Free Republic

Thanks you for the clarification. I had taken my number from an interview done with the head of FEMA, who obviously was not totally in the know... And I agree with you that the mandatory evacuation needed to be called earlier and easily could have...

Right now I am getting irritated by Larry King who was interviewing Jesse Jackson. When Jesse was seemingly denying the reports of looting and then went on to say that he could not believe rescuers stopped evacuations due to a little sniper fire, and then referred to the fact our troops never let a little sniper fire stop them, Larry did not press him on the issue at all. No, hey Jesse, these are civilians along with some law enforcement doing the rescuing not soldiers. No, hey Jesse, looting for food is one thing, but TV's are not a need especially without electric....And Larry happily says that wee will get to hear more from Jesse tomorrow...hmmm sure am looking forward to those lies here...hope that tomorrow some reporter on some network will call Jesse out for the BS'er he is...

Knowing this, the local and state officials should have asked for more help and done more to reduce the number who actually stayed in the city. The rescue effort so far has been amazing, but the city moved resources from law and order to the rescue effort, instead of leaving the police in place and utilizing the National Guard to aid in the search.

Great article there. Too bad it seems that none of the New Orleans officials ever read it.

Loved these points on the evacuation for Ivan:
"The fact that 600,000 residents evacuated means an equal number did not. Recent evacuation surveys show that two thirds of nonevacuees with the means to evacuate chose not to leave because they felt safe in their homes. Other nonevacuees with means relied on a cultural tradition of not leaving or were discouraged by negative experiences with past evacuations."
"For those without means, the medically challenged, residents without personal transportation, and the homeless, evacuation requires significant assistance.....Approximately 120,000 residents (51,000 housing units x 2.4 persons/unit) do not have cars. A proposal made after the evacuation for Hurricane Georges to use public transit buses to assist in their evacuation out of the city was not implemented for Ivan. If Ivan had struck New Orleans directly it is estimated that 40-60,000 residents of the area would have perished."

While the NHCs site does not state it, our Miami stations tell us that the names represent nationalities of those countries that are affected by Carribbean storms. Likewise the Pacific names represent the nationalities of the islanders there. So we have English, Spanish and French/Creole names...

The balance of the 2005 names...
Katrina
Lee(now a depression)
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rita
Stan
Tammy
Vince
Wilma

"And didn't Max Mayfield from the NHC call them also warning them of the # of potential deaths/destruction."

Yes said he would not be able to sleep knowing that a potential disaster could be occurring. After that the evacuation was made mandatory...

LOL! Thanks for the laugh...and the truism...

Not defending the press, I am actually defending the Feds and condemning the local and state officials. As to the press, they are a mixed bag, I take what I need and leave the rest, preferring news shows to opinion talk and you are entitled to your opinion on my posts. I just cannot sit idly by and pat people on the back for doing a good job in this crisis, as we have seen some politicians doing. They were not doing a good job, and hopefully this massive Federal deployment will rectify the earlier wrongs. And next time, maybe the locals will learn from their mistakes...
And a small point of order, you might want to reread your original post directed at my post.

Howlin, just because I may be new here(but not to other BBS'), does not mean I do not know what I am talking about. Lifelong Floridian, with Mississippi roots, who saw the damage after Camille as a child, and have had a fascination and a respect for storms ever since. Lived through Kate and Andrew, last year endured four(but not as a direct hit) and just went through a direct hit by Katrina here in Miami(my friends say I am a storm magnet). I do KNOW what a good EOC should be doing, and am just pointing that out. Walk a mile in my shoes.. and until then.. please back off...

"This is a really dumb question.
Why are we not setting up semi-perm tent type barracks for these people at a underutilized location somewhere?
Provide medical, schooling for kids, community college classes for adults, movies at night. All in a semi military style environment?

Why take them to trash a sports arena?

The tent thing could be set up just as quickly.

This is long term, we are probably supporting them anyway, lets do it right and have a controlled situation,"

Not a dumb question but one I have asked here already and nobody knows. And one that hasn't been mentioned by any reporters, even as they compare it to Andrew..In Andrew the tent city was the saving grace for many survivors, but was not done immediately. The scope if this disaster has only been known for 2 days now, but I think officials would be better off to say we are temporarily moving you to point A or B while we set up a tent city that can be a little more long term. Of course once winter sets in, this will not be a good option, and FEMA trailers will need to be set up...

I agree on the time factor...However local emergency officials, whose job it is to know all there is to know about preparing for hurricanes and floods, should have known from study of prior hurricanes, that even in a mandatory evacuation, a good portion of people do not leave, especially the poor and the elderly, as well as those who own small businesses and stay to protect them. Given that, they would have known that more would need the shelter of last resort and even more would need to be rescued if a worse case scenario occurred. But they didn't ask for help, or at the very least they asked for very little help. The intial number of troops ordered in were 2,000(per a FOX interview), not enough for this type of operation.

Another excuse being offered by local officials is the lack of communication tools such as phones available. Once again a good emergency operations plan includes contingency plans for this. Obviously we now know that theirs was not a good one...

I knew this was coming, as unless they were going to put people in the rafters or a seat to each person, how would it work with 25,000 there? I think officials would be more inclined to feel comfortable with this knowing that other Texas cities have also opened shelters.

Good thoughts Willie. Not only that, it might give them a chance to enact decent building codes that specify foundation height and materials that should be used for building. Even my 16 year old noticed that today...why are we building homes in hurricane country out of wood? Concrete has a much better chance of withstanding the winds and flooding....

You go girl, and thank you, I had not even had the chance to send them an email! Here's to hoping that the Snowball story will have a happy ending!

The story on Snowball is here, and it was a bus...
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/01/D8CBPBCG0.html

"Cut off the electricity and water for three days in one area of the country and we descend into chaos."

"They said Americans need to be prepared mentally, emotionally, etc. for what hardships we might need to endure if major emergencies happen -- coping without TV and computers for extended periods of time, maybe days or weeks"

Chaos was Miami last Friday as 770,000 customers out of 900,000 in the county were left without power. No lights, no traffic control, no groceries,no fast food and at my house no AC, no refrigeration for my food.(Cooking was still there due to gas). We got updates via battery operated radio and TV, which we used sparingly. At night, my son and I played board games by the candlelight. A PC was really the least of my worries. I was more worried for my elderly parents who were sweltering in the 93 degree heat. Andrew taught me that one can live without power, we did for a month a half. You get creative, as I even learned to bake potatoes on a grill..
Loss of power is nothing compared to the loss of a house and all of your belongings as we are seeing in the Gulf...

Two sources of help for Snowball:
http://www.noahswish.org/

I posted this earlier today regarding their work:
9:14 a.m.: Volunteers Head to La. To Look For Lost Pets
A Madison County, Ill., prosecutor is leaving this week for the Gulf Coast to offer assistance to some lower profile hurricane victims -- family pets.

Amy Maher is a coordinator for a national organization called Noah's Wish, which works to save as many pets as possible during such catastrophes. The group expects more than 100 Noah's Wish volunteers to arrive in Louisiana Thursday.

The volunteers will provide temporary shelter for animals whose owners are unable to care for them in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. If they can't be reunited with their original owners, some of the rescued animals could also be brought back to Illinois and put up for adoption. -- Associated Press

Per their web site, they reached Slidell today...

and from Houston for animals needing shelter:
http://www.spcahouston.org/spcahouston/Default.asp

"How about the little boy getting on a bus and the police confiscated his dog! They said he cried until he vomited."

It is too bad that those loading the bus did not know the the Houston SPCA is taking in all pets of those who have to live in their shelters such as the Astrodome. The boy would have been able to take his dog there and know that it would be safe and waiting for him. More lack of communication and lack of treating people like human beings...

And New Orleans could not take a lesson from Florida in hurricane preparation? Poor planning on their part has created a huge crisis...