New Orleans Still Needs YOUR help!

Pacomc79Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
edited August 2006 in A Moving Train
Ok, so we've all sent money, and I hope you had a happy birthday too Rain Dog, sorry I couldn't get your info before I made it down, next time.

Last week I finally made good on my desire to go down and do something. I spent the week in Luling LA at Fish Camp #7 set up by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. They are a base camp for volunteer crews mucking out houses all over New Orleans. These homes need to be cleaned down to the studs so they can be borax soda blasted to kill the mold and mildew and cleaned so that they can be rebuilt.There are some 280,000 homes that have been effected, some are absolutely devestated. These people need our physical help not just dollars, homes not mucked out run the risk of being bulldozed by the end of this month. There are thousands upon thousands that still need help.

The work is exhausting, but it helps save a house, it lets people know that there are thouse out there that care and it helps inspire them inside to rebuild thier city and gives them a sense of pride. Plus it's always nice to have a sympathetic ear and the people of New Orleans are great story ellers.

Of course the city has tremendous problems but it does seem like things are getting better, I spent the majority of my time in Lakeview off the north end of Canal St on Woodlawn for the locals, it was obviously a beautiful neighborhood before the flood, now it's a mess but it's getting there. Another 2 to 5 years and I think it will start coming back. There are jobs, some places can't find enough people to work yet, The French Quarter is up and working many restaurants have renovated and they would appreciate your tourism too.

Anyway, I'm saying if you have a strong back and the willingness to help out, find a work group and go down. The task is daunting, but every little bit helps.

Thanks, P
My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • AhnimusAhnimus Posts: 10,560
    Oh, I was under the impression that the Yankees had it all taken care of. I keep hearing that America looks after it's self and doesn't need help from Canada or anywhere else. So I'm not offering. Sorry I already donated to the Katrina fund along with millions of other Canadians. I guess we shouldn't have even done that.

    Good luck to you!
    I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
  • i always thought new orleans was a liberal panacea. didn't they take care of it themselves. i spent 3 weeks in pass christian, mississippi cleaning up, and doing some minor construction..the people there were great. then i went to new orleans for a week...gasoline and matches would work there just fine.
  • RainDogRainDog Posts: 1,824
    Pacomc79 wrote:
    Ok, so we've all sent money, and I hope you had a happy birthday too Rain Dog, sorry I couldn't get your info before I made it down, next time.

    Last week I finally made good on my desire to go down and do something. I spent the week in Luling LA at Fish Camp #7 set up by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. They are a base camp for volunteer crews mucking out houses all over New Orleans. These homes need to be cleaned down to the studs so they can be borax soda blasted to kill the mold and mildew and cleaned so that they can be rebuilt.There are some 280,000 homes that have been effected, some are absolutely devestated. These people need our physical help not just dollars, homes not mucked out run the risk of being bulldozed by the end of this month. There are thousands upon thousands that still need help.

    The work is exhausting, but it helps save a house, it lets people know that there are thouse out there that care and it helps inspire them inside to rebuild thier city and gives them a sense of pride. Plus it's always nice to have a sympathetic ear and the people of New Orleans are great story ellers.

    Of course the city has tremendous problems but it does seem like things are getting better, I spent the majority of my time in Lakeview off the north end of Canal St on Woodlawn for the locals, it was obviously a beautiful neighborhood before the flood, now it's a mess but it's getting there. Another 2 to 5 years and I think it will start coming back. There are jobs, some places can't find enough people to work yet, The French Quarter is up and working many restaurants have renovated and they would appreciate your tourism too.

    Anyway, I'm saying if you have a strong back and the willingness to help out, find a work group and go down. The task is daunting, but every little bit helps.

    Thanks, P
    You kick ass, Pacomc79. Seriously. I don't know if I ever said anything negative about you, but if I did, I take it all back. :) Thanks for the help and the all time and work it must have taken.

    Lakeview got spanked royally, and the destruction of that section of town has hurt the city more than the simply wiping out square footage. It was a vital part of our economy, and the residents generated roughly half of our tax revenue. Any little bit to help encourage people to return is greatly appreciated - and for those who lost a lot, return is less likely. So thanks. And again - you kick ass!
  • RainDogRainDog Posts: 1,824
    Ahnimus wrote:
    Oh, I was under the impression that the Yankees had it all taken care of.
    The Yankees? Louisiana isn't a Yankee state. Some have come down to help, sure, but you can't expect only half the country to "have it taken care of."
  • RainDogRainDog Posts: 1,824
    i always thought new orleans was a liberal panacea. didn't they take care of it themselves. i spent 3 weeks in pass christian, mississippi cleaning up, and doing some minor construction..the people there were great. then i went to new orleans for a week...gasoline and matches would work there just fine.
    You're the second person on this board to use the phrase "I always thought New Orleans was a Liberal panacea." Did Michael Savage say it or something?

