Community is everthing. My heart goes out to all affected by this "little" storm. The media focuses on N.O. almost exclusively. Same thing happened with Katrina, the extent of devastation in Mississippi wasn't talked about enough. I guess it is predictable. I never knew much about SW Louisiana until I started playing accordion. What wonderful people they are and I hope things get better fast.

I heard the Houma is still without electricity and it may be weeks. 70 percent of the power poles are down in many places.

Capt.

... and no one remembers Rita because it missed NOLA...

Durning Gustav, did you get the feeling that the media wanted NOLA's levees to break again? I bet there's some PO'ed "common tater" down there right now with a shovel pickin' at it while no one is lookin'. Boy they wanted to own that one real bad.

R!CK

Yeah, they really wanted to have video of the whole thing breaking and flooding the 9th ward again.

Ike is coming now. It is a catagory 4 already, still way east of Bermuda. Maybe they'll get their chance: pray it never happens to ANYONE. Next is Hannah. Looks like she will side-swipe the whole east coast.

Yes, those reporters are the same ones who can't believe that Sarah Palin didn't commit Obamacide on her defective baby and have her 17 year old daughter do the same!

When Rita rolled through East Texas and SW Louisiana the East Texans and SW Louisianaians started cleaning up as soon as the sun came out. Meanwhile, three years later NOLA is still a mess. They know George Bush won't come help them so I guess they're waiting for Obama and Joe Biden to come down and roll up their sleeves. That's about all they'll get, though. That, a ride to the poles and a free Popeye's chicken dinner....

But I digress....
Cyp

Yeah, you had to bring politics into it, didn't you?

Can't figure out why you want to be partisan and I don't know what the hell "Obamacide" is, anyway. But there's not a single one of them did anything for us ever.

Democrat, Republican--do you think any of them would throw themselves in front of a charging bus to save their own mothers?

You're right, though, people in SW LA get to work right after the storm clears. And that's from long training that taught them you can't trust anybody who lives further away than your own neighborhood to care about you.

How 'bout you keep your politics to yourself?

Arguing politics is about the surest way I can think of to ruin this group for everybody.

Thanks, Jamey Hall

No Politics, Religion, or Sex, Please and Thank you.
But calling it as you see it about how some in the news media reacted with disappointment at the lack of destruction to certain parts of Louisiana, aka New Orleans, and to hell with the rest of the State, was apparent to even the dis-interested.
Not one single reporter in Lafayette did I see on TV!
JB

Better coverage on the Web site of the Daily Advertiser, the newspaper in Lafayette, and The Advocate, the newspaper in Baton Rouge which as an Acadiana section. Even the Web sites of TV stations KATC and KLFY in Lafayette. For Rita I bet the Lake Charles paper was all over it.

CNN had a reporter in Lafayette on Monday. They needed one in Franklin, which had 20 inches of rain from the storm this week. I haven't seen any pictures of Franklin yet. Just a few of New Iberia on the Daily Advertiser's Web page.

Weather Channel does a pretty good job. They are not in it for the politics. They had reporters in New Orleans, Houma, and Morgan City. They don't stay on the story very long, though, because they have to report on the latest developments with Hanna, Ike, and Josephine.

I'll second the weather channel. Those guys do a great job focusing on the people that get hit the hardest.

I'll also second the "no politics".

What!? No politics, religion, or sex?! Guess that just leaves just... accordions and BEER! That also takes a lot of songs off the discussion table, too!

Ya know, hurricanes are named male and female names (that's sex).
And hurricanes cause folks in their way to pray (that's religion).
And hurricanes cost a lot of money to create (that's politics).

It's all good, Braves. Let me try to diffuse this bottle-rocket with some philosophy brought to you by the makes of Reality®. "Better Living Through Reality is What We Make™"

Despite where we live on this rock, we all build hopes on the faults of God. You're either susceptible to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, flooding, fire, noisy neighbors, bad sushi, or a combination of one or more of these faults. When one of these acts of God strike, we look to insurance to bail us out. If we don't have insurance, we look to the government to bail us out -- few of us look to ourselves.

I think that is the meat of the matter than is cut from the bone to pick. It takes a strong person to depend on their own two feet to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and start all over again. It takes even a stronger community to lock arms together and render aid to their fellow citizens in a natural crisis. It also takes a noble and benevolent democracy to augment the deeds of its people in times of natural disaster. You can place the blame squarely on Mother Nature's shoulders, but that's not going to stop her from creating another mess. So we humans do what we humans do best...

I love New Orleans. I'd like to have it back the way it was prior to '05. Katrina was a horrible storm and there were many mistakes made at all levels. Since we can't go back and correct them, we learn... and adjust... and pray that history doesn't repeat itself and that the good folks of New Orleans never forget what is most important.

When I think of community and trials and tribulations that Mom Nature kicked below the belt, I think of the stories of heroism from hurricane Audrey, for instance. That was a true test of survival, heroism, and heartbreak from folks just like yourself, your families, and noisy neighbors -- who were truly tested by the wrath of God and nature. Those personal accounts make a night in the Superdome seem like a slumber party. I'm not judging here. I wouldn't want to have first-hand experience of any hurricane. But I am comparing history... reality, that is.

Community is everything... and accordions are a very close second.

Link #3 is a really awesome hurricane archive that shows all recorded storms, their category, and their destruction in lives and dollars. It's interesting to see over history how many big storms have struck the Pelican State that you never really heard much about.

R!CK

Ah, we need the occasional bottle rocket to keep the ripples going, kinda like a fight with the wife. It's healthy in the long run. Besides that, bottle rockets are always the subjects with the most posts, it pulls everyone out of their dark corners.

Besides, that Cyp guy is the type that kicks a puppy to see what happens. It's twisted, but everybody looks to see.

Whoa, c'mon man, who said anything about cutting out Sex? Let's not get drastic!

I know what you mean about reporters chasing disasters; it's like lawyers chasing ambulances: the worse it is the better they like it. The bigger the city, too, which is probably why they like covering New Orleans so much, and give smaller cities and towns short shrift.

Funny enough, I saw a Dutch reporter in Lafayette on Dutch TV! I've been following the news about LA all the time, and been thinking of you folks over there.

I'm about so dead sick of politics I could poop out my eyeballs and eardrums. This aint the place for it, I come here to escape!!! haha, whatever, I don't really care.

Off that....

JB did you get my email?

No, Jim, I didn't. Please send it again.

Wrong JB.

Rita,
What about Lily?
Ripped up Eunice and opalousas pretty good, but not much coverage at all.

I was supposed to be there for a wedding, but had to hunker down in NOLA until it was over.

DP

Yes, Lily was the worst we've had in a long time in the Evangeline/St. Landry/Acadia parish area. Broken trees, damaged roof and worst of all: an invasion of mice looking for high ground! Nasty.

T'as raison, bêbe! We had more downed trees and branches in our pecan grove in Vermilion parish for Lily than any hurricane in recent memory! And Lafayette got pretty beat up too. There were damaged signs and billboards around town for a long time. What year was that one?

Lily was 2002. Came ashore at Abbeville.
Earlier that same year Isidore came ashore at Pass Christian. A two-fer The 2005 Katrina and Rita, now Gustav.