Posted on 09/03/2005 10:40:28 AM PDT by Syco
ARLINGTON, Va. — Authorities are avoiding airdropping provisions into New Orleans — the traditional way of supplying disaster victims — out of fear of sparking riots, a state official said.
While the military has used helicopters to drop provisions to some stranded in New Orleans, authorities have not launched the massive supply airdrops seen in Afghanistan at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Several C-130 Hercules aircraft are stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base, but authorities have not ordered them to drop supplies to flood victims, Arkansas Air National Guard officials said.
Airdropping supplies could actually worsen the situation, said Army National Guard Lt. Kevin Cowan, with the state Office of Emergency Preparedness.
“Just like Afghanistan, you drop food, it creates chaos,” Cowan said.
He said authorities are looking for a more controlled way to get badly need food and other supplies to people in the hurricane-ravaged region who need it.
“We’re trying to logistically to plan how to get food the best way,” Cowan said. “But as of right now, airdrops are not part of the plan.”
He said dropping supplies from the air is an option that is still available, but “I don’t think that is high on the priority list.”
Officials at U.S. Northern Command and Task Force Katrina could not be reached in time for publication Friday.
Little Rock Air Force Base is home to about 80 C-130s, but many cannot be flown because of wing cracks, wrote a spokesman for the 314th Air Wing in an e-mail.
On Friday, four C-130s from Little Rock Air Force Base were expected to bring water and MREs to the flood region and to evacuate refugees, wrote Air National Guard Capt. David Faggard.
The Arkansas National Guard is using 10 C-130s and 15 helicopters to bring troops and supplies to the flood region, said a National Guard spokeswoman.
Should authorities order an airdrop, “we are certainly ready if that’s what they need us for,” said Air National Guard Capt. Kristine Munn.
From October to December 2001, the Air Force dropped 2.5 million individual rations in Afghanistan using C-17 Globemaster aircraft based in Ramstein, Germany.
With so much looting already in progress, I can see the point. Also, if anyone were to be crushed to death beneath an airdrop, the headlines would scream the news and yet again, the Bush Administration would be faulted.
I know it's all "Bush's fault" but why aren't they having these problems in Biloxi and Baton Rouge? Those towns were hit just as hard. Why is it only in Nawlins?
This has been said before. What you'd see would look like the images in Somalia, as people beat and shot each other to get to the food and water. There weren't enough LE people to control the large crowds as their lives would've also been endangered.
Because of the Shootings in N.O.
The Red Cross and the Salvation Army did not go into NO.
They would not be safe.
Afghanistan wasn't flooded. Where do you air drop anything in a flooded area.
You're wrong! Biloxi was hit even harder.
Lack of Local Leadership.
Ray Gavin and Kathleen Blanco have spent more time crying than preparing, evacuating and guiding their state's citizens.
I'm watching a gaurd chopper drop boxes to people right now.
FOX is showing live - MRE and Water drops right now
Baton Rouge was not particularly damaged, to my knowledge. In fact, they've absorbed a huge number of people from New Orleans. Biloxi, on the other hand, was almost utterly destroyed.
Still, there's no question the lawlessness of New Orleans before the flood is the main reason for the savagery afterwards.
Biloxi was hit actually harder than N.O. And even though the roads are filled with debris, they aren't under 12 feet of water, like N.O.
I think that's the difference. And the sheer number of people in N.O. vs. Biloxi. It's logistics.
And the fact that N.O. is really a town of lawlessness and corruption. This kind of looting is really a result of the culture that pervades N.O.
I'm watching them do a drops into flooded waters..live on TV..There are people still trapped in the city..but to drop them around the convention center or any large gathering could get people trampled.
Dropping into houses also.
I know. Before the MSM made Nawlins and racism "the story," I had read that Biloxi was "flattened." I guess that won't be "Bush's fault" until the Nawlins racism story fades out.
the thug culture is much larger in NOLA
the Mississippi coast simply has less of that
you can google it if you like
A very sneaking suspicion the "anarchy" is organized.
Gangs
Liberals are always operating out of fear rather than logic.
I don't know about Biloxi and Baton Rouge. I do know from firsthand reports of colleagues and friends that inland in MS about 50 miles, there is a LOT of this going on.
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