New Orleans in Chaos, worse not better

[Osiris]

Anyway back to the show, looks like may get worse if any of you have been keeping tabs on the weather channel, their tracking three tropical storms moving west.

[Baby_Baby]

what?!!?!?!?! i didn't hear that!!!!

[fishfreaks]

Yeah I heard that too MP. They did say the first one though (i forget the name) is just going to do a 180 and go the other way

[mlefev]

Oh no. That would be about the end of all hope for rescuing people if that area gets hit again. Hopefully they'll all swirve out of the way or dissipate.

[fish_doc]

I am getting tired of hearing people say not enough was done fast enough then comparing it to 9-11.

I think they forget 9-11 was in a 2 block area and they were still looking for survivors 3 and 4 days into the cleanup. These were office buildings. Almost everyone that survived had homes they could go home to that night with food and water.

This was a entire city with all nearby emergency crews working on their own cities trying to clean up and maintain order. There were no homes for anyone in this city to go to and all food and water was under swampwater. Any help had to be assembled and come from miles away.

The whole thing is comparing a neon tetra to a Shark.

[mlefev]

I know fish_doc. When something disatrous happens that they have no control over, they try their hardest to make it someone's fault. You can't stop a hurricane, and you have no idea of how much damage it will or won't cause. There's nothing else to do than to survey the damage, then react. They couldn't bring supplies and workers closer, because they had no idea how far the damage would extend. It wouldn't help anyone to have all the rescue workers trapped and killed in the storm too.

[Osiris]

Your absolotely right, and whole city was expecting this hurricane like it did. As i believe original forcasts after it was on florida they knew it would strengthen back up but only forcasted it being cat. 2 or 3, nowhere did they say cat. 5, alot of people ride out cat. 2 and 3, but would u rather be stuck in traffic geting out of the city when the flood waters hit or safe haven in a dome or building when u knew chances were slim to get out of city in time?

[fish_doc]

A sad news story about pets.

NEW ORLEANS - The howls and yelps and barks that pierce the eerie silence of the New Orleans night torture James Lalande as he stirs in his bed.

The abandoned pets are the reason Lalande can't sleep, and the reason he won't leave his city.
New Orleans residents abandoned thousands of pets in their hasty retreat, leaving many to fend for themselves in the ghostly streets, with others locked in houses and apartments or tied up in yards, according to local animal specialists.

All over the city, animals face a horrible fate. The locked-up pets are starving. In the famed New Orleans aquarium, more than a third of the 4,000 fish have died because there's no power to pump oxygen into the tanks. In the zoo, a skeleton staff of 12 is struggling to feed and get water to 1,400 hungry and thirsty animals with limited emergency provisions.

"It's just overwhelming," said Laura Maloney, the executive director of the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "There are countless thousands of abandoned pets in the city. And hundreds and hundreds are stuck inside their homes."

Maloney said she'd been flooded with calls from residents who left pets in their homes. Many people were forced to abandon their pets because they weren't allowed to take them on the evacuation buses.

For the past few days, about 10 volunteers have been going to addresses where people have left animals and are breaking in to save them, Maloney said.

"Mostly, they get in by breaking windows or getting on a second-floor balcony," she said.

Not everyone in New Orleans left pets behind. Lalande, like many city residents, refuses to evacuate without his dog, Charlie, and his cats, Miranda and Babettes.

"I've never cried in my life, but the saddest thing in the world is when all night long you hear dogs crying; big dogs, little dogs, medium dogs," said Lalande, 62. "People left thinking they'd be gone two or three days, but now they can't come back and their pets are starving. Tomorrow, I'm breaking in and feeding dogs."

Penny Khoza and her daughter, Rhonda Hanus, clung to a bare-bones existence at Khoza's apartment complex uptown because they wouldn't leave their pets behind.

"He's a joy to me," Hanus said, running her fingers over the head of her 6-week-old mutt, Jack. "He's like a child I could never have. I was a woman not able to have children. We have enough here right now to tide us over."

"Enough" is a few bottles of water, some packed snacks and canned food, and no running water or electricity.

