Anne Rice on Katrina and New Orleans

[Martrae]

I lived in Cali in the 80s. I doubt it's improved.

[Vincenti]

lol Cali is no better or no worse

my point exactly

[Phlegm]

So when Cali falls off into the Pacific Ocean becuase of an earth quake we will be sure to spit your sentiments back at you..."YOU ARE ALL LIVING ON A FAULTLINE YOU DUMBASSES SHOULD HAVE MOVED AGES AGO! WE AREN'T GOING TO PAY TYO HELP YOU AND YOU CAN FORGET ANY SORT OF AID FOR ABOUT 6 DAYS UNTIL MOST OF YOUR INJURED HAVE DIED" It's easier to get corpses out than people anyways, all a corpse needs is a 6 foot deep hole, a live person needs food shelter and care

fuck off!

Actually the state and every cities in California is require to have an emergency plan in place in case of a major earthquake.

There is also a law in California that requires everything in the state must be high in buoyancy in order for it to be use as flotation device in case the entire state falls in to the ocean.

[Vincenti]

Every city in La has hurricane plans too, but when the big one comes, you wont be any better perpared than we were. We have been screaming fr years to get our levees shored up, we have been saying this was going to happen for years, but we have always been blown off because we are just dumbass coonasses who dont know their ass from a hole in the ground. part of the problem also is that everytime we get a new Gov. we have to train them on what to do. Blanco was jsut thicker than most. As I mentioned in another thread Blanco has been caught with her pants down twice now and she doesnt seem to be learning. I imagine that if the big one hits you then Arnold wont be much better. Plan all yuou want, but I am here and it is happening and I am still having trouble wrapping my brain around the enormity of the task at hand.

[kaharthemad]

I'd say that about Cali.

same with Hawaii...who would live on a fucking volcano? I dot care if the Hoola girls are hot...everyone is hot when they are melting in magma.

As for the problems of NO. Frankly return fire should have started right after the riots and looting. Oh your son was killed because him and his friend shot back at a cop/recue worker while looting a Best Buy? Sorry file a complaint with Jesse Jackson.

I love the fact that some rappa sez they are "shooting blacks in the streets" News flash you shoot at me Ill shoot back. And point of reference, the first looter that was 'shot'(15 total) was a white guy who decided to shoot a National Guardsman with kevlar on.

[Captain Insano]

lol Cali is no better or no worse

I'll take downtown Hollywood and Vine over Bourbon street any fucking day of the week.

Cali is the entertainment capital of the world, we also produce the most venture capital in the world and is still a huge technology hub.

New Orleans is fucking rotten even before the Hurricane.

Mardi Gras sucks ass too. It's nothing but fat rednecks and disgustingly drunk average looking southern college whores.

Big fucking deal NOLA.

Oh and where I live in Irvine... Safest city in the U.S.

[Martrae]

Irvine wasn't safe when I lived in Tustin. :P

[Vincenti]

Cali is the entertainment capital of the world,

MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA What is the last original idea to come out of Hollywood? Reality TV?

NOLA isnt just about Mardi Gras and Bourbon street altho that is all the uneducated masses think it is (hint hint) Jazz and blues, (Cali has hair bands) cooking, (Cali has a few wineries) History, (New Orleans was a thriving city when Cali was still part of Mexico and covered in buffalo shit), Seafood industry (What does Cali farm other than liberals and mexicans?...ok I will give this to you, Cali does grow some good pot.) Oil industry (Cali could have an oil industry if you didnt have so many liberals, what you gonna fill your rice burner with if we are completely dependant on foreign oil?) And in case you havent noticed more and more of the movie industry is leaving Hollywood for places like south La because it is soooo much cheaper to film here without all your liberal bullshit laws.

No thanks you can keep your Hollywood and Vine, I will stay in New Orleans even if it is mostly underwater atm.

[Martrae]

I heard Atlantis was the hub of civilization at one time, too.

[Vincenti]

apt comparison actually.....

[mofish]

Guess what morons. Sea level will rise at least 3 feet in the next few decades due to global warning. SURPRISE! THAT TURNS EVERY COASTAL CITY INTO A NEW ORLEANS!

Guess we better start packin up every person that lives on a coast in the entire country and move em to Kansas. Yeah thats it!

P.S. 9/11 victims are stupid idiots for workin in a skyscraper. Fuckin morons.

[Captain Insano]

You should stop posting on the internet and save the power you're using for the poor black people.

[DangerPaul]

Guess what morons. Sea level will rise at least 3 feet in the next few decades due to global warning. SURPRISE! THAT TURNS EVERY COASTAL CITY INTO A NEW ORLEANS!

Guess we better start packin up every person that lives on a coast in the entire country and move em to Kansas. Yeah thats it!

P.S. 9/11 victims are stupid idiots for workin in a skyscraper. Fuckin morons.

there is no hard proof global warming exists or if this is a trend the earth goes through, since historical data does not represent climates world wide. Quit believing everything you read. Next thing you know, you will claim second hand smoke does in fact cause lung cancer.

[Vincenti]

Global warming doesnt have to be caused by aerosol cans to exist, the sea level is rising for some reason, and calling that reason global warming is jsut as conveient as saying that God decided to move the gulf of mexico.

The sea level rising is a hard fact, it isnt debatable, last year it was here, this year it is there, which is X inches higher than last year, it could be a natural occurance or it could be caused by your SUV, doesnt matter, it is rising and will continue to rise in the foreseeable future.

