Picture Credit: US News
The governor of Louisiana has now conceded the attempt to reassert control in New Orleans is a battle: They have M-16s and they're locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will.
This also signals a disturbing lack of human decency on the part of the governor--we will shoot to kill our own people--yet a detachment from the responsibility of the act--they are more than willing to do so. Not I, but "they". Not the state, but the police agents of the state, as if they are somehow detached.
Meanwhile, Houston officials have said the Astrodome is now full and cannot accept any more refugees. Texas officials did say, however, that refugees would be sent to the nearby Reliant Arena, and that the city of Huntsville would also accept refugees.
In the Superdome, total anarchy reigns. Woman are getting raped, others are being beaten.
In the battle zone itself, there are increasing reports of New Orleans police simply melting into the population, giving up their badges and walking away.
One NOPD officer was quoted as saying, when asked for assistance: "'Go to hell - it's every man for himself."
The filth and stench in the Superdome, along with the anarchy, was not helped when through the day yesterday, in spite of bussing people out of the area, the facility had 10,000 more people than at the start. Word had spread this was the best place to get a ride out of town.
The mayor of New Orleans continues to whine about things being out of control, but STILLhas not used what remains of his shrinking police force to commanndeer food, water, and medicine from shops that still have them for orderly, or at least more orderly, distribution to people who need it, still preferring the mob to sort it out.
The state of Louisiana has requested 40,000 (equivalent to three World War II-size divisions) of National Guard troops for deployment to New Orleans.
Reports come from the city that there are 100 armed bandits inside the Convention center. Plans involving the use of 500 police and National Guard are being formed to clean out the facility of bandits.
Pandamonium hasn't been limited to New Orleans. In a sign of the types of folks we are dealing with here, when these people began arriving at the Houston Astrodome, they mobbed people who were trying to help by passing out clean t-shirts.
Fires have broken out on the east side of New Orleans...
Picture Credit: AP
A portion of the police department that was still functioning was actually battling from the rooftop of a precinct building to prevent thugs from entering the premises.
A large explosion occurred in the city's railroad district. Authorities were trying to get HAZMAT units there as noone knows what was in the cars that blew.
Amazingly, the New Orleans mayor's office never informed FEMA officials that the city's Convention Center was being used as a gathering point for storm victims--so Federal officials didn't know until now that there were folks gathered there.
In some places in the flooded area, gas is bubbling up through the waters and catching on fire.
Adding to the chaos, people from Plaquemines parish, the district that covers the Mississippi delta, have started pouring into the stricken city.
In response to this, a totally dissociated mayor declares: We are overwhelmed and out of resources, but we welcome them with open arms and will figure this out together....credit: The Chair