marieoroumania: Okay, it sucks that there's so much floo

Brooke (

marieoroumania) wrote,
@ 2008-08-21 08:01:00

Okay, it sucks that there's so much flooding in south Florida because of Fay. I am sorry for people who are dealing with water damage and worrying about their stuff.

But isn't it a little bit insulting to call it "catastrophic" when New Orleans is still an awful mess, three years after Katrina then emphasize that no deaths have been reported? Isn't it a little bit breathless, and a little bit insensitive?

(40 comments) - (Post a new comment)

	seamusd 2008-08-21 03:05 pm UTC (link)
	Post-Katrina New Orleans is a fucking national disgrace. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	marieoroumania 2008-08-21 03:06 pm UTC (link)
	A catastrophic fucking national disgrace. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	leezechka 2008-08-21 03:18 pm UTC (link)
	it can't be a catastrophe, it mostly hurt brown people! Catastrophies only happen to white people. When bad things happen to brown people it is because they are dirty, lazy, welfare sucking baby making machine, dregs of society. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	fotojournalist 2008-08-21 03:08 pm UTC (link)
	i agree completely. I always thinks it's overkill whenever they declare a 'state of emergency' here as well. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	marieoroumania 2008-08-21 03:09 pm UTC (link)
	I was thinking of you when I wrote this, and the media frenzy you must be privy to. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

fotojournalist
2008-08-21 03:21 pm UTC (link)

oh yeah. it's flippin nuts. of course the first and most shots are of the ocean cause it is always so dramatic out there in just a simple shower, but now with all the flooding, they seriously even had me all hyped up about the evacs adn stuff, which was nothing at all. they were voluntary and in the mobile home communities where everyone is too old to move themselves. so yeah, sucks for them, but really, we don't need the insane 'OMG EVACS! EVACS!' when they know the older folks need evaced from the beginning.

OH! and then the tornado that his and 'WIPED OUT 50+ homes!!! 9 of them completely UNLIVEABLE!!!'
yeah they were all mobile homes in the same damn community that gets tornado destruction all.the.time.
it's expected.

sigh.

you know i am constantly ashamed to be part of media nowadays.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	fotojournalist 2008-08-21 03:23 pm UTC (link)
	"tornado that his and" was to be "tornado that HIT and..." oh and i meant to add, no one lives in that community (which has over 2K trailers in it) during the summer anyhow. it is at about 15% capacity during the summer/hurricane months cause they are all snowbird homes. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	leezechka 2008-08-21 03:24 pm UTC (link)
	i guess "mobile homes destroyed by tornado" lacks a certain dramatic flair... much like "Bus falls off bridge in third world country" (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	fotojournalist 2008-08-21 03:42 pm UTC (link)
	yeah. especially 'empty mobile homes destroyed by tornado' (Reply to this) (Parent)

	marieoroumania 2008-08-21 03:32 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, me too. At least I'm not working for a radio station that sends five (5) reporters out to a burning house in Beverly Hills yet ignores the factory fire in Compton. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	fotojournalist 2008-08-21 03:41 pm UTC (link)
	ooooh seeeethe! seriously, that makes my gut sick. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	bandicoot 2008-08-21 05:08 pm UTC (link)
	Declaring a state of emergency is required before people involved can become eligible for low interest loans. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	fotojournalist 2008-08-21 05:12 pm UTC (link)
	yeah, i realize that, but the actually naming of it is so 'drastic' and 'OMG WE ARE GONNA DIE!!!' every time i hear it (which sadly, is frequently here on the east coast of Florida)I find it to be quite silly. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	leezechka 2008-08-21 03:15 pm UTC (link)
	apparently every time it rains and someone is inconvenienced it will be compared to Katrina. Florida has several hurricanes a year, they get wet, they lose power, my cousin's golf pro shop was destroyed in one a few years ago. People seem to not understand the difference between something that sucks and something catastrophic. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	marieoroumania 2008-08-21 03:33 pm UTC (link)
	OMGZ SOMEBODY DROVE OFF THE TRAIL HERE ITS JUST LIKE KATRINA ONLY THEY WERE SMART AND LEFT TOWN AND DIDNT KILL ALL THE MEN AND RAPE ALL THE WOMEN (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	leezechka 2008-08-21 03:49 pm UTC (link)
	white people dont rape and kill! unless they are poor and have a mustache. (Reply to this) (Parent)

orangecone
2008-08-21 06:31 pm UTC (link)

