Katrina Live Thread, Part XIV

To: Steve_Seattle

Hello,

Thank you for saying what I have been trying to say. I have been angry to the point of screaming over the last few days of hell.

I claim it has been hell, sad, huh? Who has really been forced to endure the worst that this world can offer up? The good people of NO,and the rest of LA, the good people of MS and the good people of AL. Bless them all.

Glad to be here, MOgirl

2,121 posted on 09/02/2005 9:08:21 PM PDT by MOgirl (In memory of Walton Wayne Callahan, I love you forever.)

I saw that segment & it didn't look like a setup to me then, but I'm afraid I've grown more cynical in the past few days

2,122 posted on 09/02/2005 9:09:10 PM PDT by LadyBuzz

OK, this is a legitmate issue you have posted. I don't know what is going on really at this convention center. there is food and water there, the photos are on this thread. but the evacuation effort, I don't know what's up with that.

one fair criticism of FEMA, that I also have, is why they don't have regular press conferences every 4 hours to detail to the media what is going on at which locations: "we are moving food and water here, buses here, hospital X evacuated to the airport, etc" - so someone could ask them "what is the plan for the convention center". there are enough media members at the key locations around town so that if they got this information out, people could be informed.

2,123 posted on 09/02/2005 9:09:46 PM PDT by oceanview

Span, I chose my words carefully. I said shot, not killed. The soldier was shot in the upper leg. I heard the call for medivac over the scanner. I posted it, as did many other FReepers. 10 hours later Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff specifically mentioned that incident in his presser. I assume this soldier lived. I never heard any follow up on the other two officers shot and medivac-ed (call for medivac also came over the command scanner). I hope they lived also. But just because these guys did not die (which I hope is true) does not mean there are not real snipers.

2,124 posted on 09/02/2005 9:09:47 PM PDT by LikeLight

No, why? Actually, I never listen -- on too late.

2,125 posted on 09/02/2005 9:09:54 PM PDT by Arizona Carolyn

Shepherd Smith needs to be taken OUT of NO.

2,126 posted on 09/02/2005 9:10:29 PM PDT by Howlin (Have you check in on this thread: FYI: Hurricane Katrina Freeper SIGN IN Thread)

Because....Getting away for a day...praying alot as I drove gave me a change of heart. Just suddenly realized when I first looked at dad's TV and all those people in need...they were alive and could have easily been mountains of body bags......

BTW radio said this evening one out of six people in NOLA do NOT own a car.....What was the population of NO ?

2,127 posted on 09/02/2005 9:10:39 PM PDT by hoosiermama (prayers for all)

2,128 posted on 09/02/2005 9:10:50 PM PDT by Mo1

That would be fine if that was where the trucks were coming from. I guess they should have asked you where to stage the supplies, then they could have avoided all the traffic.

2,129 posted on 09/02/2005 9:11:00 PM PDT by McGavin999 (Global Dumbing far more serious threat than Global Warming)

To: Born in a Rage

I'm just frustrated cause we have plenty of gas here. I don't understand why someone with a tanker or whatever kind of truck needs to do it can't fill on up here, even from one of the gas stations,,,,,and take it,,,how come some agencies haven't done that i wonder,,,,there have been no gas lines here that i have seen,,,,

2,130 posted on 09/02/2005 9:11:01 PM PDT by DrewsMum

it doesn't say anything there about the breakdown in civil order.

2,131 posted on 09/02/2005 9:11:10 PM PDT by oceanview

They just aired a clip from the press conference today with Congressman Black and the National Black caucus

IMO ... The media is trying to divided this country

The media is salivating for a story like that. They just can't wait. How I despise them all.

2,132 posted on 09/02/2005 9:11:34 PM PDT by texasbluebell

there WAS a FEMA exercise last year that included looting and unrest by the inner-city population...
Media went nuts over it, and someone lost his job for "Racial Insensitivity"

I'd like to read that. Ping me, if you would. In exchange, here's a little goodie I found, aimed at professional disaster planners. It opens up with a discussion of a PlayStation game that simulates uprising and crowd control. THere is also a critical review of a film "Cyclone," including speculation of disaster in NOLA. The piece was published in Feb 2003.

