Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season 2005

[JediMAC]

Thoughts and prayers going out to everyone down there in Katrina's path.  Hope the JD'ers and their friends and families make it through in good shape.  Thanks for keeping us updated with your personal account on the devastation out there Ennis...

Brad, you out there bud?  Still hoping to hear from you soon.  Getting worried... 

[sfg]

It goes without saying that no one person is more important than any others affected by this tragedy, but I was bummed to hear that Fats Domino, who lives in the 9th Ward, hasn't been heard from since Monday, when he told family members that he was going to ride out the storm in his third floor apartment.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! seems to have different definitions of stealing, depending on what you look like:

"Finding."

"Looting."

 

[Famine]

I'm on the fence about "looting". If it's food, in a disaster time like this, I say all is fair if you get to it. Alot of these people have no help coming to them for at least a week. The red cross stuff gets there, and you wait in line for a few hours and hope you get somthing. If not, "Sorry, try again tommorow."

Kevin

[Jeff]

I'm on the fence about "looting". If it's food, in a disaster time like this, I say all is fair if you get to it. Alot of these people have no help coming to them for at least a week. The red cross stuff gets there, and you wait in line for a few hours and hope you get somthing. If not, "Sorry, try again tommorow."

Kevin

Yeah, if I were a judge/cop (even though it is technically stealing) and I saw people "looting" a grocery store for bread/water or a pharmacy for bandages/medications (not illegal drugs like codiene), I could can see how you'd look the other way. 

The people who are looting Best Buy, the Liquor store, the Gun section of Wal-Mart, etc - well that's just something else entirely.  No reason they need to bust into the local electronic stores and cart off a brand new Plasma TV to help you "cope" with your loss... 

Looting Bread/Water to survive at a time like this - I can understand that. 

Looting a Sony PSP and Johnny Walker - Yeah, that's stealing.

Jeff

[Famine]

Looting guns I agree with. While it is martial law in most of Loisiana, police forces are decimated. There was a firefight the other day and cops didn't have ammo. They hardly have police cars. How are some of these people going to protect their families from theives who are taking high end items and such?

Then comes the "what if they are looting food from a house?" and thats a whole nother argument, and this is why I'm on the fence about it.

Kevin

[Darth Kenobi]

I have said it before like most of you I'm on the fencing on the looting thing, if it just stuff for surival (food, water, medicne, first aid and even a pair of shoes) then I can see people doing this and I'm okay with it.  I hope that eventually some of these people could pay the stores back for what they took but I'm not seeing it happening since most of these people will have nothing when this is over.  For those idiots that are looting everything else, inculding armful of shoes, then I hope they get proscuted to the fullest.  I at the point where I hope the order is giving to shoot looters.  In some parts of the area looters are crawling over dead bodies in homes to steal from them (I can't wait till these people get sick).

SFG, I agree with you that those two pictures are bad.  There are alot more better pictures of people taking none esstentail items like TV's and other electroincs that they could of use.

[Famine]

I'm into a bit of survivalism on the side, as some of you may know. Mostly it's my own paranoia, but it's good to have a "Bug Out" scenereo:

Natural disaster happens, and your trapped in a city of ruin. Your home is assumed ruined. Rescue is romored to come later in the week, leaving yo to fend for yourself for a while.

The first thing I would do is take an invantory of what is usable, and fixable. Food and fresh water, if I could. Then I'd establish a shelter. I'd also try and secure some sort of firearm, and at least 200 shots.

Securing some sort of radio is also high priority to keep a heads up on whats coming ie: more bad weather, evacuations, looters, fires, riots, etc.

Kevin

[Bob Crane]

I at the point where I hope the order is giving to shoot looters.

I can’t believe you said that, don’t you think there’s already enough death and mayhem?

[sfg]

I agree that it's hard to fault someone for doing what they have to do to survive.  Obviously, someone taking some food and water given the current conditions down there is understandable, and frankly at this point, advisable.

My comment (not really on topic) was that Yahoo! captioned the white people as carrying food they "found" and the black guy as carrying food he "looted."

[Famine]

Well, I'm back and forth between the TV here, and they were just showing how a group of National Guardsmen fell under fire from gangs with AK-47's (which I find hard to belive that a civilian could tell an AK-47 from a hole in the ground) and how they're being forced to retreat. They are saying that there have been killings, robbery, and rape.

Kevin

[Tracy]

They are saying that there have been killings, robbery, and rape.

I, too, believe that people now need to do whatever then can, without harming someone else, in order to help themselves and their family survive.  But, I believe their is a big distinction between doing what is necessary in order for your family to survive and taking advantage of a situation.  These people are already in bad enough shape without having their own brothers and sisters (i.e. people who have been through this with them) doing them harm.  That is lower than low.  What do killing (unless in defense), raping and robbing have to do with survival?

[bobafett14]

Well, I'm back and forth between the TV here, and they were just showing how a group of National Guardsmen fell under fire from gangs with AK-47's (which I find hard to belive that a civilian could tell an AK-47 from a hole in the ground) and how they're being forced to retreat. They are saying that there have been killings, robbery, and rape.

Kevin

Half of the downtown urban area of New Orleans is a Ghetto, that's been going on for decades, don't think it's new just becasue of the hurricanes, it's just that it's now in the public eye.

and remeber a camera doesn't lie.  What you're seeing in New Orleans...heh that's it!

The media will try to make them sound like porr souls with no where left to trun, and they have to do what they have to do to "survive".

Please, you don't think there were thousands just waiting for the rains to stop just to be able to loot and waiting for an excuse to act like @ssholes.

Thsi should make for some good TV, I'll be watchign tonight after the Steelers game, I'm popping some popcorn tonight.  :^)

[Rob]

For every gang member looting and shooting at police, there are many more honest people hoping to be rescued.

Among them, several of my co-workers families.

Please keep that in mind.

[JediMAC]

Yeah, plenty of good folks affected down there too, even if the media's enjoying mostly just showcasing the hoodlems' more "dramatic" bull**** instead.

We're starting to hear stories in our news out here of sharks being sited swimming around in the affected urban areas now.  How weird is that?!?  Not surprising really though, if you follow sharks much, and know much about Bull sharks.  They're very common in the Gulf of Mexico there, and they'll swim in anything - fresh water, salt water, muddy water, etc., regardless of how deep or shallow it may be.  They've been found in the craziest of places, so considering the current state of affairs in the areas affected by Katrina, I guess it'd be expected to see a few of them taking a swim up Main Street right about now...

[Morgbug]

Not surprising at all.  Bull sharks are found in Lake Pontchartrain which I believe is further inland anyway than New Orleans is.