New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes

AP ^ | 9/1/05

[Uncle Joe Cannon]

New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes

Friday September 2, 2005 12:46 AM

AP Photo MSDP112

By ALLEN G. BREED

Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken. ``This is a desperate SOS,'' mayor Ray Nagin said.

``We are out here like pure animals,'' the Rev. Issac Clark said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, where he and other evacuees had been waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead.

``I'm not sure I'm going to get out of here alive,'' said tourist Larry Mitzel of Saskatoon, Canada, who handed a reporter his business card in case he goes missing. ``I'm scared of riots. I'm scared of the locals. We might get caught in the crossfire.''

Four days after Hurricane Katrina roared in with a devastating blow that inflicted potentially thousands of deaths, the frustration, fear and anger mounted, despite the promise of 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop the looting, plans for a $10 billion recovery bill in Congress and a government relief effort President Bush called the biggest in U.S. history.

New Orleans' top emergency management official called that effort a ``national disgrace'' and questioned when reinforcements would actually reach the increasingly lawless city.

About 15,000 to 20,000 people who had taken shelter at New Orleans convention center grew increasingly hostile after waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead. Police Chief Eddie Compass said he sent in 88 officers to quell the situation at the building, but they were quickly driven back by an angry mob.

``We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten,'' Compass said. ``Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon.''

A military helicopter tried to land at the convention center several times to drop off food and water. But the rushing crowd forced the choppers to back off. Troopers then tossed the supplies to the crowd from 10 feet off the ground and flew away.

In hopes of defusing the situation at the convention center, Mayor Ray Nagin gave the refugees permission to march across a bridge to the city's unflooded west bank for whatever relief they could find. But the bedlam made that difficult.

``This is a desperate SOS,'' Nagin said in a statement. ``Right now we are out of resources at the convention center and don't anticipate enough buses.''

At least seven bodies were scattered outside the convention center, a makeshift staging area for those rescued from rooftops, attics and highways. The sidewalks were packed with people without food, water or medical care, and with no sign of law enforcement.

An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.

``I don't treat my dog like that,'' 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he pointed at the woman in the wheelchair.

``You can do everything for other countries, but you can't do nothing for your own people,'' he added. ``You can go overseas with the military, but you can't get them down here.''

The street outside the center, above the floodwaters, smelled of urine and feces, and was choked with dirty diapers, old bottles and garbage.

``They've been teasing us with buses for four days,'' Edwards said. ``They're telling us they're going to come get us one day, and then they don't show up.''

Every so often, an armored state police vehicle cruised in front of the convention center with four or five officers in riot gear with automatic weapons. But there was no sign of help from the National Guard.

At one point the crowd began to chant ``We want help! We want help!'' Later, a woman, screaming, went on the front steps of the convention center and led the crowd in reciting the 23rd Psalm, ``The Lord is my shepherd ...''

``We are out here like pure animals,'' the Issac Clark said.

``We've got people dying out here - two babies have died, a woman died, a man died,'' said Helen Cheek. ``We haven't had no food, we haven't had no water, we haven't had nothing. They just brought us here and dropped us.''

Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, ``'Go to hell - it's every man for himself.'''

``This is just insanity,'' she said. ``We have no food, no water ... all these trucks and buses go by and they do nothing but wave.''

At the hot and stinking Superdome, where 30,000 were being evacuated by bus to the Houston Astrodome, fistfights and fires erupted amid a seething sea of tense, suffering people who waited in a lines that stretched a half-mile to board yellow school buses.

After a traffic jam kept buses from arriving for nearly four hours, a near-riot broke out in the scramble to get on the buses that finally did show up, with a group of refugees breaking through a line of heavily armed National Guardsmen.

One military policeman was shot in the leg as he and a man scuffled for the MP's rifle, police Capt. Ernie Demmo said. The man was arrested.

