re: 20 years ago - I was sent to NO for Katrina - AMA

Yeah F was a real POS! He was the XO for a unit HI CON in the 90’s and was a complete dickhead while at JRTC. He was trying to make up for high little bitty arse.

How many times were you raped?

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Did Zeitoun give an accurate description in Eggers book? He was detained at St Gabriel if I recall correctly

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I'm wholly unfamiliar with this case/situation. Sorry.

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Star Trek

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Which version(s)?

Would you choose to fight 100 chicken sized zombies or 1 zombie sized chicken?

The chicken knows it is a fight to the death.

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How many times were you raped?

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0

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Yet

Almost got into brawl with some FEMA guys at Superior Bar and Grill one night after too many margheritas, someone said, "Federal Employees Missing in Action", and they got all uppity about it.

After about the first week or so, people started to realize not to go out wearing anything identifiable, deescalated a few gas station encounters with angry people about "checks".

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What if these are 9th ward chicken sized Zombies and zombie sized chickens grew up in Mandeville, south of the interstate?

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No change

My personal Katrina experience 20 years ago.
1. On the day before the storm hit we got a call from my wife's brother, 10 years younger, in New Orleans. He wasn't going to evacuate because two vehicles had overheated on him as he tried to leave that morning. In my book, you never ever leave family behind. He would never survived due he required medical attention. I immediately jumped in my vehicle and went down to get him. By the time I got there, all lanes on I-10 were outbound. 45 mph all the way to Baton Rouge.
2. The day of the storm in Baton Rouge our power went out. We went out to find a restaurant open for dinner. When we returned, power had been restored. We were excited thinking that New Orleans had dodged complete disaster.
3. On Monday the stories about levee breaches started getting to us. I called a friend in Racine, WI to round up contractors with heavy demolition equipment to offer their services There were only two companies in LA with the capability.
4. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I went down to LA OEP HQ in Baton Rouge to see if they would use these services. I was unsuccessful
5. What I observed at LA OEP was nothing short of the biggest shitshow on earth. Anyone could just walk right in. Then Sen. Vitter was the only one who seemed to be doing anything. I spoke with the Sec of Ag, Bob Odum, for 20-30 minutes and all he would talk about is loss of tax revenue which was going to bankrupt the state.
6. The worse offender at LA OEP was Sen Mary Landrieu who was shuffling around the lobby like a psyche patient on thorazine. She mumbled constantly as the press corps kept coming up to her giving they condolences. The only thing she uttered which could be understood was, "Those effing n*##ers" Each member of the press agreed with her, TV & newspaper reporters.
7. We were not able to go into NOLA for about a month. When we did, downstairs at recently deceased mother in law's home in Uptown looked like giants and tossed around furniture and then threw poo all over like chimps in a zoo. The stench was almost unbearable. We were able to find labor to gut all properties were flooded.
8. One evening before Thanksgiving, I hauled a load of drywall to a rental property which had been earmarked for my wife to inherit. It was not yet legally hers. I had borrowed a one ton company pickup. Home Depot near my office in Prairieville was too busy in a meeting at noon to load me up so I went to Lowes which provided actual service. After unloading the drywall by myself into one of the downstairs apartments. I was stopped by a beat up car on Freret St. 4 men in street clothes jumped out and then showed NOPD badges and asked me what I was doing there and that they had watched me enter the building. Turns out they were checking for looters and let me go along my way after seeing that I had nothing in the pickup other than myself.
9. There was nothing more reassuring than seeing National Guard patrolling the streets during daytime. I didn't care how they held their weapons. They were all quite friendly and usually had smiles on their faces.
10. Later while at Lowes near Cortana Mall, I met a couple who were from Slidell getting supplies. He was in the USCG and their home had flooded 5 miles from any water. He told me that that they had left their station in boats right after Katrina passed and started rescuing people. They had taken there boats OVER homes in Chalmette where some of the USCG members lived.
11. Also, later while at Air Products and Chemicals in New Orleans East one of the operators had recounted how he had jumped out of his second floor window into a cabin cruiser which was floating by loose to spend the night. I had gone there, with a client, ,to look at a gas turbine generator which had been dunked. I saw the water marks about floodwater height for Hurricanes Betsy and Katrina being the same. The client also owned a large generator rental business and had supplied two each 3MW locomotive engine generator, one to Belle Chasse NAS and the other to Port of New Orleans. His son, Rick, fresh out of college had come down to oversee and maintain them. He was shot at by snipers every single day at dusk as he commuted to a hotel in Hammond.
12. By end of 2005, at lunch (not everything flooded) everyone had sidearms doing anything in New Orleans. It was the safest city in America at that point. There were always as many sidearms on tables for lunch as there were plates.
13. We were able to get one of two flooded apartments repaired and functional by end of 2005. Our goal was to do our part in bringing the city back. All of the apartments were rented by students at either Loyola or Tulane. The occupants wanted to be back for the spring semester, except for one. I took my time with that one to be ready in the summer. I worked a lot of nights after my day job and weekends too. My bro in law used a contractor for his repairs and they took him to the cleaners. He easily spent $100,000 more than he needed to.
THE STENCH of the floodwaters remained for months after Katrina and took a number of rains to wash away all of those dead microscopic saltwater organisms.