The people of the Napa Valley are just stupid. Who would live in a place that floods every few years?
If you’ve watched any cable news you know that Napa is flooding. Again. Just as it did in 1984, 1986, 1996 and 1997. Authorities are worried that people who live in the flood plain AND REFUSED TO MOVE will get flooded again.
This time a levee broke adding to the damage. What moron lives in a place where they need levees to stop flooding? Why don’t these people move?
It’s not like they didn’t know these floods were coming. They are right in the middle of building a flood control project to try to stop mother nature.
Think of where these idiots live. In Napa VALLEY. When it rains in the mountains where does the water go? To the Valley! These people are surrounded by mountains; they live in a bowl, of course they will flood again. That’s why they should move.
We will just have to accept that we’ll have to pay $4 per gallon for grape juice. Or we can leave the grapes in place then bus people in to work the crops.
And why didn’t more of these people evacuate when they saw it raining? They are all living in multimillion dollar homes, its not like they couldn’t afford cars!
And lastly, what about personal responsibility??? Why didn’t these people get out there themselves on nights and weekends and build better levees themselves? They waited for a government handout to build their levees. If they had taken any personal responsibility for the levees they would not have flooded.
Rather than spending another tax payer dollar protecting an area WE KNOW will flood, let’s just abandon Napa Valley and move the people to higher ground.
Update Sigh: When I wrote this, I was (Duh!) joking about the metal ability of people from Napa. After reading the comments, now I think I might have been closer to the mark in my humor than I thought. Please if you are from Napa, read what this is filed under and read the comments.
Paul, I didn’t blog about it at the time, but California was quite worried about their own water-works after Katrina. That’s one of the reasons I advocated in my blog that the country needs a national Advisory Committee on Levee Safety.
On the other hand, Florida still has the “it-can’t-happen-here” mentality, which is really nutso because water-works royally messed up the Everglades. Some people don’t live and learn.
>That’s one of the reasons I advocated in my blog that the country needs a national Advisory Committee on Levee Safety.
S2,
I obviously have no clue who or what build the levees or when in Cali… But having said that, having ANOTHER levee break makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I suspect it will be investigated more toughly than it would have been 6 mos ago.
If it is a Corps levee (which is likely) then some people are going to start asking some questions.
I almost never agree with -another- Advisory Committee but somebody somewhere might want to take this more seriously. The thought that we could kill another thousand people (or more) ain’t a good one.
(Unlike many people…) I’m waiting till we learn more about it. Right now it is troubling.
BTW- Since you are following this stuff, FoxNews seems to have the best coverage when I was watching. One of their guys lives out there and knows the situation. -P
Let ’em drink wine.
you suck. i live in napa. we’re not all rich, and the whole place doesn’t flood, just certain parts. and that levee didn’t break, the water crested over the top, which has never happened before. also you don’t get your grape juice from here, you’d have to look at the san joaquin valley for that. how sad for you that you have to be so critical of other’s misfortunes just so you can wax pomposity over our misfortune. every geographical area has their downfalls! our valley is so beautiful and most of us are blue collars, not rich people. get your facts straight before you speak out of your uptight, pompous ass.
What part of Utopia do you live in? Never had a natural disaster where you live? You will. Maybe it won’t hit you personally. But it will get someone in your family or circle of friends.
Natural disasters can happen anywhere. The folks that are flooded in Napa, for the most part, are NOT the rich people you think of when you picture Napa. They are the working class; and that is where they can afford to live, in this over-priced location. It is affordable, for one reason, because it is in the flood plain. Perhaps they are second or third generation Napans living where their family has always lived; and they can’t afford to move anywhere else. FYI: a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house around here costs easily $650,000. Rent in a similar house can be over $2000 per month. Less near the river.
People stay where they are, in times like these, to protect what they have; what they work hard for. There were a lot of people out last night putting up sandbags; working hard to protect what they have.
Get over yourself. I hope that when it hits the fan for you, people around you are more compassionate than you.
Jim – thanks for backing up the rest of us napans! It’s all so sad here right now, but the other thing they don’t know is we Napkans band together and take care of each other. The rest of you should take a lesson from us! I hope you did okay.
Jim and Pat… They do have satire in Napa don’t they?
>What part of Utopia do you live in? Never had a natural disaster where you live?
Yeah…. It’s called Katrina.
Everything I’ve said about Napa has been said about New Orleans 15 times over. Perhaps now you know how silly those comments are when made about New Orleans.
Check what this is filed under guys.
Guys, Paul put this post under two categories, the second of which is not “saltire,” which refers to a diagonal cross such as that on the Alabama state flag.
Missed it by that much.
