Neglecting Ike and Gustov Victims; the Shame of America

Some have told me to "let it go". Others have told me "it's a lost cause". Still others have accused me of being "crazy" and through it all, NO ONE has told me "keep it up". What is this all about?

 

One month ago today a major hurricane hit the Louisiana coast near Grand Isle. Hurricane Gustov continued inland and hurricane force winds battered places as far away as Baton Rouge relentlessly. Meanwhile, down the road in New Orleans all the reporters from all the major news outlets were focused on watching a few waves overtop a few levees. With every ounce of their being they were hoping to see the levees break and their cameras provide live footage of the greatest flood of all time.

 

All the willing of all the media could not force the levees to break. After a day of anticipation, they were bitterly disappointed that there was no huge story coming out of New Orleans. With heavy heart they trudged to either St. Paul to cover the Republican convention they never wanted to attend, or to South Carolina on the off chance Tropical Storm Hanna might turn into a real newsworthy storm.

 

While Hanna was huffing and puffing and not really doing much of anything, Hurricane Ike was ripping the Bahamas and then Cuba apart like an angry monster let loose on the city. Of course no reporters are allowed in Cuba and no one in their right mind would have stayed in the Bahamas. Thus, the real story of Ike was neglected, just as the real story of Gustov.

 

For days, the headlines regarding Ike were directed towards Florida. Where and how this became the focus of attention is baffling. Ike was never headed that way. Still, whenever the folks on Key West are told to evacuate, that becomes the almighty big story of any storm. Why do people live there anyway?

 

Consider these facts. In the twelve days between Hurricane Gustov and Hurricane Ike, there was basically NO media coverage of Gustov's damage except in the immediate New Orleans/Baton Rouge areas. Even the television outlets in coastal Mississippi did not cover the story. There were far bigger fish to fry than spending resources on covering a little ole storm that hit a section of Louisiana no one in the United States knows or cares about.

 

FEMA, the Red Cross, Salvation Army and a few other charities were on the scene providing a little help; but the response after Gustov was minimal and a disgrace to the heart of disaster relief in this country. If we are going to selectively pick and choose who receives aid, media coverage and prayers; our country has slid down the slope to extinction.

 

As Ike grew into the sprawling monster he became, of course every news outlet rushed crews to Galveston and Houston in anticipation of a huge story. Dreams of Katrina like footage flooded the minds of reporters looking for the story that would catapult them to the "big time". As dire warnings were issued for those refusing to evacuate circulated, the army of reporters spread out to find safe areas to weather the storm at, yet be close enough to provide graphic shots of the impending carnage.

 

Images of reporters being swept off their feet in the rising storm surge made the rounds on the internet along with pictures of fools hanging sideways on light poles as the rising winds came ashore. Stupid interviews with people bragging about not evacuating but staying in their beachfront houses drinking beer and partying were still filling television screens the afternoon before the storm hit.

 

When the media went to bed that Friday night Ike came ashore, they were like children on Christmas Eve. Surely the next morning would provide days of coverage of a totally wiped out Galveston and a severely crippled Houston. Awards and high ratings danced through their heads as they endured a night of wind and storms.

 

But, alas, once again the weather gods did not cooperate. With bitter disappointment these loyal foot soldiers of the media giants went out to battle on Saturday only to find huge sections of Galveston still standing and worse yet, Houston was barely touched. With clenched fists they cursed the weather gods for not sending the 20 foot storm surge that would have leveled Galveston and crippled the oil and gas industries in Houston for years. Instead, all they got was a little category 2 hurricane with a storm surge that only destroyed places too far to film and that no one cared about.

 

As a result of Ike not killing 100,000 people, totally destroying the city of Galveston or flooding half of Houston; the media stayed long enough to give a few reports for a few days and then started the mass exodus to find the next big story that America craved to see. Within a week to ten days after Ike, most of the national media were long gone and by two weeks after the storm, there were no longer ANY stories about Ike, Galveston, Houston, the Texas coast or Louisiana.

