Iowa vs. Louisiana

69charger

Just a personal observation...as I watched the news coverage of the massive flooding in the Midwest with over 100 blocks of the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa under water, levees breaking, and the attention now turned downstream for when this massive amount of water hits the Mississippi, what amazed me is not what we saw, but what we didn't see...

1. We don't see looting.
2. We don't see street violence.
3. We don't see people sitting on their rooftops waiting for the government to come and save them.
4. We don't see people waiting on the government to do anything.
5. We don't see Hollywood organizing benefits to raise money for people to rebuild.
6. We don't see people blaming President Bush.
7. We don't see people ignoring evacuation orders.
8. We don't see people blaming a government conspiracy to blow up the levees as the reason some have not held.
9. We don't see the US Senators or the Governor of Iowa crying on TV.
10. We don't see the Mayors of any of these cities complaining about the lack of state or federal response.
11. We don't see or hear reports of the police going around confiscating personal firearms so only the criminal will be armed.
12. We don't see gangs of people going around and randomly shooting at the rescue workers.
13. You don't see some leaders in this country blaming the bad behavior of the Iowa flood victims on 'society' (of course there is no wide spread reports of lawlessness to require excuses).

Re: Iowa vs. Louisiana:

Where are all of the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for
help in restoring Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods?

Where is all the media asking the tough questions about why the federal
government hasn't solved the problem? Asking where the FEMA trucks (and
trailers) are?

Why isn't the Federal Government relocating Iowa people to free hotels
in Chicago?

When will Spike Lee say that the Federal Government blew up the levees
that failed in Des Moines?

Where are Sean Penn and the Dixie Chicks?

Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes and big screen
television sets?

When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a
'vanilla' Iowa, because that's the way God wants it?

Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of
cannibalism?

Where are the people declaring that George Bush hates white, rural
people?

How come in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever
again?

BamaPJFan

Rock on! Great post ("Vanilla Iowa".... hahaha). I can't wait to see the over-the-top, liberal, diatribe responses to your assessment.

cincybearcat

I've been living in Iowa since 2006 (Iowa City)...I can tell you that the community response here has been terrific. Many times, they have to turn volunteers away because they have TOO MANY!!!

The floods have devestated a lot of people's lives. It's been unbelievable to watch. Thankfully, my family has only had to deal with traffic jams from closed roads and didn't experience any loss.

You are right though, I only heard of 1 report of looting, too many people are too busy helping their neighbors and friends to go steal stuff. The other difference, Iowans began to prepare for the worst early...unfortunately their efforts mostly didn;t work (sandbagging was breached, etc.). But it was an entirely different attitude. The attitude was...something's going to happen and I better take care of myself, my family and help whoever I can.

My company sent people out of the plant to help sandbag, they are helping their employees effective recover, with paying for hotels, interest free loans, etc. It's really a community loss and the community is helping itself. That appears to be the Midwest way of life.

Oh, and I've seen ads on TV about contacting FEMA, but I've not seen anyone from FEMA or anything at all.

As far as celebrities go...they hate white people.

azwyldcats

I was born and lived in Iowa City through Freshman year of High School. I visit my dad, who still lives there, once a year. Iowa has a tremendous sense of community and people there are very supportive of each other. Much, much different than the SF Bay Area.

RainDog

Your list left out the most important point:

14. We didn't see a disaster in any way comparable to the scope and scale of Katrina.

End of story.

cincybearcat

RainDog wrote:

Your list left out the most important point:

14. We didn't see a disaster in any way comparable to the scope and scale of Katrina.

End of story.

That maybe true...but it doesn't discount the sense of community that Iowans have...trust me, I don't want to stay here for ever for my own personal reasons, but the people here are very nice and always willign to help. It's something special, and not something I ever experienced in Ohio.

69charger

RainDog wrote:

Your list left out the most important point:

14. We didn't see a disaster in any way comparable to the scope and scale of Katrina.

End of story.

Really? NO is under threat every hurricane season and you are freakin' below sea level. The folks down there should know better by now.

