Hurricane Katrina, everyone okay?

[archer]

I seem to remember at least a couple of our members are down south; I dearly hope everyone in or near the path of that nasty mother are doing okay.

Let us know, alright?

[Sprocket]

None of us here at EON live in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, or Gulfport, right? I think those were the cities hardest hit. ::unsure

[Arcanum_V]

Let us know, alright?

That could be a bit of a trick if they're among the two million or so people in Lousiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida that have no electricity, if their computers are underwater, or if they have no cellphone service. Some places are predicting that it could be months before everyone has electricity again.

[Blue Thunder]

I live in Florida. To be honest, I'm barely watching the news on this. Most Floridians aren't phased by news of hurricanes since it's usually the same thing every year, but this one was quite a whopper, even worse than last year's. I live in central Florida (an hour north of Orlando) and we were barely touched. We just got a bunch of rain this time around. And here I was, hoping the hurricane would destroy the MTV Music Video Awards in Miami...*sigh*

And I just heard about all of the oil rigs and such that were destroyed in the Gulf of Mexico. That'll shoot up gas prices even more. Plus, Labor Day is coming up, and holidays mean even higher gas prices. I can barely afford to go into town now as it is.

I remember last year when a big hurricane hit. Hell, I can't even remember its name. But our power was out for a week. Everyone's power was out. And we were lucky to get power back in just a week. We're still recovering from last year's hurricane, it did so much structural damage.

Of course we didn't have the massive flooding that Louisiana just got, at least not anywhere near where I live. I've seen the footage of people on building roofs holding up signs requesting help and food and water. Hope help gets out there soon. Last year in Florida we actually got help faster than I expected.

Then again, Florida is more experienced with hurricanes...Louisiana seems to have been caught off guard. Fortunately they barely ever get hit with hurricanes like we do. They'll likely have years to recover before getting hit again, and hopefully they'll have more hurricane safety measures in place (like more shelter space and supply centers).

[archer]

That could be a bit of a trick if they're among the two million or so people in Lousiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida that have no electricity, if their computers are underwater, or if they have no cellphone service.  Some places are predicting that it could be months before everyone has electricity again.

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Please understand, I am painfully aware of how bad the situation is. I wanted to post this thread to make it available for anyone from those areas to let us know how they're doing.

I realize it may be a long time before anyone from the areas affected will be able to get electricity, much less the internet. But, I also know that a lot of people managed to evacuate beforehand, and may be staying with family or friends in a safer place.

I'll be honest with you. I've no real effective way with the forum software to check the location of every member registered here, nor does everyone that registers even list a location. But I am very familiar with the active posters here, and I'm thankful that almost none of the ones I know live anywhere near the affected areas.

Not everyone that visits EON or the EON forums gives a crap about whether our members are a community or not. I do. I've made friends here. I want to make sure they're okay. And if possible, I'd really like to make sure that EVERYONE that's a member here is okay, along with their families and loved ones.

[Grizzly]

Good point, Archer!

I saw photos of the Hurricane and the news are full of pictures of people desperately seeking help. I hope that they will be rescued soon.::ohmy

As for the damage, I think it will take a few years to get everything straight again. But that´s just a guess by me, I haven´t any expirience in these kind of davastation, over here there are no hurricanes and those ferw storms that roots some trees don´t count. ::scared

PS: As for the high gas prices, the actual price for one liter of unleaded gas over here is 142.9 cents ( € ) at the moment. I think, you don´t have any reason to cry. ::wah

[Blue Thunder]

I know gas prices are more in Europe (at least thats what I've been told by European Internet friends) but it comes as a punch to the gut over here in America because we're not used to it, and niehter are our wallets. Or our economy for that matter. If the gas price climb was more gradual we could adapt, but many of us that don't live in major cities drive long distances to work and it really sucks away at our cash.

I drive vehicles in my current job. Today alone, a co-worker and I spent $70 together on gas, and we each made $75 on the drive. I'm not against gas prices getting this high (since it puts America's gas costs more up there with everyone else's) but such a sudden hike is too much. Our wallets need to time to adapt.

Of course, the oil rigs in the Gulf being destroyed were unavoidable.

Question: How much is the gas everywhere else in the US? Here in Florida the lowest was 1.69, but that was from a gas station that just ran out of gas. I've seen 3.13 on the news from somewhere in Orlando. The news stations are saying we'll be out of gas in only a few days, if we aren't already.

