We Shut Down the Bridge

Washington Times & UPI via NRO ^ | Sep. 9, 2005 | Shaun Waterman

[hipaatwo]

Think local officials are less to blame for deaths in New Orleans than federal officials? In the most jaw-dropping story of the week, UPI has the police chief of Gretna, Louisiana, admitting that he closed off one of the major arteries out of New Orleans on Monday, before the storm hit:

"We shut down the bridge," Arthur Lawson, chief of the City of Gretna Police Department, confirmed to United Press International, adding that his jurisdiction had been "a closed and secure location" since before the storm hit.

"All our people had evacuated and we locked the city down," he said. The bridge in question -- the Crescent City Connection -- is the major artery heading west out of New Orleans across the Mississippi River.

He added that the small town, which he called "a bedroom community" for the city of New Orleans, would have been overwhelmed by the influx. "There was no food, water or shelter" in Gretna City, Lawson said. "We did not have the wherewithal to deal with these people. If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."

[dirtboy]

I know this question has been asked of you before, but pray tell, if these people were on foot, where and how far were they going to go - and what were they going to do when they got there?

Get a drink from a garden hose. Find some shade. Get away from the concentrated filth in the Superdome and convention center.

It wasn't like they needed to become full-time residents - just needed some kind of refuge for a couple of days. Is that so friggin' hard to understand?

[dirtboy]

Last time I looked, there were eight points on the compass, and west, across this bridge, was merely one of them.

Now lay your compass down on a map of New Orleas. It's flooded to the north, east and west by the breach - with toxic water. This bridge was the only way I know of out of the city to dry ground - to the SE from downtown across the river.

Try again.

[dirtboy]

If the same terrible situation happened here, rest assured we residents would close our road, a public road, from wandering people

The bridge was an OFFICIAL evacuation route. It wasn't a cul-de-sac. That's not even a valid comparison - the police force were preventing the lawful passage of people TRYING TO EVACUATE a flooded city.

[BushCountry]

There were hundreds of square miles left untouched in New Orleans. Hundreds of churches, buildings, sky scrappers, warehouses, the under-roof square footage left untouch in New Orleans proper was at least a 1000 times more than the small city mentioned. They had had refuged and their own city failed to provide it.

[Heyworth]

Last time I looked, there were eight points on the compass, and west, across this bridge, was merely one of them. Can't walk west, start walking in another direction.

Have you actually looked at a map of New Orleans? North is the lake. South is the river.There's flooding east and west.

[Wombat101]

Sorry, but you still had (minimum) two days to get out before it hit. I happened to be in Ocala, Fl when the storm hit Miami the previous Thursday. When Katrina hit the Gulf on Friday, all the talk on the Weather Channel was about NO and the Gulf Coast.

So, if you were capable of tying your own shoes without a government program, you had two days (minimum)of advance warning that a 300 mile-wide storm was headed your way. You had time to get out.

However, planning for disaster in New Orleans seems to have consisted of praying really hard for Katrina to hit someplace else. When it finally did pass through NO, whatever plans the city and state governments had failed due to a lack of leadership and a lack of civilization and intelligence on behalf of the community at large.

The closing of this bridge changed nothing. People were warned beforehand.

[Gritty]

The bridge was an OFFICIAL evacuation route. It wasn't a cul-de-sac.

Then the time to use it was when the evacuation was ordered - on Sunday. When they decided to stay for the hurricane (or were forced to by their feckless officials) it was no longer a "hurricane evacuation route". The hurricane was over. It was a disaster access route, and they were an integral part of the disaster.

[NavySEAL F-16]

I agree -- however, FEMA can't be blamed for this. That Sheriff KNEW what he would be dealing with. Believe me, I lived in LA, none of this comes as a surprise.

[Torie]

Good reason to cross the bridge, with Shep Smith and his camera crew. Expose them all, for what they are, and do it on film, for the world to see.

[Petronski]

That would have been GREAT.

[Mo1]

I'm listening to Hannity and he has Geraldo on

Gerry made a comment that if that bridge was open .. the people could have walked across it to Mississippi to an area that was pretty much undamaged or had very little damage

I don't know that area

Is it true that the other side of that bridge goes to another state??

[R. Scott]

"These were code words," the paramedics wrote, "for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans."

Does this imply that white folks were allowed to cross?

[PAR35]

Translation: We wanted to keep the blacks out.

Don't let the facts get in the way of your race baiting. Gretna is about 56% white and over 35% black.

And, of course, the left wing union activists who are the source for most of these stories appear, from their own account, to have been white. So with your tortured logic, it is a racist attack on blacks to turn away whites.

Is your real name Al, by any chance?

[hipaatwo]

I don't know that area

Is it true that the other side of that bridge goes to another state??


I thought it was going into another part of La. I know nothing about that area. I still get lost in Jersey.

[Wombat101]

Please, you're making the poor boy think, and it apparently hurts too much.

Let's get this straight: the people who were stuck in NO during the worst part of the storm were not those with no means of leaving, they were instead those with no intention of leaving. We're forgetting that human beings are supposed to have a self-preservation instinct.

Making preparations to leave an area about to be hit hard by a Cat 4 hurricane would have assumed that people had a) common sense and b) personal initiative.

Since most people these days lack the former and dare not display the latter, then anyone still NO when the storm hit that did not specifically need to be there, ipso facto did not want to leave or be evacuated. It was only in hindsight, when faced with the consequences of their (non-)action that people suddenly wanted help, when they weren't busy looting and shooting at the rescue crews.

I have no sympathy for anyojne who stayed when the signs all pointed to catastrophe, but I cannot, in good conscience let people starve or go cold. So fine, let's argue and analyse the response of government in this situation, but let's not absolve the citizens of New Orleans for displaying paralysing, bulletproof stupidity.

[Lancey Howard]

The police should have let the stragglers and looters and thugs swarm through Gretna to steal and pillage whatever they could get their hands on. Nice value system.

[dirtboy]

the people who were stuck in NO during the worst part of the storm were not those with no means of leaving

Wrong.

You won't even deal with the facts of the matter, which means everything else you spout is based on a false premise.

Which means you ain't worth the trouble of debating.

[FreedomCalls]

Watch this TV report about a boy and his dog plus a stray walking from Biloxi to Houston!

Teen flees hurricane zone on foot

2005-09-03

Katrina forced thousands to flee their homes. Channel 8's John Pronk met up with one homeless teen walking along Interstate 10 in Missisisippi. It's a journey he's taking alone, with 400 miles to go.

Watch this TV report about a boy and his dog plus a stray walking from Biloxi to Houston!

Teen flees hurricane zone on foot

2005-09-03

Katrina forced thousands to flee their homes. Channel 8's John Pronk met up with one homeless teen walking along Interstate 10 in Missisisippi. It's a journey he's taking alone, with 400 miles to go.

[dirtboy]

The police should have let the stragglers and looters and thugs swarm through Gretna to steal and pillage whatever they could get their hands on. Nice value system.

As opposed to leaving them in a deadly situation. Good to see what your priorities are.

[mosquitobite]

Now THAT, I can agree with. Evidence that the guard was there before the flooding even. Warning though this is long 197 pictures.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=14ewb3ap.b147fdut&Uy=nyvoby&Ux=1