Katrina and My 2 cents:::::

[lawtchan]

Well a new football season approached and I'm staring down Katrina's ass sitting in Lakeview wondering if I should evacuate.

HMM???????

Let's see, listen to the local weather schmoo's or flip on the weather channel where there is "no agenda".

I'll take the weather channel and Dr. Steve Lyons.

He says Katrina's is coming right up N.O.'s "poop chute" as a CAT 4 or 5 with winds at 160 SUSTAINED.

I'm no rocket scientist, but aren't many structures gonna sustain 4-6 hours of that kind of weather.

So, I grab what few things will fit in our cars and head to Baton Rouge. 8 hours laters, to go only 70 miles, we arrive into B.R.

Post Katrina:
House is fine, no tree down, no windows smashed, no roof damage. WHEW!!!

Uh-oh, What's this, the 17th street canal levee system just broke which borders lakeview , mid-city, canal street.

5 feet of water in Robert E. Lee shopping center in less than 5 minutes. Now that is NOT good.

24 hours later, find out my street has 10-12 feet of water.
Well there goes my house and alll my worldly possessions.
HMM???
Now what to do!!!!

Oh, I see N.O.'s 'finest' is looting, raping, stealing, pillaging anything in sight.

FvCK IT and FvCK N.O.

I'm off to Memphis, TN to start over.

So, here I am at the Hampton Inn in Memphis, TN with nothing but a few personal items.

BUT GUESS WHAT!!!

I'm safe, my wife is safe, my son is safe, my daughter is safe, and my unborn son is safe.

That's all I asked for and that is what I got.

THE PEOPLE OF MEMPHIS HAVE BEEN ABSOLUTELY EXTRAORDINARY IN THERE COMPASSION FOR US WHO HAVE EVACUATED HERE.

MY THANKS TO THIS CITY AND THE OUTPOURING OF SUPPORT!!!

We all know the news doesn't report when a plane takes off and lands safely, ONLY when one crashes. THAT'S WHAT SELLS!!!

It is disgraceful watching the news and there portrayal of the disaster. 10 horror stories for every 1 success.

IMHO,

Anyone left in N.O. is only there for the wrong reasons. There was plenty of opportunity for them to get out, they chose not to.
So, go in, NUKE the whole city and rebuild.

THANK YOU to everyone for all their thoughts and prayers.

This is a trying time, and will be for many months, but
for those of us who feel blessed for just surviving the storm, material things can be replaced.
We have our families and friends, and that is ENOUGH for me.

 

[kosar]

Wow. Glad you and yours are safe, man. This has just been crazy.

The media has shown both the good(mostly good today, thank God) and the bad, but I understand how you feel.

Best of luck in Memphis.

 

[Blackman]

Thanks for taking the time to post about your ordeal. God bless and good luck to your family as you start anew.

 

[kneifl]

Hey man,

I'm very sorry about what happened to you in NO. It was a catastrophe and a disaster. Also, I would like to say that you have a great attitude and you will get through this in very little time. Best of luck to you and your family in this difficult time.

kneifl

 

[Nole]

lawtchan, if you are in need of boys clothes, don't you hesitate to ask. I've got a 9 yr old and a 5 year old. I have no idea how old your boy is. Just say the word and I'll box up some clothes for you and your family. I'm just down the street.

As a matter of fact, I think we've got ages 2-9 in this house(kept the smaller sizes because bro-in-law was having a baby boy).

Just say the word.

Get me that Hampton address and I'll send out Tuesday.

Take care my friend.

nole

 

[LUX]

This is a trying time, and will be for many months, but
for those of us who feel blessed for just surviving the storm, material things can be replaced.
We have our families and friends, and that is ENOUGH for me.

I think that about sums it up. I'm glad you and your family are safe. You have a very positive attitude and that's admirable considering all that you guys have been through. Best of luck in Memphis!!!!

 

[kosar]

That's very nice, Nole, seriously.

I assume we won't be seeing any more posts from you laughing at how much the forecasters are exaggerating a storm?

 

[Nole]

That's very nice, Nole, seriously.

I assume we won't be seeing any more posts from you laughing at how much the forecasters are exaggerating a storm?

OK, I deserve that. Please let it go.

Thanks.

nole

 

[BahamaMama]

Lawtchen...... can't believe i didn't remember that you were from that area too!!! So great to hear you were smart enough to get the %$#^ out!!!!!

along with nole, i know i could dig up some kids clothing.... you need to post your kids' sizes and sex in here... as far as adult clothing goes, i could only help if your wife is fat, or if you like to dress like a hawaiian....

P.S. : Iowa is nicer than TN

 

[KMA]

I'm glad you and yours are fine, and just for the hell of it here's yet another side:


http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl090305annerice.21ad697f.html

Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans?

07:32 PM CDT on Saturday, September 3, 2005

Anne Rice

What do people really know about New Orleans?

Do they take away with them an awareness that it has always been not only a great white metropolis but also a great black city, a city where African-Americans have come together again and again to form the strongest African-American culture in the land?

