Katrina = Cat.5 = Goodbye New Orleans

[m885]

I was watching a documentary about the secret sercive with John Kerry, the podium he's giving his speech from would be bullet-proof, escape roots are planned incase anything goes wrong, dozens of agents watching for anything suspicious, they got their game-plan down.

Frankly, I'm shocked that the Secret Service let Bush go anywhere near New Orleans considering the amount of chaos. If you have seen the way that the agency works, you can understand the delay in getting Bush down there- which is largely a symbolic and pointless photo op.

 

[Tryptamine*Dreamer]

The mayor reported that drug use has been increasing in N.O. before Katrina. Now that there is no drug supply, the addicts are going crazy. Those are the majority of the people shooting other people apparently.

I heard his ranting about the violent, crazy drug addicts terrorizing the citizens of New Orleans and I think it's bullshit.

I doubt if drug addicts really make up a very high percent of the looters and trouble makers. The mayor probably just wants to blame the drug users because they are looked down on by most people, viewed as sub-human. Most of the looting and crime is probably being done by normal people who are now in a horrible situation where society has completely collapsed.

Maybe he's blaming it on the addicts because it's too hard to accept that normal people would behave like that.

 

[Sticky Green]

Maybe he's blaming it on the addicts because it's too hard to accept that normal people would behave like that.

That's a possibility too, but I have a feeling that this mayor is the last person who would be in a state of denial.

It takes a certain person to shoot another person, and it wouldn't surprise me if that person was on something.

Regardless, that was my insight as to why the DEA might be there, probably keeping an eye on the pharmacies.

 

[SA]

Pardon my ignorance of the mexico gulf area and the surrounding lands but was there any cities or towns that the actual cyclone went right over the top of and decimated? I only ask because all we are hearing about is NO and surely if there was a city that took the full force of the cyclone there would be utter destruction there too no?

Can anyone fill me in on this?

Cheers.

JC, here is a little vid of the hurricane's track. This page has a little map of the track and shows the main cities affected. Katrina's eye pretty much passed over the Louisiana-Mississippi border. The major force of any hurricane being in the north eastern (top-right) corner of the eye, you can see that Gulfport and Biloxi (Mississippi) would have been hit with the gretest force wind and biggest storm surges. In New Orleans, you are seeing mainly incredible flooding, due to its bowl-like shape and the fact that it is below sea level. In Gulfport and Biloxi, you are seeing more typical hurricane damage - blown and washed away homes, storm surge lines of deposited debris, etc.

There have been hurricanes in the past which did cross over other countries (Cuba, Jamaica, ect.) before hitting the U.S. and yes, as soon as media focus was on the U.S., no one heard a peep about the other affected countries. This is not one of those times. The hurricane season is long from over though.

 

[fizzygirl]

From a listserv I belong to regarding schools willing to accept displaced students for fall semester...and this is in no way a comprehensive list of the schools I've seen offering their campuses to students. If you aren't sure where your campus stands I enourage you to email them and ask them to take part in this...

The Florida State University System has already
offered to take Tulane and Loyola students. Vanderbilt
has offer to take students on a "visiting student status"
and the following schools have offered to take students:

* Southern Utah University: Accepting students and
waiving fees as well as assisting in finding
off-campus housing
* Columbia University: Has already accepted Tulane
students and is offering to take in others
* George Washington University: Accepting students
* University of Miami: Accepting students
* University of Florida: Accepting students
* University of Illinois: Accepting students
* University of Virginia: Accepting students
* University Colorado: Accepting students
* University of Wisconsin, Madison: Accepting students
* Rice University: Has agreed to take all Houston-area
Tulane students free of charge for the semester.
* Syracuse University: will accept students free of
charge and provide free room and board for 12 students
* Southern Methodist University: Will work with
students from the north Texas area
* University of Arkansas: Will waive tuition and fees
for Arkansas residents currently enrolled in New
Orleans institutions. Out-of state residents can
enroll for in-state tuition rate.
* Georgetown University: Willing to adjust to
individual circumstances
* Emory University: Working to accommodate Tulane
public health graduate students
* University of Nebraska: Offering in-state tuition to
students coming in from Louisiana for the fall
semester and also providing space to the extent
available to faculty.
* University of Mississippi: Students from
Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama can enroll in
classes through Sept. 9 if they were previously
admitted to any of the coastal universities now closed
due to hurricane damage.
* University of Vermont: Has accepted students from
Tulane
* University of Delaware: Accepting students and
offering to reinstate any University of Delaware
scholarships previously offered
* Johns Hopkins University: Expects to accept Tulane
students
* St. John's University in Queens, N.Y.: Invites New
York students who are currently enrolled at the
affected Gulf-area institutions to attend St. John's
during this interim period at no expense.

