Posted on 09/08/2005 10:56:06 AM PDT by BurbankKarl
Louisiana state senator Walter Boasso is praising the rapid response of rescuers who arrived in New Orleans to assist in saving trapped residents as the waters from the corrupted levees began to rise the day after Katrina. The surprising aspect of the senator's praise was the fact that he wasn't referring to the United States military or FEMA. He was praising the Canadians.
The forty-six member Vancouver-based Urban Search and Rescue Team arrived in the St. Bernard Parish which lies east of New Orleans a full 5 days before American rescue units, and the volunteers worked 18-hour days rescuing 119 people in total.
The team worked closely with the Louisiana state police who provided an armed escort throughout the rescue mission because of the increasing violence in the area. A St. Bernard official offered sincere gratitude and told the team that the Canadian rescuers were their first sign of relief.
St. Bernard Parish was home to 68,000 people but was virtually forgotten by U.S. officials who were concentrating their search and rescue efforts on New Orleans which is only a few kilometers away.
Although little mention has been given to aid and assistance pouring in from around the world, four Canadian ships, three navy and one ice breaker all laden with essential supplies are heading toward the Gulf and expect to arrive by later Thursday or Friday.
The St. Bernard Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) said that on August 29 that the parish's two shelters at Chalmette High and St. Bernard High were suffering much damage with flooding. He said Chalmette High shelter was losing its roof, and St. Bernard High had many broken windows. There were estimates of 300-plus evacuees at the two sites. "We cannot see the tops of the levees!" exclaimed OEP Director Larry Ingargiola.
The coast guard was in the next day doing rescues. This is just another biased piece of .....
Rescuers were working from the very first day. The Canadians just happened to be assigned to that sector. Sheesh, how stupid can you get?
If it was 5 full days before the other rescue workers arrived, then they got there before the hurricane hit and therefore were rescuing people before they needed rescuing! Pretty good, eh.
This would mean that the Canadians arrived on August 25th, because the USS Bataan was there on August 30th.
I'm not buying this crap.
Whenever they got there, I'm glad they came. Thanks, Canada.
Don't you recognize BS when you see it?
These Canadian troops WERE IN A DIFFERENT LOCATION than ours. Why would we duplicate rescue efforts by sending them the same place? Military units always divide themselves by territory, that's all that's happening here.
This is political spin, pure and simple.
I am getting sick of all the lies that are out there. Am I in a time warp or something? I saw coast guard helicopters last Tuesday afternoon pulling people out of the water, and the canadians got there before our military. Last time I checked the Coast Guard was a member of the USMilitary. Canadians got there 5 days before them, don't think so.
I apologize. I wasn't clear in expressing myself. I'm glad to have the Canadians here and that they're willing to help.
The nonsense part was that Canada somehow responded faster than Bush.
Well, duhh.
I see the media making a big thing about the Mexicans headed to NO, via Laredo.
I think many Mexicans were there before FEMA, as well. If I had the wherewithall to google it, the headline would read:
Mexicans at the NO Convention Center MONTHS before Feds
:>)
Just for the record, I am a Canadaian.
The press up here has been just horrible in slamming Bush43 over this incident. CTV news last night was disgusting to say the least in slamming FEMA and the Red Cross at the Houston Astrodome. Both of which are false.
I agree that this story is as you say just another biased piece of ....
Anyone with half of a brain would know the coast guard et. al. was there.
It's great we are there helping but the stories should not be biased ...
I suppose Boasso could be lying , maybe . Does it really matter?
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) - A Canadian search-and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days
before the U.S. military, a Louisiana state senator said on Wednesday.
The Canadians beat both the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. disaster response department, to St. Bernard Parish east of New
Orleans, where flood waters are still 8 feet deep in places, Sen. Walter Boasso said.
"Fabulous, fabulous guys," Boasso said. "They started rolling with us and got in boats to save people."
"We've got Canadian flags flying everywhere."
The stricken parish of 68,000 people was largely ignored by U.S. authorities who scrambled to get aid to New Orleans, a few miles (km) away. Boasso said
residents of the outlying parishes had to mount their own rescue and relief efforts when Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on August 29.
The U.S. government response to the disaster has been widely criticized. Politicians and editorial writers have called for the resignation of top Bush administration
officials.
Boasso said U.S. authorities began airdropping relief supplies to St. Bernard last Wednesday, the same day the Canadian rescue team of about 50 members arrived
from Vancouver, nearly 2,200 miles away.
"They chartered a plane and flew down," he said.
Two FEMA officials reached the parish on Sunday and the U.S. Army arrived on Monday, he said.
"Why does it take them seven days to get the Army in?" Boasso asked.
He speculated that the smaller parishes suffered because the focus was on New Orleans, the famous home of jazz and Mardi Gras.
