Frustrated Fond du Lac residents look for answers
June 22, 2012 at 7:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
Two days after their historic far western Duluth neighborhood was cut off from the rest of the city by unprecedented flooding, some Fond du Lac neighborhood residents were growing impatient with what they termed a lack of communication from the city.
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Interesting- reading the 2 separate articles of the 2 neighborhoods which were most effected by the storm- Fond du Lac and West Skyline- the Fond du lac article was slanted to make the people sound like they are a bunch of whiners and the West Skyline people were portrayed as a neighborhood that has banded together to help each other and have come up with ingenious solutions to make the best of the situation. There were so many negative words in the Fond Du Lac article and the West Skyline article used positive words. I’m just saying- 2 completely different outlooks.
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Since the flooding, authorities keep telling everyone to stay out of dangerous situations. But what does the News Tribune do? They post a photo of a man riding a motorcycle across the St Louis River. How many kids are going to look at that and think they can ride a bicycle or something across the same place without any problem? WAKE UP!!
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I know all areas are dealing with devastating damage with the flooding but this article is right, – there’s plenty of photos of other areas & damage throughout town, but has been little mention of the area out west (some of the worst flooding) & how the residents were evacuated – scattered and displaced, (which I am sure we are all grateful for being evacuated from a dangerous situation) but the lack of information put out for contacts etc, has been frustrating to say the least. Most people out there still have not been allowed anywhere near their homes to even assess the damage little lone begin the cleanup., and it could be another week before some of them even get a look at the properties. None of the damage is the City’s fault of course, but information goes a long way in relieving some of the stress.
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People wake up, you as a whole are very unprepared for any type disaster. Do you have food, water, fuel, no most can not last two days let alone a week. Don’t blame or rely on governmental agency’s for help as they have no responsibilities under law nor in most cases abilities. I feel the loss of those in need, but the whining turns me off, Fond Du Lac is in a flood zone, you should have had some preparedness..
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“Food, water, fuel”? Remove your head from the post-apocalyptic clouds — this is a flood, not a zombie epidemic or airborne toxic event — and at least recommend something compact and useful, like cash money, if you’re going to carp at other people for not doing what they need to do. Otherwise, it just sounds like you’re setting yourself up for the same lamentable situation.
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I don’t know, Bob. When you write about not having any faith in the gov’t I don’t disagree with the sentiment, but a lot of people who talk that way want to (poorly) advise me to buy gold and a pallet of .270 rounds. They tend to think that talking loud will be mistaken for speaking intelligently. Since you’re such a sharp tack I’m sure that you aren’t splitting topics in one paragraph, referring both to immediate needs and the ideal state of independence from third-party aid, either.
Also, where do people tend to keep their emergency supplies? In their living room? In their attic, in case of gas attack? My money’s on the basement or garage. And who wants clean water and powdered chili in a situation such as this? You can buy the same thing with money, and a bank will be happy to store it for you.
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Regardless of the doomsday prepper tone of the post, Bob is right.
Many of the people were not prepared for the most likely cause of a disaster in their area, which is a flood.
I think the point of the post was not to say prepare for the worst, it was prepare for the possible. If you have a supply of food, water and fuel it will do a lot to get you through ANY disaster; whether it be flood, earthquake or… zombie apocalypse.
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This is no different than New Orleans, people deciding to stay when they were told to leave at a safe time and now complaining and blaming the city for their problems! fact is they should have left when they had the chance and are now temporally isolated from the rest of the world. Next time? Listen to the city’s warning and get the heck out!
Give me all the thumbs down you want however its the truth!!
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I am glad someone brought up NO. I used to watch those people in that stadium wading through trash-I thought- couldn’t they organize themselves and help out and start collecting it and putting it in piles. I got sick of hearing how people from the North were spending preciuos vacation time going to NO to help and then turning on the TV and seeing the “locals” sitting out on the streets in chairs drinking beer and grinning and waving at the cameras- and whining about where the government was to help them out. Lif has taught us to keep a good supply of essentials including medicine – which many people overlook – in case of winter storms and we can’t get out- but in the last few years we keep them year round.
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Wow – some of you are pretty judgemental aren’t you? I can’t help wonder how many of you were “prepared” for two feet of water in your basement, or the highway giving out, etc. the people of Fond du lac do live in a flood area but it has been 60 years since a flood anywhere near this happened. The people of Fond du lac went to bed Tuesday night like the rest of you, checking their properties and on alert. But most of them were awakened at 4am with 5 minutes to get out (you can’t tell me that MN power didn’t know that they had to open the dam rather than allow it to break before this.) – People aren’t “whining” – Interesting though to see the comments. Poor communication was the problem here. No one is expecting the “government” to fix things for them – just not to keep them out of their neighborhood without communication on what is going on and when they can get back in. simple huh? Were the rest of you barracaded from going near your home? – no, I didn’t think so.
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Elizabeth B said:
“No one is expecting the “government” to fix things for them – just not to keep them out of their neighborhood without communication on what is going on and when they can get back in. simple huh? ”
Perhaps not really simple at all. Perhaps they aren’t telling them when they can go back because…They don’t know.
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Gee maybe you should check your facts. The river side of FDL is in a flood zone but the highside of 23 is not. The residents on the river side were taken out in the middle of the night.They brought a dumptruck in for a 2nd evac but unfortunately no one informed the residents of this. It was not flashed accross the local tv station or on the radio or better yet, piped in on the emergency system that goes off the first Wed of the month and tells you its a test. We lived on rumors for three days, don’t drink the water, or it will be two weeks before you get out. All we wanted in FDL was a little communication. We were NEVER told to leave or was their any warning from the city. I know that some wanted to leave but weren’t taken out til Friday. So Tim, u want the truth there it is!
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I recall hearing on both tv and radio that they were asking the residents of FDL to leave and there was a temp shelter set up at the copper top church! This was well in advance for all to get out, so how much more of a warning do you need??
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While I’m sure it’s difficult for the residents to not know what’s going on, I’m sure it’s equally difficult for others to answer their questions.
You can’t tell people what you don’t know and it seems as though the situation out there is not only ever changing but, a lot of it must be just a ‘wait and see’ type thing.
No one can really predict when the water levels will come down and they can’t know the extent of the damage until they do.
Frustrating on many levels. Prolly time for everyone to just put on their big kid panties and deal with things the best way they know how.
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I see there is understanding in the community. Never intent that the sky is falling, just we as a society have become too dependent on the “convenience store” and all too much reliance on government…
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The answers are in the basement and you have to dig for them.
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