Some of those among the mostly poor crowd had been in the dome for four days without air conditioning, working toilets or a place to bathe. An ambulance service airlifting the sick and injured out of the Superdome suspended flights as too dangerous after it was reported that a bullet was fired at a military helicopter.

``If they're just taking us anywhere, just anywhere, I say praise God,'' said refugee John Phillip. ``Nothing could be worse than what we've been through.''

By Thursday evening, 11 hours after the military began evacuating the Superdome, the arena held 10,000 more people than it did at dawn. National Guard Capt. John Pollard said evacuees from around the city poured into the Superdome and swelled the crowd to about 30,000 because they believed the arena was the best place to get a ride out of town.

As he watched a line snaking for blocks through ankle-deep waters, New Orleans' emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert blamed the inadequate response on the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

``This is not a FEMA operation. I haven't seen a single FEMA guy,'' he said. He added: ``We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans.''

FEMA officials said some operations had to be suspended in areas where gunfire has broken out.

A day after Nagin took 1,500 police officers off search-and-rescue duty to try to restore order in the streets, there were continued reports of looting, shootings, gunfire and carjackings - and not all the crimes were driven by greed.

When some hospitals try to airlift patients, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan said, ``there are people just taking potshots at police and at helicopters, telling them, `You better come get my family.'''

Outside a looted Rite-Aid drugstore, some people were anxious to show they needed what they were taking. A gray-haired man who would not give his name pulled up his T-shirt to show a surgery scar and explained that he needs pads for incontinence.

``I'm a Christian. I feel bad going in there,'' he said.

Earl Baker carried toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant. ``Look, I'm only getting necessities,'' he said. ``All of this is personal hygiene. I ain't getting nothing to get drunk or high with.''

While floodwaters in the city appeared to stabilize, efforts continued to plug three breaches that had opened up in the levee system that protects this below-sea-level city.

Helicopters dropped sandbags into the breach and pilings were being pounded into the mouth of the canal Thursday to close its connection to Lake Pontchartrain, state Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry said. He said contractors had completed building a rock road to let heavy equipment roll to the area by midnight.

The next step called for using about 250 concrete road barriers to seal the gap.

In Washington, the White House said Bush will tour the devastated Gulf Coast region on Friday and has asked his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Clinton to lead a private fund-raising campaign for victims.

The president urged a crackdown on the lawlessness.

``I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this - whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud,'' Bush said. ``And I've made that clear to our attorney general. The citizens ought to be working together.''

Donald Dudley, a 55-year-old New Orleans seafood merchant, complained that when he and other hungry refugees broke into the kitchen of the convention center and tried to prepare food, the National Guard chased them away.

``They pulled guns and told us we had to leave that kitchen or they would blow our damn brains out,'' he said. ``We don't want their help. Give us some vehicles and we'll get ourselves out of here!''

----

[Darksheare]

But you already did whine about how you are being treated.

Your response to my suggestion that you knock it off:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475220/posts?page=177#177

Whining, again, about how you are being treated:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475220/posts?page=186#186

Whining about how you are being treated:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475220/posts?page=190#190

You wouldn't know what being shot at is.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475220/posts?page=229#229


I suggest, then, that you just walk away.

[sandbar]

>>> What Govt have we toppled in a matter of days with NO planning?>>>

So what you are saying is that all the money spent on Homeland Security is a big fat waste unless the Muslim Terrorist give a few days warning of an attack?

[chris1]

The gov't squanders billions and billions and billions. If even a fraction of that money were used productively, perhaps the level of these types of calamities would be lessend. Its not an all or nothing thing, but tell me, what has billions and billions on homeland security done for us?

[Dick Vomer]

no warning of this. However, there should at least be some sort of planning for events like this, especially since 9/11. Although its all 20/20, it seems to me that there is no coordinated effort in this evacuation....

my friend you haven't the slightest clue.... what you are witnessing is a lazy, stupid, corrupt patronage system of government being exposed for the incompetents they are. Katrina just lifted the rock and let all the roaches scurry away.