I too have a friend from that region. I hope she's safe...

[Sprocket]

Over where I am in North Texas, the price of gas varies widely depending on where you are. I've seen prices as high as $3.20 and as low as $2.69 in the same city. Add in the factor of possible price gouging, and a person can become quite pessimistic.

(BTW, I've heard of a site called "Gas Buddy" that lists the various prices at gas stations near a given location, it might be worth checking out. It's at gasbuddy.com.)

Archer, isn't there some way you could check EON's records as to member locations? I'd hate to think that we had fellow EON posters that couldn't get out of Biloxi (for example) before it was too late... What a nightmare... ::wacko

[Nullifier]

Did you all see the storm when it was building in the Gulf? It got to around the size of Texas, and was packing 175mph sustained winds. I honestly don't know how so many people ended up staying put with that monster bearing down on them. My first thought on seeing it was: run, and run fast. I sincerely hope none of the people on EON got left behind or stayed on their own. The death toll from this thing could end up in the thousands, apparently. It's just an absolutely appalling situation.

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That being said, it's interesting to me, purely from an Aberrant gaming perspective in the same way the Tsunami was in terms of the scale of the devastation. We all tend to get a bit blase about the levels of power in Aberrant, but think about it: a starting character could have caused either event, and that wouldn't even be the full extent of their powers. The only guides we have to nova-level devastation are war and natural disasters. Seeing them should humble us, make us think twice about the levels of power we allow our characters to unleash on the world around them.

Kind of makes you appreciate the roll Utopia and Proteus play in keeping the world spinning, the environment and weather livable, and the world econmy stable. If they hadn't been there right at the beginning, chaos and disaster could have been the only results, realistically. Could you imagine, the world's governments scrambling, no one has any idea what's going on, the weather's going crazy, floods, droughts, huge storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, hail, tornadoes, etc. Emps shut down a city or two while others have their own disasters...

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Anyhow, I'm not sure where I'm going with all this, so I'll just say I hope everyone here on EON, and their family and friends, made it out alright if they were in the storm's path.

[archer]

Archer, isn't there some way you could check EON's records as to member locations? I'd hate to think that we had fellow EON posters that couldn't get out of Biloxi (for example) before it was too late... What a nightmare...  ::wacko

The only way for me to check locations of members is to systematically look through each individual profile.

I've just finished doing that, btw, and my eyes are burning. There are 626 members on EON, it took me a little while.

Here's the list of EON members that are anywhere NEAR the affected areas:

(At least, the ones that actually put something in their Location field)

avatar12

breearg

big_papa_kap

froggie

ithuriel

jessilaurn

jhereg

malckuss

malkboy

manuel

mental_floss

mikemc

nerdvana

no-sheepish

nosheep

prophet118

pryzmkess

psilord

sanctity

surtur

the-eternal-combustion-engine

tooho

wazai kayasha

winteredge

Most of them haven't been to the forums in years, and some of them(like yourself) are in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia or Missouri. I realize these are states that weren't DIRECTLY affected by Hurricane Katrina, but are close enough to be dealing with its side-effects.

[Sprocket]

Much thanks for your efforts. For my part, I can confirm that both JessiLaurn & pryzmkess are alive & well.

[Grizzly]

Yeah, the forces of nature show us our limits.

As for the gas prices, you are talking aubout $ per gallon, right?

(1 gallon= 4.4 liters)

[Sprocket]

That's right, $ per gallon. The metric system has made little (if any) headway in everyday life over here.

[phoenix]

Nashville is more or less unaffected, except by a little rain earlier this week, so I'm fine and I assume Malkboy is too.

[Blue Thunder]

The metric system is basically nonexistant over here. It appears on rulers. We even have "meter sticks" which measure meters, but everyone uses the inches on the opposite side of the meter section. And cars show kilometers (usually) below the miles per hour.

But if you were to tell me distance in km or gas in liters I would be confuzzled to the extreme.

[Ayre el KaBeer]

So far no negative reports from eon members, is that a good sign or is it too early to tell? ::unsure

[archer]

I'm hoping everyone's alright, but honestly, it's too early to tell. There are massive power outages and a horrid lack of communication to and from many areas.

[malkboy]

I'm okay here in Tennessee.. just doing alot of work to help out for people who have family affected.