Auckland has 30+ volcanos and you can be damn sure that every single one of those has more probes and sensors going down than you'd imagine. We'd have more than 2 days notice (more like months) to evacuate if one of them started hotting up and we wouldn't have to travel far to do so. Yes, we might lose our investments but you can be sure that that is all factored in. The process to get resource consent to even build a garage or deck is lengthy and involved. There are limits on non-permeable surfaces, light restrictions, blah blah to ensure that if we get heavy rainfall the water has somewhere to go. Every so often you get dramatic weather with dramatic outcomes but the numbers affected are relatively low and our climate is relatively benign. Wellington is another story! It's a nasty rocky little town with a large proportion of the housing perched on the side of steep hills and earth quakes are common. Bugger that for a joke. If I lived down there I'd be in Lower Hutt or somewhere - less sulubrius but hey, atleast you're not sliding down a hill to your death. That doesn't actually happen but given how often it does shake you have to think that the big one will happen. That said, I also KNOW that the systems are in place for when it does. We'll have the vast majority of survivors out/safe in 24 hours and rescuers in even quicker.
That sounds like a hell of a lot of Taxpayers money to me. Will certainly wouldn't ever want to live there.
I recommend to every single Californian I know to move out of that horrible state. The insurance company isn't paid for that. I also wouldn't ask my barber to paint my garage. If you want helicopter service, pay someone for helicopter service. Or, you could save money and leave town when you were told to, instead of waiting around for a bloody hurricane like a complete moron. That's choice. Choice is what America is all about.
With all those refugees stocked at the dome and thousands of people floating on the water, I don't think I Government really prepared for this disaster--or maybe chose not to do the appropriate actions even just to minimize the impact.
Except when you have no means to leave. I don't agree on the morons comment. Plus how do you "save money" when you have none to begin with
Yeah if you look at the people in NO right now it doesn't really appear like a whole lot of them had a big stockpile of expendable income. That's been one of the whole issues.
That is the whole thing Will is missing with his "American way". The people who are still in NO are poor innercity blacks who work at Mac Donald and clean the toilets and do all the other menial tasks that keep the city running and makes the profit for the business owners. They don't make enough money to have the choices that he talks about. And it is the "American way" that makes sure they don't make the money. Will, do you think people live in grinding poverty by choice?
If they would have saved their money rather then throwing it away on vacations to the south of france, caviar and champagne they could have afforded the transportation to get out of there (more sarcasm)
The problem was that government was not prepared or their emergency response program did not include poor people. Look at the American request from Canada, does it look like that they were prepared? Canada asked to send medical supplies to New Orleans Canadian government officials said Sunday that U.S. authorities have asked Canada to send beds, blankets, gloves and other medical supplies. Howard Njoo of Canada's public health agency said the Americans also requested gowns, batteries, needles, surgical dressings, bandages, tongue depressers, bath towels and cloths. "We're certainly going to be looking at possibly supplying more to them as the situation evolves," Njoo said. He added that Canada might eventually send a mobile hospital to the affected area. When asked for an example of the amount of suuplies Canada was sending, Njoo gave as an example 7,000 disposable blankets and 6,000 pairs of examination gloves. ........................... .......................... On Friday, Air Canada sent an aircraft to New Orleans with bottled water and relief supplies. The Air Canada plane will operate shuttle flights to help evacuate people to Texas.
So basically you're saying that the US should simply abandon some of its most valuable resource producing lands? I mean if were going to include ALL potentially hazardous areas that would mean most places anywhere near the Mississippi River (a watershed for over 1.2 million square miles and includes tributary rivers from 32 states). Let's not forget that the MS river valley also suffers from earthquakes. If we're talking about leaving all dangerous areas that would also include the entire West coast of California (not to mention central CA due to flooding), plus most of Florida, the Gulf Coast, and a lot of the East Coast as well. Hell, let's just all move to the central Western states (avoiding Tornado alley of course) cause that's about the only place I can see that isn't totally prone to natural disasters. Course I'm not sure how much farming we'll get done in New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona. Maybe that will require everyone living in the desert while more fertile states are reserved for farming only. We'll also have to give up importing goods since we'll be abandoning all our port cities (except maybe New York...but then again, that place was bombed...so we shouldn't be living there either). Ah hell...I'm just gonna move to New Zealand, at least people are willing to support each other there.
