[oldetymebiker]

The following text was written by a county emergency manager in western North Dakota:

WEATHER BULLETIN


Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a
Historic event --- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical
Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow
and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of
motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and
cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:

* George Bush did not come....

* FEMA did nothing....

* No one howled for the government...

* No one blamed the government

* No one even uttered an expletive on TV...

* Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit

* Our Mayor's did not blame Bush or anyone else

* Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else either

* CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snow storm

* Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.....

* No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House....

* No one looted....

* Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something

* Nobody expected the government to do anything either

* No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera

* No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found

And

* Nope, we just melted the snow for water

* Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars

* The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny

* Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families

* Families took in the stranded people - total strangers

* We Fired up wood stoves

* Broke out coal oil lanterns or coleman lanterns

* We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die"

* We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a
welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.

* Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early...we know it can happen and how to deal with it
ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90 degrees most of the world's

social problems evaporate."

 

[jeeps84]

I think many of us felt the same way. Especially the Florida residents that have survived many major storms with little help.

 

[jetskifast]

I think many of us felt the same way. Especially the Florida residents that have survived many major storms with little help.

Are you calling over $100 billion in government pay outs to Hurricane damaged Florida last two years, little help:crazy:

People in North Dakota would be asking for Fema help. If thousands of homes destroyed, thousands killed, no drinking water supply, no electrical, city sitting under ten feet of water.
ND did not ask for help because they did not need it, very minor damage compared to real disasters

 

[Trip]

Don't believe everything you see on TV. All of my family is down there, some of them have no home, no job to return to, no personal possessions except the little they brought, no news channel broadcasting about how bad the conditions are and requesting help, the main staple of food could be destroyed for years, insurance screwing them over because they are saying it was caused by water and not a hurricane because they don't insure for water damage since it is below sea level and floods too easily, and you don't see the people of my hometown requesting support.

It's the media, they search for the worst in society. I guess some never learn.

 

[jeeps84]

Are you calling over $100 billion in government pay outs to Hurricane damaged Florida last two years, little help:crazy:

People in North Dakota would be asking for Fema help. If thousands of homes destroyed, thousands killed, no drinking water supply, no electrical, city sitting under ten feet of water.
ND did not ask for help because they did not need it, very minor damage compared to real disasters

Little in comparison.

 

[Trip]

What little of the disaster people saw on TV, was that of the poorly run portions of where it hit. New Orleans was and probably will be again one of the worst managed cities in this great nation, but this city was not the only place effected by this disaster and it should be noted that a lot of other families that have not been living off and asking for government assistance in trying to rebuild their lives before you belittle everyone involved in Katrina/Rita.

 

[jeeps84]

Vol

I honestly don't think OTB or I meant to belittle anybody. I personally was making a statement about the city its self. Most of the surrounding areas effected were stronger and did what they had to do to survive. They got off their butts and started to clean up and rebuild all on there own. New Orleans would probably never be again if the Gov hadn't stepped in. Now you have people that lived happily and willingly in shacks and slums that now live or are going to live in homes they cant even pay the taxes for.

 

[Trip]

Oh don't worry, they will be worthless slums in a matter of days again. They built them a bunch of new projects a bunch of years back that became worthless in a matter of seconds. I probably should shut my mouth before I say things that aren't PC enough for this board or any decent messageboard. Waste of materials if I ever saw one.

There is a lot of animousity and emotion in this topic for me, I should just bow out because I don't think straight in this topic.

 

[Gas Man]

Old... GREAT POST! THANKS!!!

 

[oldetymebiker]

After doing some fact-checking, I discovered that the ND national guard did indeed do some relief-bringing to some nursing homes without power, and the Govenor did ask for monetary aid after the fact....the basic premise, however, is valid; having grown up in that neck of the woods, I can vouch for the people there as banding together in times of emergency; strangers helping strangers, a sense of self-reliance and a tendency to loathe the need for outside assistance.

You usually will not find people up there who wait around for others to bail them out; simply living up there during the winters requires a high level of energy and committment, let alone during the frequent debilitating blizzards during the winter and frequent devastating tornados during the summer.

Because the towns are smaller, and the rural population is spread so thinly, there is frequently a greater sense of community and concern for one's neighbor that is missing in more populated areas... that is the gist of the article.

