Hurricane Katrina

[Capt_Picard 0]

When I first saw the damage this did to FL I knew it was only going to get bigger and stronger. Just to tell you all we could see more hurricanes like this in the coming years and we were lucky. The Katrina lost it's punch a little bit before it made land fall, but it was very close to landing with winds above 175 MPH. I would like to ask the mods and all members to do what they can to help the people that must live the next months rebuild lives and families.

[mj 7]

This may be a little off topic.

But i was watching CNN and they were showing the looting going

on in New Orleans. Not only are theese people crooks

and thiefs they are Incredibly Stupid.

They showed this one man carrying a TV.

There houses are gone and there is no power the city is flooded.

DUH!

If I was reduced to this i think i would be looking for

bottled water and caned food. not tv's and steros.

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The mayor of New Orleans rightly observed that the looting did indeed start with a desparate search for food and water, and then deteriorated into chaotic theft, forcing him to pull police off rescuing people, and into arresting thieves.

 

I have not been in a situation as bad as this. But strangely enough, I am currently reading a scifi novel where the US has fallen into heavy disorder, Alaska has seceded, and the slightest natural disaster immediately leads to scavenging and looting.

 

I do not condone looting, but if I were in New Orleans, and help had not arrived after two days, and the last of my bottled water had run out, and I had no food, I would walk to the local grocery store, and 'pick up' food and water. If there was no one there to pay, I would borrow for the time being, and try to pay later when order was restored.

 

But I have no sympathy whatsoever for someone stealing a TV, or a man with a baseball bat trying to break into a jewelry store.

 

Yet it is widely understood that among those who fail to leave when warnings are issued for an impending disaster are the thieves who are planning to loot. After the mayor's warnings, 80% of New Orleans evacuated. Among the 20% who did not leave were the elderly and infirmed, those with limitied means, hard-headed stubborn people, and those with criminal intent. ( I am sure some of the stubborn people wanted to stay and protect their property FROM looters!)

 

In the original 'War of the Worlds' film starring Gene Barry, Gene Barry was trying to drive a truck, carrying important scientific equipment needed to study and defeat the Martian invaders, through the mostly evacuated Los Angeles. He was stopped, pulled from the truck, and cast aside as thugs drove off with the truck. He tried to explain to some MP's the importance of the truck, but the MP's said that they were outnumbered by thieves who had refused to evacuate with the rest of the people. Even Hollywood of the early 1950's knew about the problem of looting.

 

One more comment. After the '89 quake in the Bay area of California, where I was living at the time, I had gone to see about an elderly lady from my church. This quake was not nearly so disastrous as what people are going through now, but when I arrived at her place, the power was out. She did not have a flashlight, so I walked to a grocery store in the area to see if I could get one. The store manager, cashiers, and security were on duty. They were charging $14 for cheap plastic $2 flashlights, and I can't remember what the inflated price for batteries was. I paid it, of course. But I state this to give an example of bad behavior in times of crisis on the part of the merchants. It can go both ways.

[Odo 0]

Just a random thought.

Michigan is a thousand miles or more from the site of the

disaster.But as they are transfering people out like to

the astrodome.

We here in michigan have a 88 thousand seat domed staidum

in perfect shape not being used just sitting empty.

Its called the Pontaic Silverdome.Where the Lions use to play.

I know its a long way away. But the airforce i think could

spare a couple c130's.

 

I am sure there would be some takers as for the short term so many

need a place to stay.

[TransporterMalfunction 1]

From the news this seems awful, I hope that all those affected remain safe and are able to rebuild their lives quickly.

[Odo 0]

i just wrote this as i watch cnn. read if you want like or dislike

Click For Spoiler

 

In times of crisis we will stand tall.

Not one city in this nation will fall.

Be it quake, tornado or hurricane.

We as a people treat them the same.

We will empty our pockets and open our hearts.

Every man,woman,child will do there part.

Through the tears and the sorrow.

There will be tomorrow.

We as a nation cry as one.

But this is a job we will get done.

We as a nation have been there before.

911 and so much more.

Wars and depression and disasters galor.

some say we can't take it no more.

As diverse as the people we stand as one.

And as a great nation we can't be undone.