[/Maxwell Smart]
Hey, as long as New Orleans is part of that deal, go right ahead.
Don’t ya just love it when people fail to read the word “SATIRE” at the bottom of the piece?
Where do you live Mark?
Rather than spending another tax payer dollar protecting an area WE KNOW will flood, let’s just abandon Napa Valley and move the people to higher ground.
I really don’t care whether or not people in Napa Valley move to higher ground. I just don’t want to subsidize the ones dumb enough to live in a 100 year flood plain.
I’m well aware this is satire, but I’m sorry, you’re a fucking idiot. I live in Napa, and I’m dry – only parts of the valley are flooded (downtown napa and parts of the north valley). And, by the way, levees didn’t break. It’s called a flash flood… ya see… it rained 5-10 inches in different areas last night. Also, while the flooding has affected tourist areas, it has mainly screwed over lower and middle class residential areas.
The difference is that in a week Napa will be dry. Now, how long did it take for the flood waters to recede in New Orleans? Count me as one person who still says that we don’t need to spend billions of dollars re-building a city that is a constant disaster waiting to happen.
we do see the word “satire”, but we who have just gone through this flood fail to appreciate the satirical side of your comments. perhaps you fail to understand the human condition enough to have boundaries. while you can type your words under the guise of satire, it’s patently obvious your underlying truth – you think we’re all fatcats who are idiots for living where we live and you capitalized on our tragedy.
any way you look at it, your comments are inappropriate and insensitive.
Pat Paulsen had the good sense to grow his grapes in Sonoma, where folks could understand that his tactics of using outright lies, double talk and unfounded attacks in his presidential bids were indeed satire. Seems like there’s at least two folks in Napa who still wouldn’t get him either.
One of the most entertaining nights I spent as a fly on the wall was at the bar at Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena. The rich and wannabe rich were out in force and it was better than watching Falcon Crest. While Jim and Pat claim not to be in the same tax bracket, not many can afford the prices of homes or rent their unless they are, or lived there all their lives…
Very true, it is a satire, however it misses the mark. Satires are typically true to point and this is not. Yeah, maybe us “idiots” who live here should move, and maybe people shouldn’t live on the coast, or for that matter in the gulf, or on hills, or anywhere else. With people like you… maybe we all should drown. But what’s the fun in that. I like Napa, I liked waking up early this morning and walking two blocks to see Lincoln flooded… I like the beauty and awe of mother nature even when she’s being a real bitc#. And if you think I’m an idiot for that, then I pity your in-ability to enjoy life good or bad. By the way, “grape juice” doesn’t come by the gallon. But don’t worry, I won’t blame you for your stupidity… I’ll just blame the mass media. Satire, I’ve written better satires on the toliet. I give your “Satire” two flushes down.
oh and by the way, you aren’t “subsidizing us.” we would have to be insured for floods for that, and most of us aren’t technically in a flood plain – even though some of us got hit hard by a creek, not the river! but oh , you’re being satirical – riiiiight. the bottom line is you guys who don’t live here don’t know jack about what you’re saying.
Hmmm.
Personally what I think is really needed is a national water system. We’ve got a national power grid. National highway system. National rail network. So basically we can move just about anything anywhere *except* water unless it’s in small tanker cars.
A system of regional reservoirs, cache basins and trunk pipes to connect local, state and regional water systems into a national network would cost billions of dollars to build but then it would save billions of dollars in use.
Isn’t it ironic that some areas of America are literally drowning in water while other areas are begging for water? The single most important resource for growth, and yet the most difficult to obtain at times, is water.
Hmmm.
In case some of you visitors from Napa are unaware of this Paul has survived Katrina. I.e. he lives, lived?, in New Orleans. The reason why this is listed under “satire” is that the same stuff he wrote was written about people living in New Orleans.
It’s, you know, ironicy and stuff.
i own my own place by myself, raised a son by myself, i work for a community based non-profit. but i don’t hate on a whole class of people just because they’re rich – who cares, really? i don’t make much money yet i’m proud to have done it all by myself, and your satire disrespects my life.
underlying all the satircal comments is a common thread, getting off on other’s misfortunes and having an avenue for slamming people who make more money than yourself. we are a unique valley whose upper class supports the programs that provide services to the less fortunate. leave us alone, move onto another target. we will never fit your profile for satire.
We already pay $4 a gallon, or more, for grape juice, without a levee break. So, what’s your beef?
I suspect the point of this satire is that the nasty things said about Paul and NOLA folks post Katrina hurt – and unless you spoke out against such utterences then, you are subject to the jibes Paul has amazingly playfully set in your direction, oh Napa Valley omphalo-gazers. Your thin skin and disdain for the satire places you at more risk for ridicule. Beware.
