Thousands Feared Dead: New Orleans Uninhabitable For Months

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- With thousands feared drowned in what could be America's deadliest natural disaster in a century, New Orleans' leaders all but surrendered the streets to floodwaters Wednesday and began turning out the lights on the ruined city - perhaps for months.

Looting spiraled so out of control that Mayor Ray Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and focus on the brazen packs of thieves who have turned increasingly hostile.

Late Wednesday, Tenet Healthcare Corp. asked Louisiana State Police and the U.S. Coast Guard to help evacuate one of its hospitals in Gretna after a supply truck carrying food, water, medical supplies and pharmaceuticals was held up by gunmen.

Nagin said there will be a "total evacuation of the city. We have to. The city will not be functional for two or three months." And he said people would not be allowed back into their homes for at least a month or two.

In Mississippi, bodies are starting to pile up at the morgue in hard-hit Harrison County. Forty corpses have been brought to the morgue already, and officials expect the death toll in the county to climb well above 100

Hundreds of people wandered up and down shattered Interstate 10 - the only major freeway leading into New Orleans from the east - pushing shopping carts, laundry racks, anything they could find to carry their belongings.

Tempers were beginning to flare in the aftermath of the storm. Police said a man fatally shot his sister in the head over a bag of ice in Hattiesburg, Miss.

In addition to the Astrodome solution, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was considering putting people on cruise ships, in tent cities, mobile home parks, and so-called floating dormitories.

Around midday, officials with the state and the Army Corps of Engineers said the water levels between the city and the lake had equalized, and water had stopped spilling into New Orleans, and even appeared to be falling. But the danger was far from over.

On the flooded streets of New Orleans, dozens of fishermen from up to 200 miles away floated in on caravans of boats to pull residents out.

HOUSTON (AP) -- The first busloads of weary refugees from New Orleans arrived early Thursday at Houston's Astrodome, where air conditioning, cots, food and showers awaited them.

Houston developers detailed plans for turning the rarely used 40-year-old Astrodome into a hotel last month not knowing that within weeks the Dome would be retrofitted into a temporary home for up to 25,000 hurricane evacuees.

Astrodome officials said it would only accept people who were stranded at the Superdome - a rule that was tested late Wednesday when an Orleans Parish school bus arrived, filled with families with children seeking shelter. At first, Astrodome officials said they couldn't come in, but then allowed them to enter for food and water.

Dr. Kevin Stephens Sr., in charge of the special needs shelter at the dome, described the Superdome and a nearby arena as a health department's nightmare. "These conditions are atrocious," he said. "We'll take trucks, planes, boats, anything else - I have to get these people out of here."

WAVELAND, Miss. (AP) -- Hurricane Katrina seemed to take a particular vengeance out on this town. The storm virtually wiped Waveland off the map, prompting state officials to say it took a harder hit from the wind and water than any other town along the coast.

The town of 7,000 about 35 miles east of New Orleans has been partially cut off because the U.S. 90 bridge over the Bay of St. Louis was destroyed. There is no power, no phones, no way out - and nowhere to go.

State officials would not confirm a death toll in the town, but Mayor Tommy Longo estimated that at least 50 residents died, The Clarion-Ledger reported. City Hall is gone, with nothing but a knee-high mural of a beach scene still standing.

MIAMI (AP) -- Carnival Cruise Lines said Wednesday the federal government has asked whether its cruise ships could be used as emergency shelters or help Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in some other way.

The world's largest cruise line said that although "to undertake such an endeavor would involve many complicated issues, we are actively taking a look at it."

Fox News is reporting possible new levee breaks.

NEW ORLEANS — The catastrophic flooding that has partially filled the bowl that is New Orleans may worsen in coming days because rainfall from Hurricane Katrina continues to flow into Lake Pontchartrain from north-shore rivers and streams, and east winds and a 17.5-foot storm crest on the Pearl River block the water's outflow.

That water has found several holes in the lake's banks — all pouring into New Orleans. A 500-foot breach in the eastern wall of the 17th Street Canal separating New Orleans from Metairie had poured hundreds of thousands of gallons of lake water per second into the New Orleans area before easing up yesterday. Two more levee breaches along the Industrial Canal had created a flood in the Lower Ninth Ward on Monday that spread south into the French Quarter and other parts of the city.

That break might last no longer than the next high tide. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said the water in his city could reach as high as 3 feet above sea level. Louisiana State University Hurricane Center researcher Ivor van Heerden warned that Nagin's estimates could be too low.

Sewage from a treatment plant that stagnated in the canal created enough sulfuric-acid fumes that nearby homes in Lakeview painted with lead-based paint turned black.