The Iowa floods were a once in 500 year anomaly yet the communities affected reacted to a similar set of circumstances in drastically different ways to that of the people affected by Katrina.

RainDog

cincybearcat wrote:

That maybe true...but it doesn't discount the sense of community that Iowans have...trust me, I don't want to stay here for ever for my own personal reasons, but the people here are very nice and always willign to help. It's something special, and not something I ever experienced in Ohio.

But that implies that those kind of people don't live in Louisiana. There are certainly lots of assholes - there are everywhere - but there were also real heroes during the Katrina disaster.

Other than the fact that both disasters involve water, there is no real comparison.

cincybearcat

RainDog wrote:

But that implies that those kind of people don't live in Louisiana. There are certainly lots of assholes - there are everywhere - but there were also real heroes during the Katrina disaster.

Other than the fact that both disasters involve water, there is no real comparison.

Certainly, great people live everywhere...but, I'll just put it this way...

If I ever have to experience personal hardship from a national disaster...so far, in MY expereince, I hope I'm in Iowa at the time.

BamaPJFan

RainDog wrote:

Your list left out the most important point:

14. We didn't see a disaster in any way comparable to the scope and scale of Katrina.

End of story.

I would say that the damage done in Iowa is comparable to the damage done in the lower ninth ward in New Orleans. However, the worst of the damage done during Katrina was along the Mississippi coast because that's where the wall of the storm hit the hardest. I grew up in Mississippi three hours north of the coastal cities of Biloxi, Gulfport, Ocean Springs, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, and Pascagoula. My mom still lives in Mississippi and even her city of Meridian was hard hit by Katrina's winds. One of my ex-girlfriends's mom's and dad's house in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, was one of those homes that was completely swept away in the hurricane. An $800,000 home gone in the blink of an eye.

The Mississippi leadership was very proactive and determined after the storm. Iowa's response under Culver has been virtually identical to Haley Barbour's was in Mississippi. The Louisiana/New Orleans leadership (or lack thereof) was vitually non-existent and they did nothing but put blame on others rather than taking responsibility for how they handled the pre-storm preparations and aftermath.

cincybearcat

RainDog wrote:

But that implies that those kind of people don't live in Louisiana. There are certainly lots of assholes - there are everywhere - but there were also real heroes during the Katrina disaster.

Other than the fact that both disasters involve water, there is no real comparison.

Anyhow, I wasn't trying to compare...just giving my account of what I've witnessed...and that is a great deal of community bonding to help each other deal with a very difficult situation.

RainDog

69charger wrote:

Really? NO is under threat every hurricane season and you are freakin' below sea level. The folks down there should know better by now.

The Iowa floods were a once in 500 year anomaly yet the communities affected reacted to a similar set of circumstances in drastically different ways to that of the people affected by Katrina.

1993 was 500 years ago? Damn I'm old.

Learn your shit, and stop with the disaster baiting. Other than water, the circumstances were not similar.

cincybearcat

RainDog wrote:

1993 was 500 years ago? Damn I'm old.

Learn your shit, and stop with the disaster baiting. Other than water, the circumstances were not similar.

You need to "learn your shit"...the 2008 floods were a 500-year flood. If you actualyl know what that means, you might understand.

1993 the flooding was a 100 year flood.

2008 the water rose over 10 feet higher than recorded (I believe that is the number, though I may not have that 100% right).


I sure bet they had some hurricanes in New Orleans prior to Katrina, no?

RainDog

BamaPJFan wrote:

The Mississippi leadership was very proactive and determined after the storm. Iowa's response under Culver has been virtually identical to Haley Barbour's was in Mississippi. The Louisiana/New Orleans leadership (or lack thereof) was vitually non-existent and they did nothing but put blame on others rather than taking responsibility for how they handled the pre-storm preparations and aftermath.

These were all major metropolitan areas, right? The population density is higher in New Orleans than all other affected areas - maybe even combined.