>perhaps you fail to understand the human condition…
Pat you fucking idiot, I’m from New Orleans. Tell me all about the human condition.
>By the way, “grape juice” doesn’t come by the gallon.
They must not have Sams and Costco in Napa?
Personally, I don’t care where someone chooses to live. If someone wants to live on the top of Mt. St. Helens, go for it. Don’t care.
Me? I’ll live where hurricanes don’t happen, earthquakes don’t happen and tornadoes only happen every so often and, when they do, aren’t very serious.
I don’t think, however, that my tax dollars should pay for the priviledge of living on the South Florida coast or the flood plain of the Mississippi, etc. That’s what charities are for. I’ll donate my hard-earned money if given the chance but I don’t see much point when it’s taken from me forcefully to begin with.
Do I have a problem with paying taxes to finance our federal government? Nope. I do have a problem with being taxed for things that aren’t the federal government’s responsibility.
That being said, I hope everyone in storm-wrecked places across the country is doing okay.
Pat Pat Pat Pat I’ll spell it out for you.
ReRead the piece… Every time you read Napa, replace it with “New Orleans.” Every time you read “grapejuice” think gasoline.
Every time you read mountain think “water.”
Then read all the comments including my previous comments and epadors at 8:55.
Now imagine you read all this crap after a your city was destroyed and 1000 people killed -not because of a natural diaster- but because the Corps of Engineers flooded your town.
Then when you’ve done all that, consider your next reply carefully.
even after you explain it to them, the Cali nuts don’t get it. he is not making fun of you!!!!!! he is merely applying the same words used about N.O. to the Napa Valley to illustrate how insensitive and mean spirited they were when first said. man, California needs to get a clue!
and furthermore Brian… How the same words can be said about every region of the country at some point or another.
–Other than that you nailed it.
Pat, let us know when your hand gets sore slappin’ your back congratulatin’ yourself on such a good job you’re doing working for a ‘non-profit’ and not hatin’ the rich folk down in wine country, k? (Especially since they basically support the community non-profit who gives you your paycheck.) I do congratulate you on doing things yourself, that is an accomplishment lost in this day and age. It’s always amusing to hear someone stating with pride that their paycheck is better than someone else’s because they EARN it at a non-profit, rather than some small business or corporation. Leave your ego at the door, Pat. Really. You’ll have more credibility when you’re more humble. (And ya just might not be so thin-skinned when it comes to being disrespected, even when you weren’t bein’ disrespected in the first place…)
Obviously, Paul was not ‘wax pomposity’…(?!? what is that anyways? English? Note: now that was being disrespectful) over the misfotunes of those in Napa.. he was using it as an allegory. Made specifically to those who criticized the intellectual capabilities of residents in NO after Katrina for living there in the first place. I figure since he lost his home, he can rag on those folk criticizing better than me, since he’s lived thru it. I mean, he’s not making fun of Lorenzo Lamas in Napa, is he? Since we all think everyone in Napa is like on Falcon Crest, ya know? Right.
Oh, btw, flood insurance lesson… you don’t need to be in a flood plain to purchase it, and, since the program IS run by the federal govt, I’d say we ALL subsidize that program, no matter what state you reside in. Just because you have to purchase the flood policy to receive any benefits from it doesn’t mean that it isn’t being subsidized by the taxpayers by having the program in the first place…
I smell a troll…
Paul,
I started my post before you posted, but you did say it much more concisely… 😉
>I figure since he lost his home
I actually didn’t lose my home… though I couldn’t even try to put a number on how many people I call family and friends who did.
(huh- I never even thought about trying to count until just now.. dozens to be sure.)
I had a fair amount of damage but small potatoes compared to most.
BTW- In fairness to Pat… We are listed in google news. He probably had not heard of Wizbang before this afternoon and it is doubtful he has read my dozens of posts about Katrina much less my oft used satire.
That excuses him for the first round of comments.
After 7:48 pm he was on his own.
Paul
Keep posting this type of satire, I find it highly entertaining. Having lived through the ’93 Mississippi River flood in St Louis & indured the same comments.
Of course, I live in the Desert now, what could possibly go wrong here! 😉
I think there are a few people that shouldn’t be driving tonight posting on this thread.
>Of course, I live in the Desert now, what could possibly go wrong here! 😉
I dunno taz… I read Reno flooded too. 😉
Hmmm.
On another note; Who the hell drinks a gallon of grape juice at a time? I love those warehouse stores like Costco but some of the quantities is just plain crazy.
Dallas, now. So what? If you want to live in New Orleans, fine by me. Buy your own flood insurance, just like I have to buy hail insurance and fire insurance.
