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Update...

PostPosted:Wed Aug 31, 2005 8:51 pm
by Eric
Just gonna give you an account of the events. My mom works like right under mayor Nagin so I have an interesting insight....

Anyway Friday I was told that the hurricane was coming to New Orleans, it could hit the projected path was drawn out by the weather services, and you know it's funny cause all my life I've been hearing about how a hurricane could wreck the city, and how our house could be gone when we get back, and honestly I never really believed it could happen, but SOMETHING about this one had me on edge, so on Friday I packed up about 10 sets of clothes, my computer, PS2, Gamecube, DVDs, as much crap as I could and I went to my brother's, I came BACK to New Orleans because I wanted to stay with my mom and dad(My mom's job required that she stay in New Orleans with the Major) but they told me to go back to my brother's.

Saturday comes and I drive back to Baton Rogue, it's hella harder, I left at 6AM and got there around 12 Noon. I just stayed with my brother for the rest of the day, and kinda hoped that the Hurricane would vear west(which would put Baton Rogue in harms way, but not nearly as bad as New Orleans).

Sunday 7 AM we start to feel the effects of the hurricane in Baton Rogue, lotta wind, little rain, and we find out that the hurricane made landfall East of New Orleans, in Mississippi, after that the power goes out, and was out until later that night. Throughout the day I was getting text messages from friends who were trying to find out if I knew anything, and if they were alright, some of them who went to Atlanta and Houston were telling me the Levi's were breaking, I mean it was just a big mess. Power comes back, but we don't have cable, which means the internet, tv, and phones are all out.

Monday Morning after the hurricane hits, I'm able to make contact with my parents, and the mayor has ordered his staff to get out of the city, thehotel my parents were staying with sufered alot of damage and they couldn't get back to their luggage, so they came out here with nothing but the clothes on their back. So they show up at my brother's house 6 hours later, and word comes in that more levis are breaking, and that the water that is getting pump out of the city is getting pumped right back in. My mom tells me that our homes is fucking gone, my childhood home I grew up in is flooded from top to bottom, and there's a chance it could float away if the city isn't drained anytime soon.

Think of New Orleans as a bowl in your sink, you have pumps on each side of the bowl, and whenever water gets into it, the pumps push it back out of the bowl into your sink and back into the surrounding water, now imagine that same bowl with cracks in it, water seeps in, gets pumped out and there's no progress. Not only that the rate of which water flows in is greater then that of the water flowing out, so if you don't figure out how ot stop the water from getting in, you'll have the entire bowl filled with water and level out wiht the water of the sink. Basically Game Over. Imagine a lake with an entire city below it, and you'll get the idea.

Another problem is the fucking looters, they have people out robbing stores in the middle of this crisis, the other day the invaded a fucking hospital looking for drugs. Jefferson parish has ordered that looters be shot on sight, and I hope Orleans does as well, they deserve to be shot in the leg and drown in the fucking water, and i'm not talking about people looking for food, they're looking for drugs, jewelry, furniture, shit they don't need, it makes me fucking sick.

And like I said earlier my mom works for the mayor, and it's given me an insight into politics.

Basically, Ray(The Mayor) is gonna be made into a scapegoat for all of this, and it's fucked up because he's a good man who cares about the city, and is doing everything in his power to try and get this resolved, he even got President Bush's number and got him to fly over the city to witness the destrcution first-hand. My mom's job was to convey what Ray needed over to the governer, who for all inteisive purposes is dumbstruck, I mean really her idea was that we need a day of prayer, when people were still trapped in the superdome. She's rather useless, running around like a chicken with her head chopped off. They you have your other politicians who are just trying to get on TV and be seen, and come up with other useless ideas, basically self-interested asshats. There are a few gun-ho ones like Ray and my Mom, that are trying to make a difference, but it's really just freakin messed up.

So to sum shit up, New Orleans looks like a War Zone, I don't wanna say Iraq, but it's more like Midgar I guess you could say from FFVII. My house is fucking gone. My parents are safe. And I'm in baton Rogue with my brother, and no internet/cable/phone, save text messages. I'm done, whenever the cable comes back on I'll post somemore. Later all.

