God bless Scout at First Draft...

Somebody went there...there being a comparison of the North Dakota flooding to what happened here on 8-29-05...and Scout gave em what for:

Is 80% of Fargo under water at present? Is it flooded to the rooftops? That was the case for much of NOLA and well you can't do much BUT go to the rooftop and hope help comes.

Did 90% of Fargo evacuate? Because 90% of So LA did so. It was the largest and most successful evacuation in US history. Over 1 million people evacuated...most in just 24-48 hours. My God the whole population of the state of North Dakota (640,000) would have to evacuate TWICE to make that argument meaningful.

Very few people believed the levees were purposely blown up...and once the Army Corps of Engineers admitted it was their design failure that caused the levees to break it was even less. That admission occurred 6 months after Katrina struck....not one media outlet or newspaper reported it at that time other than those in New Orleans. NOT. ONE. But for understanding those very few who still thought they were blown...there is a history of the levees having been blown in the 1927 flooding. Did the business folks of Fargo ever blow the levees in poor areas in order to save downtown businesses and wealthy neighborhoods anytime in the past century? I assume no but if they had I suspect Fargo too would have a few folks questioning if it hadn't happened again.

As for politicians crying.....Are their hundreds of dead bodies floating in the flood waters of Fargo? Have over 1500 residents died? The majority of whom were elderly or disabled? Because shit like that makes people cry and that is what was seen in NOLA. I remember a CNN reporter on Day 1 of Katrina describing the horrors in the streets and she cried ...that was Jeane Meserve, a seasoned veteran. She spoke of much including the screams of dogs caught in the power lines being fried to death. People don't realize how horrible it was. I interviewed a couple who had stayed and they talked of hearing God awful screams...they didn't know if it was human or animal or both. I spoke with another man who had been in NO who was haunted by those same kind of screams. And well that is sad and horrible and evokes tears...to people who have empathy at least

It is an ABSOLUTE falsehood that anyone ever shot at rescue workers or helicopters...It did not happen. Repeat---that is false. Media reported it and it was wrong and the National Guard has said so.

As for the federal governments involvement ....Are these folks familiar with the Stafford Act that calls for fed intervention when states are overwhelmed by a disaster. Orleans, Plaquemines and St Bernard Parish as well as a few others on the South LA coast were devastated or under water. I think this would be the equivalent of about 4 or 5 counties in North Dakota. Do you have that many counties under water? In St Bernard parish there were only 6 houses inhabitable after Katrina...just 6. The fishing communities of that parish had been literally wiped off the map. All of which is to say that disaster was massive in its scope and devastation...and no state could have handled it on their own...federal help was needed and accorded by law.

The local Fish and Wildlife folks were out rescuing people immediately. The Coast Guard as well and they were local folks who were flying over their own flooded homes. In St. Bernard Parish anyone with a boat got out there and plucked people off rooftops.There is a quote from Gov Blanco ...."When all the stories are told, the story is going to be that Louisianans were saved by Louisianans."

A final point...and believe me on this...the people of NOLA are right now incredibly sympathetic to your plight...they Know and they'd never judge given what they know

Worthy of FYYFF Day.