A list of charitable organization here.

See here ... here .... here .... and here for complete articles.

Comments

[TexasGal]

Do they plan on putting them to work to keep them busy?

I am truely afraid.

Posted by: Hooch
Maybe a better question to ask yourself is what you can do to provide some of these people with jobs?
And as a fellow Texas, I am NOT afraid...I am ashamed! Trust me, we all do not think as you do.

[Just Somebody's Grandma]

Ok-we live in Austin and the news is reporting that they are sending these people to San Antonio and Austin. I am not sure I want them in Austin where I live. When the national crime was down last year New Orleans was up 10%. After watching them looting and even police officers caught on tv looting a Walmart-I am not sure I want a bunch of unmoral people coming to our city.

I know I am probably going to get some pretty nice responses from my comment but this is a real situation. I've spent all morning watching the coverage on all different channels.

They are talking months until New Orleans residents can return. Mean while they will be sitting around bored in other cities.

Do they plan on putting them to work to keep them busy?

I am truely afraid

I couldn't agree with you more, I'm in Shreveport and we are asked to take people in our homes. That scares the bjeebies out of me. I have relatives that will be staying with us and one of their neighbors, but to bring someone home from the shelter is scary, especially after watching the news.

[janie]

Here's the deal. U.S.soldiers are in Iraq and that is that. Nothing immediate is going to change that fact. We have a domestic crisis here at home that is utterly devastating and far-reaching. Let's save the arguments for later, agree to disagree for the time being and put the energy into releif efforts for the Gulf states. Donate money, donate blood, volunteer time, talents, whatever we can do individually and collectively.
We all have something to give beyond opinions!

[DennisAOK]

?? Just like it is not balck & white, liberal or conservative, it is not just capitalism or Marxism. Instead of being dismissive (see link somewhere to 'red herring') why not say something substantial about how it is that some Captains of Industry in this country are NOT making money off war; or how it is that the gulf between rich and poor is NOT growing greater daily?

Posted by: clintcarter | Sep 1, 2005 11:31:27 AM

No, Clint, not even even liberals, at least the ones in Congress, think the war was driven by rich people. There was and is a difference of opinion as to the nature of terrorism, but your comments are straight out of The Communist Manifesto. No chestnut, just fact. Why don't you tell us which "captain of industry" supported the war to profit from it? By the way, the disparity in wealth in income in this country grew more dramatically under Clinton than it did by Reagan. It is caused by the ever increasing payoff to education in a global economy, not by which administratiion is in power.

[usmcmom]

Hey Guys,
The LA National Guard is being redeployed from Iraq and heading back to LA to help in the operation there.

[Hooch]

TexGal-you do what you need to do. I've donated to the Red Cross already. I have a family to take care of and need to stay here to provide care for them. If you can pick up and go-go for it. Let us know what your plans are in helping. If you are in a position to pick up and go then do it. We need people like you.

You can be ashamed-that's ok with me. I think we are all entitled to our own opinions. I just stated mine. Don't you agree that everybody thinks differently?

[DeeDee]

TexasGal, thank you for your open mindness. Yes Fox news is showing the drug addicted, slum, lowlife criminal element that chose to stay in Inner City downtown New Orleans. This criminal element probably doesn't want to lose it's turf. Hey, how could they then support their habits. But please realize , the average working citizen did leave the city when the Mayor requested they leave and those who could not leave did go to the SuperDome as requested. They have shown only the worst elements of New Orleans. Most people who work in New Orleans live on the Northshore, Slidell, Covington , Kenner, Metarie area's and they are not showing any video of those areas which would probably show humanity reaching out to it's neighbors as in MS and AL. The vast amount of refugee's who were sent to Baton Rouge are asking for Bibles today. Can you imagine their grief. They have cots, bedding, food, water, safety and now they are requesting Bibles. Please realize that the majority of the folks who have left New Orleans are average hard working "Joe's" who are now totally down and out. JMO

[TexasGal]

. Let us know what your plans are in helping.

Don't you agree that everybody thinks differently?

Posted by: Hooch
You might be surprised as to what help I have given. And yes everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just do not want to be lumped into yours.

[TexasGal]

Can you imagine their grief. They have cots, bedding, food, water, safety and now they are requesting Bibles. Please realize that the majority of the folks who have left New Orleans are average hard working "Joe's" who are now totally down and out. JMO

Posted by: DeeDee |
No I cannot even begin to imagine their grief. And I will NOT be swayed by the "bad" people to lose my faith in the "good" ones.

