So I've been watching the news lately and...

[angelsandair]

I was watching about the floods in Iowa and saw how everybody tried to help and filled sandbags trying to save their town. And then I saw them talking about Katrina and how nobody tried at all to help themselves or other people (not talking about all of them of course). Kinda pitiful isn't it? If those flood waters get down there again, there'll be more looting like last time. The other wierd thing is, I haven't heard anything about looting in these small towns that were flooded.

This should set an example for those people who dont do this stuff, who loot, steal and complain why the problem isn't getting fixed.

[JB88]

word.

[crockett]

How exactlly would you sand bag miles of levies? It's one thing to sandbag a dam or a small location, but you do understand there are miles of levies in New Orleans? So exactlly where did you expect them to start?

[alskahawk]

 I live in Iowa and when this hit there were a few things I was sure of. One..Our police would not run away from their jobs.. two there would be very little looting and three..most people witnessing looting will report it.

 I did hear of a suspected looting of cabins on the Mississippi.. but that was just suspected.

 
Iowa isn't perfect by any means but they do somethings right here. When a flood comes and they do frequently, sandbagging becomes another community activity.. everyone gathers and helps and it becomes a social event.

 My house missed being flooded by about 3 blocks. I was in Canada most of the week so I missed out on most of it, but I once again I was quite amused at my fellow Iowans ( I really don't consider myself an Iowan, it just makes the story flow better) As I checked 'You Tube' for information on the flooding.. there they were rushing to see the water spilling over the spillway at the Coralville dam. Such a small town thing to do.

 One Iowa town I lived in people would rush to the hospital to see the life flight helicopter land. Ya Iowa is an exciting place. Many years ago when I was in the military home on leave almost every one I ran into just couldn't contain their excitement....Have seen the McDonald's? We have a McDonald's now! Iowa small town suffistacatshun. (purposely misspelled)

[angelsandair]

How exactlly would you sand bag miles of levies? It's one thing to sandbag a dam or a small location, but you do understand there are miles of levies in New Orleans? So exactlly where did you expect them to start?

The National Guard did it all on their own, no help from the people. In Iowa, the people and the National guard did what they could with sandbags and where.

[crockett]

The National Guard did it all on their own, no help from the people. In Iowa, the people and the National guard did what they could with sandbags and where.

The National Guard wasn't in New Orleans before the hurricane hit.. The National Guard is never put into the path of a hurricane before it hits. They come afterwards because it's never known where they will be needed. In the case of Katrina I think it was 2 days afterwards. A huricane is a tad bit diffrent than a flood.

So look here and tell me where they should have started tossing out sad bags..

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=29.901377,-90.067635&spn=0.20268,0.299377&t=h&z=12

[angelsandair]

The National Guard wasn't in New Orleans before the hurricane hit.. The National Guard is never put into the path of a hurricane before it hits. They come afterwards because it's never known where they will be needed. In the case of Katrina I think it was 2 days afterwards. A huricane is a tad bit diffrent than a flood.

So look here and tell me where they should have started tossing out sad bags..

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=29.901377,-90.067635&spn=0.20268,0.299377&t=h&z=12

They did it all on their own though, if the same thing happened in Iowa in a small town, people would be out there doing what they could. You're missing the point, if those flood waters get to New Orleans, people are gonna do what they did in Katrina. Just sit there and expect the National Guard to do it on their own.

[alskahawk]

How exactlly would you sand bag miles of levies? It's one thing to sandbag a dam or a small location, but you do understand there are miles of levies in New Orleans? So exactlly where did you expect them to start?

  There were hundreds of miles of sandbags in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. Sandbagging in the Iowa is not just along a mile stretch. Every river needs to be looked at. From Cedar Rapids to the border of Missouri is a little over a hundred miles and in that area there's the Skunk, Cedar, Iowa, and other rivers that over flowed before reaching the Mississippi. Hundreds of square miles. Lot of towns, lots of pressure points all with sandbagging. T

In the Iowa city/Cedar Rapids area we have the Iowa river and the Cedar River. Iowa city is 15 miles south of Cedar Rapids but in between there are many little towns that all needed protection. Big difference in the Midwest, people will volunteer to help...Not everyone but a sizable portion of the comunity.

[crockett]

They did it all on their own though, if the same thing happened in Iowa in a small town, people would be out there doing what they could. You're missing the point, if those flood waters get to New Orleans, people are gonna do what they did in Katrina. Just sit there and expect the National Guard to do it on their own.