http://muweb.millersville.edu/~cdr/cdrissue1.1.pdf

The film wraps up with a mini-case-study of New Orleans's vulnerability to hurricanes, noting the paradox that its protective levees, if overtopped, will simply allow water to fill the city to their height. Perhaps 100,000 people might be trapped in the city, including a large number of tourists unfamiliar with the hazard. Meanwhile, over one million people will have to evacuate on narrow bridges and causeways.
Cyclone!'s observations about New Orleans are certainly apposite, as seen in the city's near miss in October, 2002. Because the film is principally a survey, it skips rapidly from topic to topic, and no particular theme emerges strongly, though one emphasis comes disappointingly close to being a unifying element: coping with persistent exposure to hazard.
Early in the film, the narrator (actor Peter Coyote) comments in response to the tornado's destruction: "Wounds are healed, neighborhoods rise from the rubble...The human spirit endures. Such is life in Tornado Alley, USA." In the film's closing oration, he says, "It is only a matter of time before another great storm exacts its toll. Nature has given us fair warning...Our home is a planet perpetually in the making, forever new. The same awesome powers that sustain life can also wreak destruction. It is up to us to be prepared. There lies the challenge and the delight of living on this dynamic earth."
I wish, and I may simply be exposing a personal bias, that the film had taken these points a little further. As it stands, they seem somewhat disconnected from the rest of the film. Their salience is implied, but not elaborated, and the filmmakers missed an opportunity to weave the plentiful spectacular images into a more directed narrative.
Certainly the narrator's observations are major concerns in the study of adjustment and adaptation to hazard. Everyone, to a greater or lesser extent, lives exposed to hazards: to uncertainty and ambiguity, to the possibility of sudden loss. Risk suffuses our lives, and awareness of risk guides, enables, and restricts our conduct. If "the human spirit endures," not just in the face of risk but in the face of disaster, how does it? What wisdom can those who experience the forces of a world remaking itself bring to those on the outskirts of such convulsions? If "it is up to us to be prepared," then how should we go about it?
At one point, the narrator observes that these storms are the result of heat-distributing atmospheric processes. In other words, they are merely the natural mixings of the air. There is a corollary to that statement--a concept that is accepted in most thinking about hazards: it is human uses in tandem with natural processes that create hazards. Some discussion of how that happens, the land-use decisions over many years, the alternatives, trade-offs and conundrums that work to place people at greater or lesser risk, would certainly have enhanced this documentary, and could have done so without sacrificing any of the eye-catching cinematography.
The film identified the precariousness of New Orleans, but what should be done, in New Orleans or elsewhere? The film flirts with the great question of how people live and cope under threat. Yet ultimately the film shies away from tackling it, content to show us the pain of disaster victims but not examining the antecedents or possible remedial strategies.
Of course no single work--certainly not a 60-minute film--can be conclusive on such matters, but some speculation would have been welcome. Cyclone! does justice to the awesome consequences of natural disaster, but the willingness to take on difficult questions about preparation, disaster response, and land use would be a greater celebration of the "endurance of the human spirit." And the film unfortunately missed a good opportunity to suggest some of the prudent steps people can take when suddenly exposed to these hazards.
Nevertheless, the footage of actual storms is dramatic and memorable, and the careful explanations and illustrations of technical concepts make the film valuable for classroom use.

2,133 posted on 09/02/2005 9:11:54 PM PDT by Cboldt

To: Born in a Rage

Call it a hunch that two and two are not adding up to four with a lot of these media reporters. The one guy from CNN makes my skin crawl with his reports.

I will take Harrigan reports as fact -- not a lot of the others.

2,134 posted on 09/02/2005 9:12:17 PM PDT by PhiKapMom (AOII Mom -- Allen in 2008)

A bunch of things such as havving a better evacuation plan,

People chose not to leave, even when they had free travel. so much for that part of your plan.

plans for communications,

Wiped out. Next part of your plan, please?

and pre-staged supplies, etc.

They were there, and hundreds of thousands of people have been eating and drinking *since day one* because of them.

We're now five days after the hurricane and significant federal aid just began arriving.

That's just simply a lie. 250 shelter sites have been up and running even *during* the hurricane and since... and are taking pretty good care of anybody that isn't shooting at them.

2,135 posted on 09/02/2005 9:12:18 PM PDT by Ramius (Blades for war fighters: http://freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net)

It's never enough.

No doubt in mind that when this is all over we will know:

1. This was the worst or almost worst disaster in US history.

2. Affected the neediest most helpless population mix.

3. And, was meet with fastest, most massive relieve effort in US history.

4. Had the most ridiculous press coverage in history.

Thanks W, you and your team have risen to the occasion once again!

2,136 posted on 09/02/2005 9:12:25 PM PDT by John Jamieson (Hybrids are a highway around CAFE, that's all they're good for.)

Shooting warning shots AT HELICOPTERS? FROM A HOSPITAL ROOF???

At Guardsmen from rooftops around where looters are looting?

At boat crews trying to rescue people????

For crissake, they SHOT the pilot of a ferryboat that was shuttling supplies and Guardsmen into the city! I heard the whole thing over the scanners!

2,137 posted on 09/02/2005 9:12:28 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)

I may be naive, but why aren't military A-130's airdropping supplies?

2,138 posted on 09/02/2005 9:12:46 PM PDT by P.O.E. (.)

To: Steve_Seattle

They are spinning it that is the primary cause. No mention was made of people disregarding the evacuation order nor of the lack of planning by the city and state to evacuate those unable to do so themselves.

BBC just had part of the interview by the mayor (it's not MY fault) one as well as footage of the frustrated people still there. They are showing footage of the Astro Dome though which shows some positive actions, and did have the tapes of the President earlier today in MS and Alabama.

Actually, this seems more fair reporting than most American television IMHO.

2,139 posted on 09/02/2005 9:12:53 PM PDT by Abby4116

Hubby seems to think that guy was probably part of their crew

2,140 posted on 09/02/2005 9:13:08 PM PDT by DrewsMum

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