[Hooch]

Tell us what you have done so different TexGal. Are you in New Orleans helping? are you helping at the Asto Dome? What have you done that I haven't done?

Like I said-if your life allows you to phyically go help w/the relief-then do it. For people like me-I can't leave my job and family. We have given money.

We need people like you who can volunteer their time in the relief. Get down there and help!!!

[oldtimer]

This is not Bush's fault,all politics are local. The Gov, and Mayor had no plan. FEMA does what the Gov. ask,this Gov is a joke. Oh yeah,just like Carter sit around and whine and do nothing.

[TexasGal]

Hooch-I was not criticizing you in what you have done as far as your donations. What I take issue with is your statement regarding the influx of these refugees and making it sound like they are not worthy of being here. If I read you wrong, I apologize. Not every person displaced is a gun-toting theiving monster. It is that majority that is not that I would welcome the opportunity to help.

[RICK]

Do you think there were hurricanes before the "civilized world" decided to build New Orleans? I wonder how the Indians survived? Do you think they lived below or above sea level? Where is Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Who do you think will get the Pulitzer for coverage on this one? Fox? What happened to Beth Twitty? She's not on anymore? Why does this stuff always happen to poor people? Maybe the rich and powerful can't afford it? Those affected by this tragedy had little to begin with and now they have nothing. Where are all our allies, you know, the ones that scream when they have a disaster that the US is not giving enough? Yeah! I wonder about a lot things.

[Hooch]

TexGal-I must have read your post wrong because it did sound as though you were critizing me. People are worthy of being anywhere they please. But from what I have observed-I am reluctant to have these people that I have seen interviewed and seen looting live in my city with nothing to do but start trouble.

My original post stated the fact that the national crime rate was down but New Orleans was up 10%. My thinking on that with what I have seen on tv is that the working people of New Orleans (is it safe to say, more than likely they are not the people commiting these crimes) all are the ones that had "the means" to get out of the city before the storm hit and flooding began. Ok-the ones left-that had "no means" of getting out of New Orleans are probably the people unemployeed, on welfare, committing these crimes-statistically speaking of course.

I never said all of these people are the ones committing the crimes but studies have shown that people of lower education and lower income tend to commit crimes.

Remember the national crime rate is down and New Orleans crime rate is up by double digit numbers. Now add more desparation to the problem. Now, first they will fill up Baton Rouge shelters, then Houston, then San Antonio, then Austin and Dallas. Now-who's left behind? Mostly the looters.

That is my concern. This is a legitmate concern.

[Mulder]

Where are all our allies, you know, the ones that scream when they have a disaster that the US is not giving enough? Yeah! I wonder about a lot things.

Posted by: RICK | Sep 1, 2005 1:40:26 PM

Making allies is a two way street. And you have been driving your humvee up the center of the road.

[George T.]

Rick, Germany has offered to help us. But we said NO , we can do it by ourselves. Now, in the realm of humanity, why don't we just say, Thank You, and accept?

[Marla]

Oldtimer, this is for you. (Dan removed it earlier-guessed he doesn't like facts too much. Here is all the evidence you need that local NO officials had been BEGGING for federal funds to prepare for this potential catastrophe:

Anyone who cares about the people of New Orleans,
especially our fellow citizens who were too
impoverished or too old or too sick to afford an
evacuation before the storm, should read this article
and forward it/contact your local representatives and
demand an explanation and accountability.

(To read the whole story after the excerpts below
from the emergency management chief in NO, follow the
link at the end. It is written by a senior staff
writer at the Philadelphia Daily News.)

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management
chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the
Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been
moved in the president's budget to handle homeland
security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the
price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees
can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can
to make the case that this is a security issue for
us."

Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season
starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went
before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee
Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for
urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for.
From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:

"The system is in great shape, but the levees are
sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get
the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't
stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem
that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that
the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise
them." The levee board noted in October 2004 that the
feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15
million project to better shore up the banks of Lake
Pontchartrain.

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In
spite of that, the Bush administration came back this
spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and
flood-control funding for New Orleans in history.
Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there
imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money
targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down
from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new
jobs.

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition
that more research was needed to see what New Orleans
must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5
hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As
the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:

The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday
night observed, "The Louisiana congressional
delegation urged Congress earlier this year to
dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's
coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In
its budget, the Bush administration proposed a
significant reduction in funding for southeast
Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush
proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local New
Orleans officials say they need."

Local officials are now saying, the article reported,
that had Washington heeded their warnings about the
dire need for hurricane protection, including building
up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage
might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to
be."

