Thoughts on Katrina

[Javlin]

it was time for my drink... funny thing, a lot of my friends know I like Crown, and they are always buying me a bottle, I guess they feel sorry for me and they don't really know what else to do...... I have more bottles of Crown in the FEMA trailer than
AHH Frank you know that I know where the dog pound is I can walk there in 25 minutes.I can see it now me you and the bassetts loking at the GOM with a 1/2 empty bottle of Crown.Hehe could be good.

[Alladin]

It seems to me that the storm surge waters from Katrina should be warning to all not to rebuild in flood prone areas. Those that do choose to rebuild should be self insured IMO.

[vbhoutex]

It seems to me that the storm surge waters from Katrina should be warning to all not to rebuild in flood prone areas. Those that do choose to rebuild should be self insured IMO.

I agree and disagree with this. Many who were flooded by Katrina have never flooded before and were not in designated flood prone or surge areas. It is tough to say that some that flooded who have never flooded before and were flooded by this horrific hurricane should not rebuild imo.

However, I do think that those that do build in known flood prone areas or known surge zones and especially those that build on barrier islands should be self insured. I know this will upset some on this site, but it is JMHO and how I have always felt.

[TSmith274]

If we are going to prohibit people from building in areas that, statistically, may flood every 100 years... then we shouldn't allow any new construction along the San Andreas fault in California. This includes Los Angeles and San Francisco. I don't think it's fair for us to be so strict in the Gulf coast region, and look the other way in the case of cities like L.A. and S.F. If we're going to pull insurance out of these areas... let's be consistent.

[timNms]

It seems to me that the storm surge waters from Katrina should be warning to all not to rebuild in flood prone areas. Those that do choose to rebuild should be self insured IMO.

We have relatives who live 14 blocks north of the beach in Pascagoula, MS. She has NEVER flooded before, but got 2 feet of water in her home with Katrina. Her insurance agent advised her AGAINST buying flood insurance because she was NOT IN A FLOOD zone.

We still live in American and as far as I know, people are allowed to build just about anywhere they choose. If they are willing to pay the premiums and insurance companies are willing to write the policies, who are we to say they can't build where they want to? I see no difference in building along the coastline and building in areas that the MS River flooded several years ago. More than likely, those areas on the MS coast will not see another surge like Katrina for years.

[Alladin]

I grew up in Arlington, VA. Every year a small creek called Four Mile Run would flood in the spring after the snow melt. Sometimes the floods were minor but some years they were major. There was a place near the creek called Arlandria (half way between Arlington and Alexandria) and every year houses in that part of town would flood. Yet, people rebuilt in those same flood areas. People would complain to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to "fix" the problem. To me, it just made no sense to live in that location. Do a Google search on "Arlandria Flood" and watch the results!

I have little sympathy for people that build their primary residences on barrier islands or within known flood plains and storm surge areas. Frankly, I don't want to be in the same insurance pool with those people. They're taking a major risk. I've lived in coastal Florida now for 30 years. When I lived in south Florida, I knew that the statistical changes of getting hit by a category 5 hurricane were low, but it was still a real possibility. So, I prepared for that possible category 5 strike.

I lived in Homestead, FL and I made sure my house was out of the storm surge area and I made sure the house was strong enough to survive 155 mph winds. Well, my house did survive hurricane Andrew with only minor damage. I moved to northwest Florida in large part because I knew that the chances of getting hit by a category 5 storm were less than south Florida. But I know that it is still possible to get hit by a category 5 storm up here. So, I am prepared.

I purchased my house due to its elevation and strength against high winds. I have taken further steps to harden my house and I will shelter in place for any storm. During 2001, my daughter was looking to buy a house. She found several nice houses and asked me for my opinion. The first 3 houses she looked at were hurricane accidents waiting to happen! Instead, she bought another house that was very sturdy. During Ivan, the first 3 houses had all been destroyed. She sheltered in place for Ivan and had only minor damage.

During 2002, my son was in the market to buy a house. We went through the same routine. He actually got angry with me because I told him that a house he was interested in buying would be blown away in a hurricane. Fortunately, he listened to me and bought a strong house. He too sheltered in place for Ivan and had no damage. The other house he had wanted to buy was destroyed. After the storm, my son came over to my house and gave me a big hug and thanked me for talking him out of buying that other house!

I have a lot of friends that live on the MGC and some suffered major damage due to Katrina. I heard the same refrain from all, "The flooding from Camille wasn't this bad". Camille was, of course, a much stronger storm than Katrina yet the maximum surge from Camille was 24 feet and Katrina's surge was 30 feet. Obviously, every storm is different so you must prepare for the worst case scenario. You can't hold water back. It's useless to try.

The bottom line is that if your property flooded once, it can and will flood again. It could take over 100 years before the next big storm hits, or that big storm could hit next week. I think Dirty Harry had the right idea when he said, "...you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?".

[docjoe]

...people who are not living this nightmare, or have relatives in the affected areas just don't know what its all about... major hurricanes usually are life changing events... Katrina and Rita were both big time life changing events for the good people of LA and MS...