 

[OpaqueSpark]

I heard his ranting about the violent, crazy drug addicts terrorizing the citizens of New Orleans and I think it's bullshit.

I doubt if drug addicts really make up a very high percent of the looters and trouble makers. The mayor probably just wants to blame the drug users because they are looked down on by most people, viewed as sub-human. Most of the looting and crime is probably being done by normal people who are now in a horrible situation where society has completely collapsed.

Maybe he's blaming it on the addicts because it's too hard to accept that normal people would behave like that.

I know there's only a small percentage of refugees guilty of NOT looting, or accepting looted goods to survive. But I don't doubt there are angry people with some kind of chemical dependence in that population. It's naive to say that they're all junkies or crackheads, and I don't think Nagin was saying that. People in extreme situations will do extreme things, which doesn't excuse the rape, arson or shooting at helicopters.

 

[OpaqueSpark]

Superdome evacuation halted to evacuate (presumably) rich people

Superdome Evacuations Temporarily Halted

By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 3, 9:56 AM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Buses taking Hurricane Katrina victims far from the squalor of the Superdome stopped rolling early Saturday. As many as 5,000 people remained in the stadium and could be there until Sunday, according to the Texas Air National Guard.
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Officials had hoped to evacuate the last of the crowd before dawn Saturday. Guard members said they were told only that the buses had stopped coming and to shut down the area where the vehicles were being loaded.

"We were rolling," Capt. Jean Clark said. "If the buses had kept coming, we would have this whole place cleaned out already or pretty close to it."

Those left behind early Saturday were orderly, sitting down after hearing news that evacuations were temporarily stalled.

Guard members reported that the massive evacuation operation for the most part had gone smoothly Friday, coming after days of uncertainty, violence and despair.

Capt. John Pollard of the Texas Air Force National Guard said 20,000 people were in the dome when evacuation efforts began. That number swelled as people poured into the Superdome because they believed it was the best place to get a ride out of town.

He estimated Saturday morning that between 2,000 and 5,000 people were left at the Superdome. But it remained a mystery why the buses stopped coming to pick up refugees and shuttle them away.

Tina Miller, 47, had no shoes and cried with relief and exhaustion as she left the Superdome and walked toward a bus. "I never thought I'd make it. Oh, God, I thought I'd die in there. I've never been through anything this awful."

The arena's second-story concourse looked like a dump, with more than a foot of trash except in the occasional area where people were working to keep things as tidy as possible.

Bathrooms had no lights, making people afraid to enter, and the stench from backed-up toilets inside killed any inclination toward bravery.

"When we have to go to the bathroom we just get a box. That's all you can do now," said Sandra Jones of eastern New Orleans.

Her newborn baby was running a fever, and all the small children in her area had rashes, she said.

"This was the worst night of my life. We were really scared. We're getting no help. I know the military police are trying. But they're outnumbered," Jones said.

At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses pulled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the Superdome since last Sunday.

"How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?" exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.

The 700 had been trapped in the hotel, near the Superdome, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome. The Hyatt was severely damaged by the storm. Every pane of glass on the riverside wall was blown out.

Mayor Ray Nagin has used the hotel as a base since it sits across the street from city hall, and there were reports the hotel was cleared with priority to make room for police, firefighters and other officials.

