Say what you want about my state. I’ve said some harsh things myself. But please remember this one thing. After all is said and done, Mississippians are on record as the most generous state in the Union.
Our need is tremendous. Everyone who can to give aid to the survivors of this devastating catastophe, please do so. We need some generosity and hospitality back. We need for the concerned people of the nation to ring the phones of their elected Federal representatives off the hook demanding that the federal government do MORE. That the Federal authorities claim that they waited for local authorities to ask them to help is a TRAVESTY. The Federal government and ONLY the Federal government has the necessary resources to respond to a disaster of this magnitude.
For ANYONE in government to claim that they did not anticipate the devastation is shameful. The last thing I posted here, before having to prepare to the exclusion of everything, was a disaster estimate from the TAOS simulation that I captured on Sunday, August 28, 2005, 8:46:23 AM. I found this damage estimate at http://hurricane.methaz.org/. By Friday, August 26, at 11 p.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center forecast track predicted a near miss for New Orleans. By August 27, at 5 a.m. EDT, Katrina was a Category 3 hurricane with nothing but open, HOT water between it and New Orleans, and no upper-level shear to prevent runaway intensification. By early morning on the 27th, all of the major hurricane track forecasting models were all over and around New Orleans.
Where were the buses? Where is the airlift operation? Where are the aerial food and water “drops”? Where is the National Guard? For this ruthless and brutal mis-management, the whole ‘administration’ should be run out of town, hog-tied on rails.
If I could say it better than “tigity” on weatherunderground.com said it , I would:
Posted By: tigity at 7:54 PM GMT on August 31, 2005.
It is absolutely unexcusable that mandatory evacs were not put into place early saturday morning. The national guard should have been put in place shuttling people out of the area. The saddest part of this is that most loss of life and suffering that is going on right now could have been avoided. The forecasters and hurricane models were in good agreement saturday morning that the track and strength of katrina would very likely take it very close to New Orleans and the central gulf coast. The 24 hours they waited to put mandatory evacs in place likely cost many lives. Many that were left behind had no way to leave the city. If public officials Federal, state, and local would have had there act together the loss of life could have been much lower. For goodness sake there were commentators on all of the news channels warning that this would likely come to pass. Why did no one listen. There is a strong possiblilty that the loss of life from this disaster could be greater then Sept 11. I only hope that our goverment will learn from this mistake and put into place the same types of resources that have applied to the war on terror. Do you think if we knoew somone was going to run 2 airplanes into the twin towers 2 days in advance that officials would have just watched and waited for the aftermath. I sure hope not.[sic]
Now, look at this table, and
Imagine an area larger than any one of 40 American states totally wiped out. No infrastructure, no food, no water and no jobs. Please donate to the American Red Cross, or your favorite relief agency to help those affected by this disaster.
On a personal note, I and my family have suffered 76 hours with no electricity, a “boil water” order (still in effect), a 60 foot tree down in my backyard that crashed into and through my toolshed and knocked down 100 ft. of wooden fence and a beautiful 25 ft. tall and wide fig tree. We also lost two beautiful 25 ft. tall Crepe Myrtle trees. My second “land line” telephone is still down and I had no internet access for 80 hours, other than a couple of brief moments of wireless access at a local cafe that was lucky enough to not lose power.
My extended family and friends are all OK, though we have all suffered through similar inconveniences. The city of Jackson, MS had over 80% power outages (now down to about 50%) throughout the city and gas shortages that are curtailing travel to and from work for tens of thousands of citizens. Price-gouging is rampant, with gas prices as high as $6.39 per gallon. Police have commandeered gasoline at several stations around the city and outlying suburbs to ensure gasoline for emergency vehicles. The city of Jackson has absorbed at least thirty or forty thousand refugees by my “seat of the pants” estimate. The city suffered one death from a tree falling into a home. As bad as it seemed to me here during all of this, I know that the sum total of my aggravation is merely inconvenience when compared to what is going on further south. I have turned my attention to seeking out ways to help, but even though I am closer than most of you to the real disaster area, the emergency co-ordinators are asking us to stay home, stay off the roads, conserve gasoline, and let the governments and the NGO’s handle the situation. They are asking us to give money, and we are.
Some of you may have seen my recounting of my childhood experience of living through tornadoes. I can now say that I have heard “that sound” twice in my life. Though the most massive Category 1 forces passed fifty miles away from my home, the roar from Katrina was ever present. It sounded like a fleet of C-130’s in the distance ( a little further away than the tornadoes I survived, but still plenty scary). On top of that general roar, I could hear individual gusts as they approached my location. The gusts that surely reached 80+ mph in my considered estimation, sounded like an F-14 coming in for a landing, breaking into a loud rush of wind as each gust hit us with its full force.
