Government? Maybe, but I think the local authorities had the responsability to request help, and to provide a way of evacuating all people BEFORE the hurricane came. There should’ve been busses and planes taking ppl out of the affected areas days before the hurricane. Yeah, Bush and the govt responded slow, btu local ppl have to request the help first ....

sebring - 14 September 2005 12:48 PM

Government? Maybe, but I think the local authorities had the responsability to request help, and to provide a way of evacuating all people BEFORE the hurricane came. There should’ve been busses and planes taking ppl out of the affected areas days before the hurricane. Yeah, Bush and the govt responded slow, btu local ppl have to request the help first ....

good point, I remember watching the news before it hit and seeing the mayor of new orleans talking about it in a joking way, even laughing somewhat, local authoritys deffinetely could have done more.

I think it was FEMA’s fault for not helping out as much as they could. They didn’t let Wal-Mart bring in 1,000,000+ bottles of water (estimate) because they said New Orleans already had enough water, which they ran out of.

what i wonder is - why were the levees never strengthened? there have been warnings about this problem for 30 years.  i watched a documentary about it 9 months ago.  i suspect that it had something to do with wiping out the low income parts of the city and ‘getting rid of poor black people’ who lived in these areas.  all they need to do is give rebuilding contracts to halliburton (which has been done) and turn new orleans into “jazzland usa”, a trendy, glitzy, profitable tourist/“hip people” haven.  so, thats my theory and prediction.

—-> stop editing my posts to be politically correct. that quote is supposed to emphasize the racism of the person who says it. of people who want to rid new orleans of african americans, who amongst them is going to use the politically correct term?

mattmag - 14 September 2005 09:59 PM

what i wonder is - why were the levees never strengthened? there have been warnings about this problem for 30 years.  i watched a documentary about it 9 months ago.  i suspect that it had something to do with wiping out the low income parts of the city and ‘getting rid of poor african americans’ who lived in these areas.  all they need to do is give rebuilding contracts to halliburton (which has been done) and turn new orleans into “jazzland usa”, a trendy, glitzy, profitable tourist/“hip people” haven.  so, thats my theory and prediction.

that’s exactly what i think.

blame bush ; ) he doesn`t like black people 😛

I think it was a total team effort to F this disaster up.

I think the most important guy messed it up the most.

Well I think Bush is at fault for a large part of it. Then again so are the local authoritites. It’s incredible that we could start wars and go out there and kill people, supposedly for our safety. But when the time comes to really protect us the Goverment fails miserably.

ridv34 - 15 September 2005 02:10 AM

Well I think Bushs is at fault for a large part of it. Then again so did the local authoritites. It’s incredible that we could start wars and go out there and kill people, supposedly for our safety. But when the time comes to really protect us the Goverment fails miserably.

Well said

Did any of you donate or volunteer?

I donated $40 of my own money to my school and I’m only 16 with no job. (I got the money from mowing lawns and such over the summer, but I don’t think that’s much of a job)

sebring - 15 September 2005 01:02 PM

Did any of you donate or volunteer?

I donated some money

The Government cuz they didnt respond quickly like what they did to 9/11

I donated $100 to the Red Cross. I heard 91% of your donation goes to the actual victims of the hurricane. They keep 9%. Some employees are paid by salary, but they do have volunteers. They’re are many small groups that give 100% of your donation to the actual victims.

The Federal Gov’s response was not adequate, and the mayor and govenor were absolutely TERRIBLE for 1)not getting people out quickly and realizing the importance of the evacuation process, and 2) causing a panic with the hugely overblown estimates of dead and dying (ie 10,000+).  Lets not forget though, that these people stayed there.  Many, many more citizens could have left but chose to stay and paid dearly for that pigheaded decision.  What happened to personal responsibility?  I dont expect the gov. to provide me with common sense or to give me a personal invite during an evacuation.  The people that were able to afford the cig’s they were smoking for the whole month could certainly have paid for a bus ticket out of town.

matty - 11 October 2005 06:45 PM

The Federal Gov’s response was not adequate, and the mayor and govenor were absolutely TERRIBLE for 1)not getting people out quickly and realizing the importance of the evacuation process, and 2) causing a panic with the hugely overblown estimates of dead and dying (ie 10,000+).  Lets not forget though, that these people stayed there.  Many, many more citizens could have left but chose to stay and paid dearly for that pigheaded decision.  What happened to personal responsibility?  I dont expect the gov. to provide me with common sense or to give me a personal invite during an evacuation.  The people that were able to afford the cig’s they were smoking for the whole month could certainly have paid for a bus ticket out of town.

Most of the people that stayed were poor!! Most likely had no home, no car, no means of transportation. Wow, they were smoking ciggarettes, I guess there rich huh. Come on man, you can’t make it there fault, there should have been a way for the people that didn’t have money or transportation to be evacuated, instead of craming them all in the f*cking superdome, what a dumb idea that was.

it is, however, our government’s responsibility to look after its people.  if it fails in this task, it does not deserve to exist in the way it does.  to do anything than help the thousands of people who were stuck in the city is despicable and goes against the ‘morals’ that our government so often loves to shove down our throats. 

to blame the poor people is not entirely fair.  sure, some of them probably brought it upon themselves with drugs and stuff, but many were probably just screwed over many times by their “social superiors” or born into less than favorable conditions.  i doubt that anyone on this board could live for 6 months under the conditions that they have known all their lives.

the government (local, state AND federal) should have had a disaster plan in place for a long time before katrina, and should have been fixing the damn levees!  unfortunately, fighting wars against scapegoats seems to be more important than anything these days (except, possibly, getting to the moon again before the chinese go there). i have already stated my thoughts on why the levees were not fixed.

the conservatives and the ‘liberals’ were at fault here. they are too busy battling for power to actually use their power for anything productive.

If anyone I’d blame local authorites.  They were in New Orleans when the diaster occured.  Blaming the whole thing on Bush would be an irrational argument.  The streets were flooded and the city was in complete disaccord.  The feder government couldn’t have just rushed, it would have just created more choas.  It’s hard to get in and out of the city, theres basically 1 main route.  The local authorities totally neglected the people of New Orleans, they were more concerned with their lives than their people.  I’d also blame the FEMA because they didn’t take necessary action.  They told the people a few hours before the hurricane hit to evacuate the city.  With the limited roads and the social standings of New Orleans, a few hours isn’t an adequate amount of time.  I’ve associated with many hurricane victims because several of them travelled to Dallas and I’ve heard the horrendous stories.  They’re blaming mostly local authorities but also the help they are receiving.  Although material donations can be utilized, money would serve as the most appropriate sourse of aid.  People needed to rebuild their lives, buy cars, clothes, food etc.  The victims agree, meeting with them just makes you realize how tragic this disaster was.

Both the government and local authorities should have moved faster—they can share the blame.

Louisiana- the knew what would be the consequences if a major hurricane came.  The should have checked and upgraded the levees.