Avoiding Another Katrina

had to come back.

Thank you 2 for backing me up basically! ; )

As for all the comparisons between San Diego and New Orleans ... it's not fair. In San Diego, we still had lots of passable roads and stores that volunteers could get to for supplies. In New Orleans, all the roads were under water. If you wanted to help, you couldn't just get in your car and drive over. Major equipment, the kind that the National Guard uses, and helicopters were needed to get to the people at the Superdome. And, lots of that National Guard equipment was already in Iraq. So, big difference in terms of the disasters. Here in San Diego, we could run north or south to get out of harms way. When the leavees broke in New Orleans, there was no where for the residents to go.

Good in disaster relief (may be ... there are people who lost homes in the 2003 Cedar fire who still don't have a home), bad in having the firefighting personnel and equipment to handle the disaster from the start. Don't forget, Schwarzenegger asked for help from other states and countries when the fires started. If we had that equipment at hand, from the beginning, it didn't need to come to this.

Those people in new orleans only know what they had to go through NOT YOU NOT ME SO you NEED TO DEFINATELY KEEP YOUR DISCRIMINATORY REMARKS TO YOURSELF. Illegal immigrants are taking our young men's jobs out from under them, construction work, trades, even buying homes from banks when I MYSELF can NOT EVEN GET A LOAN and IM AN AMERICAN CITIZEN, BUT THIS ILLEGAL ALIEN CAN WALK IN, with illegal employment and illegal Identification and BUY him and his 40 cousins a home to illegally live in. Illegal Aliens suck more WELFARE than OUR ACTUAL citizens do in my opinion and observation... Atleast in my city anyway. They work, dont pay taxes, get free credit lines, dont suffer penalties, can buy houses, and then to beat it all because theyre illegals they GET FREE HEALTH CARE and FOODSTAMPS
I have seen it a hundred times or more. I am really ticked off at the shallowness of lots of you people in here. It is obvious who has a head on their shoulders and who doesn't. Oh yeah. One last thing on this one last note. Welfare recipients these days have to do community services if they live in public housing, they have to be searching for employment to obtain foodstamps, so now if they get welfare THEY ARE ATLEAST TRYING TO GET OFF OF IT. For instance myself, I attended school last semester at my local university... It was extremely expensive, I had to get a loan, and I now am paying the money back... while I was attending school MY OWN food stamp benefits were CUT in half to 130dollars permonth for me and MY PREGNANT wife, we have no vehicle and I live about 3 miles from campus, THEY TOOK HALF away because of my decision to go FULL TIME TO A UNIVERSITY... My school loans paid for my tuition, my books, my semester long lunch ticket , and I payed some backed bills i owed, there went that money... now what was i supposed to eat on? according to the welfare office I had to be working 20 hours or more a week including my 13hour a week class schedule. My major is in Nursing so my workload was heavy considering for the first two years at my university they require you to take Humanitarian and remedial courses until your final 2 years when you actually begin your medicinal studies. I was basically PENALIZED FOR TRYING TO BETTER MY LIFE, ME AND MY WIFE SUFFERED AND WERE STARVING at the end of EACH MONTH BECAUSE ME, HER HUSBAND, WANTED TO ATTEND UNIVERSITY. I imagine if I was rich, I would not have so much to worry about, i could just let mommy and daddy co-sign for my loans, and let them pay the company back, I get more food for sitting on my behind doing nothing than I do for trying to improve myself SO I DONT HAVE TO DEPEND ON THE GOVERNMENTS WELFARE PROGRAMS, BUT HONESTLY, AND THIS IS NO CONTEST DEBATE, THE WELFARE SYSTEM KEEPS THE POOR, POOR. IT IS DESIGNED TO KEEP ONE CLASS OF PEOPLE DOWN AT THE LOWEST RUNG OF THE LADDER. So keep your yap shut if you dont know what youre talking about Sorry this is off topic

Ok, I wanted to say this earlier this week, but I did not. We are a nation, stop the bickering amongst us...
We simply need to pull together. Our government is wasting our money and resources on things that THEY want to fix and have done. No examples are needed, we all know where our tax dollars go in the end, we are seeing they definately do not go to people who need them in times of need such as this or during katrina.
These wildfires are not just in cali, we have had some here in TN and in Florida as well as Georgia, IF you ask me sounds like terrorism.
No one else will admit that if its arson, its most likely some radical cell initiating another economical crisis in our nation...
Our best strategy as the American Citizen Populace is to simply pull together, tell the government to keep our tax dollars, and use our own to help our neighbors...

LETS STOP COMPARING. CALIFORNIA IS DOING ITS BEST TO TAKE CARE OF CALIFORNIA, NO DID WHAT IT COULD IN THAT SITUATION...
AND AS FOR NO BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS OWN DISASTER PREPARATIONS. THAT IS PROPOSTEROUS, ARMY ENGINEERS BUILT AND MAINTAINED THOSE LEVEES NOT THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. The only thing they could have done while their cities citizens were trapped in that BOWL of pollution soup is exactly what they did. THEIR BEST. OUR NATIONAL GUARD DESERVES MUCH RESPECT FOR THEIR EFFORTS IN ASSISTING ANY AND EVERYONE THEY ARE SENT TO ASSIST!
PLEASE EVERYONE LETS REALIZE WHAT THIS CALIFORNIA FIRE SITUATION IS TEACHING MANY AROUND THE NATION. MATERIAL THINGS ARE EASILY REPLACED, while memories, family members, and our security can not be replaced. It will take compassion from many of us, as I know many Katrina victims who moved to my hometown here in TN, and compassion is what they need the most of, as well as food and shelter if they dont already have someone helping them with that.


