[dervish]

"No one need ponder the fact of the racial makeup of the persons doing the vast majority of the looting within the disaster areas from the hurricane"

okay I know I'm going to get slammed here and Not condoning the looting in any way. It's disgusting.

But why is it that the refugees in the Super Dome and the ones taking shelter on the highways are all Black too?

Given the warning that the storm was coming, the evacuation order, the fact that a direct hit on NOLA was expected, why was busing, evacuation not arranged for the poor residents with no means to leave?

[Pukin Dog]

We all know that poor folks are eventually going to take a dump; Should we arrange have someone ready to wipe them too?

[HairOfTheDog]

Given the warning that the storm was coming, the evacuation order, the fact that a direct hit on NOLA was expected, why was busing, evacuation not arranged for the poor residents with no means to leave?

I think under the circumstance, the Superdome was the best choice. Where would you have bussed 250 ~busloads~ of people where there would be better shelter available?

[Smokin' Joe]

...why was busing, evacuation not arranged for the poor residents with no means to leave?

Everyone keeps repeating the mantra of "too poor to leave", and some, doubtless, were.

But I keep seeing video of submerged and destroyed vehicles--lots of them.

Doubtless, fuel from gas stations is leaking into the water even now. It would have been better to fill every full car that came through than let the fuel leak away.

It would have been better to drive those vehicles out of there than leave them.

better to camp out under a tarp than wait in a sewer.

The people on the overpass where Shep Smith was reporting are just waiting.

Some can't walk far, granted, but to the west vehicles are coming in, and if capable, I'd be walking out...not just sitting and waiting.

Unfortunately, the poor who have been institutionalized by government programs, who are the basis of the industry which has evolved around being poor, have been conditioned to wait for the government to "do something" rather than sieze their own initiative and do it themselves.

If that salad bar will haul DVDs and consumer electronics, it will haul Grandma, at least until the wheels fall off. Little kids can fit two or three to the shopping cart, and it is self-draining.

But it is easier to be angry and blame Richard (Rich Whiteman) than to grab your bootstraps and pull. After all, it is what many have been programmed to do.

[beckysueb]

Given the warning that the storm was coming, the evacuation order, the fact that a direct hit on NOLA was expected, why was busing, evacuation not arranged for the poor residents with no means to leave?

Bussing was offered. No one wanted to go. Hmmm. Wonder why??