The first literary magazine ever published in Louisiana was the work of black men, French-speaking poets and writers who brought together their work in three issues of a little book called L'Album Litt?raire. That was in the 1840's, and by that time the city had a prosperous class of free black artisans, sculptors, businessmen, property owners, skilled laborers in all fields. Thousands of slaves lived on their own in the city, too, making a living at various jobs, and sending home a few dollars to their owners in the country at the end of the month.

This is not to diminish the horror of the slave market in the middle of the famous St. Louis Hotel, or the injustice of the slave labor on plantations from one end of the state to the other. It is merely to say that it was never all "have or have not" in this strange and beautiful city. Later in the 19th century, as the Irish immigrants poured in by the thousands, filling the holds of ships that had emptied their cargoes of cotton in Liverpool, and as the German and Italian immigrants soon followed, a vital and complex culture emerged.

Huge churches went up to serve the great faith of the city's European-born Catholics; convents and schools and orphanages were built for the newly arrived and the struggling; the city expanded in all directions with new neighborhoods of large, graceful houses, or areas of more humble cottages, even the smallest of which, with their floor-length shutters and deep-pitched roofs, possessed an undeniable Caribbean charm.

Through this all, black culture never declined in Louisiana. In fact, New Orleans became home to blacks in a way, perhaps, that few other American cities have ever been. Dillard University and Xavier University became two of the most outstanding black colleges in America; and once the battles of desegregation had been won, black New Orleanians entered all levels of life, building a visible middle class that is absent in far too many Western and Northern American cities to this day.

The influence of blacks on the music of the city and the nation is too immense and too well known to be described. It was black musicians coming down to New Orleans for work who nicknamed the city "the Big Easy" because it was a place where they could always find a job. But it's not fair to the nature of New Orleans to think of jazz and the blues as the poor man's music, or the music of the oppressed.

Something else was going on in New Orleans. The living was good there. The clock ticked more slowly; people laughed more easily; people kissed; people loved; there was joy. Which is why so many New Orleanians, black and white, never went north. They didn't want to leave a place where they felt at home in neighborhoods that dated back centuries; they didn't want to leave families whose rounds of weddings, births and funerals had become the fabric of their lives. They didn't want to leave a city where tolerance had always been able to outweigh prejudice, where patience had always been able to outweigh rage. They didn't want to leave a place that was theirs.

And so New Orleans prospered, slowly, unevenly, but surely - home to Protestants and Catholics, including the Irish parading through the old neighborhood on St. Patrick's Day as they hand out cabbages and potatoes and onions to the eager crowds; including the Italians, with their lavish St. Joseph's altars spread out with cakes and cookies in homes and restaurants and churches every March; including the uptown traditionalists who seek to preserve the peace and beauty of the Garden District; including the Germans with their clubs and traditions; including the black population playing an ever increasing role in the city's civic affairs.

Now nature has done what the Civil War couldn't do. Nature has done what the labor riots of the 1920's couldn't do. Nature had done what "modern life" with its relentless pursuit of efficiency couldn't do. It has done what racism couldn't do, and what segregation couldn't do either. Nature has laid the city waste - with a scope that brings to mind the end of Pompeii.

I share this history for a reason - and to answer questions that have arisen these last few days. Almost as soon as the cameras began panning over the rooftops, and the helicopters began chopping free those trapped in their attics, a chorus of voices rose. "Why didn't they leave?" people asked both on and off camera. "Why did they stay there when they knew a storm was coming?" One reporter even asked me, "Why do people live in such a place?"

Then as conditions became unbearable, the looters took to the streets. Windows were smashed, jewelry snatched, stores broken open, water and food and televisions carried out by fierce and uninhibited crowds. Now the voices grew even louder. How could these thieves loot and pillage in a time of such crisis? How could people shoot one another? Because the faces of those drowning and the faces of those looting were largely black faces, race came into the picture. What kind of people are these, the people of New Orleans, who stay in a city about to be flooded, and then turn on one another?

Well, here's an answer. Thousands didn't leave New Orleans because they couldn't leave. They didn't have the money. They didn't have the vehicles. They didn't have any place to go. They are the poor, black and white, who dwell in any city in great numbers; and they did what they felt they could do - they huddled together in the strongest houses they could find. There was no way to up and leave and check into the nearest Ramada Inn.

What's more, thousands more who could have left stayed behind to help others. They went out in the helicopters and pulled the survivors off rooftops; they went through the flooded streets in their boats trying to gather those they could find. Meanwhile, city officials tried desperately to alleviate the worsening conditions in the Superdome, while makeshift shelters and hotels and hospitals struggled.

And where was everyone else during all this? Oh, help is coming, New Orleans was told. We are a rich country. Congress is acting. Someone will come to stop the looting and care for the refugees. And it's true: eventually, help did come. But how many times did Gov. Kathleen Blanco have to say that the situation was desperate? How many times did Mayor Ray Nagin have to call for aid? Why did America ask a city cherished by millions and excoriated by some, but ignored by no one, to fight for its own life for so long? That's my question.

I know that New Orleans will win its fight in the end. I was born in the city and lived there for many years. It shaped who and what I am. Never have I experienced a place where people knew more about love, about family, about loyalty and about getting along than the people of New Orleans. It is perhaps their very gentleness that gives them their endurance.