All cities and counties in the flood zones are mandated to have disaster plans with nice little power point presentations, they get to go to these neat conferences (in nice places at tax payers expense) and "have meetings" with charts of "responsibility".. uh..Joe, "you got communications"...Uh... Alice "you'll look into medical personnel"... In other words there are operational charts. It starts at the city, county level...then to district then state, finally regional then federal level....

By LAW things need to be done in order so that resources are not squandered and panic doesn't allocate scarce resources.

Well guess what.... "character" matters. A leader rolls up his sleeves, follows through on his responsibility and is proactive in a crisis.

In other words they have to KNOW HOW TO DO SOMETHING!!!!

The people in charge of New Orleans and Louisiana are there to take up space and scam money.. they don't know how to do sh#t. They don't have the first clue and have the same deer in the headlights look that a green big mouth 2nd Lieutenant has in his first ambush.

"HOLY CRAP!!".... people are dying... just like "they said would happen"

..... well guess what mayor?? Guess what Governor??? Time to earn your f###ing paycheck. Quit whining, get a cup of coffee, toothbrush, and plan on having a crappy year... cause this is gonna be a bad one....or get out of the way and let men of action do the work while you sit on your a@# and place the blame, make excuses and criticize.

[little jeremiah]

On one thread I read today an article was posted (somewhere on the thread) of the "sensitivity training" the chief of police took so he and the other NO cops could "understand" and "be sensitive" to all the Muslims in NO.

Of course I have no idea which article/thread it was on.

It was in June of this year. There was more crap posted about the police department that will further boil your blood.

This was a doomed city before Katrina started forming on the other side of the Atlantic.

[fnord]

WALK WEST ON I-10

I've been saying that for 2 days ... do they have so little initiative that they can't put their feet in motion?

I agree with most of what else you say too. The media has been disgusting in continuing and playing up the misery. How do you think those media prima donnas get their food and water? They drive out every night and come back the next day.

Semper Fi

[usmcobra]

How are the buses getting through if the highway is flooded?

Airdrops work best if you aren't dropping them into water, or on to the tops of houses.

[RoseD]

Talk to your local press about that! Make them act! You are the power!

[Alberta's Child]

I understand all that about New York City, but there are a couple of important things to remember here . . .

1. The 9/11 disaster was the result of an act of war on the United States. No matter how chaotic things may have been, from a psychological standpoint this simple fact made people far less likely to act out in a violent manner against their fellow citizens than if it had been a natural disaster. Since 9/11 I've worked on a number of high-level security and evacuation planning efforts for the New York region, and right in the middle of one of these projects we had a chance to see a large-scale evacuation effort at work -- during the blackout of August 2003. In the aftermath of that blackout we did a pretty detailed assessment of the situation and compared it to 9/11 (because the evacuation process was somewhat similar, and because similar mass transit assets were out of service). The results were very interesting, but in retrospect they are not surprising . . . evacuees from Manhattan on 9/11 were downright cooperative and docile as lambs, while the lack of cooperation and level of hostility among the evacuees in the blackout aftermath was very tangible. On 9/11, people were angry -- at the bastards who destroyed the World Trade Center. In August of 2003, these people were also angry -- at the nameless, faceless, incompetent people (the proverbial "they" that you hear about so often in New Orleans these days) who "must be responsible for this huge inconvenience."

2. The 9/11 attacks also occurred in the financial capital of the world, and most of those who were directly affected by it would probably have more of an "upper class" mindset (at the risk of sounding snobby, I know) than your typical victim in New Orleans. If the 9/11 attacks had occurred in Bedford-Stuyvesant or East New York, I wonder if the crowd behavior would have been different.

[TigersEye]

You've both been knocking Bush for what he HASN'T done.

