Hurricane Katrina...Ten Years Later

Hurricane Katrina
August 23, 2005 – August 31, 2005



Hard to believe this was ten years ago, as a couple of new storms head toward our shores.

$108 billion dollars in damage. More than 80 percent of the city of New Orleans underwater. By August 30th, the name "Katrina" would be synonymous with devastation throughout the minds of the American people. [Source]

Ten years ago when our country was so slow to respond, but for the Coast Guard and a lot of local heroes. Bless them all...the people rescuers and the animal rescuers alike.

According to Maroney’s count, he saved 142 people in the week following Katrina. For the 10th anniversary, the Sun interviewed Maroney about his experience in Katrina’s aftermath. Now in his early 40s and on the cusp of entering civilian life, Maroney often thinks about the people he rescued, including a little girl who is depicted with him in an iconic photo. But he doesn’t know who she is. He’s hoping to find and reunite with the little girl he rescued. [Source]

Coast Guard heroes remember rescues after Katrina [Video]

Ten years ago when our president didn't act...he fiddled and ate cake...and deluded himself...""Brownie," he said, "you're doing a heckuva
job."

"Brownie," critics claimed, had not done a "heckuva job" at all. He and his agency were roundly condemned as executing a slow, uncoordinated and ineffective response. And when it emerged that his previous non-White House job was as a commissioner of the obscure and apparently elitist International Arabian House Association, many eyebrows raised. [Source]

Ten years ago habitat were destroyed. Homes were destrooyed. Lives were destroyed.

Perhaps the most obvious and immediate ecological fallout from the storm came in the form of destroyed habitats. “We lost thousands of acres of wetlands. It went from ‘you had it’ to ‘it's not there anymore’ overnight,” says Shane Granier, a biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 220 square miles of wetlands. [Source]

Ten years ago when we refused help from Cuba, extraordinarily prepared to respond to disasters when it seemed we weren't.

"Over the last 10 years, there have been a lot of questions and concerns raised about the immediate response to Hurricane Katrina. And that's been well-chronicled, that there were significant shortcomings in that emergency response. And there is much that this administration has done to make sure that our government and our country is better prepared to respond to significant disasters like Hurricane Katrina." [Source]

Ten years ago when I was so angry at the slow response and lack of response as I made this video. Then went down the street and fed Katrina refugees and later went to New Orleans to help clean up.

Ten years later, over 1800 dead, homes still not rebuilt, people still trying to cope.

Ten years on plenty of people are still struggling. “What’s unique about this disaster is the magnitude of it,” Joy Osofsky, a clinical psychologist at Louisiana State University in New Orleans, told Nature.com. [Source]

May we never see a storm this horrific again, and if we do, please let us be better prepared for it. Are we?

Poll: 10 years after Hurricane Katrina, most say the nation is no better prepared

Ten years. The blink of an eye for some. A lasting struggle for others.

a reply to: ~Lucidity



…and Brownie your doing a heck of a job"


While people were drowning

108 billion dollars in damage. And with the trillions of dollars our esteemed elitist federal government just pisses away, this is somehow a problem to deal with.

Time for change.

Interesting that just this afternoon I heard a local radio interview with a refugee from New Orleans talking about how it is hard to believe that ten years has passed. The young man is now a star quarterback for one of the local high school teams. During his interview he said that although that was a scary time for a seven year-old and his family, it allowed them to find a new and much better life away from the city.
New Orleans' loss was our county's gain as a result of the storm. Our city hosted about a dozen families after the storm. Five of those families decided to stay here and have made great contributions to our community.

a reply to: diggindirt

Cool story. It was horrific for everyone, but most of all the children and the helpless. In one of the stories in the OP (the one with the video at the link), a rescuer tells a story of a mother literally throwing her child at him just hoping he'd catch her.

Many stayed on here in Atlanta too, and we're still in touch with a few who sheltered at the community center down the street where our family volunteered. But many more just wanted to go home.

Sadly they may be right that areas are probably no better prepared now. Tropical Storm Erika that may be a Hurricane soon could be hitting Florida this weekend and into next week. Other than the US with ill preparedness Dominica has at least 12(reports say 20 now) people dead and many more missing from the storm. In the West, with talk of the Cascadia fault going, learned that we're likely way less prepared due to prior lack of knowledge about how big or how soon it could be.

A lot of blame to go around....

NO Mayor Ray Nagin NOT utilizing all those school buses; the city effectively had NO evacuation plan or any kind of plan at all.

LA Gov. Kathleen Blanco NOT dotting i's and crossing t's to ASK the Bush Administration to mobilize the National Guard (did she EVER explain what she was waiting for--EVERY forecast had a bullseye on New Orleans).

