May I offer two possible reasons?
Robert Riley (R) Governor Alabama
Haley Barbour (R) Governor Mississippi
Posted on 09/04/2005 2:45:21 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - As the last weary refugees evacuated from New Orleans, the shattered city drew closer to dealing with its dead, confronting a gruesome landscape of scattered corpses that were expected to number in the thousands.
No one knows how many people were killed by Hurricane Katrina and how many more succumbed waiting to be rescued. But the bodies are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating in the ruined city, crumpled in wheelchairs, abandoned on highways.
Echoing the mayor's prediction, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Saturday she expected the death toll to reach the thousands. And Craig Vanderwagen, rear admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service, said one morgue alone, at a St. Gabriel prison, expected 1,000 to 2,000 bodies.
The last refugees at the Superdome and the convention center climbed aboard buses Saturday bound for shelters, but the dying continued.
Touring an airport triage center, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician, said "a lot more than eight to 10 people are dying a day."
Most were those too sick or weak to survive. But not all.
Charles Womack, a 30-year-old roofer, said he saw one man beaten to death and another commit suicide at the Superdome. Womack was beaten with a pipe and treated at the airport center, where bodies were kept in a refrigerated truck.
"One guy jumped off a balcony. I saw him do it. He was talking to a lady about it. He said it reminded him of the war and he couldn't leave," he said.
Three babies died at the convention center from heat exhaustion, said Mark Kyle, a medical relief provider.
But some progress was evident. The last 300 refugees at the Superdome were evacuated Saturday evening, eliciting cheers from members of the Texas National Guard who had been standing watch over the facility for nearly a week as some 20,000 hurricane survivors waited for rescue.
On Sunday, utilities planned to send trucks into the city to assess storm damage for the first time since Katrina struck. Morgan Stewart, a spokesman for electricity provider Entergy Corp., said the National Guard would escort the company's vehicles.
The convention center was "almost empty" after 4,200 people were removed, according to Marty Bahamonde, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Earlier estimates of the crowd climbed as high as 25,000.
Thousands of refugees dragged their meager belongings to buses, the mood more numb than jubilant. Yolando Sanders, who had been stuck at the convention center for five days, was among those who filed past corpses to reach the buses.
"Anyplace is better than here," she said.
"People are dying over there."
Nearby, a woman lay dead in a wheelchair on the front steps. A man was covered in a black drape with a dry line of blood running to the gutter, where it had pooled. Another had lain on a chaise lounge for four days, his stocking feet peeking out from under a quilt.
By mid-afternoon, only pockets of stragglers remained in the streets around the convention center, and New Orleans paramedics began carting away the dead.
The exact number of dead won't be known for some time. Survivors were still being plucked from roofs and shattered highways across the city. President Bush ordered more than 7,000 active duty forces to the Gulf Coast on Saturday.
"There are people in apartments and hotels that you didn't know were there," Army Brig. Gen. Mark Graham said.
The overwhelming majority of those stranded in the post-Katrina chaos were those without the resources to escape - and, overwhelmingly, they were black.
"The first few days were a natural disaster. The last four days were a man-made disaster," said Phillip Holt, 51, who was rescued from his home Saturday with his partner and three of their aging Chihuahuas. They left a fourth behind they couldn't grab in time.
Tens of thousands of people had been evacuated from the city, seeking safety in Texas, Tennessee and many other states.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry warned Saturday that his enormous state was running out of room, with more than 220,000 hurricane refugees camped out there and more coming. Emergency workers at the Astrodome were told to expect 10,000 new arrivals daily for the next three days.
In Washington, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced that more than 10,000 people had been flown out of New Orleans in what he called the largest airlift in history on U.S. soil. He said the flights would continue as long as needed.
Thousands of people remained at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, where officials turned a Delta Blue terminal into a triage unit. Officials said 3,000 to 5,000 people had been treated at the unit, but fewer than 200 remain. Others throughout the airport awaited transport out of the city.
"In the beginning it was like trying to lasso an octopus. When we got here it was overwhelming," said Jake Jacoby, a physician helping run the center.
Airport director Roy Williams said about 30 people had died, some of them elderly and ill. The bodies were being kept in refrigerated trucks as a temporary morgue.
At the convention center, people stumbled toward the helicopters, dehydrated and nearly passing out from exhaustion. Many had to be carried by National Guard troops and police on stretchers. And some were being pushed up the street on office chairs and on dollies.
Nita LaGarde, 105, was pushed down the street in her wheelchair as her nurse's 5-year-old granddaughter, Tanisha Blevin, held her hand. The pair spent two days in an attic, two days on an interstate island and the last four days on the pavement in front of the convention center.