Florida's been hit with major storms, too. And they released lots'o'damage. A few straight to mind: Donna, Andrew, and Ivan.

I guess Florida has been beaten enough to have their shit together? Louisiana and New Orleans didn't?* Compounding the situation of just the storm was geography, negligence, and mistakes. I think the "catastrophe**" with Katrina was/is what happened preceding the storm and after the storm was gone -- evacuations and cleanup. What's happening in Florida right now is bad and I wouldn't want anything to happen to anyone, their property/belongings, or livelihoods, but I wouldn't call it "catastrophic**"... yet.

*I guess lessons from Camille weren't learned? The fact the city was spared because the storm surge pulled waters away from the city while Mississippi was slammed. Or those in charge just didn't care, leaving their citizens to suffer the consequences?

**catastrophe is subjective and in /many/ cases hyperbole.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	zarq 2008-08-21 03:15 pm UTC (link)
	I think it is. We all have such short memories, when events don't affect us personally. :( (Reply to this) (Thread)

fotojournalist
2008-08-21 03:28 pm UTC (link)

you know, that is funny, and I actually saw this written up yesterday which i thought was 1) very brave and 2)pretty slap in the face to most humans (the last paragraph, i put the rest in for context, talking about the effect of tourism on the local amusement parks)

"Fay's biggest effect on area tourism could come later, particularly if it is followed soon by another tropical storm or hurricane. Frequent storms can have an effect on the industry similar to that of a crime wave, said Abe Pizam, dean of the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

"The more it is mentioned in the media, the more they see the horrible pictures on television . . . the more it has an effect on them," he said of vacationers who might decide to change their plans. "It's very similar to crime."

Still, Pizam said, because Fay was a minor storm, its effect on individual tourists' psyches should be small.

"If this is the only one in two, three, four weeks, I don't think people will change their plans," he said. "People have short memories."

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	zarq 2008-08-21 04:00 pm UTC (link)
	Exactly!! If it had been labeled an horrific tragedy, with thousands of fatalities, he'd no doubt be looking forward to the influx of gawking tourists who would descend on the area to see things firsthand. We saw that here in NYC after 9/11, when Ground Zero became a tourist attraction. Macabre. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	budhaboy 2008-08-21 03:17 pm UTC (link)
	The outrage! Using hyperbole to sell advertising by new organizations! Please. Where's the outrage for the far more subtle, yet far more dangerous ceding of the fourth amendment? (Reply to this) (Thread)

marieoroumania
2008-08-21 03:26 pm UTC (link)

I'm filled with outrage about that, too. I am a very, very angry person. But if I bring it up there is a prevailing attitude that "they must have deserved it." All I can do is plod along, not even wait for the story -- people aren't ready to listen to the story -- and meanwhile, I try not to drink around other people because it always ends up with me yelling something like, "DON'T YOU FUCKING KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR OWN FUCKING COUNTRY!!!!"