I think you are missing the point. New Orleans is "under sea level" if the flood waters get through it is already a lost cause. No amount of sand bags is going to stop 10 feet of water. Yes 10 ft of water is how much water there was in most of the flooded areas. How do you suggest they stop that from happening when the city is already behind the 8 ball?

By the time the national guard showed up the people still there were in need of rescue, not help filling sand bags.

So again what exactly did you expect them to do to stop this from happening? The looting and so sure, that was pretty bad, but regardless of that or how many lazy people there may or may not have been. What exactly were they supposed to do?

[angelsandair]

I think you are missing the point. New Orleans is "under sea level" if the flood waters get through it is already a lost cause. No amount of sand bags is going to stop 10 feet of water. Yes 10 ft of water is how much water there was in most of the flooded areas. How do you suggest they stop that from happening when the city is already behind the 8 ball?

By the time the national guard showed up the people still there were in need of rescue, not help filling sand bags.

So again what exactly did you expect them to do to stop this from happening? The looting and so sure, that was pretty bad, but regardless of that or how many lazy people there may or may not have been. What exactly were they supposed to do?

They coulda helped the national guard re-dam up the levys after they broke, they didn't. They could have actually reported all the looting that happened, they didn't.

In Iowa, the National Guard didn't have to come down there to enforce the laws either.

[Wes14]

Angels. The National Guard didn't dam up the levees in New Orleans, The Army Corps of Engineers did.

In New Orleans

The words levee and levee breach were brought heavily into the public consciousness after the levee failures in metro New Orleans on 29 August, 2005 when Hurricane Katrina passed east of the city. Levees breached in over 50 different places submerging eighty percent (80%) of the city. Most levees failed due to water overtopping them but some failed when water passed underneath the levee foundations causing the levee wall to shift and resulting in catastrophic sudden breaching. The sudden breaching released highly pressured water that moved houses off their foundations and tossed cars into trees. This happened in the Ninth Ward when the Industrial Canal breached and also in the Lakeview neighborhood when the 17th Street Canal breached. Effects of breached levees are discussed further in and 2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans, which cites a death toll of 1,464. In New Orleans, the US Army Corps of Engineers is, by federal mandate, the sole agency responsible for levee design and construction as defined in the Flood Control Act of 1965.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levee
Not a super credible source but it's better then nothing

[AWMac]

The show before the news was even better...

See Plankton started up this Rock Band. He had Sponge Bob, Patrick and even Squidward convinced that they were gonna be great, but all along I knew that Plankton was after the Crabby Patty receipe.

And boy I was sooo right on the money.

I was flooded with emotions and if no one else see that coming well you were just sandbagged.

*I know that was bad but had to break up the tension in here a bit*

 

Mac

[Reschke]

Call me stupid but why do you live so close to a place where water can and frequently does come over the banks of the river and levee's? I understand the whole economics of it in the 1800's and early 1900's but with the advent of lots of things like vehicles you don't have to live right at the waters edge.

Find some high ground and for good measure blow up New Orleans and move somewhere else. It isn't a matter of IF the flood waters get there it is a matter of when and it will be by early next week I would imagine. Shut it down and call it done. Time to move on.

[lasersailor184]

You're asking why people don't... think?

[DYNAMITE]

People comparing these two disasters or implying that the folks in the mid-west are somehow superior to the folks in New Orleans cracks me up because it shows either a complete ignorance of the situations or a very poorly disguised prejudice.  

The scale alone makes these two catastrophes completely different.  In Iowa, there is an estimated 1.2 Billion dollars in damages.   Katrina caused more than 100x that.   The energy released along with the how quickly it was delivered made Hurricane Katrina comparable to the detonation of several  nuclear weapons (plural).  Tell you what... the next time someone tests a nuclear weapon, gather up a bunch of people from a small town and let them build a wall out of sand bags.  We'll see how they do then eh?

But lets take this further... as so many here are want to do.  1300 People lost their lives in Katrina.  More than 400,000 lost their jobs.  God knows how many homes were destroyed.   People were without food, and water, on top of that, they had no electricity for MONTHS... and lets not forget the record heat in the weeks that followed Katrina (90+ degrees for several weeks straight).  Moreover,  lets not forget that N.O. was eventually evacuated and that the people were not allowed back in to most of the city for MONTHS. (How do you suppose they could help the National Guard fix the levees then?  Oh that's right... folks in the o'club figured that they're just lazy and want a hand out.  )

What has the toll been in Iowa?  No doubt the people there are suffering, and I don't want to sound like I'm minimizing that, but lets keep some freak'n perspective.  Oh, and btw,  these current flood victims are seeking "hand outs" too.

Get a clue