To read story in its entirety, go to
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313

Will Bunch (letters@editorandpublisher.com) is senior
writer at the Philadelphia Daily News. Much of this
article also appears on his blog at that newspaper,
Attytood.

[RanchLady]

When the Sunami hit last year, I was devistated emotionally at the loss. I live about as far away from there as one could get, and it made me so sad, that I was pulled to DO something, anything to help people who are hurting or in dire need.

One of the things I felt inspired to do, was to write to every email address I could get my hands on to ask about sending CRUISE SHIPS to offer temporary housing and medical to the elderly and children, anyone who was not capable of hands on help on land, and to provide them escape from potential spread of disease.

Amazing to me, was the response I got from those companies that did bother to reply. All said no, they were not prepared to do that.

Hmmmm. Now they are looking into it.

I Always did think it was a good idea....but I have to wonder about those persons who acctually OWN the Cruise Line.

Okay...go ahead. (I am hiding under my chair, waiting for the fall-out).

[!]

The city of New Orleans was built in 1701 by the French against the views of engineers. They were told not to built a city on land below sea level and did not listen. So, here you have New Orleans...people who inhabit it now are not responsible for why it was built below sea level. Millions of people live there and worked there in all the hotels , casinos, resturants and many many other places. It was there life.
Now no one has a place to live a place to work.
THOUSANDS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE not only in New Orleans but the other Gulf cites too. Its nto there fault. Its also not the decent hard working peoples fault you have all these thugs and crooks.
Many of these thugs and crooks are kids of grown ups that worked in low income jobs at hotels, cleaning and so forth. But at least the parents were trying. There kids had turned to drugs and theif. This only gives them more reason to do their evil deeds. The kids are not in school anymore. They are running wild in the streets with no supervision.
They need to rounded up and there needs to be a stop put to all this.
The city (whats left of it is out of control), there is so much to do that no ones knows even where to begin.
This situation is horrific. We need to email our congressmen and women and offer suggestions on what to do and where to start. I am sure our suggestions would be worth while as it seems there is no clue on what to do at this point.
All the kids need to put back in school somewhere far away form this city and get them off the streets. The crooks and thugs need to be put in prison workcamps and made to clean up the city for their crimes. Thats a damn good start in my opinion !!

[hardyandtiny]

There's water all over the place! I see grass and trees! You're a human being! Make a fire! Boil water! Eat the plants! Jesus Christ! A Cambodian would be fishing by the shore and building a hut! Get off your ass and do something for yourselves ya spolied brats! What happend the the 7-11 isn't re-stocked? I bet the crack addicts have figured it out!
These people act as if they can't survive. It's human nature, use your damn instincts!

[Hooch]

I agree hardyandtiny-100%. They are acting like can't do anything without governent doing for them. They need to take responsibility of their destiny. They are the result of welfare. Everybody owes them and they ain't doin nothin for themselves. And listen to the bi..h and complain. Everytime they are interviewed.

They need to help with the clean up of their own city-with the assistance of the government

[Mandi]

I have a question for Dan (or maybe someone on this board can help). I live in North East Georgia and as I'm sure is the case across the country, many people here are trying to find ways to help. One of my co-workers has two rooms available for a family (or families) who need a place to stay, but she has no idea who to contact about this. Is there any way you could help us out or help coordinate contacting a family or something so that she's able to help? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Mandi

[Cindi in PA]

Hey Guys,
The LA National Guard is being redeployed from Iraq and heading back to LA to help in the operation there.

Posted by: usmcmom | Sep 1, 2005 12:54:18 PM

Thank you for the update, haven't had a chance to see the news today.

[TexasGal]

One of my co-workers has two rooms available for a family (or families) who need a place to stay, but she has no idea who to contact about this. Is there any way you could help us out or help coordinate contacting a family or something so that she's able to help? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Mandi

Posted by: Mandi
I would start at the local church level and work your way up. It may take a few phone calls but eventually you should get someone that can help.

[Mandi]

One of my co-workers has two rooms available for a family (or families) who need a place to stay, but she has no idea who to contact about this. Is there any way you could help us out or help coordinate contacting a family or something so that she's able to help? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Mandi

Posted by: Mandi
I would start at the local church level and work your way up. It may take a few phone calls but eventually you should get someone that can help.

Posted by: TexasGal

Thanks TexasGal, I will pass that suggestion along.

[Cindi in PA]

CindiInPA,

To be blunt, if someone cannot afford a bus ticket, they have no business having 4-6 children. I am not projecting what people can afford, I am saying what they cannot afford.
Posted by: DennisAOK | Sep 1, 2005 10:59:15 AM

How many children have you raised Dennis?

[!]