Edited September 1, 2005 by Odo

[Susan_Delgado 0]

Isn't it funny how when a disaster hits another country, the good ole US of A is always there to help. Yet when we suffer a disaster, there is never a mention of anyone coming to our aid...............................

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I don't know, Kor ... personally I take a great deal of pride in knowing that the U.S. does not need outside help to take care of its problems.

 

Also, I'd prefer that other countires were indebted to us rather than the other way around.

 

But that's just me.

 

My husband and I are just devastated over this ... we honeymooned in New Orleans and have been back twice since. We were planning to take our little boy with us next year on a return visit. It is just heartbreaking to think that so much of what made New Orleans what it was may not be able to be rebuilt. All that history .... potentially just gone.

 

Has anyone seen any photos of Jackson Square? Or much of the Quarter at all? There's a little restaurant right off the square called "La Madeleine." We ate there every night during our last vacation and then went out onto the plaza and listened to this phenomenal trombone player .... I wonder if he made it out? There was another street musician pushing a piano up and down the street outside Cafe Du Monde ... will we ever know what happened to any of these beautiful, artistic people? If they cannot reconstruct the levees in such a way to make New Orleans a less risky place to build, live and insure, so much that was culturally rich about the Quarter may never return.

 

You can't tell from the news stories how bad this really is .... they keep showing scenes outside the Superdome and other neighborhoods, but I can't tell what I am seeing. How bad is the Garden District? What's the water level in the cemeteries?

 

I just don't understand people at all ... last night we're trying to catch news about what's going on down there, and regular programming was being aired just like always on just about every network. Some chick cavorting around on stage half-dressed, some retarded "Mr. Mom" reality show, just crap, crap, crap. Were people actually tuning into these stupid shows?

 

I'll give you a reality show .... everyone should have been focused on "SURVIVOR: New Orleans."

[Odo 0]

Sue

watching CNN the french quarter is the least devastated

[Odo 0]

Sue

read my spoiler after reading your post you may like it

[Capt_Picard 0]

Thatwas a great pome and it is very true... send it to CNN or ABC and see if they put it on the air. It might help people if they heard it.

[Susan_Delgado 0]

That was a very nice poem, Odo. So true.

 

Thank you for the info on the Quarter. It's just a small part of the city, but it's a huge generator of tourism dollars for the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana.

 

Was there any flooding further up the Mississippi heading toward Baton Rouge? It did not appear that way on television.

 

I wish I had CNN ... we went to basic cable a year ago to save money and now I'm really missing my news channels.

[Odo 0]

Thank you both it means a lot.

That was from my heart.

if you want to reprint it you have my ok .

[Odo 0]

Capt Picard thank you for saying its goood anough

for network .

do not have the resoures to do it . if you want ok

just my personal thoughts should i copyright it?

[Odo 0]

Are you saying i should make it a different tread.

i did not think it was good anough?

was ramdom thoughts

[Yillara Skye 1]

When I first saw the damage this did to FL I knew it was only going to get bigger and stronger. Just to tell you all we could see more hurricanes like this in the coming years and we were lucky. The Katrina lost it's punch a little bit before it made land fall, but it was very close to landing with winds above 175 MPH. I would like to ask the mods and all members to do what they can to help the people that must live the next months rebuild lives and families.

349681[/snapback]

I am posting a link in my signatures on the boards I go to for the time being, I went looking up the links after a visit to my local grocery store. During the four that hit here in FL last year, at our stores there was a sign saying you could add X amount to your grocery bill that would be going to the Hurricane relief fund. I had not seen the signs up as of yet, so I did a search online

 

This one seems to have quite a few listed:

Charity Navigator

 

 

I, as well as the rest of my family, are still waiting for word on whether or not my mom's cousin is a survivor of the storm or whether or not he evacuated his home in Slidell, LA. My family(especially my mom's side) tend to ride storms out so he may have well remained at home, especially since he lives in my great-uncle's home that has been in the family for a while(my great uncle passed on a few years ago).

