I don't think it's President Bush's fault but I am very upset and disillusioned that even on Friday night, 4 days after the hurricane hit on Monday, there are people, old and young that are starving to death and NOBODY on this forum seems to be upset or care. (Well, there are some.) Is that because they are mostly poor and black? I don't know but this should never happen in America. The people who are outside the convention center deserve better. The people who have been waiting on I-10 deserve better. There are no looters and shooters there. These people need help and they needed it two or three days ago. The problem is that there is NO ONE in charge.
I was asked if I donated. YES my husband and I donated to the American Red Cross on Monday! Can we go to LA and help? We are self employed and our business is seasonal so yes, after this fall, we could go help and have planned to do just that.
It took just as long as it did during hurricane Agnes. People were on their roofs then, too. People didn't start looting or killing each other, either. They were as grateful as hell when the troops showed up. They said "Thank you", not "F you."
Those people were suppose to evacuate. They didn't. Now, people are trying to help them as much as they can. There is no magic wand.
You're totally ignoring the brave people who are down there in great numbers wallowing in the sewer water to save those who decided to stay with their "stuff." Give the good people helping down there a little credit for a change. They're human, too, and they're being hassled and shot at. They're doing the best they can.
What are we supposed to do? We can give money, but we have to count on others to do the work. We can't all hop on planes and fly down there and bring people food.
Tonight they were reporting that they weren't letting people into the next town "where they had electricity". They acted like that was horrible.
Well first of all, if the people could walk to the next town, they must be getting some food and water. Second, if you let 10,000 people run into the next town you would simply have a disaster there as they pillaged looking for food and water.
The mayor at one point had actually told his people to run over the bridge and try to find food and water elsewhere.
Why wouldn't a city like New Orleans have a supply depot above sea level with enough food and water for the city for a few days?
You know there were enough grocery stores in the city to feed the city for a week. They must have all either been flooded, or looted. Canned goods, canned soda, bottled water, juice, even milk would have been good for a day or two, and unaffected by the floods. This isn't Somalia.
You watch pictures, and you see people DRIVING AROUND IN THE CITY. I know its a small part, but the entire place isn't a war zone. They show people with cartloads of food and bottled water, I assume taking the food somewhere but maybe not over to the bridge where people need the food.
I simply have a hard time believing the superdome didn't have enough bottled water and soda for 20,000 people for a couple of days. Certainly they were stocked for concessions for a 72,000 person football game?
So the problem is that the entire thing is unbelievable. We sit here in Virginia, and elsewhere, and can't believe that while the old and infirmed are on that bridge, all the able-bodied men of the city are elsewhere. We know that in our town we would be there bringing food and supplies. We have done so in the past. Our neighborhood checked up on each other after the hurricane two years ago.
We simply don't understand how a major city like New Orleans could be so unprepared.
on 9/11, the NY emergency preparedness center was in the trade center complex. Obviously they were going to have problems. But Rudy set up an entire new center a few blocks away, and had control of the situation.
I don't see that from the officials in New Orleans (who probably all evacuated long before the storm).
Instead, I see people incredulous at normal, predictable events "Oh no, windows got blown out! What, there is rain and flooding? Why did so many people stay? I can't believe there is rioting and looting. We can't run the pumps because the flood water has flooded them. Oh, the brand-new canal wall has collapsed -- Who could have imagined THIS FLOODING???? What, the people in the convention center want food and water? "
We don't understand that while some people are being rescued from their roofs, others are shooting at helicopters, or threatening to kill old white people to make room on the bus. Or why Geraldo holds a pretty healthy-looking baby in his arms but can't give anybody a candy bar. Where is Geraldo getting his dinners?
We can't understand why the local police are allowed to keep people trapped in the convention center. We can't understand why they don't take supplies to the bridge.
I don't think people here are insensitive to the death and injury, we are simply trapped like deer in the headlights, unable to figure out why something like this could be happening when we are sure it would be different where we live. Even if we are wrong.
STARVING TO DEATH IN 4 DAYS....GET REAL,you are barely hungry in 4 days..thirst is one thing but thete people are within WALKING DISTANCE of food, water, ice, electricity and every other amenity that American society has to offer. these people have been fed the "we will take care of you" line for so long that they don't know the difference....this is our fault, not theirs but it is time to STOP the welfare cart and require everyone to carry their share of the load.....and only their share...you don't blame the rich for the condition of rhe poor. {one t.v. talking head tonight referred the situation to their
"lot in life" or some other such nonsense.
I doubt it. Nobody starves to death in four days. There are people who need acute medical care, oxygen, insulin, etc, who may not make it, but that is the nature of a major tragedy. Wringing hands about it will not change it. When you go and actually help then you will have something worth talking about.
And PROBABLY the reason so many DID NOT LEAVE is because they knew if they left their homes, their life's work, that the very thugs doing the terrorizing now, would have break into their homes and take whatever hit their fancy.
SO they banked on the storm not being a killer storm.
Even celebrities stayed...what is his name..'fats domino' or something. And others.
Not EVERYONE who stayed, stayed because they were to poor to leave.
They KNEW the criminal element only too well..the drug addicts, etc. And they feared for their property.