RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Katrina 3

I think that it's really sad and pathetic of you to turn a tragedy like Katrina into a joke, MEM. Bad form.

Have you demanded your handouts yet?

Are you asking me or bsams? He has a similar thread where he seems to draw a comparison with Katrina (y'know that hurricane that killed over 1500 people a couple of years ago)

Gov. Steve Beshear deployed every last one of his Army National Guardsmen on Saturday, with his state still reeling after a deadly ice storm encrusted it this week.

More than half a million homes and businesses, most of them in Kentucky, remained without electricity from the Ozarks through Appalachia, though temperatures creeping into the 40s helped a swarm of utility workers make headway. Finding fuel — heating oil along with gas for cars and generators — was another struggle for those trying to tough it out at home, with hospitals and other essential services getting priority over members of the public.

The addition of 3,000 soldiers and airmen makes 4,600 Guardsmen pressed into service. It's the largest call-up in Kentucky history, which Beshear called an appropriate response to a storm that cut power to more than 700,000 homes and businesses, the state's largest outage on record. Many people in rural areas cannot get out of their driveways due to debris and have no phone service, the governor said.

"With the length of this disaster and what we're expecting to be a multi-day process here, we're concerned about the lives and the safety of our people in their own homes," Beshear said, "and we need the manpower in some of the rural areas to go door-to-door and do a door-to-door canvass ... and make sure they're OK."

Staff Sgt. Erick Duncan of Murray said he and his colleagues have been putting in long shifts to open tree-littered roads. Duncan, who manned a chain saw, said he expects the assignment to last quite a while.

"It's a mess and we're just in the city limits," he said. "We're not even out in the county yet. And there's plenty of cities and counties to go to."

Thousands of people were staying in motels and shelters, asked to leave their homes by authorities who said emergency teams in some areas were too strapped to reach everyone in need of food, water and warmth. The outages disabled water systems, and authorities warned it could be days or weeks before power was restored in the most remote spots.

That uncertainty had many appealing for help and officials urging those in dark homes to leave, if they could — many were stuck in place by blocked roads and other obstacles.

The storm that began in the Midwest had been blamed or suspected in at least 42 deaths, including at least 11 in Kentucky, nine in Arkansas, six each in Texas and Missouri, three in Virginia, two each in Oklahoma, Indiana and West Virginia and one in Ohio. Most were blamed on hypothermia, traffic accidents and carbon monoxide poisoning.

In Kentucky, Beshear confirmed seven deaths late Saturday were a result of the storm and said officials were checking several others.

Beshear also said more than 700,000 Kentucky homes and businesses were left without power. The state's Public Service Commission had previously reported that 607,000 Kentucky customers were without power, a state record. But PSC spokesman Andrew Melnykovych said the figure did not include municipal utilities or rural electric cooperatives within the Tennessee Valley Authority system.

Some warned some could be waiting weeks for power to be restored. Never mind that temperatures rose above freezing in some Kentucky communities Saturday, helping to melt ice from trees and power lines. The meltdown left a tangle of fallen trees and branches even as other areas still struggled with ice.

"More and more people are wanting to come the shelters," said Capt. Don Hodgson of the Paducah Police Department. "It's starting to set in that they're going to be without power — in some cases more than 30 days."

At Graves County High School in western Kentucky, where 490 sought shelter Friday night, Ruthann Taylor, 23, said she tried to ride out the early part of the storm at home with her 1-year-old son, but it got too cold.

"I woke up the next morning and my son was pretty much an ice cube," Taylor said. "I said 'OK, we've got to go.'"

From Missouri to Ohio, thousands were waiting in shelters for the power to return. As far away as Oklahoma, around 10,000 customers still had no electricity.

In Missouri, about 150 Guard members were ordered out door-to-door to check on residents, taking the stranded to shelters and helping to clear emergency routes. All told, the storm knocked out power to more than 100,000 Missouri homes and businesses at its height.

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Hopefully, Obama will 're-educate' you with one of his many 'summer retreat' camps to teach you not to be so heartless about other people's misery.

People dying is an inconvenience when they live in Appalachia. Nice.