[Martrae]

So why rebuild in a bowl?

[Vincenti]

Because it is our home.

Why rebuild on a volcano, or on a fault line, or on a peninsula that sticks out into the atlantic ocean and the gulf of mexico, or on a mountain where avalanches can wipe out a town, or in the plains where tornados rip through regularly?

When your home has been destroyed and there is some cack saying "It's not my home, why should I help to rebuild it" then come talk to me, until then you have no clue. Home is more than where you hang your hat, it is family, your culture, your familiar streets, the language you speak, the resturants you have eaten at since you were a child, the theater where you went on your first date, the street where you grew up. Those structures may be damaged or in some case demolished, but the place is still there and we can rebuild, and we can rebuild it better than before. We can shore it up until it isnt a bowl anymore. Transients and military brats don't understand home. They dont understand the emotional attachment you can have to a place. They don't understand how hearing an accent can make you feel homesick when you are away, they dont understand how the sight of a type of tree (cypress in my case) can make you yearn for home.

We need help to rebuild, but make no mistake even if the feds completely give up on us, we WILL rebuild it, we have already started in my parish and we are moving more rapidly in the process than even we thought possible. The enormity of the task is mind-boggling and it may well take years before we have our city back, but we WILL have it back. Believe me if we don't get any help we will be alot less likely to send help to you when you need it, and to be honest you will be less deserving of our help if we are abandoned, nor will you ever have faith in your own government if you do abandon us. Who is to say that you too won't be abandoned when you have need?

No it is in everyone's best interest to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We were here before most states existed, and we will be here for many years to come.

[brinstar]

boy i wouldn't want to live in kansas

i have my complaints about nebraska, but kansas is just messed up

[Martrae]

I'm hardly a transient or military brat and I do understand home. However, I also know things change. The town I grew up in isn't the same place that's in the same location now.

So, you're willing to cost taxpayers millions or billions of extra dollars because it's 'home'. Sure you can shore it up and build it up but doesn't that change it also? Why not just move a bit upriver and save a bit of money? ATM you're letting sentimentality supercede logic.

[Vincenti]

When your home has been destroyed and there is some cack saying "It's not my home, why should I help to rebuild it" then come talk to me, until then you have no clue.

[Lyion]

I sympathize, V, though home is where you hang your hat.

I had friends who went through the most tumultous time of their lives when they decided to leave Hong Kong when it transferred to Chinese Sovereignty. They gave up everything for their future. I'd guess some in N.O. will choose the same.

[Martrae]

I never said to not rebuild it. I said to use some logic and move the town out of a bowl. The land there will be poisoned anyway. Do you really want children living/growing up in an area with so much toxic spillage?

[Zanchief]

I'm not sure on the specifics, but it's really fucked up. You have a downtown core that is completely destroyed then you have some suburbs that are intact. But what’s the point of having those suburbs if there isn't a town to burb?

I guess you could just move part of the town elsewhere but if that’s the case the geography would be completely fucked up. Weird stuff.

[KILL]

I sympathize, V, though home is where you hang your hat.

a home is where your heart is.

a hat goes on a hat rack.

[kaharthemad]

I will donate time and money to help people in NO. Not for anything else than there are decent people that live there...(you included V) Before I spend money on setting up this crisis again can we make improvements to the place so when Hurricane Clusterfuck or whatever is next comes thru we dont have to worry about killing 10000 people when it hits you full on next time?

I have agreed to work with the Red Cross if they need more people. They know my situation and being that we are a 1 income family I cant do much but send emails out to people that are worried about their loved ones, and give my money. I feel for you I really do man. I have been to New Orleans twice, the one time I spent the whole 3 days in the shitter from bad Creole but the other time I spent most of it in the old parts of town listening to the jazz musicians in the bars. I think that when rebuilding starts, and improvements are made to the town that will guarantee this does not happen to this extent it will be a much nicer place for a while. Hell most of the riffraff that went to Texas from the superdone have already decided to stay there.

[Vincenti]

In order to not build in a bowl and/or below sea level we would have to move N.O. about 100 miles North west. Not really a viable solution. Most of the gulf coast of La is below sea level and a goodly portion of that is hemmed in by levees NOLA jsut happes to have a large lake north of it and a river running through it to make it more pronounced. The problem is also compunded by the fact that all of our barrier islands have been consumed by coastal erosion, so there is nothing to slow the storm surge down as it moves inland. Betsy and Camille were just as strong as Katrina, but at that time we had barrier islands and marshlands to absorb the tidal surges pushed ahead and behind the hurricane. Those dont exist anymore, so the city took the brunt force of the surge.

Were there questions like this raised last year when Fla got hit by 4 successive hurricanes in the span of six weeks? The damage here is much more significant, and Fla still has many of it's barrier reefs/islands to protect it from storm surge, but the principle is still the same. Why should we spend money to help migrated Yankees rebuild their summer homes and not rebuild a vibrant city that has stood since before the existance of the United States of America?

I really dont understand the problem here. If a natural disaster (hurricane, tornado, tsunami, earth quake, fire etc.) were to tear up any other part of the US there would be no argument about whether to rebuild, yet here everyone is vacilitating on whether to rebuild. There are areas of west where forest fires run rampant every single year, yet no one questions whether those folks should live there or not. There are areas in the midwest that have tornados every single year, again no questions. Why is NOLA any different?