Hurricane warning to New Orleans.

I have a friend who has two cats - one requires medication - she has been trying to get a ride out but has had no luck so far - if anyone knows of someone leaving with a vehicle or a safe place she can get to easily with two cats in tow please u2u me immediately or email me at [email protected] - many thanks - she wants to leave but doesn't want to leave her animals behind....also she's poor a church mouse and can't afford a flight out of NO -
again thank you -


[edit on 31-8-2008 by realshanti]

Originally posted by Asherah
What if the residents of the recent floods in the Midwest were treated like this? Get out or there's no help for you?

This is totally not the same....you almost cannot prepare for a flash flood. We here in South LA have been hearing about this storm for a week now and have been offered free transport & shelter if we do not have the means to get out.

NO ONE wants a repeat of Katrina or Rita.

I don't have the time to read over this thread, but I have a few links that may be helpful to some. Good luck to all my friends and neighbors on the coast. If I loose my home again I'm gone for good to higher ground!

www.maroonspoon.com...

www.stormpulse.com...

I want to thank everyone for the best wishes, and I even thank the people who think I am insane. I can appreciate everyone's point of view.

I am drawing on mostly my experience. I have been through Hugo, Andrew, countless tornadoes, and a few other things that I dont care to get into. Current reports say that this is a Cat 3.

Katrina was a unique situation. Yes it was a Cat 3 when it made landfall. Yes it caused much destruction. The real key to Katrina was that the city of NO is BELOW SEA LEVEL. It was no secret that those levees could not withstand a Cat 3 hurricane. I am not in NO. I am above sea level. It is possible that I will see some localized flooding, but it wont be much different from any strong thunderstorm that dumps several inches of rain in a very short time. Of course I could be wrong, but I doubt it and if I am I have made the plans I need to make.

A question for our US members....

I've just been watching a report from a US news reporter on Sky News. He was in New Orleans and was taking viewers through the proccessing that the public will go through.

Many times you could see the National Guard, or at least i presume it was them. Wearing combats and all carrying weapons.

Is it the norm for the national guard to carry weapons if they are just assisiting a natural disaster evactuation? Is there a particular reason why?

Am i totaly jumping to the wrong conclusion and thinking the weapons are there for if things don't go too peacefully? Looters, crowd control and the likes?

It just seemed odd to see as here in the UK, i think i'm right in saying that when the forces are called in to help the public, we are not armed with live ammo.

I know i never was anyway.

CX.


[edit on 31/8/08 by CX]

reply to post by CX



I'm not from the US, but i suppose it re-assures people, seeing someone dreesed in uniform with a gun makes people feel safer. i know whenever i go to the airport in the UK and see a police officer with a machine gun it makes me feel alot safer.

reply to post by CX



I'm not from the US, but i suppose it re-assures people, seeing someone dreesed in uniform with a gun makes people feel safer. i know whenever i go to the airport in the UK and see a police officer with a machine gun it makes me feel alot safer.

[edit on 31-8-2008 by sheepy ALEX]

[edit on 31-8-2008 by sheepy ALEX]

reply to post by sheepy ALEX

Those people with autofire may be the Blackwater boys. I don't know, but I think they mix them in with the national guard troups, so it's hard to tell. What is their authority, I wonder. They probably have shoot to kill authorization.
I wonder if there will be any looting.

Police in New Orleans will be issuing a stark warning to residents who fail to flee the onrush of Hurricane Gustav: Get out now or you are on your own.

Yes it's a dummy law. Arizona has this if you attempt to cross a flooded road. If you get stuck you pay a 500 dollar fine and the tow because your a dummy.

Dont cross!

Get out of town! Trust me people would rather help you leave then clean up your corpse.

reply to post by Elfworkz

What happens when the power goes out and night falls. NO could turn into a complete madhouse. Local police could fail to report for duty, possibly because they couldn't make it through the flooding.
If I was there I would practice my screaming. It could become like one of those "Night of the Living Dead" zombie movies. A bunch of locals wandering around and another group drawing a bead on them.

Haven't read the thread... too many on the Hurricane... but...

For anyone who actually cares about the people that live between Gustav and Hanna with Invest close behind....

