How come Iowans could protect themselves from the floods but not the people from New Orleans?

Question

why is one group of people able to take the initiative to protect / save themselves, but another group sits and waits for someone to save them?

Answer 1

Barry said it all. It was a category one in Baton Rouge, half the state away. What do you expect from us? Over 90 percent of NOLA DID evacuate.

Answer 2

Citizens of NO initially had confidence in the city's infrastructure. And flooding was so far inland, with people stuck on the highest thing they could find, all they could do was wait for help.

And you think that Iowans aren't going to ask for help, like in National Guard, FEMA, etc? Of course they will.  And federal farm subsidies, etc. That's continuing reliance on government.

Answer 3

Because Iowans depended on themselves & not the government to bail them out.  And when they did receive help...no one was shooting at them, unlike in New Orleans!!! And as someone else put it...Iowa isn't a welfare state.

Answer 4

That is a very good and disturbing question. My honest opinion is that Iowans were adequedly warned about possible flooding and were evacuated early enough to save what they could- including their lives. Where in contract the people of New Orleans were basically given no warning to what atrocity was about to happen. Now I am not sure if weather reporting has been changed or revised since (which im sure it has since Katrina), but the fact of the matter is that those people down in New Orleans and neighboring cities were not warned in enough time to get out. And many of these citizens are still displaced- its a horrible tradegy. I honestly feel that many companies have profited off of Katrina making them look good as they donate money or fix a home- yes it is positive and good to do- but when you see companies market that they helped out Katrina victims, I just think thats not right.

Answer 5

Do you think people who are surrounded by miles of deep water in an area that is completely cut off from the rest of the world are "sitting around"?  Are you that dense?

Also, people in Iowa can "evacuate" by walking about 2 blocks from the river.  I don't see how that demonstrates much "initiative".  

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You are comparing apples and oranges.  Your assumptions are also wrong.

The main difference is the scope of the disaster. Like with the California fires last year, the power of TV is to focus on a small area and make the viewer think everywhere is like that. In reality, the flooding in the mid-west is a medium-small disaster (like the California fires). Comparing the event with Katrina is comparing a parking-lot fender-bender with a head-on collision at high speeds.

The flooding in the mid-west is actually affecting only a small area and relatively few people have had their lives disturbed. So far, about 5000 homes are threatened and 36,000 people have had to evacuate. One death has been reported.

Katrina was the worst natural disaster to ever strike the USA. It devastated an area of 90,000 square miles (larger than Great Britain), killed 1800 people, displaced more than 2,000,000 people for months, made 500,000 of us long-term homeless, and destroyed 225,000 buildings. The damage to the City of New Orleans alone is estimated at $200 Billion, and NOLA is only a fraction of the devastated area.

To compare with the CA fires in 2007 (which is a completed disaster), about 700 square miles were affected, 7 deaths were reported, 1000 buildings burned, 3000 to 5000 people were made homeless, and the damage was estimated at $1 Billion.

Basic services in the mid-west have not been disrupted and the flooded areas are not isolated from the rest of the world by the event. It was the same last year in CA. The people of Iowa will be able to go home in a few days.

Basic services were not restored to all of New Orleans until October of 2006 (Katrina hit in August of 2005).  The people of New Orleans were prohibited from returning home for months, and the prohibition was enforced by a ring of military checkpoints.

Katrina cut all communications to the devastated areas for more than a week and rendered state & local government across southeatern Louisiana and southern Mississippi almost incapable of functioning. On top of that was the incompetence of Governor "Blank Stare" Blanco and Mayor "Crazy Ray" Nagin (both are Democrats).

Note that news media reports of civil disorder in New Orleans were grossly exaggerated. For example, there were "reports" of violence inside the Superdome at the time In reality, there were NO murders in the Dome, NO babies were raped, and there were NO gun battles (all were high-profile news stories at the time). The same was true at the Convention Center. There was plenty of bad news to go around and I don't know why the media felt a need to make it up.

Your question and some of the answers also assume the usual myths about NOLA and Katrina are true.

Reality was:

- Katrina was predicted to strike elsewhere until about 60 hours before landfall (which occurred during the morning of August 29, 2005).

- A comprehensive state of emergency was declared by both Louisiana and NOLA on August 26th. The evacuation order was given on August 27th.

- The evacuation was wildly successful and more than 90% of the city's population was able to leave by the evening of August 28th. About half of those who did not or could not leave went to the Superdome, which was the designated shelter.

- I have friends & family who were at the Dome or the Convention Center as New Orleans Police or National Guard. The news reports of violence were simply untrue, and they recall only tens of thousands of hungry, thirsty, depressed people who were praying for rescue.

Something Iowa will have in common with Louisiana is because the damage is due to > flood <, and homeowners insurance does NOT cover flood damage. That will make recovery much more difficult in Iowa, just like it is making recovery more difficult in Louisiana & Mississippi.

Answer 6

New Orleans was a hurricane genius.  We  had severe flooding from constant rain- and pay attention here- 24,000 people were displaced and over 4,000 homes and businesses are ruined, plus the power is missing in how many places and it is said all power wont be restored for weeks, people are still on water conservation, mail still cant be delivered to everywhere so I have no idea why you are saying that we are protected.  There is also people that stayed in there homes and did not protect themselves, yesterday there was firefighters still going out in the water that was over a story high and trying to persuade people to leave their homes.

Answer 7

Iowa is a farm country not a welfare state. just stating the facts