    You're essentially saying "I always thought New Orleans was a Liberal remedy for all difficulties." Like the city itself is an elixir or government program. A city can't be a cure-all, dipshit. Next time you're trying to sound smart, make sure you're smart enough to handle it.
  • that storm is the best thing to ever happen to that dump.
  • RainDogRainDog Posts: 1,824
    that storm is the best thing to ever happen to that dump.
    Aww. It's O.K.. I understand how bad this Katrina thing has made your boys in the White House look. It's really hard when your heroes are shown to be the frauds they are. That, when push comes to shove, the man you look up to is not only horribly incompetent, but is simply incapable of providing protection and rescue efforts to citizens of his own country. And you had to see pictures and video of all those suffering people. It must've been hard on you; seeing things and all.

    I'm really, really sorry. I am. No one should have to go through what you've gone through, spank. Would it help if I wubbed your widdle head and gave you a G.W. plush doll to snuggle with.
  • RainDog wrote:
    Aww. It's O.K.. I understand how bad this Katrina thing has made your boys in the White House look. It's really hard when your heroes are shown to be the frauds they are. That, when push comes to shove, the man you look up to is not only horribly incompetent, but is simply incapable of providing protection and rescue efforts to citizens of his own country. And you had to see pictures and video of all those suffering people. It must've been hard on you; seeing things and all.

    I'm really, really sorry. I am. No one should have to go through what you've gone through, spank. Would it help if I wubbed your widdle head and gave you a G.W. plush doll to snuggle with.

    people are supposed to take care of themselves and their neighbors. not rely on the gov't to do it. liberals want to be totally reliant on the gov't to take care of them, instead of getting up off their asses and doing something.
  • RainDogRainDog Posts: 1,824
    people are supposed to take care of themselves and their neighbors. not rely on the gov't to do it. liberals want to be totally reliant on the gov't to take care of them, instead of getting up off their asses and doing something.
    Like what? Stand on the levee and blow really hard in an attempt to divert the hurricane? Pray extra hard so that God will divert his wrath and level it on someone else? What?

    Of course, none of this changes the fact that you labeled New Orleans a panacea. I hope you didn't pay the whole ten cents for that word.
  • RainDog wrote:
    Like what? Stand on the levee and blow really hard in an attempt to divert the hurricane? Pray extra hard so that God will divert his wrath and level it on someone else? What?

    Of course, none of this changes the fact that you labeled New Orleans a panacea. I hope you didn't pay the whole ten cents for that word.

    hey, you elect people because they promise to take care of you, then they don't take care of you..and you want to blame bush?
  • people are supposed to take care of themselves and their neighbors. not rely on the gov't to do it. liberals want to be totally reliant on the gov't to take care of them, instead of getting up off their asses and doing something.

    rememeber that next time that you want to drive on a road... or call the police... or call the fire department... or need to get to work when the roads are covered with snow...
    My whole life
    was like a picture
    of a sunny day
    “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
    ― Abraham Lincoln
  • rememeber that next time that you want to drive on a road... or call the police... or call the fire department... or need to get to work when the roads are covered with snow...

    we had a major storm come through our area about 4 weeks ago. trees fell, roads were blocked, basements flooded. did we stand in the streets and bitch and moan because the mayor didn't get there fast enough to get stuff cleaned up? or did we get out the chainsaws and clear the neighborhood of the trees ourselves? you know what we did, what do you think the entitlement driven mentality of the people of new orleans would have done??
  • what really makes it bad, is you all want to complain about the federal government not giving you enough help, and not fast enough..yet you placed no blame on your local politicians. hell, you all re-elected the dumbass mayor.
  • RainDogRainDog Posts: 1,824
    we had a major storm come through our area about 4 weeks ago. trees fell, roads were blocked, basements flooded. did we stand in the streets and bitch and moan because the mayor didn't get there fast enough to get stuff cleaned up? or did we get out the chainsaws and clear the neighborhood of the trees ourselves? you know what we did, what do you think the entitlement driven mentality of the people of new orleans would have done??
    Man, you've really lost it. Are you feeling ill? Maybe you need to take some Indianapolis. Or perhaps a dose of Louisville.

    No one was bitching and moaning because the mayor "didn't get there fast enough to get stuff cleaned up." Do you even know what a hurricane is? What about storm surge? Did 1,000 people drown in your flooded basements, dipshit?
  • blah, blah, dipshit, its bush's fault, blah, blah, dipshit..i got ya.
  • blah, blah, dipshit, its bush's fault, blah, blah, dipshit..i got ya.

    where has anyone in this thread said it was bush's fault?
    My whole life
    was like a picture
    of a sunny day
    “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
    ― Abraham Lincoln
  • RainDogRainDog Posts: 1,824
    blah, blah, dipshit, its bush's fault, blah, blah, dipshit..i got ya.
    I said Bush was too incompetent to stage an effective rescue effort - which is true, and should worry people a bit more than it does. I never said he caused the hurricane, though.

    I have a question. What good would chainsaws be against 130 mile an hour winds? Seriously. How is a flooded basement comparable to a 20 ft. storm surge? You had downed power lines. How about an underwater power grid?

    You have no idea what happened here.


