Spooky Halloween post

[Jackalope]

TheAgitator.com: Pictures of New Orleans: Comments

Lousianna's real life ghost towns...

[BrentN]

Its not 100% deserted, there are still a few trying to live there. Everything looks fine personally, I'm sure there is flood damage but I don't see anything decimated.

[Griffin]

I went on a ghost tour in Gettysburg. It was more informing of the tragedies of the battle than actual scary. I still enjoyed it though.

[mistawiskas]

Alot of it is that the locals without much in the way of resources are not taking matters into their own hands and are leaving the work to someone else. The problem with wanting others to do your work is that it gets done on
the time schedule of 'the others'. Alot of different cities would have had multitudes of locals volunteering to bust ass to get everything back to normal as soon as humanly possible.... you know, neighbor helping neighbor, work crews donating time, materials and know-how. If a dissaster were to hit Portland or Seattle of that magnitude. The work would have been nearing completion by now. NO has the people power, sounds like they would rather
make the government and/or the rest of the country responsible for the rebuilding of their city. IMHO

[Pope John]

that's all the damage he could photograph?

i'm sure it's a lot worse looking in most areas. that writer is a dolt

[Pope John]

Alot of it is that the locals without much in the way of resources are not taking matters into their own hands and are leaving the work to someone else. The problem with wanting others to do your work is that it gets done on
the time schedule of 'the others'. Alot of different cities would have had multitudes of locals volunteering to bust ass to get everything back to normal as soon as humanly possible.... you know, neighbor helping neighbor, work crews donating time, materials and know-how. If a dissaster were to hit Portland or Seattle of that magnitude. The work would have been nearing completion by now. NO has the people power, sounds like they would rather
make the government and/or the rest of the country responsible for the rebuilding of their city. IMHO

nice that you underline their, as if they are not part of this country. if a disaster happened like that, where i live, i'd be extremely pissed that our government is still sending boatloads of food and money to africa, while i have to spend every last dime trying to fix my own home.

seriously, fuck that. what's the point of insurance if it doesn't work in these situations.


edit: plus I doubt you can even begin to fathom just how depressing it can be to witness that catastrophee, to have family members and neighbors perish before you. All your worldly possessions ruined. Yeah, that would probably take a bite out of my owrk ethic for at least some time.

[mistawiskas]

In a situation of that magnitude, you have two choices: A) be stressed, depressed, bewildered, overcome, and angry and do something. or
B)be stressed, depressed, bewildered, overcome and angry and do nothing.

Granted, the government fucked up on sending and coordination of aid....that's what happens when you depend on a government agency. It's been that way along, long time. And, of course, you'll not get insurance for flood dammage if you live below sea level, and absolutely no insurance company insures against mold....not a single one, anywhere. In catastrophy, you can pull together or you can pull apart.

[Undertaker989]

whiskas....I don't even know where to begin with your 1st post, but I'll just say I disagree totally.

1. Money - many people just can't afford to rebuild, and have left the city and are waiting for the houses to be demolished.

2. Even if a person had the know how and ability to fix their place on their own, they A. have a small amount of time b/c they still have dayjobs and can't work @ night w/o electricity (if their house was damaged bad enough, it has to be reparied back to code before they get electricity. and B. have a limited amount of supplies b/c the supply/demand situation is bad down here and it takes a long time to get supplies in.

3. there is more complexity to the whole situation than any simple blanket statement can define. I am suprised you made the comment about how your area would be back up and running by now. For one, it is a different region, different architecture, and different regulations. You also don't have to worry about raising houses to be in accordance with insurance policies. There is no way of telling how fast any area would recover from something of EQUIVELENT magnitude unless the equivelent happened. To say otherwise would be nieve.

One thing that irritates New Orleans residents is that everyone has something to say about it, but barely anyone knows much about New Orleans and the area. I guess it is the same thing as commenting on the middle east, but, this time, I'm on the flipside so I can shed light.

[mistawiskas]

whiskas....I don't even know where to begin with your 1st post, but I'll just say I disagree totally.

1. Money - many people just can't afford to rebuild, and have left the city and are waiting for the houses to be demolished.

2. Even if a person had the know how and ability to fix their place on their own, they A. have a small amount of time b/c they still have dayjobs and can't work @ night w/o electricity (if their house was damaged bad enough, it has to be reparied back to code before they get electricity. and B. have a limited amount of supplies b/c the supply/demand situation is bad down here and it takes a long time to get supplies in.

3. there is more complexity to the whole situation than any simple blanket statement can define. I am suprised you made the comment about how your area would be back up and running by now. For one, it is a different region, different architecture, and different regulations. You also don't have to worry about raising houses to be in accordance with insurance policies. There is no way of telling how fast any area would recover from something of EQUIVELENT magnitude unless the equivelent happened. To say otherwise would be nieve.

One thing that irritates New Orleans residents is that everyone has something to say about it, but barely anyone knows much about New Orleans and the area. I guess it is the same thing as commenting on the middle east, but, this time, I'm on the flipside so I can shed light.

