God Spare New Orleans

[OnyxCougar]

I was of the opinion, on day 3 (Wednesday) that martial law should have been declared to quell the looting and such.

Now I am of a different mind, for a few reasons.

1) With no food or water getting into the area (strange that people with guns can get in, but not backpacks with MRE's...) there is no other recourse but to (a) walk out or (b) break into buildings and get supplies from local sources until evacuation.

If the response had been what everyone was expecting it would be but turned out NOT to have been, then yes, looting would have been simply unconscionable. However, with the current state of things, NOT fending for yourself, by whatever means necessary, is the unconscionable part. Please understand, I'm not talking about "fending for yourself" as in raping women and children (rumoured to be happening) but I think at this point, looting to keep yourself and your family alive is the best thing you could do, short of walking out to safety.

I also have a few questions:

1) If troops (cops, rescuers, whatever) with guns can get in to "control the crowd", why can't the crowd get out to food/shelter/water/supplies?

2) Why aren't people simply leaving the Superdome? Seems to me MORE people are being rescued offsite, by the coast guard or whoever, than are being rescued from the superdome and convention center. I'd be a walking/swimming/crawling fool before I stand/sit/whine that no one is coming to rescue me.

3) If people are being prevented from leaving, WHY are they being prevented from simply walking to somewhere safe, with supplies?

The government has failed these people but still they wait around and do nothing. You know, I might die trying to get out of New Orleans, but it's better than starving to death, waiting for an evacuation that never came.

[wolf]

It's going to be hard to fix stuff, if the local cops keep shooting the repair guys.

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by wolf

It's going to be hard to fix stuff, if the local cops keep shooting the repair guys.

Doesn't that article say that the cops shot and killed the guys who were shooting at the contractors? I don't read anywhere in that where cops were shooting at the contractors, anyway.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Doesn't that article say that the cops shot and killed the guys who were shooting at the contractors? I don't read anywhere in that where cops were shooting at the contractors, anyway.

I didn't see cops shooting contractors either...

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by Iggy

I didn't see cops shooting contractors either...

I just found the answer to this one...it seems that the report was issued in error originally, and it did say that cops had shot Corps employees. This was later corrected.

I knew Wolf wouldn't have botched something like that. She's a sharp cookie.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Doesn't that article say that the cops shot and killed the guys who were shooting at the contractors? I don't read anywhere in that where cops were shooting at the contractors, anyway.

That's what the article said originally ... I knew I should have cut and pasted the content as well as linked ...

[Griff]

I saw that on an Aussie paper site but I think everybodies backing away from that story now.

[warch]

From the staff of the New Orleans Times-Picayune Sunday 9/4

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

[warch]

Sorry for posting lots of quoted text, but he says it so well.
From Sunday's Face the Nation:

SCHIEFFER: Finally, a personal thought. We have come through what may have been one of the worst weeks in America's history, a week in which government at every level failed the people it was created to serve. There is no purpose for government except to improve the lives of its citizens. Yet as scenes of horror that seemed to be coming from some Third World country flashed before us, official Washington was like a dog watching television. It saw the lights and images, but did not seem to comprehend their meaning or see any link to reality.

As the floodwaters rose, local officials in New Orleans ordered the city evacuated. They might as well have told their citizens to fly to the moon. How do you evacuate when you don't have a car? No hint of intelligent design in any of this. This was just survival of the richest.

By midweek a parade of Washington officials rushed before the cameras to urge patience. What good is patience to a mother who can't find food and water for a dehydrated child? Washington was coming out of an August vacation stupor and seemed unable to refocus on business or even think straight. Why else would Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert question aloud whether New Orleans should even be rebuilt? And when he was unable to get to Washington in time to vote on emergency aid funds, Hastert had an excuse only Washington could understand: He had to attend a fund-raiser back home.

Since 9/11, Washington has spent years and untold billions reorganizing the government to deal with crises brought on by possible terrorist attacks. If this is the result, we had better start over.

[NICOTINEGUN]

God, You're a racist!!!!

[Urbane Guerrilla]

And yet some 50% of Americans still say George Jr was doing a good job. Where does this denial really start?

The denial starts with Y-O-U, tw. You just simply cannot believe in being fair to Republicans, so you rave and slobber and disgrace and degrade and embarrass yourself in a silly, misguided, makes-the-Left-look-dumb effort to place blame for everything even unto the Ice Ages on people to the right of MoveOn.org. That is why everyone to the right of MoveOn.org thinks you're not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. That would be approximately 280 million Americans, tw.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

The denial starts with Y-O-U, tw.

This from someone who rewrites history to conform to his preordained political agenda? Your name would not be George Jr per chance? You did say no one expected the leeves to be breached? Sorry. I must have you confused with someone of lesser intelligence.

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

The denial starts with Y-O-U, tw. You just simply cannot believe in being fair to Republicans, so you rave and slobber and disgrace and degrade and embarrass yourself in a silly, misguided, makes-the-Left-look-dumb effort to place blame for everything even unto the Ice Ages on people to the right of MoveOn.org. That is why everyone to the right of MoveOn.org thinks you're not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. That would be approximately 280 million Americans, tw.

Nah, I think denial is spelled "UG"! You really want to tell us the government did a brilliant job on this one?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Rewrite history? Ballocks and balderdash. I rewrite nothing, but merely read it better than you do. It's always going to be that way.

You did say no one expected the leeves to be breached? Sorry.

Sorry is right, you hemipygian stumblefuck, and you damned well should be sorry. I never said that and don't recall that anyone in this thread did.

Indeed when it comes to thought, you're beyond lame, tw. You are an amputee, scrabbling around on a four-wheel dolly.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

Sorry is right, you hemipygian stumblefuck, and you damned well should be sorry.

Insult and four letter words are the first symptoms of those who always know - facts be damned. The resulting frustration from having 'knowledge not based in reality' are insults and four letter words. Having said this, let us see how long it takes for Urbane Guerilla to post without insulting. Sounds like this could be an IQ test.