Conditions in the Superdome remained unbearable even as the crowd shrank after buses ferried thousands to Houston a day earlier. Much of the medical staff that had been working in the "special needs" arena had been evacuated.

Dr. Kenneth Stephens Sr., head of the medical operations, said he was told they would be moved to help in other medical areas.

Those who wanted food were waiting in line for hours to get it, said Becky Larue, of Des Moines, Iowa.

Larue and her husband arrived in the area last week for a vacation but their hotel soon told them they had to leave and directed them to the Superdome. No directions were provided, she said.

"I'm really scared. I think people are going into a survival mode. I look for people to start injuring themselves just to get out of here," she said.

Larue said she was down to her last blood pressure pill and had no idea of when they'll get out or where to get help.

James LeFlere, 56, was trying to remain optimistic.

"They're going to get us out of here. It's just hard to hang on at this point," he said.

Janice Singleton, a worker at the Superdome, said she got stuck in the stadium when the storm hit. She said she was robbed of everything she had with her, including her shoes.

"They tore that dome apart," she said sadly. "They tore it down. They taking everything out of there they can take."

Then she said, "I don't want to go to no Astrodome. I've been domed almost to death."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050903/ap_on_re_us/katrina_superdome_hk1

 

[OpaqueSpark]

FEMA comandeers 3 Carnival cruise ships for temp. housing for 7,000

 

[SA]

Murder and mayhem in New Orleans' miserable shelter

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - With the rotors of President George W. Bush's helicopter sounding overhead, New Orleans' poor and downtrodden recounted tales of murder, rape, death threats and near starvation since Hurricane Katrina wrecked this city.

Ending days of abandonment since the hurricane struck on Monday, the U.S. National Guard handed out military rations and a bottle of water to thousands of evacuees -- the first proper meal most had eaten in days.

But as the masses lined up outside, herded by Army troops toting machine guns, inside the convention center where these people slept since Monday was the stench of death and decay.

Leroy Fouchea, 42, waited in the sweltering heat for an hour to get his ration -- his first proper food since Monday -- and immediately handed it over to a sickly friend.

He then offered to show reporters the dead bodies of a man in a wheelchair, a young man who he said he dragged inside just hours earlier, and the limp forms of two infants, one just four months old, the other six months old.

"They died right here, in America, waiting for food," Fouchea said as he walked toward Hall D, where the bodies were put to get them out of the searing heat.

He said people were let die and left without food simply because they were poor and that the evacuation effort earlier concentrated on the French Quarter of the city. "Because that's where the money is," he spat.

A National Guardsman refused entry.

"It doesn't need to be seen, it's a make-shift morgue in there," he told a Reuters photographer. "We're not letting anyone in there anymore. If you want to take pictures of dead bodies, go to Iraq."

As rations were finally doled out here on the day President Bush visited the devastated city, an elderly white woman and her husband collapsed from the heat.

"I had to walk two blocks to get here and I have arthritis and three ruptured discs in my back," said Selma Valenti, 80, as her husband lay beside her, being revived by a policeman in riot gear. The two had eaten nothing since Wednesday.

Valenti and her husband, two of very few white people in the almost exclusively black refugee camp, said she and other whites were threatened with murder on Thursday.

"They hated us. Four young black men told us the buses were going to come last night and pick up the elderly so they were going to kill us," she said, sobbing. "They were plotting to murder us and then they sent the buses away because we would all be killed if the buses came -- that's what the people in charge told us this morning."

Other survivors recounted horrific cases of sexual assault and murder.

Sitting with her daughter and other relatives, Trolkyn Joseph, 37, said men had wandered the cavernous convention center in recent nights raping and murdering children.

She said she found a dead 14-year old girl at 5 a.m. on Friday morning, four hours after the young girl went missing from her parents inside the convention center.

"She was raped for four hours until she was dead," Joseph said through tears. "Another child, a seven-year old boy was found raped and murdered in the kitchen freezer last night."

Several others interviewed by Reuters told similar stories of the abuse and murder of children, but they could not be independently verified.

