My family's vacation home in ft Myers is gettin pounded with rain and tornado watch right now . Kori just got to destin n said the surf is up high as ****

Here is your money Salty....thanks you have a great day
Here’s a pop quiz: How much money has Uncle Sam spent on New Orleans and the Gulf region since Hurricane Katrina ripped the place apart?
I’ll give you the answer because you’ll never guess it. The grand total is $127 billion (including tax relief).

That’s right: a monstrous $127 billion. Of course, not a single media story has highlighted this gargantuan government-spending figure. But that number came straight from the White House in a fact sheet subtitled, “The Federal Government Is Fulfilling Its Commitment to Help the People of the Gulf Coast Rebuild.”

Huh?

This is an outrage. The entire GDP of the state of Louisiana is only $141 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. So the cash spent there nearly matches the entire state gross GDP. That’s simply unbelievable. And to make matters worse, by all accounts New Orleans ain’t even fixed!

You might be asking, Where in the hell did all this money go? Well, the White House fact sheet says $24 billion has been used to build houses and schools, repair damaged infrastructure, and provide victims with a place to live. But isn’t everyone complaining about the lack of housing?

Perhaps all this money should’ve been directly deposited in the bank accounts of the 300,000 people living in New Orleans. All divvied up, that $127 billion would come to $425,000 per person! After thanking Uncle Sam for their sudden windfall, residents could head to Southern California and buy homes that are now on sale thanks to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and bid up the sagging house prices in the state.

The fact sheet goes on to say that $7.1 billion went to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild the levees; that the U.S. Department of Education spent $2 billion on local schools; and that the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries has awarded more than $2.5 million (the pikers). The administration also provided $16.7 billion as part of the largest housing-recovery program in U.S. history.

So the billion-dollar question becomes: Where did the rest of that money go?

Meanwhile, according to an article by Nicole Gelinas at the Manhattan Institute, New Orleans has earned the distinct honor of becoming the murder capital of the world. The murder rate is 40 percent higher than before Katrina, and twice as high as other dangerous cities like Detroit, Newark, and Washington, D.C.

Think of this: The idea of using federal money to rebuild cities is the quintessential liberal vision. And given the dreadful results in New Orleans, we can say that the government’s $127 billion check represents the quintessential failure of that liberal vision. Hillary Clinton calls this sort of reckless spending “government investment.” And that’s just what’s in store for America if she wins the White House next year.

Remember President Reagan’s line during the 1980 campaign about how LBJ fought a big-government spending war against poverty, and poverty won? Well think of all this Katrina spending as the Great Society Redux. And it failed. I suppose the current Bush administration would like to label this “compassionate conservatism.” But guess what? That failed, too.

Right from the start, New Orleans should have been turned into a tax-free enterprise zone. No income taxes, no corporate taxes, no capital-gains taxes. The only tax would have been a sales tax paid on direct transactions. A tax-free New Orleans would have attracted tens of billions of dollars in business and real-estate investment. This in turn would have helped rebuild the cities, schools, and hospitals. Private-sector entrepreneurs would have succeeded where big-government bureaucrats and regulators have so abysmally failed.

This is the real New Orleans Katrina story. It’s a pity that the mainstream media isn’t writing about it. Call it one of the greatest stories never told.

I hope she doesn't try surfing.

The undertow is probably crazy bad right now.

Yeah, I'm sure you're right. "10 billion" would cover it. St. Tammany Parish alone was almost $6 billion, so, yeah...."10 billion" should cover it.

Blame Waltrip. He posted on the interweb that it was going to Tejas.

Clueless
 

Hurricane Rita highest recorded storm surge 14.9 feet Constance Beach LA Hurricane Katrina highest storm surge 27.8 Pass Christian Mississippi, Rita was a thunderstorm compared to Katrina get your facts straight.

W if the east side of the state is the welfare side, do me a favor and stay on your side of the state to work. LOL

My sister-in-law, niece, and nephew are headed that direction too. Praying it dies down although I would love to have the rain from it

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Somebody has too build chocolate city back up

LOL
 

If thats why u come over here to work please quit now LOL

At the time of Katrina I was dating a girl from mandeville. And if you drove out of chocolate city it didn't even look like there was a storm. They lost powers for a couple days. Rita destroyed everything in it's way from Cameron to longville. Katrina=water damage(turd floater). Rita was wind damage. A lot more wind damage than Katrina. If the levee wouldn't have broke Katrina wouldn't have been talked about much. Oh and I was 100% right. I said somewhere between Brownsville and Florida.

You are terribly mis-informed, my friend. Mandeville/Covington was not even in the path of Katrina. They were on the eastern side...the "weak side". In case you're wondering, the strongest quadrant of a tropical system is the northwest. You should have taken a drive 20 miles west to Slidell. If you did and you tell me there was no evidence of a storm...I'll know you are full of shat.

The true measurement of the intensity of a hurricane should be by how far inland it travels and still sustains that intensity.. Bustin' up a coastline is no big deal. That's what hurricanes do. Since there is absolutely no resistance, sure...it's gonna tear up everything on that flat land. Look at the tracking maps of both systems and you'll see that Katrina held Cat 2 and Cat 1 force winds alot farther north than Rita. I've only traveled the interstate over that way, and, if that's all you got.....there ain't alot to tear up after it gets away from the coast. Y'all ain't hardly got a tree big enough for a dog to piss on. So, stirrin' up crawfish ponds doesn't sound like that much of a feat.

Not to be rude but did you see the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Katrina, I guess not. My buddy from Gulfport found his truck 17 miles from his house and the sad part of it he could not even find one speck of his house. Drive the beach road from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi and tell me Katrina was not bad.