More was destroyed in New Orleans than simply the 9th ward. Much more.

RainDog

cincybearcat wrote:

You need to "learn your shit"...the 2008 floods were a 500-year flood. If you actualyl know what that means, you might understand.

1993 the flooding was a 100 year flood.

2008 the water rose over 10 feet higher than recorded (I believe that is the number, though I may not have that 100% right).


I sure bet they had some hurricanes in New Orleans prior to Katrina, no?

I know what 100 year and 500 year floods are. They are not literal terms. What I'm saying is that Iowa (and much of the midwest) will always be living under the threat of flooding. Implying that New Orleans should have known better and that Iowa was surprised is yet another false comparison (and before anyone jumps down my throat, let me say that both should know better).

BamaPJFan

RainDog wrote:

These were all major metropolitan areas, right? The population density is higher in New Orleans than all other affected areas - maybe even combined.

More was destroyed in New Orleans than simply the 9th ward. Much more.

The ninth ward was the the area that was the most devastated. The area around Lakefront Arena/UNO was obviously hard hit. The downtown area, including the French Quarter came through quite nicely. The Garden District along Magazine Street where Archie and Olivia Manning live fared fairly well.

Mississippi's coastal area might as well have been hit with a nuclear bomb because that's what it looked like after the hurricane moved through.

Don't misinterpret what I'm saying about New Orleans. I love the city. Because I grew up in Mississippi, I made many trips down there over the years. The last time I was there was for the New Orleans Bowl in December 2006 and when driving toward downtown (from Slidell) it was hard to look at the devastation along the interstate. Even over a year later it still looked like the storm had just happened. A lot of pre-Katrina New Orleans residents now live in Meridian and in my current hometown of Montgomery, AL. I don't blame them for not wanting to go back because in many cases there's nothing to go back to and most of those folks don't have the means to rebuild or start over in New Orleans.

cornnifer

BamaPJFan wrote:

. I don't blame them for not wanting to go back because in many cases there's nothing to go back to and most of those folks don't have the means to rebuild or start over in New Orleans.

Which, perhaps, raises another interesting point as to why it may be completely ridiculous to compare these two situations. i'm no expert, and i may be off a little bit here, but the general socio-economics of Cedar Rapids Iowa and the hardest hit areas of New Orleans are not quite the same. Yeah?
Population density is also something i'm wondering about.

My point is, and again i may be wrong, but in New Orleans what you see is A LOT more devastation, to many, many, MORE people with A LOT less money. It really is stupid to compare.

One other thing, and i say this as an aside because i'm really not sure and its more of a question really. What is the difference in preparation time and time to react given the two separate situations? A massive huricane is much different than a series of thunderstorms is it not?

69charger

RainDog wrote:

Implying that New Orleans should have known better and that Iowa was surprised is yet another false comparison.

Why?

cincybearcat

RainDog wrote:

I know what 100 year and 500 year floods are. They are not literal terms. What I'm saying is that Iowa (and much of the midwest) will always be living under the threat of flooding. Implying that New Orleans should have known better and that Iowa was surprised is yet another false comparison (and before anyone jumps down my throat, let me say that both should know better).

New Orleans was a city on the coast built below sea level...that's being set up to fail.

polaris

more extreme weather ... go figure ...

cincybearcat

cornnifer wrote:

One other thing, and i say this as an aside because i'm really not sure and its more of a question really. What is the difference in preparation time and time to react given the two separate situations? A massive huricane is much different than a series of thunderstorms is it not?

That's a good question...I will say that most people didn;t have any idea just how bad it would be until it was just about to be very bad in Iowa. They knew it would flood, but had no idea how bad. Business near where I am spent time constructing 2 foot walls of sandbags...in the end, the water ended up reaching the ROOFS of these buildings.

AS far as how much time they had for Katrina, I don't rememeber, but HUrricane doesn't exactly just al of a sudden touch ground. It was being tracked for sometime. BUt people never believe it's going to hit them until it gets there...that's just a normal human condition.