I'm sorry that I can't get back to all of the people that have emailed me with regards to this order. You have been great in sending the call out. It is a true order. I just received another phone call from my husband, 1 am, the second one in a week. He's getting about 2 to 3 hours of sleep a night. If other families have loved ones working there, I want to pass this information on first, as I am sending this to several emails.
The Westbank of New Orleans, Algiers, my home, has become command central for the entire city. Between the nursing home housing the firefighters, they are making use of the surrounding buildings, Holy Cross College, another nursing home that replaced the one my husband is in and others. There is a full contingency of Firefighters now, the 2nd platoon out of 3 platoons came in today. A platoon works 24 on and 48 off. But not anymore. Out of our 1700 Police officers, there are only 500 officers left. Whether they evacuated or left when the rioting began is not known. The balcony that my husband had to stand on outdoors to make this call was the same one that a 2nd district police officer committed suicide by his own gun. He had lost his entire family. Another female Police officer shot and killed her first assailant. She is practically in a state of shock, there are counselors and ministries to help our men and women of New Orleans who wear the badge, police or fire. All operations by our local forces are ceased at night, and the National Guard takes the night shift. To those families of the National Guard, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us now, the city is becoming more stable every hour. We should have sent our SOS sooner, but that's politics there.
The shoot to kill order is coming from our "illustrious" Mayor Ray Nagin, who couldn't implement a swift evacuation of everyone in the city. Or possibly our Governor Kathleen Blanco, who's only evacuation command to the citizens was "Please be friendly to others on the road, we can't have road rage at this time....." That contraflow out of the city is the only thing that has worked in our city. Not everyone was too poor to leave, though the ones that were, should have been bused out using every school bus or RTA bus available. The shoot to kill does apply to dogs and other animals too, beside armed humans. And I do not think of them as human anymore. They are another species entirely.
Some of the dogs, and cats, are becoming feral, they are starving, they are drinking heavily contaminated water, we have bodies in the water tied to stop signs, on the streets, and in attics. They are being pulled out dead and the count is going to rise significantly when the water recedes.
There are packs of dogs especially in Eastern New Orleans, that was hit hard by the flood. They are all over the city, both the Eastbank and the Westbank. I've received many emails that if it were their dog, they would want them humanely killed. And I have to agree, if my dog was out in those conditions, no matter how much it hurts me to say this, I would want him/her humanely euthanized. Quickly. But they are not being humanely killed!!!! There are people and children who enjoy shooting animals, shooting them multiple times, and personally, I hope there are officers out there that will stop them with a City of New Orleans bullet. It is serious when Firefighters and other city workers besides the Police have to carry a gun. Their main priority is to rescue people. And it's finally happening.
Whoever posted the contact for getting animals out of specific addresses, thank you. I made use of it for a dear friend, who was married to a Police Officer who was shot in the line of duty, 3 years ago, who was forced to leave 3 cats behind in her home. Now someone will get them out with the instructions I was told to have someone break into her house. There are people in there recovering animals. I know that several people have made it back to their homes, or what was left of them. I don't know how they are getting in, but they are. Probably the back door. New Orleans, as well as the entire state of LA, is a hotbed of dog fighting. But we aren't the only state that is. There are a lot of very vicious animals out there that need to be euthanized by shooting. It's a dangerous situation to those who are trying to help us.
And please, if anyone wants to tell me that New Orleans should never be rebuilt, just keep your email to yourself. If Los Angeles or San Francisco were struck by the big one today, do you think they would be rebuilt? If a tornado destroyed an entire city in Kansas, Oklahoma, anywhere, do you think it wouldn't be rebuilt? There are natural disasters worldwide. The United States is rebuilding Iraq, a country, not a town, the world is rebuilding several nations struck by tsunamis. New Orleans has been standing for over 500 years. Did you see any devastation in our French Quarter, the original site of New Orleans? It was practically immaculate. What did they do without levees back in the 1600's? We do contribute to this nation in many ways.
My husband is Captain Richard Szymurski of the New Orleans Fire Dept for almost 30 years. He is housed with all of the commanders of the Police and Fire Depts. I don't know the name of the person who called for this order, all I know is that my husband is a man of integrity, who gave up his sick leave to stay and weather a violent hurricane. And he is only one of many. He is not the only person to know of this order, but does it matter? Rescue needs to be done for the animals if possible, and I think it is possible. Unfortunately we aren't the ones living in conditions that our great grandparents had to live in. Emergency generators only do so much.
As always, Siberianly, Lynn Szymurski Richlynn Siberians New Orleans, LA lynn @richlynn.com www.richlynn.com PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST:LS
I thought I'd shed the last tear for a while over this travesty. I was wrong. :/ I also realize there will be many more shed as more of these stories come out of NOLA.