Many complained bitterly about why they received so little for so many days, and they had harsh words for Bush.

"I really don't know what to say about President Bush," said Richard Dunbar, 60, a Vietnam veteran. "He showed no lack of haste when he wanted to go to Iraq, but for his own people right here in Louisiana, we get only lip service."

One young man said he was not looking forward to another night in the convention center and wondered when conditions would improve. "It's been like a jail in there," he said. "We've got murderers, rapists, killers, thieves. We've got it all."

yahoo

edit: had to highlight a couple of parts

 

[OpaqueSpark]

SuperDome Evacuation Completed

 

[rowland2110]

Was declaring New Orleans in a state of emergency 3 days before the hurricante hit nonchalant?

Im sorry, after further review, Bush got an incompetent Mayor and Governer off thier ass.

As far as the "Anarchy in the USA" article type goes, guess they just want to rub thier little egos and enjoy the usa's suffering again. Much like alot of them did in 9-11.

 

[ChronicSceptic]

Interesting blogpost, concerning how the Bush admin will try to escape from this PR disaster by blaming the poor.

So here's my prediction. Defenders of the administration need to accomplish three things: They must exonerate the administration from any blame for bungling the tragedy, shift the blame to the actual poverty-stricken residents, and yet somehow also appear sympathetic about the horrible suffering. The most elegant way to do this is to bemoan the plight of New Orleans' children and elderly -- and imply, or perhaps sneeringly state outright, that everyone else in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans is at fault for not protecting their vulnerable dependents, and themselves. It's the only way for a pundit or politician to avoid looking like a sadistic cretin while remaining, in fact, a sadistic cretin.

fizzygirl:

I see no Ivy League schools on that list.
EDIT: Just noticed Columbia.

 

[Hypnotik1]

I have to chime in with others--the level of government incompetence in dealing with this disaster beggars the imagination. I cannot remember the last time the wheels of the powers that be moved with such stupefying slowness in response to a disaster like this. It makes the response to 9/11 look like a train schedule.

And indeed, the U.S.'s image overseas is suffering because of said incompetence.

Excerpt:

World stunned as US struggles with Katrina
By Andrew Gray
2 hours, 10 minutes ago


LONDON (Reuters) - The world has watched amazed as the planet's only superpower struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with some saying the chaos has exposed flaws and deep divisions in American society.

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World leaders and ordinary citizens have expressed sympathy with the people of the southern United States whose lives were devastated by the hurricane and the flooding that followed.

But many have also been shocked by the images of disorder beamed around the world -- looters roaming the debris-strewn streets and thousands of people gathered in New Orleans waiting for the authorities to provide food, water and other aid.

"Anarchy in the USA" declared Britain's best-selling newspaper The Sun.

"Apocalypse Now" headlined Germany's Handelsblatt daily.

The pictures of the catastrophe -- which has killed hundreds and possibly thousands -- have evoked memories of crises in the world's poorest nations such as last year's tsunami in Asia, which left more than 230,000 people dead or missing.

But some view the response to those disasters more favorably than the lawless aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"I am absolutely disgusted. After the tsunami our people, even the ones who lost everything, wanted to help the others who were suffering," said Sajeewa Chinthaka, 36, as he watched a cricket match in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

"Not a single tourist caught in the tsunami was mugged. Now with all this happening in the U.S. we can easily see where the civilized part of the world's population is."

link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050902/ts_nm/weather_katrina_reaction_dc

I know tell me about it.....I posted a link to the redcross on a UK forum and im catching shit about it....

But in the defense of my hometown.....All the decent people have already evacuated a long time ago....

Its alot of the criminals who are looking at this disaster as a golden opprotunity to make out for themselves by looting shooting, ect....

Any major westernized city around the world would be having the same problem under similar circumstances if u ask me

 

[Hypnotik1]

Pardon my ignorance of the mexico gulf area and the surrounding lands but was there any cities or towns that the actual cyclone went right over the top of and decimated? I only ask because all we are hearing about is NO and surely if there was a city that took the full force of the cyclone there would be utter destruction there too no?