We made one remark about the uselessness of talk in this situation. The news bears that out. If you feel so offended that the Pres. might possibly be criticized (and it is stretching things to call it criticism of him in particular) then that's your problem. The criticism is simply that talk won't cut it here and the reality of the situation bears that out. The very simple point is that someone, whoever it is that has the authority, (doesn't someone?) needs to give a 'shoot to kill' order. That is all there is to it.

Disengage your emotions for a minute and you might see that.

[Gumption]

The military has let NO down. IMO. Period.

These are your words, correct?

[TigersEye]

But you already did whine about how you are being treated. Your response to my suggestion that you knock it off:

Isn't that in reality a response to a threat not a response to how I was being treated? A threat you have no ability to carry out to boot.

[DJ MacWoW]

Get in your cars and drive in to bring someone out!

Are you trying to get people killed or arrested?! Please don't urge others to do illegal and dangerous things. If it was just a matter of hopping in a vehicle, don't you think the Red Cross and Salvation Army would be in there? They CAN'T get in. It's flooded. The roads are barricaded by Natl' Guard.

I challenge you to demand your government shut down the schools and send in their buses to bring the victims into your communities.

They HAD buses. They could have gotten their own people out. They chose to tempt fate.

[Mr. Mojo]

Police Chief Eddie Compass said he sent in 88 officers to quell the situation at the building, but they were quickly driven back by an angry mob. "We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten,'' Compass said. ``Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon.''

Well Eddie, if the situation is that dire (which it most certainly is) then whyinthehell did your officers allow an angry mob to drive them back? Have they been issued firearms? If so, then I strongly suspect that few well placed shots would effectively disperse that "angry mob" and allow your officers to restore order and save innocent people's lives.

So, Eddie, do you have either the brains or the balls to do what needs to be done?

[Jorge]

>>> What Govt have we toppled in a matter of days with NO planning?>>>

So what you are saying is that all the money spent on Homeland Security is a big fat waste unless the Muslim Terrorist give a few days warning of an attack?

No. I'm saying that your analogy about toppling a "govt" is a poor one.

And in any case there is no such thing as always being totally prepared for the unknown, no matter how much you spend.

[sandbar]

>>> Plenty of Blame to go Around my A$$, unless you have connection with God...Dust in the Wind...>>>

Noone is blaming the government for the Hurricane, well, maybe Germany.

What we are blaming is for the leaving them to the wind AFTERward.

[TXnMA]

It's not so much "dignity" as it is a sense of self-reliance. That's what's missing in this whole disaster.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

self-reliance -- the magic word!

How many scenes have you seen with bunches of folks sitting on their fat butts and whining that "Nobody ain't brought me no water for three whole days!"?

And how many scenes have you seen where someone has built a debris fire and boiled a big pot of water so that they -- and those around them -- could have a sterilized drink?

No self-reliance -- and no sense of community. Behold the virtues of the slavery of the "nanny entitlement state"!

[little jeremiah]

I am surprised you see no connection between liberal policies and the mayhem occuring.

Liberalism means "it's not your fault", "you've been oppressed by the evil white oppressors", "you're entitled", "we'll take care of your fatherless children", "drug addiction is an illness and here's your methadone", "we'll increase your foodstamps", etc etc etc. Add to that a completely corrupt city and state government who stay in power by keeping an underclass helpless, and a corrupt bunch of cops and the result is what we see before our eyes.

Obviously there are innocent people suffering terribly. But they would not be suffering as much if public policy had been very different.

BTW, food and water were delivered both before and after the hurricane. And now it is difficult to get in supplies because fiends in human form are shooting at those trying to help. You think they're shooting just because they're hungry and thirsty? If you were hungry and thirsty would you try to kill those who are trying to help you?

[chris1]

I was amazed at how well everyone acted during the blackout.

We get a lot of flack from people, but NY'ers do not react like others typically do. I.E., sports teams victories never result in looting etc etc.

My biggest beef is also with the mentality of the low lifes who porbably could have really helped this situation by moving people along rather than just making it worse. I guess if you have a population like this, it makes it harder. no to blame these people, but they are not making it easier.