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But I wanted to ask for prayers/goodwill, etc. for those who were hit by Katrina. For those who are out of touch with it, here's an interview with the mayor of New Orleans.

http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.wwltv.com/082905mayor.wmv

Krimsonnox, my roommate from College, may very well have no house to return to, and she, her husband, and her < 1 year old son aren't even going to try to go back. They have what they left their house with last week. crying

It's all so sad. sad
I guess that's another reason why I'm glad to live in Newfoundland.
The only effects we'll have from the Hurricane is high winds and lots of rain before Friday.

"yeah basically all of my friends family on her dad's side live in the New Orleans area. he said it will prob be weeks before he knows if all his family and friends made it out. So yeah, deffinetly prayers going out to all those people. I really hate those damned looters. Could you be any more stupid?" stressed

Update from the Louisiana side of things:

Levees are what they're called. Two of them broke, and water levels rose AFTER the storm passed. That's why N.O. is in such bad condition. The storm did very little compared to the breaks. In the city alone they're expecting the death count to be in the THOUSANDS. eek 13k body bags were transported into the city for use in the next few days.

Water is still up to 26 feet high in the City of New Orleans. People are dying of thirst, because the water isn't potable. There are rumors that the aquarium had some tanks break, and there may be one or more sharks swimming the area. Some people worry about the zoo animals.

Humans are acting worse than animals right now. Looting, shotting, and general horribleness are going on. They were evacuating hospitals, but had to stop because of people SNIPING the doctors! Looting is almost worse than other damage, people are stealing forklifts to get the storm doors on stores up so they can loot. There are gunfights. It's Lord of the Flies down there.

In the northern part of the state, there's an artificial gas shortage. People freak out, so they ALL go to get gas. That makes the supply drop, so prices go up, so people freak out more...etc. People are hijacking cars now, as far north as Alexandria (central part of the state).

"Perminate" shelters are being set up around the state, including in my town and at the school where I work. They will be for people to live in until they can return to their homes, or go somewhere. The government is going to try to set up tent cities and refugee camps around New Orleans.

crying "such a good sis!" huggles. heart

"yeah but seriously, sniping at DOCTORS? Are they friggin retarded? morons.... stressed Course it seems like we hear more bad than good. I hope it's not all bad and people are banding together to help each other out like they're SUPPOSED to in times like these. Blah...." confused

Some immature jerk-off in the GD actually started a thread called "Is it bad that I don't care" and then proceeded to talk about how she doesn't give a crap about the people affected by the hurricane basically because she wasn't affected at all and she's sick of seeing it on the news. Then she proceeded to go on about how those people were stupid because they had enough warning to leave and how it's all their fault they're stuck because they're the ones that decided to stay and blah blah blah so they deserved what they got. I thought that her attitude was rotten and her ignorance appalling. They weren't even sure the hurricane was going to hit New Orleans until a day or two before and they certainly weren't expecting that after it hit florida as a level 2 that it would go up to a level 4/5 hurricane. This girl who posted didn't even want to listen when people pointed out that the poor people couldn't leave for economical reasons, she just said they all should have hitchhiked out or something. (Not even thinking about the fact that these people had nowhere to go and no money to stay at a hotel.) That just makes me so mad. Anyways, my rant is over. Mean people suck. evil