A truer statement would be hard to find.

Life changing indeed.....

One thing I find amazing is that basically in the period from Sept 16, 2004 to Sept 24, 2005, just over 1 year, the overwhelming majority of the Northern Gulf coast experienced life changing storms. From the TX/LA border region all the way to the St. Marks area almost every mile of coast had severe to catastrophic surge and flooding. Ivan, Dennis, Katrina, Rita...all in a one year period. Still almost unbelievable.

docjoe

[Bluefrog]

Here is my thought on Katrina .... " Katrina Sucks " !!!

[Audrey2Katrina]

Here is my thought on Katrina .... " Katrina Sucks " !!!

Well, she certainly did up to what? 902 mb?? LOL... but I hear ya. We'd have all been much better off wihout her.

A2K

[MiamiensisWx]

Here is my thought on Katrina .... " Katrina Sucks " !!!

Completely agree!

[Frank P]

Here is my thought on Katrina .... " Katrina Sucks " !!!

you are soooooo right on that .... she sucked BIG TIME.... and she's still sucking the life out a lot of us....

[MSRobi911]

All of you have made great points and I feel the same as most. MGC I never thought I would come home to a "slab" but that is what happened. I couldn't believe my house was actually just "gone", no walls, no roof, no belongs, nothing............that just blew me away (haha) And on top of all the grief and loss of everything to have Nationwide Insurance totally deny our claim for wind loss is just another blow, especially when they paid my next door neighbor who had only a slab left and on the other side the neighbor that was up 10 feet but it didn't do him any good, his couch was hanging out his back wall and no steps to get up, his entire house was leaning towards where mine used to be. So we have filed suit and will see what we will see. It will take a while, but we don't have anything now, so we will just wait and see. The National Flood Ins Program paid us off in full, but the wind coverage for which we had a special Hurricane Rider attached that we paid EXTRA for so no wind damage....I can't believe that to this day! OH and what is even funnier is that both of my neighbors had Nationwide and the one with the slab left, we even had the same agent!!!!! Go figure!

Stupid, stupid, company if they think they can get away with that.

Anyway, we bought a house up in Moss Point which is just north of Pascagoula because after 9 months in a FEMA trailer we had had enough! It was so depressing living among the debris and no one else around but us and 1 neighbor who is a fireman and works all the time. I miss it down by the water and hopefully we can build a house again in the future on our lot, just depends on the $'s and the insurance rates.

But we will survive!!! And yes A2K a lot of people have left Pascagoula too, the ones that lived on the beach and in areas closest to it have already gone "up north to the country" about 15 to 20 miles up north and some are happy and some are not they want to come home. But finding a contractor at this time is virtually impossible so we are all just waiting. We are in no hurry.

Mary

[all_we_know_is_FALLING]

I never hear people talk about Katrina anymore.. I'm not talking about on weather forums or TWC, but in my own everyday life. And I live in Mississippi for Pete's sake! NW Mississippi, but still. At the time it was a huuuuge deal, but once the evacuees left and around November it was just forgotten.

[Ivanhater]

I never hear people talk about Katrina anymore.. I'm not talking about on weather forums or TWC, but in my own everyday life. And I live in Mississippi for Pete's sake! NW Mississippi, but still. At the time it was a huuuuge deal, but once the evacuees left and around November it was just forgotten.

Happens, just natural as time passes and people move on, but I tell ya reminders are left in the communities most impacted, Here in my city from Ivan are still very much evident and the same I'm sure for Katrina

[all_we_know_is_FALLING]

I never hear people talk about Katrina anymore.. I'm not talking about on weather forums or TWC, but in my own everyday life. And I live in Mississippi for Pete's sake! NW Mississippi, but still. At the time it was a huuuuge deal, but once the evacuees left and around November it was just forgotten.

Happens, just natural as time passes and people move on, but I tell ya reminders are left in the communities most impacted, Here in my city from Ivan are still very much evident and the same I'm sure for Katrina

Oh, yes. I know. I've been to the MGC. I just think it's a bit sad that people in N Mississippi seem to have forgotten what happened. My dad road out the storm in Meridian.. he was coming home from Montgomery and stayed there and it took him FOREVER to get through all the damage.. and Meridian is a good ways inland.

[MSRobi911]

all we know is FALLING

I know what you mean. I am so aggravated at Ole MS right now I could spit! My daughter who was on Academic Probation for the fall semester last year because she needed a 2.5 and had a 2.3 (totally her fault for not studying harder) had been at school for 2 weeks then Katrina hit! Our house was totally destroyed, all that was left was a slab, along with everything we owned and my van and my husbands car and my sons old truck, my mothers car (her grandmother) and my husband's parents (her other grandparents) cars all went underwater. That doesn't include her aunts and uncles vehicles that were destroyed too. My husband's parents house had 3 feet of water inside and 5 feet outside and no, they are not in a flood zone they are two miles from the gulf. Three of her Aunts and Uncles homes were also flooded with from 8 feet to 4 feet of water and none of these were in flood zones. So guess who's mind wasn't on school. Her parents and brother had no where to live (her brothers Junior College in Perkinston that is approximately 60 miles north of Gulfport was shut down from damage and when they got it open, the MS Highway Patrol took it over to give their officers a place to sleep. So he didn't go back to school until some six weeks after the storm.