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	budhaboy 2008-08-21 03:35 pm UTC (link)
	"DON'T YOU FUCKING KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR OWN FUCKING COUNTRY!!!!" Did you ever see Spaulding Gray's 'swimming to cambodia'? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	marieoroumania 2008-08-21 03:40 pm UTC (link)
	Nope. Should I? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	budhaboy 2008-08-21 04:46 pm UTC (link)
	That line, just reminded me of it. And you should watch it... it's pretty damn entertaining (or at least it was in eighties... I haven't seen it in a while, so I don't know if it stayed relavent)... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jdquintette 2008-08-21 06:09 pm UTC (link)
	Yes! Immediately! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	marieoroumania 2008-08-21 03:33 pm UTC (link)
	Oh and don't get me started about the Iraqis who remain in prison in San Diego after coming to the US through Mexico to seek amnesty. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	orangecone 2008-08-21 06:32 pm UTC (link)
	Hyperbole is exactly the term which came to mind! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	rinalia 2008-08-21 04:04 pm UTC (link)
	I don't think it's insensitive or insulting (it's not like the guy was saying that there has never been anything so catastrophic). (Reply to this) (Thread)

	reannon 2008-08-21 04:07 pm UTC (link)
	I think it's significantly overstating it. That makes it insulting to the intelligence, even if one isn't comparing it to Katrina. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	reannon 2008-08-21 04:07 pm UTC (link)
	The world revolves around Florida, remember. Second only to NewYorkCalifornia. The rest of the country is far less important. Explain why CNN has an "armed! standoff!" in its morning round-up? The guy has a gun. We get those situations several times a month, we're never on CNN. Oh yeah, it's in Fresno and we're in the Midwest, therefore it doesn't count. (Reply to this)

	trixiefirecat 2008-08-21 04:58 pm UTC (link)
	it is, but everyone needs to have their day of catastrophe when something like that happens. (Reply to this)

penpusher
2008-08-21 05:10 pm UTC (link)

It is a buzzword to sell commercial time on newscasts. If people are in the mindset that this is some sort of disaster, they'll be more likely to tune in to the telecast, to pick up that newspaper.

Katrina? That's old news. In fact, that's so old, it's practically forgotten by most. Brad Pitt and Harry Connick rebuilt that place last summer, right?

Is there a way to "quantify" disaster? We're all so self-interested; OUR disaster is worse than someone else's in some far-away place... your Central Chinas and your Darfurs. That's the other part of the story.

And, yeah. Where the wealthy live, or where large populations live, that's where a story gets played bigger because that's the demographic advertisers like.

The USA is a consumer based society. So, everything boils back down to advertising, and ratings. Maybe THAT'S the catastrophe?

(Reply to this)

	myrch 2008-08-21 06:20 pm UTC (link)
	are we reserving adjectives for specific disasters now? (Reply to this)

flyinglobster
2008-08-21 06:27 pm UTC (link)

But there are Floridians who can't get to 7-Eleven right now to get a Slurpee! There are retirees who can't play a round of golf on one of 47 nearby executive golf courses!

And fuck, what if there are strange things afoot at the Circle K? Those poor Floridians wouldn't even be able to make it through the moderately flooded streets without a medium-sized SUV! If this isn't a catastrophe, what is?

Think of the manatees! And by manatees, I mean the pasty, fat Floridians.

(Reply to this)

jdquintette
2008-08-21 06:37 pm UTC (link)

Hey, at least they didn't have president chucklenuts giving a speech in front of a handpicked audience of Bushbots, talking about how "recovery is on the march."

The hyperbole doesn't particularly bother me, it's the inevitable "look how much better *fill in the blank* is dealing with this disaster than those lazy titty-babies in New Orleans lying around hollering for government handouts" that pisses me off.

It's become as predictable as the sunrise. Rush Limbaugh, or some equivalent asshat with a huge audience of mouthbreathers, will very soon be pontificating about the self-reliance of the plucky floridians and how there's no looting or bodies floating in the streets (the fact that there's no bodies because nobody died will not be mentioned).

Most people don't realize how early in the game this shit started. I was in San Fransisco when Rita hit, and the cable gasbags went on at great length at how wonderfully Houston had organized it's evac, with lots of face time for Houston's mayor and various evac officialdom, all of whom were clean-shaven, jut-jawed, buzz-cutted white men. The implication (at least this is how it came across to me) was "watch this! This is how professionals do it!"

