God Spare New Orleans

[shoot]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

Can someone explain to me why in the hell people would be shooting at the rescue crews and fire departments? What is going through these people's minds?

spend any amount of time in the ghetto and this question becomes self -explanatory

[BigV]

Having not spent the time in the way you've described, perhaps you have some insight to us ghetto-experience-poor dwellars. *Why* in the world is it a good idea to shoot at these people? I really can't imagine an answer to that question.

[shoot]

I wasnt trying to imply that it is a good idea to shoot at the rescue workers, but from experience I do know that very little these people do makes any sense to a logical mind, so I was not suprised at all to hear that sniper shots were being taken at a helicopter evacuating a hospital. It makes no sense at all therefore it makes perfect sense.

[BigV]

ahh. that explains it.



*wanders off....*

[Elspode]

Listen to the Mayor of New Orleans blast the relief efforts...

[shoot]

Originally Posted by Griff

I was listening to the nuts on progressive radio today. Someone needs to let them know that the Governor of Louisiana is a Democrat. The ball was in her court initially and she failed to get the poor and infirm out of that city. We can pile on Bush all we want but let's spread the blame to all responsible parties.

Hello there, a bright light in a foggy room. This is obviously a major failure to plan on a LOCAL level folks. Before this storm came in every politician in town was saying how they had been waiting and preparing for this storm for all of their lives. Can anyone identify a single action that was planned? The idea of using the Superdome came at the very last minute. Is there anyone down there who didnt know that this was coming? You cant live below sea level by the sea. And to make matters worse the problem has only been compounded over time by continuing to raise the levees and straighten the river and drain the wetlands. Disaster planning and response begins on the local level, the plan in New Orleans was apparently RUN!!

Originally Posted by OnyxCougar

Has anyone heard from Busterb or the other Cellarites in the area?

Busterb lives in Bay Springs, just north of New Orleans. Haven't been able to find any info on the town, but many places in that region seem to be low on food or out and the same with drinking water, and electricity. Ice is being distributed. Hope Busterb is OK.

[tw]

Originally Posted by bigw00dy

Here is yet another slideshow of the devastation

Most telling are the pictures that do not exist. Such as lines of C5A transport planes lined up in Louis Armstrong International discharging troops and supplies AND taking victims out of New Orleans. That picture assumes the disaster leadership and administration was not in denial for 5 days.

When Air Force 1 arrives in Louis Armstrong International, how much food and water will it bring for the people of New Orleans?

[tw]

Originally Posted by shoot

Before this storm came in every politician in town was saying how they had been waiting and preparing for this storm for all of their lives. Can anyone identify a single action that was planned?

Go read about the Ted Koppel interview last night of FEMAs director. Read the interview of New Orleans mayor. They had been complaining for years about the 17th Street Canal levee that was not finished for two years when federal resources authorized by Congress suddenly could not be found. Need I tell you where the levee broke?

FEMA already did an exercise just for this event. They knew that 100,000 people might not have resources to leave the town. FEMA knew this disaster was coming days before and did not even bring in fleets of flatbed trucks to take the people out. The town was declared a Federal Disaster Area long before Katrina arrived. And yet still FEMA made no effort to provide transport for those people.

You can also blame the Governors. Within hours of the storm, already loaded National Guardsman should have been moving south in AL LA and MS. It is not the long term planning that is at fault. New Orleans should have been more than just flooded. It should have been pummeled by hurricane waves accross all broken levees. New Orleans suffered little of what FEMA knew was coming. Yet FEMA cannot even address that problem. FEMA did not even have plans to immeidately setup air traffic control in nearby airports. Insteaed, cars drove to those airports to distribute satellite telephones. What kind of response is that? Same as the American response to a Tsunami only a year ago. Pathetic.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by marichiko

Busterb lives in Bay Springs, just north of New Orleans. Haven't been able to find any info on the town, but many places in that region seem to be low on food or out and the same with drinking water, and electricity. Ice is being distributed. Hope Busterb is OK.

What Little I just found :

Jasper County Damage
Jasper County, Miss.
Andrea Williams

"It's major! There's no gas for vehicles! No water for people! It's MAJOR!"

Jasper County Civil Defense Director Joe Springer is describing the situation in and around the town of Bay Springs.

"We have major power outages. All of our water wells are down. The hospital is out of water," says Springer.

According to emergency responders, Jasper County was one of the hardest areas hit. In fact, the roof was taken off a mobile home during the storm. Not only that, but officials say it took them three hours to rescue a woman who had been hit by a tree. During that time they say they had to cut trees from Bay Springs all the way to Heidelberg and then into Jones County just to get her some help.

While most of the hardest hit areas in Jasper County are still covered with too much debris to reach, we did talk with two residents who are now dealing with damage.

"It took the whole roof off," says homeowner Barbara Tatum Turner. "It took the porch first and then it went taking the top off."

"It makes me very upset! I paid it off eight years ago," says homeowner Nancy Evans who lost everything in the storm.

While Stringer says it will likely take weeks to have power and phone service fully restored to the entire county, he says what makes it worse is that the county doesn't have ice or water to disperse to those in need. Despite this, residents we talked to say as with Hurricane Katrina, “This too shall pass!”

"It's gonna be alright! says Turner, "I'm going to make it, someway, somehow, we're going to make it!"

[Trilby]

That gave me goosebumps, Glatt. Oh, I so hope busterb is OK! My prayers to him and his family. Just damn.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by marichiko

Busterb lives in Bay Springs, just north of New Orleans.

Well, we do know that he lives against the fence of the prison.

We know that he has been putting up vegetables all summer.

We know that he is a very resourceful gentleman.

We know that he has a lot of friends in his community.

I hope that at least some of this works in his favor.

[BigV]

This just in--Superdome to Astrodome transfer of refugees is ended. The Astrodome is full. No Vacancy. Next step, tent cities and get crackin. Likely in Texas, with plenty of open ground for mass scale temporary housing.

[Trilby]

I've one question: Where are the French? It's their city!

I am sooo sad over all of this. Then I hear news about snipers shooting at hospital evacuees...then I read wolf saying we're all just one paycheck away from savagery, and I have to agree with that...but, man. This is bad. This is third world shit. Where is America?

[Elspode]

This shit *is* America...it is America without cable TV, air conditioning, SUVs, big stereos, fast food.

Pay close attention, folks. History tells us that we're going to see more of this at some point. It may be a different cause, but take away the stuff that keeps the underprivileged and politically suppressed docile, and see what comes about.