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August 30, 2005
Hmm
Yes, it was like your tsunami, except, oh, you had a whole day to get away from it:
"It was like our tsunami," Vincent Creel, a spokesman for the Mississippi Gulf Coast city of Biloxi, said on Tuesday.
When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the U.S. Gulf Coast on Monday, it sent a 30-foot (9-meter) storm surge into Biloxi.
Many people were probably trapped in their homes by the ferocious wall of water.
"It's going to be in the hundreds," said Creel, when asked how many people may have died. Police said around 30 people died in one Biloxi apartment complex alone when the storm surge brought it crashing down.
I feel downright terrible about all the destruction and mayhem this hurricane caused, but I don't know how I feel about the people who died trying to wait out the storm. I mean, I've never been in a hurricane, but something tells me that if every single knowledgeable person tells me to get the hell away from a hurricane, I'm gonna do it.
entry no. 260
Posted by oz115 at August 30, 2005 04:17 PM
Comments
On one hand I agree completely... had a bunch of experts told me to get the hell outta there, I'd have run! And it isn't really appropriate to compare this disaster to the tsunami, because in the tsunami no one knew anything was about to hit them.
HOWEVER (you know me, theres always a however or a but), though these people had a day or so to escape, some are just too poverty stricken to get out. The areas that were hit weren't all affluent... or even just average. The majority of those pple live below the poverty line. They have no transportation, and no money to just hop on a bus. Especially people with large famalies. Also, many people were told that the last hurricane was going to hit them, so they spent the money to evacuate, and nothing happened. I think some people who had the means to escape, but didn't, give that reason.
Really, its a tragedy. No matter how you look at it, it is a terrible tragedy.
Posted by: Lovely Lady Friend at August 31, 2005 07:01 AM
Saying the phrase "this is our tsunami" must become a felony offense, immediately. Equating this with the loss of 200,000+ lives in Asia is simply appalling. Leave it to a bunch of self-pitying, woe-is-us Americans to try to claim our suffering is as bad or worse than the rest of the world's, apparently for the sole reason that IT HAPPENED TO US.
Posted by: Pete at September 1, 2005 08:45 AM