New Orleans - Modern Day Babylon?

[member2686]

It looks like the city is doomed. Is this the modern day equivalent of Babylon? Now E. Coli has been discovered there. The water is poison. Let's pray for that city... It seems to just get worse and worse...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/06/katrina.impact/index.html

 

[foxycougar]

Oh man.....I knew something like this was going to happen with all of that water just sitting around....they just can't cut a break!

 

[member20672]

Hate to be the asshole, but if they would of evactuated their citizens days before it hit then they wouldn't have all these problems. I don't like the prez but i dont blame him for New Orleans governments problems.

 

[hedonis]

Hate to be the asshole, but if they would of evactuated their citizens days before it hit then they wouldn't have all these problems. I don't like the prez but i dont blame him for New Orleans governments problems.

I will agree with you on that one, americanharley. This is a hurricane, and there are usually several days to get the hell out of its way. As big as this one was, they knew it was going to hit bad.

I may not like the prez, or some of his politics, but the way that city sits (20 feet below sea level, protected only by levies), I think it was on the city to make sure they were prepared for this sort of thing.

But, all that said, let's stop pointing fingers, making accusations, and get the people of that city some help, love, prayers, and comfort. A city is buildings and dirt- we need to make sure these people are taken care of. :2 cents:

JW

 

[member2686]

Amen to that, hedonis!!!

Breaking news: they're going to tear down/demolish the Superdome! It's structurally unsound from the flood & hurricane. :eek:

...A city is buildings and dirt- we need to make sure these people are taken care of. :2 cents:

JW

 

[lovejoy]

Things are slowly returned to normal in mid-state of Mississippi which took a direct hit in the Coast.

Electricity and phone service are basically restored in most part of mid-state in and surrounding Jackson, Mississippi, Forest, Meridian ,Newton MS last Friday and Saturday.

But in the rural area of Mississippi, there are still many partially broken tree limbs hanging by the threads and power lines are not restored 100% in the mid-state.

The Mississippi coast slowly returned to normal with supermarkets re-opened if they are not heavily damaged and along I-10 in Gulfport, MS, pancakes houses at the truck stops are re-opened last week.

The problems are there are still many people living in the hotels, motels and have no place to return back the the Coast.

The extent of damages actually is not just confined to the Coast but all the way to the mid-state of Mississippi.

How long can those people stay in the hotels and motels ? A small town in Mississippi suddenly swelled up with hundreds of people.

New Orleans is the bilbical Babylon, not burnt by fire but destroyed by hurricane and flooding.

Is GOD sending thunder to the city which people committed sin--open beer policy, whore houses, open gay life style, drugs and murders ?

I don't think so, the entire French Quarters basically is intact and I bet in next year Madi Gras, there are more breasts to show off and more girls/women to come down to celebrate Madi Gras !

Don't worry, "Let the good times roll".

The 2007 Madi Gras will be the greatest yet to come. So get ready to see all the babes !

Welcome to Madi Gras 2007, the largest adult party in America !! Wide Eyes Open !!

 

[juballs]

ok you all say that they knew that they should have evacuated and that they had plenty of time... true and not so much

let me explain my reasoning

1. sure they knew the hurricane was coming, but when it finally chose whether it was going to hit the gulf coast or the eastern seaboard, that only left 2 1/2 days of evacuating time. in reality that is time enough, but planning has to go in here.

2. the die-hard residence, as in residence that were told numerous times previous to this to evacuate, only to evacuate and return and find nothing damaged had had enough. they figured screw it , whats the difference between this hurricane and the last 5 that did nothing.

now i am not at all saying this catastrophe could not have been averted, but i believe that the gov. should take some of the blame

A. as i said in point 1, planning must go into this, but in reality shouldnt the gov'n be ready for something like this in the first place. I mean a two and a half days to evacuate some millions of people may seem like a lot, but is do-able. The gov'n just casualy said "evacuate the area". The people in my 2nd point said "what for?" and what about the people with no transportation. well the gov'n did the next to last thing they could come up with, put them in a building that was not exactly built in an area that experienced extreme weather. there thoughts "lets hope it stays up" and it didnt.

so the blame should go on numerous people.

while writing this, i notice that this should actually be in the hurricane thread not this one started by nightfly, so i will wrap it up with a comparison to babylon.