"They're good to see," LaGarde said, with remarkable gusto as she waited to be loaded onto a gray Marine helicopter. She said they were sent by God. "Whatever he has for you, he'll take care of you. He'll sure take care of you."
LaGarde's nurse, Ernestine Dangerfield, 60, said LaGarde had not had a clean adult diaper in more than two days. "I just want to get somewhere where I can get her nice and clean," she said.
Around the corner, a motley fleet of luxury tour buses and yellow school buses lined up two deep to pick up some of the healthier refugees. National Guardsmen confiscated a gun, knives and letter openers from people before they got on the buses.
"It's been a long time coming," Derek Dabon, 29, said as he waited to pass through a guard checkpoint. "There's no way I'm coming back. To what? That don't make sense. I'm going to start a new life."
Hillary Snowton, 40, sat on the sidewalk outside with a piece of white sheet tied around his face like a bandanna as he stared at a body that had been lying on a chaise lounge for four days, its stocking feet peeking out from under a quilt.
"It's for the smell of the dead body," he said of the sheet. His brother-in-law, Octave Carter, 42, said it has been "every day, every morning, breakfast lunch and dinner looking at it."
When asked why he didn't move further away from the corpse, Carter replied, "it stinks everywhere."
Dan Craig, director of recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said it could take up to six months to get the water out of New Orleans, and the city would then need to dry out, which could take up to three more months.
A Saks Fifth Avenue store billowed smoke Saturday, as did rows of warehouses on the east bank of the Mississippi River, where corrugated roofs buckled and tiny explosions erupted. Gunfire - almost two dozen shots - broke out in the French Quarter.
In the French Quarter, some residents refused or did not know how to get out. Some holed up with guns.
As the warehouse district burned, Ron Seitzer, 61, washed his dirty laundry in the even dirtier waters of the Mississippi River and said he didn't know how much longer he could stay without water or power, surrounded by looters.
"I've never even had a nightmare or a beautiful dream about this," he said as he watched the warehouses burn. "People are just not themselves."
---
Associated Press reporters Kevin McGill, Robert Tanner, Melinda Deslatte, Brett Martel and Mary Foster contributed to this report.
AP-ES-09-04-05 0419EDT
"As LAST refugees escape.."
#####
The last refugees in view of TV cameras. We live in a tunnel vision world - all as seen through a viewfinder.
I am disgusted with the inablility of our news media to tell a straight story.
I am finding the Weather Channel has the most reliable and comprehensive reporting.
The "news" media are ignoring Alabama and Mississippi destruction.
If they really wanted to be informative to their world-wide audience they would show graphics, at least, if there is no video, of the geographical extent of the devastation. So many otherwise sensible people think that rescue helicopters, crew, fuel, logistics, supplies, etc can just magically appear at the moment it is
seen to be needed.
In NO not even accurate information could magically appear, in the immediate aftermath of Katrina.
the ACLU needs to just FOAD!!!!
"When the announcement went out about seeking shelter at the Super Dome, it said to bring enough food and water for 3 days. "
On Sunday a reporter was interviewing people going into the Superdome. One woman had 1/2 bottle of diet coke with her. The reporter said is that all you brought with you. Her response " The Red Cross will feed us". This woman said she had a car but was staying because some of her family was in the Superdome. She acted like it was going to be a big party. Wonder how she made out.
"That's a span of five days, yet the reporter says that the two women have been stranded at various places for EIGHT days "
That eight day number has showed up repeatedly in media reports of the last 18 hours or so.
A more suspicious person than I might get the idea of a new "Talking Points" fax -- "If you can get the great unwashed to believe 8 days instead of the actual 4, it looks just that much better for our BUSH FIDDLED WHILE NEW ORLEANS FLOODED theme"..
Of course *I* would never be that suspicious.. ;)
May I offer two possible reasons?
Robert Riley (R) Governor Alabama
Haley Barbour (R) Governor Mississippi
This coming from the two idiots that have trouble predicting getting wet in a rainstorm.
And those two, and their cronies, are mainly responsible for all those deaths.
Plus I think the MSM has a harder time finding "victims" in those states. They're too busy pulling themselves up, dusting themselves off, and rebuilding their lives. Contrast that picture with the vacant stares from the Super Dome "guests" and guess which one makes this tragedy even more heartbreaking -- and indirectly somehow makes Bush look bad?
Wouldn't regular people show up at the Convention Center with a few groceries and extra bottles and diapers? Or was it the crowd that expected the government was going to take care of them. Sounds like a CRASH of the welfare system. Someone needs to review, that poor choices do have consequences. So laying out under the bridge on the Mississippi River, and going out at night to turn tricks and do crack or sucking bourbon may not be a wise way to spend a living.
