Posted on 09/02/2005 7:37:54 AM PDT by An.American.Expatriate
Edited on 09/02/2005 7:51:53 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Maica, I hope that EVERYONE reads both yours and Enchante's posts.
Thank you for posting this.
Thanks.
This thread is pretty dead, but maybe there will be an opportunity to repost it on other threads.
I think that you should do just that, maica. This sure doesn't feel like a holiday weekend, does it? I have a big pit in my stomach as I hear a football game going on in the background on TV. I just can't square it all.
Boy, we could really get alot of mileage out of this one.
God, why did you let me live in the filth of the Superdome?
I'm glad somebody there had enough common sense to do what he did.
Considering how crazy the mayor is, maybe he or his gang were shooting at the helos, to prevent pictures like this from being taken.
Amen..........from the choir.
Semper Fi
As much as there is plenty of blame to go around for the fiasco in New Orleans during the past week, I have a few observations I'd like to share.
During the 1960's black people made great gains in equality, both economicaly and socially, but black leaders told them that they were victims of society, needing special advantages: ie, welfare, affirmative action, both in jobs and schools, fair housing, ect.
Now let's move to 2005. A cat 5 huricane hits New Orleans. People are told to evacuate, but most don't.
After the storm, with no drinking water, food, or electricty, do people leave? NO, WE ARE PROFESSIONAL VICTIMS.
Hundreds of looters take to the streets to take anything that's not nailed down, pushing shopping carts loaded with their loot through knee deep water. Does anyone stop them or question their actions? NO, WE ARE PROFESSIONAL VICTIMS.
Children and elderly people who need food and health care are not helped by friends or neighbors to get to safety, someone will come to us because WE ARE PROFESSIONAL VICTIMS.
Rescue helicopters are sent to help evacuate the sick and elderly, but are fired upon by looted guns, but it's not our fault, WE ARE PROFESSIONAL VICTIMS.
Send in the MSM, interview people who bitch and moan about lack of government response. The black caucus comes out of the wordwork and blames everything on president Bush, after all, WE ARE PROFESSIONAL VICTIMS.
Let's review the lessons learned from this disaster. If you are flooded out of you're home, do not attempt to move your family to safety, go loot the local liquor store and gun shop, then complain to the nearest reporter that you have no food or medicine for the children. Do not attempt to take responsibilty for your inactions because you know that the government will come bail you're ass out. YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL VICTIM!!!!!
School bus worked just fine for these people: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/kprc/20050901/lo_kprc/2913047
>The local lib radio host kept blabbing about Bush "slashing" >the levee project from $80 million to $40 million. Ok, but >how was the $40 million that they did get spent? How much >money was the bureaucracy sitting on already?
I am a former resident of New Orleans (moved to Jackson, MS in 1999). There are several things that we need to get across about this levy nonsense.
1. The debate over adequacy of the levies has been on-going for more than 30 years. It did not just start with Bush.
2. The section of the levy that collapsed WAS RECENTLY UPGRADED! (call the trial lawyers - obviously this was negligent)
3. One of the biggest opponents to levy improvements over the years have been environmental groups.
4. Even if Bush spent $100 billion on levy improvements there is no guarantee that they would have been completed in time to prevent this disaster. Its not like playing SIM City where you throw money at something and - VIOLA- you have better levies. The improvements would have been done in phases over several years.
Good news: The American public isn't buying the blame Bush line. http://abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1094262&page=1
Even so, he isn't up for re-election. Nagin and Blanco will be, although Blanco isn't up until 2007. (Not sure about Nagin).
It's a shame that misinformation can become fact if it's repeated enough times...here's a few corrections if anyone should care....the caption under the photo should read
"the floodwater is the result of the unexpected breaks in the levees, which were damaged by Hurricane Kristina"
This was a two part disaster that started out at as a cat 4 hurricane...on 27aug, in preparation for it's arrival,the mayor called for voluntary evacuations, the governor requested federal assistance and the president declared a state of emergency. on 28aug, the governor requested military troops from new mexico, the mayor announced mandatory evacuations, and the superdome would be used as an emergency shelter. for those needing the shelter, they were advised to bring water, food, clothing etc. for 3-4 days. it's pretty clear to me that there was a plan and it was being activated...
so, the hurricane hits on 29aug, and the superdome is seriously damaged...the next day, before people can be moved out of the superdome to other places(by school busses?), the levees break and the city is 80% underwater...now the superdome evacuees are stranded. wednesday and thursday pass without any assistance and by friday the mayor lashes out...this is the ACTUAL quote if anyone is interested...
NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.
I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."
That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.
the mayor is trying to get across that the size of the catastrophe is so large that school busses won't be enough,and he needs much more help...instead, you folks misquote him just enough to completely change what he was trying to say...
if you watched any news in the last 2 days, you will see there are still people stranded because of the flooding, but they continue to refuse to leave. how can you blame the mayor, or governor or the president or fema for the bad choices that were made by the private citizens? unfortunately, many of them are/were poor and sick and couldn't/wouldn't heed the warnings and suggestions of the people trying to help them...
I find it interesting that no one has mentioned that a huge majority of the populationd DID heed the mayor's announcements and left town...
so maybe those busses were going to be used to round up the people after the hurricane that refused to leave their homes before it hit..or maybe they were going to be used to evacuate the patients in the local hospitals if enough damage was sustained from the hurricane....i'm sure no one expected that most of the city would be 5-15ft. underwater for days afterward. the city had planned - once again-for a hurricane, but no one (not even fema) was prepared for the catastrophic flooding.
until we've had to make these last minute, ometimes no-win decisions, maybe we should lighten up on the armchair quarterbacking and go help our fellow neighbors...
Responding late, I know, BUT - yes, you are correct in that the call for the Greyhounds was AFTER the flooding occurred.
However, the point of this thread was NOT what happened after the levees broke! Instead, why weren't these buses used to evacuate the city PRIOR to the arrival of Katrina? At least the prisons, the hospitals and other "critical" cites could have been evacuated via these buses (and the Metro Buses, etc...). They weren't.
As to your hypothisis that "no one knew that this could happen" - you are quite wrong. The danger that the levees could break was very real and often cited as a potential (the levees were only rated to CAT 3!).
Lastly, there is surely enough "blame" that can be spread between the city, the state & the federal goverments - indeed, this would extend back decades! However, at the time this was transpiring - it seemed that all blame for any and all mistakes was being directed at the fed's and President Bush in particular. IMHO - the time for assessment / assignment of "blame" is AFTER the evacuation / rescue operations and NOT while everyone, from the mayor to the president, is supposed to be concentrating on the situation.
Oh, and Welcome to Free Republic!
Hmmm. School Buses are payed for by the taxpayers, yes? Why are they an unacceptable means of rescue for those same taxpayers. I'm guessing many who didn't leave for monitary reasons would have gladly taken a seat on a school bus if it took them out of the path of Katrina.
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