Hi y'all,
Well first off please don't get mad if I say something wrong b/c well I'm super tired and if I don't chit chat now, I won't for a while probably
I miss it here. (promotion and 12 hr days for the past few weeks have made me numb in the head). I’ll probably read it in the future and think - gee I said that? I meant to say it this way…
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**crosses some fingers too**
Mom already called me and woke me up at 6:30 this morning. (So much for sleep, right?) She and dad are in Orlando this weekend on a conference and are safe, but she told me to just get the hell out of town than stay in their house (by myself) which is the usual plan. So we're just waiting for the official word from campus to leave, but I seriously doubt they'll tell us to stick around with a 5 churning not too far away. Um, keep me in your thoughts, ok? It's pretty damn scary. It's amazing to think, though, after 17 years here this is only the first time I'm evacuating.
Jen
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I really hope you and your gang are doing well.
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I've been keeping an eye on Katrina -- she's scary. From what I'm seeing, this could be the worst storm in thirty years or more. I quote from the Weather Channel guy on location -- "If you're not scared, you should be." Chief Pam
Oh I agree!!!!!!
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I'm from south Louisiana and we are watching the storm closely. We have family staying at our house, ane are praying everything will work out fine. Hey, I also hope the storm doesn't mess with the oil refineries - gas prices are plenty high enough!! Shellyem
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My thoughts are with you <hug>
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I can't belive it...I was in New Orleans a week ago!! And I'm very sorry because it's a fantastic city..I've loved it!!
I was talking about going with my husband. I was so devistated at all that history washing away, the people who give the energy and right down to that duck I saw on CNN getting blown down the street.
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I think what astonishes and appals me almost as much as the terrible destruction is what the news organisations expect of their reporters and crews. These people are among the only human beings outside, exposed to the elements. There's one reporter and his crew in a car in Gulfport, a place described as a ghost town - everyone's evacuated. Everyone but the reporting team! And every time they go to Gulfport this reporter gets out of the protection of his armoured car and into 100+mph winds and torrential rain.
What was up w/ Anderson Cooper (CNN) standing beside that great big crane when the wind was nasty!? What if that thing came down!
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In Baton Rouge a student being interviewed said, almost gleefully, that this was a "fun place" to watch the storm from. Anyone who could describe this sort of weather, a hurricane which has already destroyed lives, property, natural resources and so on to such an extent, and which will cause destruction running into perhaps billions of dollars, not to mention hardship and anguish for so many people who may return to their homes in a few days' time to find that they've lost most of what they owned, and maybe their jobs too if the businesses where they worked are destroyed too, needs to re-evaluate his priorities.
I couldn’t imagine living in a place or time where such a thing was common place - loosing your home or lives as a part of life. I am glad we live in a place where we can most likely be helped.
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Ditto. I saw that too. Moron! You know, I wonder how many of these news reporters not only endanger their own safety and lives, but hamper rescue efforts by either being in the way or needing to be rescued themselves!
Adding to the problem. Hmmm. Maybe it can be a natural selection process for dumb reporters. Oh dear here comes a tomato.
I was glued to the TV when I saw Katrina hit Florida. I get so interested when I read about weather, space or hear a jet engine roar, etc. It's just my chemical make up I guess. Like many I'm sure, or anybody knowing the jazz about hurricanes and such, you had to have known Katrina was going to be a whopper!
I took three years of climatology at school and it fascinated me. Also we learned about natural hazards and government and other societal responses to it. If it wasn’t for the math I’d be doing geography instead of accounting (doesn’t sound right ‘eh? $=math). It was tough to learn not only from a 'scientific standpoint', but when I did my psych degree we learned about how people react in such situations. It would bring tears to my eyes. I couldn’t do the psych part. I bring it home.
I want to experience a hurricane one day. I want to see a tornado one day. I want to experience a earthquake (in an empty field!). I still want to ride in a shuttle even if it might go kerpow. Yet, I think pple who climb Mt. Everest are nuts! I am a scaredy cat and over protective of myself and hide when lighting strikes, but I still have this overwhelming urge to see it and experience it. I’d rather risk Mother Nature than walk though the North End of my city at night. My point is I can understand the twit who came from California to see the hurricane - but like others, he didn’t know it was going to be so…devastating. My mum thought the tornado chasers and explorers of centuries past where nuts - but hey some pple have that gene. Not quite to comparable, but I can see the similarities.
