In the unlikely event you’re in New Orleans reading this, please evacuate. I’m reading this USAToday article about my home town and so sad to read about people that are choosing to stay behind because they’re “tired of running,” don’t think Gustav is going to be bad, or want to protect their “stuff.”
Protect your lives please. We don’t want another Katrina, and nobody can blame the government for not preparing and warning. Now it’s up to the people (and Gustav).
Here’s a reminder… a video I did to deal with my own sadness of Katrina.
Are you kidding me? TIRED OF RUNNING!? Jesus. That is stupid. I hate to be insulting to people (without knowing much), but you HAVE to be kidding me. That is either proud of lazy, I can’t tell you which.
It’s like saying “I’m tired of going to work.” Yeah, it sucks but if you don’t do it, you’ll lose everything.
Ay. I’ve been thinking of your family since I heard this.
Please send my thoughts and well wishes to them.
<3
@1
I agree, Peter. Ignorance is just the lack of knowledge. Stupidity is the celebration of ignorance. You meant to type ‘proud or lazy’, but I think ‘proud OF lazy’ is more appropriate. Don’t tell me I’m wrong, Kevin. Those are my people down there, too. I know the culture.
The storm, AND the evacuees, are headed my way up here to Shreveport/Marshall. Just like last time, senseless crime here will go up for the duration.
(Don’t blame me for these posts. I have a doctor’s excuse. I’m on prescribed steroids, which makes me meaner than a shaved badger in a birdcage.)
@3
Marquis,
If you are aware enough of the side effects of a prescribed drug and realize that you are being mean, then you have more than enough will power to change that.
Side effects with regard to the response or behavior of an individual are all within a human’s grasp to keep under wraps…especially if they are aware of how they are acting.
However, “being mean” is not a stated side effect. Irritability is…and that is a stage….the response of being mean is on a completely different spectrum…not related to the drug itself.
@3
However, Marquis…I do not see you as mean.
I see you as honest.
:o)
MANDATORY GET THE HECK (of a job brownie) OUT OF NOLA!
[click]
This storm made me wonder….These new converter boxes [click] for TVs that will be mandatory in FEB 2009, I don’t know how this transition is going to work in say, a situation like Gustav, if you are poor as dirt in NOLA or anywhere else, and can’t afford one, even with the $40 coupon.
@4
There goes my doctor’s excuse.
@7
If you’ve ever been in a free clinic and marveled at the poor uninsured patients sitting there in $300 sneakers and $100 jeans, you’ll realize, Jan, that nobody in America is too poor to watch TV.
When I was homeless living in my Chevy Lumina, I had a color TV that plugged into the cigarette lighter. It’s true that that won’t fly after 2009, so expect a lot of homeless people knocking on your door next year wanting to come in and watch Wheel of Fortune.
HAHAHAHAHA!
mdj- I was thinking of the elderly in the US, who live on a tight fixed income, often stubbornly isolated and can barely afford food and meds.
Do you remember that poor old women at the stadium in NOLA who died in her wheelchair and sat there under a blanket for a week?
60% of the dead found floating in NOLA were the old. Is this a new form of population control now?
In my mind, back then, hope was already treading water for the US, but the after effects of Katrina was the undertoe that brought her down [click]
The last time I was in NO was the weekend before Katrina. We had plans, airline tickets and hotel reservations to go there this weekend. We cancelled them on Thursday. I hope your family is far away from this monster Kevin.
Why anybody would continue living there at this point is beyond me. Nothing like having your life destroyed every three years.
In response to the inevitable post I will get from marquis on this subject (or others,but you just KNOW he’ll have something to say on this), I say this in advance: bite me.
I’m cranky. Where the fuck is my law and order marathon that was supposed to start today???
I just want to say Katrina was not the problem it was the levees and the corruption of the people, both Democrats and Republicans who took the payola and didn’t do their job.
This is important because people too often think Katrina was a natural disaster. NOLA survived the hurricane it was the poor construction of the levees that broke and flooded the area causing the devastation and death along with a poor time response by FEMA and the Feds.
The devastation continues today and justice has not been served.
[click] for a summary of what happen.
@10
Hey, I’ve got one of “the elderly in the US, who live on a tight fixed income, often stubbornly isolated and can barely afford food and meds” covered. It’s up to y’all to cover the rest.
(This culture DOES stink at taking care of its elderly parents. My Korean inlaws have a more responsible culture. Mom and dad live with the eldest son til they pass, no questions asked.)
