Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Raptor on September 04, 2005, 06:15:56 PM
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Just curious, how does Hurrican Katrina compare to the Tsunami at the beginning of the year compare in numbers of people affected and damage?
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Well, you have:
- coastal regions hit hard with inland infrastructure undamaged versus a very deep board area and inland infrastructure destroyed
- damaged areas spread in a broad thing "ring" (ie Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanki, India, and parts of Africa)
- one hit and the water receded versus heavy sustained flooding
- area hit had high levels of 3rd world poverty versus US "poverty"
- very low levels of communication and technology - many tsunami's areas had no real communication infrastructure before the tsunami
- and finally the most telling, the behaviour of survivors after the disaster, which I think those in NO should be ashamed of
But overall two different beasts really.
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No comparison at all. The tsunami victims never saw it coming.
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Neither did those in NO, sure there was a Hurricane, but where it turned pear shaped is in the subsequent flooding, which the *victims* didn't see coming (state govt is a different story).
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Not a close comparison.
My brother died in the tsunami, and a few months ago we found out the cause of death. It was blunt trauma head injury, as were ALL the deaths recorded at Khaulak beach.
They had no warning, they were not told to evacuate, and they did not choose to stay in the face of an oncoming disaster.
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Doesn't matter, US Coast Guard rocks!!
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Originally posted by Chairboy
Not a close comparison.
My brother died in the tsunami, and a few months ago we found out the cause of death. It was blunt trauma head injury, as were ALL the deaths recorded at Khaulak beach.
They had no warning, they were not told to evacuate, and they did not choose to stay in the face of an oncoming disaster.
My condolences on your loss.. your family's loss.
:(f
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Originally posted by Vulcan
Neither did those in NO, sure there was a Hurricane, but where it turned pear shaped is in the subsequent flooding, which the *victims* didn't see coming (state govt is a different story).
Wow, this is the first I've heard about this.
Karaya
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My opinion, with this mess it proves we are only good to play fancy games.Forget about civilization, its not there, its like a dream we wanted to have over and over again but its not there. A human is an animal if he is in the right conditions.
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Originally posted by Chairboy
Not a close comparison.
My brother died in the tsunami, and a few months ago we found out the cause of death. It was blunt trauma head injury, as were ALL the deaths recorded at Khaulak beach.
They had no warning, they were not told to evacuate, and they did not choose to stay in the face of an oncoming disaster.
Chair, I didn't know that man. I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times, I'm sorry man. I can't imagine......
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Originally posted by Raptor01
Just curious, how does Hurrican Katrina compare to the Tsunami at the beginning of the year compare in numbers of people affected and damage?
You really can't compre the two, but by your criteria, we have no idea right now. Damage measured in dollars is obviously going to be much higher. People affected??? Over 200,000 killed, how many affected? How can you measure that?
The entire US is affected right now by a spike in gas costs. Is that a measure?
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Originally posted by Vulcan
- and finally the most telling, the behaviour of survivors after the disaster, which I think those in NO should be ashamed of
If I remember correctly not everyone after the Tsunami acted properly either.
Just lke not everyone in N.O. Behaved like wild animals.
Check this out
French Quarter Holdouts Create 'Tribes' to Survive
NEW ORLEANS (Sept. 4) - In the absence of information and outside assistance, groups of rich and poor banded together in the French Quarter, forming "tribes'' and dividing up the labor.
As some went down to the river to do the wash, others remained behind to protect property. In a bar, a bartender put near-perfect stitches into the torn ear of a robbery victim.
While mold and contagion grew in the muck that engulfed most of the city, something else sprouted in this most decadent of American neighborhoods - humanity.
"Some people became animals,'' Vasilioas Tryphonas said Sunday morning as he sipped a hot beer in Johnny White's Sports Bar on Bourbon Street. "We became more civilized.''
While hundreds of thousands fled the below-sea-level city before the storm, many refused to leave the Vieux Carre, or old quarter. Built on some of the highest ground around and equipped with underground power lines, residents considered it about the safest place to be.
Katrina blew off roof slates and knocked down some already-unstable buildings but otherwise left the 18th and 19th century homes with their trademark iron balconies intact. Even without water and power, most preferred it to the squalor and death in the emergency shelters set up at the Superdome and Convention Center.
But what had at first been a refuge soon became an ornate prison.
Police came through commandeering drivable vehicles and siphoning gas. Officials took over a hotel and ejected the guests.
An officer pumped his shotgun at a group trying to return to their hotel on Chartres Street.
"This is our block,'' he said, pointing the gun down a side street. "Go that way.''
