Posted on 09/01/2005 12:02:28 PM PDT by Esther Ruth
'A scene of anarchy'
CNN's Chris Lawrence in New Orleans, Louisiana
It's hard to believe this is New Orleans.
We spent the last few hours at the New Orleans Convention Center. There are thousands of people lying in the street.
We saw mothers holding babies, some of them just three, four and five months old, living in horrible conditions. Diapers littered the ground. Feces were on the ground. Sewage was spilled all around.
These people are being forced to live like animals. When you look at the mothers, your heart just breaks.
Some of the images we have gathered are very, very graphic.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I wonder how many will starve to death with a shelf full of canned goods because the electricity is off and their can openers don't work. No food? There's plenty of food. I wonder how many will stare and curse at the next rain instead of catching it in a container. Or just looking up in the sky and opening their mouths. No water? Hah! Remember outdoor plumbing? No bathrooms? Sheesh. My dear you are one of those that thinks meat only comes in plastic wrapped styrofoam packages. Its none of the above. What it is is lack of survival instincts or skills. It takes a lot of food stamps to erase that heritage.
The problem with training people to be dependent on government is that when you really need help, you can't depend on government.
The government is "swamped."
"What is wrong with these people just sitting there."
It is 80 miles to high ground. How do you walk that far without supplies? This isn't television buckeroo.
Damn straight. There are a LOT of folks in NO that have only managed to make matters worse thru their own inaction. Let's not even mention the thugs that are actively working against their own recovery.
The terrorists are learning from this. Just stick a dirty bomb in a couple of inner city ghettos and let the thugs do the rest.
Like I didn't have enough to worry about.
I think there is a plan. It's just not a very good one.
"I think there is a plan. It's just not a very good one."
Maybe Kerry has a plan...
I was certainly surprised when I scrolled down to your second picture.
Alas, these 'other' areas where the food is...is already occupied by other people, other tribes. Hence the eons of tribal warfare.
Decades of conditioning. Decades of paternalism. Decades of dependency. Decades of welfare. Decades of handouts. Decades of LIBERALISM!
that needs to be repeated becasue its dead ON!
I was thinking the same thing last night watching the news.
there NO PLAN for evacuation?
How do force a population to evacuate if they won't?
Some couldn't but many more wouldn't.
I completely agree, it just isn't Christian.
Everybody's trying. This is a pretty unique situation. The area that needs help is almost completely inaccessible due to water, and is surrounded by other hard hit areas which are being stretched to the limit just to sustain their own.
As someone who works in NYC, and was here (in midtown) on 9/11, I don't have any trouble seeing the huge difference between the two situations. NYC had plenty of food and water, the vast majority of people were able to walk home (even if a long way) after subway service was stopped and bridges and tunnels closed for security reasons to a home with food, clean, running water, electricity, and access to Internet/radio/TV/phone. Those who couldn't get home stayed with friends in fully functional homes. There were more able-bodied volunteers than were needed -- a licensed EMT friend of mine tried to volunteer but wasn't needed. The closing of bridges and tunnels was brief enough that store shelves were never anywhere near empty.
Only a tiny fraction of New Yorkers who survived the initial attack were in any mortal danger from injuries, being trapped etc. Most of us were physically fine, and just a bit wary about whether that would continue. I was pretty typical -- walked 40+ blocks to get home, stopping by the grocery to pick up bleach and candles and extra food that wouldn't require refrigeration, and the hardware store to pick up 3 large plastic trash cans for water storage. Went home, filled up my new water tanks, put away my stock of food, ate a nice dinner, and sat down in front of my computer to follow the situation closely via FR and other sources in my air conditioned apartment. Exchanged e-mails with a shaken-up friend who worked downtown and saw the 2nd plane hit as she emerged from the subway and then had to run for her life through the cloud of dust as the first tower fell (she'd managed to get home to New Jersey, with the last leg of her trip on a passing fire truck that picked her up and delivered her to the front door of her building). I never needed the stored water or non-refrigerated food. The next night around midnight, my 20-something-year-old cat needed an emergency trip to the vet hospital, and we hopped in a cab (driven by a Muslim who was chattering angrily, describing the attackers with streams of expletives) and went on our way. The VET hospital (the huge Animal Medical Center) was fully functioning, even after dispatching as many as vets and vet techs as the search and rescue dogs at the WTC site needed, though the air was a bit smoky from the wind having shifted to blow uptown.
Sorry, but the 9/11 situation in NYC was NOTHING like what the people of New Orleans are currently experiencing.
Just once, I'd like to hear some Neo-Pseudo-Con talking head on TV or Radio actually SAY THAT group of sentences!..........................When pigs fly or whatever.......
Quote: ""Diapers littered the ground"" Sounds like they just drop them where ever they change the baby. Put the nasty things in one pile some where.
The wife and I were in NO last November. We walked from the French quarter to the Garden District and saw diapers on the ground then.
Why are not these people organizing among themselves and collectiving going out and collecting food and rationing it out???
In fact--according to Monday's Baton Rouge newspaper it was the President that was on the phone before Katrina hit urging LA's Governor and NO's Mayor to order a mandatory evacuation.
I keep seeing CNN asking where the National Guard and law enforcement are. The fact is that the first line of defense is local law enforcement. If NO had a workable disaster plan and if they had worked to establish law and order from the outset then, they would have a situation where the state and Federal government could begin the orderly evacuations of the people stranded there.
ALL
I'm trying to figure this out-this whole seen does not make sense to me. A town of 1 million people is down to 100,000 and there is not enough food- especially a tourist town that caters to tourist (read lots of restaruants etc???
The place should be full of food. Seems like some people are spending more time stealing tv's and jewelery when they should be going on planned food runs.
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