Hey guys. I was just wondering how everyone felt about the tragedy that happened to New Orleans. Did anyone have any family down there or live there themselves? How did this natural disaster effect you and your family?
I personally feel very sad and useless because I wish I could physically help those in need, but I know the authorities are keeping it very tight down there. So, me and my family donated to our church for the hurricane relief fund. Donating is the best we can do, I suppose. Just wish there was something more.
I don’t really know anyone from down there…the closest thing to it is I have a co-worker whose parents lived there. They were able to get out of town in time and fly out, so they’re safe. It’s possible that they will have a house left when they get back, but I don’t know enough about NoLa’s geography to take any kind of guess, there.
I feel a lot of things, too. I feel sad, really sad, for all the people who lost homes and family and pets (I can’t help it, I’m a huge softy for animals). And, not to get too political or inflammatory, but I feel angry about how some of the people have acted (robbing people instead of sticking together and helping, that sort of thing) and about how slow help has been in getting to them. But mostly, I feel sad about New Orleans itself. I’ve never been there, but I have always wanted to go and see Mardi Gras and the French Quarter and soak in the atmosphere. It makes me sad that so much of it has been more or less destroyed, but I can only hope that they will rebuild and be stubborn and keep celebrating life the way they have for a hundred years.
I feel pretty useless, too, being so far away. I’ve donated a little money but it feels like it can only go so far. I guess you just have to do whatever is in your power…give some money to the Red Cross, donate blood, pray if that’s part of your beliefs. And maybe just also try to be a little more kind and understanding and patient of those around you, and just do what good you can, where you can.
It’s a sad time, but things will get better and eventually heal. Soon for many people, a lot longer for others…but it will happen, eventually.
I’m a big softie for animals too, and I get a littlle weepy eyed (pathetic, i know lol) when i see all the stranded animals or here stories of dead/lost pets. I saw one photo of a man with his horse riding through the flood waters. I kept thinking, where in New Orleans did he keep his horse? I guess it didn’t dawn on me that the city had stables, just like everywhere else… I wonder what happened to the animals at the zoos and wild life santuary
I remember seeing on at least one news report that they’d moved some dolphins into swimming pools to help them ride it out. I imagine they did similar things at the zoos (though this was all w/o planning on floods, so who knows if they planned for floods). At least in SC when there were hurricane evacuations a lot of people took their horses with them. I lived about 3 hrs from the coast and a couple times the barn I rode at took in horse evacuees.
That being said, my husband is planning on volunteering with the Red Cross. He’s supposed to go in for like 2 days of training next week and then he’ll be down in Alabama or Louisiana for like 3 weeks helping run shelters. While most of us have jobs/schools/parents to keep us from doing that, there’s plenty of other things you can do. Donating money to the Red Cross or blood can help. And I heard a story about a group of kids in a neighborhood around here doing a lemonade stand and donating all the money they made to the Red Cross.
I heard that the animals in at least one zoo there were fine…the only ones they lost were a couple of otters. That thought did occur to me, too, especially when I saw a flyover of what looked like a racetrack, all flooded…I hope they were able to get the horses out.
What really tears me up is hearing about people who either had to leave their pets for some reason, or who left them behind in the misguided notion that they would be better off if they were left alone. All I have is a cat, but I could never do that. He’s my baby, definitely. I’ve been cuddling with him quite a lot the past few days.
I’m glad to hear your husband is going to New Orleans to help out, Andrea. I have a friend who is also heading down there to help out. They say on the news channels that the most you could do is send money, since it would be even more crazy if everyone headed south.
It’s kinda scary to think about the conditions down there. The water is basically a sesspool with dead bodies and sewage. Makes me afraid for those trying to help people still trapped. The media says its a breeding ground for plague and disease. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
It feels very sur-real to me. I watch the news and we are so used to see that in other countries that it didn’t really hit that this was our country, our home. My uncle lives in Texas, that’s the closest relative, but my grandmother was from the south. She mainly lived in Mississippi, but my mom would always tell me of stories about them vacationing in New Orleans. I always wanted to visit there, for Mardi Gras, it’s kinda like the Twin Towers. You never know what’s going to happen next. I know they are hard up for help, but it makes me so angry because I don’t think the military is doing as much as they should. I know they have alot on their plates, but what about our homeland defence. My school is going to do a fund-raiser, I’m hoping to be apart of that when they do it.
I’ve been watching the news all week in amazement and horror at these events. I’ve donated to relief organizations, and plan to give blood, but wish that I could have a more direct effect on the hurricane victims.
I’ve been watching the news and reading the papers and I think everyone down in this part of the world really doesn’t believe something like this could happen, espcially in America. Sounds like the city has gone absolutely crazy, it looks like something out of a Hollywood zombie movie. Hopefully everything starts working itself out though, but I guess my thoughts are with the innocent victims of the horror that seems to have taken hold after the storms hit.
The world has been behaving rather crazy lately I reckon. Whack temperatures, killer earthquakes, killer Tsunamis, killer storms… Kinda of makes you wonder what is next.
I’ve been thinking the same thing… it seems like there’s been a ton more natural disasters than there ever has been before. Take last year… I believe there were 3 hurricanes that hit Florida in a 3 month frame of time. Mount St. Helan errupted for the first time in over 20 years (that’s not saying much, since a lot of volcanos are dormant for thousands of years), and also the tsunami. Here in Chicago, our weather pattern is totally haywire. We’ve had an extreme drought through June and July, an early summer (it got into the 80’s in May, which is odd because sometimes we still get snow in May), and it looks like an early fall too, with the leaves changing 2 months sooner than normal. We no longer have wet winters, its a treat to get snow in Chicago now… they’re just very very cold now. I’m not a spook that sits here and thinks “Oh my gosh, the worlds coming to an end”… but it does seem a little odd, and a tad frightening.
I LOVE New Orleans. It is my favorite American city and I have traveled all over the U.S. Having said that I also have family in Lousiana but fortunately not in New Orleans(I used to think not having them live there was a BAD thing-Thank God now!) but anyway they do live in Shreveport and Baton Rouge and my Grandpa told me that although a lot of the city is destroyed a lot of the historic areas like the French Quarter are going to be ok(aren’t flooded and haven’t sustained a lot of serious damage). He knows this only because he has friends from New Orleans that are staying with him now and that is what they have said. Some places where a lot of the plantation like homes were in the city are destroyed (they were beautiful) as well as many of the beautiful live oaks and such. I can only hope that they are right about the very famous parts that every American should see, because after losing SO MANY lives it might give a small bright side if the best parts of New Orleans are still around for future generations.
I have friends at my house right now who are from New Orleans. They have decided that they aren’t going back home. They basically know that they have nothing left to go home to (not sure how, but they assure me that they’re sure they don’t). So they’re job hunting in Tulsa and are going to just stay here.
However, I must say that I’m pretty impressed with Bank of America. They have been totally helpful to them with getting money and getting everything switched over. I too bank with BoA and they were kind of funny at first about switching their address to mine (since I guess it came up in their system?), but once they figured out what was going on they allowed the address change, etc.
They’re getting new checks printed up with my address since it seems that many places don’t accept out of town checks anymore. Go figure.
But I do feel bad for those who are caught up in the mess in New Orleans. However, my friends don’t seem to really care. They said that they were told MANY times to get out of the town and that they did. They actually packed up everything they could, threw everything into the trailer with their horses and left.
Hopefully life can get back to normal for all those who have been effected!
Rain
