Mardi Gras

[Preacherman]

I understand that Mardi Gras in New Orleans has been cancelled for next year.  It's being replaced with a new festival - "Muddy Gras".

[El Tejon]

I'll bring my canoe!  Mardi Gras won't be the same with a bunch of Hoosiers drifting by in a canoe arguing over which spinner bait to use.

[charby]

All I know is that I am glad I live a few thousand miles from the gulf coast.

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

Uh, perchance in Tornado Alley?

- NF
(missing a :neener: smilie)

[charby]

Tornado.. geez so freaking isolated and damage is restricted to a narrow path. I'll take at most a mile wide strip or a storm that can cover hundred of miles wide path of damage. Least you can head to a low spot like a basement and its over with in a few minutes or less.

I've only been near one tornado that could have turned nasty, was camping and the tornado was headed towards us and at the last second it hopped up in the air and changed directions. Trees 1000' from our site were uprooted and moved elsewhere.

The rest I have particapated in occured well out harms way from me.

[crt360]

They may not flood your house, but tornadoes are no foolin'.  I've been way too close to some and viewed others from a distance.  I saw the one that hit Jarrell, Texas a few years ago.  I drove around and checked out the damage it did.  When I saw where it sucked up not only the houses, but also their concrete slab foundations I gained a new respect for them.  The stuff you usually see on TV is a bunch of busted up homes with stuff strewn around the yards.  Some of these places in Jarrell were just wiped clean - no debris - nothing but a dirt patch with a little grass left here and there.

As for Mardi Gras, I think I'll give them a couple of years to clean up before I head back that direction.  I feel sorry for those folks.  That's going to be one filthy hole for a long time.  Now when someone tells me they caught something unpleasant in N.O., I'll be thinking Malaria or Cholera.

[Azrael256]

Look up the stats on violent, non-tropical storms in general.  Flooding is fifty times the killer tornadoes are.  I've seen no less than ten in the last five years.  Not one of them has caused serious damage, and I only recall one fatality.  It was some idiot who ate a chunk of 2x4 while standing outside watching the tornado.

[crt360]

Those stats are probably true.  One reason floods kill so many people is the lack of respect for them.  I wonder how many of those flood deaths were a result of idiots thinking they could drive through water flowing over a bridge or low water crossing.  I'll never forget one day when I lived in San Antonio during a rare flood.  A friend and I sat in his truck and watched one driver after another ford a seriously raging creek that had crossed the road.  A couple of guys in an old '70-something lowriding Monte Carlo or Riviera slowly drove in until the water reached the hood/window sill line - we were certain that they were going to be washed away - and then they emerged on the other side like a sub surfacing.  Others were not as lucky.  As I recall, at least five people drowned that day doing the same stupid thing and hundreds had to be rescued.  I believe that was the day the city got mad and started charging $500 or so for high-water rescues.

Every once in a rare while you have something like the Big Thompson Canyon flood that comes with little warning and escape is difficult, but I'd be willing to bet that most flood deaths could be avoided if people used common (or at least I thought was common) sense, paid attention to the weather and left flood-prone areas when authorities advised them to.

[Justin]

Is it still too early to make a joke about ordering a hurricane?

[MaterDei]

"That's going to be one filthy hole for a long time."

New Orleans has been a filthy hole for a long time, especially the French Quarter.  Cancelling the Mardi Gras is the first good thing I've heard come from this tradegy.

[Art Eatman]

Justin, are you referring to that old joke?

Two old guys flying to a vacation spot.  They get to talking; they're both retired.  One says he lost his factory to a fire, and he's taking the insurance money and retiring.  The second guy says his very successful business was destroyed by a hurricane, but the flood insurance let him retire.

The first guy asks, "So, how do you start a hurricane?"

Art

[toro]

We went to New Orleans in 1980 during Christmas week.  Everything was newly painted and it was a lovely time to visit.  We visited the French Quarter and the above ground cemetery.  My son was 13 years old at the time.  We took a picture of a head stone with a name that was on the head stone just to show people what these above ground graves looked like.  We put the picture in a scrap book and when my son was 20 years old his girlfriend looked at our vacation scrap book and said, "How did you get a picture of a grave with MY last name on it?"  Seven years before we just happened to take a picture a grave with the name of the girl he was going to marry.  Strange:)

The shot show was in New Orleans in "I think" 2001.  Well, whenever it was there.  It was so run down we couldn't believe it.  We stayed at a Motel out of town and drove back and forth.  We were warned not to go to the French Quarter or the cemetery because of the crime.  What a difference 21 years makes.  I felt like crying.  We left early and went to Disney Land.


                                                 Mrs. Toro


========================================
Ezekiel 7:23
Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

[P95Carry]

Looks like ''shark fin soup'' is available!

No - I shouldn't jest - the situation down there and many places is just horrific - and seems worse by the day.  Those of us safe and sound further north - give thanks.

[Monkeyleg]

For some ten or more years, I've been promising my wife that I would do whatever it takes for us to be able to live as close to New Orleans as possible. Clinton, Mississippi, Natchez, whatever.

It breaks my heart to see the devastation in NO. It also makes me realize that I might not be able to deliver my promise.

Things have changed in the French Quarter since we first visited it on our honeymoon in 1977. Bourbon Street became a place for twenty-something's to learn how to drink--and throw up on the street.

Nonetheless, we have so many favorite haunts in other parts of the vieux carre that it doesn't matter. I just hope that those places weren't destroyed forever.

As for people driving stupid (or doing other stupid things): just about every last phrase from a stupid guy is either, "don't worry, it's not loaded," or, "hey guys, watch this!"