Posted on 09/20/2008 7:24:33 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Hurricane Gustav gave the state of Louisiana a test for which it had three years to prepare. There were thousands of poor, sick, disabled and elderly people who could not get out on their own. They needed to be rescued with dispatch, and sheltered in safety and dignity.
One simple test. The state flunked.
Three years to the week after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, Louisiana executed a fundamentally unfair evacuation plan and did it badly. It relied on dividing the population into separate streams: People with their own cars were directed to shelters run by parishes, churches and the Red Cross. People with medical problems not requiring hospitalization were taken to special shelters. Sex offenders had a shelter to themselves.
All those without a car or a ride were taken on state buses to four state-run warehouses. It was in these shelters, including two abandoned stores, a Wal-Mart and a Sam’s Club, that thousands of working-poor New Orleanians got a sickening reminder of Katrina.
Evacuees said they had had no idea where they were going; bus drivers would not tell them. When they arrived, there were not enough portable toilets, and no showers. For five days there was no way to bathe, except with bottled water in filthy outdoor toilets. Privacy in the vast open space — 1,000 people to a warehouse, shoulder-to-shoulder on cots — was nonexistent. The mood among evacuees was grim, surrounded as they were by police officers and the National Guard, with no visitors or reporters allowed.
“We didn’t want to evacuate into a prison,” Lethia Brooks told the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, an organization that accompanied the evacuees, inspected the shelters and collected hundreds of stories into a report sharply critical of the state’s response.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Temporary emergency shelter for large numbers of people is not going to be comfortable. If there were no police or National Guardsmen at the shelters and violence occurred, I am sure the Times would be wailing about that. The complaining people don't seem to have any gratitude for having been taken out of harm's way. I wonder how much they pay in taxes.
What do Lousiana Freepers think about the performance of the Jindal administration in dealing with hurricane Gustav?
The basic question is did they have 3 hots, a cot and dry socks? If they did then they are in fat city.
F**k the NYT. Sorry mods, but this is ridiculous. How did the state fail other than the NYT hoping that the Jindal administration killed 1000+?
All things are possible if you don't believe in anything.
It’s an opinion piece - you known what they say about opinions.
They are like a$$holes - everybody has one ... and generally they stink. Whoever wrote this piece of garbage - his is probably in the middle of his forehead.
Aside from abortion, gun control and treason I don’t guess there’s much the NYT can’t find fault with.
So, getting your life together - including purchasing a car - so you can escape with the normal folks is out of the question?
Sounds like the good, productive citizens win no matter what. The parasites will get their lives together or die in the next storm.
Bobby Jindal’s administration should move quickly on a better plan that does not expose the poor to differential, substandard treatment.
Guv'ment ain't Daddy. Grow up.
Aww geez, let’s make Jindal and FEMA keep 10 or 20 cruise ships on retainer so the lovely folk can trash those, then complain about the lousy room service.
Nope, she wanted a dignified suite at the Marriot along with a $2000 debit card.
Hahahhahahaha.
Your daily Pravda.
On the other side, and never published in any MSM is the letter from a VOLUNTEER nurse who worked three days in one of these shelters with no pay, 24 hr periods with no sleep, and no gratitude--not that she looked for gratitude, just for people willing to help her help them.
Just a few of her comments--parents forgot their children's insulin and breathing medication, but managed to remember their cell phones and cigarettes. While she took care of a sick child and cleaned up his vomit, the mother lay back on a cot and REFUSED to help, telling the RN that was her job. While they lounged and smoked, mothers expected the nurse to not only take temps. administer medication, even GET the meds they forgot to bring, and then clean up and change babies--they told her that was what she was there for.
Then they griped about EVERYTHING from meals, drinks, basically that it was not the Marriott and all for free, with room service.
Meanwhile, she was not seeing her little ones for three days, was eating and drinking what was provided in MRE's.
She came away with the attitude of what kind of monster have we created?
vaudine
The New York Times is irrelevant. I said it. It no longer is the paper of record. It’s a hack paper written for an extremist group and is no longer influential. Its sales suck and its equity is hitting the sh*tter. How fun it is to watch it thrash about though.
What part of ‘natural disaster’ does the New York Times not understand?
Apparently, no one working at the NYT has ever been in the Army.
The ignorant writers at the NYT must have confused an evacuation in the path of a hurricane with a cruise to Cancun.
No one drowned. Everyone was fed. Everyone will get to ride the free buses back to New Orleans and wait for the next hurricane.
No wonder people hate the NYT.
Was that a shot at Nawleans welfare class?
I refuse to click on the link & read the rest of this NYT article that is far from the truth I know about the evacuation center that was in our area. I have never seen a man work so hard to make things right for everyone during both hurricanes that wreaked havoc thru our state as did Gov. Jindal. He probably never slept for a week.
Horror stories did emerge from the evac center but it was of irresponsible, ungrateful, complaining, people who stole from local stores, ate at & left restaurants without paying & destroyed the shower facilities they were taken to. They seemed to be mad that they were put up in hotels. But they were all given money when they got on the busses along with MREs and water. The Picadilly Cafeteria provided food for them & cut choices at their regular location to do this.
The older evacuees were calm and kind & seemed grateful for the shelter, but the younger ones were very hard to deal with. Most of these came from the 9th ward of N.O. The mothers laid around absolutely unconcerned about their toddlers running amuck. If they were sick & throwing up, they didn’t care. They wouldn’t lift a finger to help them. Shelter volunteers spent a lot of time trying to find which mother these kids belonged to. This small town does not want to house these people again.
Bobby Jindal cannot help people who do not help themselves. He was magnificent during the storms & whatever can be done to improve the plan & response in the future, he will do it.
Unlike the editors of the NY Times who watch hurricanes from the Upper West Side (or East side, is it? I really don’t know and I guess it’s important), I’ve actually been through a hurricane. Maybe you have a few days warning. Sure, you know one is out there, but do you evacuate for every storm in the Gulf? Of course not.
The performance of the state of Louisiana was exemplary for Hurricane Gustav. Anyone who actually has been through one instead of eating cheese and and drinking a Riesling while watching it on the Weather Channel knows this.
And yes, I’m a reactionary right-wing conservative Republican who eats little kittens in his spare time.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Sorry about a typo. Was mad while typing. Meant to say evacuees seemed mad they “weren’t” put in hotels. It was, in fact, an old Walmart that was the shelter site.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.