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While I hate to ask, and you don't know my kids, I'm posting this everywhere. My son and daughter-in-law got boated out of their apartment complex last night, but they're pretty much going to lose everything they have. We're helping with what money we can, but we could use help. Even small amounts add up!

Donovan & Lizzie Flood Relief by Gregory Mahan - GoFundMe

The kids were living not far from the Amite River, and had some pretty bad flooding. It's weird to me that this isn't getting much more national news coverage.

Yeah, we're pretty floored by that.

I assume it's because "flooding in Louisiana" is not unusual enough to qualify as "news."

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

I assume it's because "flooding in Louisiana" is not unusual enough to qualify as "news."

--Patrick

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I suspect the presidential race and the Olympics are drowning out other news coverage

The flood happened over the weekend, a slow news time typically, but the riots happened at the same time and essentially drowned it out, along with the olympics and some untimely comments by a certain rascal wannabe politician.

Further, the flooding "only" affected 40,000 homes, and resulted in deaths in the low double digits.

Compared to Katrina, which affected 500,000+ homes and resulted in triple digit deaths, this wasn't as big. Not only that, but the changes the administration made in FEMA and other response agencies means that they are much better able to deal with situations like this than they were in Katrina's time.

Lastly, sad as it is, and destructive as it is, if you look at the list of floods since Katrina this is notable, but not unusual for states containing the mississippi and its larger tributaries. This specific area rarely receives floods (and thus flood insurance is unnecessary, which is only going to be all the more devastating for those affected) but the area of the flood, and the number of people affected isn't much more than those that do live in flood plains, and the media has simply stopped reporting on flooding unless it's multi-state or affects millions.

Despite that, the public seems to be aware of it, and many, many people are providing support in various ways.

All this means that Obama's golfing trip wasn't interrupted, which I'm sure he appreciates.

PatrThom said:

I assume it's because "flooding in Louisiana" is not unusual enough to qualify as "news."

--Patrick

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"Flooding" might not be. But this particular flood was worse (water wise) than Katrina. Areas that didn't flood in Katrina were flooded in this storm. nearly half of the Louisiana parishes have been declared disaster zones. Even shelters that flood victims evacuated to had to, in turn, be evacuated because the flood waters kept rising. It seems newsworthy.

Then again, I am starting to see more mention of it on national news sites today, so maybe, as Steinman suggests, they were slow to respond due to other "more interesting" news over the weekend.

It's certainly been all over the news here in Houston.

If it wasn't for this forum, I wouldn't have known about it, except a -maybe- 2 minute blurb at the tail-end of the late night news around here. Between our national news, the Olympics, Brexit, Syriah, American elections, all kinds of small attacks all over Europe (France, Germany, Belgium, not a day go by without at least one place getting someone with an axe, or a sword, or a gun, or a bread knife,.... attacking some people - for example, last week a guy walked into a police office near here and started cutting up all female officers) which make news now more than before,... there isn't much place left over these days.

MindDetective said:

I suspect the presidential race and the Olympics are drowning out other news coverage

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Er, no pun intended. Yikes.

stienman said:

All this means that Obama's golfing trip wasn't interrupted, which I'm sure he appreciates.

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Did you have an actual point to make here?

DarkAudit said:

Did you have an actual point to make here?

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Yup, he did, and he made it.
I caught it, loud and clear.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

Yup, he did, and he made it.
I caught it, loud and clear.

--Patrick

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I thought he was just referencing Dubya's horrible crisis reaction times. But I just looked it up and saw that Obama was golfing. Hilarious.

Let me get this, um... straight (sorry). When it happens to other people, it's "God's wrath for tolerating teh gays.," but when it happens to YOU, a rabid anti-gay crusader, it's...

Tony Perkins said:

an incredible, encouraging spiritual exercise to take you to the next level in your walk with an almighty and gracious God who does all things well

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He goes on. He says those hit by the flood should rejoice that God considers them “worthy of suffering for his sake.”

I had a co-worker say that Super Storm Sandy was God's punishment for the wicked New Yorkers. I replied "What does that say about Texas? We've had 25 hurricanes since New York was last hit."

DarkAudit said:

Did you have an actual point to make here?

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http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_ro...b11a-a393ff25161d.html?sr_source=lift_amplify[DOUBLEPOST=1471546355,1471546171][/DOUBLEPOST]Don't worry, though. He is adjusting his vacation for super important things, like the Clinton campaign fundraiser.

A man's gotta have priorities.

Dunno where else to stick this. Just nice to see that the U.S.' immigration arm can be compassionate in situations like this.

stienman said:

http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_ro...b11a-a393ff25161d.html?sr_source=lift_amplify[DOUBLEPOST=1471546355,1471546171][/DOUBLEPOST]Don't worry, though. He is adjusting his vacation for super important things, like the Clinton campaign fundraiser.

A man's gotta have priorities.

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You might want to dial the snark back a bit. The Governor specifically asked Obama and Hillary to stay out of the way for now.

Yeah, the President coming to town is a clusterfuck of logistics. Obama came here a few years back and they just shut down one of the major highways that connects downtown to the suburbs.

Correct, yet people are still angry at bush's choice not to visit Katrina in the early days of that disaster. Why are they holding Obama to a different standard?

This isn't the politics section, y'know.

Yall don't forget to go bicker in Ravenpoe's go fund me thread. This is helpful and supportive.[DOUBLEPOST=1471703322,1471702856][/DOUBLEPOST]...Well now I'm not seeing another Gofundme thread, but my point still stands. You're being obnoxious.

If you're going to talk political crap in a thread about how my kids became homeless and a plea for help for them, please feel free to drop $10-50 in their fund. Then at least I'll feel a little better about it. And, you know, they might be able to buy some more groceries and stuff.

I wasn't going to say anything, but seeing how others have risen to my thread's defense, I decided to weigh in.

To update on their situation: They're not "hard core homeless" any longer (though they were for maybe 24-36 hours)..they have a roof over their heads. They're staying with some other friends, some of whom also got displaced by the storm--6 of them in a one-bedroom apartment. Hoping that the management doesn't find out and evict the lot of them before they can find new places to hang their hats.

They've gone back to the apartment to see if they could salvage anything, but everything is pretty much lost. Much of the furniture is intact, but there's no getting the smell of raw sewage out of it. My daughter in law has found a video on youtube for supposedly cleaning clothing that's been through that kind of thing, but I don't hold out a lot of hope of success.

Tinwhistler said:

My daughter in law has found a video on youtube for supposedly cleaning clothing that's been through that kind of thing, but I don't hold out a lot of hope of success.

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It can be done, but the methods (if they're the ones I think of) work best on colorfast synthetics. Anything made of leather is probably gonna be toast.

--Patrick