Stray pets have formed packs and are roaming the abandoned city, scavenging for whatever food they can get.

Deidre Rick, 24, took in one of them. Rick, a bartender at Johnny White's Sports Bar, found a pit bull at her bar doorstep on Bourbon Street after the hurricane. She named the dog Katrina.

"Somebody abandoned him, so I decided to take him in, but I don't want to leave him now," she said. "We've got a bunch of dog food that we got from looters."

Ron Forman, the chief executive officer of Audubon Nature Institute, said his animal attractions were in bad shape, especially the city's aquarium, where they've lost more than 500 fish and two otters. Two other endangered mammals, California sea otters, are struggling to live.



"They're big furry animals with big eyes," said Forman, whose 18-hour workday Saturday was interrupted for three hours when he got stuck in an elevator at the Hyatt hotel as emergency generators lost power. "We're going to evacuate them in helicopters."

The zoo fared better. Although the Jaguar Jungle attraction looks like a scene out of the film "Jurassic Park," with fallen palms, eucalyptus and willow trees blocking the path, the animals mostly survived and are secure. One of the huge alligators is missing, however, and some birds from the aviary died.

But the Siamang monkeys, Francis and Crown, still hoot at a visitor, and Jean the elephant makes a special trip out of her cave for leaves from fallen oak branches.

Dan Maloney, the zoo's curator and husband of Laura Maloney, said the zoo revamped its contingency plan for hurricane preparation in the early 1990s under the advice of Miami's Metrozoo, which sustained major damage after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Maloney's new plan secured generators to keep food refrigerated for the animals, for example.

Maloney said that although the zoo animals were traumatized by the hurricane, they'd recovered quickly, faster than the humans would. But he said that without the dedication of his exhausted staff, they wouldn't survive for long. "Unlike the people," Maloney said, "the animals don't have a choice to leave, so we stay with them."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...rina_animals_1

[S.CALI]

Had the tv on CNN all day very sad very sad.

Please visit this link.
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/photos/

[Baby_Baby]

awww thats so sad!!! poor little animals! and the SPCA in Houston is working as hard as possible to help the little guys.... aww......

and yes, fish_doc i hate how people are comparing this to 9-11!
okay first off, 9-11 was caused by terrorists, Katrina was a natural disaster. 2. people knew it was coming and we had time to prepare no one knew that 9-11 was going to happen when it did and how it did. I mean come on peeps, they are two different events which will have two different outcomes. I hate and I mean HATE how people are blaming every last thing on the government and Bush, okay so maybe there was more that could be done, the guy just can't snap his fingers and poof, no hurricane. stuff like this takes time to recover from. and thats all I have to say. i am not trying to spark a flame of political convo. I am just saying that it is not Bush
s fault for every last thing. we can not blame him for our stupidity and ignorance

[shev]

Well we sure werent prepared for 9-11.

after 9-11 and the lack of preparedness the Office of Homeland security was made that would be responsible for preperation and being prepared in the event of a natural (hurricane) or manmade (9-11) disaster on our soil. Obviously bush couldnt have prevented the hurricane, or stopped it. I was kiding about him causing it through global warming, not signing the kyoto protocol and making the clear skies initiative. but really, where did the billions and billions of dollars go? I thought we learned from 9/11, but apparently were just as incompetent. office of homeland security or FEMA failed. there wasnt an immediate emergency response. this is our governments reponsibitlity. the levees funding was cut last year, people were warned they would break. and now im hearing "no one thought the levees would break". it is not the cities responsibility to fund them, its the federal government's responsibility.

oh and Baby_Baby, someone did warn terrorists may attack using hijacked airplanes.

[BettaMommy]

Yeah, what is happening is pretty sad and heartbreaking. What I want to know is why weren't they prepared? I mean if you weren't going to evacuate then you could have at least been prepared and have all of the necessities to survive a hurricane. They were warned about the hurricane/storm before it actually happened. I have been watching the news and I can't believe that they would pull the race card, that is ridiculous. In the begining it was bad...and as the days go by it is getting better.I do have to say it is taking longer then maybe some have expected, but it isn't because of race,at least I dont feel it is, I feel it is taking longer because this is a whole state and part of mississippi we are trying to take care of, it isn't like 9/11.

