'A scene of anarchy'

CNN ^ | Sept 1, 2005 | CNN's Chris Lawrence in New Orleans, Louisiana

[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.

[Nov3]

If you give them your adress I'm sure they would happily show up at your house.

LOL

Hell they are standing around acting like they are thirsty and hungry and have no place to go. Maybe if they just walk around aimlessly some good will come of it!

[GovernmentShrinker]

The terrorists are learning from this.

What the terrorists are learning from this -- and I hope government officials and insurers grasp this before they enable the spending of billions of dollars to rebuild this coastline-city-below-sea-level-in-hurricane-country -- is that ONE very modest sized bomb anywhere along these levees would cause a repeat of most of this scene. And they'd be sure to do it AFTER the city had been largely rebuilt.

[browardchad]

"People who used a mail truck..."

Used? Try "carjacked" or "stole," AFP.

[Nov3]

9-11 WASN'T SQUAT compared to this. 9-11 destroyed a few buildings and ran fear through the economy. This DESTROYED a city completely. It is uninhabitable. Then there is Mississippi and Alabama. I just recieved a call -Mississippi may have more dead than LA. 9-11 was horrible - this is a disaster.

[Doogle]

What's wrong with these people, you ask. Psychologists call it learned helplessness.

...it's called the johnson "Great Society"


Doogle

[Dont Mention the War]

Has Chris Lawrence been alleviating the suffering he has seen?

How come Chris Lawrence can write about all this stuff, but can't put any of it on the air?

[Nov3]

Thank You! I am sick of these morons flaming away.

[geopyg]

---"And as for the "people are starting to die": ?? What? How many sick and elderly can their be?"--

Let's see. You got trapped in you're stifling hot attic for a day (Mon.) until you were able to claw your way out. Then you sat on your roof for a day (Tues) in the stifling hot sun waiting to be rescued. Then you waded through the water with your cut legs and scratched up hands and tried not to swallow too much contaminated water as you got to the boat. Then you waited a day on the bridge overpass in the hot sun. (Weds.) Now you're at the convention center. If your lucky you've had a little bit of water that someone found to give to you. Not that that will help much against the heat exhaustion and disease that is creeping through your body. And this would be bad for a 20-year old in good shape. And YOU'RE the pessimist? ;) But yeah - how come the news guys seem to be able to get in and out but the freash water and the sick don't?

[nyconse]

The point is plenty of help poured in from all over...It has been confirmed that people are now dying in the dome of dehydration. This is America; we are not a third world country. Food and Water could be dropped in by aircraft. There is not-nor ever will be- any excuse for this situation.

[Dont Mention the War]

And the media has also lost control the past few hours. They are all having a collective nervous breakdown. Jack Cafferty on CNN is trashing President Bush up and down for being AWOL during this crisis. The WH press corps was asking why the Bush administration was not pleading for international help. By nightfall, expect the situation- as reported by the media, to have devolved into every 3rd world disaster comparison- possible.

What worries me about this is that even today, the public still gets most of its news from the MSM, especially during crises such as this one. The more the MSM loses it, the more it's going cause the public to turn against Bush, Congress and government in general (but especially Bush himself, of course). All this will do is dilute Bush's political power and thus make it even harder for him to fix this mess.

[Nov3]

The point is plenty of help poured in from all over...It has been confirmed that people are now dying in the dome of dehydration. This is America; we are not a third world country. Food and Water could be dropped in by aircraft. There is not-nor ever will be- any excuse for this situation.

Now I will agree with that.

[nyconse]

So they had no plan...They have Democrat governor-big surprise. We should let them die? Maybe someone-perhaps the President- better come up with a plan real quick.

[nyconse]

There are a few thugs...there are 1000's of people starting to die in America of dehydration...children and the elderly. We all worked hard to keep Terry Shiavo alive, but we don't care about these people because we saw a few thugs on TV? As for the rescue operation as near as I can tell there is no rescue operation. My friend on the scene tells me people are beginning to die in the Dome. There is no place in America for something like this to happen. It has been four days since some of these people had food and water in 95 degree heat. Send in aircraft to drop food and water for Gods sake. If Clinton was president ( I hate Clinton) and this happened you all would be screaming bloody murder, but because a Republican is in the White House some how this horror is ok. Well it is not ok. Something needs to done. I am not in the mood to hear more BS from the Pres (I really like Pres. Bush in general).

[spectre]

Here's a plan. Airdrop food and water from the rescue helicopters and C-123's. NOW!

sw

[nyconse]

bump...I absolutely agree. Do something now before more people die. Obviously, Blanco is incompetent. Help these people now.

[spectre]

and C-130's :)

[monkeywrench]

Why aren't they? I keep thinking about the people on the bridge. Don't we have any helicopters? They have been without water an awful long time....

[spectre]

If you believe the FEMA presser going on right now...then ALL the people in NO are being fed and supplied with water. Guess we shouldn't worry, huh?

sw

[Sybeck1]

9-11 WASN'T SQUAT compared to this. 9-11 destroyed a few buildings and ran fear through the economy. This DESTROYED a city completely. It is uninhabitable. Then there is Mississippi and Alabama. I just received a call -Mississippi may have more dead than LA. 9-11 was horrible - this is a disaster.


Anniversary is just ten days away.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Most of the food is underwater and either inaccessible or destroyed. Many hotels, hospitals, and other facilities that have large food service operations, have those operations primarily on the first floor -- wiped out in most cases. Store shelves have all been emptied, with most of the food from them eaten, and a little no doubt hoarded by the few people who have anywhere to hoard it. Relief workers are bringing in food and water as fast as they can, but surrounding areas are also in bad shape, there's only one passable road in/out of the city, and many of the helicopters available are too busy evacuating hospital patients and critically ill or wounded people, and dropping sandbags on the levees, to be used for transporting supplies. Both airports are underwater.