Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
What Next?: Thoughts On A Disaster (By Johnny, aged 12 1/2 Years) >tears< by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Thursday, September 1, 2005
Rated "PG" by the Author.
Johnny writes of the chaos and destruction following Hurricane Katrina's wrath on the Gulf Coast States.
Millions upon millions of people in four southern states (Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana) are now reeling from one of the worst possible disasters EVER to hit our nation. A devastating Catagory 4 hurricane (Katrina) slammed into the coastal cities of Mobile, Alabama, Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi, Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, with Biloxi/Gulfport and New Orleans taking the worst hit from a 20+ foot storm surge and over 140-mph hour winds. Originally, it looked as if New Orleans, Louisiana, escaped the worst of Hurricane Katrina's punch, but then several levees broke, and the floods only got much worse. The entire city was flooded, and it is feared that thousands may be dead in New Orleans. There is, as of now, over 100 confirmed dead in Mississippi alone, and as more bodies are found once the waters recede, the death toll will surely surge into the thousands. The levees that broke has only exacerbated the problem in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Now the buses aren't running to take the refugees to Houston, Texas, to the Astrodome because some foolish people thought it would be cute to shoot at helicopters and buses; and now thousands of desperate, hot, hungry, angry people are stranded until the chaos can be somewhat brought to order. There are gangs of looters afoot, and they are stealing everything in sight, and it is only making things all the more difficult for those people trying to get out of New Orleans. It is a very scary and sad situation now in New Orleans, and now my heart is breaking for those poor people.
We have been watching the news on CNN; all we can do is sit in disbelief and cry for those people who are left stranded either by floods or by roving gangs of looters determined to make life a living hell (as if it isn't already so now). The waters are filled with human waste, dirt, oil, gas, and God knows what else; the stench of death must be overpowering to those who are stranded or to those who are arriving to help with relief efforts.
President Bush spoke yesterday about the disaster, and he is promising quick aid to Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama; he said that he would do all he possibly could to get aid to those who need it the most. There are a lot of desperately poor people (particularly those who are elderly, disabled, or who are of minority background) who struggle to live each and every day. It seems that things like hurricanes, terror attacks, or other disasters hit them the hardest. As an example of this, I saw the other day on the news that there was this woman in New Orleans who had a sick baby who was on oxygen (the baby was born premature), and she was using batteries to run the oxygen equipment so the baby could breathe. She could not afford to take her baby son to the hospital for care, and the floodwaters trapped her (and the baby) inside her house, which had no power and sustained heavy damage from the massive flooding.
There were also over 10,000 people (poor, elderly, sick, or disabled made up the majority) who got shelter at the SuperDome, and there was no drinking water, no clean sanitation, very little in the way of food, and worst of all, no air conditioning. There were also hospital patients who were forced out of hospitals around the city who were brought to the SuperDome, and the situation there seems to only be getting worse, thanks to the gang violence and looting that is currently taking place. There have been four confirmed deaths at the SuperDome (a man leapt to his death from a great height, and three people had strokes or heart attacks), and there is no way to get them to hospitals or needed shelter because the majority of the roads in New Orleans were so heavily under water.
Now the President has pledged to send the military to the stricken areas, to try to get some semblance of order back, so these people who are stranded can get to needed hospitals or shelter and out of New Orleans so the relief workers can clean up and look for bodies buried under the rubble. He said that the government was going to tap into our own oil reserves, so to try to stablize the out of control economy and try to lower the ever-rising cost of gasoline/oil. He said that it would take YEARS to recover from this disaster, but he said that the area would, eventually, be rebuilt.
Ever since we first heard about this hurricane striking the Gulf Coast, we knew it would be bad because the Gulf was known as a very busy, vibrant area that drew in millions of people; but we had no idea that it would be this bad until Tuesday morning (when the levees broke, making a bad problem in New Orleans all the more worse)). Now the Gulf States lie in ruins, and people's lives have been forever changed.
We have been to New Orleans, Louisiana, and we have been to Mobile, Alabama, Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi, and Miami, Florida; and we have seen (and done) much. There were big, wide, sandy beaches, stoes and malls, restaurants that served the very best in fresh Gulf seafood, and, for the adults, casinos where they gambled, in the hopes of winning some extra money. The Gulf area was very exciting, and it had attractions suitable for the entire family.
The Gulf Coast is now a shell of her former self, and now people are left to go elsewhere and try to rebuild their shattered lives. It could very easily surpass the awful devastation from the killer tsunami/earthquake that struck South Asia last December around Christmas time and even the horror of September 11, 2001. Now a nation used to tragedy must grieve yet again for those lives lost and for those survivors who lost what little they already had in the first place.
Katrina's wrath has demonstrated how powerless we are before the forces of nature. A passionate write, Karen. Merci. Amour et paix. Ton ami de la CB, Canada.
Katrina will have far reaching effects long after landfall; it is up to us to reach out to those directly touched by this disaster and do everything we can to show compassion and unity.
A page-turning novel about a relationship between best friends that is interrupted because of betrayal , deceit, sexual promiscuity and pregnancy happens!
A page-turning novel about a relationship between best friends that is interrupted because of betrayal , deceit, sexual promiscuity and pregnancy happens!
A poignant story about letting go of a narcissist in your life. Have you ever been attacked FULL force by a narcissist? It's the closest thing to being stabbed over and over in the back.
Millions upon millions of people in four southern states (Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana) are now reeling from one of the worst possible disasters EVER to hit our nation. A devastating Catagory 4 hurricane (Katrina) slammed into the coastal cities of Mobile, Alabama, Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi, Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, with Biloxi/Gulfport and New Orleans taking the worst hit from a 20+ foot storm surge and over 140-mph hour winds. Originally, it looked as if New Orleans, Louisiana, escaped the worst of Hurricane Katrina's punch, but then several levees broke, and the floods only got much worse. The entire city was flooded, and it is feared that thousands may be dead in New Orleans. There is, as of now, over 100 confirmed dead in Mississippi alone, and as more bodies are found once the waters recede, the death toll will surely surge into the thousands. The levees that broke has only exacerbated the problem in New Orleans, Louisiana.
