Terrible report from Creole LA

[MoonRiver]

70% of residences destroyed. Many dead animals, farm and wildlife. Some looking imploringly at the reporters, as if asking 'can you help us'. CNN reporter says what they saw is very, very disturbing. Rita was a horribly destructive cane. Glad some of the truth is coming out.
:cry:

[malaise]

1. Real sad n/t

[NYC]

2. Are you talking about people who have returned to look

at their homes? I don't have cable. Thanks for any details you provide.

[MoonRiver]

3. This was from a reporter on CNN.

They didn't talk to any residents. Maybe none are there. It's a town of 1,500. Apparently the devastation in LA is very bad.

[NYC]

4. Thanks.

I saw a photograph of a town that really wasn't there anymore. You could see straight lines which used to be streets. All was mud.

[MoonRiver]

5. People really do need to think about the possibly catastrophic

consequences before they build in these coastal wetland areas. Levees are proving to be completely unreliable.

[Brotherjohn]

6. Two words: Rice, and seafood.

People live in places like this so the rest of us can have things like that.

It's a life they choose, and they know the risks... not that that makes it feel any better to them. But it's a niche, and someone is going to live there. It's not as though it's densely populated, anyway.

As for N.O., one word: OIL. Well, also the simple geographic fact of the strategic location of the city, being on the mouth of the Mississippi. People are going to live there, too, in much greater numbers.

Half of California is on similarly catastrophe-prone land... but we really don't need to go there, do we?

People need to think about proper protective easures wherever they live.

[KoKo]

13. So...their land is flooded and the water is polluted...what are you

suggesting. And, NO, these people didn't know the risks...their levees haven't broken before and this came AFTER Katrina passed. How the hell do you get your cows out? Houston had trouble evacuating cars.

I think being rural people they've had to know about alot of protective measures just to live where they do. So, you want to blame them by lecturing about people needing to think about "proper protective easures? :shrug:

[NYC]

7. People don't always know.

Think about this. Manhattan is on "solid" rock. So they said. A few years ago, I found out their is a fault line running east to west.

So, did Manhattanites knowingly choose to live along an earthquake fault? No, but we live here, and we're not moving.

When someone buys a house, s/he thinks about affordability, accessibility, size. How many people check for a history of natural disasters? Probably not many.

We all know about California and earthquakes, but I'll bet we really don't know much about other neighborhoods.

[MoonRiver]

9. I know. Maybe our government should regulate more where people can live.

I don't have any answers. I just think these tragedies are going to be much more common with global warming on the march.

[NYC]

10. Perhaps real estate agents should be required to tell

potential buyers about the neighborhood. "By the way, this is a hurricane area..." That sort of thing.

You know that real estate agents and sellers would resist such a requirement. It would interfere with sales.

So, once again, money will triumph over people.

[MoonRiver]

11. Yes, indeed.

[CrispyQ]

12. There is no guaranteed safe place to live.

CA - quakes, mudslides, wildfire
Northwest - quakes, volcanoes
Rockies/Midwest - wildfires, drought, tornadoes
Central - drought, tornadoes
Northeast - blizzards, ice storms
Southeast - hurricanes

And yes, with global warming, each of these will get worse.

Get your survival kits & emergency/exit plans in order!

[choicevoice]

8. The people in the lower Parishes did not just build there.

They have been inhabitants of this land since they were thrown out of Nova Scotia. The Acadiennes or Cajun people had to settle on land that other people did not want. They came with nothing and made their living off the land. A large part of the problem is coastal erosion.