 

What have we come to in this country? Do we simply cast off those who suffer the loss of their homes, jobs and families simply because the carnage was not great enough to warrant continued coverage? The media stayed in New Orleans and to a lesser degree the Mississippi coast for months after Katrina. Through their constant coverage of the devastation came the impetus for America to give of their goods, money and time to help those in need.

 

Since the media has chosen to forsake those affected by Gustov and Ike, there is but a trickle of help heading their way. The response by America to these hurricanes has been tepid at best and non-existent most of the time. America has quickly forgotten about Ike because of the soap opera playing out in Washington over the "bail out". While debate continues on giving 700 billion to bail out banks, an obscure bill was passed giving a few billion dollars to help those affected by Gustov and Ike.

 

I know times are tough and everyone is uptight about money, but that does not give an excuse to forget about those who have lost everything and are only starting on the long journey to normalcy. Even the incredible story out of Atlanta regarding gasoline shortages has only in the past two days made the headlines (near the bottom). Either America does not care anymore about helping her fellow citizens in time of need or they do not know what the need is due to the arrogance and ratings driven media who have shirked their duty by failing to cover Gustov and stick with the Ike stories. Shame on you.

Epitaph For Fools

My heart is screaming within me. My stomach is tied in knots so thick they will never come undone. Everything within me wants to grab America by the neck and shake her to wake her up. This is a night unlike no others in the history of our nation. Never before will so many people lose their lives as will happen over the next 12-18 hours. If fatalities were really counted, the toll from Ike would number in the tens of thousands. When has America ever lost tens of thousands of its citizens in one night?

 

Estimates of well over 100,000 defying mandatory evacuation orders and willingly and many times proudly saying they would never leave their home are dead men and women walking. When the National Weather Service says "certain death" they mean it. Yet, thousands will party until they die while others will stubbornly be praying for God's protection even as they drown. Others will perish because they never heard a storm was coming and still others will die in the line of duty trying to protect and serve others.

 

My soul cries out and I want to shake my fists in anger at the stupidity of fools. We tried to warn them not to trust in models and past experiences. No one who lived through the 1900 hurricane was there to tell them what would happen if they stayed. I cannot stand to think of what the dawn will bring and worse yet, Sunday morning's dawn. The smell of death will line the coast from Galveston to Morgan City as those too stubborn, foolish or stupid to listen to wisdom will perish.

 

God uses the analogy of what is happening tonight in Texas and Louisiana to emphasize the need to listen to and take heed to wisdom in Proverbs chapter one. Before viewing the extent of the devastation, find a Bible and read the second half of the first chapter of Proverbs and then look at the images that will flood our television sets for weeks to come. Think of Proverbs chapter one when you pay 5 dollars for gas because the heart and soul of the American petroleum center has been ripped out.

 

Think about Proverbs one when you see the body bags of those who refused to listen to wisdom and paid the price. Think about Proverbs one when you see neighborhoods under water in Houston and people clinging to rooftops hoping against hope to be rescued. Think about Proverbs one when you see skyscrapers with all their windows blown out and flooded streets coated with oil and water contaminated with chemicals of every sort and kind.

 

Think about Proverbs one when you see places such as Port Arthur totally inundated and the many oil refineries shut down and flooded. Think about Proverbs one when the politicians and talking heads descend on Texas like a batch of locusts to show everyone how much they care. Where were they before the storm? Where were the words of encouragement and promises of help after the storm?

 

Think about Proverbs one when images of what used to be small coastal communities are now just foundations sitting barren in the sand. Think about Proverbs one when those who trusted in seawalls are inundated with water that laughed at the walls. Think about Proverbs one when the final price tag of Ike is ever figured out, and when the insurance premiums of everyone go up.

 

Yes, my soul weeps for I know many people will needlessly die this night because they refused to listen to wisdom. They thought they could withstand the forces of a hurricane which is more powerful than any to hit the United States. They thought they could have the time of their life having a hurricane party as their life ends in a giant wave of water. They thought they were smarter than wisdom and they will pay the ultimate price for their folly.

 

Millions will see all the horror in the next few days and shake their heads and say "what a waste". Many who live along the coasts of America will then proceed to move on with their lives and never learn a lesson from Ike. Many will one day face the same end result as those facing it tonight as the folly of their stubbornness finally catches up with them.