Her heart and her mind were on what had happened to us and what was happening to us. She was our only connection to the outside world for a long time. For some reason my cell phone could call her in Oxford and then I had her call who ever I needed her to call. Thank goodness for Cellular South! It was a funny site to see all the people standing on top of our only overpass in town trying to get a cell phone signal! But anyway she was worried about us, she couldn't come home, the roads weren't clear for a long time and then there was no gas. She could have gotten home but then she would not have been able to get gas to go back to Oxford. All she knew was that we told her the house was totally gone with everything in it and we posted pictures on the Internet as soon as we had access to an Internet site. My mother was the only person in our entire family that did not get flooded and she was lucky because the water stopped in the house behind's her yard. We had 1 vehicle, my son's new truck that we left at her house and there was NO GAS. No stores were open, not even Walmart until a couple of weeks after the storm. So my husband and son and I went to live with my Mother and older brother at her house in the city just north of us. So if she came "home" she would have to sleep on the floor like the rest of us

Anyway to make a very long story a little shorter, an A, B and 3 C's were not good enough to pull her average up so they put her on Academic Suspension. She wrote two different appeal letters and was just told sorry see ya in the Summer. She didn't go to summer school she enrolled for Fall classes again, NOW they tell her she is on Financial Aide Suspension. They know we lost everything we owned and were denied by our Homeowners Insurance company, do there care? We haven't heard back from the first appeal. What really sucks is the Government gave all the colleges in Mississippi $'s for Financial Aid Grants called SLEAP's. It was for the Spring and Fall semesters of this year only. So she can go to school, if we come up with the money and pay her tuition with no help from the school and she is ineligible for the SLEAP because she is on Financial Aid Suspension. NOW THAT REALLY SUCKS! It's as though they don't understand what it would be like for a daughter to know that her family has lost everything they owned and only had the clothes they had on and a few changes in a suit case and no where to live and that all of her extended family were all in the same boat. She was having anxiety attacks and had to go to the doctor but they just don't seem to want to take that as a reason for not getting the best grades possible.

So I understand that the people in Northern MS don't seem to remember that there are many still homeless down here. There are people still sleeping in tents and lean toos they have made, etc. We have had so many volunteers come down and help from outside of our Great State of Mississippi, but I sure don't remember hearing any of the names of towns in this state sending people down. I am sure they may have done so, but I have never heard of them.

We finally got a FEMA trailer on October 31st and moved back to our empty lot and only had 1 neighbor on the entire block cause he finally got his FEMA trailer a week before we got ours and he had been living at the Fire Station because he is a Chief and had no where else to live. We saw so many people come by and look and take pictures and we would go talk with them and they would express their sorry and pray with us and for us and it felt good to be remembered.

Mary

[Dionne]

MSRobi911......

Your daughter isn't alone. It was a difficult semester for alot of students. As far as I know......none of the universities cut the students any slack on account of Katrina difficulties.

Our daughter was in her final semester at USM Hattiesburg when Katrina came to call. Classes were suspended for awhile and that's about all that happened. Our home in Hattiesburg was not habitable after the storm due to tree fall. It took us two months to get her back into living there.

It became her most difficult semester academically. Clearly it was due to Katrina.

One thing for certain.....any bad semester will adversely affect your cumulative average.

[Jim Cantore]

I never thought a hurricane could do this......MGC

The scary thing is that they can do worse

[all_we_know_is_FALLING]

MsRobi911.. I'm very sorry for your daughter and I agree with you.

I live in Tunica, and know of a few people who loaded up and went down there, but nothing like the people who packed trucks with whatever they could find and drove for hours and hours, compared to the 10 hours or less it would take to get there from here. I added a few hours to consider the road conditions after the storm.

And I have Cellular South to.. but it went out for everyone I knew after the storm. I'm glad it worked for you, someone who REALLY needed it.

I think people here just focused on the evacuees we had here for a few weeks. After that it was just forgotten. [sigh]..

[MSRobi911]

Dionne

I do know one girl that went to USM that her parents are older and retired school teachers and alumni of USM that both stayed on USM's back until they finally forgave and erased their daughter's entire semester of grades. She was down here helping her parents more than she was at school. From what I heard, they really had big time arguments with the folks up there so something can be done if they want to.............it's just making them do it that's the problem!

We still have heard nothing from Ole MS on Financial Aide appeal, so am waiting on that. If she is turned down, someone and maybe a few someones up at Ole MS are gonna wish they never heard of me before. I do know a few alumni from there that have some pull and are big financial supporters of the school...so I may have to call in some favors they owe me and ask for some of my own! Dickie Scruggs lived about two blocks down from me and Trent Lott lived about 5 blocks the other way from me and both lost their homes......I think they both know what my daughter went thru and I think both of them have "a little pull" up there

Mary