If anyone compares this to Hurricane Camille in 1969, tell them they are full of shit. Camille was a pussycat compared to this massive, monstrous, hopped up on steroids, hurricane. Global Warming is real, and I have met it.
THIS JUST IN: the PrezNit’s trip to Biloxi has prevented relief helicopters flying out of Jackson from flying the Gulf coast region of Mississippi until 3 p.m. today. My advice to that man is stay the hell out of my state and let us get about the business that he ignored for two days while he was “ranching”. We don’t need his fake sympathy and photo-ops. And he can take that snake “Guv’na Hollow Bubba” (Haley Barbour) with him when he leaves. And Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, too.
Blueneck, I’m glad you’re safe and you’re family and friend are okay. I’ve been calling and and writing and letting my reps offices know that they’ve dropped the ball completely and better do something fast.
I was thinking about you and our hurricane comments this week. I did that category 2 last year, so I have some idea of how they are, but I can’t imagine what Katrina must have been like.
Thanks for your kind words, CabinGirl.
From where I stood, 150 miles inland, 50 miles from the center at closest passing, it was absolutely clear that this was not a “hurricane”. This was a monster, no other way to say it. It filled the world around me with a very angry roar. The source of that roar was close enough to scare me, but good. My heart breaks for those who could not get out of its path. And my outrage builds by the minute as I have now been able to see the images and hear the stories of the stranded survivors.
Glad to hear you and your family are safe!
I am still processing the fact that you were 80 miles away from Cat1 winds and suffered the damage that you have described — my GOD, what must have it been like in the midst of the Cat4?
I watched Bush being “briefed” in Mobile and I just couldn’t take it….all I could think was WTF are you guys doing all standing around? Don’t you have shit to DO?? Especially the Coast Guard Guys and the soldiers I saw there.
And now he is grounding the helicopters until 3 o’clock? He still doesn’t udnerstand that people are dying or what?
Thanks Brinnaine.
Actually I was about 50 miles from the center when it was a Cat 1. It was still a Cat 1 for about fifty more miles of its track after my closest approach.
Personally, I think that the media is down-playing the extent of the damage. I have seen various maps that show the Jackson area as “some trees down, minor damage, some power out” when it should be “most power out, lots of trees down, moderate damage”. I forgot to mention the hole in my roof from a limb that became a missile.
Still, though, it’s all inconvenient, not life-threatening. “Me and mine” are lucky.
It is obvious that you have a huge one — I just want to hug you for being so selfless and thinking of others in the face of your own losses.
So many others in this country cannot seem to muster the appropriate empathy for waht people are going through, and yet you just let it flow. In a time where I am having trouble holding on to hope, it’s people like you who will not let me give up.
Thank you. May fortunes continue to smile on you and yours.
WE must not give up hope. If we do, they win. Let the tears flow. I have. And I can’t guarantee that I won’t cry again. Tears of thankfulness for what I have, tears of regret for what this great country has become. But we can reclaim it, I just know it. Someday – perhaps not soon enough for these brothers and sisters of ours who are suffering greatly and needlessly as we speak – we will overcome. It hurts each and every one of us to allow this travesty to happen without raising our voices in indignation and sharing our good fortune with those who are most in need at this very trying time.
As for big hearts, my friend, it takes one to know one…
And why would he do that, when the Huffington Post quotes Bush as saying:
Like I said in another diary–this bastard is psychotic.
GOOD GOD ‘AMIGHTY! What a psycho, like that guy from the Hitchcock movie… I hadn’t heard that quote. It is sickening. Excuse me while I vomit….
How is it possible to be so goddamn clueless? People have lost everything and he’s going on and on about Trent Lott’s summer house???
I actually believe if his daddy’s beloved Kennebunkport got wiped off the map by a “perfect Nor’Easter” he would say the same thing. He has no compassion, just a hollow place where his heart and soul should be.
Actually, the ‘ol place in Kennebunkport did get badly damaged in a storm. Ma Barb shed a few public tears about it, and then it was rebuilt lickety-split – and better too, with a bit of taxpayer money to better take care of housing the secret service folks guarding the family. So, to little George, rebuilding after a storm must seem a bit troublesome, but not too bad. Just a little pin money over and above insurance + uncle Sam kicking in.
