People have been asking questions about the fires in California and possible government help and I see people answering concerning what happened and is happening with Katrina. Why are people wanting to compare the two when they are totally different disasters and require different responses?
I guess my biggest question is why people are upset and mad over help for California? I see answers that go ‘the gov. shouldn’t, they didn’t do this and that for Katrina’. Shouldn’t we all have learned from Katrina?
I have a few ideas. The first one is just plain, old-fashioned ignorance. By that I mean, they believe everything they hear spoken by some political talking head on the evening news, rather than investigating the facts for themselves and forming their own conclusions.
The other idea is that some believe all catastrophes are the same. No, they are not. They’re as different as, well, fire and water…
September 29th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
maybe because both displaced a lot of people, thats a good enough reason i think
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September 29th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
because it was handled so badly.
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September 29th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Because they are both disasters no matter what the situation with the government as the topic they are counted as the same
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September 29th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I think its because, its kinda recent and it was pretty big and disastrous.
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September 29th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Because Katrina is an example of what happens when a disaster gets the wrong (or no) response.
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September 29th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
They do seem pretty similar to me. People are being displaced from their homes and requiring much of the same assistance as katrina victims needed.
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September 29th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Because Katrina was a very recent event - and is still in the memory in many people’s minds. The Californian issues are being referred to Katrina because it was the last big natural disaster to happen recently, and was also well covered by the media so the details are very accurate.
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September 29th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Thank you for having the brains to realize that these two disasters cannot be compared. Frankly, Katrina was a couple of magnitudes greater disaster than the California fires…not too mention that Katrina probably affected more than a thousand times the land area.
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September 29th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
california got relief right away, people were stuck for weeks in katrina.
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September 29th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Because Katrina was such a massive disaster - an entire American city was virtually destroyed because of poor planning, bureaucracy and just a lack of consideration for the mostly poor, black residents of New Orleans. It became the benchmark against which all disasters will be compared for the next few years at least.
Plus FEMA is involved in both the New Orleans and Californian disasters.
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September 29th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
well its a tragedy, most people compare every small thing that happens to them ( that’s bad) to other tragedies.. people also compare to 9/11 and the tsunami
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September 29th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I wondered the same thing. Especially with some the Katrina Victums still displaced and some still living in Trailers.
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September 29th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Well in a sense they’re both natural disasters and people look at it that way. That’s why there’s the big comparison specially in the way that President Bush is reacting now with the wildfires and how he reacted with Katrina.
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September 29th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
yeah you are right but there all disasters no matter how they happen because in all everybody lose
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disasters
September 29th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
both were natural to some extent. there is speculation that some of the fires were man-made. they were both very destructive and both will render a lot of people homeless. both will take government intervention to repair. i think the similarities are blinding. what will be interesting, i think, is to see how quickly and aggressively the gov responds when a bunch of million dollar homes full of rich people vs a bunch of small homes full of poor/middle class people.
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me: a sociology student conducting a survey on marriage & weddings at http://geocities.com/sbiv37/ i’d love your input.
September 30th, 2009 at 12:35 am
Because it destroyed homes and families in America at a time of war and recent. Also because it showed how heartless the government can be. If Katrina took place in Idaho or somewhere thats predominately caucasian, it would have been handled wayyyyyyyyy better and faster than it did in New Orleans where blacks were mainly affected.
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September 30th, 2009 at 12:43 am
probably because of the respence of the government and the public
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September 30th, 2009 at 1:21 am
I have a few ideas. The first one is just plain, old-fashioned ignorance. By that I mean, they believe everything they hear spoken by some political talking head on the evening news, rather than investigating the facts for themselves and forming their own conclusions.
The other idea is that some believe all catastrophes are the same. No, they are not. They’re as different as, well, fire and water…
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September 30th, 2009 at 1:27 am
The Katrina disaster is a prime example of how people were failed and help was not initiated quickly enough nor were people supported both during the event and after. It’s something to be avoided and it’s important to bring it up whenever another disaster happens so the government and emergency services know how not to do things.
