Hurricane Katrina - What They Didn't Want You to See

HURRICANE KATRINA

What They Didn't Want You To See

WARNING:   THE PHOTOS BELOW CONTAIN GRAPHIC MATERIAL INCLUDING

BUT NOT LIMITED TO BLOOD AND GORE - VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

After the devastating Japanese earthquake and tsunami I realized that American media didn't really openly cover the grisly reality of Hurricane Katrina (and other US natural disaster as well). Yet ironically when a disaster strikes off of US land the 'corpse coverage' reigns in quite high in US media. Granted, Hurricane Katrina hit the US very hard and highlighting these areas tends to make FEMA and the US response to the storms toll even worse (it was already pretty bad, and they didn't need any extra icing on that 'cake'). Alas, years later the photos surfaced of the horrifying conditions that New Orleans natives had to endure is quite unsettling- and knowing that help didn't arrive for days is heartbreaking. 

"I remember the riots in Watts. I remember the earthquake in San Francisco. I remember a lot of things. I have never seen anything as badly handled as this situation in New Orleans. Where the hell is the water for these people? Why can't sandwiches be dropped to those people in that Superdome down there? It's a disgrace. And don't think the world isn't watching." - James Cafferty - CNN News

[People walk by a dead body on a street in New Orleans, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2005.Thousands of area residents still remain in the besieged city but military assistance has improved and people are being evacuated by air and bus. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)]

[Members of the 82nd Airborne walk past the body of a dead man on Union in downtown New Orleans Wednesday, Sept.7, 2005. Law enforcement officials were uncertain of the cause of death. . (AP Photo/The Times, Greg Pearson)]

[Chickasaw Nation Search and Rescuer, Casey Kelley, looks on as his rescue boat makes it's way past a home with a dead body floating in the front yard in New Orleans, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Barbara Davidson)]

[Patricia Jefferson Joseph cries after viewing A dead body at left just outside the historic French Quarter in New Orleans, La., Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)]

[A blue quilt covers the body of a Hurricane Katrina flood victim underneath Interstate 10 in New Orleans on Friday, Sept. 9, 2005. (AP Photo/Ric Francis)]

[The body of a man lies less than a quarter of a mile from the French Market in New Orleans Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005. Louisiana State Police say it appeared the white male was strangled. (AP Photo/The Times, Greg Pearson)]

[A body lies on the corner of Washington Avenue and S. Carrollton Avenue Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Irwin Thompson)]

xoxo disaster girl

P.F.S. Links for the Curious

Cryptome's Eyeballing Katrina's Dead  

The Guardian - Why did help take so long to arrive? 

Disaster Kit Recommendations - Weapons Without Machinery

Disaster Girl's Survival Kit Recommendations

Bonus items you should add on top of items listed in  previous survival kit article.

 

WEAPONS WITHOUT MACHINERY

Somewhere between Breaking Bad & The Walking Dead it became apparent that perhaps the stealthiest weapons are the ones you wouldn't traditional carry. Let's face it, guns require quite a bit of maintenance compared to knives and they also make a lot of noise. Weapons that don't advertise your location will be the most useful to have in apocalyptic scenarios, and although I don't condone the use of them in disaster scenarios sometimes you just don't know what cards you will be dealt. As the movie Aftershock kindly (& graphically, might I add) pointed out- you never know what a natural disaster can cause. If there is a devastating natural disaster looters WILL be found, and prisons may experience breaches- so it never hurts to be prepared.

 

 

BOW & ARROWS 

 

BEAR ARCHERY BRAVE III COMPOUND BOW

Retail Price: $49.95 + S&H

Via Sierra Trading Post

CROWBAR

 

LARGE CROWBAR

Retail Price: $11.50 + S&H

Via eSafety Supplies

MACHETE

 

GERBER GATOR MACHETE

Retail Price: $13.99 + S&H

Via Fleet Farm

PICK AXE

 

NEW CHINESE MILITARY SURPLUS PICK AXE

Retail Price: $14.99 + S&H

Via Sportsmans' Guide

It's always a good idea to have weapons that aren't guns!

xoxo disaster girl

Disaster Girl Comic! - Part Two

xoxo disaster girl

(Disaster Girl Comic have a permanent home at the bottom of the 'Meet Disaster Girl' page)

Boyan Slat's Impressive 5 Year Plan

Boyan Slat's Impressive
5 Year Plan

"Millions of tons of plastic debris are polluting world's oceans.

Plastic reaches the oceans mostly from land through rivers and waterways, and then accumulates in 5 areas of high concentration, called gyres. 

Not only does it directly kill hundred-thousands or even millions of aquatic animals annually, its fouling may spread harmful algae and other invasive species, and furthermore serves as a transport medium for pollutants (including PCB and DDT), accumulating in the food chain.

Plastic pollution costs governments, companies and individuals millions of dollars in damages per year, due to loss in tourism, vessel damages and (inefficient) beach clean-ups.

The ultimate solution to plastic pollution is clear; we need to close the tap, by ending our reliance on disposable plastic items/packaging, we need proper waste management globally, and we need to become aware of the problems our garbage is creating. 

It will require drastic changes on legislative, industrial and individual levels of society.
However, even if we close the tap, we need to get out what's already trapped by the currents of the gyres.

We'll need a combination of both worlds, and we'll need them soon." - Boyan Slat

THE OCEAN ARRAY PLAN

USE YOUR ENEMY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Problem: The plastic is not static, it moves around.
Solution: Why move through the oceans, if the oceans can move through you?
Fix the sea water processors to the sea bed, and save vast amounts of funds, manpower and emissions.

SMART USE OF BOOMS
Problem:Oceanic 'Garbage Patches' are huge, and cleaning them up would result in huge amounts of by-catches.
Furthermore there is a huge variety in debris sizes.
Solution: By using floating booms instead of nets, much larger areas will covered.
No mesh means that even the smallest particles will be diverted and extracted. No mesh - together with its low speed - will result to virtually no by-catch.
Although this hypothesis still has to be tested, even the planktonic species - due to their density being close to that of the sea water - may move under the booms along with the water flow.

COMBINING TECHNOLOGY WITH THE ENVIRONMENT

Problems: A clean-up operation would generate significant emissions. Besides that, in high seas much plastic would escape.
Solution: The platforms will be completely self-supportive, receiving their energy from e.g. the sun, currents and waves.
And by letting the platforms' wings sway like an actual manta ray, we can ensure contacts of the inlets with the surface, even in the roughest weather.

FINANCIALLY PROFITABLE

Problem: Conventional clean-up ideas have never been financially realistic, let alone remediation of millions of square kilometers.
Solution: This concept is so efficient, that we estimate that by selling the plastic retrieved from the 5 gyres, we would make in fact more money than the plan would cost to execute. In other words; it may potentially be profitable.

Hopefully Boyan's plan will see fruition soon!
(The plan is still undergoing testing.)

xoxo disaster girl

P.F.S. Links for the Curious

Boyan Slat