The comparison is just, but unnecessary in a way, being that this catastrophe, not to the city itself, but to the people could have been averted.
lives could have been saved and the death toll could be a lot lower then at last count.

if the gov'n who is supposed to be prepared for this, actually knew what was coming, this thread wouldnt be, as the mirror imaging to babylon would cease to exist.


and thats my :2 cents:

 

[member2686]

Great post, juballs. It's not typical for you to write such a lengthy post, so it's certainly something about which you're passionate. Keep the quality and thought-provoking posts coming, mister! :hatsoff:

 

[incog]

At least they have a couple of the levees somewhat fixed. Blackhawks have been putting sand bags in the breaks and water has receded to about 73%. Its going to be a long way to go but at least no more water is getting into the city.

 

[4G63]

well the gov'n did the next to last thing they could come up with, put them in a building that was not exactly built in an area that experienced extreme weather. there thoughts "lets hope it stays up" and it didnt.

juballs



The Superdome takes many cues from The Coloseum in Rome, namly it's size and shape. It was built to withstand Cat. 5 hurricanes, and the "coke-bottle" profile was disigned to channel 200mph sustained winds away from structural roof members.

However the builders did not take into acount New Orleans below sea-level height. That oversight caused the damage to the roof.

My point is a chain of events was put into effect along time ago that let this catastropy grow and grow. Before the Iraq war, The London Bomings, 9/11, The First Iraq War, and all the Tsunamis and Hurricanes. Bad decisions were made by Americans, our Goverment and other Goverments. No one can be blamed, it was a situation of the times. But now is the time for the worlds biggest superpower to show it can take care of it's own. And it's diturbing how far we dropped the ball on this one

It looks like the city is doomed. Is this the modern day equivalent of Babylon?

Nightfly

Babylon is agood analogy, but I say more like Rome. Beracracy and God Complexs are killing us.

 

[JBarx]

The Superdome takes many cues from The Coloseum in Rome, namly it's size and shape. It was built to withstand Cat. 5 hurricanes, and the "coke-bottle" profile was disigned to channel 200mph sustained winds away from structural roof members.

However the builders did not take into acount New Orleans below sea-level height. That oversight caused the damage to the roof.

Okay... first of all, the damage to the roof had nothing to do with the Dome's position relative to sea level. It's called the Bernoulli effect. A surface that large creates an enormous pressure differential - it's the same law of physics that puts planes in the air. Whether the dome was 10 feet below sea level or 10,000 feet above it, 150mph winds are going to fuck it up. It's not negotiable.

By the way... you can't channel winds "away from roof members" in a dome. The structural members are not uni-directional, thus will always be subject to lateral loading.

Also, the Colosseum point is moot. If you're going to make that assertion that abstractly, then ALL domes take cues from the Colosseum when it comes to size and shape.

:error:

Lastly, the Superdome was an outdated dump anyway. This is an opportunity for something new and better.

 

[member2686]

I've been to Rome several times and I know my history pretty well also -- since when was the Colosseum a domed structure??? You lost me there. Or were you just saying that they (modern stadia) have common sizes and shapes?

...Also, the Colosseum point is moot. If you're going to make that assertion that abstractly, then ALL domes take cues from the Colosseum when it comes to size and shape.

 

[4G63]

Okay... first of all, the damage to the roof had nothing to do with the Dome's position relative to sea level. It's called the Bernoulli effect. A surface that large creates an enormous pressure differential - it's the same law of physics that puts planes in the air. Whether the dome was 10 feet below sea level or 10,000 feet above it, 150mph winds are going to fuck it up. It's not negotiable. By the way... you can't channel winds "away from roof members" in a dome. The structural members are not uni-directional, thus will always be subject to lateral loading. Also, the Colosseum point is moot. If you're going to make that assertion that abstractly, then ALL domes take cues from the Colosseum when it comes to size and shape. Lastly, the Superdome was an outdated dump anyway. This is an opportunity for something new and better.

I'm saying the roofs shape was intended to keep it down, not up. and the overall shape of it was intended to keep it's butt planted. The same way a F1 car "channels" air away from it's driveshafts and into it's cooling ducts. It's was a feat of engieneering, IF they had all the funds necassary, wich they did not. That lead to it sucking, and the way it weathered the hurricane. Oh yeah GREAT opportunity.

And yeah the dome was an add-on, it's floor plan is was it's connection to Coloseum

 

[jod0565]

So any town devastated by a hurricane would be a modern day Babylon?

