Replies

I keep hearing that there was no food, water or restrooms at the Superdome for days after the hurricane. I could swear I read an article (with photos) about the National Guard supplying the Superdome with MREs, a day or two before the hurricane. IIRC (& I'm pretty sure I do) they brought 360,000 MREs.

I've asked around, and nobody else seems to remember any of this. But here's a story written on the 29th, claiming MREs "littered the floor" during the hurricane. Where did those MREs come from? And better yet, where did they go?

Now tell me again that I just imagined it.

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Here's another article of interest from that day. Assistance continues to areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

-snip-

As of early August 29, approximately 52,000 people were in 240 shelters in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Texas, with the majority in the New Orleans Superdome. Strategic housing planning is underway to address expected continued sheltering and eventual housing needs.

In addition to holding regular briefings with emergency management officials in the affected states, FEMA reported the following activities, as of 10 a.m. today, as part of the ongoing federal response.

·FEMA's emergency teams and resources are being deployed and configured for coordinated response to Hurricane Katrina. This includes pre-staging critical commodities such as ice, water, meals, and tarps in various strategic locations to be made available to residents of affected areas.

·FEMA's Hurricane Liaison Team is onsite and working closely with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla.

·FEMA's National Response Coordination Center and Regional Response Coordination Centers in Atlanta, Ga., and Denton, Texas, are operating around the clock, coordinating the prepositioning of assets and responding to state requests for assistance.

-snip-

Does anyone believe that FEMA supplied all of the shelters except the one they knew would house the most people?

1 posted on 09/07/2005 7:34:17 PM PDT by BykrBayb

Time's up. Let the chips fall where they may.

2 posted on 09/07/2005 7:34:39 PM PDT by BykrBayb (Impeach Judge Greer - In memory of Terri <strike>Schiavo</strike> Schindler - www.terrisfight.org)

Send their a$$es to Iraq and see what poor conditions are really like.

This shat's getting old. We have troops who who have been in Iraq for a year under combat conditions returning to help and the Mayor of NO sends his cops to Vegas after a week of work.

Somebody's got to put this into perspective!

3 posted on 09/07/2005 7:41:08 PM PDT by Smartaleck

Good catch.

Doesn't meet the media template, though. I expect the same editors who ran this story are now running the 'left them to die' tack which is the accepted version of history, now.

I'm afraid the full truth of all these dimensions is going to take a long time to finally settle out.

4 posted on 09/07/2005 7:42:07 PM PDT by atomicpossum (Replies should be as pedantic as possible. I love that so much.)

Thanks for putting that together and posting it. I'm keeping a copy of it.

5 posted on 09/07/2005 7:46:58 PM PDT by DumpsterDiver

9 posted on 09/07/2005 8:04:50 PM PDT by B4Ranch (The New World Odor is UN-American)

Yes, I remembered that, too. And another important point about the story - the National Guard was already there before the hurricane. When did they leave the Superdome (or did they?) and who ordered that? The same people who blocked the Red Cross volunteers headed to the dome with food and water?

12 posted on 09/07/2005 8:09:26 PM PDT by PhatHead

Yes, I believe it, because Governor Blanco decided that the Superdome wasn't a shelter, and didn't want ANY food and water supplied there because it would encourage people to stay and she wanted to convince them to leave.

She also refused access to the Red Cross. Nobody was allowed to bring food and water to the Superdome or the Convention Center, because the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security, and the Governor, decided it would be better to get people back out of there.

This was before the levy breaks were evident -- so it may be that without those breaks, this would have been a good plan, forcing people out of the dome and back to their homes or other shelters.

Once the city flooded things became much worse in the dome, and then there was a lot of rescue efforts and more people were brought to the dome and convention center -- but still nobody allowed food into the dome.

So far as I can tell, even when the federal government brought supplies into the dome, they were doing so without authorization from the state. But I'm not sure of that. I can't find any specific declaration that it was OK to bring food in.

And we have the FOX news report thursday night that the state guard was preventing traffic from coming over the bridge. Shep thought they were just keeping people in, but maybe they were also keeping supplies out.

16 posted on 09/07/2005 8:17:26 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT

Nicole Rios said she never watches television, but for some reason she felt compelled to tune in a few days ago. That was when she learned about Katrina and the Superdome shelter.

Not surprising, Rios works in New Orleans as a psychic.

I good psychic would've planned her vacation for that week.

34 posted on 09/07/2005 9:42:47 PM PDT by SquirrelKing

From the Times-Picayune Archives- Monday, Aug 29

----About the MRE's before the Hurricane
To help keep them fed and hydrated, the Louisiana National Guard delivered three truckloads of water and seven truckloads of MREs, short for "meals ready to eat." That's enough to supply 15,000 people for three days, according to Col. Jay Mayeaux, deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Emergency Preparedness.

---Also on Monday, the Red Cross
Red Cross to the rescue
Monday 11:18 p.m.
American Red Cross spokesman Victor Howell said 750 to 1,000 Red Cross personnel are now at work on hurricane recovery in Louisiana, and 2,000 more volunteers will be here in the next few days.The Red Cross will bring in three large mobile kitchens to prepare 500,000 meals per day. There are 40 shelters statewide, housing about 32,000 people, "and you're going to have more," Howell said.

---Also from Monday. What I believe is the most crucial cause of all the problems with the recovery: Lack of Communications.
"Police, firefighters and private citizens, hampered by a lack of even rudimentary communication capabilities, continued a desperate and impromptu boat-borne rescue operation across Lakeview well after dark. Coast Guard choppers with search lights criss-crossed the skies"

35 posted on 09/07/2005 10:07:08 PM PDT by xrhopsiomega

39 posted on 09/08/2005 1:52:54 AM PDT by kcvl

The Sunday before the hurricane hit, there were many officials being interviewed on FoxNews (as the people queued up) that were saying there were plenty of MRE's and water inside.

Still, it was obvious that this was going to be a horror show. These stadiums are built for people to stay in them maybe 3-4 hours max. When I go to a stadium for a game or event, I am usually more than ready to leave after about 3 hours. The seats are uncomfortable, the floor is getting sticky and the bathrooms are smelling nasty. Can't imagine people living there for days.

41 posted on 09/08/2005 2:16:53 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (Mid-life crisis in progress...)

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