As for the Canadians, Boasso gave thanks for their quick work.
"They were so glad to be here," he said. "They're still here. They are actually going door-to-door looking in the attics" for people to rescue, he said.
The headline is bullshite. The canadians never went to New Orleans, and the airborne rescue was working the whole area long before the canadians got anywhere.
At the suggestion of writer Michelle Malkin last Friday, I have cobbled together a blogsite called Texas Clearinghouse for Katrina Aid to serve as a clearinghouse for refugee efforts in Texas.
Texas is getting more refugees than any other state -- that's fine, we'll take them all -- but we need help providing them with food, clothing, medicine, and shelter. We need help taking care of their pets, too.
If you are a refugee, you can information that will help you find relief. If you want to donate or volunteer, you can find someone who needs you. Believe me, there are a lot of organizations who need your help.
Right now the site mostly covers Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas but I'm adding more every night. My wife was down at Reunion Arena in Dallas Tuesday handing out care packages and spiritually ministering to the refugees as a representative of her employer. She says that the situation is tragic and that there's a lot of work to be done. There are so many children who don't know where their parents are or even if their parents are still alive.
There are a lot of churches and other organizations in Texas that need help in dealing with the problem and I would appreciate it if you would get the word out.
Many thanks,
Michael McCullough
Stingray blogsite
O.K., my two cents. I am a Canadian. I'm glad we were able to help those who needed it, *wherever* it was. Reading this discussion, I am troubled.
First of all, yes, the headline is innacurate. Many news headlines are, so this is not new. But the content of the story is fine. A Canadian military rescue unit was assigned to St. Bernard to help. Other units (U.S. coast guard, army, etc.) were in different locations around New Orleans. Fine.
So why were there no American forces in St. Bernard? Easy. They didn't need to be. There were rescuers there doing the job. Others could be assigned elsewhere.
What really troubles me is the level of discourse in your country. This isn't a right vs. left thing. It has gone way beyond that. Every time something happens, good or bad, each side starts blaming the other. "It's Bush's fault!" or "No! It's the Democrats' fault!" You all sit pointing fingers at each other. It is like watching two friends in a never ending fight.
Work together. Put your differences aside. There are more important issues, like helping people and saving lives. This polarization is holding all of you back from your true potential. Shake hands, make peace, and get on with the job. The only message that would have been appropriate from the media, etc. on this issue of our rescue team there is a simply "thank you". Neighbours helping neighbours. The end.
Work together for crying out loud. How did it get this way? Try to answer this question without blaming anyone else.
Sorry Newbie but that is what the Pubbies did in Mississippi and Alabama.
The left needs to stop the bickering because now the awful truth of the left's wall of lies are quickly losing their shields. Sorry but that's not how it works. You can't just slander the post-federal gov't response while completely ignoring the pre-local and state actions or, mostly, lack of.
In NO the problem was completely, unquestionably, without a doubt, created by the Democrat mayor and the Democrat Governor. Sorry. This is not multiple choice. When the water recedes and the feds go in, politically and criminally, the LA/NO muck will rise to the surface for all to see. It's gonna be so toxic that the hearings will require radiation suits.
This demonstrable charade is being exposed bit by bit, day by day and will only grow. The complete ineptitude and/or neglect of the mayor (now chilling in Houston) and Gov. literally caused the unneeded deaths known and still to be documented.
You literally go down the lists of evacuation statutes and one statute after another was completely ignored, primarily in regards to the evacuation of low-income neighborhoods, hospitals and nursing homes not to mention the prison inmate releases. Throw in the breakdown of the NOPD, the looting and mayhem that went on unabated for 72-hours, the barring of the Red Cross and Salvation Army due to the "starve-them-out" theory of Blanco and it is not overstating or hyperboyle that the blood is literally all over the hands of not just Nagin, Blanco, Landrieu but also numerous past and present LA/NO pols, top Democrat Congressional pols, the L-MSM, hollywood blowhards, professors.................................
You say the left needs to stop bickering. From my outsider's point of view (not "newbie"), all I see is BOTH sides bickering. Both sides blaming the other.
I did ask the question how it got this way, and to answer without finger pointing. Mission failed. Fix the problem, not the blame.
To all of you, left and right, (and to probably the vast, silent, majority who consider themselves neither): Here's a challenge.
First: find those areas of action, coordination, and organization that were lacking that were caused by "the right" AND "the left". The left are very good at blaming the right, and ignoring their own foibles. The right are very good at blaming the left, and ignoring their own foibles. Do you see a trend here?
Second: Fix the problem and not the blame. Nothing else will work.
Try to look at yourselves, all of you, from an outsider's perspective. It might help. I want to see you work together. I want to see you succeed. How can you achieve what is necessary when you are so divided?
Yeah I used to be a moral relatavist. Then I grew up..
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