Yep. And Michael Brown said on TODAY that the additional 30,000 Guard troops would "be there by Monday."
MONDAY????
I realize there's not a lot of area to stage things, but where the hell are the logistics people from the military? These guys can figure this stuff out on the fly.
Brown is in over his head, Blanco is in over her head, and Nagin is completely worthless. And Chertoff's bureaucrat-speak is getting on my nerves. Where's Bernie Kerik when you need him?
There needs to be order restored and massive food drops, TODAY!!
If there's not, and people are dying on the streets, then I'm going to have conclude that nobody is in charge.
The Real News
The following is the result of an interview I just conducted via cell phone with a New Orleans citizen stranded at the Convention Center. I don't know what you're hearing in the mainstream media or in the press conferences from the city and state officials, but here is the truth:
"Bigfoot" is a bar manager and DJ on Bourbon Street, and is a local personality and icon in the city. He is a lifelong resident of the city, born and raised. He rode out the storm itself in the Iberville Projects because he knew he would be above any flood waters. Here is his story as told to me moments ago. I took notes while he talked and then I asked some questions:
Three days ago, police and national guard troops told citizens to head toward the Crescent City Connection Bridge to await transportation out of the area. The citizens trekked over to the Convention Center and waited for the buses which they were told would take them to Houston or Alabama or somewhere else, out of this area.
It's been 3 days, and the buses have yet to appear.
Although obviously he has no exact count, he estimates more than 10,000 people are packed into and around and outside the convention center still waiting for the buses. They had no food, no water, and no medicine for the last three days, until today, when the National Guard drove over the bridge above them, and tossed out supplies over the side crashing down to the ground below. Much of the supplies were destroyed from the drop. Many people tried to catch the supplies to protect them before they hit the ground. Some offered to walk all the way around up the bridge and bring the supplies down, but any attempt to approach the police or national guard resulted in weapons being aimed at them.
There are many infants and elderly people among them, as well as many people who were injured jumping out of windows to escape flood water and the like -- all of them in dire straights.
Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids.
The people are so desperate that they're doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.
The buses never stop.
Before the supplies were pitched off the bridge today, people had to break into buildings in the area to try to find food and water for their families. There was not enough. This spurred many families to break into cars to try to escape the city. There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area -- Saulet Condos -- once they tried to get cars from there... well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed. Snipers got on the roof and told people to get back.
He reports that the conditions are horrendous. Heat, mosquitoes and utter misery. The smell, he says, is "horrific."
He says it's the slowest mandatory evacuation ever, and he wants to know why they were told to go to the Convention Center area in the first place; furthermore, he reports that many of them with cell phones have contacts willing to come rescue them, but people are not being allowed through to pick them up.
I have "Bigfoot"'s phone number and will gladly give it to any city or state official who would like to tell him how everything is under control.
Addendum: Bigfoot just called to report that "they" (the authorities) are cleaning up the dead bodies at the Convention Center right now.
I totally agree. I'm a big Bush supporter, but this is ridiculous. Granted, NOLA has huge problems with crime, and all the inmates are running the show right now like some Mad Max movie. If we can't get a grip on a natural disaster, how will we respond to a terrorist attack?
We should have had military security down there immediately with a bunch of cattle trucks and semis (installed with a porta-potty) to round up all the rioters, gangbangers and looters. When evacuating the SuperDome or the NO Convention Center, leave the felons and convert it to a jail.
Water, first aid, radios, and MREs should be airdropped to the areas of need.
Drop leaflets to warn looters will be shot. Make an example of one.
Get Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson down there calm down the populace.
Restoring order is not rocket science... it just takes initiative and guts.
Why don't you volunteer to walk into that hellhole of a city.
If there's not, and people are dying on the streets, then I'm going to have conclude that nobody is in charge.
You are absolutely correct. Actions speak louder than words. It is one more enigma to place beside the one occurring on our borders. There is a plan, but we have no clue. The philosophy is that peons don't need to know. You get what you elect. When you have a choice between a prince from a financial syndicate and a traitorous piece of trash from another financial syndicate, then there should not be high expectations from the peons.
If there's not, and people are dying on the streets, then I'm going to have conclude that nobody is in charge.
Correct. AND buses to take them out of there..NOW. Most of these people are poor, not animals. I can only watch in horror.
sw
Nobody IS in charge, sink. We can all see that from the lack of help these people have received so far. Police can only do so much, they don't have food either. To me that's the worst part of all this--not getting food and water to people and they actually dying because they can't get food or medical help. What a shame. I hope this serves as an example of how NOT to have a far reaching emergency. Think of what would happen if we had nuclear bombs going off in several of our largest cities. I shudder to think of it.