If I hear one more time that this oil spill is worse than Katrina..I am going to throw up

[Peacetrain]

I turn on Ed, and some asshat has the unmitigated nerve to say this is worse than Katrina.. Actually he said he would rather have Katrina than this..

Over 1800 people died in Katrina.

"At least 1,836 people lost their lives in the actual hurricane and in the subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was the largest natural disaster in the history of the United States. Total damage was $81 billion (2005 USD),<2> nearly triple the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.<4>"

Oh and they had to close the schools on his island.. I had to turn the TV off.. I just could not listen to it for one more second

[Junkdrawer]

1. In general you're right, but I heard shrimp fishermen say that today...

They kinda had a point - from their point of view it is worse.

[Peacetrain]

2. I can't even begin to understand that kind of thought process..

[Junkdrawer]

3. Try this:

...

Kerry O’Neill, a fisherman from Venice, told Channel 4 News: "Hurricane Katrina was bad, but we were able to kind of go back to work afterwards. This here, there ain’t no telling how long we'd be shut down."

President Obama flew in to the area yesterday, and he underlined BP’s responsibilities. But this morning in Venice, the fishermen were not easily moved. "Talk is cheap," Kerry O’Neill told Alex Thomson.

...


http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5071

[Peacetrain]

4. There are 1800 people dead from Katrina..

To even try to go there and compare it that way, loses any sympathy that I would feel for them..

[Junkdrawer]

5. There are going to be pockets of people who were hit hard by Katrina....

and even harder by this. Poor people.

Now, as I said in my first post, you're right. For most in LA, Katrina was much worse. But I can see how some would see this as worse.

[Peacetrain]

6. Actually this is horrid for the enviroment..but it is totally nothing like Katrina

They are apples and oranges..

[Bobbieo]

11. The oil spill is not over. Time will tell which will end up being the most destructive-

the spill or Katrina.

[Prism]

7. I agree with you

The sin of the Bush administration was putting inept cronies in charge of federal agencies and the resulting inaction and incompetence - before, during, and after - Hurricane Katrina.

The Obama administration is not guilty of these things.

As much as I believe this incident highlights the basic wrongness of the President's decision on offshore drilling, calling it his Katrina is a frivolous and desperate comparison intended to polish one of Bush's bigger steaming piles by dragging this President down for comparison.

This would only change if we find out one of President Obama's golfing buddies was the head of some major oil rig monitoring department.

But that strikes me as terrifically unlikely to be the case.

[Peacetrain]

8. Yep.. trying to compare this to that boondoggle Bush did.. with Brownie and company

just makes my skin crawl.

And the the worse part is that it then trivializes the tragedy of the oil spill.. Because no sane person is going to see the two are equivalent..

Then the thing that happens is that the mess of the oil spill gets diminished.

This constant attempt to bring down Obama at any cost is so sad..

[Xipe Totec]

9. Interesting that they avoid comparing it to the Exxon Valdez

To which it is most similar, and which it has already surpassed in volume.

[Peacetrain]

10. Give this man a cigar!!!... Amazing isn't it?

[DURHAM D]

13. I think it is more on a level with Chernobyl. nt

[SargeUNN]

12. Here is what you should know about it

I am a Katrina Survivor that lived in Mississippi until 3 years ago, but my twin sister and other family members still live on the Mississippi Coast and having to deal with this leak, not just a spill. First let's address the spill word. After Katrina a water pipe was broke in my house and the water pool was created and grew through the leak, so did the water pipe just spill or did it leak? Of course it was a leak, a spill was when some container turned over and spilled out.

Secondly, the damage this has done has a population just starting to get back from Katrina, finding their fishing areas starting to come back, affecting their pets and livestock as well as the economy. Remember many there actually work offshore in the oil drilling business as well. The depression there is about the same if not worse than Katrina since many have just started getting over the depression and here they go again struggling but this time because of something that could have been prevented. I know the pain of the area after living there over half a century and the only thing I am sick of is those who said they are sick of hearing about. I was told the same stupidity when I got to Arizona, that they were tired of hearing about Katrina and having it pushed in their face. My reply was you think you are sick of it? Live with it in your face 24/7 and can't get away from it like myself and the others who dealt with it did. I have no sympathy for you at all.

[Peacetrain]

14. 1800 people dead.. hundreds of thousands displaced..

thousands exposed to chemicals in FEMA trailers..

[SargeUNN]

15. Here is more about it and Katrina

Let me tell you that I WAS THERE during Katrina and a year and a half afterwards. I had to leave because of my work in standing for those people who were getting abused. I knew those who committed suicide because of the failure, one even was suppose to be on my radio show but instead blew their head off. I lost friends to the storm and lost others who couldn't get help because of the failures. Now that atmosphere isn't gone totally and it took years to work these people back, suddenly here they go again facing this and still hanging on to fresh memories of Katrina or in some cases still suffering from it. Add in the hardships this brings on and remembering the horrors they thought they finally were starting to overcome they do feel worse than Katrina. Numbers don't tell it all and to say someone is sick of hearing it, just don't understand. I do. I am over 1600 miles away and I can feel the hurt and imagine those still there. I talk to my twin about 2 times a day who lost her house in Katrina, and she is more stressed now than after Katrina. So yes in many ways it is worse.

[Xipe Totec]

17. So, suddenly, it is more poignant because you feel it on your own skin?

Think about that while you consider the impact of Arizona's immigration laws on Mexican Americans.

[noamnety]

16. There's not going to be any way to tally the deaths from this

In another post, you mentioned people exposed to the FEMA trailers. You recognize that there are secondary deaths that will occur after Katrina through chemical exposure. Caused by Katrina, in an indirect way.

When people are comparing the devastation, partly they are looking at the environmental damage directly (this is worse), partly they are comparing immediate deaths (Katrina was worse), and partly they are comparing secondary deaths. The effects of the chemicals are going to last a long long time. People are going to be eating contaminated food even though they've been warned against it because it will be the food they have access to. They will lose their businesses, and with that they will lose their health insurance, and without that there will be more deaths as a result of this. There just isn't a simple way to look at it and tally up a body count for both events, if that's what you're implying we should do.

You know how people recognize that Three Mile Island was a major disaster? It's considered a larger disaster than a traffic accident with 1 or 2 deaths, even though nobody died in the melt down, right? If you can understand that comparison, you can understand why some people believe this to possibly be the larger disaster.

[chrisa]

18. The media could care less about those people in Katrina, remember?

Whereas, now that rich people will be affected by this, it can now be news. :eyes:

[donheld]

19. It's not Katrina it's Chernoby!!!