I can see what the dumb reporters are doing on the tele - risking their lives and others, and in a way I wish I was them AND I want to smack them upside the head. Reporters do annoy me (but not our Lois Lane
- Ralph yes). I wouldn't want to go and hinder any emergency response b/c *me* a 'tourist' was there. I'm torn like that.
I'm glad the reporters are there to tell us what is happening and are our watchdogs to see if pple are doing their job (ie. gov't response). Yes reporters don't get it right all the time or have stupid ways of describing things (in my opinion)(e.g. 'our' tsunami, 'our' Hiroshima etc.. I was disgusted when I heard those word being used. I won’t go into why - I’m sure some pple are disagreeing. *Yes* the Katrina hit area is horrid and makes me cry, they deserve their own 'word', but don't compare oranges to apples. I can see why they would use the words - because they are all fruit - destruction that makes you mouth drop and your heart tear.) I was just waiting for CNN to report deaths so they could call it a killer hurricane - they love to add that killer/terror element in a sensational way. I roll my eyes. Just report please don’t make it like the National Inquirer.
My heart broke when I watched one man describe loosing his wife in the turbulent waters and one woman in disbelief that her house just basically disappeared. I cannot imagine or put myself in anyone’s place, but I was ticked at some pple. I guess everyone just reacts differently - of course! One woman was stating she had no water and the nearest supply station would take her half a day to get to. She was not physically hindered in anyway (it was stated as a fact) - walk! How far do pple in drought areas walk for food and water? Again I guess different mentalities (eg. Fear) and expectations.
I am disappointed the relief is not 100% effective, but it is hard to get everywhere. Imagine all that area, imagine all the people. I am disappointed they didn’t prepare for a cat 5 (HEEEEEEEEEEELLLLO you are way below sea level) or for the other fact they had insufficient supplies ready for the pple at the Superdome, but in a way I thought it would be impossible to maneuver that many people effectively. I cannot fathom trying to coordinate something within a two day span like what pple wanted. If anyone could do that I would be sooooo happy. I only did a month of emergency training for natural disasters, I couldn’t imagine having that as my job. Why didn't they have groups of military vehicles set up with supplies outside of the danger zone and move in when realistically possible?
When Grand Forks flooded and the buildings downtown started to burn, they thought why can’t anyone put it out? They lost their city’s newspaper building. All the historical info gone. Dumping water on it a building would damage it. Yes fire is damaging it, but what if you made things worse? Perhaps it would get knocked down by the force of the water and may hit another building, it may create a wave. Yeah fire may do that too. What if others are near by and we don’t know it? If it is isolated then it isn’t an immediate concern. If fire is already at it, water has probably already damaged it. Why fix something that is probably already damaged when you could be doing something that WILL help and not just MIGHT help - unless toxic chemicals are involved. I used to have a good article debating such an issue. Gee my unorganized self doesn’t know where it could be.
If I had the same life I do here, but only in New Orleans I would have jumped on my bike and left with my backpack of stuff. I know how many kms I could do and hey I’d try. I’d be more scared of the people than the storm. I wouldn’t have stayed and the thought of being with so many pple at the Superdome actually frightened me. I thought of the toilets, madly agitated pple and the water.
I have been thinking of the pple I saw on CNN in the French Quarter who stayed and survived the initial winds and such. Now that there are flood waters, I wonder if they are O.K. now. When I watched them last, they where dining on food from a nearby restaurant who was giving it away b/c hey, it was going to go bad. I keep thinking of them.
Every hurricane season I like to go through my old text books and see what it may do or what society may do. I think of the people, the distraction and outcomes. I am saddened by what we loose and hope society actually learns, adjusts and adapts. I hope everyone is okay and think of my relatives and friends down there. And I wish I could be there to see it. Either in the airplanes that go through to study it or on the ground wanting to historically record it. You must respect Mother Nature. Prepare for it. Prepare what your fellow person may do. Suck it up and go forward. That’s what I would do or what I like to think I would do based on past personal experience.