[Baby_Baby]

ya, shev! i saw liek a 6 hour 9-11 documentary on it! the whole history of it all and how it could have been prevented. it wil be on on thursday, not sure what time and channel. I'll look it up! its very very interesting!

[BettaMommy]

Sometimes people just dont take the hints and the precautions, and then all of America has to deal with the consequences.

[Osiris]

OO that was sad about that pets FishDOc, i can't imagine seeing a completely dieing reef would be a horrible site.

[shev]

bettamommy, sure some people could pack up there cars and leave, or buy a plane ticket out, or have other means of leaving. but the lower class that relies on public transportation to move their family around couldnt leave that easily. also many couldnt leave. and there is no way you can just start walking. the majority of the lower class happened to be black, and that goes hand in hand with bush's tax cut theory, but I really doubt it was an intentional jab at poor people.

so for the people that didnt have their own private means of getting out the plan was:
"Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00 "The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating"
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto...flpc21109012015

[fish_doc]

Update on the aquarium

Members of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) are responding to their New Orleans colleagues' need for help following the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina this week.


The 211-accedited-member association today announced plans -- including a national fundraising initiative -- to help the Audubon Nature Institute, which includes the Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas, and the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species (ACRES). The facilities and their staff, like all New Orleaneans, are struggling in the aftermath of the disaster.



"The Audubon Nature Institute staff in New Orleans are not only colleagues, but they are also our friends, and we all share a passion for the animals in our care," said Bill Foster, DMV, president of the AZA board of directors and director of the Birmingham Zoo. "The AZA community is committed to helping our colleagues in New Orleans as they move beyond this tragedy and begin to rebuild their homes, their lives and the wonderful facilities of the Audubon Nature Institute."



Dr. Foster asked Kevin Bell, President and CEO of Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, to spearhead the AZA member fund drive to help provide immediate and long-term relief to the staff and their families, the animals and the facilities in New Orleans. Bell said that in response to the overwhelming zoo and aquarium community interest in aiding the Audubon Nature Institute, a program is now in place enabling AZA members as well as the general public to donate.



To make a donation, people can visit the Lincoln Park Zoo web site at http://www.lpzoo.org and click on hurricane relief, or mail a check, made out to The Lincoln Park Zoological Society, and send it to: Lincoln Park Zoo, P.O. Box 14903, Chicago IL 60614, Attention: Hurricane Katrina Relief.



All donations will be channeled directly to aid the zoo and aquarium and their staff members in New Orleans. The Executive Committee of the AZA Board of Directors will handle the distribution of these funds.



In addition to the fund drive, AZA is coordinating relief efforts that will provide animal food, veterinary medicine, fuel and other supplies directly to the facilities in New Orleans. "Getting help to our colleagues is problematic at this time due to emergency restrictions," noted Foster. "However we are preparing our plan and will be ready with immediate assistance when supply routes are open."



AZA is providing frequent updates on the zoo and aquarium situation in New Orleans at http://www.aza.org/Newsroom/hurricaneupdate/



Founded in 1924, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), envisions a world where all people respect, value and conserve animals and nature. AZA currently has 211 accredited members in the U.S. and Canada, Bermuda and Hong Kong.



The oldest zoo in the country, Lincoln Park Zoo began in 1868 with the gift of a pair of swans. Today, 3 million visitors each year come to the zoo to watch, listen to, delight in and learn from more than 1,000 mammals, reptiles and birds. Lincoln Park Zoo is committed to wildlife preservation, education and community service.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...isaster325_xml

[garfieldnfish]

And they want to rebuild New Orleans? What fools are running this country? The next hurricane striking this section could hit next month. Taking land under sea level is bound to be reclaimed by the river that owned it once. It is only a matter of time.

[shev]

Damn french for building the city there in the first place.

[Baby_Baby]

lol. I think they should re build, but much much farhter away from s**** and all that.