Hello everyone !! First let me say that I am originally from South Louisiana and have close family that still live there. Most of my family live in Lafayette, La. which is about 90 miles north west of NO. I have a brother-in-law that actually lives in NO on what is known as the west bank of the city. He was very lucky because he is a private charter pilot. So he and his family were able to jump on his chopper and fly to houston, tx. he has since flown back to NO and is piloting a Coast Guard chopper air lifting people out of NO. I spoke to him this morning and he said the video on TV is nothing. They are only allowing the private aircarft such as TV choppers to fly in certain zones. They are not allowed to go close to the ground. He has seen numerous bodies floating in the water while he is rescuing the live people. There are still people in the city that needs to be rescued. I ask you all to pray for these families. Their lives have been devastated. Now I have one more comment, I know that some of the players are from other parts of the world. I am not trying to offend anyone, but I think its time some of the other countries that our great country has helped in the past do the same for us. I know its not your responsibility, but out of humane dignity they should be willing to help any way they can. Please encourage your countries leaders to lend us a hand. We sure have done our share in the time of disasters of other parts of the world. Thanks.......Tiger

Best wishes for everyone affected by the hurricane, I have been at diseaster zones helping out and it ain't pretty. Those people lives have just changed permently. You are absolutely right about the other countries needing to help out. I have already made a donation to the Red Cross (it not much but it is something).

Best wishes to all.

I agree 100% and am praying that everyone hears the cries of our country. We have attempted to aid so many other countries during natural disasters, mostly recently probably the Tsunami. It really would be a show of humanity if those countries came to our aid. This is a moment to put politics by the wayside and let mankind step up.

 

My prayers are with all of those in the southern Louisiana area and their families. May God bring blessings onto all of you.

My search and rescue team has been put on a 24 hour standby, we're prepped to be able to leave within' 24 hours of a request for our assistance. So, I may be gone for awhile if we get the call.

 

TFD

good luck to u tfd...and prayers for all those affected by this

Hi Tiger,

 

I agree that others should give us aid, but I'm not going to hold my breath. We usually stand alone (the USA) when we are hit with disasters of any kind.

 

The effects of the hurricane have been truly devastating, and will be felt nationwide for some time to come. For example, gas just went up to $3.19 locally here, and I was told by a local gas station attendant that they may not be able to get any gas in about 2-3 days from now. This will paralyze Atlanta, as well as other parts of the southeast.

 

My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families affected by this tragedy, and I hope all your relatives and family are safe.

 

-Gator

I have family that lives in Kenner, which is a suburb right outside New Orleans. Thankfully, they left in time and are safe, but their homes are now under water.

I agree 100% and am praying that everyone hears the cries of our country. We have attempted to aid so many other countries during natural disasters, mostly recently probably the Tsunami. It really would be a show of humanity if those countries came to our aid. This is a moment to put politics by the wayside and let mankind step up.

 

My prayers are with all of those in the southern Louisiana area and their families. May God bring blessings onto all of you.

ya know i'd love to see the help that the countries leveled by the tsunami could send. quite frankly, the countries you've helped dont have the resources to return the favour. im not sure if canada is sending some aid, but i bet there are some canadians down there already, if not some of us should be.

i have an uncle who is on the Grangemouth Search and Rescue team. Hes been put on standby aswell, which aint unsual so it looks like the Scots will be helping you out.

My sympathies to all. Had news on for hrs today while i drank coffe and tried to get "up to speed". Canada offered any assistance needed. Bush responded in interview, "thanks but no thanks, we can handle it." Seems to me from news being reported that too little beeing done by feds to help with dying, looting, raping, etc. Chaos being shown by reporters. A little late troops are being moved in. Should have predicted the chaos. Hope they move more quickly in future in such stricken areas. Best wishes.

I wish all the best for the people living there. My prayers go to all the people in this region, which are suffering so hard. I hope that all countries in the world will show their sympathie and offering help.

I don't understand why they didn't build the levees up around there when they should have. I don't know if this would have helped as much as they say but instead of spending 1 billion a day on war maybe could have spent a billion on levees. Damn, for a billion they could build 100 foot walls. Get your priorities straight there Bush.

It would be great to see some help come in from abroad since everytime somebody else needs money or help and I mean EVERYTIME the U.S.A. helps. I just don't know, like undertone said, if they have the resources. I heard Canada offered help in any way and that is good. Hope they accept it.

Like Hogan, after work last night, I watched CNN etc. and saw a lot of looting and violence etc. When the people showed up at the Astrodome and it was full they were livid. I would think they should be happy to be out of the water at least and nearer to safety but tension is running high with losing everything in their lives so tempers take over. This has got to be a terrible situation for emergency workers and my thoughts are with them all and the families hit by this tragedy.

 

b.t.w. gas is 1.28 cents per litre here and that works out to 5.81 per gallon. Yikes!

My heart and best wishes to those affected by "Katrina" and its wake...

b.t.w. gas is 1.28 cents per litre here and that works out to 5.81 per gallon. Yikes!

Not quite Klinky, maybe somewhere around $3.70 US/gallon. But it is still rising, close to 10 cents per day (Cad).

 

And the other part you said was a little off, too. You can't just build these huge levee systems, becuase you want to. They were working when they needed them to, but got overpowered. Ie. Sitting your car in front of a train, letting it hit, and me saying "well why didn't you just get the 2 foot thick steel?" You didn't need it before that train hit, and your vehicle was considered safe before the train hit. Same thing with the levees.