 

God help those who through no fault of their own got caught in this storm. God have mercy on those who thought they were bigger than You. God, please forgive those who cry out to you in their final minutes as they finally realize how stupid and sinful they were. All any of us can do now is give those in harm's way to God for the protection of their souls.

 

What a truly sad night this is in America.

Ike Will Be Far Worse Than Katrina

Do not expect any documentable real news from Ike's strike until later today or probably tomorrow. As in any disaster, initial reports will be too rosy or too dire. It will take days for the full scope of this disaster to be known. No one has a clue how many people ignored the mandatory evacuation orders, so those involved with search and rescue do not know how many people they are looking for. Estimates of close to 150,000 people in the counties affected make this a daunting task for sure.

 

Due to the size of Ike, hurricane conditions will continue to buffet the entire area most of today. Do not expect to see anything but the barest of live of coverage from the worst areas. It is simply not safe for anyone to go out until the water recedes and the winds die down. Houston must endure many hours of relentless high tides and winds. No definitive details of its fate will be known today.

 

High tide in Galveston matched pretty much when Ike came ashore. Only time will tell what has become of the estimated 15,000 people who stayed and refused to leave the island. The honest fear is that from Galveston all the way to the western suburbs of New Orleans when the water recedes what will be found is carnage due to the high numbers of people who failed to leave the areas.

 

The time has come in America for mandatory evacuations to mean just that. If people refuse to leave, they should either be arrested and hauled to some secure facility or sign a paper acknowledging NO emergency services are available and no lawsuits can be filed. Images of emergency personnel risking their lives to save those who at the very last minute "chickened out" and wanted to escape the storm make me very upset.

 

What good does a "mandatory evacuation" order mean if 20% of the people ignore it? The entire evacuation process in this country is a joke. Evacuations are ordered when not needed and not ordered when they are. People pick and choose which "mandatory" evacuation orders they want to abide by and then expect to be rescued when they ignore such orders.

 

For the next few days, just like after a major earthquake, the emphasis is on search and rescue. Those trained in this field are called "first responders" and their mission is to find, treat and rescue anyone still alive after this disaster. Only after those in critical situations are rescued will the search for those who died start in earnest. Only after that will the emphasis switch to helping those NOT in life threatening situations.

 

This tragedy will far surpass Katrina simply due to the amount of people involved and the size of the area covered. Just as in Katrina's case, there will be hundreds of thousands of people with no power, no jobs and pretty much no house for weeks if not months. Sure, in a few days look for every spare electric truck in the country to head toward this area to help get the power on. But, along the coast there will be no power and no help for a very long time.

 

Keep this in mind; there are still thousands of people in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama who have never gotten repairs made to their homes after Katrina three years ago. There is simply not enough crews, money and charities around to get to everyone. Now this disaster will be added into the mix. Everyone knows those with the most money will get repairs first, for they can afford to pay cash. Those who must hassle with insurance companies many times go months and years before receiving the funds needed to get roofs fixed and other repairs.

 

Just as in Katrina and Rita's cases, there will be thousands of people who had no insurance and who must depend on FEMA or charities to provide assistance. Again, due to the size of this disaster, every governmental and charitable organization in existence will be taxed to the max over the next few months and years.

 

Make no mistake about it. We will be dealing with various effects of Ike for years. There are NO quick fixes after a major hurricane hit. Everything will go in slow motion for quite some time due to a multitude of issues from contaminated water to broken glass to electric wires down to hundreds of thousands of buildings which must be gutted before the mold makes them uninhabitable to …

 

As this drama turns the page to what comes next, please continue to pray for those whose lives have been turned upside down and inside out by this storm. Honestly, we will not know much of anything about the scope of this disaster for days. In the meantime I pray America realizes that like it or not; we have Katrina #2 on our hands—only worse.

Tornadoes, Katrina and Current Hurricanes

The images are indelibly etched into my mind's eye. I could live another hundred years and never forget what I witnessed in first New Orleans, then Mississippi and finally Cameron, Louisiana. The devastation hurricanes Katrina and Rita brought to these locations was beyond the scope of my ability to grasp. Nothing I could have done ahead of time could have prepared me for what I saw and the stories of those whom I met.