Ed
“On another note; Who the hell drinks a gallon of grape juice at a time? I love those warehouse stores like Costco but some of the quantities is just plain crazy.”
Larry King likes grape juice..I heard the radio commercial!
hello i live in napa and i went through the 1993 st. louis flood. also the leevey didn’t break. the water went over the leevey. it was really offencive when u called every body in napa idiots, morons and other offensive names. Yes, the flood plains arent the safest places to live, but why does it matter to u? And were i live, and the whole area arond me is dry! And many many other areas in napa r dry too!
I love napa, and its so beautiful, and that flood project is really helping, although it doesn’t seem so.
I live in Napa. I lived in France, Alaska and Switzerland next to truely dangerous flood areas. In corupted places, you will get the wrong buildings at the wrong place and stupid infrastructures. Everywhere I witnessed many people cheating insurances thanks to disasters and political leverage. Napa is just another place with dishonest people (greatest concentration I ever saw, also by far the most ugly ones).
Nevertheless, I wish well to victims, even from Napa.
wow – give a guy a break. we are on edge here and to read this crap makes a lot of us proud to be who we are and live where we do, and whether or not this is just some word game it’s a nasty game some of you play at other’s expense. all of napa isn’t a flood plain, all of napa isn’t rich and napa takes care of its own. but you keep writing because really where else would you get to say these things without looking us in the eyes? to the others who understand, thanks – napkans, one more time tomorrow… thoughts are with you.
The original author overreacted without checking any facts but the sky is falling.
I lived in two different places in Napa. It is not a bowl. It is in a valley. Downtown is always threatened with flooding. However, they have been making numerous improvements and are about 50% complete. But the (US and Cal) government stretched it out from finishing in 2007 to completing in 2011.
If you want stupid, check out the Russian River folks.
For one thing most of the people that live in Napa like myself have pointed out that napa doesn’t flood the entire city like katrina, 2nd they pointed out that where it flooded, yes it hit some of the million dollar homes, but the ones that were hit the hardest were those downtown of the blue collar workers in the middle class. myself i live in a fairly safe place, yet this storm surprised even us with waters rising faster than any of the floods you mentioned, including 1986. The flood project will be under inspection as of if it really does do the job it is intended to do. There will be 2 answers to that, 1. it did nothing to help and was a waste of money, 2. if it was never done who knows what kind of damage would’ve happened, could have been 3 times worse. AND FOR THE LEVY THAT BROKE… that was in novato, which is about 40min out side of napa near santa rosa.
Napa will dry out, the city draws together to help others in need, if you lived in napa and listened to our radio station, you would’ve heard those calling in asking where they are needed to save people trapped by the water, those who needed to fill sand bags and those who were openning their home for those who were forced to leave their home.
Before people judge our region we choose to live in please get all the facts straight, yes we knew it was coming, and people were preparing. Next to any place simular mold of low points will flood when you have 5-7″ fall within 12 hours.
Napa is a beautiful place to live in, which thrives on tourism which will mean after sunday nights last of 4 … yes FOUR major storm systems finally pass through we will clean up and repair what was damaged and go on with our lives.
These people are re-god-damn-diculous..
Imagine the howls if it had been Malibu, Hollywood or otehr parts of Cali? What you just heard from the outraged Napan’s (and yes, there were couple reasonable ones) is just a taste of Babs S and the entertainment crowd would be howling.
I think this just goes to prove that at least a mojo-rity of the Napans who post here:
•Have no sense of humor or irony
•Take everything they see written literally and react emotionally to it
•Don’t read what they see critically, but have no problem being critical about whatever they read, Roseanna Roseannadanna-style [minus the “Never Mind…]
•Continue to re-inforce the joy I experienced when leaving California and pity for the few sane folks left there
Paul,
I understand where you’re coming from. We on the Mississippi Gulf Coast have also been called stupid and moronic for living where we do. It’s also been said that most of the homes destroyed by Katrina were millionaires homes. While some may have been, the vast majority were middle and lower income homes. Think $30,000.00 to $150,000.00 homes. It’s also been said that those whose homes were destroyed should have had flood insurance. The majority did not have flood insurance because they were not even in areas on the 100 year flood plains maps.
Your satire hits the nail on the head. Here’s hoping that your city can start rebuilding in earnest this coming year. I started counting the number I know personally in Mississippi whose homes have been destroyed, 30 is what I come up. I can add at least 5 that I know of from New Orleans. This doesn’t even count the number of business owners I know in New Orleans and Mississippi that lost everything.
G-d bless and take care.
I’m not even going to read the threads above, but I’m going to guess that most missed Paul’s tongue firmly implanted in his cheek.