Everyone in New Orleans needs to change their mailing address so their mail will come. Many people get checks in the mail to live on. I read an article about this. This is only another example of all the things that need to be done.
Its just overwhelming the problems that are caused by this catastrophy. No one can get money out of ATMS and no banks in the area can operate. No telling how far people have to try get to to get their own money to live on.
Just another thought !

[Cindi in PA]

There's water all over the place! I see grass and trees! You're a human being! Make a fire! Boil water! Eat the plants! Jesus Christ! A Cambodian would be fishing by the shore and building a hut! Get off your ass and do something for yourselves ya spolied brats! What happend the the 7-11 isn't re-stocked? I bet the crack addicts have figured it out!
These people act as if they can't survive. It's human nature, use your damn instincts!

Posted by: hardyandtiny | Sep 1, 2005 2:40:21 PM

Incase you haven't noticed there is a mandatory evacuation. The land is not safe, the water is contaminated. And I doubt there is a dry piece of wood in the entire state, so there goes the fire idea. Any other bright ideas "Davy Crockett?"

[anne-marie]

Everyone in New Orleans needs to change their mailing address so their mail will come. Many people get checks in the mail to live on. I read an article about this. This is only another example of all the things that need to be done.

Things that need to be done ???? mailing addres?
For what ?? What good is a check going to do if you are stuck on the second floor of a building surrounded by 10 ft of water.?

That jack ass president should be shot. This happened Monday..!! it`s Thursday and babies are dying. People are dying...old and sick are laying in the streets rotting.

WAKE UP AMERICA.

A third world country handles this a lot better than the powerfull USA.

Europe is watching and shaking their heads with disbelief.

Go send more soldiers to Iraq ...pump more billions into a country that doesn`t want you over there.

You guy`s don`t need terrorists...you do a good enough job killing yourself.

[DeeDee]

All the kids need to put back in school somewhere far away form this city and get them off the streets. The crooks and thugs need to be put in prison workcamps and made to clean up the city for their crimes. Thats a damn good start in my opinion !!

Posted by: ! | Sep 1, 2005 2:25:36 PM

Amen to that idea.

[Cindi in PA]

Everyone in New Orleans needs to change their mailing address so their mail will come. Many Posted by: ! | Sep 1, 2005 3:18:54 PM

I was talking about this last night. Beside important mail that needs to get through to folks, something needs to be done about stopping the junk mail. Most banks have inner-state commerce, but making sure my bank card was in my pocket would be the last thing I would have thought about. Lot's of red tape for sure. The more I think about your post the more I shake my head. Wonder if the officials in emergency management have thought these things through? Let's hope so.

[Cindi in PA]

That jack ass president should be shot. This happened Monday..!! it`s Thursday and babies are dying. People are dying...old and sick are laying in the streets rotting.

WAKE UP AMERICA.

A third world country handles this a lot better than the powerfull USA.

Europe is watching and shaking their heads with disbelief.

Go send more soldiers to Iraq ...pump more billions into a country that doesn`t want you over there.

You guy`s don`t need terrorists...you do a good enough job killing yourself.

Posted by: anne-marie | Sep 1, 2005 3:31:53 PM

Careful anne-marie, I take great offense in someone saying our President needs to be shot!
I won't go any further with my comments. What country are you from? And how much has your country offered to help America?
A third world country handles this a lot better than the powerfull USA.
LMAO, and what third world country would that be?

[DeeDee]

Ranchlady: Concerning cruise ships, the crew usually make the majority of their incomes in the service industry in tips. You have room stewards cleaning up behind you, entertainment crews, bartenders, casino employees, waiters all of whom live with meager wages in order to make tips. They do not make minimum wage. What will happen to these employees? You will displace 3-500 employees for each ship you stabilize as an apt. However I did hear that Carnival is offering 5 day cruises out of Galveston for $99 to help the over strained tourism and hotel industry in south Texas. This will give a time of relaxation and solitude to those who would spend more by staying at a hotel. It is a nice jesture on Carnival's part in my opinion.

[TexasGal]

These people act as if they can't survive. It's human nature, use your damn instincts!

Posted by: hardyandtiny
It seems barbaric to us but it appears as that is EXACTLY what they are doing. Their options at this point are very limited.

[TexasGal]

These people act as if they can't survive. It's human nature, use your damn instincts!

Posted by: hardyandtiny
It seems barbaric to us but it appears as that is EXACTLY what they are doing. Their options at this point are very limited.

Posted by: TexasGal
To clarify, I speak of the looters, not the shooters.