Of course the acual evac itself was a massive clusterfuck, with literally hundreds of thousands of people stuck out on the freeways with no gas in the middle of the world's worst traffic jam. If Rita had actually hit Houston, many if not most of those people would have died.

Of course, no one mentions that, or the fact that New Orlean's evac was actually very successfull. The city had learned a great deal from the Ivan evac the year before, and managed to evacuate over 90% of the areas' population on 24 hours notice (remember, Katrina was predicted to hit Florida up until late friday). That's a very, very successful evac. But all you ever hear about is those stupid, flooded schoolbuses.

Honest to Christ, we're fucked. The level of discourse in this country has sunk so low that even someone like me (and I go to considerable pains to keep informed) actually has very little hard information about, say, John McCain's position on offshore drilling, because the actual mechanics and practicality are never, ever discussed. It's just "drill here! Drill now!" and the democrats response to that, and whether the response "hurts Obama's chances" or some other horseshit. It's like the actual policies don't matter, or have no consequences.

It's all sloganeering.

"Freedom is on the march"

"Recovery is marching on."

"Drill here! Drill now!"

"Four legs good! Two legs bad!"

Well, okay, I stole that last one from Animal Farm, but you get the idea. The Party of Stupid is really good at making sure the discussion doesn't blunder into any kind of concrete discussion of policies and their consequences, because if it did, they'd be fucked. Absolutely nothing they've tried in 8 years has been anything but a disaster. It's like you can bank on it. When Bush comes to my town and says "recovery is marching on," I know, just from his past record, that we're fucked. Him and his administration have the Reverse Midas Touch. Everything they touch turns to shit. I don't even believe Condoleeza Rice (why yes! She's a well regarded Sovietologist!) can play the piano. I bet if she plays the piano it catches fire and the audience dies. Because that's what these people do; fuck stuff up.

(Reply to this)

yellow_p
2008-08-21 07:17 pm UTC (link)

There is this nonsensical need to sensationalize news in this country.

I don't think it helps when celebrity-related gossip makes it into "mainstream" news story pools: "Oh, that's pretty bad, BUT THIS IS WORSE!"

I think also with the gradual infantilism of the population at large, we need words such as "catastrophic" and "tragedy" (so overused nowadays) to remind the thickies out there that yes, it is indeed a bad thing when people's houses (that don't belong to or resided by yourself) go bye-bye.

Furthermore, I don't think it also helps when the humanitarian debacle that was Katrina wasn't well broadcasted even as it was happening.

(Reply to this)

jonathangarrett
2008-08-21 07:27 pm UTC (link)

Whether it's Louisiana, Texas, Florida, or the Outer Banks, one of the other major clusterf***s with hurricanes is that we continue to allow (and subsidize) coastal development in hurricane-prone areas. It's not a mystery that hurricanes come ashore every year, but it is a mystery why we allow people to construct homes and hotels on primary dunes.

In Florida, the state is now the ONLY organization that will issue home insurance for coastal areas. But I really think it should be 'once burnt, twice shy' situation. In other words, the insurance can be written once, but if your home is destroyed because it's located 25 feet from the high tide line, you shouldn't be allowed to rebuild. Or rather, you can rebuild, but the state will not cover your insurance. The National Flood Insurance program has a similar contingency.

(Reply to this)

	jodilyn 2008-08-21 08:54 pm UTC (link)
	Funniest part is that is' the same damn mobile home park EVERY storm. God hates them they should close that place. (Reply to this)

	And take the mouse with you theratsdream 2008-08-22 03:44 am UTC (link)
	Whatever. I say Fuck Florida in its big swollen stupid coastline-eroding ass. The sooner that godforsaken morass of strip malls, sprawl, ugly theme parks, bitching cuban exiles, swamp redneck mulleted air boat trash and people waiting to die sinks into the gulf the better off our nation will be. (Reply to this)

(40 comments) - (Post a new comment)

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