On the flip side, anyone who watched the coverage of Katrina should have been appalled at the "victim" attitude of the many who sought shelter at the stadium; the "when is somebody gonna come make it all better" syndrome. There is great debate over why some chose to stay or were unable to leave...ignoring that, these folks KNEW the storm was coming and had over a week to prepare.. yet many had no plan, no supplies, and arrived with barely the clothes on their back. We could go on for days about the p***-poor planning on a local level, and then spend days debating who's fault it is...the Mayor, the Govenor or the Feds....

Fact of the matter is; if you don't have a personal or family plan on how to handle emergencies, and supplies to back it up; then you're just a victim waiting for a crisis to happen.

OTB

 

[Trip]

On the flip side, anyone who watched the coverage of Katrina should have been appalled at the "victim" attitude of the many who sought shelter at the stadium; the "when is somebody gonna come make it all better" syndrome. There is great debate over why some chose to stay or were unable to leave...ignoring that, these folks KNEW the storm was coming and had over a week to prepare.. yet many had no plan, no supplies, and arrived with barely the clothes on their back. We could go on for days about the p***-poor planning on a local level, and then spend days debating who's fault it is...the Mayor, the Govenor or the Feds....

Focusing on the people in the Dome is like saying I only want to focus on the negative side of this story and not any of the people that actually had evacuation plans. You are focusing on people that spent their entire lives living off the government, that were raised to live off the government by their parents. Extremely uneducated, a lot of elderly, and a lot of them are criminals. Then you got to throw in the fact that most of these people had seen Betsy and Camille both close to as powerful as Katrina come through the city with not nearly the impact that Katrina had to the city. They expected to go into that Dome and leave the next day and rebuild what they had and return to normal and not the complete catastrophe that happened. I am sure if I went to North Dakota, I could find these same stories of victims in the welfare side of towns. Every place is going to have that section of undesirables, it just so happens New Orleans has a large section of those types of people that the Media could harp on daily.

You usually will not find people up there who wait around for others to bail them out; simply living up there during the winters requires a high level of energy and committment, let alone during the frequent debilitating blizzards during the winter and frequent devastating tornados during the summer.

You ask why people stayed behind instead of evacuating the city, well you answered your question with the statment above. It is also why people live in an area with blizzards and tornadoes instead of moving to a safer part of the country. It is their homes, their lives, and their heart.

 

[oldetymebiker]

Don't put words in my mouth...people live where they live...and I focus on the "victim class", not those that had a plan and executed it; because those are the folks clamoring and making all the noise...

The rest of the folks you don't hear about, because they went about their own business....

 

[oldetymebiker]

You ask why people stayed behind instead of evacuating the city, well you answered your question with the statment above. It is also why people live in an area with blizzards and tornadoes instead of moving to a safer part of the country. It is their homes, their lives, and their heart.

Actually, if you read my post, I did not....I said it was a separate issue!

 

[oldetymebiker]

The question really is why nearly a QUARTER of the population of a city, after being told evacuation was MANDATORY, and that this was going to be the greatest storm to hit (it was a catagory 5, until just before it hit, remember?) chose to stay, and then had the temerity to demand (remember those interviews with all those angry people?) that they needed bailing out. Sometimes, people just make bad choices.

My criticism my seem harsh...yet my family and I have been in several "survival" type situations of similar nature,( including a major hurricane) and we neither expected help, nor demanded it...we simply made a plan, stuck together, helped a couple folks with us, and went about the process of getting through it....

 

[Trip]

The rest of the folks you don't hear about, because they went about their own business....

Actually they aren't going about their business, half my family is relocating all over the country and looking for jobs because they have no home or job to return to. Mold is everywhere, the entire town is pretty much uninhabitable and will be for months to years. These aren't the victim class, these are middle class. The heart and soul of the population. The ones that do pay the largest portion of the taxes that allow the victim class to survive. They are getting screwed out of their insurance checks to rebuild. Unlike North Dakota, the snow didn't melt away. It is still there and will be for a long time to come.

The question really is why nearly a QUARTER of the population of a city, after being told evacuation was MANDATORY, and that this was going to be the greatest storm to hit (it was a catagory 5, until just before it hit, remember?) chose to stay, and then had the temerity to demand (remember those interviews with all those angry people?) that they needed bailing out. Sometimes, people just make bad choices.

