California Fires vs Katrina NFL Stadium?

Maybe the people in California are more informed of what to do in the case of wildfires, especially since this happens more frequently than a cat 4 hurricane.

As a San Diego resident that was evacuated for 3 days, you ask a very good question.

This had no advance warning. The sporadic Santa Ana winds were not this strong since 1939.

I guess people listened to the evacuation orders (500,000 people evacuated) no matter if they had an hour or 5 minutes to get out.

The city officials took charge and really did a remarkable job.

Maybe we learned some from the Cedar fires 4 years ago.

It's horrible when the winds make it that the air control can not be used...........nor at night.

But as far as hurricanes, that happen every year.......and many of them......?

Be prepared and follow orders.

Help one another.

God bless the firefighters!

Noone is pointing out an important distinction... Downtown San Diego is still there. The local infrastructure allowing a local emergency response is still intact. If people's homes were the only things destroyed in New Orleans, you'd have seen a lot less desperate a situation. Let's face it, in New Orleans you were pretty much on your own. You can't really say that about San Diego right now.

If you really want to continue examining the race/class question, look at NYC where you had a massive blackout in the 70's that led to widespread rioting and looting, but the same scope of blackout in 2003 resulted in none of this. The ethnic breakdown of the New York area has not really changed in 30 years. What is different now?

First of all remember unlike San Diego the Superdome (NFLstadium) was damage there wasn't any electricity and the streets were not passable for supplies to get through also having disease flood water up to your neck was a major contribution to the civil unrest .

I am a black man and I do agree you , there isn't any excuse for the murders,rapes and robberies, but look at it from this perspective 60% of the police force abandon the city in time of need not to mention that the national guard did not show up until six days later ,people were desperate and they children literally were dying in front of them because of the lack of basic necessity of food and water.

To address your last comment the average home listing in San Diego is about $600,000 thousand dollars and those people owning those homes were most affected by the fire and they own cars, unlike Katrina the storm hit some of the poorest neighborhoods in New Orleans and didn't have any means to get out, they were to poor to own cars and the local goverment didn't provide any transportation to help them get out.

I must also address to you ,the response from the goverment in Katrina and San Diego is like night and day. I am happy that the people in San Diego were able to make it through this horrible ordeal with minium of three fatalities if I am correct .New Orleans lost over 1800, those are confirmed dead I am pretty sure there was more but I don't have a definite number.

I just wish New Orleans (black people) wasn't FEMA guinea pig to get it right !

It's a richer area, and they all had cars and gas, so they COULD evacuate.

There's food there, and water, and bathroom facilities.

In New Orleans, the roof was blown off the stadium, and the rain came in. It's not raining on the San Diego evacuees.

They had no food, the bathrooms didn't work so they had to make do, and live with it.

Also, the reports of violence were WAY overblown; there might not have been any evidence of violence at all. The few I had heard about turned out to no be true.

But if you'd been in the rain and without food for DAYS, you'd be crabby, too.

Heck, in San Diego, people are giving free masages to relieve people's stress.

They're eating catered food. There's water, functioning bathrooms, and the weather is comfortable -- warm and dry.

I think that because many of the victims here in So. Cal. in the fires are a whole differnt class of people. Most homes in So. Cal. just to start are well worth $500,000.00 or more. These victims are homeowners and working people, middle class and upper middle class, and some probably very wealthy. Some just got in there cars and checked in area hotels. Unlike Katrina in New Orleans those victims sadly were in much poverty and probably very desparate and fustrated that help was not coming to them fast enough. Plus there local officials just didn't help these people.

First, in CA, we have the "governator" and first responders who are well funded, well equipped and well trained in San Diego and most of CA. First responders being fire, police, EMTs, etc, etc.

We had great inter-agency cooperation with many counties including inter-state cooperation w/ help from neighboring states including Arizona, Nevada.

The homes in Rancho San Bernardo and Rancho Santa Fe areas of San Diego start at 3/4's of a million dollars and all the tax base resources that accompanies that. Many of those citizens also had their own motor homes parked in the NFL stadium.

In Katrina, you had the very very indigent people living in shacks, under 6 feet of water; some w/out phones; most w/out basic transportation; and rightfully mis-trustful of first responders (police corruption there is legendary). Couple that w/ an abysmal lack of local and state leadership and you have a recipe for disaster.

ARE YOU F***ING KIDDING ME??????

First off.. the reports of violence were over blown... the police were tapped out, the necessarary supplies were not there.. in fact.... people were trapped on the roof for FIVE days...

an ENTIRE city was destroyed... and the media plays a huge part in this.. the reports of violence were reported over and over again....simply untrue

This is what you do..

place those same people in that NFL stadium and isolate them.. they can't leave.. for at least 5 days

then take away the supplies that they have.. there aren't any.. no food, no water, no diapers.. no clean blankets for a son with asthma

then.. make it known.. that not only are the houses gone, the businesses are gone.. but the ENTIRE city has burned to the ground.. I think you will find VERY different circumstances would actually take place.

I evacuated from New Orleans.. to a place with stores.. clean beds, water... and I didn't steal anything, rob anybody, i wasn't raped.... and I am black... I didn't take shoes.. or TV's.

The comments that I have read on this board are amazing.

the differences continue to come in...

1155 homes destroyed.... in NO over 80,000

people going the Qualcomm there because of concern over AIR QUALITY???????? in New Orleans.....people were in the dome for Survival.. in fact many wandered through the water to get there.

in Cali.. entire parts of the city burned.... in New Orleans.. the entire city( minus 20%) under at least 3-12 feet of water... the entire region of southeast LA under water.

FEMA is there.. as they were not in New Orleans..

Communications have not been disrupted as they were in New Olreans

Bush actually knows about the fires.. he didn't ( or so the story goes) in New Orleans.

people are able to return home.. they have been gone for only 3 days

The evacuated residents are not refugees.. they are evacuees...

I am glad to be from New Orleans......and will be happy to live there Hurricanes and all.

You people disgust me.

i've been wondering the same thing. i saw a couple on the news that were at the stadium in san diego, and they said "as soon as we got here, we started volunteering to help". quite the contrast to katrina. i also heard there was arts and crafts for the kids in san diego, and acupuncture waseven available!! people in New Orleans couldn't even get drinking water!! i think the entire situation really says something about our society and where we are.

How is it that bush can go to the rescue right away for California but for new Orleans it took so much longer before people actually got food, water and help? People in New Orleans had to go on t.v. and beg before they could receive anything. I mean i know that a wildfire is different from a hurricane but still if he really cared he would have acted much faster on the situation.

You're in error. The rumors of robbers, rape, and murder in the stadium in New Orleans were proved to be just that, rumors.

As for differences in conditions:

The people in New Orleans were enclosed in a building with little or no water or food, deprived of Red Cross support, and without external community support. Authorities had no clear direction of how to support the people, and wouldn't help because they believed the same rumors you did.

The people in California have wi-fi enabled shelters, where rock n roll bands entertain while the folks nosh on donated gourmet food.

"...unable to control themselves"

Next time? Get your facts straight before you slam a group of people who have suffered enough.