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."
Yes it will.
Being concerned about looting in New Orleans in like being concerned about the looting that took place on the Titanic the night it sank.
I know...I'm mean.
Agreed, but their ignorance and their barbarity is a threat to the rest of us. I'm very happy you and your family are safe, although I'm sad that New Orleans may end up being a ghost town after all this (my great great grandfather came into the US through New Orleans), and I'm very disquieted that barbarians such as the ones looting are still among us.
I hope you and your family can find a good place to live when all this settles down. You sound like good, Christian folks and you've been through more than anyone deserves to go through.
I understand completly. I am giving to a group that is 100% known to me and I know where and what they are going to spend the money.
Seriously, I blame the mayor of NO and the Gov. of LA for not getting on the radio and telling people water and food are on the way. They induced this panic by the lack of leadership.
Huey Long brought La. out of the dark ages(until today in NOLA). There were no roads, hospitals, University, and the oil industry was out of control. Was he a crooked politician? Absolutely. After all it is Louisiana. At least when Huey made promises to do something for the state he did it. Blanco is just a party hack who takes her orders from the DNC and bows to the unions, the mafia( one and the same) and the gimme gimme minorities. Read T. Harry Williams biography of Huey, you will be impressed.
FRiend, please post that to the Live Thread, if you have not
Don't know if you've received a response on this yet, but the Federal Government underwrites flood insurance anywhere in the US. I'm in the insurance industry, and I can bet that if you owned a home in NO, you would be required by your mortgage company to have flood insurance, because you're in such a obvious flood plain.
Most gas stations' profit margin on fuel won't cover a 12-18 cent jump in fuel costs. Gotta pay for the next load...
Maybe that should read/spell countries, I don't consider those blue cities as coming from the same country as I live in.
I'm not to excited about giving out aid to socialistic countries.
No no No!! Hildy Freepers are better people. After the police started looting the stores (I am sure that is considered OK!) the little people should have just sat there and been thirsty and hungry! These freepers would have sat in NO and without power, water, sewage, "police protection", national guard, communications, and the city flooding around them, and no help on the horizon and gone hungry and thirsty. They are real men behind their keyboards.
Of course all of the people doing BLANKET condemnations of all these people have been through worse - right????
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.
I have a feeling the tears will come. It is very sad. We are keeping you in our prayers.
Hint: Tone down the language
Actually, that one is skinny enough to be really sick, a speed freak, or really poor (starving).
Sorry! :-)
LOL, that's too true. Rebuild, improve the levees. And maybe move it inland a little?
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