Some Economic Issues From Katrina

[Running Arrow Bill]

These are only a FEW of potential (probable) "trickle-down" issues as the result of the Katrina Catastrophe. The entire USA will over time be affected by this "fallout":

1. Massive costs and efforts to rescue & treat survivors.
2. Disposition of thousands of dead (people & animals).
3. Massive clean-up costs that Corps of Engineers will probably have to do.
4. Problem of all of the trash & garbage & debris.
5. Months of displacement of people.
6. Out of work people.
7. Money movement problems.
8. Infrastructure repair & re-build.
9. "Draining the NOLA Water".
10. Toxic spills, contaimination, clean-up problems.
11. Massive damage to crops and ecosystem resulting to salt-water and toxic waste.
12. Fuel supply & distribution problems.
13. Creation of temporary (months) housing for refugees.
14. Creation of permanent housing later.
15. Significant shortage of building materials after re-building can be resumed.
16. Utilities damage, destruction, and re-building.
17. Massive losses of revenue for Louisiana & Gulf Coast businesses.
18. Thousands of all types of vehicles that will need to be replaced...thousands salvagable that need to be repaired.
19. Probable increase in insurance costs for all individuals and businesses, whether or not they were in disaster area or not.
20. Shortage and price increases of products produced in Gulf States region.
21. Continued fuel scarcity, and per gallon price increases which will probably NOT go to previous price levels.
22. Re-locating of hundreds of people who take their insurance check (ones that are insured) and decide to move elsewhere--and look for new jobs, etc.
23. Repeating: Significant shortages of all building materials and expected price increases.
24. Increasing costs of transportation and hauling charges.
25. Overburdened funeral homes & crematories for disposition of remains of the dead.
26. Relocation of prisoners from Gulf Coast areas.
27. Significant losses of public records, college/university records, library collections, art collections, and others that were either blown away, ruined by water, or buried forever.
28. Massive losses to State of Louisiana from lost tax revenue from individuals and businesses.
29. Possible/probable long-term medical effects from people being saturated with toxic water and those who further compromized medically from lack of their medications.
30. Lastly (am sure there are scores more of issues): The Mayor of NOLA and Governor of LA had better start planning for their new job after their elected term ends...

 

[Texan]

Those are good points, Bill. I really like the last one. Hope they don't try to send that idiot mayor to Texas, too.

I don't think anybody has had time to realize the enormity of this situation. For years to come.

 

[houstoncutter]

Just curious folks, am I the only one that is tired of seeing the folks in New Orleans bitch. You see pics of the other areas that were wiped out and you see the locals rolling up their sleeves and getting to work. In New Orleans I see some welfare queen sitting on her porch saying," I aint had no food or water for days". Makes me wonder what the hell she was doing when they told her to get her ass outa town. Most folks know that if the storm doesnt blow your house away, that you stock up on lots of water and can goods. Give me some imput am I being too hard on some of these lazy people?

 

[cowgirl580]

Just curious folks, am I the only one that is tired of seeing the folks in New Orleans be nice. You see pics of the other areas that were wiped out and you see the locals rolling up their sleeves and getting to work. In New Orleans I see some welfare queen sitting on her porch saying," I aint had no food or water for days". Makes me wonder what the hell she was doing when they told her to get her ass outa town. Most folks know that if the storm doesnt blow your house away, that you stock up on lots of water and can goods. Give me some imput am I being too hard on some of these lazy people?

i was thinking pretty much the same. only i'm going more along the lines of i'm tired of seeing it everytime i turn around period. yes, we all know it was hit bad and that there are ppl still waiting to be rescued and there are ppl working on it. was the tsunami coverage like this too? either way, we need to move on. i'm glad there are ppl helping and that efforts are being made for those ppl, but today is a new today, find some other news to report on and please stop being redundant.

 

[Crowderfarms]

Just curious folks, am I the only one that is tired of seeing the folks in New Orleans be nice. You see pics of the other areas that were wiped out and you see the locals rolling up their sleeves and getting to work. In New Orleans I see some welfare queen sitting on her porch saying," I aint had no food or water for days". Makes me wonder what the hell she was doing when they told her to get her ass outa town. Most folks know that if the storm doesnt blow your house away, that you stock up on lots of water and can goods. Give me some imput am I being too hard on some of these lazy people?

i was thinking pretty much the same. only i'm going more along the lines of i'm tired of seeing it everytime i turn around period. yes, we all know it was hit bad and that there are ppl still waiting to be rescued and there are ppl working on it. was the tsunami coverage like this too? either way, we need to move on. i'm glad there are ppl helping and that efforts are being made for those ppl, but today is a new today, find some other news to report on and please stop being redundant.