People have died in this storm. Quite a few. A life is a life. The fact that the lives in Katrina were in a heavy left leaning city of course makes it more tragic for you. I have the same sympathies for people no matter geography and political leanings. I find it nice that the Bush bashers aren't out in force over Obama having the same reaction to this ice storm as Bush did to Katrina. Doc and others have noted how they did for themselves in that storm and survived, same as most people here. A lot of people in Katrina waited for government help and paid the price. Just because people here have done for themselves doesn't mean they are any less important than the people who sat on their hands during their disaster.

It was a really bad ice storm but in scope of damage and loss of life it's not another Katrina. And I do feel bad that bsams had a couple days where he was inconvenienced but I'm also relieved he's got a home that he's already back in.

Sorry I would have titled it Katrina 2 but that one was already being used.

inconvenience you for a day or two and your an avid Obama hater. It still doesn't make it equal to Katrina.

Loss of life from the ice storm and even all the property damge is tragic to me bsams. As I noted previously I'm personally happy for you that this didn't do much more than inconvenience you for a day or two and your an avid Obama hater. It still doesn't make it equal to Katrina. Way more people died and many had no homes or a business to go to the next day.

So you're comparing people's deaths to your toe?

You're a monster.

Listen, I'm giving you shit in this thread just to give you shit just like I do everyone else on this board. But I've got to say that BSAMS at least had a point to his other thread. I've, unfortunately, had to live through an ice storm in the past too. You have many of the same problems as you do with a hurricane but replace the hot, humid post-hurricane climate with a bitter, freezing one and add slick as shit roads that you can't drive on. The fact of the matter is that anytime the National Guard gets called out it's a pretty serious situation. Just because BSAMS is doing fine doesn't mean that this whole thing can just be brushed off. I know that the media hasn't stopped all coverage of other news to tell you about the horrible conditions of black people caught in the storm. I know that Sean Penn hasn't loaded down a snowmobile with his entourage and PR guy in a failed attempt to save the lives of those stuck in the cold. I know that Kanye West hasn't gone on national TV to say that Obama hates black people because he hasn't done anything to help. But it has happened, and people's lives are still in jeopardy.

If the amount of lives lost came even close to approaching Katrina levels you would have had similar reporting. Last count for the ice storm I saw was under 50, Katrina had over 1800. Some comparisons can be made as you could with any diseaster but you guys are ignoring that Katrina was far far worse by any measure. To pretend that doesn't play into the level of reporting something is just unrealistic.

...
Anywho, the point BSAMS was originally making was the fact that people are doing ok because they are doing for themselves instead of waiting for someone to do for them. You can compare that with Katrina. I was in Katrina; so I am, by far, not downplaying how massive and destructive that thing was. Where you are comparing the death toll, we're talking about what people are doing to survive. Don't forget that the 1800 number you're throwing out isn't just the people lost during the initial landfall of the storm. Many died after the fact. Actually, the New Orleans number is due to flooding after the hurricane had past since it only grazed the city.

Using mem's logic the only tragedy that really mattered was the holocaust since that's when the most people died.

Loss of life from the ice storm and even all the property damge is tragic to me bsams.

Sure, as long as you ignore that I said otherwise...


Maybe you should just stick to the name calling Rex.

Sure, as long as you ignore that I said otherwise...


Maybe you should just stick to the name calling Rex.

He's not. He's better than the ones who sat on their asses waiting for the government to come directly to their aid. That's his point.

You also said stubbing your toe was more tragic than the ice storm. Why are liberals so dense when it comes to the truth?

I just said I stubbed my toe, not that it was more tragic than the ice storm. Your probably confusing me with bsams who compared his day in the shelter to Katrina.

Stop back peddling. Bsams had to completely change his life for a couple days because of the storm. He is an intelligent person who knew the storm was coming and actually did something for himself and his family. He took them to a safe place, without the help of the government. That makes him smarter than 90 percent of the population of new orleans. Stop demonizing people for having the ability to do something for themselves. See people for who they are. Stop thinking the government is the great savior. That way leads to retardation, but you already know that first hand.

I stubbed my toe.

That wasn't an option for many that got caught in Katrina.

Yes it was. They could have gotten out of the way and not killed. The great "tragedy" of katrina is that is showed just how pathetic some people really are. They sat there and died because the government didn't knock on their door and rescue them. Those are the true losers. The ones who have completely given up on independent thought.

I don't find the carnage of Hurricane Katrina any more tragic than stubbing my toe.