You left out the word right after that statement in the transcript: (laughter). WTF is wong with these people? Chaos everywhere and they’re planning Trent’s new beach house?
I can’t take this. The utter, UTTER, disregard for human life is more than I can stand. Damn all of them.
and there extended family were able to get out of Biloxi sunday night and are now in Texas, with her folks. From what they have been able to get from friends in Biloxi is that everything is gone, their house and all the trees that surrounded it.
But they are alive and are going to start over, they just don’t know if they will come back to MS.
I am glad that you and yours are safe and well.
Thank you so much for your kind words ghostdancer. I am very glad that your brother and sister in law were able to get out. It was surely hell on earth. Some have said here that the MS Gulf Coast has not been well-covered in the national media, but I have seen local coverage, and I am awestruck by the damage done down there. I wish your brother and sister in law well in their new life, wherever they choose to live it.
They may be able to find some satellite photos of the damage to the area where they lived here.
Austin was all they told me, we are going to talk to them more this weekend to find out what all they need.
Well, hell, gdw, email me at
caiteclare AT yahoo DOT com and let me email you my phone number — give me a call if there is anything I can do to help — as you know, I’m “near” Austin!
😉
grandkids, I will email you
We need to hear more from the gulf coast. People are dying there also from thirst. I can’t tell you the rage I feel seeing Bush in Mississippi. I hope our so far gutless leaders, with the exception of Nagin, who’s been like the good captain going down with his sinking ship, tell that bastard the truth.
This disaster is grounds for a regime change of some kind. I’ll stop myself there because ya’ll know where that’s leading.
The Sun Herald from what used to be Biloxi (pronounced buh-luh’-ksi)is getting some news out from the coast.
So good to hear that you are okay. Thank you for telling us what is happening in your area. We are thinking of you all … not just NO. Stay safe.
Thanks Olivia.
We’re doing our best. The local media are starting to let us hometown folk know what is needed at the shelters that have been set up here in Jackson, so I hope to make a run sometime this evening or early tomorrow. Our mayor Frank Melton, bless him, has just set the tone. “Patience and benevolence” are our official watch-words now.
.
Bush in Biloxi, Mississippi answering questions from the press. Stumbling for words, stressing the gravity of the disaster for both states, not a word of self-criticism or on the relief effort so far. The Taliban he calls those folks over there; just as easy, Bush talks about the residents of New Orleans as those folks over here. Bush must be in a state of single-mindedness, fighting a continual war of terror.
He felt a lot more comfortable, when he got a question he could respond by divulging his competence: fuel and oil transport lines coming back on.
[I am not an oilman, it’s not my business nor competence. I learned about the two major pipelines the Colonial and the Plantation running from Texas thru Louisiana when these were disrupted due to electricity outage caused by Katrina. I posted a map I found on the web. – Oui]
What I did learn: the Colonial provides fuel transport to the New England states and the Plantation runs Southeast. Ignoramus not standing behind a lectern with ready text, nor wearing a bulge or earplug with Rove’s wisdom whispering in his ear, ignoramus had to answer impromptu on an (Inter)national televised news conference:
“The Colonial pipeline is coming back on quicker than was expected, important as it provides fuel to the Southeast you know”.
George, you had a fifty-fifty change to be right; guess what: YOU FLUNKED – YOU’RE FIRED!
Colonial & Plantation Pipelines Down!
You would have thought Condy spend so much time with the Prez she would have covered more issues than Russia and Putin by now. I guess not. Bush isn’t sure where the Colonial states are located: could be North, perhaps they were the Southern states. The Plantations and the slaves, yeah – could be North or perhaps it was also in the South?
Isn’t anyone helping our President to survive? Rummy – Condi – Wolfie – Dicky – you aren’t abandoning our captain, or were you assuming a child of 5 should stand on its own two feet – ehh Texas boots? Perhaps it’s time our captain sinks deep in the marshes of New Orleans and gets hit by the Peace Now movement of Cindy Sheehan coming to Washington DC.
~~~
heh, what a beautiful image. Georgie stuck in a marsh in south Louisiana ( a quagmire, ya’know) and getting his lengthening nose bloodied by the Peace Train on its way to DC….
There’s gotta be a pulitzer-prize-winning political cartoon in there somewhere.
I second that notion!
Now, who can draw??
I have a hard time with stick-figures so that counts me out.
hmmm, maybe our resident PhotoShop-er could do it? I do a little crude PhotoShop-ing myself, but that one’s a little above my pay grade….
