I was hoping to be able to retire this icon soon, but no luck

[sabotabby]

I don't think I can watch coverage of Gustav. It's like watching a trainwreck in slow motion.

Though on a more positive note, no one's died in Cuba so far.

Also, Nagin, you douche, you can demand that people leave all you like, but if they don't have the resources to get out, they'll stay there, and die, just like last time.

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I've been avoiding the News on that front too, it's just, I know it's a privileged thing to do, but I don't want to know that what happened then is happening again.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

There have been busses provided this time, actually.

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

To the tune about a third what are actually needed. And the city has opted not to provide any shelter in the city. No repeat of the Superdome fiasco because the superdome is padlocked this time around. Everyone left in the city is simply ordered to stay inside and if they die it's their fault.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

That just blows.My.Mind. I mean, yeah, the Superdome turned into hell, but at least it was _somewhere._ Does nobody remember all the footage of the floating bloated bodies? The _hell_?

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

2 of my friends left the san Francisco Bay Area to move back to New Orleans only six weeks ago. They left this place because they couldn't afford the high cost of living here. (Rent is about, something like, $500,000 a week for a walk-in closet around here.)

I've been trying to call them to see what's up with them. The first few tries got "all circuits are busy..." messages. I finally left them a voicemail, but still haven't heard back from them.

[sabotabby]

I hope they made it out.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

You know when rising sea levels eventually take Manhattan there'll be something done about it.

[captainmushroom.livejournal.com]

Schlefstein's blogging live from New Orleans at the moment: http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/schleifstein_blog/

[billie0.livejournal.com]

Had the levies been fixed yet...probably not...

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

No. To bring them up just to their design specs would take ten years and billions of dollars. They just patched the holes and reinforced a couple of really weak spots. Anyone's guess if it'll work.

[mcpreacher.livejournal.com]

nagin doesn't care about black people

and yet

he is black

UNEXPECTED TURN OF EVENTS

WHAT DO YOU THINK CHRIS ROCK?

[joxn.livejournal.com]

I'm a bad person, because every time I see the name "Gustav" my mind fills in "ja, dat is the Fräulein I moost haf".

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

If the last two times are any indication, the city has to plan to remove 20% of the population. The other 80% will contrive to get out. They planned on evaculating 10% this time. And they're short of busses even to do that.

[captainmushroom.livejournal.com]

They're claiming that it's much higher this time, around 90 percent or so from southern Louisiana.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

I don't think I can watch coverage of Gustav. It's like watching a trainwreck in slow motion.

No kidding, I'm avoiding news sites and tv programs for the next week.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just can't....and it's so cowardly and privileged of me. But like someone on my flist said, I don't know if I have any more heart left to break after last time. Jesus it hurts even to think "last time."

[funnel101.livejournal.com]

Second this...

[febrile.livejournal.com]

As an evacuee, you'll pardon me if I sound a little snarky. It's been a long couple of days.

1) Not having a shelter of last resort was a good idea. It meant that people didn't stay where no help could get to people. People left.

2) Buses were plentily available. It was widely televised that you didn't have to provide personal information or sign up on a registry to get onto a bus. The only rules were no booze, no drugs, no weapons. They actually extended the widely-publicised pickup times for buses.

3) Information about evacuation services were impossible not to find.

This experience has been nothing like Katrina. Gustav will be Gustav, but anyone who dies this time around is not a victim of incompetence or governmental apathy or socioeconomics, but of their own informed choices.

(And yes, I am both a New Orleanian and a Woody Guthrie-listening liberal. I'm not drinking the Kool-Ade.)