1)Responsibility for the choice of living below sea level lies on who's shoulders? Granted some are limited as to where they live by income. This is where government relief was supposed to go. Why it hasn't has to do with my statement of what happens when you rely on any government agency...vote them all out.
2)"fix a place on their own". Did you skip the part where I stated neighbor helping neighbor?
"it is a different region, different architecture, and different regulations"
The UBC (unified building code) governs all building codes in America with small variations for geographical limitations and special needs. The specialty codes for NO are no different than that for, say, the Portland waterfront or Seattle's waterfront properties.Local building codes can differ greatly, that has to do with LA., not the rest of the country...provided that codes were enforced in NO to begin with.
"limited amount of supplies b/c the supply/demand situation is bad down here"
You know, that's weird. Because two days after the hurricane hit, I had three contracts started and guess what? Materials prices went through the roof; a 9 dollar sheet of 7/16 OSB went to 27 dollars overnight, the same increase happened with all drywall, all wood and all plywood prices. You know who took the hit on those contracts? Overnight, I inadvertantly donated 7,500.00 to the hurricane victims, because all those materials supposedly were diverted to the hurricane areas, and I had no way out of the contracts
as the were signed, accepted and no clause for acts of god.

I've been in flooding/tsunami situations, 1964, 1972, 1996, 2005 and a few smaller, yet just as devastating to the people. I don't recall anyone blaming anyone. I just remember people working their fricking asses to the bone to help the victims. A day job? Shit there were generators loaned and people worked whatever to get the job done. It brought a community together, it kept the communities together in future callamities. I don't see that happening, if it has, the media hasn't shed a light on it. Don't say that working a day job (or graveyard job) keeps one from working on helping themselves and their neighbors. I rutinely work 14-16 hour days, then go home and help my wife as she's nearly crippled. There's a difference between can't be done and won't be done.

I lived many years as many of the victims in the hardest, poorest parts of NO. Most of those years there was no place to call home and no amount of blaming others and living in anger changed that for me. When I had to start taking responsibility for my own decisions, my own actions, my own consequences then things changed. I don't want to sound like I don't care, but I've been there, done that. What I see (and I could be wrong) is a lack of community and an "us against them" mentality. I'm just saying that that aproach won't work to rebuild a life, let alone a whole city. I heard alot of Black citizens blaming blaming blaming. The hard thing about seeing that was knowing that their lives won't ever improve, that all the devastaion and loss of life will be for nothing. At least if the ones that pull out the race card can learn that they have the power to do alot of what they hope the government will do, then they'd have learned something that can be passed down to other generations and be a sense of pride.....something that no agency, no natural dissaster can rob them of. As of now, nothing changes, if nothing changes. It's a pity that no good at all will be wrung out of this. The same has happened in other areas with a different outcome. I do feel for the people of your regeon, I hurt for you, but I don't pity you. Pity will not change what needs to be changed. What needs to be changed is a government that can't get the job done, industry that profiteers at any given chance and people that think blaming and talk is a good alternative to bloody knuckles and sweat type actions. There's also 1 week from today to show your disapprooval at the ballot box.

[Undertaker989]

I heard alot of Black citizens blaming blaming blaming.

I'm sorry I incited you to write that long post. I want to quote one thing you said, b/c I think you are having the wrong imagery of the entire city of New Orleans based off of a percentage of members from a select group. You know, some of the people potrayed in Spike Lee's political joke of a film? Don't worry, we don't all share the same attitude as them. Trust me...they are not the only people in the city and I'm tired of hearing the sentiment from others around the country implying that we are all bitchy entitlement mindset hood rats. The whole "why live below sea level" thing is tiresome and "cable news" .. I'm not even going to start on that.


I still say you can't compare different regions of the country as apples to apples. You can't know for sure what the outcome would be for you unless Katrina happened to you. There will never be a benchmark to guage either.

[mistawiskas]

I'm just coming from a standpoint of living in the sollution. I realize most of what I'm concentrating on is the lower wards and that they are a small part of what damages were experienced. They, however, is where the media focused on (another part of the problem) It wasn't for those that I ate the cost I ate and made the donations I made. It was for those that have the will to do something to help themselves which happens to be the majority of the population. I'm so sorry if I came on a little strong. The issues of the lower wards blaming all their problems on everyone but themselves, pushes some major buttons from my past. How is your recovery from that horrible event coming along? I think alot of us forget that we have members that felt the sting of that storm/dissaster.

[Undertaker989]

How is your recovery from that horrible event coming along? I think alot of us forget that we have members that felt the sting of that storm/dissaster.

My parent's house has been repaired for a good while now and I have a new job. We had contracted out all the gutting and repairs. Initially after the storm, I tore out all the carpet and helped move out all of the furniture from the 1st floor to prepare the house for the contractors to gut 4 feet and down.

[mistawiskas]

I understand what you meant about the regulations and all. The reason the regulations have gotten in the way, especially in the case of La. is the mold issue. The temps and humidity of your region exaserbates the problem immensely. Mold has gotten to be the #1 lawsuit fodder in the nation. No insurance for contractors will cover any mold related claims, the government is affraid of liability....nobody wants to deal with that crap because it's an automatic liability. Other countries don't have the same problem because they don't have lawyers that have coined the phrase "mold gold".