 

I had seen the destruction tornadoes can cause first hand many times. I have lived through a few tornadoes and know full well what nature is capable of doing in a matter of 60 seconds. Twisted metal, broken glass and splintered wood are the earmarks of a tornado passing through. One house can be a pile of rubble while the one next to it is intact. That is the way a tornado chooses its victims.

 

A tornado, even a major one, is at the most a mile wide. Most tornadoes are a few hundred feet wide and travel on the ground a few miles. Monster F-5 tornadoes such as the one which destroyed Greensburg, Kansas are exceptions and thankfully only occur rarely. The vast majority of tornadoes are capable of quickly destroying a house or barn and then return to the cloud from which they came.

 

The destruction a large tornado causes is nothing to dismiss. When one of these storms hits a populated area the effects are devastating as far as loss of life and property. But, the losses are localized and limited to a particular part of town or along a line stretching from one location to the next. Tornadoes are not capable of inflicting damage on a huge geographical area for they are too small.

 

That which will always set Katrina apart from most storms was the sheer size of the hurricane. At one time Katrina took up almost the entire Gulf of Mexico. Its hurricane force winds stretched hundreds of miles in all directions and brought death and destruction far from its eye. Most hurricanes, even monster category 4 or 5 ones are compact and bring catastrophic devastation to a particular location, but only minor damage to region.

 

Katrina not only caused the catastrophic damage locally, it managed to cause major damage to an area roughly the size of the state of Montana. When comparing hurricanes, we must always keep in mind the size of Katrina and not just wind speeds. Due to its size and strength, Katrina was able to force a wall of water called the storm surge against the Mississippi coast every bit as terrifying as the tsunami that hit southeast Asia.

 

Those images which I will never forget were of piles of rubble stretching for miles and gutted out buildings which once were apartment complexes, hospitals and shopping centers. As long as I live, I will never forget driving through southeast New Orleans (not the 9^th ward area) which had been a nice middle class section of town. The buildings and houses were still there, but every single one of them had been gutted.

 

No words can describe the eeriness of an empty town. The most stirring memory I have is of a huge medical center totally gutted and void of any life whatsoever. The whole scene reminded me of how a city would look after a nuclear war. I cannot imagine what the area looked like immediately after the storm, for it was nearly nine months after Katrina hit that I was able to get down there and see its impact.

 

There are localized areas of heavy loss from Gustov, but to compare this storm to Katrina is silly. I am thankful the area was evacuated for that was the wise thing to do, but some of the statements made about this being "the storm of the century" and the prospects for "catastrophic damage" were a bit overblown. Unfortunately politics entered the equation as well as using fear tactics to motivate stubborn people to evacuate.

 

I am extremely thankful to our Heavenly Father for His protection and blessing on this situation. Gustov could have been a very bad storm if it had ramped up to a category 4 and moved 50 miles to the east. But, since it did neither, it will go down in history as just another Louisiana borderline category 3 hurricane that mainly afflicted a part of the state sparsely populated.

 

Hanna is a different story. By the hour the threat from this storm is growing. As it quickly strengthens and grows in the coming few days while moving north, it poses a grave threat to very populated and popular areas such as Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and coastal North Carolina. It has been a few years since this part of the country has suffered a major hurricane, but they are in line for one this coming weekend.

 

Some independent forecasters think Hanna may end up as big and dangerous as Katrina was. Certainly anyone living near the coast of South and North Carolina needs to be very alert and watchful concerning Hanna. Ike, which will probably be a hurricane today could follow Hanna to the Carolinas or head west into the Gulf of Mexico to follow Gustov.

 

Josephine will become a tropical storm today and probably be a hurricane within a few days. It too is heading west toward the United States. Next in line will be Kyle who is a few days away from forming. No doubt, the next few weeks will test everyone's patience as one storm after another threatens the United States mainland.

 

Please pray for those who will be returning home after Gustov. Please pray they do not turn bitter and resentful for having to evacuate for nothing. People tend to forget there are times when it is right to play it safe, especially with hurricanes. Please pray for the millions of people living in coastal South and North Carolina who will be having to go through this week what those in Louisiana and Mississippi just went through.