[usmcmom]

Thanks! Mandi

Posted by: Mandi | Sep 1, 2005 3:05:57 PM

Mandi,
Try michellemalkin.com. I believe yesterday I saw links to other websites where they were posting exactly the info you are needing. There is an organization getting names together of folks donating rooms in their homes.

[bill]

This is a terrible human tragedy that is going on now we are already Thursday the hurricane has come and gone long time ago were is all the help ?what are they waiting for even a third world country would be better prepared than this. this is a shameful disgrace to have this happen in this day and age in this country . the people controlling this relief effort are sleeping to bad just goes to show that some thing is really really wrong here lets wake up and do some thing cause things look like their going to get worst.

[coconuttree]

The Dutch government has already offered help. It is well known Holland has the best expertise in the world with damms and levees. The company http://www.tcmirafi.com/ is the world leader in their field. I hope they get the chance to do something. Cause these days only companies who are in the Bush innercircle got the contracts.

[marty]

Where is Jesse Jackson when we need him?? He needs to go to N.O. to tell his brothers it isn't nice to loot stores!!

[usmcmom]

the people controlling this relief effort are sleeping to bad just goes to show that some thing is really really wrong here lets wake up and do some thing cause things look like their going to get worst.

Posted by: bill | Sep 1, 2005 4:03:03 PM

Bill, Anne-Marie
On Friday, those of us in the southeast knew we had a major hurricane coming. On Saturday, they pinpointed it down to the LA/MS/AL coastline. If by Saturday evening, you had not put a full-tank of gas in your vehicle ($2.50x12 gal=$30.00), buy 1 gal/water per day(5)/person ($3.50/perx4 $11.60), foodstuffs PBJ& bread ($15.00), check your batteries/flashlights($5.00)- you had failed in your personal responsibility to take care of yourself and your family. If by Sunday am, Mandatory Evacuation...you did not take that family and the items that you purchased and put them in your car, or ride one of the many buses that were evacuating folks out of NOs, then you failed in your personal responsibility to take care of yourself and your family. If by Sunday pm, Mandatory Superdome, you did not move yourself and your family to the dome with the items you purchased, you failed in your personal responsibility to take care of yourself and your family. They are estimating 300,000 people did not evacuate NOs. There are not 300,000 people in NOs who are disabled and cannot physically remove themselves from the area. There are not 300,000 people who do not have vehicles and could not leave... notice all the vehicles floating around. People made the personal choice to stay in NOs b/c they did not want to pay the funds to take care of themselves or had never saved/planned for an emergency---$62.00, they thought the hurricane would "shift", or they just didn't care. Whatever the varied reasons are, people made the personal choice to stay in NOs. And b/c of that choice 1,000's are dead or going to die... It's not the Mayors fault, it's not the Governor's fault, it's not President Bush's fault. They choose to stay, and the TRUE 1,000's of disabled, indigent, handicapped who need our govt's help are suffering b/c of those that chose not to take personal responsibility for their own lives. Also, if you live in the Hurricane Belt/Tornado Alley and you have not set aside $75.00 in cash for emergencies ($6.25/month)just like this... then you have failed in your personal responbility to protect yourself and your family. Thousands are going to die in NOs b/c they did not take personal responsibility for their lives and the lives of their family. That is the saddest part of this story, it was not necessary.

[FloridaPatty]

Also, if you live in the Hurricane Belt/Tornado Alley and you have not set aside $75.00 in cash for emergencies ($6.25/month)just like this... then you have failed in your personal responbility to protect yourself and your family. Thousands are going to die in NOs b/c they did not take personal responsibility for their lives and the lives of their family. That is the saddest part of this story, it was not necessary.

Posted by: usmcmom | Sep 1, 2005 4:52:38 PM

Well said, almost took my words away from me, I will just add to your well expressed thoughts here that:

I live in Florida and last year we got hit by four hurricanes within weeks of eachother. I have lived here for almost 25 years. I know disaster.

When you live in a hurricane prone area ( like New Orleans and Texas, the southern coastal states, each year there is published and distributed for free, a Hurricane Guide. It contains most all information you need. Last year we got our batteries, our water, our dry foods and canned goods and radios. Put them in a ready place. We have two generators and we got gas before the each impending storm.
There is plenty of time to prep your hurricane kit, it doesn't change year after year but for progress (cell phones). Charlie nailed us. We lost electric for five days but we had coolers of ice and food, full tanks of gas, water and a generator to occasionally run the TV to see where the storm was, get the phone numbers and call in outages and debris and downed lines.

These people in some of these areas were looting while the last feeder band was going over their area. Inexcusable!

