Hurricane Katrina

[ChromeFox]

This hurricane has stirred up a lot of social issues that are probably going to come to a boil soon (Kanye West's tirade made that clear). I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing; it's obviously going to cause some distrust and animosity, but in some ways, I think these issues had been suppressed and needed to come up.

[Fiddelysquat]

I was so saddened when I heard about the old folk's home where they couldn't get all the 1st floor patients upstairs in time and they drowned.

[Igg]

I think it's indicative the hugeness of what happened that a country like America is finding it so hard to sort itself out afterwards.

In some ways, harder to deal with than a terrorist attack, because the devastation is of a different kind and much further spread.

It's often hard to watch something like this on the news, and unpleasant. If it makes you uncomfortable, it's not on every channel, go watch something else. *shrugs*

[Josephine]

Bush has been getting stick from community leaders for being late in giving people proper help and signing for the 10 million relief package, and I don't blame them.

[Matterbug]

Yeah guys, this isn't really the place to debate.

I've donated money to the Red Cross, I really hope that you all do.

This is such an awful awful event- one that the United States has not seen in modern times.

My prayers continue to be with everyone dealing with this awful event.

[alien]

Alien, you really should go and back up your claims. Your facts are all messed up and you need to back up your claims with links to news sources instead of just "I saw it on the news last night" because frankly, you're making yourself look like an idiot.

Inrun is right, the US isn't the only country that suffers from category 5 hurricanes. Almost every hurricane to hit the U.S. on the Atlantic side also hits Bahamas and other countries in the Caribbean.

And the U.S. never gets help from anyone? May I quote the article that Alex posted:

By Friday, offers had been received from Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Germany, Venezuela, Jamaica, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Guatemala, Paraguay, Belgium, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Italy, Guyana, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Austria, Lithuania, Spain, Dominica, Norway, Cuba, Bahamas, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Iceland, India, Jordan, Luxembourg, the Philippines, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey.

You call that not getting help from anyone? Even SRI LANKA donated, of all countries. Even though they're trying to get over that tsunami from December.

ok ok ok.. i know they all donated, and i know that sri lanka didnt pay for pay back, they paid because they wanted to help us like we helped them, and actually the canabilism report was a factual radio station a couple of days ago.
EDIT:: and apparently bush does have enough soldiers to send them to luisianna

President Bush said Saturday he will send more than 7,000 additional Marines and Army soldiers to the Gulf Coast region. Moments later, NBC News learned that the president himself will return to Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday.

and heres the site: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9186823/

[Hil]

I must say I'm rather disgusted with some of the gas companies and hotels near my city who are trying to, of all things, price gouge the people trying to rebuild their lives, and people in general.
I'm also horrified that the looting going on over there has gotten so out of hand. They SHOT a cop in the head who was trying to stop them.
-There are kids coming all the way out here to middle Georgia to try and keep up with school. I know one of my friend's cousins are.

I can only hope it's fixed as quickly as possible, those poor people are in my prayers.

The gas companies can't help it. Like I said, there were many oil refiniries in Louisiana and Mississippi that are under water, damaged, or both. So...since they lost some refiniries and a fair amount of oil, the price went up for some cities in the south. You can't really blame anyone for the gas prices, not even the president. However, driving a brand new Hummer really isn't going to help anything . It's a limited natural resource. People aren't going to stop driving anytime soon- so they'll still need gas. The oil companies COULD charge $20 per gallon if they wanted since people are still driving, but they're not. The oil companies aren't necessarily greedy, it's just that there's high demand and low (ish) supply.

And also, when people are starved for a few days, they 'go crazy' and their bodies go into a state of panic. So it sort of is more of a physical reaction, it's not like they said "Hey, let's shoot the helicopters for coming late!"

And yeah, taking food and water is one thing, but why would you need designer clothes and shoes during a time of crisis? Probably part of their 'panic' but still...

And also you can't blame the troops for arriving late- nobody could have predicted that something so catastrophic would happen.

I'd appreciate if those who are dissing the U.S. would keep it to themselves, thanks.

I'm going to donate later- I hope others do the same!

[alien]

And also you can't blame the troops for arriving late- nobody could have predicted that something so catastrophic would happen.

actually, they warned those states like a couple days when it was out in like pourto rico or somewhere in that direction...

[Hil]

And also you can't blame the troops for arriving late- nobody could have predicted that something so catastrophic would happen.

actually, they warned those states like a couple days when it was out in like pourto rico or somewhere in that direction...

People generally don't want to believe the worst though. They may have thought it would just be like all the other hurricanes and wouldn't be huge.

