why are the people in san diego getting along, and people in new orleans didnt after natural disasters?

Question

So a few years ago when katrina happened there was looting and people in the stadium fighting and it was a horrible situation, but know we have the same situation where we have peopls homes destroyed in san diego and mass amounts of people living in a stadium without any fighting. people are volunteering and getting along...whats the difference?

Answer 1

Not that we need to get into a huge debate, but the people in New Orleans...regardless of their skin color, regardless of their economic status...expected someone (that someone being the government) to take care of them. Yes, the government is at fault for not properly planning for a hurricane and its after-effects. Meaning...bringing in the National Guard before it hit and setting up precautionary measures of such...being pro-active. Had the Guard been in place beforehand...they would have been present when the city went crazy after the levees broke, which was the root of the real problem. And when I say 'government' I mean the LOCAL and STATE bodies of government...NOT NATIONAL. If our national govt is expected to run things from a state and a local level (for 50 states)...who would then run the country as a nation? I live in FL and have seen countless hurricane disasters from one end of this state to the other. I've lived through them and buried my grandmother after Ivan. You have to take responsibility for yourself, your family and not wait/expect for someone to take care of you and/or to prepare your emergency plan for you. It's like the people of California saying, "My house was on fire, the flames started small and as we were waiting for the firemen to come in and get us...the flames became bigger. We kept waiting, waiting, waiting...and the firemen didn't come. We could hear the sirens in the distance, we waited and the flames got even bigger and we kept waiting. The fire is out, our house is gone and my family perished because the firemen did come into the house to get us. We waited for them so it's their fault my family is gone." Yes, that sounds crazy, but that's how I see the disaster that happened in New Orleans. You take the initiative, pull together and help one another and be a good neighbor/friend, but to behave like the people of New Orleans did and have continued to behave...it only shows their level of ignorance...regardless of race, color or social status.

Answer 2

The wildfires in CA are actually on a much larger scale than Katrina. Nearly a million people have been displaced, which is the largest movement of American citizens since the Civil War. The difference in this case is preparedness and learning from past mistakes. Nobody wants to see a repeat of what happened in New Orleans, so everyone from state officials to the people forced to flee their homes are making an effort to keep the situation from deteriorating.

In New Orleans, the stadium was the shelter of last resort. Even though it was supposed to be a refuge, nobody with an animal they refused to leave behind was admitted. This kept a lot of people out of the stadium and other shelters. In California, two stadiums are being used - one for general evacuation and one for evacuation with pets. I got the impression that New Orleans simply opened the stadium with the intent that the people inside would ride out the storm and then go home after a day or two. When the levees failed, there was a sudden need for food, water, etc., and officials were caught flat-footed. In California, they had food, water, cots, and other essentials already waiting at the stadium before the first evacuees arrived with more donations of goods being delivered on a constant basis.

There are a lot of lessons we all can learn from Katrina, but I think California learned the most important lesson of all - don't count on the federal government. This administration did (and continues to do) an abysmal job of handling the aftermath of Katrina. Even after nearly a million people were displaced, the President wasn't sure he was even going to visit California. It's a good thing California was prepared to largely shift for itself given the lukewarm, noncommittal response of the Bush administration to a wildfire disaster of truly monstrous proportions.

Answer 3

Sad but true in Florida your governor had troops already set to go in befroe it hit, in La they started to do that a few days later. The sad thing is that Katrina destoyed much of Mississippi and they entire state had no electricity for at least two weeks, but you could drive across the Mississippi River and they (LOuisiana had electricity and everything.

Sad but all they had to do was walk or be driven over the bridge to the west bank towns, they were not tha effected and the minority sheriff placed deputies on the bridge to stop them. The excuse was that when Ivan hit a few years earlier they let them across and looted, how sad.

Something i only saw once and never heard again was a young man went down to the bus station and got a bus and came back to the dome picked up his family and about seventy other people and drove to HOUSTON! Maybe he should come back and be Mayor and Gov. a true story which many have never heard of.

Oh yea all them thar rich aliens and folks out thar in Hollywood. Take care. The truth hurts, good government at a local level is a great asset. So vote for the best, not who they tell you to vote for.

Answer 4

Because it's a smaller scale disaster

Because we all love each other in California (we're a bunch of hippies that volunteer)

Because people in San Diego can afford it

Because we all learned from Katrina and are trying to do better


Also, there's fires every year in California (or at least it feels like it...I can't remember a year I didn't hear about a fire and people being evacuated either in Socal or Norcal) so people have pretty much got the whole "evacuation" thing down. Someone says "evacuate there's a fire" we grab our **** and go we don't wait until the last possible moment to leave.

Answer 5

the people in Calif had support from their State right from the Start, in New Orleans the State and local government bugged out and left the people in the lurch. IN New orleans people were not used to being left on their own without the nanny State controlling them.

Answer 6

We help ourselves and our local government stepped up immediately. When we are told to evacuate we do. If we have looters, they will be in prison.

None of these things happened in NO.

To all those that say the big difference is that we are rich or "San Dieagans can afford it." SHUT UP! I am so sick of hearing that lie. We are not all white. We are not all rich. We do things for ourselves and don't wait for help to come. People were evacuating BEFORE they got the notice.

Answer 7

The people adhered to the Evacuation process, the police did not dissappear or just run away, we as Californians have been through this before maybe not to this scale, but we have seen it before. I never understood the excuse of people being poor as to why they do not have common sense. Also, our government and protection services here do not pack up and leave when a crisis hits.

Answer 8

Well, its kind of hard to loot a house when its on fire or when there are hundreds of firemen and police around. Katrina spread to a much wider area where there wasn't any protection coverage by officials. Also, those people are just worried about there houses and fighting is the last thing on their minds.

Answer 9

WHen Katrina hit lots of people felt that the government was being unfair to people in the poor areas...WHich i think is true.

Now in California the government is dealing with less people i think, but they are responding a lot better to the situation.

Im pretty sure people are scared in california, but there are lots of people that havn't been affected by the fires yet, unlike katrina where everyone was affected. There homes were destroyed.

Answer 10

Because the people in San Diego know the meaning of 'evacuate'.