Can anyone fill me in on this?

Cheers.

The Gulfport - Biloxi area of MS got hit the hardest.....You can see whole 3 story Casinos uprooted and thrown down the block.....An oil rig in AL got lodged underneathe a bridge....

MS was flattened by this fucker

Which reminds me.....Has anyone heard from Mystic Styles? I know hes from Biloxi...

 

[Hypnotik1]

Of course I don't know what it's like to go through a hurricane, and I'll probably never know what their reasons were...... but I just don't get it - why the fuck did all those people stay? If every indicator told you that a gigantic ass hurricane was heading your way, isn't that a good clue to leave?

I just don't get it - do people think they are invincible to mother nature?

*shrugs*

dude....Its b/c the city tells people to evacuate like EVERY year....The last hurricane of this magnitude to hit the city was over 30 yrs ago....And it was around 50 yrs before that....

Not to mention people are so used to the local media hyping up hurricanes and the disaster.....Most people have become desensitized to it....

Yea people have been predicting this situation....but its been for sooo long that noone thought (average person) it would really happen

 

[ChronicSceptic]

But in the defense of my hometown.....All the decent people have already evacuated a long time ago....

Its alot of the criminals who are looking at this disaster as a golden opprotunity to make out for themselves by looting shooting, ect....

That's a comfortable, neat way of looking at it. I guess there's no such thing as poor or homeless people in NO. Or maybe you included them in the part about not being decent. Check the link in my post above.

And isn't it more practical to get all your replies in one post?

 

[SA]

Pardon my ignorance of the mexico gulf area and the surrounding lands but was there any cities or towns that the actual cyclone went right over the top of and decimated? I only ask because all we are hearing about is NO and surely if there was a city that took the full force of the cyclone there would be utter destruction there too no?

Can anyone fill me in on this?

Cheers.

JC, I think I misread your post the other day in my initial response attempt. On re-reading it, I see that you meant other "lands" in the US, not surrounding countries. In that, you are absolutely correct. With the media focusing all their resources on New Orleans, the surrounding areas, mainly Gulfport and Biloxi (Mississippi) are almost being ignored. As I mentioned in my previous reply, these areas bore the full brunt of the hurricane's heaviest winds.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050904/ap_on_re_us/katrina_mississippi_hk2

 

[BA]

We've heard for 4 years that bush's strongest suit is that he's great on security and protecting the country. Since 9/11, bush - with the help of his party of yes-men Republicans and compliant Democrats in Congress - has been given carte blanche and an open pocketbook to remold, redirect and revamp our national security mechanism. The decisions have been his and his alone, and the funding to support his plans has flown unabated, obscenely so.

So, this is the bottom line: Katrina and the bush administration's response to this national nightmare should have served as a shining example of what all of bush's policies and philosophies were doing to safeguard the country. Instead, we've seen the exact opposite. Instead, we've seen another example of bush's *all hat and no cattle* way of governing - talk a big game, serve up the *talk tough and carry a religious stick* schtick for the masses and do little or nothing constructive.

Instead, we've seen their typical two-pronged method of dealing with a crisis: get bush into hiding as far away from the crisis as possible and then shift the blame to someone else when the latest bush disaster explodes in the country's face. And - most striking - from the Iraq war to the crappy economy to the war on terror to destructive environmental policies, it all goes wrong despite the warnings to bush from the experts that a disaster is on the way.

Lies about WMD and our nation's security paved the way to an illegal war that has cost thousands of lives. Lies about how much bush was doing to safeguard the country have led to the destruction of New Orleans and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Let's hope the country survives the final three years of bush.

 

[SmC]

We've heard for 4 years that bush's strongest suit is that he's great on security and protecting the country. Since 9/11, bush - with the help of his party of yes-men Republicans and compliant Democrats in Congress - has been given carte blanche and an open pocketbook to remold, redirect and revamp our national security mechanism. The decisions have been his and his alone, and the funding to support his plans has flown unabated, obscenely so.