Since when is having the hurricane that causes the most damage to your side of the state a better thing....never thought i would see an arguement over this. I would hope that every hurricane that hits this side of the state is weaker and smaller than all the other ones. Those that are "defending" the hurricane that hit on your side of the state....did you even have damage to your property?

Gulf port Miss and that area was the worst part of Katrina ....New Orleans was just lazy people wanting the Government to help them

Rita destroyed why more than Katrina you just did not hear about it because the media could not find people on roof tops....because we had no roofs left

Just because cameron and the lower texas coast were not as populated as the Chocolate city ....we have lots of damage west word from cameron

Ugh, slightly. :rolleyes: There was hardly a home in this parish that didn't have a tree sittin' on it.

I'm just correcting W, as usual.

I would have gladly swapped.

I don't ever want another Rita. Some folks just thought it was wrong because Rita was the "forgotten" storm because it didn't get the media coverage. My house was split in half by an oak tree and I was out of my house for over a year. Sucked bad and now I pucker everytime there is a storm in the gulf.

I am not defending or agruing about hurricanes, W stated that Rita's storm surge was bigger than Katrina. I simply set the record straight that Katrina's storm surge was almost double. And yes I had extreme damage to my camp.

How many roofs were ripped off 50 miles north of the coast?

Like I said...hurricanes tear up coastlines.....all of 'em. That one is no different.

W, I understood the power was off at your house for 24 hours +?? WOW!!!!:rotfl: How about 3 1/2 weeks?

I just hate the fact that people think Rita was nothing and that because 300000 democrat welfare foodstamp hood rats made for great media for a month just pisses me off....

All the deaths were 95% in NO and Miss had the greatest damage

There were a lot of roofs torn off 50 miles north of the coast. Power was out here for over 3 weeks and longer south of us. I'm 40 miles from the coast.

How many lives were lost for Rita? Katrina?

I spent damn near 2 weeks in BR, St Tammany, New Orleans and Plaquemines. I was directly hit by Rita.

Katrina was much more devestaing. People didn't leave NO for various reasons. One being, many of them DID NOT HAVE CARS TO DRIVE.

My power was only out 48hours still had 28k damage ..I feed off hostipial line that is the only reason


5miles south of me were out weeks

Cameron was out 5 months

Hey, I agree 1000000000000000000% with everything you said about N'Awlins. If you looked around tho, Katrina was not really about N'Awlins. Western St. Tammany Parish was basically destroyed by wind and water. 70% of the trees in Washington Parish were either on the ground or on someone's home. Believe me, the trees are alot different over this way. Hurricane force winds stretched as far north as Hattiesburg, MS....knocking down timber along the way.

I agree.....but it will always be a East vs. West thing because of the envy that the West has Big Lake:eek::rotfl:......Just kidding ;)

There is no doubt New Orleans problems with Katrina where man made (levee failure) and Chocolate city syndrone . The Hurricane did not even hit New Orleans, the eye of Katrina went right through Pearlington MS. Your wind damage and storm surge impacted the Mississippi gulf coast, take a ride one day on the beach road and see what Katrina did.

How far is it from the coast to the interstate?

Wrong. Katrina was ALL about n'awlins. If it wouldn't have been for chocolate city it would have been just as quiet as Rita.

It's on the coast. :rolleyes: Power was out at Delacroix for a year.

Reason so many lives were lost in Katrina was becasue of stupidity


Outside of New Orleans how many lives were lost


....Cat 5 hurricane coming your way , you live 10ft below sea level(sure half of them did not know that) you live inside a levee

So your mayor says leave , your governor says leave but let's stay and ride it out and loot after its over

Yea

To hell with the media. I'm talkin destruction.

Just guessing probably 30 miles or so

Again, Katrina DID NOT HIT New Orleans. They had a tropical storm a month or so prior that caused more wind damage than Katrina. People did not leave because they did not feel it would be bad. And, had the levees not busted...it wouldn't have been. 20 miles one way or the other in the track of a hurricane makes a big difference.

Your 110% correct it was a week before we knew what kind of damage was in Missp

It was all about white people fault and Bushs fault that New Urlanz flooded it

I know what you're talking about. Know one knows the real damage Katrina done. The news only cover NO. Mississippi was hit way harder than NO but that wasnt as dramatic as chocolate city. Same as Rita. People who werent a part of it don't realize how bad it was because it wasn't covered. I'm not trying to downplay Katrina. But Rita was just as bad.

And if levees don't break no ones dies and Katrina would of never been heard of again

And the superdome wouldn't have turned into a toilet bowl.

This

And the Saints would not have won the Super Bowl.

I agree that Rita's destruction of the coastline was just as bad. Hell, they are all the same at landfall. My arguement is that Rita did not sustain the power that Katrina did once it made landfall. We are 150 miles from where Katrina made landfall. Our winds were borderline Cat 2 for most of the day...sustained. Hattiesburg, MS has gotta be 200 miles from landfall and they were hit with Cat 1 winds. I've looked at many maps and it doesn't look like Rita sustained Cat 1 force winds for over 70-80 miles from impact. That is my arguement.

Google looters Rita
And Google Looters Katrina....
See what you get???

We stayed in opeleusas for Rita. 60 miles east and 60 miles north of where Rita hit. Hat hurricane force winds for 2 days. Even had trees down there and lost power for 2-3 days.

We have 112 gust winds in Jennings at air port for Rita

As a crow flies...is that even an hour drive?

...

How was it 100 more miles up the road?

My cousins stayed in many and they had damage up there.

Thanks, W...this proves my point.

Tropical storm winds cause damage.