It did teach, I hope a valuable lesson that many chose to ignore, if humanly possibly PREPARE for you and your family, and think of those around you that need help. If you put your trust in some Federal aid--you'll have either a long wait, or visit to a SuperDome like existence.

It was a massive government failure on all levels.

Criticism of government response to Hurricane Katrina

A very sad time for our Nation.

What ever did happen to Brownie. ???????

I know he was taken off the Job.

But where is he today??

a reply to: crappiekat

He is an AM Radio talk show host in Denver I think.

a reply to: xuenchen

HAAAAAAAA!

But seriouly, How Sad.

I don't mean how sad for Browni.

I mean how sad for all of us. I know Bush had to go there. But I would guess, deep down, he didn't feel good about it.

I honestly don't know how one "prepares" for such devastation. Yes, I understand that civil authorities should have plans in place but on an individual basis, beyond being able to be mobile with resources to get out of the danger area, what could be done?
There is plenty of blame to go around because a good deal of the help, late though it was, was directed into the pockets of corrupt officials and cronies. That corruption has cost the state and country millions in fees to prosecute and attempt to recover at least portions of the diverted funds. I'm pretty sure the whole fiasco is used as a case study in disaster preparedness today.
People who disregarded the warnings are as much to blame as the politicians who took too long to respond and stole the money for aid. (That's not to blame those who had no means of leaving.) They did have adequate warning that they were about to be hit hard.
The families who settled here after the storm say it was a blessing in disguise for them, allowing them to get their children away from the city and its crappy schools. It was the kids liking the schools, the lack of crime and low real estate prices in our little town that made them decide to settle here.

a reply to: crappiekat

One of the articles in the OP is about just that. Where is he today....

So what, ten years later, is he doing?

Lots of things. He's a radio host. He's an author. He's a public speaker. He's managing some investments and has done consulting for companies, including several connected with disaster relief and national security.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

I read of an account a few years later where a nurse helped out in a hopsital at that time and she stated that there 'thousands of bodies.' She went to on say that most of them were shot but the bags were labeled as other causes.

The letter to the webbsite by the nurses brother can be found here: 82.221.129.208...

look in the list of topics on the left, otherwise you might have to hunt around.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

I was down there......

My unit was sent to Mississippi first, because gulf port and beluxi were just wiped out.

Never saw anything like it, it was akin to the pics of heroshima and Nagasaki.

Just complete devastation.

Within 3 weeks from the day the storm hit, we were given new March orders to go to New Orleans.

The lines were measured in days not distance.........

Every day, hundreds of us, would load our rucks down with mres and water, and walk down the lines handing it out to those in the greatest need.

Empty our rucks, return to fill back up, and head back out.

Once, a family of 6 mom Dad 2 young children and "olma and olpa" had less than a gallon of water between them, they thanked me for my efforts and tried to give it to me.......

I'm about to get all emotional just remembering the sentiment, how does one have nothing, and offer all they have left in the world as thanks for my efforts?

If the situation were reversed, I don't know that I would have offered my family's last water.

Everywhere we went, we were heralded as heroes, treated like gold, and thanked like saviors.

I was godsmacked, even in such conditions, there were just really good people everywhere, all pulling together as best they could.

Of course there were the other folks too, trying to feed off that weak.

As soon as my unit from out of the trucks, a call came in that a van had stopped and grabbed a young female officer who was patrolling the lines helping to keep order.

Being the fastest person in my unit, I was given a singars backpack 3 30 round mags, and told to double time it 4 miles north.

I got there about 28 minutes later.

The folks in line, overran the van and saved the officer and hog tied the 3 guys inside.

Many more stories, both in verying degrees of good and bad, I won't tell many of the bad ones, just know, sometimes you see something you wish you could unseen.

Perhaps that's what Jade Helm is for?
Preparedness.

Texas, Florida, California, New York etc. will be in serious trouble because of rising sea levels.

That is bound to cause a riot or two, when it becomes a reality. While we obviously can't agree on doing something about Global Warming, we sure as hell can agree on a riot. And blaming the government for our wrong doings.

a reply to: johnwick

I can't even imagine some of what you saw. Nine months later we saw things we'll never forget too. Thank you for helping the people of New Orleans.
a reply to: HolgerTheDane2

I agree about preparedness. Imagine this on a larger scale.

And another memorable Katrina moment.

a reply to: ~Lucidity
I was driving north on I-95 back when Danny was still a tropical storm, and noticed long convoys of tan vehicles, looked like various earth-moving things. The vehicles weren't painted army camo, but solid tan. Does FEMA have these vehicles? I guessed they were moving to Florida to set up a base in case Danny actually became a hurricane, but I never heard anything about it.

It reminded of a previous drive up I-95 just after a previous storm hit Florida. There were convoys, but they were all tree trimmers and electric power trucks from various other states. None of them this time.