Katrina-New Orleans

[DreamingRox]

Done.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

There are troops there now and a caravan of 18 wheelers full of food and water arrived today.

They are not all law abiding and that is a big part of the problem! there are people shooting at the rescue workers in boats and at the resuce helicopters! They have had hundreds of car jackings of emergency workers who are there trying to help the best they can! They cannot even go out now without armed guards to escort them! Its disgusting.

[sadie147]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

There are troops there now and a caravan of 18 wheelers full of food and water arrived today.

They are not all law abiding and that is a big part of the problem! there are people shooting at the rescue workers in boats and at the resuce helicopters! They have had hundreds of car jackings of emergency workers who are there trying to help the best they can! They cannot even go out now without armed guards to escort them! Its disgusting.

You konw i heard about them shooting at the helicoptors yesterday and that just blows my mind. This is a bad situation to begin with, these thugs actions are just making it worse. I don't know if it's true, but i heard the police are starting to turn in their badges and walk off the job? though that's hearsay to me right now..not sure if it's true.

I am up at my cottage right now, and although i have satellite television, I don't get CNN or Candian news Networks up here. and i'm almost glad. My heart can't take it anymore (it's like the 9/11 andTtsunami coverage, we're just so helpless to do anything).


and they keep showing the sheet draped bodies of those two elderly women that died that were left outside the arena, one in a wheelchair one on the ground. i cannot stand to watch that footage over and over...

I'm really happy to hear food and water are arriving now. I had not heard that yet..the last news i heard was their turning people away at the astrodome. hopefully things will start to turn around quickly.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

Its the folks at the convention center that went w/o food and water the longest not the superdome. They have also been ignored and no one from even the Red Cross even acknowledged their existance until last nite!

Here's an article that is very informative and current
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/

Inside the convention center a 10 year old girl was raped! Not everyone inside these places are good people. And they are making it difficult for the people that are trying to help and for the victims of the Hurricane that are good people!

One of the Buses that was being used to evacuate old folks was friggin highjacked! They have to have armed guards to even board these people onto buses!

In the article above one man is calling for the city to be burned down! You can bet your butt that if I was one of the people trying to help but it got to the point where I felt my life was being threatened, I'd high tail it outta there in a heartbeat!

[Finelly]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

People start acting crazy when they have been without food or water for days.

People become violent when they see dead bodies being eaten by rats, are soaked to the skin by a water that is more like a sludge of rotting flesh, seawater, oil, gasoline, and seaweed, hear people screaming for help and can't get to them, and are watching their babies go into comas due to lack of hydration.

[kkat55]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

Here's one of the speeches by the mayor:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nag...ipt/index.html

[Barbde]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

On top of all that you have the drug addicts needing fixes. Horrible. Thank goodness they are out of there.

[cagirl1]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

I'm probably late in responding to this but I want to respond to Mother Gizmo and the reason given for the lack of reponse and aid for those people.
There is no excuse that so many people had to perish. After four days of no food, water, security...I think people became desperate or lost their minds.
You would not your family to be denied help in a life or death situation because of a few idiots shooting or "looting".
I don't cry often but I cried almost every day for these poor people and prayed they were not being allowed to die because of their race or class.
Today I'm glad to see the effort ramped up. I plan on volunteering my time for transplants to Los Angeles.
Many people lost their lives to Katrina however a great many lives were taken by the slow feet of our goverment.

[Piasabird]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

And what about a city that full well knows what could happen to people who live there if a huricane should happen? Every city, especially a city like N.O. that is already below sea level, should have a disaster plan in place. It needs to be a plan to carry them at least 3-4 days until federal help gets there.

The city officials had hundreds of buses at their disposal that they let sit in their parking lots and get flooded. The buses could have been used to evacuate people or to load up with food and water to take to shelters. Let's face it, they had no plan and they couldn't wipe their own noses.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

Here is an email I received today

This published 9.4.05...........
>
> Ray Nagin's Legacy
>
> These estimated 205 school buses down in New Orleans, presumably along
with
> the 364 buses of the New Orleans Regional Transportation Authority had
> develop a total of 569 available buses.
>
> If these 569 buses were truly on hand, and each carried 60 people, then
> 34,140 of New Orleans' most needy citizens could have been evacuated out
of
> the city on each trip.
>
> According to the New Orleans' official hurricane disaster plan, these
very
> buses should have been used to evacuate the poor and needy. Ray Nagin
> couldn't follow written directions. His incompetence was lethal to
> thousands.
>
> Tell me, legal beagles, how many years do you get in Louisiana for 10,00
> counts of negligent homicide?

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

Here is another one, an open letter from an LA Citizen





An Open Letter

An Open Letter to Congressman Danny Davis and the Congressional Black Caucus (from Petruchio).

I am ashamed that you are my Representative in Congress. I am an independent, and there are a lot of things I disagree with the current Administration over. But, Hurricane Relief is not one of them. The efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Democrat Party to spin relief efforts into political gain is deplorable.

Lets look at the facts and all possible relief senerios, shall we? There are only five possible ways for Federal intervention in a disaster.

1- The President could have walked out on the waters of the Gulf and commanded Hurricane Katrina to turn back into the open sea. If he had, the Democrat Party would have rushed to the microphones to accuse Bush of grandstanding for political gain! I guess we can scratch this one off the list.

2- The President could have just marched in and taken over. This is illegal and would have resulted in demands for his impeachment along with his head on a platter. Scratch two.

