9/1/2005: NO from satellite before/after

The images above are too large for IotD, and too wide.

I have avoided any disaster shots because none of them told
any more story than we've seen otherwise, until now.
The USGS landsat project offers up
these wild shots of the changes between August 24 and August 30.

via Boing Boing

Doesn't look that bad from up here. I don't know what everyone is so upset about.


Actually, in all seriousness, it is a major tragedy. I can't bear to see anymore pics, video, or hear the stories coming out of the South. I got really sad when I found out that one of the best resturants, Pascal's - famous for their bar-ba-que shrimp, is probably submerged as we speak. All I am seeing is pictures from Canal street, anyone know how the French Quarter faired?

These are the type of shots I like best, for showing the scope of differance. I see lots of areas that were green, but now are blue. Thanks for the pics. Scary.

It is an interesting shot indeed. The differences seem subtle at first but if you take some time looking at the picture you see loads of flooded areas. note the part in the upper left of the photographs, it is completely gone in the second photo. I'm from the Netherlands so the whole disaster is pretty far away from me but I see it on the news all day and it IS indeed a terrible disaster. I wouldn't wish this to happen to anyone.

I'm new here by the way; read loads of posts on the forum and became particularly interested in joining when I saw that the topics discussed here weren't the usual rubbish. So anyways, hello to everyone here.

welcome Ero!

Regarding the second picture:

plthijnx offers up this before/after:


The Associated Press has this clickable-zoomable version which is probably the best of all such items.

I am at a loss of words in reference to my feelings for these poor folks.
Someone said today: "build a city in a big hole and this is what you get".
Disaster doesn't cull anyone. I could be next. A hurricane spawned tornado killed a few folks 20 something miles from here. Mother Nature is cool, but can cop a bad ass attitude at times. I respect that.

Look and learn, boys and girls. When the shit hits the fan, you have to be self sufficient for a month before you can get help from the ponderous agencies that the government commands.
Most people are not prepared for a 24 hour power outage, let alone a tragedy of this magnitude.

Right from the git-go, they were saying things like it would take several days or a week to get the city services (sewer, water, pumps) back to normal. What were these people thinking? Haven't any of them seen the aftermath of a flood?

After you get rid of the water you have to deal with the mud, trash, furniture, rugs, etc. That's assuming the building is structually sound.
Then about a million gallons of bleach because everything's been soaked with sewage and oil. You can't live there while you're doing this either.

Scale this up to an entire city....a week.....try months. But first you have to move the people somewhere else. People that have lost all there possessions and their jobs for the most part. They'll need a hell of a lot more than sandwiches and bottled water......and quickly.

For what it know; it seems like a REALLY BIG mess in NO... I've never saw an American person with a high function becoming so emotional and say f*ck as much an interview as I saw the New Orleans mayor say today. It certainly shows the mess of the situation.
By the way; i heard that anarchy has affected the area... I saw people plundering, I heard about gangs of rapists ravaging about the place, people shooting at rescue helicopters and even cops who have been looting stores... It is a big mess...

I live miles & miles away but it even makes me emotional... My sympathy is with all of you Americans.

Yes, NOLA Mayor Nagin's interview was heartbreaking but very impressive. I have a ton of respect for that guy after that--his righteous anger and lack of sugarcoating.

And thank you to Happy Monkey and cbane for posting the Fats Domino rescue article links. This has been an awful day for me, and not just because of New Orleans (which would be enough), so it helped immensely to have some fucking good news at last.

You know what's kinda sad? With the greater loss of life and infrastructure in Indonesia and Thailand in last December's tsunami - we never heard about lootings/rapings/murderings like we are from New Orleans. No wonder aid agencys are holding back until the Nat'l Guard restores order.

I honestly believe that when the troops see someone with a weapon, they should get one warning to drop the weapon and if they don't immediately comply, they get brain ventilated. Start that with lots of people watching to spread the word and the bad guys won't dare come out and play. Then the heavy urban search and rescue teams, the red cross, fema, etc. can get in there and start doing their jobs.

/soapbox.

That's the key--we never heard about those things. Doesn't mean they didn't happen. And I doubt the amount of attention those things are currently being given in NOLA is proportional to the frequency among the whole population there.

We do need more security forces there for sure--for crowd control if nothing else, which, given the conditions in the Superdome and elsewhere, I'd wager is a bigger problem than "criminals roaming the streets."

So, those troops and supplies Bush promises are on the way between smirking press conferences and photo ops can get there aaaaany day now...

This link is to an excellent Scientific American article (pfd) explaining New Orleans position with cross section illustrations of the city in relation to the lake, river and ocean.
You'll like it....guaranteed.

btw...My boss is in the Air Force Reserve.....He leaves Tuesday for N.O.

Bruce - if the rowdies keep shooting up the military/fire department/police... there might be a career advancement in your future!

my bad. hope he's gonna be ok.

He's been in 24 years, I'm sure he stay out of harms way.

No promotion, I wouldn't last a week as boss.
They have to do what they're are told whereas I prefer to do what's right.