 

I still can't believe what's happening, and how much the press is censoring us. Apparently, all is well and it's a beautiful day in NO, but when in reality there's bodies and shots being fired.

Been watching TV for most of the day now, and aid from other countries was granted the first day the storm hit. Even sri-lanka, one of the poorest countries gave 25000$ what is a lot for them. But atm the US gouvernement has not yet accepted any of the aid granted (if i may beleave the media)

 

Its just a huge mess. really sad tbh. As there seems to be little coordination or over coordination, what is just as worse.

Not quite Klinky, maybe somewhere around $3.70 US/gallon. But it is still rising, close to 10 cents per day (Cad).

 

And the other part you said was a little off, too. You can't just build these huge levee systems, becuase you want to. They were working when they needed them to, but got overpowered. Ie. Sitting your car in front of a train, letting it hit, and me saying "well why didn't you just get the 2 foot thick steel?" You didn't need it before that train hit, and your vehicle was considered safe before the train hit. Same thing with the levees.

 

I still can't believe what's happening, and how much the press is censoring us. Apparently, all is well and it's a beautiful day in NO, but when in reality there's bodies and shots being fired.

All the governing people from Louisianna were saying last night that they all knew this was just a matter of time. That's why I say they should have done more sooner.

All the governing people from Louisianna were saying last night that they all knew this was just a matter of time. That's why I say they should have done more sooner.

Yep, everyone knew the levees could only hold at the most a category 3 hurricane. It was all about the money. They should have spent it obviously, now that this happened. Hope everyone affected gets helped.

The size needed to hold back those waters would be crazy. The BEST option was to get people out of the city sooner and quicker. We did the best we could with what we had, but we needed to do better. Those people's lives will never be the same. Watching them interview those people for hours and talk about how they lost EVERYTHING.

 

There is a local guy that has quite a bit of money on his hand. For a family, he rented out a motel room and got that family jobs in that motel. He believes that if every motel in the country setup a room for a family to move to, then we could care for a most of the people there.

 

For those that don't know, Habitat for Humanity is building modular homes around the country, and when the waters do recede, they will bring them all down to New Orleans for the people that lost their homes.

 

God bless America.

Hi Tiger,

I watched here to tv today, courage!

I see that the governement is most prompt for to send soldiers than rescue & help with foods....

The belgian tv have sended a repporter in Louisiana and says that the New Orleans will be a ghost town next few days....

Horrible !

Egidio.

I don't understand why they didn't build the levees up around there when they should have. I don't know if this would have helped as much as they say but instead of spending 1 billion a day on war maybe could have spent a billion on levees. Damn, for a billion they could build 100 foot walls. Get your priorities straight there Bush.

 

It would be great to see some help come in from abroad since everytime somebody else needs money or help and I mean EVERYTIME the U.S.A. helps. I just don't know, like undertone said, if they have the resources. I heard Canada offered help in any way and that is good. Hope they accept it.

 

Like Hogan, after work last night, I watched CNN etc. and saw a lot of looting and violence etc. When the people showed up at the Astrodome and it was full they were livid. I would think they should be happy to be out of the water at least and nearer to safety but tension is running high with losing everything in their lives so tempers take over. This has got to be a terrible situation for emergency workers and my thoughts are with them all and the families hit by this tragedy.

 

b.t.w. gas is 1.28 cents per litre here and that works out to 5.81 per gallon. Yikes!

my thoughts exactly, now nation cost is 10 times what it would have been to use the last few decades to put solid steel or concrete on sea side of those dikes that got washed out.

Actually Canada has sent aid several times to the US in earth quakes , 9/11 and tornadoes. One year we sent a bunch of engineers to help with a earth quake. and to pay us back they later sent up the PRIME RIB (military engineer group out of the south (i think)) to help renovate a couple of base's barracks (too bad we had to rip it out becaause it didn't meeet Canadian Building codes ( the thought was there).

And we sent our DART team already (diseaster response team). So dont look north with contemp we have allways helped when diseaster strikes.

Still best wishes to all affected

And the other part you said was a little off, too. You can't just build these huge levee systems, becuase you want to. They were working when they needed them to, but got overpowered. Ie. Sitting your car in front of a train, letting it hit, and me saying "well why didn't you just get the 2 foot thick steel?" You didn't need it before that train hit, and your vehicle was considered safe before the train hit. Same thing with the levees.

You're absolutely right, Sock. Up to that point, most people didn't see a need to build levees that could withstand category 5 hurricanes. The chances of a category 5 hitting were so remote, most thought that it would be unnecessary to build anything that strong. "Hind-sight is 20-20." We can all look back and say, "We should've done this and we should've done that." And if we really learned our lesson, we should build everything to withstand category 5 hurricanes and earthquakes with magnitudes of 9. But is that really going to happen? We could, but then everyone will call it a waste, until something big hits. In the end, you can never win against nay-sayers.

Well, its official, our group is leaving tomorrow. I got stuck on the second crew though, so I won't be leaving just yet. We're on a 14 day rotation, so, in all likely hood, I'll be heading down in about two weeks. They asked us for engines, so we're also taking one down there, and our first responsiblity will be putting out fires.. Apparently, most, if not all of NO's fire engines are not equipped, and the men, not trained, in the principle of drafting. Saw an interview on the TV today, a fireman from down there, standing on his truck, saying he had no water supply to fight the fires with, this while the water in the street was lapping up against the running boards on his truck..

 

TFD

Well good luck to you my friend. I am sure it will be an experiance you will never forget.

 

Keep us posted.

 

Cleatus