Aftermath: Hurricane Katrina
It goes without saying, and you’ll hear it from everywhere else too, donate what you can to the Red Cross, make sure you mark your donations specifically for “hurricane relief”.
How do you spell relief? I saw the news out of Atlanta that gas in some places jumped to 5.58 a gallon! If that happens across the country, we’re in for a BIG meltdown here. Especially for the people that are displaced! Imagine being on the move, the people who actually evacuated, and you come to a gas station that’s now 5 bucks! YIKES! The reporter said some gas stations hiked their prices as to discourage people from using their stations because they were almost out of fuel, as the whole southern transportation routes have been majorily disrupted, and gas shipments just are NOT coming in.
Losing the Big Easy- I’m now interested to see what other countries will offer to help the USA now? I haven’t heard a peep. Wasn’t it only two weeks ago the US scuried to help save the Russian submarine crew? — Hey, uh, world out there… Uncle Sam could use some assistance…. we just lost the big easy. An entire city… gone. Can it ever REALLY come bacK?? It’s not looking really promising. Even if you could rebuild, knowing the devastation caused here, and that this wasn’t “the worst it could have been”— man… mindblowing. Makes you really thankful if you’re safe, fed and dry tonight.
August 31st, 2005 at 7:48 pm
I have heard that other countries including Britain, Russia, and France (if you can believe it) have offered help. I have no idea what they said or how they were willing to help. Getting some extra oil from Russia would be helpful.
August 31st, 2005 at 8:25 pm
man, is it true that there is only one gas unloading port, where louisania was hit? cause thats so stupid, there should be a lot other ports for gas… someome explain whats up to me cause i dont bother reading the news (tired of propandaga) and btw, do NOT donate tot he red cross. only 1/8th of ur donation actually reaches the victims, the rest of ur money goes to the big guys, for “overhead costs”
August 31st, 2005 at 8:40 pm
Even if the other countries did offer help, I’d think that this administration would reject it, as they would then have to actually listen to people outside their “yes-men” bubble. These are the same people who took money from FEMA and sent thousands of National Guard troops and critical equipment to Iraq. What makes you think they’ll make a smart move now?
August 31st, 2005 at 9:20 pm
There was one major crude oil port in Loisiana, receiving foriegn crude oil… also, some 1.5million barrels per day of oil production in the gulf are also shut down (28% of the nation’s oil).
The major issue with gasoline supplies is that there are about 10 refiners in that area and last I checked about 8 of them were still shut down, and may not be online for 2 more weeks. that’s 2 million barrels per day of finished product that is no longer being produced.
I’ve only been working in this field for 3 months…. but I look around at my coworkers and everything is really hectic. Bush is opening the stragetic oil reserve, but that is only going to help refiners in the midwest that used to get thier oil from the gulf… Finished product production in the gulf being shut down is still a major dent in this country’s fuel supply.
The EPA has waived clean air requirements for fuel, and that may slightly ease prices and supply problems in the midwest, northeast and southeast. The EPA did not waive special fuel requirements where reformulated gasoline is required, reformulated gas is a special blend designed to be mixed with ethanol or MTBE at the terminal (the place where trucks actually pick up the fuel). So California is kinda screwed - we use reformulated gasoline out here. There is talk that the California Air Resources Board will waive the reformulated requirement - but that may take a couple days and wouldn’t solve CA’s problems anyway… It’s quite complicated.
August 31st, 2005 at 9:44 pm
Perhaps next time some country has a tsunami, we won’t shell out so many beans.
how many Billion did we send over there?
August 31st, 2005 at 10:03 pm
Money doesn’t make gasoline produce itself and the flood waters recede. We’ve got plenty in donations to rebuild Louisiana, but the refineries can’t start back up until they’ve stopped being part of the Mississippi. Just because people gave money in tsunami relief doesn’t mean that there’s now no money for disaster relief here. Really, that’s a pretty short-sighted comment.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:10 pm
good ‘ol Canada has offered us some relief too.
September 1st, 2005 at 12:40 am
Doc,
You know I dig ya bro, but what you just said is the adult equivalent of the age-old schoolyard taunt “Well, Johnny didn’t let me use his yellow crayon so I’m not gonna tell the teacher he’s getting eaten by a rabid dog!”
If people could get the fuck off of their high-horses and help one another out without turning tooth and saying “WHERE’S MY RESTITUTION!!” before they’ve even handed out their help, this place might be a little nicer to live. You know?
September 1st, 2005 at 1:04 am
i agree with pseudo
but what does it matter as long as we’re helping, right? It’s not a competition of who can give the most, as long as they’re giving.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:06 am
While what’s happened with Katrina is awful you might want to check your facts, it was the brits who rescued the Russian sub, not your lot. And the US is very low in the amount of aid given to other countries (per capita) and it comes with serious strings attached.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:29 am
Serious strings attached? Like not trying to kill us??
September 1st, 2005 at 2:47 am
Media propaganda, anyone?
http://yahooracists.ytmnd.com/
September 1st, 2005 at 7:46 am
Canada are offering to help out with the relief too. Just few years ago, Nova Scotia (my province) was hit by Hurricane Juan and left us in a pretty bad shape, but some states in US helped us out (along with some other countries too).
So we’re returning the favour, but you have to understand that we and most of the other countries doesn’t have an abyssmal amount of money to give out, but I agree that they should help out in some way.
September 1st, 2005 at 7:54 am
Stephen– I never said the US saved the sailors– but they sure did scramble to get their special mini-subs on a big plane and headed that way pronto… i’m sure that wasn’t cheap to drop everything and use resources like that.
September 1st, 2005 at 8:54 am
well, quite a FEW countries have offered help now, but in our arrogant, redneck pride, we’ve decided to not ACCEPT any foreign offers of help. Bush has got to have the worst foreign diplomacy in the HISTORY of the United States Presidency. Fucking unbelievable.
September 1st, 2005 at 9:59 am
Sound, you’re apparently very selective about which propaganda you want to be exposed to. SUBSTANTIALLY more than 1/8 of a donation actually gets used. In fact, it’s closer to 1/8 going to overhead. That is still high, and needs to be worked on. However, that said, the Red Cross is still best equipped to actually make a difference, so the returns on dollars donated are pretty damned good.
In the future, if you’re actually overwhelmingly concerned with the efficiency of your dollar (rather than using efficiency as an excuse for keeping your money), donate to Doctors Without Borders. They have less overhead than anyone. However, they aren’t terribly active in the States to my knowledge. So, in the short term, while people are busy dying, pry open your wallet and give to the Red Cross.
September 1st, 2005 at 11:45 am
Pseudo:
That is not my point at all.
this thing isn’t over, and we have a BIG mess on our hands.
I will be very surprised if we even get a third of the help back that we dish out daily.
I Can’t believe that we would turn down aid at this point.
does any one have a link so I can check that out?
also, you know there is dancing in the streets over in the Middle East right now.
I just hope that we can get every one out of harms way and keep this incident from growing out of control like bread left to rise too long.
September 1st, 2005 at 12:59 pm
Yea, I’d like to know where that link is too. I have a very hard time believing that any world leader would turn down an offer for help from another country.
September 1st, 2005 at 1:04 pm
In fact, I havent seen one scrap of information on any of the major sights, regarding this piece of information. If he truly did turn down aid, it seems like that would be pretty damn big news.
September 1st, 2005 at 1:49 pm
I really feel for all the poor people down in New Orleans and Florida. For New Orleans, They really have never experienced a Hurricane like this because the wetlands that once protected the below sea level city from Hurricanes are now pretty much gone from all of the development that has happened during the last 70 years.