Posted on 08/31/2005 7:09:41 AM PDT by End Times Sentinel
NEW ORLEANS - At first it just seemed that the Wal-Mart in New Orleans' Lower Garden District was doing a very brisk post-hurricane business yesterday: The parking lot was full, people were leaving with brimming baskets, and city police and firefighters were there as if to oversee it all.
But people weren't going through the front door. They were squeezing between boards meant to protect the now-shattered glass from Hurricane Katrina's winds. One man was packing his van so full of computers, televisions and DVD players that he had trouble closing the rear doors. One woman was carrying three jugs of laundry detergent in a city with no power to run a washer.
As in so many past disasters elsewhere when crisis and chaos have replaced order and normalcy, a beleaguered New Orleans was beset by looters.
The widespread plundering started before Katrina had finished its onslaught Monday. That afternoon, looters broke into an emptied sporting-goods warehouse in Mid-City, a grocery in Treme, and the hardware center Uptown. In one instance, witnesses said, police were called but did nothing until one man shot another.
People said they had heard Wal-Mart had opened its doors to provide supplies for law-enforcement agencies sheltering the 10,000- plus people in the Louisiana Superdome. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Sharon Weber, said law enforcement, emergency-management teams, and relief agencies had "unwritten permission" to help themselves to whatever they need from Wal-Mart stores in times of crisis, but that standard procedure was for the police or aid officials to "leave us a list of what they take so they can pay us later."
At the Lower Garden District Wal-Mart, among the items seen being loaded into police cars were dozens of T-shirts, DVDs, and dog food.
But when law-enforcement officials went to get their goods, others - people of all ages and races - followed.
"They just came and no one could stop them," said David Brown, 38, a Port of New Orleans employee.
Brown and a coworker were filling their vehicle with dozens and dozens of canned goods - stews and chilis and Spaghetti-O's. Brown said the food would be used to feed the port's police and its employees, many of whom, like him, had worked nonstop since Saturday.
They were only taking essentials, he said, though a copy of Queen Latifah's Beauty Shop movie had apparently made that list.
Brown said the work showed no sign of easing.
"It's pretty bad," he said. "They've been calling for body bags all day."
Most streets in New Orleans were empty yesterday except for the hub around the Wal-Mart, in a section of the city that remained dry. People were everywhere: in cars and trucks, pushing goods in carts and baby carriages, dragging full trash cans and laundry baskets. The steady stream of cars caused a traffic jam on the streets near the store - the type of traffic jam last seen here when people tried to evacuate.
"Is everything free?" asked a woman who pulled up in a red car. Hearing "yes," she started to chant: "TV! TV! TV!"
Inside, a teenage boy held up a pair of blue lacy panties and snickered, "I want to see somebody in these so bad," before tossing them in his basket.
Another man used a table to break into one of the last unscathed jewelry cases.
A rumor that the National Guard had arrived sent people running toward the store's exit, shouting: "Come on! Come on!" But no one put down any merchandise, and the Guard rumor turned out to be false.
Some shoppers were oddly selective. One woman said she was taking only facial-care products. Another was pushing a cart filled with silk roses and baby's breath. In the pharmacy aisle, she leaned over the handle, pushing it slowly as she read labels the way a paying customer would.
But the overwhelming feeling was one of chaos - angry shouting, carts ramming, fast grabbing. When a teenage girl passed out face down between the baby clothes and a women's-sock display, people pushed past or stepped on her.
Joseph LoCascio of Picayune, Miss., stopped to try to help the girl. He rolled her over, and she vomited pink liquid all over her face and hair. He then rolled her back.
"People just walking around like they don't care," he said.
He and his friend Sandi Nolan, 21, of Baton Rouge, tried to revive the girl by pouring water, Gatorade and soda over her face and neck. It only left her shirt and hair soaked.
LoCascio tried to get a man in a firefighter T-shirt to treat the girl, but the man hesitated, saying: "She's breathing. If I took her, where would I take her?"
About 15 minutes later, a firefighter medic arrived and began checking the girl. Still, LoCascio and Nolan were furious at their fellow looters.
Both have infants being treated at Children's Hospital, New Orleans, and had come to get baby food and supplies.
"I've never seen people like this. I have drinks and chips, things I need," Nolan said. "They're getting chain saws and fishing poles, anything they can get for free."
As she and LoCascio left, she noticed he had at least a dozen DVDs in his basket, as well as baby formula and baby food. She laughed and pointed it out to him.