PostPosted:Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:01 pm
by Zeus
Yeah, I was watching that shit on Headline News earlier tonight. Geez, man, that's fucking insane. SOmething like 80% is under water? Wow. Narlens had a hard enough time keeping the water out of the city without a natural disaster.

Well, at least you and your fam are safe. I know it's shitty to lose everything, but you can get it back.

PostPosted:Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:13 pm
by Flip
I'm glad you and yours are safe, Eric. I hope to ?God? that NO and her people can get out of this disaster with lives left to live.

PostPosted:Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:34 pm
by Ishamael
Oh man, I forgot that you lived in New Orleans. I'm very sorry to hear about your home being destroyed, but I'm glad you and your family got out OK. That's all that matters in this kind of situation.

To be honest I figured Katrina, while bad, would be "yet another" hurricane. I had no idea about New Orleans' unique weakness to this particular scenario. As I said in an earlier post, I remember hearing one meterologist for a national weather organization call it a worst case scenario...but it still didn't set in. NOW it's starting to sink in exactly how bad all this is. I'm donating some cash to the Red Cross to help out in some small way.

Please keep us up to date, assuming it's convenient, on how things are going.

PostPosted:Thu Sep 01, 2005 3:23 am
by Derithian
See I knew it could happen ish. I knew and the first person I thought of was eric the night of the hurricane.. After the hurricane hit I turned on the news when I woke up and saw the news that New Orleans while having been heavily damaged and slightly flooded seems to be safe. I got on and saw eric post he was ok and I said phew. that's what mattered. he's probably come out of all this ok and with no seriously bad flooding his life can get back underway a little faster. then I wake up the next morning to the headline 80% of new orleans under water and it made me say oh fuck. here's this fellow geek and guy I've been talking to online for like the last 7 years in here. Eric I truly feel bad for you. As I said you being the only person there that I know you were front and centrer in my thoughts and I had hoped through some miracle that things would end up ok for you. I wish you all the luck in the world etting you and your family back on their feet my friend.

PostPosted:Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:03 am
by Torgo
Glad to hear that your folks made it out okay, considering they were right smack dab in the middle of it. Sorry to hear about your childhood home though.

PostPosted:Thu Sep 01, 2005 1:06 pm
by Nev
Well...houses can be rebuilt... It's sort of a cliche, but you and your folks can't...so at least you have that.

Keep us posted on the insider's version of all this, yeah?

PostPosted:Thu Sep 01, 2005 3:27 pm
by Imakeholesinu
There is not much that can be said about this turn of events from an outsider looking in. I have never had to deal with something like this. The flood of 93 is the closest thing in my memory in St.Louis, but that wasn't even close to the magnitude of what has happened in Gulfsport, Biloxi and New Orleans. You and your family are in my thoughts Eric.

PostPosted:Thu Sep 01, 2005 4:13 pm
by Nev
Just as an FYI for everyone else, the Mac Hall post today mentions that the only supertanker port in the U.S. is (or perhaps was) in New Orleans. My guess is that gas prices may spike sharply for the next month or so...

PostPosted:Thu Sep 01, 2005 6:09 pm
by Flip
Mental wrote:Just as an FYI for everyone else, the Mac Hall post today mentions that the only supertanker port in the U.S. is (or perhaps was) in New Orleans. My guess is that gas prices may spike sharply for the next month or so...
They already did, last night went from 2.89 in my area to well over 3.00 a gallon and it will keep going up up UP!

PostPosted:Thu Sep 01, 2005 7:26 pm
by The Ghost
I'm glad everything is okay with you, Eric. I was worried.

Take care.

PostPosted:Thu Sep 01, 2005 9:35 pm
by Blotus
I have to admit as well that you were the first thing that crossed my mind when I heard about this, Eric. I'm really glad you and your family are safe.

I'm so isolated in my work that I hadn't a clue any of this was going on until I saw pictures in the newspaper. I agree with the looting business; seen too many pictures of people carrying jewelry and DVD players. I can't really even fathom the atmosphere inside the city.

Good luck, man.