USCMOM stated correctly that it is personal responsibility. When you hear a Category 4 you have to be an absolute idiot to think you can safely ride out the storm in an area that lies below sea level. You have a death wish. It's that simple. I have ridden out a high Cat One moving into a Cat two and it scared the crap out of me. Imagine your car going 90 miles an hour and you put your hand out the window...feel that power? Imagine throwing a paint can out the window, flower pot, etc.,... they become projectiles.

Before the storm there are places you can call to come and get you if you have no car. I worked as a translator in the command center for my county many times and I know how prepared these folks try to be. What you are seeing on television is a reflection of a personal choice by a few folks who died from that choice. Looters could be in Red Cross shelters where they would have food, water, and a dry bed to lie on. (been there)

[DennisAOK]

How many children have you raised Dennis?

Posted by: Cindi in PA | Sep 1, 2005 3:15:00 PM

Why does it matter? I don't have any I couldn't afford, and I can afford a bus ticket.

[pamy]

Kuwaiti: 'The terrorist Katrina' is a soldier of Allah'

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST MEDIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Thursday, September 1, 2005
Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi, director of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Endowment's research center, published an article titled "The Terrorist Katrina is One of the Soldiers of Allah, But Not an Adherent of Al-Qaeda."(1) the Aug. 31 edition of the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa. Following are excerpts:

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"...As I watched the horrible sights of this wondrous storm, I was reminded of the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah [in the compilations] of Al-Bukhari and Abu Daoud. The Hadith says: 'The wind is of the wind of Allah, it comes from mercy or for the sake of torment. When you see it, do not curse it, [but rather] ask Allah for the good that is in it, and ask Allah for shelter from its evil.'

"When the satellite channels reported on the scope of the terrifying destruction in America [caused by] this wind, I was reminded of the words of [Prophet Muhammad]: 'The wind sends torment to one group of people, and sends mercy to others.' I do not think — and only Allah [really] knows — that this wind, which completely wiped out American cities in these days, is a wind of mercy and blessing. It is almost certain that this is a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire.

"But I began to ask myself: Doesn't this country [the U.S.] claim to aspire to establish justice, freedom, and equality amongst the people? Isn't this country claiming that everything it did in Afghanistan and Iraq was for truth and justice? How can it be that these American claims are untrue, when we see how good prevails in the streets of Afghanistan, and how it became an oasis of security with America's entrance there? How can these American claims in the matter of Iraq be untrue, when we see that Iraq has become the most tranquil and secure country in the world?"
"But how strange it is that after all the tremendous American achievements for the sake of humanity, these mighty winds come and evilly rip [America's] cities to shreds? Have the storms joined the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization?

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Right move: Home Loans With Options

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"How sad I am for America. Here it is, poor thing, trying with all its might to lower oil prices which have reached heights unprecedented in all history. Along with America's phenomenal efforts to lower the price of oil in order to salvage its declining economy and its currency — that is still falling due to the 'smart' policy America is implementing in the world — comes this storm, the fruit of Allah's planning, so that [the price of] a barrel of oil will increase further still. By Allah, this is not schadenfreude.
"Oh honored gentlemen, I began to read about these winds, and I was surprised to discover that the American websites that are translated [into Arabic] are talking about the fact that that the storm Katrina is the fifth equatorial storm to strike Florida this year... and that a large part of the U.S. is subject every year to many storms that extract [a price of] dead, and completely destroy property. I said, Allah be praised, until when will these successive catastrophes strike them?

"But before I went to sleep, I opened the Koran and began to read in Surat Al-R'ad ['The Thunder' chapter], and stopped at these words [of Allah]: 'The disaster will keep striking the unbelievers for what they have done, or it will strike areas close to their territory, until the promise of Allah comes to pass, for, verily, Allah will not fail in His promise.' [Koran 13:31]."

Endnote: (1) Al-Siyassa (Kuwait), August 31, 2005.

[pamy]

"No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming"

By Sidney Blumenthal

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, Hurricane Katrina has left millions of Americans to scavenge for food and shelter and hundreds to thousands reportedly dead. With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a series on the federal funding problem, and whose presses are now underwater, reported online: "No one can say they didn't see it coming ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

The Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands to developers almost certainly also contributed to the heightened level of the storm surge. In 1990, a federal task force began restoring lost wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Every two miles of wetland between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot. Bush had promised "no net loss" of wetlands, a policy launched by his father's administration and bolstered by President Clinton. But he reversed his approach in 2003, unleashing the developers. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency then announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce.