This post has got to be one of the worst I've EVER read on the boards.This great Country has just suffered the worst natural disaster, we've ever witnessed.If you dont care about what happened, or are tired of the coverage, simply turn the channel.Why dont you put the Boot on your foot? What if it was your State? Your Community? Maybe because it happened in the South, some of you may not care.Maybe because most shown on the media are Coloreds? What about the folks in the Great States of Mississippii? Alabama?If it happened in Colorado, you'd sure want the rest of the world to see what's happening.Yep, there's a lot of bad thugs, and scum bags in the cities. BUT there are plenty of other GOOD folks down there, that deserve being rescued. Just be damned glad it was'nt you, was'nt your home being under 10 foot of water, that are complaining about it being on TV all the time.Houstoncutter I'm throwing the BS flag on you and Cowgirl580, both of Ya'll need to go find a place to hang out.Like the Astrodome.Or any other shelter, go help someone.I hope Ryder sees, this post.You two ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

 

[Campground Cattle]

Crowder more people in the country only care about "me".
Think the world should revolve around them when in reality there are typically more leaches on our society.

 

[Crowderfarms]

Crowder more people in the country only care about "me".
Think the world should revolve around them when in reality there are typically more leaches on our society.

Camp, I agree.I'm tired of seeing "People" bitch at the Feds. I'm tired of seeing the siphons of our $ bitch. I would like to see more of the Good people shown getting what they need.I'd like to see the looters all get fed from the barrel of an 870.Some of these "people" think we have owed them since the War Between the States ended.They also blame "US" for all their problems.Man, sure is hard to be Politically Correct. Cant say what I want to say here.

 

[houstoncutter]

Well throw the flag on me. Thats why I asked, buts here a little info. 1981 tornado wipe my home from the face of the earth, we cried we licked our wounnds and rebuilt. 1983 Hurrican Alicia did a number on us as well. We cried, licked our wounds and rebuilt. Since that time we have not had anymore natural disasters. I am sure their are others out there that have had similar fates. But you know unless you are dead, you pick yourself up, dust of you britches and you get back at it.... Stories, like that we are seeing in some areas. Unfortunatly those stories dont get reported on very much. Its always those who have that hand out saying what are you going to do for me today. The same ones who had no savings, insurance, and have been on the dole all their lives. They live for today and never look to tommorrow.

 

[Oldtimer]

Well throw the flag on me. Thats why I asked, buts here a little info. 1981 tornado wipe my home from the face of the earth, we cried we licked our wounnds and rebuilt. 1983 Hurrican Alicia did a number on us as well. We cried, licked our wounds and rebuilt. Since that time we have not had anymore natural disasters. I am sure their are others out there that have had similar fates. But you know unless you are dead, you pick yourself up, dust of you britches and you get back at it.... Stories, like that we are seeing in some areas. Unfortunatly those stories dont get reported on very much. Its always those who have that hand out saying what are you going to do for me today. The same ones who had no savings, insurance, and have been on the dole all their lives. They live for today and never look to tommorrow.

I agree with you Houstoncutter- too many that live from day to day with the expectation the guvment will take care of them...And we did get to see the responsible people of New Orleans- they were the ones on Friday and Saturday that were on the highways evacuating before Katrina like they had been ordered--but since then the media has focused on those that disobeyed the evacuation order and stayed rather than the hundreds of thousands that left.......

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Had the boot on my foot more than once last year. Might have it again this year. Doesn't change the fact that a bunch of whining unresourceful crybabies are standing around holding out their hand again. Personally if I was one of them I'd be too ashamed to show my face on TV for my ignorant lack of preparation and heeding of warnings. I feel for the elderly that noone bothered to take care of. Just goes to show how tight knit they are.

We didn't wait for Uncle Sam. We stocked up with food and water. We got out the saws. We helped each other. And that means helping everyone else while your own house needed help. Helping the worst off first and not expecting society to do it for us. We helped the firefighters and lawmen with their homes because they were on duty and could not. Can't even count how many people I helped move trees off their house and hook up temp power from generators. Some I didn't even know. They just looked like they needed help. We even gave away some of our own food and water to neighbors who ran out. We tarped roofs and fixed things that kept folks from inhabiting their homes before any aid showed. We took in the folks who lost it all. And most importantly we didn't shoot, loot, rape and murder each other and the very people who did come to our aid. This is what real Americans do. It's simply a different group of people we're talking about and no other explanation is required.

