Katrina, a photographic timeline: Powerful proof federal response was NOT slow (warning, many pics)

Yahoo News Photos ^ | 9/6/05

[Wolfstar]

The near total evacuation of the major American port city of New Orleans, Louisiana was accomplished between Tuesday afternoon, August 30 and Friday afternoon, September 2, 2005. This evacuation occurred while other search, rescue, relief and evacuation operations were simultaneously being conducted throughout the Gulf Coast between approximately Lafayette, Louisiana, on the west and the Florida panhandle on the east -– an area of about 90,000 sq. miles, or the size of the entire nation of Great Britain.

I'd say this amazing achievement is the opposite of slow. I'd say that it's a stunning accomplishment and one that demonstrates superb organization, remarkable logistics flow, and the greatness of the American spirit.

From the following photographic timeline, it should be clear to all reasonable people that the failure of government response occurred before the hurricane hit, and it occurred solely at the local and state level.

[dila813]

agreed, this is what of the largest disaster relief operations in the history of man.

[Wolfstar]

An aerial view shows a partially sunken highway in New Orleans in a photo taken August 31. Some highway overpasses near the Superdome became high points to which people who had not evacuated before the storm came or were brought by rescuers as the flood rose.

People did not start arriving on the overpasses in large numbers until Wednesday. Some of the people seen on the highway overpass near the Superdome had been inside the dome during the storm.

People congregate at the end of a sunken highway in New Orleans August 31. Note the presence of rescue vehicles in this Wednesday photo.

[Wolfstar]

People who rode out the storm in the Superdome began leaving the building on Wednesday as the first relief convoys arrived. The caption says: People affected by Hurricane Katrina clog the elevated walkway around the Superdome in New Orleans August 31.

The hospitals were also being evacuated by Wednesday. Josephine Ravaglia, an elderly patient of the United Medical Rehabilitation Hospital is unloaded from a boat after she was rescued from the flooded hospital August 31.

On Wednesday, the Superdome and nearby overpass became the staging area for the evacuation, and people rescued from elsewhere in the city were brought there. Earl Dunbar of the Louisiana State Capitol Police carries a five-day-old baby an evacuee brought for treatment near the Superdome in downtown New Orleans August 31. The mother said she had been trapped in her home until Wednesday after Hurricane Katrina hit.

[ODC-GIRL]

Bump

[Wolfstar]

The crowds around the Superdome were already thinned out considerably by the time this photo was posted Wed Aug 31, 6:59 PM Central Time.

Wed Aug 31, 6:29 PM CT: Buses loaded with stranded New Orleans residents head out of the city. Authorities began to evacuate about 23,000 refugees from the New Orleans Superdome arena on Wednesday. This was one day after the city flooded, making emergency evacuations of the Superdome and other city shelters necessary. The dome, convention center, hospitals, hotels and many homes and other buildings were evacuated by Friday -- all except for diehards who refuse to leave the city.

Stranded New Orleans residents are evacuated from the hurricane-ravaged city on an Army truck August 31.

[Wolfstar]

Despite hysterical reports by Shephard Smith and Geraldo Rivera to the contrary, people on the overpasses were also being evacuated on Wednesday, as can be seen in this photo.

Those who waiting to be evacuated at the Superdome and on the overpasses WERE given food and liquids. In this photo, a boy drinks milk on a freeway overpass in the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans August 31.

Although thugs were still out and about on Wednesday, police, National Guard and military personnel were assuming more and more control. In this photo, stranded New Orleans residents scramble in panic as a man apparently drew a weapon in the crowd on a highway ramp August 31.

[Wolfstar]

Reuters-Yahoo used the photo below taken two days before as the hook for this caption: An ABC News crew was turned back by gunfire Thursday, September 1, as it tried to reach a New Orleans hospital for a story on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. No one was wounded, but it sent concerns through the networks, who already are hypersensitive about security along the Gulf Coast.

[arasina]

Wait a minute. Those photos can't be correct. The rescuer is Caucasian and the victims are Black. (cough)

[Southack]

[Wolfstar]

Thursday, September 1, National Guardsmen hand out ice and water to people in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Sailors stationed at Naval Air Station Pensacola load supplies September 1 on a UH-3H helicopter before it is transported to New Orleans to aide in disaster relief efforts.

Residents of New Orleans rescued by police boats walk from floodwaters in front of the Superdome September 1. These were people who rode out the storm in their homes and neighborhoods, and who were brought to the Superdome staging area on Thursday for evacuation from the city. By Thursday, most, if not all the people who were in the Superdome during the storm had already been evacuated to Baton Rouge, Houston and elsewhere.

Residents are rescued by helicopter from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina on September 1 in New Orleans.

[Wolfstar]

National Guardsmen from the Biloxi area load supplies for victims of Hurricane Katrina at the Gulf Port International Airport, September 1.

A helicopter picks up sandbags to fill a broken section of a levee in New Orleans September 1. Remember: The storm hit Monday; the levee broke Tuesday; by Thursday they were dropping sandbags into the levee breach.

Thursday was also the day the MSM and race baiters began screaming in full force about the "slow" federal response to the disaster. The Reuters-Yahoo caption for this photo: Resident Mary Mason reads a newspaper in a rescue shelter at Biloxi Junior High School September 1. The world has watched amazed as the planet's only superpower struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with some saying the chaos has exposed flaws and deep divisions in American society.

