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Thread ID: 61370	2005-09-02 10:23:00	WFTWE #170...Anthropopsychism...No joking, the US disaster is mind-boggling...	Billy T (70)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
385480	2005-09-06 11:34:00	At a guess, the US civil authorities were caught with their pants down by the scale of the destruction. I'm sure they had file cabinets full of disaster relief plans only to find they didn't work. Not enough people or resources. And an ineffective command structure. We need to remember that the US is a highly urbanised society. People don't have pantries full of food. They eat out daily. Drive everywhere. Almost everything down to carving knives needs electricity. So they don't have the skills to make do when faced with disaster. Incidentally - the NZ Civil Defence standard is that each of us must be self sufficent for three days. How many know that? More importantly, how many of us are actually prepared. I can tell you that NZ civil defence relies heavily on volunteers and a very thin line of professionals - police and army. If we had this hurricane, I suspect we'd survive better individually but there would be less helicoptors, food drops etc than Louisiana has received.	Winston001 (3612)
385481	2005-09-06 11:40:00	I have sent off the above to Pres Bush for his future reference. That'l make him take note of we kiwis.	Cicero (40)
385482	2005-09-06 12:45:00	We were all prepared once, Winston. Remember our instructions for the Year 2K "unknowns" - how for weeks ahead we were deluged with detail on bottled water, torches, radios & batteries... Even though that New Year turned out a fizzer, one of my elderly neighbours still has her cache in the back shed. And every few months, she changes the water & batteries & swaps the tinned food for the newest interesting products. She's uncertain what the next biggie will be - but damned sure she'll be ready when it comes. P.S. Well, now I see somebody remembers Y2K. Brazzin made a thread of it...	Laura (43)
385483	2005-09-06 22:42:00	Winston says: <<Not enough people or resources. And an ineffective command structure.>> Well, I dunno.... Surely the richest nation on Earth has a huge supply of resources and disaster relief people. Ineffective command structure? It is hard to believe that multiple agencies e.g. Red Cross, National Guard, Civil Defence, would all be ineffective. Inept leadership is more likely. The governor of Lousiana and the head of the Civil Defence should be made to resign.	Strommer (42)
385484	2005-09-06 22:50:00	This (After the hurricane and killer floods, New Orleans was victimized by another disaster - the disaster response itself.) article is interesting. Excerpt: Edit: sorry, link did not get posted and now lost. After the hurricane and killer floods, New Orleans was victimized by another disaster - the disaster response itself. Every level of government that was supposed to prepare for the storm and its aftermath failed miserably. All were unwilling to make the expensive commitments to shore up vulnerable levees or replenish vanishing wetlands that left New Orleans so open to flooding. There was no logical plan to evacuate the city, particularly those too sick, poor or stubborn to leave. This one also (news.yahoo.com) There are limits to what might have been done. Higher earthen levees sink more quickly into the ground. And engineers can't stop a whole city from sinking. Founded in 1717, New Orleans was built on land that was at least 10 feet above sea level. Now most of the city sits several feet below, like a bowl waiting to be filled.	Strommer (42)
385485	2005-09-07 02:31:00	It was an "Act of God". So noone's responsible. Anyone (or entity) who hurts any American is a terrorist. Destroying oil refineries is even worse. Watch out, God, the Coalition of Willing Idiots will be invading any time now to remove your Weapons of Mass Delusion.	Graham L (2)
385486	2005-09-07 04:18:00	What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state . What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them . People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face . They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them . And they don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men . But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything . Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before . Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them . People living in piles of their own trash, while petulantly complaining that other people aren't doing enough to take care of them and then shooting at those who come to rescue them—this is not just a description of the chaos at the Superdome . It is a perfect summary of the 40-year history of the welfare state and its public housing projects . The welfare state—and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages—is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans . And that is the story that no one is reporting .	Cicero (40)
385487	2005-09-07 05:00:00	If you are too tired to write your own, Cicero, why don't you at least credit the actual author and source? isn't Google good? (tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1026) (It did seem too well written even though I disagree with it ... and a two word search threw this link to the top).	Graham L (2)
385488	2005-09-07 05:10:00	That is an interesting view. I confess to being puzzled by TV shots of people screaming angrily for help. Help yourself and each other instead of waiting for the great hand of government to descend from the skies. Not so easy for the sick and elderly certainly but most of the people were walking and talking.	Winston001 (3612)
385489	2005-09-07 05:18:00	Does seem strange, Perhaps the ability to look after themselves has been bred out of them. Personally if that happened local I would leap the fence, slaughter one of the neighbers sheep and have her cookin on the BBQ before anyone could ask when we were going to get rescued..... Then I could say...."rescued?,you want to be rescued from a BBQ?,what are ya, nuts or something...here, have a chop....." Muhahahahaha.	Metla (12)
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