Bood, are you there?
.
Need to combine Nero with Beauty of Southern Marshes ::
Right Beauty and the Beast.
Not to let the marshes go to wasteland due to expenses of Iraq War.
~~~
Local news channel just reported a story from MSNBC reporters that the coroner says over ONE THOUSAND DEAD in Biloxi, MS. The coroner can’t sign the death certificates fast enough so the official count was only up to 126 at the time of the report.
I’ve been worried about the coast and further inland – Jackson isn’t that far away, the whole state is so tied together, especially in the way storms rip right up parallel to the Mississippi. I’m glad your family is safe, and I hope that recovery will not be too great a hardship for them. It certainly will be for many.
During the hurricane I had memories of going to the storm cellar as a child – hoping that the flooding wouldn’t be so bad we’d have to leave the shelter before the winds died down. I grew up on the Mississippi River delta, and tornadoes and flooding were common – but not as bad as hurricanes, of course. The terrible roaring sound, however, I won’t forget.
Some people who haven’t lived in the South – even people who are progressives, like some folks posting in progressive communities, are quick to criticize and write off the entire area. I think this crisis shows us that the difficulties with race and prejudice are not exclusively a Southern problem. And in spite of the problems, the history both terrible and good, you are right that Mississippi is one of the most generous places on earth. And one of the loveliest. I was born in Mississippi, but did not live there long. Nevertheless, as I sit at my computer, hearing the katydids sing outside, I can almost smell gardenias, which we had outside our house in Mississippi. It’s a terribly sad feeling.
When the storm ended, my husband had to restrain me from jumping in the car and driving South to help – true, school starts Tuesday, and I could hardly teach here and be there, too. But it is frustrating not to go and do.
If there is any good to come of this, perhaps it will be to begin restoring a sense of community to the country. A loss such as this shows us how close we are to losing our community as a country, and just what will be lost if it goes altogether.
I imagine that the folks in Southern Mississippi and Louisiana are not feeling like they matter so much to the rest of the country as they should. We have to correct that idea as best we can – and our leaders aren’t helping much at this.
We are citizens, not taxpayers. Common good, not just my own good. We have to get past defining people with a different accent, a different skin color, a different kind of name, a different kind of religion, as not one of us. We must stop looking for every possible negative characteristic in anyone who shows an apparent difference from us.
Oh dear, KS, soapboxing again, my grandma would say? Good night, blueneck et al. I hope you rest well.
Thank you Kidspeak, for your kind words. I did sleep well, though I woke up a few moments ago because I was too cold from the air conditioning that we now have back on! It’s just another reminder to me that “me and mine” have been very lucky.
My two gardenias are fine, and when they bloom again, I will remember you. In spite of my slight allergy to the pollen, I just can’t keep myself from sticking my nose into one of those blossoms and taking a deep breath at least a few times every year! And when the honeysuckle and the gardenias mix and fill the warm spring/summer air, there is not a more heavenly scent to me.
Racism is so ugly. I see it and breath it every day. Let no one stand on their words, who say it does not exist in the north, south, east and west in our country. My issue with my fellow southerners is that we have such a huge opportunity to set an example and press ahead with reconciliation and, for the most part, we do nothing.
Our opportunity to advance the common good down here would raise more people of all races out of poverty and get our state off the bottom of so many of those bad lists: high infant mortality, percentage of citizens living below the poverty line, percentage of illiterate, etc. If the white power structure would embrace the facts and invest in the public schools, for instance, rather than letting the poor whites and blacks languish in sub-standard buildings with sub-standard teachers, the whole state would do better and even the rich would get richer.
And yes, I fully expected to be waked from my fitful, hot sleep over these past nights by the sound of real C-130’s flying into the Jackson-Evers airport to stage relief for the good folks to our south. So, I’m terribly disappointed in the lack of Federal response.
As for your frustration at not being able to go and do, I would encourage you to donate a few dollars to hurricane relief efforts. I KNOW that school teachers are not well paid anywhere in this country (both my parents taught in the Jackson public schools) and you probably don’t have much extra cash floating around, but every little bit will help. I can tell you that both the Red Cross and the Salvation Army are working hard and doing good work. Maybe you can get your school kids interested, too. The needs of the displaced will continue for quite a long time.
90,000 square miles is also roughly the same area as that of the entire United Kingdom.
Hang in there. 🙁
On some level I knew that. But your reminder brings to the top of my mind that 90,000 square miles is larger than quite a few countries in the world, too.