We Shut Down the Bridge

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

[drungus]

The whole downtown area was completely clear of flooding.

Really? I suggest that you take a look at the photo series posted by mosquitobite above:

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

[Wombat101]

So, people who agree with you have valid viewpoints that are needed and those that disagree are pinheads?

This is a free-speech forum, after all.

[gulf1609]

You are welcome. I have not lived there in 25 years. I wish someone who knew New Orleans better would chime in. I have seen some referring to the bridges as the Crescent City Connection (CCC). I am not sure that is right. When I lived there there was only one bridge named the Huey P. Long. Orleans parish does run on both sides of the river. Gretna is another parish, Tarrytown, Algiers are all accross the river.

[dirtboy]

So, people who agree with you have valid viewpoints that are needed and those that disagree are pinheads?

Yeah, those people who try and justify what the cops did here are pinheads.

Actually, I'd call them much worse, but there are posting guidelines.

[dirtboy]

This is a free-speech forum, after all.

You are free to voice your opinion. I am free to call you a pinhead when circumstances warrant.

Free speech goes both ways.

[Palladin]

There is a small cadre here who are forever in denial, and forever pulling the victimization shtick.

There were other routes out of NO.

[Rebelbase]

I just had a sense that when the Katrina Comission issues it's final report there's going to be so much blame discovered at the local level that the remaining people of New Orleans will burn down the other portion of the city while rioting.

[Teacher317]

That didn't sop the global media from reporting it as if there were mass rape and murder going on. I wonder if the retraction will get the same amount of attention. *cough-cough*

[Heyworth]

You're fighting the good fight, dirtboy. Meanwhile, here's a good map showing the flooded areas

http://www.time.com/time/covers/20050912/new_orleans_map/

[dirtboy]

There were other routes out of NO.

That was an OFFICIAL evacuation route.

And the local cops blocked people trying to evacuate.

You don't see any problems with that?

[JerseyHighlander]

Ping. Sheriff Lee of Jefferson Parish also shutdown his parish to outsiders.

[muffaletaman]

BUT there was no storm surge on the SOUTH side of New Orleans in the Mississippi River - especially with New Orleans on the WEST side of the storm. Storm surge in the direct path of the eye and front right quadrant only.

Gretna had no storm surge.

[Wombat101]

Perhaps my experiences, and thus my point of view, are simply different. Like the time my 90,000 ton aircraft carrier was whipsawed by a Pacific typhoon and taught me to be prepared. Or pehaps it was the time when my house in Pensacola was washed away by a Cat-4 hurricane that taught me that beachfront property wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Or maybe it was when I found myself under a 767 as it slammed into One World Trade center. Then again, the tornado damage done to my home in Charlotte left me shaking my head, too.

Whatever it was, all of these experiences taught me that you never know just what is going to happen to you, so you'd better be prepared for what you can reasonably foresee.

It most definitely taught me that self-reliance and intitiative are to be cultivated because when you have to depend on your government for help, it very often fails to materialize. If that means I leave three days before a storm hits, then so be it.

That having been said, you can call me a pinhead all you want if it makes you feel better or superior. I know better.

[R. Scott]

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.

I’m not exactly in a hurricane prone area – we get about one a decade, and haven’t had a big one in a long time. If the locale government – or my own observations of what’s coming – declare that we should evacuate I will. I will hate to leave all my “stuff”, but I do keep a “bug out” bag in the closet. It contains canned food, water purification tablets and equipment, better than average first aid supplies, CDs with important phone and account numbers, pictures etc. and of course a bit of ammo – just in case. The cost isn’t all that much, but if ever needed both my little dog and I will be glad of the prior planning.

[BushCountry]

From the top right where the ships are in the picture to all away around the bend to the convention center is dry (at least a mile or two thick). From the bank of the river to almost the foot of the Dome is completely dry.

There is a two swathe of dry land with thousands upon thousands of buildings. Go in the other direction for miles and miles (not shown), and you would still be walking across dry land with buildings and supplies.

Now, I am not defending the cops on the bridge, all I am saying is that there were plenty of supplies within the several hundred square miles of both the Dome and Convention Center and it was completely dry land!!!

Look closely at the concentration of buildings, warehouses, skyscrappers, shipping containers, ect... Are you honestly going to say that there were more supplies across the bridge?

[dirtboy]

The point is, for whatever reason those people ended up in jeopardy, the storm had passed and cops were not allowing them to follow an offical evacuation route out of the city. That is wrong.

[Wombat101]

You sorta kinda have to do it, especially in the world we live in today. What with the threats of terrorism, race riots and natural disasters, it's merely common sense to be prepared and insured to the hilt, if you have the means. If you don't, then you'd better make other arrangements.

[drungus]

What I am saying is, take a look at the photo link helpfully provided by mosquitobite, and then reevaluate whether you can state unequivocally (as you did in your post I originally replied to) that "The whole downtown area was completely clear of flooding."

[Heyworth]

You keep posting the same graphic with the information that the bridge is the dry route to safety, and with Algiers, on the other side of the bridge, as dry area with food, water, and shelter. The bridge was closed by armed cops, and Algiers was, therefore, inaccessible.

[Wombat101]

If I recall, there were conflicting "Martial law" orders and reports floating around. If I'm a sherrif and the last word I had was that martial law had been declared, then no one is getting across that bridge in any way shape or form, unless they're on a stretcher.

It has never been considered here, I think, that perhaps the situation was so fluid that the sherrif made a decision based on the last (and inadequate) information he had; that martial law had been declared and the images of chaos, looting and random gunfire that CNN enjoyed showing so much.

Did anyone ever bother to find out if the man had adequate communications to/from his higher ups or state authorities?