 

It is sad, because there are quite a few memories for many members of my family. My sister, as part of the High School marching band, went to New Orleans to march and play in the Endymion and Bacchus Parades during Mardi Gras. My mom spent some time in NO & Slidell with her family members. My dad played music there a few times, he said there was a picture in one of the bars or something that had him playing music in the background. He mentioned that as he and mom were sharing thoughts and memories of NO, prior to the storm making its landfall.. not too long after that mom called EmilSoong to tell her to make sure all her souveniers and pics from her trip were kept safe (no, not for sale later on, or ever for that matter... but on the grounds that those items may not be available ever again or at least not be seen for a long time... She had quite a few pics she took, as far as I can remember)

 

 

 

Well, I looked into it.

Well, 6 of the 15 were active today: 4 Floridians and 2 Mississippians(?). Considering how hard Mississippi was hit, that is good news.

I know I was one of them (FL)

 

Another 6 (Alabama, 3 Texas, and 2 Florida) have been active in the last 3 months but not recently.

Another one from FL was EmilSoong.. She is safe and sound as well. Probably that one is GanahFereoh, and that is my brother in law. He to is safe... though he was in South Florida when Katrina hit. His job made it so he had to go there, regardless of the Hurricane. Besides recovering from strep throat at the time, he is ok (unless he was the one not active in 2005).

 

As far as I know, TheNxtGenX and sexykitten69 are both doing fine. One is a former coworker of my mom's and she lives here in town. And the second one is my sister's friend and our former coworker, she lives in Central FL now.

Wookieofborg, is accounted for too... he is my little brother..

Edited September 1, 2005 by Yillara_Soong

[stvoyagerfan 1]

Date: September 1, 2005

 

Subject: Fraudulent Websites for Hurricane Katrina Victims

 

 

NEW YORK STATE OFFICE OF CYBER SECURITY AND CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE COORDINATION CYBER INFORMATION BULLETIN

DATE ISSUED:

 

September 1, 2005

 

SUBJECT:

 

Fraudulent Websites for Hurricane Katrina Victims

 

OVERVIEW:

 

We have received information indicating that Internet domain names are being created that could be used to lure unwary users into visiting potentially malicious web sites.

 

BULLETIN:

 

Relief and charity efforts for the victims of Hurricane Katrina began immediately after the hurricane devastated the Gulf Coast area. Shortly thereafter, web sites began to appear which were designed to defraud unsuspecting users. Some of the activities include soliciting donations for seemingly charitable purposes, attempting to collect personal information through phishing scams and also spreading malware to unsuspecting users. Over the past few days, domain names that redirect users to malicious web sites have appeared online, in addition to email scams requesting donations for those impacted by the hurricane. While some of these sites and messages may be legitimate, many are not. At the time of this bulletin, please be aware that the following domains are reported to be suspicious:

 

katrinahelp.com

 

katrinacleanup.com

 

katrinarelief.com.

 

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list and additional domains may continue to appear.

 

In addition to fraudulent web sites, opportunists may use this event as a vehicle for other types of online attacks. For example, email messages that claim to contain attachments with photos, video, or other information about Hurricane Katrina may actually contain viruses, worms, or other malware.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

 

We recommend that staff be advised to:

 

Validate the relief fund or charity through a known reliable entity. Please refer to the FEMA link below for a list of reputable disaster relief resources for Hurricane Katrina.

When a message containing a request for donations for these victims appears, do not respond unless you are certain it is a valid message.

Avoid visiting untrusted web sites.

Avoid opening email messages and attachments that claim to contain video, photos, or other information relating to relief solicitation for Hurricane Katrina.

Follow standard best practices for email and web browsing security.

 

 

REFERENCES:

 

SANS:

 

http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?date=2005-08-31

 

Washington Post:

 

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfi...na_phishin.html

 

Better Business Bureau:

 

http://www.give.org/news/disaster_pr.asp

 

Federal Emergency Management Agency:

 

http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/resources_katrina.shtm

 

this was on the welcome page to my college today. thought i'd pass this on. it's terrible to think people would do such things.

 

tm

[Itchygomba69 0]

i have a Firend shes in the Coast Guard down In Miami and she emailed me that she is heading out to Mississippi to help give vaccines out, she is a nurse

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I don't understand people sometimes.

 

By all means if you donate to charity - give to an organization you're familiar with. If you don't have a specific organization you're familiar with - the American Red Cross is a good place to start.

[Kor37 9]

The Red Cross is a safe organization to donate to. You can specify exactly what cause you want your donation to go to. I gave them $500 for the Tsunami victims and I just gave them another $500 for the flood victims.