"Echoing the mayor's prediction, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Saturday she expected the death toll to reach the thousands."
What is amazing is the number of people comparing this to 9/11. If the people in the World Trade Center had had two days notice of what was coming you can bet they wouldn't have hung around. These people were warned and chose to stay and those going into shelters chose not to bring food or water despite being told to do exactly that. You can't save an idiot from himself.
"It really is pathetic that they couldn't evacuate people to somewhere other than an unprepared death trap."
- So far as I can tell, the only disaster plan in New Orleans was to tell everybody to leave and then to open the Super Dome to those who were unable to get a ride. The mayor then fled to nearby safety and raged, cursed and cried about the mess he'd left behind. No leadership, no plan, no clue.
Found a link for a 2001 North Carolina transportation board that showed New Orleans provided transportation for hurricane evacuees at least up until that study was completed in Decemer 2001.
2001 NC Transportation Board Hurricane Study
During the recommended phase, it has been determined that the storm has a high probability of causing a significant threat to people living in the areas of risk. Government authorities will recommend that persons at risk evacuate. Staging areas are designated for persons needing transportation. Specific procedures during this phase are: (1) the City of New Orleans EOC is staffed for 24-hour operation, (2) local transportation will be mobilized to assist persons who lack transportation, (3) bus routes and locations of staging areas for those needing transportation to shelters in or out o the Parish, will be announced via radio and television, and (4) relative and neighbors should help family and friends who need transportation and other assistance. Lastly, during the mandatory phase, authorities put maximum emphasis on encouraging evacuation and limiting entry into the risk area. This is the most serious phase of evacuation.
This plan called for taking people to shelters not last resort refuges, with the following exceptions, they decided not to evacuate voluntarily or if they waited to long.
While we are on transportation, here is a cute wittle nugget from Nagging Nagin. Denver Post
Conceding that as many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the means to leave and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the closing of the airport, the city arranged buses to take people to 10 last-resort shelters, including the Superdome. Nagin also dispatched police and firefighters to rouse people out with sirens and bullhorns, and even gave them the authority to commandeer vehicles to aid in the evacuation.
Same news article from above - Estimates have been made of tens of thousands of deaths from flooding that could overrun the levees and turn New Orleans into a 30-foot-deep toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, and waste from ruined septic systems.
Found available National Guard Numbers released by the Pentagon on August 29th at Live Five News (South Carolina Hurricane channel)
Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said the states have adequate National Guard units to handle the hurricane needs, with at least 60 percent of the guard available in each state. He said about 6,500 National Guard troops were available in Louisiana, about 7,000 troops in Mississippi, nearly 10,000 in Alabama and about 8,200 in Florida. The First U.S. Army, based at Fort Gillem near Atlanta, has 1,600 National Guard troops that were there training to go to Iraq, and they will be available to assist the states or evacuate Camp Shelby in Mississippi, if necessary.
Last link from Shreveport Times August 28th
Patricia Brach, public information officer for FEMA, said Saturday that her agency has prepositioned emergency service teams already posted away from the coast so they can rush aid to where it is needed. Stocked at the sites are ice, water and medical teams, including veterinarians. "With a catastrophic storm, we need all types of medical teams. But we don't do anything until the state requests and an emergency is declared," she said in an interview at the OEP facility.
What did Nagging and Blank-0 do?.
I don't think Jesse has cracked open a Bible in a long time.
His favorite reading material is "How to be a Race Baiting Pimp in 10 easy Steps"
Which, I am sure, is the point.
I couldn't fail to notice that yesterday, Fox News & Co must have issued a directive to their "talking heads" to begin smiling on camera and talking upbeat.
After Friday's Shepherd Smith and Whoraldo's near public breakdown, filled with hystronics, Fox executives no doubt thought that the vast American audience would begin to commit suicide, should they allow them to continue sceaming ... "Let these people go!"
Bravo, IrishRainy, that need to be repeated. The people at the Superdome were told to bring food and water for 3 days.
"As Last Refugees Escape, New Orleans Turns to Its Dead"
"New Orleans" isn't gonna lift a finger. If the dead are turned to, it'll be by outsiders, if NO is to be cleaned up, it will be by outsiders, if NO is to be rebuilt, it'll be by outsiders.
NO is a city of losers whom have now be foisted upon the welfare establishment of cities around the country. They remain useless, shiftless, slothful whiners.
You place milk cows in a pen, you feed and water them and when foul weather comes you leave them to fend for themselves? Somehow I don't think farmers do it that way.
You are right!
Absolutely right. The precedent will be the payouts to the surviving families of 9/11 victims.
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