@13
You’re absolutely right. If they broke once, they can break again, especially since the work being done to repair and reinforce them isn’t even scheduled to be finished until something like 2011. At least that’s what they told me on CNN.
I grew up in tornado country and lived in california for 3 years, every day praying this would NOT be the day of another huge earthquake. I am so grateful I now live in a place where the only thing I really have to fear is a plane crashing into the pentagon, dirty bombs, and anthrax. And presidents who get blown in the oval office.
The New Orleans people have arrived here in Marshall. Mom tried to get a to-go plate at the China Garden but said the place was packed with overweight Orleanians eating everything in sight like the second coming was tomorrow. Said they looked too much like hungry cannibals for her to feel safe in there.
The parking lots are full at the Krogers. All Louisiana plates. Marshallites just stay home and hunker down while the Orleanians go “wilding” our streets. The first gunshots have been fired, freaking out my poor little dog.
^Oh but ain’t that America for you and me
Ain’t that America somethin’ to see baby
Ain’t that America home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me
My 90 year-old Aunt Viola won’t leave her house in High Island. She never does, even when a hurricane took out 3/4ths of Winnie. Mom and I have got our own worries: the tall pines surrounding our house are just looking for an excuse to topple over onto our roof at the slightest wind. One already did a few years ago, taking out the front bedroom. The TV predictions of Gustav’s path looks to me like its making a beeline for Marshall. Hope my karma’s still good.
Random thoughts and replies to comments above:
Anybody who stays in NO in the face of Gustav is an idiot. There is no excuse for not leaving. These people have been through this before and they should know better.
Kevin: I hope your family is safe. They will be in my prayers.
I once worked as a Family Educator for a program called Even Start that worked with low-income families. They didn’t have 2 cents to rub together, but they all had big screen TVs, cable, computers, etc. People will find the money for what they think is important.
With the Army Corps of Engineers “fixing” the levees, NO doesn’t have a chance.
I know this is tasteless, but does anyone else ever think of the Led Zeppelin song “When the Levee Breaks” when the conversation centers on NO, Katrina, or hurricanes?
While I absolutely HATE upstate NY winters, that is the worst weather we ever get around here. No tornadoes (well, we did have one a few years back, but it was small and localized and not near my town), no earthquakes, except REALLY small ones, no hurricanes since Agnes in 1972, and I live on a hill where the nearest body of water that could flood is a small creek in my back yard at the bottom of said hill.
The weather man says it might rain 16 to 20 inches here tomorrow. That might cause a blackout here. Mom and I are counting on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D21zO2oBDg4
Interesting chain… my inlaws asked about why people return. It’s an easy question to ask until you return and get a flavor of the region’s soul. And realize that the worst off are in the least capacity to move economically. It does remind me of Sam Kinison’s bit about moving people from the desert.
@ 17 – thanks for putting that tune in my head. I fucking hate john melloncamp or whatever he’s calling himself now. pompous ass.
@19 – no, maryland, i don’t think of led zeppelin, but I do think of that song that talks about “drove my chevy to the levee but the levee was dry.” bye bye american pie? I don’t know.
I just found out last week we have a levee in the town where I grew up. A hometown friend mentioned something like blah blah blah, you know, over by the levee, and I said “we have a levee?” I lived there for 21 years. And it was a very small town when i lived there.
^ Yeah, sukatra, I was thinking the “drove my chevy to the levee but the levee was dry” song, too.
@21
Don’t send them food. Send them luggage!
@22 & 23: Yeah, that’s “American Pie” by Don McLean. I think of that too, but I mostly think of Led Zeppelin. Here’s the first chorus:
If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break,
If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break,
When The Levee Breaks I’ll have no place to stay.
Now do you see what I mean.
PS: Don’t change my name, Kevin.
^ Scintillating lyrics, Marilyn.
If it keeps on rainin’, trees goin’ ta fall,
If it keeps on rainin’, trees goin’ ta fall,
When the trees fall, I’ll have no place to stay.
If it keeps on blowin’, trees goin’ ta fall,
If it keeps on blowin’, trees goin’ ta fall,
When the trees fall, I’ll have no place to stay.
If it keeps on erodin’, trees goin’ ta fall,
If it keeps on erodin’, trees goin’ ta fall,
When the trees fall, I’ll have no place to stay.
I live in San Francisco because I like earthquakes.