They will rebuild as they have after storms of the past; and they will stay in New Orleans because it is where they have always lived, where their mothers and their fathers lived, where their churches were built by their ancestors, where their family graves carry names that go back 200 years. They will stay in New Orleans where they can enjoy a sweetness of family life that other communities lost long ago.

But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs. Well, we are a lot more than all that. And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you.

------

Anne Rice is the author of the forthcoming novel "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt."

 

[Nole]

P.S. : Iowa is nicer than TN

:scared

Not!!!!!

nole

 

[kosar]

OK, I deserve that. Please let it go.

Thanks.

nole

It's gone, man. Won't be brought up again(was the first time anyways), but wow, if you've ever been affected by these things...

Whatever the case, always appreciate your sense of humor and that was a very nice gesture you made....

 

[Nole]

It's gone, man. Won't be brought up again(was the first time anyways), but wow, if you've ever been affected by these things...

Whatever the case, always appreciate your sense of humor and that was a very nice gesture you made....

I lived in Florida most of my life. Moved here when I was 34. Lived in Tally and the only hurricane that really messed with T-town was Kate. Lost power for 4 days but nothing like N.O. The eye did go right over Tally though. I remember going outside while the eye went over and then everything kicked in again.

Guess I could have phrased that differently. That is the only time it has been brought up.

Take care Kosar.

nole

 

[BahamaMama]

Nole, i've been to TN several times....you ever been HERE?

i will admit tho, they are VERY similar....., and TN probably has *nicer* people, although IA probably has on the average *smarter* it's amazing that the further south you go, the nicer the people get !!!! Either IA or TN is a beautiful place to live!!!

(some time i'll tell you about my experience with Vol Fans at the peach bowl against IA way back when......GEEZ!!!!)

to KMA:

Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs. Well, we are a lot more than all that.

the press can be blamed for that as much, if not more than the gov't ...... was amazing how all of a sudden they started showing any children between the ages of 3 and 12 smiling/laughing/playing while still at the Superdome.


still not sure what part of the word MANDATORY some people did not understand....this does not mean it is based on your ability to get out.... it means you MUST get out!!!!! if you don't have the ability, you call someone and TELL them (that puts it in their hands) how many of these people do you think called the mayor and asked, can you please help us get out of town, we can't afford it, or we have a special needs case) i'm not defending the feds for their performance, but i will ask....how could they know until NOTIFIED by the state that people were in distress?? as far as anyone should have been concerned, there should not have been a single person left in N.O. This is NOT a race issue, but a poor issue..... there are still whites left there that should have made the SAME arrangements to get out!!!

 

[lawtchan]

Thanks for all the nice words and thoughts

I appreciate the offer for some clothes for the kids.

my son is 4 yrs old. wears size 4 or 5 clothes

my daughter is 5 yrs old. wears 6X or 7 size clothes.

BTW, my wife is fat, :mj07: she's 5 months pregnant with Hayden, our next son.

Hampton Inn
5320 Poplar Ave
Memphis TN 38119
Room 124

Once again,
THANK YOU a million times over from my family.

 

[KMA]

BahamaMama:

I am not at all trying to make a race issue out of this, I'm just kicking shit around, trying to make sense out of it all and trying to piece thoughts together. You're right, it is about the poor, the less fortunate, the ones who live without cars and phones, who have so little in material things, it's almost like someone said **** the doomed. It's is inexcusable what is going on in N.O.

 

[BahamaMama]

KMA, sorry if i made it look like i thought you were making it racial.... you haven't done that at all, and i was just trying to make it clear that i wasn't doing that either.... the whites, blacks, hispanics, hmongs, ANYONE.....that couldn't afford their own way out should have let someone KNOW.... this all falls under the definition of MANDATORY in Websters!!!!! If they didn't make a call, the fault lies with THEM...... if they couldn't reach anyone, the fault lies with city government (the MAYOR) .... IMO, you will never see this situation again in the US, as people will look up the definition of mandatory in the dictionary and FOLLOW it if they don't want to become what the press chose to show on TV. Yes, i do believe the feds could have likely acted a bit sooner (but not too damn much, as it takes a while to get things together and organized) and i certainly can't throw blames to the feds for not *knowing* about the convention center (where things were worse than the dome) cuz i watched the coverage for at least 15 hours a day, and until thursday, did not even know that had been an evacuation point for the poor.

 

[BahamaMama]

and a challenge to anyone:

post what YOU would have done to make things happen faster!!!

 

[vinnie]

Glad you and the family is safe.


I think your smart for not going back.

 

[Agent 0659]

lawtchan, if you are in need of boys clothes, don't you hesitate to ask. I've got a 9 yr old and a 5 year old. I have no idea how old your boy is. Just say the word and I'll box up some clothes for you and your family. I'm just down the street.

As a matter of fact, I think we've got ages 2-9 in this house(kept the smaller sizes because bro-in-law was having a baby boy).

Just say the word.

Get me that Hampton address and I'll send out Tuesday.

Take care my friend.

nole

:mj14: :mj14: :mj14:

Not to mention you just hit the Lotto :brows: