened in New Orleans, but is what happened in Biloxi and the other areas that were hit. A portion of the levees still haven't been brought back up, because the people in charge if distribution of funds for the construction and maintenance of said levees, are busy flying to Washington lobbying to get more money.

RE: ...
By omnicronx on 6/28/11, Rating: -1
RE: ...
By Manch on 6/28/2011 6:33:48 PM , Rating: 2
I think the point he's trying to make is that they new the hurricane was coming and despite the fact that is was going to destroy their homes, many made no effort to leave or secure their belongings. Then they screamed about how nothing was done for them. While no you cant prepare for a hurricane they way you can prepare for a slow flood, that fact is many in La did absolutely nothing.

I lived in the P.I. for 5 yrs. Everytime there was a Huge Typhoon coming in, we did our best to put everything we could as high up as possible, loaded the landcruiser up with supplies and what ever we deemed as our most valuable items and headed to the shelters. yeah it a was a PITA but it's better than crying about losing everything because you did nothing.

RE: ...
By StevoLincolnite on 6/29/2011 1:08:51 AM , Rating: 2

Just look at Australia with Cyclone Yasi, It's claimed Yasi was just as powerful as Katrina.
The Government warned everyone, sending out text messages, phone calls, TV bulletins, Radio Announcements, Facebook and Twitter updates and door knockers to warn people.

Result is most people evacuated, despite their houses being made to withstand cyclonic winds.

However just before the Cyclone hit there was massive flooding, covering three quarters of the state (Comparable to the size of Texas and California combined by land area.)
Unfortunately not much warning occurred during that incident... And lives were lost.
It doesn't help that initially it wasn't a "slow" flood and more like an in-land Tsunami.
Later as it started to progress south it became a slow flood as seen in the capital city of Brisbane.

Warning everyone by every accessible medium is the best way to go about it.
I know some people who don't even own a Television out in the bush, but they do own mobile phones to receive such a warning.

RE: ...
By Solandri on 6/28/2011 5:20:06 PM , Rating: 1

No, Katrina was rather unexpected - we did not have a week's warning. At first, they weren't even sure it was going to hit Florida. They expected it to curl south into Cuba before dissipating. By the time it became clear it was going to hit Florida, NWS/NOAA started worrying about what would happen after. There was an unusually large concentration of warm water in the northern Gulf at the time, so they couldn't really predict how large/intense it would get nor where it would go. If it veered south, it would probably stay weak. If it veered northwest, it would grow incredibly strong. If it veered too far north, it would hit land again before growing too strong. By the time it hit Florida, most of the estimates I saw was were for a category 2-3 storm by the time it made landfall again in the Florida panhandle

While crossing Florida, it dropped from category 1 to tropical storm status. It headed west, then north - just about the worst case possible - and went from tropical storm to category 5 in 48 hours. Strike probabilities ranged all the way from Texas to the Florida panhandle - an area far too large to evacuate everyone. It was only in the last 24 hours or so when it became clear it was going to hit around New Orleans. Prior to then, most projections had it hitting the Florida panhandle.

RE: ...
No, Katrina was rather unexpected

RE: ...

RE: ...
By gevorg on 6/28/11, Rating: 0
