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Mayor Orders Mandatory Evacuation of New Orleans
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sun Aug 31, 2008 10:35 AM
from the everybody-out dept.
from the everybody-out dept.
Pickens writes "City officials ordered everyone to leave New Orleans beginning Sunday morning — the first mandatory evacuation since Hurricane Katrina flooded the city three years ago — as Hurricane Gustav grew into what the city's mayor called 'the storm of the century' and moved toward the Louisiana coast. 'This is the real deal. This is not a test. For everyone thinking they can ride this storm out, I have news for you: that will be one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your life,' said New Orleans mayor, C. Ray Nagin. Already, hundreds of thousands of residents had begun streaming north from New Orleans and other Gulf Coast areas stretching from the Florida Panhandle to Houston. Bush administration officials took pains not to be caught as flatfooted as they were in Hurricane Katrina, announcing that President Bush had called governors in the region to assure them of assistance and that top federal emergency officials were in the region to guide the response. 'We could see flooding that is worse than what we saw with Katrina,' said Louisiana Governor Jindal."
The US Geological Survey will be running a real-time "Map of Hydrologic Impacts" to monitor flood levels, and the National Weather Service has charted direction and wind-speed probabilities. Reader technix4beos points out the need for IRC transcription of FEMA and NOAA feeds.
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what the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's below sea level in one of the most hurricane prone places on earth. Why are rebuilding and living there?
Make it an industrial zone and be done with it. Use the money to permanently relocate the population, not rebuild their soon-to-be blown away homes again.
Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's below sea level in one of the most hurricane prone places on earth. Why are rebuilding and living there? Make it an industrial zone and be done with it. Use the money to permanently relocate the population, not rebuild their soon-to-be blown away homes again.
Although New Orleans had its share of tough hurricanes, Katrina was the first big one that turned it into the costliest hurricane in US history. It was also ranked the sixth strongest hurricane to hit the US.
Your comment is insightful, but I'd only argue like this if this troubled area was hit by hurricanes more frequently than it currently is. Forcing people to leave their homes is more than just a material loss. There's history, lost ones and more.
At the same time, you could easily use this argument for places like Tokyo and other areas that are and will be struck by tremendous earthquakes.
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Funny)
At the same time, you could easily use this argument for places like Tokyo and other areas that are and will be struck by tremendous earthquakes.
And monsters. Don't forget the monster attacks.
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
At the same time, you could easily use this argument for places like Tokyo and other areas that are and will be struck by tremendous earthquakes.
I get real tired of hearing the earthquake or {Insert misc. disaster here} argument. It's generally rather large areas that are vulnerable to earthquakes, the same can be said for tornadoes and hurricanes. The difference is that while there is a wide coastal area that is vulnerable to destruction from hurricanes, New Orleans is the one that's frigging underwater.
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
We can't force millions of people to move, but they can't force millions of taxpayers in other regions of the country to fund their decision to live there either.
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
We can't force millions of people to move, but they can't force millions of taxpayers in other regions of the country to fund their decision to live there either.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. A million times yes! Let people live there if they want, but there's a huge time consistency problem that creates moral hazard when you give people federal money to build there again.
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
The Microsoft campus is built on solidified mud that flowed down during the last big eruption of Mount Rainer. In fact the entire Seattle/Tacoma area is at risk from such an eruption including Microsoft, the PacNorth software industry, and Boeing. Where do you suggest we move Seattle?
And while every local area should have good emergency planning in place, and Louisiana's prior to Katrina was not and did not, it was always my belief that in a true disaster situation the federal government, backed by the goodwill of the entire nation, should and would step in to help to the limits of human capability. Turned out, not so much.
sPh
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
This time they are going to make the opposite mistake. And McCain-Palin (sounds like a comedian) will be going off to campaign in the disaster zone during the disaster.
This is the reason they have a VP, or rather one of the few uses that has been found for a VP. You send the VP off to the disaster zone because they have the same clout and get it fixed capacity as the President in those situations but only require one tenth the amount of secret service etc. entourage. When Bush visited New Orleans to make a PR stop after it was realized he had blundered, they shut down relief for a day.
It is all deeply unserious, its about managing the next news cycle, not getting stuff done. Bush did not need to go to NOLA, he could have demonstrated he was in the loop by holding daily press conferences in the White House.
James T. Kirk made the exact same mistake in Star Trek TOS. When it came to TNG they realized that it somewhat strained credibility to have the captain of the ship lead the away teams each week. That was clearly Riker's job.
