Posted on 09/02/2005 9:57:05 PM PDT by America's Resolve
BY his own admission, things are going badly for Sheriff Harry Lee and his crisis management efforts.
Outside his mobile headquarters truck, two officers grip a stepladder while a third stands on the top rung waving his mobile telephone in the air, searching for a signal.
Inside Sheriff Lee, of Jefferson parish in New Orleans, is sitting at a table, fuming.
He is doing his best to alleviate the biggest catastrophe he will ever witness, but lacks even the most basic of resources.
He cannot communicate with his own officers -- his officers can barely communicate with each other -- because the overloaded radio frequency keeps jamming.
The chain of command for Louisiana's hurricane rescue plan has missing links. There is tension between the numerous agencies involved in the relief effort, and some of Sheriff Lee's deputies are so overwhelmed and demoralised that they are giving up.
"It's not getting better -- it's getting worse," he says. "This is probably the largest national disaster in the history of the US and the co-ordination that should be in effect all these days after the event just isn't happening. It's lack of proper planning and lack of co-ordination. There are plenty of Indians, but no chiefs."
Two kilometres from his command post, a section of Highway 10 has become a giant refugee camp. The evacuees are gradually being taken away in buses and trucks to shelters as far away as Houston, Texas.
But some have started turning up at his door, pleading for food and for water.
Some have not had a drink since Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Over here we have that paragon of virtue Randall Robinson telling the WORLD, that blacks are eating corpses because all the relief supplies were sent to white neighborhoods. And eating corpses after 3 days no less!
We have cops helping the looters happily or just standing around and letting them help themselves to whatever they want to loot.
Cops who are quitting, "to be with their families."
Leaders who have absolutely NO clue what is going on around them. A mayor and Gov who are so ineffectual as to make one shudder when watching them on the tube.
It's a whole system that is so hopelessly inept that it boggles the mind. And it's not like after Camille they didn't have 30 years of warning that something like this was likely to happen sometime in the future.
At it's very heart is a moral depravity that shivers the soul. It's a nihilistic anarchy that can leave one speechless. Shooting rescuers and firemen? Shooting people who are bringing the food???
And yet it all gets back to what another poster noted above. It didn't happen with Ivan. Nor Andrew. Nor Hugo. Nor with the NE blackout. Nor with 911. Nor at anytime that I can remember. The LA riots I think. Seems like they shot at firemen coming to put out fires.
What can I say. I guess I thank GOD that I don't understand this kind of iniquity.
Naw, it's easy to understand why: the devil. If it can hurt God, the devil will try to do it.
Well, I guess we better prosecute those pharamcuetical companies then. They're profiting from people in life and death situations, aren't they? And those damnable heart surgeons, and those evil cancer specialists should be tossed into prison as well. They are 'profiting' from the misery of others, aren't they?
What about Lawyers in death penalty cases; do they qualify? Now normally I'm all in favor of prosecuting lawyers just on general principle but your position seems a bit over the top.
Usery laws? You mean those laws that say I can't name my own interest rates to lend out my own money? In principle I'm against those as well. If I want to lend out money at 75% interest and someone is willing to pay me that much where exactly is the crime?
I remember a time when 'the government' attempted to dictate the price of goods, and I remember what happened immediately afterwards.
I think you made a mistake when you typed in your handle. You put an "U H" were you should have put an "I Ain't".
L
No, they are criminals.
A private individual selling a product they own at a price they set is NOT a criminal. He can either stay home or sell the product. The cusotmer can either buy it or not buy it.
They are not the government. They can not use force to make people deal with them.
Gotta love them situational socialists!
L
BTW, you didn't answer my question. Say the goverment sets price caps on gas.
Say, now, play along with me, say just for example, that what happens every time the government does this happens again. Gas lines and shortages.
Would you rather be able to fill up your tank for $3.50 a gallon, or not be able to buy gas at $2.50 a gallon?
Let's make it more dramatic. You live on the state line. Your governor has capped gas at $2.00 a gallon. The next state over, gas is at $4.00 a gallon. However, gas sells out constantly, and you are running near empty. You need gas to get to work.
Do you wait for the $2.00 a gallon and run out, or do you buy at $4.00 a gallon at the station just miles away?
In which scenario would you be better off?
BTW, have you EVER studied the history of price caps? Hell, they're trying it in china now and they're getting the same exact thing. IT ALWAYS HAPPENS!!!!
If individuals do not have the $3.50, the point is moot.
And I'll grant your points may be well taken when you can drive between gas stations. treating the areas effected by Katrina as normal markets is simply situational stupidity.
If there is one thing you can count on at FR, it is a gem of wisdom like this post - and more than once from Flashbunny. Excellent point. Excellent post. Says it exactly!
Guess I just don't get the stupidity factor as well. I saw an open highway out of that city today. The busses are getting in and out somehow. We keep hearing about how bad things are at the Superdome/Convention center, how bad the looting is, monsters breaking down residence doors and killing/looting everything in sight.
I don't understand how people aren't taking the path of least resistance and streaming out of that city. As bad as it is in those places, ESPECIALLY with children, ANYWHERE has to be better. Even with no resources, walk far enough and you'll eventually find food/water and probably a person to put you up for a while thil things blow over.
Again, thank GOD I'm not that stupid.
Well put.
That's not always the case at all. In fact, recent history is filled with examples of people who behaved in a perfectly orderly manner under duress during some kind of catastrophe.
Hurricane Katrina has simply lifted up a rock that once hid a lot of vermin underneath, and now that they are scurrying about in the sunlight we feel some kind of pathological need to pretend we never knew they were there.
The results of lack of leadership. Compare this to how Guliani rallied the troops and kept a cool head. Gave daily updates, kept on top of the situation. When the crisis headquarters had to be moved (the building was unsound), he just did it and didn't complain.
Correction, starting already.
I have been saying this for days.
Folks are left with the choice of fleeing on foot and being prey or staying at home where they have some feeling of security, even if it is just feeling.
nothing personal but Iowa as Mom and Apple pie as it is, has little of the dregs that exist down here and in large urban areas
you guys are sort of cloistered from the underbelly.
I think he may have meant the local government...
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