In response to this potential crisis, four leading environmental groups conducted a joint expert study, concluding in 2004 that without wetlands protection New Orleans could be devastated by an ordinary, much less a Category 4 or 5, hurricane. "There's no way to describe how mindless a policy that is when it comes to wetlands protection," said one of the report's authors. The chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality dismissed the study as "highly questionable," and boasted, "Everybody loves what we're doing."

"My administration's climate change policy will be science based," President Bush declared in June 2001. But in 2002, when the Environmental Protection Agency submitted a study on global warming to the United Nations reflecting its expert research, Bush derided it as "a report put out by a bureaucracy," and excised the climate change assessment from the agency's annual report. The next year, when the EPA issued its first comprehensive "Report on the Environment," stating, "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment," the White House simply demanded removal of the line and all similar conclusions. At the G-8 meeting in Scotland this year, Bush successfully stymied any common action on global warming. Scientists, meanwhile, have continued to accumulate impressive data on the rising temperature of the oceans, which has produced more severe hurricanes.

In February 2004, 60 of the nation's leading scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, warned in a statement, "Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policymaking": "Successful application of science has played a large part in the policies that have made the United States of America the world's most powerful nation and its citizens increasingly prosperous and healthy ... Indeed, this principle has long been adhered to by presidents and administrations of both parties in forming and implementing policies. The administration of George W. Bush has, however, disregarded this principle ... The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease." Bush completely ignored this statement.

In the two weeks preceding the storm in the Gulf, the trumping of science by ideology and expertise by special interests accelerated. The Federal Drug Administration announced that it was postponing sale of the morning-after contraceptive pill, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its safety and its approval by the FDA's scientific advisory board. The United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa accused the Bush administration of responsibility for a condom shortage in Uganda -- the result of the administration's evangelical Christian agenda of "abstinence." When the chief of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Justice Department was ordered by the White House to delete its study that African-Americans and other minorities are subject to racial profiling in police traffic stops and he refused to buckle under, he was forced out of his job. When the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting oversight analyst objected to a $7 billion no-bid contract awarded for work in Iraq to Halliburton (the firm at which Vice President Cheney was formerly CEO), she was demoted despite her superior professional ratings. At the National Park Service, a former Cheney aide, a political appointee lacking professional background, drew up a plan to overturn past environmental practices and prohibit any mention of evolution while allowing sale of religious materials through the Park Service.

On the day the levees burst in New Orleans, Bush delivered a speech in Colorado comparing the Iraq war to World War II and himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt: "And he knew that the best way to bring peace and stability to the region was by bringing freedom to Japan." Bush had boarded his very own "Streetcar Named Desire."

Sidney Blumenthal, a former assistant and senior advisor to President Clinton and the author of "The Clinton Wars," is writing a column for Salon and the Guardian of London.

[Hooch]

About the Kuwaiti post.....here in the United States we call "winds" Mother Nature they call it Allah. I think allah is a woman. I wonder if she wears a burka

[Rebecca]

Why haven't i heard any mention of doing an air drop of food and water?!?! why do they need to rely on trucks or boats to deliver? why not use helicopters to make drops just they're doing to drop sand bags??

[TexasGal]

Why haven't i heard any mention of doing an air drop of food and water?!?! why do they need to rely on trucks or boats to deliver? why not use helicopters to make drops just they're doing to drop sand bags??

Posted by: Rebecca
Food drop was made today at the Convention Center.

[joanne]

The countries that have offered post-hurricane assistance: Russia,Japan,Canada,France,honduras,Germany,Venezuela, jamaica,Australia,UK,Netherlands,Switzerland,Greece,Hungary,Columbia,Dominican Rep.,El Salvador,Mexico,China,Israel,United Nations,United Arab Emirates, NATO,and Organization of America States.

[TexasGal]

The countries that have offered post-hurricane assistance: Russia,Japan,Canada,France,honduras,Germany,Venezuela, jamaica,Australia,UK,Netherlands,Switzerland,Greece,Hungary,Columbia,Dominican Rep.,El Salvador,Mexico,China,Israel,United Nations,United Arab Emirates, NATO,and Organization of America States.

Posted by: joanne

See...other places DO care!!

[usmcmom]

The countries that have offered post-hurricane assistance: Russia,Japan,Canada,France,honduras,Germany,Venezuela, jamaica,Australia,UK,Netherlands,Switzerland,Greece,Hungary,Columbia,Dominican Rep.,El Salvador,Mexico,China,Israel,United Nations,United Arab Emirates, NATO,and Organization of America States.

Posted by: joanne | Sep 1, 2005 6:17:08 PM

Well that is pretty dang cool. We have friends :)