[Wolfstar]

A Coast Guard helicopter plucks a survivor from a rooftop in New Orleans September 1. There were so many helicopters over the city by Thursday that surely those controlling air traffic are some of the greatest unsung heroes of this story.

Residents are rescued by helicopter from the floodwaters in New Orleans September 1. Authorities briefly suspended evacuation operations on Thursday after a reported shooting at a U.S. military helicopter.

[Wolfstar]

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco addresses a news conference at the command center in Baton Rouge, Thursday, September 1, when she called for as many as 40,000 National Guard to aid in law enforcement and relief efforts. So the witch surfaces on Thursday, as relief efforts in the city are already in high gear, and suddenly asks for a huge number of guard troops.the hurricane. At left is Louisiana State Police Superintendent Henry Whitehorn. [It's worth nothing that Blanco had not stepped foot in New Orleans throughout the entire disaster week until President Bush arrived in the city on Friday, and she popped up with this "call" for 40,000 troops as the human crisis in the city was rapidly diminishing on Thursday.]

Governor Blanco departs the news conference September 1 during which she demanded an apology from U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert after Hastert suggested New Orleans not be rebuilt. [Good thing she had the time to whine about what Hastert said. It's not like she had anything better to do.]

[Wolfstar]

Marxists on display. This is quite possibly one of the most offensive images to come out of this catastrophe, and it may explain why Blanco has been so obstinate in her dealings with the Bush administration. To her, it's all about politics and Leftist ideology, not about saving people or rebuilding the stricken areas of her state. To her, the Bush administration is "the enemy," so she would approach all dealings with them with suspicion and hyper partisanship. Yahoo's caption:

Reverend Jesse Jackson addresses a news conference at the command center in Baton Rouge, September 1. Jackson said the recent spike in gasoline prices following the hurricane was a form of looting, and that he was departing for New Orleans to pick up college students. At left is Felix Rodriguez, president and CEO of CITGO Petroleum Corporation, the U.S. refining arm of Venezuela's state oil company, and at right is Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco.

[Wolfstar]

A rescued baby cries in the arms of a policewoman after being brought to land on a boat from floodwaters in New Orleans September 1. Authorities are still rescuing people from their flooded homes three days after Hurricane Katrina stuck.

[Wolfstar]

The vital Mississippi River waterway was partially opened by Thursday. A tugboat pushes barges past an oil refinery in southern Louisiana, September 1.

A building burns in a flooded area near the Superdome September 1. Early fires in the stricken city were thought to have been due to open natural gas lines. Later fires, especially those in the downtown and riverfront warehouse areas, were thought to be due to arson.

[Wolfstar]

A handicapped man slumps in a wheelchair while a relative sits nearby after their rescue by boat from floodwaters in New Orleans, September 1. Scenes like this ripped the heart out of many Americans while the MSM failed to demand from city and state officials answers as to why their own evacuation plan wasn't followed. Why weren't city buses and other transportation resources used to evacuate these people before the storm hit?

The Mayor made no effort to protect the lives of citizens by safely evacuating the jails in advance of the storm. Prisoners from New Orleans Parish Prison sit on a freeway overpass, September 1, after their jail was evacuated by authorities.

[Wolfstar]

By Friday, those zits on the face of American culture, entertainment industry celebrities, were caterwauling all over the place about the President. That is, the ones who weren't racing to the nearest camera in New Orleans for a phony "rescue" shot were caterwauling. Pierce Brosnan was in Deauville, France, for a film festival [is that all they do in France, have film festivals?], when he "took advantage of the spotlight to blast the Bush administration's handling of the carnage caused by Hurricane Katrina," as Reuters put it.

Rapper Kanye West performs during a fashion show in New York in this April 20, 2005 file photo. West surprised viewers of an NBC benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina victims on September 2 by accusing President Bush of racism. "George Bush doesn't care about black people," West said during the show aired live on the East Coast on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and Pax, just before cameras cut away to comedian Chris Tucker. [In case you think this rap thug's rant will hurt his sales, his new album is on track to sell 900k in its first week, making it the current #1 album in the country.]

[Wolfstar]

Letia Jackson, a Hurricane Katrina victim from New Orleans in need of medical care, is helped off a bus by paramedics on her way to being processed into the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas, Friday, September 2, 2005.

Thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina wait for buses to depart the Superdome in New Orleans, September 2. Although not identified as such by Yahoo, most of these people were in the Convention Center during the hurricane.

[Wolfstar]

This was the first set of photos and captions from the Convention Center posted on Yahoo:

A soldier wheels an elderly woman from the New Orleans Convention Center, September 2. After five days of surviving Hurricane Katrina, the searing heat, shootings and other unrest, thousands at the Convention Center were given food and water by the National Guard.

A Katrina survivor receives medical treatment from military personnel after he cut his arm trying to break into a building through a window in New Orleans September 2.

Survivors [at the Convention Center] taunt a National Guardsman for arriving too late to help some who have died waiting for food and water.

Survivors collect food and water during food distribution at the New Orleans Convention Center, September 2. [The Convention Center was emptied in one day.]