Hurricane Katrina

[Marcial]

Still alive down here... we got off relatively easy... tons of wind (gusts up to 75mph), but very little rain.  New Orleans is absolutely screwed.  Initial damage estimates are $25 BILLION... Judging by the aerial views I\'ve seen, I will be shocked if the death toll is not in the thousands.  

Also, as you may know, NO is home to many seedy characters... very high crime rate... yesterday, one of my co-workers who went to school in NO @ Tulane said.... hmmm, with everyone from NO out of town and chaos insuing, there is going to be a ton of looting... sure enough he was right... people are looting in broad daylight... I saw one pic of a guy leaving a store carrying 2 or 3 cases of Heineken while wading through waist deep water.  The authorities need to send the National Guard out there with instructions to shoot on site anyone caught looting.

[Wolfman]

Caption of the day:
Jill Nicholson of Gulfport, Miss., shakes her head as she walks past the President Casino barge Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005, in Biloxi, Miss. The barge was ripped from its safety mooring by Hurricane Katrina, Monday and floated about a half mile, across U.S. Highway 90, finally beaching itself on top of a Holiday Inn Express.

[Mamalakabubadaya]

with everyone from NO out of town and chaos insuing, there is going to be a ton of looting... sure enough he was right... people are looting in broad daylight...

i was watching the news last night and they had two female COPS on video looting at a department store and are asking people to call in and identify them. fucking despicable.

[antbach]

In all honesty, I am a believer of global warming, I just hope that the past few summers have opened the eyes of those whose eyes need to be opened.

I hope I am not the only one who has noticed this trend the last few years. Summers have been getting much hotter and humid. Hurricanes are getting stronger and stronger and there seems to be more of them every year. In my opinion the northeast is DUE for a big one, and I feel it may happen this hurricane season or next. In the past few years or so, as far as I can recall, any hurricane that has even remotely looked like it would make landfall in the northeast has lost strength due to the water temperature on its way up here. This summer was, I think, was one of the hottest on record, which means that water temperatures up here are warmer at this point than they have been in the last decade. (remember I have no factual evidence for this, I am basing my own assumption). I am sure everyone watches the news and is up to date with the weather, but keep an eye out for a big one hitting new england pretty hard. . .

[jocelyn]

Yes the more I watch the more it likes like the city has been pretty much destroyed... As of last night it was 80% under water.

[Wolfman]

And 638 people died in a stampede (a stampede!) at a religious gathering in Iraq, which may be more than died in the hurricane.  Is it just me or is the world plummeting into total chaos?  

BTW chalk that stampede up to today\'s reason why RELIGION IS STUPID.  No religion, no stampede.

[Stephengencs]

I am watching the news now.....  I thought No\'leans may have dodged a bullet by having the heart of the storm past more eastward than originally expected, but after seeing the flooding, I would have to say that the city is pretty much fucked.....

I am curious to see what the French Quarter is looking like.  It doesnt seem that the news is focusing on any part of the "tourist-centric" areas of the city.  I know walking down Charles St, there is store after store and gallery after gallery of antiques, jewlery, amazing art, and other quite expensive trinkets and such....I hope those shopkeepers emptied their places of the merchandise in preparation for the storm.....

[kyndkate]

This is like watching a horror movie...only this time, it\'s a documentary. I\'ve never been to New Orleans, and was actually planning a Mardi Gras trip with some college friends this year. Looks like that won\'t be happening for a long time.

[jocelyn]

The looting is already pretty bad. There have also been a few shootings.

[Stephengencs]

And now come to find out.....

Brett Favre\'s parents/family is trapped in their attic in Mississippi.....

[Spacey]

And now come to find out.....

Brett Favre\'s parents/family is trapped in their attic in Mississippi.....

I heard that his family house was destroyed.

Favre always seems to get life\'s worst when his family is involved.

[Stephengencs]

I just hope he doesn\'t start hittin the Oxy\'s again....

[antbach]

A giant new  Wal-Mart in New Orleans was looted, and the entire gun collection was taken, The Times-Picayune newspaper reported. "There are gangs of armed men in the city moving around the city," said Ebbert, the city\'s homeland security chief. Also, looters tried to break into Children\'s Hospital, the governor\'s office said.

Not only do they have to deal with looting, but now its gonna be a tiny war between looters and police. Absolutely disgusting behavior.

[jocelyn]

Children\'s Hospital? good god...

There is a state of martial law in much of New Orleans now.

[Wolfman]

For those with an appetite for destruction, Yahoo is once again serving up the best pictures, while cnn.com has some good videos of looting, rescues, and I-10.  

The looting thing is wierd.  Certainly those who loot jewelry and guns and Heinekens obviously have malicious intent.  I think 95% of looters do have malicious intent.  But some of these people are going into grocery stores and taking food and diapers, things they need to get by.  What would you have them do?  Leave money on the counter that a cashier can pick up later?  Sit patiently outside for 6 weeks until the store opens again?  They\'re already 48 hours in with no food.  I see nothing wrong with taking food, especially from a chain grocery store, and I think the chain should be happy to write off the taken food as a donation to disaster relief.