Katrina

Off Topic Politics and World Issues
21

[quote]LowfatMatt wrote:
BIGRAGOO:

I just saw that the I-10 bridges are gone (partially at least). They are saying (the media) that the only way to get western LA (Baton Rouge, etc) from the NOLA area will be by boat for months or even YEARS. Totally blew me away. What are you guys hearing?

Stay up man. Sounds like a lot of support is on the way.[/quote]

That’s right. N.O. is under water and the I-10 is closed into N.O. and all the way to Miss. They expect the water to rise some more, putting the city even deeper. Resuecue choppers are pulling people out of N.O. and Slidel and it seems that this will cintinue for some time. There is a lot of people that are stranded on top of or in their house.

22

Watching the coverage of this storm ranks up there on the heart wrenching meter with the events of 9/11 for me. To this day, I get all choked up when I watch footage of the second plane flying into the WTC and that’s about how I feel when I see the death and destruction on TV of this storm. I can only imagine what it’s like to experience that firsthand…

23

[quote]Panther1015 wrote:
Watching the coverage of this storm ranks up there on the heart wrenching meter with the events of 9/11 for me. To this day, I get all choked up when I watch footage of the second plane flying into the WTC and that’s about how I feel when I see the death and destruction on TV of this storm. I can only imagine what it’s like to experience that firsthand…[/quote]

It’s a true shock to the system. I mean, my family faired well, but when you start hearing others’ story and get to see the damage of places you are very familiar with, it’s like a dream. You think “this isn’t real”. It’s sad and depressing. A guy I work with and an unlce of my wife have lost their homes due to the flooding. It’s just awful. I am tonight seeing the damage caused looking on the internet. It’s just unrecognizable.

24

Here’s a bunch of organizations to which you can donate, courtesy of Instapundit:

http://instapundit.com/archives/025235.php

FLOOD AID UPDATE: Here are some places you can donate to hurricane Katrina relief: (Bumped to top – scroll down for current posts.)

American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/

Catholic Charities is involved, and probably has lots of resources to draw on in the heavily Catholic New Orleans area: http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/news/katrina.cfm

Austin Bay is recommending Episcopal Relief and Development: http://www.er-d.org/

Liz at Rightalk suggests that animal lovers donate to the Humane Society: https://secure.hsus.org/01/disaster_relief_fund_2005?

Here’s a link to Mennonite Disaster Services: http://www.mds.mennonite.net/ The Sanity Inspector says they’re highly efficient.

Reader Peter Viditto recommends The Mercy Corps: http://www.mercycorps.org/

Here’s the link for Methodist Relief: http://www.methodistrelief.org/site/pp.asp?c=bhKNI4PHIpE&b=876335

The Salvation Army does good work: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/ (WalMart just gave them a million dollars, but that’s just the barest beginning of what’s needed.)

Hugh Hewitt recommends Samaritan’s Purse: http://www.samaritanspurse.com/

Scott Ott recommends Southern Baptist Disaster Relief:

I’ll keep updating this as I get new suggestions.

Jay Allen has a further suggestion:

I would suggest people donate through their companies whenever possible. Most major corporations offer matching funds to the dollar for charitable donations. Find who’s collecting money for relief efforts, then file for a match through your employer instead of sending to the agency directly.

Not bad – if your employer is supporting this.

Chuck Simmins is tracking corporate donations: http://blog.simmins.org/2005/08/katrina-donations-begin.html

Technorati Tags: flood aid, Hurricane Katrina: http://technorati.com/tag/hurricane+katrina

25

Here’s a link to some video – it’s pretty amazing the level of devastation that this wrought:

26

Oops,didn’t realize that there was another similar post on New Orleans in the
“Get a Life” topic. However, I’ve had a bird’s eye view of another part of the country from everyone’s post. The amazing technology of the internet.

27

T men

It is very bad. People are desperate. Our comapny is going to set up outside of NO under FEMA direction. I don’t know what to say. I am speechless. It is worse then war. All innocents involved.

If you are a medical person come down here. Doctor, nurse, EMT, corpsman. Just come down and help. In two weeks it will be sorted out but thousands will die. This is not bullshit. Take a leave, vacation, whatever just call FEMA or the Red Cross and get on a plane. We drained our first aid kits and gave away most of our water and food already and we are not even near NO. There are people who have not had food since Monday. If you come down to help, bring supplies. As much as you can carry. If you can’t send the Red Cross money now. Like I said they are totally screwed and I bet the majority of the worse off do not have insurance. They are destitute.

Call your congressman and tell them to send help. These people are screwed unless they get help now.

I asked my wife to post this and send to all my friends via e mail.

28

Hey, just a quick challenge to anyone out there reading this who hasn’t donated. I live in Canada, and I’ve donated.

If you live in the US and haven’t donated, then do it now dammit! You don’t have to give a lot to help out and your fellow citizens really need your help.

Repeating the link from above…

There is a button on the page that says “donate now”. It’s pretty damned simple folks.

29

[quote]vroom wrote:
Hey, just a quick challenge to anyone out there reading this who hasn’t donated. I live in Canada, and I’ve donated.

If you live in the US and haven’t donated, then do it now dammit! You don’t have to give a lot to help out and your fellow citizens really need your help.

Repeating the link from above…

There is a button on the page that says “donate now”. It’s pretty damned simple folks.[/quote]

I rarely agree with much that vroom says down here. This is one of those rare times.

30

[quote]mark57 wrote:
I didn’t realize the full extent until I read today that Bush has cut his five week vacation short by 3-4 days and returned to Washington. It must be really bad.

[/quote]

We could really do without the cheapshot, jackass.

31

[quote]reddog6376 wrote:
mark57 wrote:
I didn’t realize the full extent until I read today that Bush has cut his five week vacation short by 3-4 days and returned to Washington. It must be really bad.

We could really do without the cheapshot, jackass.[/quote]

The ABBers are out en masse this evening.

32

[quote]reddog6376 wrote:
mark57 wrote:
I didn’t realize the full extent until I read today that Bush has cut his five week vacation short by 3-4 days and returned to Washington. It must be really bad.

We could really do without the cheapshot, jackass.[/quote]

Thanks, jackass.

And it turns out he cut it short by 2 days, not 3-4 as I originally thought. After spending a few hours drumming up war support in California, he went clear out of his way to make a couple low-level passes over NO. Looking out the window of AF-1, he was able to come up with this timeless and insightful gem:

“It’s devastating. It’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground.”

Damn he’s smart.

33

[quote]mark57 wrote:
reddog6376 wrote:
mark57 wrote:
I didn’t realize the full extent until I read today that Bush has cut his five week vacation short by 3-4 days and returned to Washington. It must be really bad.

We could really do without the cheapshot, jackass.

Thanks, jackass.

And it turns out he cut it short by 2 days, not 3-4 as I originally thought. After spending a few hours drumming up war support in California, he went clear out of his way to make a couple low-level passes over NO. Looking out the window of AF-1, he was able to come up with this timeless and insightful gem:

“It’s devastating. It’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground.”

Damn he’s smart.

[/quote]

I can see by your brilliant input you must be a genius too.

Nothing like playing politics in the midst of the worst disaster in our nations history.