Not necessarily, but you ensure that the population density and town planning allows for the "unique" features of the area so that the impact of habitation is minimised. God, I sound like a greenie
LOL Sarah...I was really responding to Will's comments, yours are certainly more viable than simply calling people morons. My friends sweetie is a writer and was able to get press passes into damaged areas. He's doing a series of articles for Salon.com. He's done some truly touching pieces, this one covers some of the struggle that's still going on just getting people into shelters. On Sunday he rode with Jesse Jackson who managed to pick up 150 at the NO airport (mostly women and elderly, some families).
Not to beat the dead horse again... I am a strong believer that among several things to blame for what happened is the fact that US govt has nearly depleted its funds in IRAQ and was not ready (neither in terms of funds nor manpower, energy, etc) to deal with the disaster adequately. Besides, most of it could have been avoided in the first place has more attention been spent on improving the levees, evacuation procedures and related measures years ago. But again, the money and energy needed for that has been spent or was allocated elsewhere
Just my 2 cents I think the ball was definitely dropped. It took way to long for anyone to react, especially with advance notice. The problem with the situation is that if this was an unexpected terrorist attack our response time is to slow...this makes us look vulnerable as a country. Overall, I think the entire stage has been set to throw blame, moreso for political reasons oppsose to any other reason. I think this is a good chance for the Democrats to make a bigger deal out of the entire situation and exploit this tradegy to make themselves look good. And once again make this a race issue so in 2008 they can have the African-American vote. Media is playing a big part in all this. Fox News reports are a bit different than CNN News reports. Please note: I do NOT represent any political party. I'm independent and make decisions on issues not because of a political stance. Just wanted to clear it up for people who may think I'm political, because I'm not.
you know Will if a mertorite hit your house in colorado, and burned up your credit cards you would crying for help just like everyone else Will have you spent you whole life sourounded by the middle to upper class? I am not tyring to take personal shots I am just trying to understand where your view points come from. Are you one of those people whose mommy and daddy helped them thru college? Or are someone who comes from a poor background and now hates his roots? Not everyone is born smart or lucky, some people are born dumb and/or poor in New Orleans, where these people supposed to go, with what money? If there was 20,000 at the dome right, thats like 250 busloads, where were this buses supposed to take the people?
Today I've been hearing that the federal government "couldn't" step in because the governor of LA is responsible for activating the National Guard, and they didn't. At least, that's what the crazy neo-cons on the radio are saying. Do they really think that anybody would have been pissed off had the federal government overstepped it's authority and immediately sent National Guardsman or military personnel to assist in the evacuation? Would there be fallout afterwards, calling for the president's head on a platter? No, there would be heaps of praise, everybody being happy that the feds took the initative to save lives for once instead of spending billions of dollars to take them. Instead, the feds sat on their hands, saying "we can't do anything unless they ask", which all the while people - CHILDREN, elderly, sick and able-bodies alike - were dying in the streets of a major american city and in THEIR OWN HOMES! And while the president stopped in for a photo op, all air traffic in the area was prohibited. What did that do? Food & water deliveries were stopped, resues stopped, evacuactions stopped. FOR HOURS! WTF, people? Would this have happened if a storm like this had wiped out Boston, or East Hampton, or Myrtle Beach? No, of course not. Here's a nice letter to President Bush from the New Orleans Times-Picayune staff: http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#076771
I don't how much blame can placed on who, but I bet just like after 911 no loses thier job, they will have some committee, and some other BS. Then nothign will happen , again.