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September 30th, 2009 at 1:57 am
the media has been really hyping up the comparison between the 2..i agree they are different but at the same token i know people are waiting to pounce on the government if there is quicker response or more relief to the victims of the fire..
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September 30th, 2009 at 2:39 am
Overall, the problems are the same: An environmental disaster has hurt, killed, or displaced, a large number of people, and the powers-that-be seem incapable of handling the situation, or even of preventing it in the first place (not that they could, given the awesome powers of Mother Nature; even if the fires were set by a carelessly thrown lit cigarette, it was a very dry season that caused the timber to be so dry; of course, one could make a circular argument from that, but, let’s not go there!).
Likewise, whether a terrorist blows up an entire building with thousands of people in it, or a car bomb with nobody in it, there will be inevitable comparisons to "9/11".
It is easier for people to compare an event to another, even if they don’t match 100%.
Here’s hoping that all your disasters are trivial ones!
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September 30th, 2009 at 2:54 am
Not all people do–Just the TV–Democrats–since-since the demo crates ran that area-for 45 years–and the whole situation with Katina was so screwed up–the TV news people want everyone to think all things are caused by Bush and Republicans-as a matter of fact–THE ONLY place is ever hear Katina is on TV Cnn-ABC-NBC_MSNBC-NEWS[And people in NewOrleans–just set there and waited for goverement to come save them–Californian’s–they think more indipentantly–and dont set and wait fir Goverement to come and do everything for them
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September 30th, 2009 at 3:21 am
I think it’s b/c people need to see some sort of comparison b/t the two disasters. Yeah they’re not the same, but the potential damage and the damage/chaos/pain/death the fires have and may cause can be compared to the same of Katrina, I think that this way also shows people how serious it can be and has been for the residents of this problem.
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September 30th, 2009 at 4:06 am
Because they are both disasters, ruin lives, take lives and ,leave many hopeless and without homes and help, and will take much to rebuild and clean up, and ruin habitat for animals and our beautiful land. Believe me when they said it could take ten years for Katrina victims and the state to rebuild, it’s no exageration.
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Louisiana resident
September 30th, 2009 at 4:31 am
because Katrina’s aftermath is still felt.
people dont mention hurricane Andrew anymore. 1992 - $26,500,000,000 in damages. ($38.1 bil in 2006 dollars). Katrina doubled that and more.
they are different - but they’re like children, people want them all to be treated the same.
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September 30th, 2009 at 5:05 am
It’s kind of inevitable for people to compare disasters. The human mind is drawn to negative experiences, as this helps people avoid future negative experiences of the same type.
The government response to Katrina was simply awful, on all levels. The firefighters and police at the scene on 9/11 ran into burning buildings to help people. The police in New Orleans ran away. The disaster planning in New Orleans was worse than inadequate, it was criminal. There were no plans to evacuate the hospitals and nursing homes. There were no supplies of fresh water, food, medications and health care personnel at the Superdome. The biomedical research labs at Tulane University contained bacterial specimens that could have unleashed a plague upon the survivors; the State Police collaborated just in time to destroy these things before they could cause a really enormous disaster. As it was, decades of valubable cancer research at Tulane were wiped out..To make it all worse, this disaster was foreseen. Every level of government failed, from the city Council to the Mayor to the State Police to the Governor’s office to the National Guard to the federal agencies involved.
People in southern California had their own ways to evacuate. For one thing, they were all rich enough to have their own cars, something that was not true of Katrina victims.
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Former nurse
September 30th, 2009 at 5:21 am
There are a lot of differences, some man made, some beyond the control of man. But when you show pictures of the people of New Orleans mostly black, begging for food, and you show the accommodation of those in Ca. that show tent and tent with cell phones and Internet access free, yoga classes free, star buck coffee free, and so on an so on. The fact that all these services are provide free because they are donated, and the people of New Orleans were stranded and no one could get to them, it’s still unsettling and it has been said that, " A pictures is worth a thousand words" . But being New Orleans is still not being restored, it might be more true than not
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