The storm that keeps killing (suicide in New Orleans)

In post-Katrina New Orleans, despair is the enemy

"She had a nice house in Old Metairie, a nice car, a great job, a good man who loved her and a wedding date in October."

http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-5/1133851880209270.xml

--this morning I heard about a doctor and another person who have taken their lives. It seems that a day doesn't pass without hearing another suicide story. Someone please help us.

She has the strength of a 100 of me. How she finds the courage to go on after her fiance committed suicide, I don't know.

Just in time for Christmas. Which is a season of increased suicide rates even in normal times. I'm sure that having the mortage companies threatening foreclosures will be super for the survivors' morale too.

Many people were unclear about how these "deferments" really worked. One would think that the mtg companies could just roll these three months into future payments. Unfortunately, what's required is the FULL 3 months of mortgage payments. How does that really help anyone?

plays out. It seems clear that many thousands of people have absolutely no way to make payments on these mortgages. So many of those houses are just completely totaled. Even if they could pay the mortage, they can't actually live on the properties they owe money on.

I just don't see any outcome except foreclosures, on a massive scale. Probably followed by government bail-outs to the mortage companies.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:



If they foreclose on everyone in sight, all those unsalable white elephants will quickly become millstones around their necks. Not to worry, though: since they're such good repuke contributors, a federal bailout is as inevitable as tomorrow's sunrise... :sarcasm:

:cry:

My husband & I live in Florida and though we know NO ONE who was effected by Katrina personally, the storm has changed our lives. We donated to N.O. relief instead of buying each other gifts, and we have been made much more aware of what is important in this life. YOU are important, and everyone there with you is important.

Here we are arguing over "who killed Xmas" and you guys are dealing with issues of survival! Shame on us.

My thoughts are with you. If I can help you please let me know. I will if I'm able.

and I wish i could take all of the victims into my arms and into my home. I wish there was some comfort I could offer.

Many are no doubt suffering from untreated PTSD, a disorder which often leads to suicidal thoughts in moments of hopelessness.

I wish we had more resources in the Gulf for those suffering. Hell, the way ** is destroying everything we hold dear, as well as traumatizing the entire globe, perhaps we will ALL be suffering from PTSD soon.

Hang in there to all who are beaten down by sorrow. It will get better. :grouphug:

I was going to post it, then remembered that nola.com has registration :puke: although less intrusive than most. (Some measure of my commitment to the cause may be gained from the fact that I held my nose and did it anyway.)

She couldn't bring herself to leave. He couldn't bring himself to stay. :cry: It has all the makings of a really good "chick flick", except that that would be rank exploitation of the worst sort.

It's times like these I wonder what my old feminist buddy from my days down there, who is a social worker, is doing these days. She is a tower of calmness, the sort of person around whom you kind of hear wind chimes even if the weather is calm. I ferreted out her email a couple of weeks after, but no reply. Who knows if she's even still in town? She, too, had friends in Atlanta... and I'm too chicken to use the phone number I found...

edit: expolitation? Isn't that what we should be doing to Bush**, DeLay et al.? :-)

format changes to her cries for "everything you got".

One person I know--when I told her my friends who lived off Robert E. Lee had lost everything--said, "They shouldn't have lived there if it would flood."

Others--some politicians and their supporters--blame people for not having a car, or for not gassing up ("When preparing for a hurricane, fill the tank with gas"), or for not owning property, or for not having the right kind of property insurance, or for not having savings in the bank...and on and on.

I don't blame any of them--absolutely not. Nobody lives in a perfect world.

But get this: my New Orleanian friends (in exile now) whose house had water up to the ceiling for 2-3 weeks, they did everything they were supposed to do. They had flood insurance AND homeowners insurance. They had savings. They luckily live on retirement income, which is portable. They evacuated early that Sunday morning--even missed the horrendous traffic.

And THEY are STILL waiting. They may never collect on the insurance which they paid premiums for! They are still waiting.

And if it's happening to those who prepared, what kind of hell must the rest of them be going through? I can't imagine.

to our nation? . . . will there come a time when there is no more hope, nothing to look forward to, nothing to live for? . . . sure seems to be heading in that direction for many areas of the country (e.g. Flint, Michigan) and for many people (e.g. those who find their well-paying jobs off-shored, and are unable to find anything above minimum wage -- or anything at all) . . .

The disaster on the Coast has shown us exactly how much help we can expect if we're hit by a natural disaster--earthquakes in Seattle, Los Angeles, or New York; bad tornadoes in the Midwest; whatever it is, we must face the fact that the government and the corporate powers *do not care* if we live or die.

We need to be forming mutual aid societies and planning with our friends and neighbors. Emergency supplies of food, cash, and medicines. We need to be doing the sort of things people who lived through the Great Depression do, for it will lessen the impact when something bad happens where we are.

Tucker

There has to be a very large amount of depression in these people. They've lost everything and more.

going through. The pictures are so distressing, not to mention the continued finding of corpses.

This holiday season I am just hoping to gain a little spirit and not feel so downtrodden. My situation is fine; but so much of the rest of the world is hurting with politics, earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes.

Time to go to bed...

In peace,

Radio_Lady

Please let us know. There are alot of us feeling powerless outside Louisiana.

We want to help, yet many of us are not really sure how to at this point.

Right now I know we want to save you guys from the claws of this Administration and FEMA.

But please help us out on how we can best help***

:cry: I know of a few suicides and even prevented one myself. :cry:

:hug:

:hug: