|
|
|
|
|
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/1/2005 6:21:25 PM | This freak they call president in the U.S. is a very, very sick individual. He has waited days to call out the military, he has waited till the city became flooded, till thousands died drowned, or of thirst, or of hunger, or of infection, before sending help. He's waited till people are crazy with desperation and loss of life. It's said that thousands are dead, drowned under the attics and roofs of all those apt. buildings covered with flood. There's no food to eat for the survivors, no water for them to drink, no deliveries of medication, no anything! He *STILL* hasn't ordered all the help this city needs. What the hell is the matter with this freak? Is he insane, or just evil?
New Orleans Descends Into Anarchy
By ALLEN G. BREED, AP
NEW ORLEANS (Sept. 1) - New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken. "I'm not sure I'm going to get out of here alive," said Canadian tourist Larry Mitzel, who handed a reporter his business card in case he goes missing. "I'm scared of riots. I'm scared of the locals. We might get caught in the crossfire." Four days after Hurricane Katrina roared in with a devastating blow that inflicted potentially thousands of deaths, the frustration, fear and anger mounted, despite the promise of 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop the looting, plans for a $10 billion recovery bill in Congress and a government relief effort President Bush called the biggest in U.S. history. New Orleans' top emergency management official called that effort a "national disgrace" and questioned when reinforcements would actually reach the increasingly lawless city. About 15,000 to 20,000 people who had taken shelter at New Orleans convention center grew increasingly hostile after waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead. Police Chief Eddie Compass said there was such a crush around a squad of 88 officers that they retreated when they went in to check out reports of assaults.
"We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten," Compass said. "Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon."A military helicopter tried to land at the convention center several times to drop off food and water. But the rushing crowd forced the choppers to back off. Troopers then tossed the supplies to the crowd from 10 feet off the ground and flew away.In hopes of defusing the situation at the convention center, Mayor Ray Nagin gave the refugees permission to march across a bridge to the city's unflooded west bank for whatever relief they could find. But the bedlam made that difficult."This is a desperate SOS," Nagin said in a statement. "Right now we are out of resources at the convention center and don't anticipate enough buses."At least seven bodies were scattered outside the convention center, a makeshift staging area for those rescued from rooftops, attics and highways. The sidewalks were packed with people without food, water or medical care, and with no sign of law enforcement.
An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet."I don't treat my dog like that," 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he pointed at the woman in the wheelchair. "You can do everything for other countries, but you can't do nothing for your own people," he added. "You can go overseas with the military, but you can't get them down here." The street outside the center, above the floodwaters, smelled of urine and feces, and was choked with dirty diapers, old bottles and garbage."They've been teasing us with buses for four days," Edwards said. "They're telling us they're going to come get us one day, and then they don't show up."Every so often, an armored state police vehicle cruised in front of the convention center with four or five officers in riot gear with automatic weapons. But there was no sign of help from the National Guard.
At one point the crowd began to chant "We want help! We want help!" Later, a woman, screaming, went on the front steps of the convention center and led the crowd in reciting the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd ...""We are out here like pure animals," the Issac Clark said."We've got people dying out here - two babies have died, a woman died, a man died," said Helen Cheek. "We haven't had no food, we haven't had no water, we haven't had nothing. They just brought us here and dropped us. "Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, "'Go to hell - it's every man for himself."' "This is just insanity," she said. "We have no food, no water ... all these trucks and buses go by and they do nothing but wave. "At the hot and stinking Superdome, where 30,000 were being evacuated by bus to the Houston Astrodome, fistfights and fires erupted amid a seething sea of tense, suffering people who waited in a lines that stretched a half-mile to board yellow school buses.After a traffic jam kept buses from arriving for nearly four hours, a near-riot broke out in the scramble to get on the buses that finally did show up, with a group of refugees breaking through a line of heavily armed National Guardsmen.One military policeman was shot in the leg as he and a man scuffled for the MP's rifle, police Capt. Ernie Demmo said. The man was arrested.Some of those among the mostly poor crowd had been in the dome for four days without air conditioning, working toilets or a place to bathe. An ambulance service airlifting the sick and injured out of the Superdome suspended flights as too dangerous after it was reported that a bullet was fired at a military helicopter."If they're just taking us anywhere, just anywhere, I say praise God," said refugee John Phillip. "Nothing could be worse than what we've been through."
By Thursday evening, 11 hours after the military began evacuating the Superdome, the arena held 10,000 more people than it did at dawn. National Guard Capt. John Pollard said evacuees from around the city poured into the Superdome and swelled the crowd to about 30,000 because they believed the arena was the best place to get a ride out of town.As he watched a line snaking for blocks through ankle-deep waters, New Orleans' emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert blamed the inadequate response on the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "This is not a FEMA operation. I haven't seen a single FEMA guy," he said. He added: "We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans." FEMA officials said some operations had to be suspended in areas where gunfire has broken out. Displaced residents also expressed anger at government officials."All I want to say to Mayor Ray Nagin is thank you for helping us," Yolanda McZeal, 43, said calmly, sarcastically and bitterly. "Governor Blanco, thank you for helping us. President Bush, thank you for helping us."A day after Nagin took 1,500 police officers off search-and-rescue duty to try to restore order in the streets, there were continued reports of looting, shootings, gunfire and carjackings - and not all the crimes were driven by greed.
When some hospitals try to airlift patients, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan said, "there are people just taking potshots at police and at helicopters, telling them, `You better come get my family."'Outside a looted Rite-Aid drugstore, some people were anxious to show they needed what they were taking. A gray-haired man who would not give his name pulled up his T-shirt to show a surgery scar and explained that he needs pads for incontinence."I'm a Christian. I feel bad going in there," he said.Earl Baker carried toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant. "Look, I'm only getting necessities," he said. "All of this is personal hygiene. I ain't getting nothing to get drunk or high with."While floodwaters in the city appeared to stabilize, efforts continued to plug three breaches that had opened up in the levee system that protects this below-sea-level city.Helicopters dropped sandbags into the breach and pilings were being pounded into the mouth of the canal Thursday to close its connection to Lake Pontchartrain, state Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry said. He said contractors had completed building a rock road to let heavy equipment roll to the area by midnight.The next step called for using about 250 concrete road barriers to seal the gap.In Washington, the White House said Bush will tour the devastated Gulf Coast region on Friday and has asked his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Clinton to lead a private fund-raising campaign for victims.The president urged a crackdown on the lawlessness."I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this - whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud," Bush said. "And I've made that clear to our attorney general. The citizens ought to be working together. "Donald Dudley, a 55-year-old New Orleans seafood merchant, complained that when he and other hungry refugees broke into the kitchen of the convention center and tried to prepare food, the National Guard chased them away."They pulled guns and told us we had to leave that kitchen or they would blow our damn brains out," he said. "We don't want their help. Give us some vehicles and we'll get ourselves out of here!"
Associated Press reporters Adam Nossiter, Brett Martel, Robert Tanner and Mary Foster contributed to this report.09-01-05 20:09 | |
|
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/1/2005 10:02:24 PM |
"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this - whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud," Bush said. "And I've made that clear to our attorney general. The citizens ought to be working together. "
How about zero tolerance for suffering ? | |
|
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/1/2005 10:06:23 PM | A pity it takes something like this, on such a large scale, to show how big a FUBAR this administration really is. When will the public wake up?
Bring the troops home to take care of Katrina victims for God's sake!
Toonsmith | |
|
| |
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 1:31:22 AM | As Brits....we sympathaise with you.....but its up to you to be either/ or....is it really a case of be in Iraq or address this disaster?
If it is............................get out of Iraq.
The Iraqis want it and the rest of the world is not happy with it and neither are you.
Then at least you can help urselves with ur millions and military. | |
|
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 5:19:06 AM | Here are our "leaders" ideas regarding the disaster:
George W. Bush, President of the United States, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina: "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."
Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, following widespread eyewitness reports of refugees living like animals at the Convention Center: "I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the Convention Center who don't have food and water."
Mike Brown, Director of FEMA, referring to people who were stuck in New Orleans largely because they were too poor to afford the means to leave: "...those who are stranded, who chose not to evacuate, who chose not to leave the city..."
Patrick Rhode, deputy director of FEMA, commenting on his agency's performance after four days of steadily increasing urban warfare, deeply flawed coordination, and continuing inability to evacuate refugees: "Probably one of the most efficient and effective responses in the country's history."
Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives, providing needed reassurance to the newly homeless: "It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level....It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed." | |
|
| |
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 9:25:51 AM | | The Mayor of New Orleans said the federal government has delivered NO water, NO food, NO medications, NO anything. This thing took place Monday. Babies are dying of dehydration, old people are dying of dehydration, people are out of their MINDS insane with dehydration, hunger. This is sickening. | |
|
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 10:23:06 AM | ~ i agree Sarita. i was thinking yesterday about times when i've been slightly dehydrated,
and that slightly desperate feeling of thirst. i've never had to go very long without getting something to drink. But feeling that way, for any extended period of time would be agony
and scary. There have been people with no insulin, and other going into hypoglycemic shock from the lack of food that can put them into a coma. This is the worst handling of an emergency situation that i've ever seen.
~ And now the environmental disaster is rapidly, and dangerously escalating.
Explosions Fill New Orleans Sky With Smoke
By ALLEN G. BREED, AP ONLINE
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - An explosion jolted residents awake early Friday, illuminating the
pre-dawn sky with red and orange flames over a city where corpses rotted along flooded sidewalks and bands of armed thugs thwarted fitful rescue efforts.
Congress was rushing through a $10.5 billion aid package, the Pentagon promised 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop the looting and President Bush planned to visit the
region Friday. But city officials were seething with anger about what they called a slow federal response following Hurricane Katrina.
``They don't have a clue what's going on down there,'' Mayor Ray Nagin told WWL-AM Thursday night.
``They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn - excuse my French everybody in America,
but I am pissed.''
At 4:35 a.m. Friday, an explosion rocked a chemical storage facility near the Mississippi River east of the French Quarter, said Lt. Michael Francis of the Harbor Police.
A series of smaller blasts followed and then acrid, black smoke that could be seen even
in the dark. The vibrations were felt all the way downtown.
Francis did not have any other information about the explosions and did not know if
there were any casualties. At least two police boats could be seen at the scene and
a hazardous material team was on route.
It was the opening strike in yet another day of sadly deteriorating conditions since Katrina slammed ashore Monday morning.
" FEMA director Michael Brown said the agency just learned about the situation at
the convention center THURSDAY and quickly scrambled to provide food, water and
medical care and remove the corpses.
The slow response frustrated Nagin: ``I have no idea what they're doing but I will tell you this: God is looking down on all this and if they're not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price because every day that we delay, people are dying and they're dying by the hundreds.''
At least seven bodies were scattered outside the convention center, a makeshift staging area for those rescued from rooftops, attics and highways. The sidewalks were packed
with people without food, water or medical care, and with no sign of law enforcement.
By Thursday evening, 11 hours after the military began evacuating the Superdome, the
arena held 10,000 more people than it did at dawn. Evacuees from across the city swelled the crowd to about 30,000 because they believed the arena was the best place to get a
ride out of town.
Some of those among the mostly poor crowd had been in the dome for four days without air conditioning, working toilets or a place to bathe. One military policeman was shot in the leg as he and a man scuffled for the MP's rifle. The man was arrested.
``There's a lot of very sick people - elderly ones, infirm ones - who can't stand this heat, and there's a lot of children who don't have water and basic necessities to survive on,'' said Daniel Edwards, 47, outside the center. ``We need to eat, or drink water at the very least.''
An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.
``I don't treat my dog like that,'' Edwards said as he pointed at the woman in the wheelchair. ``You can do everything for other countries, but you can't do nothing for
your own people.''
http://news.channels.aolsvc.aol.ca/news/article.adp?id=20050902084509990005
~ According to Nightline (live) Thursday night, this lame FEMA Director was even clueless as to how many people were suffering in the Superdome. In spite of update reports, being
all over the news. He's completely useless. He's all about grand assurances and snail paced action. ~  | |
|
| |
BPMG
|
Joined: 8/26/2005
Msg: 11 | |
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 10:32:12 AM | Why did our national government only send aid from Virginia and I hear nothing about ships from Corpus Christy, TX going into the fray. Where is the rest of our national guard? We still have units available here in Texas and all of the states surrounding Louisiana. The feds are sending help, too little and way too late.
Of the people that were able to evacuate and wound-up in my area, many are planning on staying. I hope they do. Their kids are being accepted into the Dallas school system as we speak. These cities have been slashing budgets left and right to keep a police force and the Dallas school system can’t afford to pay teachers a decent salary. Yet, we welcome these people with open arms and that’s the way it should be.
Bring ‘em into Texas, we will find them places to live and food. Screw the budget, these are our brethren. I would go one further. If I still had my F150 pickup, I would risk life and limb to rescue anyone I could from New Orleans and other hit areas, if that would actually help.
My best support can only be done from here, helping the ones who were fortunate enough to get here and to give as much as I can to the Red Cross. You should see the outpouring of support around here, it’s like everyone who can is collecting money for the Red Cross ie. TV stations, radio stations, grocery stores, etc.
The spirit of support is strong here. If only the Feds could have been more responsive the situation. Why do we even have a National Guard if they can’t guard our Nation? This is an emergency. Where the hell is all the help those people need who are stuck there? I’m sure many of the people still there are in fear for their lives. If there was a pill for emotional or political impotence, I could only hope George W would take it.
If I could be any more help to these people I would. I would be all over it.
I don't even have hot water right now, the plumber can't come 'til next week, but I would volunteer to host as many as needed if I could. I would even sleep in a tent in my own yard to give them more room to sleep inside.
Chuck
| |
|
| |
BPMG
|
Joined: 8/26/2005
Msg: 13 | |
| |
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 10:39:59 AM | From August 29th, 2005
"As the Category 4 the storm surged ashore just east of New Orleans, Louisiana, on Monday, FEMA had medical teams, rescue squads and groups prepared to supply food and water poised in a semicircle around the city, its director, Michael Brown, said.
Speaking from Baton Rouge, just upriver from New Orleans, Brown told NBC's "Today" show that his agency had "planned for this kind of disaster for many years because we've always known about New Orleans' situation."
Thank God they were well prepared.
 | |
|
BPMG
|
Joined: 8/26/2005
Msg: 15 | |
| |
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 11:32:32 AM | ~ FEMA: FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY
Now, isn't Response Time, ... CRITICAL in the Management of any Emergency ?
Personally,... i would fire this Director in a New York second.
And from what i've heard, he should never have been given that Directors position
in the first place. He had no prior Emergency Management experience.
His qaulifying experience was his history as a Bush Buddy.
And Homeland Security ? ... this is a bad joke. All Americans should be outraged.
This is a horrible situation of stunning incompetency. | |
|
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 12:36:00 PM | It really is sad when the disenfranchised use a disaster of this magnitude to further their political agenda...Also keep in mind I am not particularly in agreement with the war on terror, and the administration in general...This is an American disaster and a time to come together as a people...Let's put the political bickering aside...Some of you people should be ashamed of yourselves...
This freak they call president in the U.S. is a very, very sick individual. He has waited days to call out the military, he has waited till the city became flooded, till thousands died drowned, or of thirst, or of hunger, or of infection, before sending help.
Well the fact of the matter is we are reacting to two separate disasters here, the hurricane and the flood...Massive flooding occurred after levies failed on Tuesday...National Guard MP units all over the southeast were activated within hours of the flooding...As early as Wednesday morning Guard soldiers began to report in. You have to keep in mind that the NG is comprised of citizen-soldiers, they hold regular jobs and have family matters of their own to address before they can be mobilized...To have 1200 arriving today with thousands more arriving tomorrow less than 72 hours after the flooding began is a testament to the dedication of these men and women, as well as the logistical miracle their leadership is performing...This isn’t the Starship Enterprise we cant just "beam" help down there... | |
|
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 12:50:12 PM | | Every single one of these people needs to be moved, immediately! I fail to understand with all the helicopters, ships, tanks, and other toys that the army owns why they can't do an immediate rescue. I guess the problem lies with where to put all of these people, but surely anyplace in the united states would be better than where they are now! What a sad situation. If it were me I wouldn't stay there, I'd start hauling ass north. | |
|
| |
BPMG
|
Joined: 8/26/2005
Msg: 20 | |
| |
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 4:56:50 PM | It really is sad when the disenfranchised use a disaster of this magnitude to further their political agenda
The disenfranchised now have an "agenda" too, huh? I guess anyone who isn't a right wing extremist living nicely has an agenda, huh? The disenfranchised don't have a car, they don't have water, they don't have food, they are dying, but oh yeah baby, they're sophisticated and plotting agendas!
I strongly suggest you look in the mirror for that agenda you're trying to find. You'll find it right in your own mirror, clear as day.
As for the disenfranchised, I thank God that the entire world has gotten a chance to see America's dirty little secret: poverty of a third-world nation kind. While the U.S. spends billions in Iraq, and the rich live better than anywhere else on earth, a huge proportion of the U.S.'s citizens live in sub-poverty. Makes you happy.
_________________
On another note, I found it interesting the endless cynical comments that Bush's pal, Brown, the head of FEMA, was making throughout this whole thing. Comments such as that he *only* yesterday found out things were "bad" at the Superdome. In another country, people this cynical would get seriously kicked out and would have to leave the country. Here? The right wing extremists applaud them for their cynicism, and egg them on.
My sister is correct when she says that the right wingnuts in this country want these people dead because they're poor. If most of them had been white instead of black, federal help would've arrived Monday night. | |
|
| |
yna6
|
Joined: 5/2/2004
Msg: 23 | |
| |
| Billions and our military in Iraq, but no help for New Orleans
Posted: 9/2/2005 5:04:21 PM | So are people from all over the world, and money too.
This isn't about borders, race, and nationality right now.
To all those people that think people worldwide are against America, I hope they can now see that any problems we have as foreigners are with your administration - and the way they are running things. | |
|
| |
|
|
Home
login 