"They're for the kids, so they can watch them," he said. "Things like Finding Nemo."
Nolan laughed. "Don't worry," she said. "I got a few too."
Kinda hard to swim for it wearing all that chain mail...(8^D)
Aid sent to legitimate emergency relief agencies and organizations is unlikely to end up in the hands of looters. As for the looters described in this article, some are obviously "animals" (animal-people don't magically disappear or transform in times of disaster), and others are probably really temporarily insane from the shock and confusion of the whole situation and from seeing bodies floating, etc. But plenty of the things described in this article are very legitimate emergency needs for both civilians and rescue workers, and Wal-Mart DID issue an announcement re at least one of their stores, inviting everyone to take whatever they needed. Given the chaotic state of communications in the area, honest people could have believed the announcement covered all Wal-Mart stores. Police taking T-shirts and dog food? Well with tens of thousands of both civilians and emergency workers drenched in foul flood water, T-shirts are much needed. As is dog food, since police dogs as well as trained civilian dogs are no doubt be pressed into heavy service. Civilians taking chain-saws? Well, if these are gasoline operated chainsaws, they would sure be useful for getting through rooves of flooded houses to look for survivors, building makeshift rafts out of the remnants of houses, etc. The DVDs sound like a stretch, but even some of those may be useful for calming people in shelters, especially children, if some battery or generator power is available to run DVD players. There are 20,000+ people stuck in the SuperDome, and tens of thousands of others in various shelters, with nowhere to go and nothing they can really do right now to improve their situation, find out if missing relatives and friends survived, etc. Let's give the benefit of the doubt to people who are going through something much worse than most of us have ever experienced.
I'm sorry that is not "Human nature" but CRIMINAL nature. Some people have a criminal mind and would take a childs balloon at a County Fair if they thought no one was looking. Were most would not. It is the criminal mind they are dealing with down there.
It has been a very strange week and an exercise in what is most important and how we make decisions.
On Thursday the storm hit Fl and we knew it was in the Gulf heading somewhere.
On Friday morning it looked a little worse.
Friday night it looked bad and by Saturday afternoon the town was in Chaos. But in a matter of days all of our mindset went from "Should we really leave" to "I hope my propery is okay" to "Leaving when I did was the Best decision I have ever made in my life." Looting does not matter, property does not matter. I am alive and my extended family and friends are all alive.
If you read your bible carefully, you'd know God doesn't cause disasters on earth. Remember, he said never again. The earth is a decaying, rotting place.God cannot save it. It will eventually destroy itself. Your option is to die along with it, or choose salvation and live forever in the new world Christ has been creating, one that hasn't been corrupted with sin like this one has.
Damn, this is sad. I have a dozen or so Refugees at my house in Austin and none have even had a chance to cry.
Because we care about the law and the breakdown of society. It isn't the property so much, as the behavior being displayed. THAT'S what's scary.....if all these people were doing was taking food and water, that would be one thing, but does someone need a plasma TV to survive? Something else that was bothersome was that the looting started before the storm even hit.
Property can indeed be replaced, memories can't be.....and society is shown to be very fragile when barbarians are on the loose. THAT'S why we care.
None of us are going to look at our kids who have not had a drink of water in three days and not steal.
Don't know if this has been posted, but I thought I saw the president of Venezuela offer to send aid. My husband had it pulled up and we had a laugh about it.
You can take the looters out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the looters.
The Plasma TV is worthless when it goes under water at the store or at the looters home. The problem is that the people doing the looting are too ignorant to realize that point.
Your essay should be published in the major papers. It is truly inspiring. Thank you for pointing out what is really going on, but not being reported.
Prayers for you and your family.
There is no such thing as martial law under Louisiana law, and Louisiana government officials have been trying to get that message across in various media interviews.
I was Lucky to Get Out.
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/ts/080304tropicalweathe/im:/050831/480/wxs11908310010;_ylt=AsvjahkNOreBSQliZ7OLjcdiWscF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3dmhrOGVvBHNlYwNzc20-
its not the cameras that are being selective. Its the viewers. You telling me this white person was "shopping"?
Maybe so but LOOTING is LOOTING. You can't eat or drink TV's, DVD"s, jewelry, etc. They're being ordered to leave. Get to an evac. center and get your butt out. The food and water issues will be taken care of there.
Yep
But doesn't money solve all of the worlds problems?
Insurance probably will not pay for stolen merchandise.
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