[alien]

And also you can't blame the troops for arriving late- nobody could have predicted that something so catastrophic would happen.

actually, they warned those states like a couple days when it was out in like pourto rico or somewhere in that direction...

People generally don't want to believe the worst though. They may have thought it would just be like all the other hurricanes and wouldn't be huge.

but when its a catogory four and growing back up to a catagory 5...

[Alex]

Some people weren't able to do anything.

Another link I found via LJ - while the Red Cross seem to be the most organised, you might want to research first.

"http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/11/06/rec.charity.hearing/?related

basically, they raised 100s of millions of dollars, supposedly for the 9/11 victims' families, and redirected the money into a "general fund," which was used for administrative costs, long-term funding, funding other projects, etc. AND, last I knew, some of the people who were supposed to get money from the fund still haven't."

[Stijn]

Oh. My. God.

I hate paypal.


A forum I visit on a very regular basis went offline (their servers are in New Orleans). So the owner of the website put up a donation link to help all of the people who suffered during the hurricane.

They were getting $3,500 of donations an hour.


Then PayPal locks the account, and ignores the owner of the website who tries to find out what happened. Go PayPal! Keeping money that was meant for the NO victims to yourselves!

Losers.

basically, they raised 100s of millions of dollars, supposedly for the 9/11 victims' families, and redirected the money into a "general fund," which was used for administrative costs, long-term funding, funding other projects, etc. AND, last I knew, some of the people who were supposed to get money from the fund still haven't."

Red Cross is funding help projects all over the globe. It wouldn't surprise, or anger me, if they take away some of the money donated to one disaster and spread it out to help other projects. It's not like Americans deserve it more than say, the people in Sudan or Congo.

But then again, I don't know how much money didn't end up with the 9/11 victims.

I've also stopped donating to these funds myself, because once you find out how an ungodly amount of money the CEOs of these organisations make a year, you'd be shocked.

[Charisma]

Well that's a 2001 article, and I'm assuming that's the reason why now they can't touch any of the money donated for the 9/11 tragedy unless it's for specifically 9/11 victims etc. I don't have a link to where I got my information this is just what I know from recently talking to an attorney whose friend is one of the attorneys for the Red Cross. According to her they have millions of dollars in a fund for 9/11 that can't be touched or put into anything else that doesn't deal with 9/11. Maybe they will find a way around this and perhaps if you donated for 9/11 and a tragedy happens and you wish to allocate the money you gave somewhere else, maybe they will let you, who knows.

I don't think that the red cross is wrong for using the 9/11 money to deal with things to do with terrorism like maybe donating money to England for the bombings they had to deal with, or whatever tragedies happen as long though as all the victims which the funding was intended for are given all that they need first. Then I guess the question pops up of how much do they need, do they like divide this money up evenly or is it like a on a need basis?

Oh and just out of curiosity, how much do the CEO's make?

[Hil]

Oh. My. God.

I hate paypal.


A forum I visit on a very regular basis went offline (their servers are in New Orleans). So the owner of the website put up a donation link to help all of the people who suffered during the hurricane.

They were getting $3,500 of donations an hour.


Then PayPal locks the account, and ignores the owner of the website who tries to find out what happened. Go PayPal! Keeping money that was meant for the NO victims to yourselves!

Losers.

basically, they raised 100s of millions of dollars, supposedly for the 9/11 victims' families, and redirected the money into a "general fund," which was used for administrative costs, long-term funding, funding other projects, etc. AND, last I knew, some of the people who were supposed to get money from the fund still haven't."

Red Cross is funding help projects all over the globe. It wouldn't surprise, or anger me, if they take away some of the money donated to one disaster and spread it out to help other projects. It's not like Americans deserve it more than say, the people in Sudan or Congo.

But then again, I don't know how much money didn't end up with the 9/11 victims.

I've also stopped donating to these funds myself, because once you find out how an ungodly amount of money the CEOs of these organisations make a year, you'd be shocked.

Was the money going directly to charities for it? Paypal might have thought that the person wasn't trustworthy and keeping it all for himself. *shrugs* It could happen.

$7 million on amazon now.

[CommanderSwiss]

As stated in previous posts, the Red Cross is helping other countries besidies our own, I'd like to know that my money is going to the cause I want it to.
Also, based on my own experiance with the Red Cross during Ivan, the money is distributed unevenly. Middle-class people who lost everything, recived no aid becuase they were overqualified and honest.
Poor people who lost nothing but their food , got money simply for being on welfare.

I'm going to help organize a funraiser for the Red Cross, but I'll stick to collecting other people money.


I also used up all the money I was going to donate (prior to remembering this) at the gas station. Every station with a wait under 3 hours is cash-only.