So, this is the bottom line: Katrina and the bush administration's response to this national nightmare should have served as a shining example of what all of bush's policies and philosophies were doing to safeguard the country. Instead, we've seen the exact opposite. Instead, we've seen another example of bush's *all hat and no cattle* way of governing - talk a big game, serve up the *talk tough and carry a religious stick* schtick for the masses and do little or nothing constructive.

Instead, we've seen their typical two-pronged method of dealing with a crisis: get bush into hiding as far away from the crisis as possible and then shift the blame to someone else when the latest bush disaster explodes in the country's face. And - most striking - from the Iraq war to the crappy economy to the war on terror to destructive environmental policies, it all goes wrong despite the warnings to bush from the experts that a disaster is on the way.

Lies about WMD and our nation's security paved the way to an illegal war that has cost thousands of lives. Lies about how much bush was doing to safeguard the country have led to the destruction of New Orleans and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Let's hope the country survives the final three years of bush.

Well said.

 

[SA]

We've heard for 4 years that bush's strongest suit is that he's great on security and protecting the country. Since 9/11, bush - with the help of his party of yes-men Republicans and compliant Democrats in Congress - has been given carte blanche and an open pocketbook to remold, redirect and revamp our national security mechanism. The decisions have been his and his alone, and the funding to support his plans has flown unabated, obscenely so.

So, this is the bottom line: Katrina and the bush administration's response to this national nightmare should have served as a shining example of what all of bush's policies and philosophies were doing to safeguard the country. Instead, we've seen the exact opposite. Instead, we've seen another example of bush's *all hat and no cattle* way of governing - talk a big game, serve up the *talk tough and carry a religious stick* schtick for the masses and do little or nothing constructive.

Instead, we've seen their typical two-pronged method of dealing with a crisis: get bush into hiding as far away from the crisis as possible and then shift the blame to someone else when the latest bush disaster explodes in the country's face. And - most striking - from the Iraq war to the crappy economy to the war on terror to destructive environmental policies, it all goes wrong despite the warnings to bush from the experts that a disaster is on the way.

Lies about WMD and our nation's security paved the way to an illegal war that has cost thousands of lives. Lies about how much bush was doing to safeguard the country have led to the destruction of New Orleans and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Let's hope the country survives the final three years of bush.

BA, I understand your frustration. My "frustrated moments" started some time before I even started this thread, because it was quite evident how "easy" the Big Easy (along with everyone else) was taking the threat of the approaching storm. What will happen though, the way I see it, is that everyone will spend their frustrations now and will have no frustrations left when they will be needed later on, when the appropriate time for the war of words comes. We've gone through this pattern so many times during this administration.

Right now, in my not so unique opinion, it is time to do one and only one task - get every single last person out of the affected areas. Worry about jobs, schools, lodging, etc. later. For now, simply get them out!

The time when everyone will need this anger later is when this event will start hitting all the people of the United States in the pocket book. This country is obsessed with money. This country is in the midst of one of the greediest times in its existence, with everyone driving the prices of everything down by their "I want, I want, I want, gimme, gimme, gimme!" obsession for everything cheaper than cheap. So when people are going to be made to pay significantly more money for absolutely everything in the very near future, they will then bring on the rage... I hope. New Orleans is extremely important to the US economy, oil and natural gas being only partly responsible for that importance. How important? You will start feeling it in as little as a couple of months, perhaps even sooner, everywhere.

Let the "money talk" fight the fight against Bush or whomever you want it to be against for the remainder of this administration. It is useless to fight that battle with "human" figures, as has been witnessed so many times already. The only numbers that this administration understands are those preceded by "$". Make it so then. You have to launch the fight when they least expect it. They expect it right now and want it right now, because it will be drowned out by the real tragedy. You have to let the tragedy subside, some normalcy return and then, in a couple of months, when that friendly crackled voice in the drive by window is hitting you up for a buck more than yesterday for a cup of java - then you launch the fight. Hopefully you will still have some of that anger left.

For now, let's just help the stranded.