Posted on 09/01/2005 6:56:22 AM PDT by Brian Mosely
NEW ORLEANS — A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers.
The Louisiana Superdome, once a mighty testament to architecture and ingenuity, became the biggest storm shelter in New Orleans the day before Katrina's arrival Monday. About 16,000 people eventually settled in.
By Wednesday, it had degenerated into horror. A few hundred people were evacuated from the arena Wednesday, and buses will take away the vast majority of refugees today.
"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. In her right hand she carried a half-full bottle of formula provided by rescuers. Baby supplies are running low; one mother said she was given two diapers and told to scrape them off when they got dirty and use them again.
At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
That alone would drive me nuts.
That happened to us when a store alarm near our bedroom window went off, and rang all night long. The police could do nothing, and the store owner refused to come out to turn it off before the morning. We finally went outside with a brick to break it. :-0 We were not successful.
There are criminals in N.O. who probably did stay behind to take advantage of the catastrophe. But, there are innocent people there, too. Why they stayed, I don't know. I believe it was a "cry wolf" situation; not even the mayor or the governor took the warnings seriously this time.
Tell it to the little girl who was raped in the Superdome last night.
We're all smarter, the next day.
Karma
If you're in college and living on barely anything, you still have family out there who can help you out and give you shelter.
Many families have two or more cars. It does not follow that every car equates to a family or individual that did not heed the warnings to leave.
Knowing that traffic would be a nightmare already, do you really advocate that all 2 car families take both cars when they flee?
SD
I thank my lucky stars I was born and raised a, root wild hog or die country boy. As Hank Williams JR. sang, "A Country Boy Can Survive." Why, because true rednecks know how to do it.
I understand completey. I've spent most of my life in FL, you just don't take off at each hurricane that comes around.
It's a bad situation, that's for sure.
I don't think you and your situational ethics will ever be taken seriously as a true conservative voice.
Are you expecting interviews and pictures of floating corpses? Who else is there to talk with or about, than the ones that are there? The media isn't going to go looking through all the motels in a 200 mile radius, to ask people if they are glad they evacuated.
The people here rejoicing in the conditions at the Superdome are like the looters--a few bad apples who make the rest of us look bad by association. The same way that the young families and elderly people at the Superdome are being told they deserved it for staying behind to loot, we're going to hear about how heartless and sick we are because we laughed at their situation.
You actually believe this? YOu atually thisnk that a panned view of a neighborhood with submerged cars is indicitive of people that had means to leave? I will not dispute that many stayed to loot the city but I will not equate it to submerged cars. I guarantee you that if you go through any ghetto that is probably what you will see the most of "cars" non-working cars, cars that have been parked because they need repairs, tags, insurance, or they do not have gas to put in them. Take a trip
And yes, I agree, anyone that can afford crack should afford a car and gas but, then their addiction keeps them from doing what is right and moral and maybe those are the people that wanted to loot. The police have the right to do whatever is necessary to them in the name of restoring order, but that is not everyone in NO that is stranded. And my sympathy goes out to those that could not get out for legitmate reasons and lost family members.
If what I've been reading here is your definition of Conservativism, I'll be proud not to be part of it.
You're right.
One of the issues we dealt with (working in a nursing home) was that if you took off at every hurricane threat, you would being killin' several residents each time.
So we really, I mean, REALLY had to believe it was a justified move. The only time the town evac'd, every nursing home lost 1 per 50, on average.
If you truly believe your claim that 'most people here don't know what they'd really do in this situation', then you're probably on the wrong bulletin board.
Your lax position on looting has now reaped what it has sowed. The looters are emoldened and have turned into armed, roving mobs.
But like most liberals, you probably don't believe in consequences, do you?
You think the Mayor wanted this to happen? The governor? Of course not.
Did they handle this disaster poorly? Certainly. But that is light years away from sending people to death camps.
You really should be ashamed of yourself for even making such an analogy
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.