Jack Jones, a retired oil rig worker, bought a huge generator and stocked up on gasoline. But after hearing automatic gunfire on the next block one night, he became too afraid to use it - for fear of drawing attention.
Still, he continues to boil his clothes in vinegar and dip water out of neighbors' pools for toilet flushing and bathing.
"They may have to shoot me to get me out of here,'' he said. "I'm much better off here than anyplace they might take me.''
Many in outlying areas consider the Quarter a playground for the rich and complain that the place gets special attention.
Yes, wealthy people feasted on steak and drank warm champagne in the days after the storm. But many who stayed behind were the working poor - residents of the cramped spaces above the restaurants and shops.
Tired of waiting for trucks to come with food and water, residents turned to each other.
Johnny White's is famous for never closing, even during a hurricane. The doors don't even have locks.
Since the storm, it has become more than a bar. Along with the warm beer and shots, the bartenders passed out scrounged military Meals Ready to Eat and bottled water to the people who drive the mule carts, bus the tables and hawk the T-shirts that keep the Quarter's economy humming.
"It's our community center,'' said Marcie Ramsey, 33, whom Katrina promoted from graveyard shift bartender to acting manager.
For some, the bar has also become a hospital.
Tryphonas, who restores buildings in the Quarter, left the neighborhood briefly Saturday. Someone hit in the head with a 2-by-4 and stole his last $5.
When Tryphonas showed up at Johnny White's with his left ear split in two, Joseph Bellomy - a customer pressed into service as a bartender - put a wooden spoon between Tryphonas' teeth and used a needle and thread to sew it up. Military medics who later looked at Bellomy's handiwork decided to simply bandage the ear.
"That's my savior,'' Tryphonas said, raising his beer in salute to the former Air Force medical assistant.
A few blocks away, a dozen people in three houses got together and divided the labor. One group went to the Mississippi River to haul water, one cooked, one washed the dishes.
"We're the tribe of 12,'' 76-year-old Carolyn Krack said as she sat on the sidewalk with a cup of coffee, a packet of cigarettes and a box of pralines.
The tribe, whose members included a doctor, a merchant and a store clerk, improvised survival tactics. Krack, for example, brushed her dentures with antibacterial dish soap.
It had been a tribe of 13, but a member died Wednesday of a drug overdose. After some negotiating, the police carried the body out on the trunk of a car.
The neighbors knew the man only as Jersey.
Tribe member Dave Rabalais, a clothing store owner, said he thinks the authorities could restore utilities to the Quarter. But he knows that would only bring "resentment and the riffraff.''
"The French Quarter is the blood line of New Orleans,'' he said. "They can't let anything happen to this.''
On Sunday, the tribe of 12 became a tribe of eight.
Four white tour buses rolled into the Quarter under Humvee escort. National Guardsmen told residents they had one hour to gather their belongings and get a ride out. Four of the tribe members decided to leave.
"Hallelujah!'' Teresa Lawson shouted as she dragged her suitcase down the road. "Thank you, Jesus!''
For Mark Rowland, the leaving was bittersweet.
"I'm heart-broken to leave the city that I love,'' Rowland said as he sat in the air-conditioned splendor of the bus. "It didn't have to be this way.''
AP photographer Eric Gay contributed to this story. Allen G. Breed is the AP's Southeast regional writer, based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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Just adding to the Tsunami thing..
The people high up knew there had been an earthquake in the sea, but they did not warn people living at the coast.
However it probably wouldn't have saved many, because in many areas there isn't good communication available and it didn't take long for the waves to reach the coast.
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The Tsunami moved at a speed of arbout 450mph as opposed to Katrina that moved at 10 mph after hitting Florida.
Karaya
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Originally posted by Lazerus
The entire US is affected right now by a spike in gas costs. Is that a measure?
In some ways i cant believe people worry about that. Like its the worst thing to have happened in the last few days...
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Originally posted by Schatzi
In some ways i cant believe people worry about that. Like its the worst thing to have happened in the last few days...
Yes terrible thing happened in N.O.
Terrible thing so many will hav died and be left homeless,jobless etc.
But in the end people not there have to worry about themselves and their own lives first.
For some of those individual people. financially speaking. It very well may be.
There is a ripple effect whenever gas prices significantly spike so it isnt just the price of gas thats effected.
and for some a sudden jump in prices without a sudden jump in income even a small one. Is going to be enough to send them over the edge.
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Prolly easyer for the surviving tsunami victims to get back to business. Most of them lived in low-cost areas were the aid money will get you alot more real aid and reconstruction than in NO.
Or maybe not.. just a thought.