    And my apologies to Pacomc79. Sorry if we've highjacked your thread - and thanks again for your humanitarian assistance. Only next time, make sure you clear it with the likes of monkey spanker - you know, make sure helping out your fellow human beings meets his litmus test. Wouldn't want to accidently help someone who disagreed with your political outlook.
  • acroyearacroyear Posts: 46
    If New Orleans was run by Republicans, they could take care of themselves and not rely on hand outs.
    "If you want peace, be prepared for war."
    George Washington
  • AhnimusAhnimus Posts: 10,560
    RainDog wrote:
    The Yankees? Louisiana isn't a Yankee state. Some have come down to help, sure, but you can't expect only half the country to "have it taken care of."

    My bad, I thought all American's are Yankees. Just like all Canadians are Canucks.
    I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
  • Pacomc79Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
    we had a major storm come through our area about 4 weeks ago. trees fell, roads were blocked, basements flooded. did we stand in the streets and bitch and moan because the mayor didn't get there fast enough to get stuff cleaned up? or did we get out the chainsaws and clear the neighborhood of the trees ourselves? you know what we did, what do you think the entitlement driven mentality of the people of new orleans would have done??


    It wasn't everyone bitching and moaning about the government. There are thousands of hard working regular people that live in New Orleans just like everywhere else. Some people have been there trying to rebuild since the beginning, just like with southern Mississippi. Only now after a year are people moving back in, the scale of disaster is unreal and the prices for reconstruction are equally to scale. The benifit in the sense of southern miss is that they could start rebuilding immediately many in NO are waiting for the current hurricane season to cease and they are still waiting on the city to decide on building codes. New Orleans was flooded for 3 weeks. Most of what we saw on the news was 9th ward and maybe all the way out to Arabi, we didn't see the rest of the city. I mean going south on I-10 into the city, it's completely wiped out this from the storm surge. Floodwaters were indiscriminate. Even people that were covered are finding unwilling insurance agencies, not to mention not being able to find decent contractors. The family I worked with was at least a year and a half away from construction if they signed today. This had nothing to do with politics to me, although I find the issues to be more with circumstance, awful decades of politics from local to state to national actually and suprising lapses in infrastructure, but I could go on for hours about bad politicians even if I just kept it to the Long family, one reason a lot of people didn't purchase insurance actually. This is more about beating ones sword in to plowshares (or crowbars into moldy sheetrock in my case), and just helping people for the sake of helping, because their government can't do it. The state can't do it and the federal government is to big, overblown and inefficent to really help people get back on thier feet, even the people that pay the majority of the taxes. Thier friends are gone, and it's simply too large a job to do on your own, especially when there's so much else to do. The only people that can help are individuals working together. I know there are a lot of people, good, honest hard working folks who just need a little help to get going again. I like to think I have made a small difference, and I hope others will continue making small differences as time passes. Thanks for going down to Mississippi and helping they need the people too.
    My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
  • RainDogRainDog Posts: 1,824
    acroyear wrote:
    If New Orleans was run by Republicans, they could take care of themselves and not rely on hand outs.
    Top down, huh? Not "if New Orleans was populated by Republicans" but "if New Orleans was run by Republicans." I suppose you think of it as one in the same - we are a democracy after all - but I find it curious the way you word it. Like they just need to slot in at the top and start ordering people around. Rather fascist, don't you think?

    Of course, Republicans control the federal government and it took them five damn days to get started. "But it's not the federal government's job......" right? What if it was a terrorist attack - would you say the same thing? And before you say there's a difference, let me interject and ask "what's the difference if a city is leveled by wind or war?" Rescue efforts are rescue efforts.

    This wasn't a failure by one party over another. The aftermath of Katrina was incompetence at it's finest - by quite a few people from both sides.
  • RainDog wrote:
    Top down, huh? Not "if New Orleans was populated by Republicans" but "if New Orleans was run by Republicans." I suppose you think of it as one in the same - we are a democracy after all - but I find it curious the way you word it. Like they just need to slot in at the top and start ordering people around. Rather fascist, don't you think?

    Of course, Republicans control the federal government and it took them five damn days to get started. "But it's not the federal government's job......" right? What if it was a terrorist attack - would you say the same thing? And before you say there's a difference, let me interject and ask "what's the difference if a city is leveled by wind or war?" Rescue efforts are rescue efforts.

    This wasn't a failure by one party over another. The aftermath of Katrina was incompetence at it's finest - by quite a few people from both sides.

    first off, i owe you an apology rain dog. i was WAY too hars on your city the other day. i had a family member with some possible severe health problems and i was highly on edge. i shouldn't have said many of the things i said, i apologize.

    well, the difference between a terrorist attack and a war...they told peple 5 days in advance to leave the city, they stayed. then complained when they weren't taken out in the aftermath. they blame bush for not getting them help, but they re-elected the mayor that didn't get them out before or after. the fastest reponse after a terrorist attack or a natural disaster is going to come from the local gov't, at that point the feds can step in and help out the locals.
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