3- The President could have declared that the State and Local Governments no longer exist in any meaningful way and that FEMA had to take over in order to protect the citizens. Yeah, right. As if the Congressional Black Caucus would let him get away with that! Scratch three.

4- The President could have declared War on the State of Louisiana. This was tried once. A little over 140 years ago a Republican declared War on the Southern States. As I remember from school, a whole lot of folks got in a snit over that one. Scratch four.

5- The Mayor of New Orleans informs the Governor of Louisiana that aid is needed, and the Governor calls the President and asks for help. This finally happened four days after the fact.

Think about it. On Saturday, two days before the storm, The Director of the Hurricane Center called Mayer Nagin and Gov.. Blanco pleading with them to evacuate. Nothing. The President personally called and strongly urged Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco to order evacuations. Finally, on Sunday, less than one day before the storm hit, evacuations were called for.

However, The Mayor and the Governor failed to provide any form of transportation for the poor and the needy. There are hundreds of school buses in the New Orleans Metro area that could have been put into use. Instead those buses sit under water, destroyed. And the good citizens of New Orleans were left to fend for themselves while the Mayor hid in another city.

After the storm passed, Mayor Nagin was clueless as to what was happening in New Orleans. Why? Because he was sitting in Baton Rouge, not in New Orleans where he should have been. You cannot lead disaster recovery from out of town. From the time the storm left the area on Monday night until Thursday afternoon, Mayor Nagin stood in another City and complained that he was not getting any assistance when he never asked for it in the first place! Once Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco asked for Federal Assistance, that assistance was set in motion within an hour.

FEMA had pre-positioned equipment and personnel before the storm hit. FEMA could not legally act without being asked. The majority of the Gulf Coast was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Gulfport and Biloxi are cleaning up. Emergency Services are being restored. The difference between Gulfport and Biloxi and New Orleans is that the Mayors and the Governor of Mississippi reacted properly and asked for aid right away. In New Orleans, the elected Officials failed to act in the Public Interest, before, during, and after the storm.

You can't blame the Federal Government for the failures of the Local and State elected Officials. There is no excuse for Gov. Blanco not ordering the LA NG into the afflicted areas on Monday evening to provide aid and security. That responsibility falls on the Governor's shoulders and no where else. The failure to mobilize the school buses to evacuate those without transportation falls on Mayor Nagin and nowhere else.

Congressman Davis, it is not your fault that Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Nor is it President Bush's fault. Storms happen. Cleanup, Rebuild, and move on. Don't whine and cry. Perhaps I should blame you for the high price of gasoline. After all, you did not sponsor a Bill mandating that before a refinery can close, a new refinery with greater capacity must be built to replace it. If you had pushed through such a Bill we would not have shortages now.

[Peytonn]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

I know there are circumstances surrounding why many of them didn't leave... but I can't help but think about the personal responsibility involved as well... why didn't they GET THE **** OUT OF DODGE WHEN THEY WERE TOLD TO LEAVE????? DAYS and DAYS before the shuttle buses tried to get them to the dome.... even then, many CHOSE to stay, then can't understand why someone isn't helping.

I'm sorry, and I know it's not a popular opinion, but MUCH of this could have been avoided if people would have just LEFT!

[sadie147]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

I know there are circumstances surrounding why many of them didn't leave... but I can't help but think about the personal responsibility involved as well... why didn't they GET THE **** OUT OF DODGE WHEN THEY WERE TOLD TO LEAVE????? DAYS and DAYS before the shuttle buses tried to get them to the dome.... even then, many CHOSE to stay, then can't understand why someone isn't helping.

I'm sorry, and I know it's not a popular opinion, but MUCH of this could have been avoided if people would have just LEFT!

Many of those killed and left trapped in homes were people who are elderly and disabled and could not leave. I also heard many were so poor they did not have the means to leave.

Honestly, i cannot fault people for not leaving their homes, people do it in every hurricane. Many have different reasons. many have survived such storms before and fell they can do so again. Hindsight is 20/20. Some even stayed behind because they couldn't leave family pets (i really feel i'd be one of those people put in that position so i can sympathize). Some people returned to their homes after the hurricane, thinking it was safe, not knowing that the levees would break in the middle of the night.

I think the last people to be blamed should be those that stayed behind.

I also saw people in interviews that chose not to leave when they heard how long it would take them to get out. They figured it would be safer to be borded up in their homes rather than sitting in their car, possibly stuck in traffic, maybe out of gas, when the storm hit.

[Peytonn]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

the thugs stealing the tv's and guns weren't too elderly to leave....

yeah.. it happens every time.. and every time they want to blame any and everyone except themselves!

(I spoke personally with a family who did leave in plenty of time... that came to georgia.. and he shares my view that they should have left! or at least gone to the dome)

anyway.. that in NO WAY has stopped me from contributing oveor $200 so far... and I have more to do... (my sis has arranged for us to sponsor a family that's coming to Georgia.... even getting them a car).....

but MANY of the ones I've seen that are so vocal about it were perfectly able to get on the bus and get out of the worst of it!

Personal responsibility for actions is something sorely lacking in this society imo...... the same kinda reasons why criminals have more rights than the victims... we've worked so hard to "PROTECT" everyone.... we're protecting no one

[Peytonn]

Re: Katrina-New Orleans

and if they were worried about traffic jams.. THEY WAITED TOO LATE!!!