The city is trashed, literally. I see what's on the tv, but I cannot imagine what it would be like in person. The shots of the bodies in the chapel at a hospital made me feel very sad - not only for those people, but for everyone directly affected by the storm.
The city is set to accept evacuees where I live, with PLENTY of clothes, personal items, blankets, diapers, toys, etc. Portable showers even.
This morning, on the ticker on MSNBC, were the words that al qaeda says Katrina was the wrath of God to the USA - that just started my day off badly.

 

[member2686]

Well, the city is under water now, so it seemed an appropriate analogy to me...

So any town devastated by a hurricane would be a modern day Babylon?

No doubt this was on Al Jazeera. Lovely. They love to give terrorists and bigots and criminals a satellite TV voice.

Here's a question: why do these idiots run videotapes to Al Jazeera when any moron with a laptop, a generator, and a webcam can broadcast all over the world INSTANTLY? The terrorists are not nearly as well-funded and potent as people fear. They're using BetaMax camcorders, sending videotapes from hill to hill via donkey transport, for God's sake. lol Idiots.

This morning, on the ticker on MSNBC, were the words that al qaeda says Katrina was the wrath of God to the USA - that just started my day off badly.

 

[D-rock]

It isn't a modern day Babylon. Everybody knew what was going to happen eventually. Long before there ever was a hurricane headed for them they knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. It could have been next week, next month, next year, or a couple of decades from now.

Knowing that eventuality would someday happened they should have prepared for it decades ago. It is like a bad nightmare that nobody wanted to believe was real until it was too late. Even though they knew it was going to come sooner than later. I wonder how hard it was for people to finally except the reality of the situation, and then how much harder it was for them to realize that they really didn't know what to do then. There should of been process put into place decades ago that would have been activated the instant that people knew this was the big one. The fact that there was none is inexcusable. I hope when it is all said and done everybody is held accountable for their part in this disaster.

This brings us to another problem that Juballs pointed out. How do you get that many people out of the area in such a short time? If you pull them out sooner, then you have a problem. Hurricanes come through that area all the time. If you are evacuating people well before you can predict the path the hurricane will take; then you will be evacuation people from there all the time. Could you imagine in a bad year if they would have to evacuate a city of hundreds of thousands ten times that year? It would be chaos. There is no way that you could go on doing that. On the other hand if you wait to long everybody gets stuck and a lot of people loose lives. It could become a balancing act that is too hard to maintain.

Finally, what I think is a big problem is the fact that New Orleans should have never been built, at least where it was anyhow. Having a settlement there is one thing. To actually allow a metropolitan city to be built in an area that is a ticking time bomb was shortsighted and stupid. I know it has a lot of history and culture, but that should never get in the way of logic. Not on a matter as important as this. I know some will disagree with me on this, but if some of the communities are gone I don't think they should ever be rebuilt in the same place, despite the sentimental importance it might have once had. That is the thing with sentiment it makes people think with their heart and not their brain. Your heart is a beautiful thing, it drives and motivates you, but it should never be allowed to think for you. In my experience bad things always happen when it does. I also know that they will never move the destroyed communities. Someday they will suffer the same fate their predecessors suffer, after all it is almost inevitable.

 

[D-rock]

This morning, on the ticker on MSNBC, were the words that al qaeda says Katrina was the wrath of God to the USA - that just started my day off badly.

The tsunami was just a big catastrophe, but Katrina was an act of God against us. I shouldn't be surprised; they do like wrapping their own version of reality around an issue whenever it suits them. What I also find funny is that they are like a lot of religious fanatics I know. They speak as the mouth of God when they are not God. To soon do they forget that they are mere humans like the rest of us.

 

[4G63]

Finally, what I think is a big problem is the fact that New Orleans should have never been built, at least where it was anyhow.

L.A., San Fransico, and all of Southern California should not have been built. The San Andreas fault is too close.

 

[Jizm]

Babylon and New Orleans are two totally different things. Not only in a religious context but politically. Every city in America is Babylon. Take your pick. Then deal with me and EVERY OTHER AMERICAN. We will rebuild and we will succeed. New Orleans and the other cities will prove Americas' strength and resolve. Just you wait. Just you watch. Quote me on this. New Orleans will rise even higher then it once was. From an economic, social, and political scale. America does not let it's own people down. Establishment's do. A huge difference from other nations!!!! Greater then $105 BILLION will be pledged to this. Make no mistake, Nightfly have more faith in your nation. Babylon? A crude comparison if I do say so. You and cnn need to get a Hotel. :hatsoff:

 

[Jizm]

L.A., San Fransico, and all of Southern California should not have been built. The San Andreas fault is too close.

Exactly.