Yeah, it is easy sitting in your nice home and with a decent amount of intelligence to think these people could rationally think this way. Well they aren't you, a lot of these people were very elderly or very poor and 99% of them are probably as educated as a stick. They had no means to escape New Orleans, no vehicle to get them across the bridges before the storm hit, and the little bit of public transportation leaving the city was over run with these individuals trying to escape. Then you are going to have to ask, where were these people suppose to go? How were they going to pay for food after leaving? How were they going to pay for a room to stay in? Then the government told them to take shelter in the Dome. It was the local government that decided this would be the safest place to put this part of the population to wait out the storm. Okay, now that we have a ton of elderly, criminals, and welfare families in the Dome, let's cut off every major access in and out of the city. Now that we have them stuck in a heavy flooded and toxic area, let's make it one of the hottest days of the summer with rapidly decreasing food supplies. I would say after the government told you to go to a certain area, had no way to get you out of this area, you couldn't walk or drive out of this area, had no way of feeding you in this area, that you would get mighty pissed off as well. These people live constantly off of the government, who else do you think they would turn to when the hand that feeds them suddenly SNAFUed. It is easy for people like you to sit in your recliner and gripe about how these people had a choice, when in fact most had very little of a choice in staying.

To steal a quote from my dad use all the time "Give a man to fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime." Well these people were never taught how to fish, they have just been given fish all their lives. Well, that day, we stopped giving them fish and they weren't happy about it.

it was a catagory 5, until just before it hit, remember?

Hurricane Camille, 1969, 905 mb cat 5 storm
Hurricane Katrina, 2005, 902 mb cat 5 storm

And guess what Camille was 909 mb and still a cat 5 when it made landfall.

Yes, I remember very well. Considering my family went through both of them.

because those are the folks clamoring and making all the noise...

Why were they making noise? They had no means of escape, no food, and no one was coming to rescue them. Let me throw you on a deserted island with no food and no way of escaping. Hey, let's even make it your fault you got stuck there in the first place and take away any education you have. Now let's put a TV crew to film you and see if you won't ask for help.

 

[Gas Man]

Now this is all turning into too much reading...

 

[snadamo]

Now this is all turning into too much reading...

:iagree: but its getting interesting! Its about time there has been a legitimate discussion like this without getting out of hand. Hopefully I didnt speak too soon.

 

[R1up0n1]

Now this is all turning into too much reading...

:withstupi :lol:

 

[oldetymebiker]

Actually, Vol, I agree with you. Your family is going about it's business, quietly doing the things that need to get done. Finding work, a home, putting their lives back together...with little or no help. Been there..done that. Lost a business a few years ago to "Acts of God"...and no safety net for me and mine, either.

And you're right...most of those folks have been on the dole so long, they don't know anything else;but that doesn't make it ok. Your fishing allagory was right on.

I think that any activity which takes away a person's ambition is inherently wrong. That goes for the welfare system, too.

My point was... the city and many of it's people were broken long before Katrina; all the storm did was point out the problems. So the question becomes; do we keep doin' what we're doin', and keep gettin' what we're gettin'...or do we try to fix the underlying problems. The old saw about insanity being the act of doing the same things over and over but expecting different results is never more true.

And you're right; nobody, especially me, has any business thumbing their nose at others misery....that was never my intent, and if I've given that impression, I apologize. That being said, I find it appalling that that many people can just throw up their collective hands and just "hope everything works out". Don't you?

I find it distressing.

I learned long ago that the only person who was going to look out for my welfare was me, and that if I wanted to survive in this world, I'd better make some plans for when (not if) the bottom fell out. It doesn't take money, but it does take a little commitment, and a willingness to take a longer view.

I don't think I'm anything special, I think most folks can and do learn how to cope and plan for the future...some though can't, and yes, they need our help. Others just won't; they won't learn, won't plan and expect someone else to constantly bail them out, and for them I have less than contempt.

I'm sorry if I hit a raw nerve. It was never my intent to insult you or your family and the distress that they've suffered.

Respectfully

OTB

 

[ne1469]

there are actually people that live in western ND??????? :lol:


if a tree falls and no one was around... did it make a noise? :lol:





anyways JK!:chill: