OMG, the word "devastation" is mild compared to the magnitude of this.

There must be a word to describe the real damage to people's homes and lives. I don't know it, but devastation doesn't seem like enough. I found a clickable map where you can see ariel views of the damage from Hurricane Katrina. It's wretched. There are areas that are dry, but still destroyed by the winds and then there are areas that are like they show on the ariel views on television. It's horrendous. I just thought some people might be interested in seeing the map.

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/KATRINA0000.HTM

I was looking for this the other day. Thanks for the link. It's just all so devastating.....

Here's the link:
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050905/480/ladp13309050046&g=events/ts/080304tropicalweathe#

Are we the only ones who are trying to make sense of this? I mean really trying to face the effects of the trauma NOW as opposed to later. I know this country is going to be damaged psychologically from this horrible tragedy. I can't even begin to understand how the survivors from that area must be feeling. I mean I really have a fear of even regular thunderstorms and I have lived through many milder hurricanes (if that makes any sense) and they will shake you to your core. It really does make a believer out of a nonbeliever. It really is scary, but what these poor people faced is beyond devastating, imho.

just shows the world how incompetent we are.

interview on the helicopter. I can't remember which show she was on, but they zoomed in on one lone crane trying to fix the break in one of the levees. She cried at just how pitiful that was. Our government really is looking imcompetent right now, but the American people are showing our love for each other. I hope the terrorists aren't stepping up any plans because of our inability to defend ourselves right now. It would be too horrendous. I hope we are going to be all right. Oh God, please wake me up and make it all go away. I want all the pain and suffering and misery to go away.

at that site busy fixing the break. It was just a photo op prop. As soon as * left, so did all but one of the vehicles.

put two and two together like we are trying to do. I wouldn't have known about that actually had you not told me, but knowing makes the lone crane more understandable. Landreau must have been trying to point out the truth about him without really directly saying it. I wish this hadn't happened. I know everyone is saying that and some people are sick of hearing it, but I gotta cope somehow. I guess I am in the process of coming out of the initial shock and entering the reckoning stage.

Really. An entire major U.S. city has been totally destroyed. There will be fallout from disease... the repercussions could last decades.

posted here last night. It was about the storage of Ebola and other nasty diseases in New Orleans. I shudder to think what may be lurking in that sewage along with the sewage itself. You are right. The disease problem is going to be huge. We have been reduced to a third world country in one fell swoop. Military doctors are already saying that those who drank the sewage water (out of desparation) will probably have dysentary.

falling asleep at the computer a lot last night.

except that nuclear radiation can last for decades. I'm sick of the nuke comparisons... with a nuke casualties would have been close to 100%. Terrible yes. Nuke terrible? No.

It does'nt look too damaged.

some of the individual places on the maps. I want to try to find the convention center so I can see what Geraldo was talking about exactly.

the NEEDLESS suffering the people went through waiting for help that was MUCH too late in coming, and the sickness and disease that will result from their having to wait for help to arrive. Damage to their homes and possessions is one thing and I don't mean to play down the tragedy of that by any means. But by not quickly responding to their most basic needs, they are left thinking that no one cares. A quick response would have shown that we DO care and would have perhaps given them hope. The fact that they were left on their own to fend for themselves probably took away the last vestiges of hope they had.

Please note that I am not saying that WE'RE not behind them or even that the nation as a whole isn't behind them. Only that the government, by their complete indifference to their suffering, gave them a different impression. Heads have GOT to roll for the incompetent handling of this disaster or we are truly lost as a nation. Granted, with the Chimp in charge we are already 3/4 of the way there but goddamn, there is just NO excuse for ANY of this. We had a quicker response to the tsunami that happened half the way around the world than we did to a disaster that happened in our own goddamned backyard and I blame it all on the Federal government.

And seeing that the people were not only left to fend for themselves but told to stay where there was no food or water or anything and not allowed to go across the highway where there was food and water. I just hope those who rightly criticized the Bush administration and our federal government in general will stick to it so heads can roll. The other stuff that has been done by our government since Bush took over are bad enough, but this is not only unacceptable, but unforgivable.

BushCo has gotten by with a LOT but this is the most BLATANTLY unforgivable act yet. Unfortunately, that's actually saying a lot because a lot of their other acts have been pretty damn blatant but the media has been AWOL so it's been difficult to get the message out.

But the picture of an elderly lady sitting in her wheelchair for days without food and water waiting for help transcends everything. Or the image of the young mother that was trying to keep her child awake while he's passing in and out of consciuosness due to lack of water and food. THAT is Bush's America and there is no ignoring it. Even Repugs have finally started to see the light and turned on him over this. The right-wing media has finally started to wake up and criticize him. When FEMA said they couldn't access areas, people in the media asked, "if we can get there, why can't the government?" Good question. That alone was very telling.

There is absolutely no excuse for the suffering the people of NO have had to endure. The images will stay with me forever and I don't think I'm alone in that. The old lady in the wheelchair could have been my mother, even though my mother is not in a wheelchair. That could have been me with the child, even though I don't have any kids. Bush didn't just ignore "those folks" in NO. He ignored Americans and the country is finally starting to wake up.

But if this is what it took to produce a "political victory", it's at far too high a cost. Heads in DC should roll, no doubt, but the poor innocent people in NO should NOT have had to die for this to happen. BushCo should have been reigned in long ago but too many people sat idly by and let him have his way with everything. Everyone in Congress needs to be held accountable. Those that have supported Bush's agenda are just as guilty as he is IMHO. There is just no excuse.

If it wasn't overused for things that really weren't devasted, it would carry the full impact.

The overuse of hyperbole enfeebles a language's expressive capacity.

words when it comes to this devastation.

Definition: Great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of life.