Reuters Survivors of Hurricane Katrina line up at a drug store to buy supplies in Biloxi, Miss., today. Mississippi Power says it will take weeks to restore electricity to the region.
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."
I don't think that is a very nice comment to make to a fellow freeper.
Why would you think that I would want to say: "See! Only one!
Many of the looters are able bodied teens who could be helping with evacuations. I heard on the radio today that NO was looking for 1,000 volunteers.
Why you would attribute such negative motivation to me, I don't know. It's disappointing to see.
Because you didn't say "teens", you said "black teens". What difference does their color make?
The reason they aren't volunteering is because there is still stuff to steal.
Reuters Survivors of Hurricane Katrina line up at a drug store to buy supplies in Biloxi, Miss., today. Mississippi Power says it will take weeks to restore electricity to the region.
I can see people going for food, medical supplies, and some clothes. But DVD's and TVs is just a bit much for me.
Well that's just AMAZING!!!!!!! According to some on this site, I swear every black person is a looting thug. You mean some are actually PAYING???
Your post reminded me of a book I read a long time ago called Alas Babylon. It was about a nuclear holocaust and centered on a town in FL. Anyway, one of the characters stole some jewelry that had been contaminated by nuclear fallout. Here people were fighting for their lives and she was stealing jewelry....
susie
I know you meant well.
I realize that they lack character. How do you explain most of them are indeed blacks?
no, because they aren't. they didn't when it was rodney king rioting.
bttt
Wait till the welfare state encounters the heavily armed citizen patriot.
I said black teens because they were the only ones I saw on television looting.
What difference does their color make? Teens in general and black teens in particular have a hard time getting jobs and finding a place in society. These videos, shown repeatedly on television, will not make their lives any easier. A lot of hard-working, decent kids will suffer.
Like the first 10 min of Black Hawk Down, when the UN arrives with the food. Gangs take the food and the people scatter when they start shooting.
Biloxi is not underwater. And apparently there are employees in the stores conducting sales. That's not the situation in New Orleans, and has a lot to do with the different behavior.
Looting is contagious, but not just because lots of people lack principles. When people who are desperate for basic necessities see a handful of people looting the scarce items, and see that law enforcement and everyone else is powerless to stop them, they reasonably figure that the rules have changed at least for the time being, and that there's no reason the worst of the community should be the only ones eating and drinking clean water. I see a significant difference between starting it, and reacting to the reality of the situation. And once the process is well underway, you can't tell at a glance who's in which group.
I remember in May of 95, I was taking a few science courses at Univ of NO, and we got hit by a similar flood. I was up to my knees in water walking back to my apt. No looting or riots. The reason the blacks (yes, the blacks, Dems, Socialists, anarchists, whatever) are doing this is bc of NO PENALTIES.
And Im thinking most of them will die anyway of disease (cholera, etc). If they didn't die of looting, they'd die of drug overdose, robbery shootings, drive-by shootings, etc.
In a word, they have it coming one way or another.
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