 

[SF]

Amazing how some of you on here are so proud, indignant, and completely lacking compassion. Guess you've probably never been broke. I'm all for small government, less welfare, etc..., but this is a catastrophic condition. Many of these people (in NO) did not have any money or resources to leave, nowhere to go, etc... Many probably just made a bad decision to try and ride out the storm. Where is your compassion? Where is your thoughts towards human kindness? If you cannot find compassion in your heart and a willingness to help these people, many of which are children, then please don't ever refer to yourself as a christian or God Fearing person.

Many of these folks live day to day, because that is all they have. For those of you who were able to re-build out of previouse crisis, that's terrific. Why throw stones at those who are unable to rebuild on their own. Many of these who had no insurance, can't afford insurance.

Love that last statement you made Bill. The Gov of LA, and the mayor of NO, should not be re-elected anywhere. They really let their constituents down.

The people need help.

Should New Orleans be rebuilt? Why? The city is below sea level. Not a question of whether this will happen to it again. Question is when.

 

[Beefy]

Two excellent points that i've been anxiously waiting to see show up.

1) You dont see the people of Florida (REGARDLESS of their income level) sitting around bitching after a hurricane. they are busy working. who cares if it was a category 5? big deal. do something.

2) Whos bright idea was it to build a city below sea level in a bowl?! whos bright idea is it to rebuild a city below sea level in a bowl?!

Having said all that I do feel for the people we never see on the news. if they showed more stories about those people i bet more compassion would be shown.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

I've thought about the "can't leave" idea. Knowing what they know now, if they could do it over agiain, how many would leave? I think suddenly that number of people who can't leave would drop dramatically. For the rest, I'm praying and making donations. You have a very good point. Not my place to judge. Forgive me. Blood just boils over at a few who are making the news headlines. A few that are giving the rest of the world the wrong idea about Americans.

 

[SF]

I've rethought the way I worded my post, and I apologize to any I may have offended. There are just a couple of images and thoughts that I can't get out of my mind.

One of those includes a young father of 3 and his wife. They tried to leave and were able to get out of the worst of the danger. They now have no place to go back to. No money. No gas. No family except what is in the car with them. I cannot imagine the deperation this man is going through. I cannot imagine what his wife is going through. Parents of small children, everything they have in this world is gone. He was employed, wife was unemployed, but looking for a job. They were living day to day, but doing the best they could. Now what? What will become of them.

This is just one story of one family that is trying to make it through. My heart goes out to these people. I'm grateful I have not had to experience such an event in my lifetime and I won't even try to think I can possibly know what they must be thinking and feeling through this all. It is so easy to sit on the sidelines and say what I would have done. How I would have handled myself differently. Much different when you are experiencing it. I don't think many of us have ever dealt with such a massive breakdown in infrastructure, public services, etc... as these folks are going through at this time.

 

[SF]

2) Whos bright idea was it to build a city below sea level in a bowl?! whos bright idea is it to rebuild a city below sea level in a bowl?!

Can't do anything about the first question, but we certainly can the second. Why rebuild New Orleans in a bathtub. It will fill up again sooner or later. Just a matter of time. Need some engineers that are much smarter than I to figure out how to accomplish this feat.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

2) Whos bright idea was it to build a city below sea level in a bowl?! whos bright idea is it to rebuild a city below sea level in a bowl?!

Can't do anything about the first question, but we certainly can the second. Why rebuild New Orleans in a bathtub. It will fill up again sooner or later. Just a matter of time. Need some engineers that are much smarter than I to figure out how to accomplish this feat.

It's not difficult, just expensive. They have explained and new all well the system was only designed for a CAT3. They're going to have to design it for far more than that before any real money gets spent, but they should rebuild.

 

[dd]

Is it called "New" Orleans for a reason ??

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Is it called "New" Orleans for a reason ??

Interesting observation.

 

[Anonymous]

It will not be long before this will be the type of issue people face - even before they get back on their feet.

Bez'

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[la4angus]

Is it called "New" Orleans for a reason ??

And what would you say is the reason????