ALL in ALL I want to thank the people that ARE doing WHAT I CAN NOT DO. I WOULD GIVE MY LIFE SAVINGS if I HAD ONE. I AM 21 YEARS OLD AND Come from a poverty stricken family... Trust me I know what it feels like to need a helping hand.
For the people who have nothing but hateful things to say...
I only can pray that your conscience lets you heal from your hardened heart and liberal "Progressive" ideaology.

strokz- i stated the facts - you have no idea how much compassion i have or don't have. lets not make universal statements about how much compassion i feel. first off, i'm not from CA - i grew up along the gulf in TX - where we know LOTS about hurricanes. i also lived in NYC during 9/11. so i've been through lots of disasters. i'm merely stating its ridiculous to compare these fires vs. Katrina. very different demograpics, geography, planning, etc. its much more relevant to compare the Cedar fire of 2003 in SD versus this one.

Let's face the facts...Bush made sure there was sufficient relief accessible because a lot of the people living in Malibu and the surrouding areas have cash. You don't want to mess with the people that can financial back decisions you make.

Please send a copy of the news item to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, India and ask him if he would have reacted with such speed. So many such calamities have struck the state of Tamil Nadu. Ask him if he has ever dine such a dedicated service to his state.
ramaswamy

Please send this news item to the Prime Minister of India and tee Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, India and ask for their views on the news item and whether they would have reacted with such speed and dedication.
S.Ramaswamy

I say way to go Schwarzenegger! We don't need another Katrina for sure.

It's amazing to me just how easily manipulated the some of the 'intellectuals' here

are. From their comments one would think that the Governor put out all of the fires

himself! If said sheeple change the law so that he can become President that will be

all we need to officially usher in a totalitarian dictatorship. Comparing the NO to SoCal is laughable really, they must have little in the way of wits considering the nature and scope of both disasters and the surrounding circumstances are vastly different. As someone mentioned before when the big one hits all of these self-centered, Starbucks swilling, S.U.V. driving schmucks will finally shut up. While mocking those less fortunate than yourself might build up your ego, it certainly wont do the same for the charred lot you used to call 'home' ;)...

It's amazing to me just how easily manipulated the some of the 'intellectuals' here are. From their comments one would think that the Governor put out all of the fires himself! If said sheeple change the law so that he can become Presidency that will be all we need to officially usher in a totalitarian dictatorship. Mark my word remember Hitler. Comparing the NO to SoCal is laughable really, you have some nerve and little in the way of wits considering the nature and scope of both disasters and the surrounding circumstances are

...wouldn't expect much compassion from someone whose handle is "golfgal"! Wave that flag. Wave it wide and high.

OK, genii.

CA fires vs Katrina - no comparison.
1.CA had a fire, NO got flooded.
2. NO was given days to prepare for the hurricane. CA - hours to evacuate.
3. NO - people did NOT leave when told to evacuate - CA left and did so in an orderly fashion.
4. Planning: CA - evacuees were told where they could go. NO - they either could not leave, did not want to leave, and if they did, were not told WHERE.
5. Crime: CA - people are not out there looting NO: well we all saw what happened.
6. Leadership and planning: CA has fires, we plan for how to deal with them and coordinate our efforts from the local, state, county, all the way to the Governator. LA has hurricanes - its not like they didn't know, it happens every season. Lack of planning.

The government responses to these disasters have little or nothing to do with the outcomes. The difference lies in the people affected. Of course the situation is better here than in New Orleans.

In California, most people took the initiative to evacuate themselves, instead of waiting for someone to take care of them. You have mostly working and educated people taking responsibility for themselves and helping each other and first responders as best as they can. In New Orleans, the resident were lazily waiting around for yet another bailout, quick to blame somebody else, raping and pillaging at first opportunity, and actually shooting at first responders sent to help them.

In Louisiana the good folks elected, and re-elected a crooked mayor and incompetent governor who did nothing but point fingers before, during and after the tragedy. In California there is a competent Republican governor who is getting things accomplished.

The tragedy in New Orleans was not that FEMA didn't do enough - the tragedy was that there were thousands of lifetime and/or multi-generational welfare-sucking people dependent on the government for their very existence and who have forgotten how to or never knew how to take care of themselves

The government responses to these disasters have little or nothing to do with the outcomes. The difference lies in the people affected. Of course the situation is better here than in New Orleans.

In California, most people took the initiative to evacuate themselves, instead of waiting for someone to take care of them. you have mostly working and educated people taking responsibility for themselves and helping each other and first responders as best as they can. In New Orleans, the resident were lazily waiting around for yet another bailout, quick to blame somebody else, raping and pillaging at first opportunity, and actually shooting at first responders sent to help them.

In Louisiana the good folks elected, and re-elected a crooked mayor and incompetent governor who did nothing but point fingers before, during and after the tragedy. In California there is a competent Republican governor who is getting things accomplished.

The tragedy in New Orleans was not that FEMA didn't do enough - the tragedy was that there were thousands of lifetime and/or multi-generational welfare-sucking people dependent on the government for their very existence and who have forgotten how to or never knew how to take care of themselves

I live in San Diego and its been the LOCAL and State government not federal that have helped the most.
But more than anything else its been the spirit of everybody here helping when they could. Qualcom stadium has been filled with people ready and able to help anywhere they have been needed. Not just a group of people sitting back and saying help me I am in need!
So if you want to help Please send money, NOT FEMA!!!
They have screwed up every major crisis they have tried to fix!