French Quarter Idiots Vie for Darwin Awards

Parent Cafe
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<p>NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) – By Sunday, thousands of people had evacuated New Orleans, leaving behind a shell of a city…</p>

<p>For some, leaving was a no-brainer. But for others, deciding to stay was just as easy. </p>

<p>Johnny White’s never closes. The Bourbon Street pub didn’t shut its doors once during Katrina, so the booze will not be interrupted here for Gustav.</p>

<p>“Turbo isn’t going to let anything happen to us,” bartender Marita Jager said, nodding toward her German Shepherd lying in the doorway, gnawing on a turkey leg. “He protects us from everything.”</p>

<p>This is the kind of joshing the regulars at Johnny’s love to give out-of-towners. It’s a tiny “hole in the wall” by one person’s description, with a jukebox and two televisions usually playing a ballgame.</p>

<p>On Sunday, of course, the TVs were tuned to CNN and the Weather Channel, but the laughs and conversation drowned out the volume. </p>

<p>“People need somewhere to go for some normality,” said Jager, pouring a gin and tonic. “We’re gonna stay open for the whole thing.”</p>

<p>No one is leaving New Orleans whose butts are planted on Johnny’s wobbly bar stools. They repeat the chorus of many who decided to face Gustav. I will not leave my home. I survived Katrina so I can deal with a Category 3. I can’t afford a hotel or gas or meals. I don’t want to leave my animals.</p>

<p>There is defiance in their words. To stay is a way of telling Katrina, by way of Gustav, you’re not going to hurt me again.</p>

<p>But Marcie Ramsey is scared. She wipes tears away and puts out her cigarette. She is planning to bartend at Johnny’s throughout Gustav if it hits during her graveyard shift. …
[Defiant</a> few remain in French Quarter as Gustav approaches - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/08/31/gustav.scene/index.html]Defiant”>Defiant few remain in French Quarter as Gustav approaches - CNN.com)</p>

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<p>Downright wrong to deny someone’s right to earn a living and live where they want to live. Marcie is going to have an easy work shift and may be a double of triple shift at Johnny White’s. Hope the talking heads and crew, give her good tips.</p>

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<p>Well, how wrong would it be to let them swim or … sink without providing any help whatsover after Gustav hits the area? How about anyone endangering himself trying to save those morons, let alone dying?</p>

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<p>Letting a dog gnaw on a turkey leg (brittle bones are health hazard) - not smart. Staying put when a major storm is threatening to wipe out the entire city - downright idiotic.</p>

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<p>^Marcie has made her decision and has been informed that no help will be forthcoming if it endangers the responders. She has made a voluntary decision, just as those made a decision to make a voluntary evacuation.</p>

<p>At what level and point do we want Government to interfere in our lives? It is the national debate, isn’t?</p>

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<p>“downright idiotic.” is a reserve term of Cheney and W.</p>

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<p>That’s telling 'em. Completely devastating.</p>

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<p>Actually, if you absolutely MUST stay in New Orleans for some reason, the French Quarter would be the place to do it. It’s one of a very few parts of town that is above sea level. It is for this reason that the French Quarter had very little flooding during Katrina.</p>

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<p>I thought that the police can enforce evacuation orders.</p>

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<p>As a general rule, yes, police have the power to evacuate people forcibly. But there may be state or local rules against it, and even if they have the legal power to do it, they might choose not to.</p>

<p>I don’t have a problem with adults staying behind someplace like the French Quarter that’s very unlikely to flood. Kids would be a whole different story. Tonight on the Weather Channel, one of the in-the-field correspondents was talking about the people he’d met who decided to stay behind because the kids asked them to! Unbelievable.</p>

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<p>If you can not stay behind, blame the government for interfering with your life. If you stay and no one comes to your rescue, blame the government for ignoring your pleas for help. The government is always at fault!</p>

<p>I thought the evacuation was mandatory, but it looks like it is not.</p>

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<p>Add to all of the idiocy: The people in the article are not only staying behind, they are staying behind while boozing it up. As far as I’m concerned, one would have to be alcoholic to make that kind of decision. I guess they didn’t want to miss the real last call.</p>

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<p>But as was already said, the FQ is in little danger. It did NOT flood dangerously the last time. Maybe these people know what they’re talking about and are making an informed decision.</p>

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<p>What about wind damage?
What about drinking water?
What about getting food in the aftermath of a hurricane?
What about armed looters?
What about having no power for weeks?</p>

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<p>It seems that the idiots may get lucky this time. Gustav appears to be less fierce than Katrina.</p>

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<p>NSM, I believe people dealt with those issues during Katrina in the FQ. You can stockpile food and water. And some of that is mindset issues. Lots of people live in areas that may be more dangerous than where you’re willing to live. And most will be fine. I think it’s a different mindset, but that doesn’t automatically make it idiotic. Depending on how they’ve prepared or not, it might make them so. But not necessarily.</p>

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<p>NSM, those people in the FQ are in very little danger, but it has more to do with little to lose and despair than real danger - they probably wouldn’t leave if a Cat 5 was headed straight for them.</p>

<p>I kind of feel the same way about people living on top of the san Andreas Fault, that would make me crazy.</p>

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<p>This hurricane paralyzed Cheney and W. Will hurricanes or any of god’s natural phenomeni likewise paralyze the future’s leadership of America?</p>

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<p>Bush and Cheney were probably behind the palm trees huffing and puffing hoping to stir up a breeze so they wouldn’t have to make an appearance - right next to McCain with a leaf blower hoping for exactly the same thing. </p>

<p>I just wish the reporters would try not to be so disappointed that Gustav didn’t destroy New Orleans. I swear they seem to be rooting for the water to breach the levees.</p>

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<p>I saw that too, Cartera. As long as GW Bush is on the planet, the press will gleefully blame him for anything that goes wrong, anywhere. Thus the media’s hope that there will be gigantic damage.</p>

<p>A few weeks back I saw an article about the Gaza Strip, and how the Bush-backed Israelis had cut off the import of supplies and how utilities were not constant. To flesh out the hardships faced, the author focused on a woman who had to go to two different hairdresser shops before she found one with electric power sufficient to get her hair done, and on the taxi ride back from the second one, the taxi ran out of gas. Obviously Bush’s fault.</p>