 

No one likes having to evacuate, especially to shelters which tend to be hot, noisy and smelly. No one likes having to pack up whatever they can fit in their car and leave, not knowing if they will have a home when they return. No one likes the expense and aggravation involved with an evacuation. But, considering the alternative is possible injury or death, it is a necessary evil to living near the ocean.

 

I am sure there will be much more to write about as this week unfolds, but for now I want to thank you for allowing me to share this with you. There are millions of our brothers and sisters in need of GREAT amounts of prayer right now. Thank you for taking the time to lift them up in prayer.

Fay may Spell Trouble for Gulf Coast

There is little, if any historical data to compare what Tropical Storm Fay is doing to. Thus, logic dictates there is even less data to look at as to what it COULD do. This little storm has managed to cause even the most skilled forecasters to scratch their heads in utter bewilderment. If the scenario should happen to play out over the next few days this storm would make history.

 

Weather events do not happen by luck, chance or coincidence. There are meteorological reasons for why a storm does what it does. Storms do not have a mind of their own which enables them to deliberately do things to aggravate forecasters. Storms end up doing what the various aspects of weather governing it tell it to do.

 

One of the most distressing possible ways the whole Fay saga could end is if the storm makes history by hitting near Jacksonville, Florida as category 1 hurricane and moves west back across Florida and emerges in the Gulf of Mexico intact. If, and the probabilities of this taking place are very slim, this were to happen the end results from Fay could be worse than Katrina three years ago.

 

Winds blow counterclockwise around a hurricane. Katrina came up from the south and because of this, the storm surge ended up being over twenty feet along the Mississippi coast. The initial damage in New Orleans from Katrina was minimal because it sat on the western side of the hurricane moving north. The New Orleans catastrophe came about when Katrina moved ashore and the winds switched to the north and blew the waters from Lake Pontchartrain into the city which sits below sea level.

 

If Fay were to move west from Florida towards New Orleans, the potential disaster would dwarf Katrina. Why? Because the westward movement of the storm would produce a prolonged period of NORTH winds ahead of the approaching storm. Instead of a storm surge preceding the hurricane like Katrina, the storm surge would follow the storm and be minimal. The greater danger would be the north winds over a prolonged time blowing the waters of Lake Pontchartrain into the city of New Orleans.

 

Due to the lay of the land and where the city of New Orleans sits, there is actually very little danger of a storm surge inundating the city. The potential problems have always laid in the scenario of a storm moving in from the southeast or east and generating a prolonged period of hurricane force winds over Lake Pontchartrain. Unless a person has been to the area it is difficult to picture how a lake could cause more problems than an ocean; but such is the case in New Orleans.

 

No one knows at this time what Fay will end up doing. It may come ashore again and more or less just fizzle out. It may come ashore and move to the northwest into Georgia and help break the longstanding drought there. It may emerge on the west side of Florida, move south and make a loop following the same path it just took. It may emerge into the warm waters of the Gulf, become a hurricane and move west directly toward New Orleans.

 

This storm has a history of NOT doing what the computer models think it should do. Because of this, it would be highly advantageous for anyone from the panhandle of Florida to New Orleans to be acutely aware of the movements of Fay over the next few days. Some models and some hurricane experts think the greatest danger is that Fay emerges off the west coast of Florida, immediately intensifies and follows Ivan's 1994 path which would put Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida at high risk.

 

Needless to say, the next three to seven days could end up being at the very least, interesting and at the worst, a disaster which would equal or exceed Katrina in some respects. And as if this were not enough to be concerned about, out in the Atlantic is the next storm which is slowly taking shape and could be buffeting some portion of the United States coastline by this time next week.

 

I would highly recommend anyone with interests on the Gulf Coast to monitor what Fay is doing very closely along with the next storm. The remainder of this hurricane season could end up being very active and one that presents forecasters with storms such as Fay which are nearly impossible to forecast. As in any hurricane season, the next 2 months are the most dangerous and especially so this year. Vigilance is the key word for the day and for the days to come.