One thing about my research is I have a huge database at hand of satellites to tune in on

You can track them live here Pick ATLANTIC LOOP

www.nhc.noaa.gov...

Gustav
www.ssd.noaa.gov...

Hanna
www.ssd.noaa.gov...

Invest
www.ssd.noaa.gov...

]Weird name [

This is going to be a triple whammy...

[edit on 31-8-2008 by zorgon]

reply to post by son of PC


I read somehwere that they would shoot anyone who was looting, sounds a bit extreme. I wonder what would happen if one of the the national gaurd or blackwater people came across a guy in his house who rode out the storm and they thought he was a looter? If it was shoot to kill then i think there may be uproar if they got the wrong person. IMHO i belive blackwater guys might be a bit trigger happy.

reply to post by CX

It's the NEW MOON!!! It will be pitch dark when the power goes out in NO. Wow, this is going to be scary. They need to get some helicopters up even in the strong winds to see what is going on.

O yeah the news will hype it up too bringing gas prices soaring again.........

Geesh cant we get a break from all this crap. I have to turn off the TV to get away from the hurricane/politics!

Agreed it will be nasty even if it wont be the scale of Katrina.

reply to post by Elfworkz

Dateline; 29 April, 1992. LA riots, new moon, Bush 1. Gang "revenge" killings of other gang members, some police targeted. Note, NEW MOON, like now.
Could NO be the LA of this generation. Unknown.
Nagin looks scared.

Curious for the residents opinion. If New Orleans takes a direct hit by a CAT 5 do you think the city will recover??

I am asking because after hearing about the devastation of Katrina and the massive cleanup and reconstruction I was wondering if the locals feel they could rebuild again?? For something that terrible happen a 2nd time in such a short time period is well...beyond words.

On a side note. What are these Blackwater folks doing in New Orleans??

I feel we are being conditioned to accept private soldiers walking the streets of the US! I am NOT comfortable with mercenary soldiers policing our country. This duty is for our National Guard and local police!

I noticed the guardsmen on the news as well. They did have rifles with them, but upon a closer look, I didn't notice any with the magazines in the rifles, and I did notice on one closup an empty magazine well. That's not a ready for action configuration, and neither by the way is having the weapon slung over your shoulder. A weapon, to most soldiers is simply a part of the uniform, like boots, hat, or web gear.

I've heard an anecdote from someone who served in the 82nd during Hugo (though it might have been Andrew, my memory is kinda foggy on which). Soldiers were deployed to the Hurricane zone with weapons and no ammo to go with them, and were approached by armed gang members demanding they give up the weapons. The soldiers were able to bluff their way out of it, but since that time when deploying to hurricane zones with weapons they have ammo for them, at least in thier vests so as to be readily accessible. The one time I did deploy with the Guard to a Hurricane zone, we did have ammo, but kept it in our vests and actually kept plastic caps on our weapons to keep them clean. The work we were doing made our weapons more of a hinderence (had to keep up with it and keep it clean), and the only looters we spotted were handled by local/state LEOs.

Here is an update:


I am worried. Last night till this morning I was on a 12 hour security. I am about to go back on in a couple of hours. I dont know if things have gotten better or worse since I my shift ended.


Last night and this morning was a mess. I am glad that people are being bussed out, but we do not have adequate shelters and facilities for all of these people as of last night and this morning. We have plenty of MREs and water, cots and blankets for the evacuees. What we dont have is Space for all of the cots, enough Port a Johns, enough Port a john service, showers, and communication, organization, and coordination problems. We had to turn people away. We were already at capacity early this morning and only had room for people bussed up here with no pets. We had turn away busses with pets, people in cars, and eventually just busses full of people. We had no room.

The newsmedia as far as I can tell barely highloghted the situation, so maybe things improved today. I have been asleep so I dont know yet, but I will find out here soon.

reply to post by MikeboydUS


I forgot you were down that way and still in some sort of mil status. Are you reserves or Guard? Good luck to ya bro, I'm glad guys like you are the ones serving.

reply to post by jefwane


Im in the Guard here in Shreveport, LA where we have the largest state shelters, which are already at maximum capacity as of early this morning.