And talking about unserious choices, manipulation of the news cycle etc, I wonder which VP would be more competent in a situation like this.
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree.
The town closest to me (on the Ohio River) was was nearly wiped out during the '97 flood. The government helped them once to move out of the area. The response for those that decided to rebuild in the flood plain? No flood insurance, no disaster insurance and no help if happens again. Private insurance won't touch it. Good luck.
Don't forcefully stop people from making dumb decisions, but don't subsidize it either.
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh yes they can. They federal money to rebuild after Hurricane Flossy, Hurricane Betsy, and Hurricane Katrina and they'll get more money this time.
Any politician with the common sense to say "Hey, rebuilding here again is a bad idea" would be demonized as wanting to move people from their homes and probably called a racist.
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seeing as New Orleans is the largest port in the world by gross tonnage, I don't think it'd be too easy to just shut down.
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Informative)
America isn't going to function without a port at New Orleans. Incredible amounts of produce from the breadbasket of the country flow through that port. You can't run that port without a city to support it. New Orleans is important to the economy of the entire country.
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Where is "safe"? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:what the hell? (Score:5, Interesting)
This isn't Sim City where you can just 'declare something an industrial zone' and call it good.
Apparently you've never heard of a zoning commission. Those morons do it all the time.
Where you have industry, you also have to have (nearby) the people to operate the industry and the people who support them.
Apparently you've never heard of New York or LA. Can't afford to live with an hour of some places.
They should go ahead and rebuild the port and industrial infrastructure, then build some mass transit(light rail, it's cheaper per tile:) to the nearest STABLE and ABOVE SEA LEVEL region and put the residential & commercial there.
That way they just have to repair the tracks and the "stupid end" of the rail system when it floods and nobody drowns.
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Oh for goodness sake... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Oh for goodness sake... (Score:5, Insightful)
About 100,000 people got the hint last time(unless it's taking them 3+ years to walk back from Texas), so 2 or 3 more large hurricanes in close repetition should have the place cleaned out.
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Re:Oh for goodness sake... (Score:5, Interesting)
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You can't defeat nature (Score:5, Insightful)
So New Orleans is likely to be flooded yet again, but this is not a unique occurance. Florida is often trashed by hurricanes, and here in the UK much of our housing is on flood-plains, and some of our villages are crumbling into the sea due to coastal erosion.
You can't beat nature, but we've all got to live somewhere, and there is normally a very good reason for a settlement to be where it is.
It's a balancing act. Sometimes you need to put resources into sustaining a town/city, and elsewhere this may be inappropriate. The big question is 'Who decides?'
"Hurricane Relief" sites already in the works... (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.dshield.org/diary.html?storyid=4954 (dshield.org)
"Here we go again - Hurricane Relief Sites
Remember three years ago when hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the US Gulf coast? On the day Katrina hit New Orleans hundreds of donation sites appeared online, many if not most were scam sites. Well this time around it looks like the people who like to register domain names in anticipation of a storm's arrival have already started registering them for Gustav and Hanna. I'm not suggeting that they are up to no good, but simply pointing out that the rush has started and we need to make sure our users are aware of the potential for scam sites appearing online in the next few days."
This is Andrew, not Katrina (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:News for nerds huh? (Score:5, Funny)
That frickin falling tree will knock out your INTERNET ACCESS dweeb!
That's fricking news to some of us!
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Re:Lessons of Katrina? (Score:5, Funny)
I really just curious - do feds or anyone from government did their work _after_ Katrina?
Of course they did, they're highly trained professionals after all.
They put up signs
However they didn't expect Gustav and forgot to translate them in German.
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Re:Is this allowed in the US? (Score:5, Informative)
It's a bit of a misnomer. They can't and don't force you to leave. They sweep the area and strongly suggest you leave, but they won't make you. In Florida at one time they (Charlie) had you list your next of kin so they knew who to contact.
It basically means that if you decide yo stay, you are on your own.
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Re:Is this allowed in the US? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:The Shock Doctrine (Score:5, Insightful)
The Cato Institute is a neo-liberal/neo-conservative "think tank" and lobby group. Of course they're trying to attack Naomi Klein
And your point is? By the same token: Naomi Klein is a leftist, so of course she is trying to attack free economies. But that isn't what undermines her argument, what undermines her argument is that it is false.
Read Norberg's full report here:
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9384 [cato.org]
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