Hurricane Katrina Apathy?

[Chicken]

Haven't watched reports on it until now on the news (Have been very busy) ...

Very very sad, can't believe there is delay with help...and it's on the doorstep!!! 

I really hope help comes soon

x Selkie x

[onlyrenting]

I live in Plano TX, 5 hrs away from Huston near Dallas ,  One of my brother-in laws lives in New Orleans. We have not herard from them and waiting to find out if they made it out safely.

The news about the people left behind and the small children being raped and murdered is so shocking.
I haven't been watching tv but will be home on some vacation time and now seeing what is taking place.

I remember my D showing me the storm coming in on the computer screen. I don't think anyone was prepared for the distruction. The leveys busted and homes underwater now no way to get power to remove the water and the displacement of millions. I see the desparation the hospitals leaving people to die.
With phone lines down no way for communication, people have no way to ask for help.

I also see people coming together to help, it takes time to set up the help needed.
Hundrends of Semi trucks with food are driving to the area with gas prices rising to over 3-4 dollars a gal.
I wish the gas companies would give a break on the gas for those semi trucks and buses. 
And no gas available for people to drive to safety.  The lines for food are 5 miles long.
People are gathering to rescue others and many are looking for ways to help. 93milion in 3 days has been donated to the red cross. The Dallas area 30 min away from me will be taking over 25,000 displaced people. 

It will take time and how sad that the murders and rapes are added to the pain and sufferring.

My prayers are with those families in need .                       OR

[vunil]

Well now it seems apathy has died (people are really trying to help) but bad behavior has increased. 

But I do like how the country does seem to be trying to come together to help.

I hope it won't make anyone angry if I say that our disaster relief organizations didn't seem particularly competent over all of this.  It's a little frightening. 

God bless everyone in that area and here's to recovery for all of them.  Many of them have no safety net-- no way to rebuild.  I guess it is good for all of us to see that our country does contain thousands of people in such dire straits-- it's tough to ignore it when it's right there in front of us.  I really feel for them.  I honestly had no idea how poverty-stricken those areas were until now.

[Plucky]

I think it is important that anyone who prays, start or continue praying right now adn for as long and often as you can. 
Plucky

[d'smom]

But I do like how the country does seem to be trying to come together to help.

I hope it won't make anyone angry if I say that our disaster relief organizations didn't seem particularly competent over all of this.  It's a little frightening. 

God bless everyone in that area and here's to recovery for all of them.  Many of them have no safety net-- no way to rebuild.  I guess it is good for all of us to see that our country does contain thousands of people in such dire straits-- it's tough to ignore it when it's right there in front of us.  I really feel for them.  I honestly had no idea how poverty-stricken those areas were until now.

hi vunil    thanks for forgiving me for being b#@chy  :}} !! >

i find this sobering  in so many ways..... it would be healthy imo if it brought to public awareness exactly the extent of the kind of poverty that really exist in some areas of this country... and thats =all= im going to say about that.. !

also i find it sobering that one reason that a lot of those people could not evacuate was travel expense, ie, high gas prices...... this whole thing is a sobering reminder to me that what represents mere inconveniences like high gas prices and the like can really translate into life and death for some (significant) portions of the population......

i love to see the citizens are mobilising fantastically,  you cant go into a store here without being able to add $ to your purchase to donate (which i did today) and little kids bringing rolls of pennies & everyone is doing fundraising efforts. the people are responding fantastically.... the govt..... you know i wasnt going to criticise the govt but then i saw ted koppel just last night talking to the head of FEMA. giving him hell/. really giving him hell, saying, why arent more people there yet. where is the food. where is the water. why are you looking so incompetent. how come nobody had planned for this. really raking him over the coals - ted koppel.

so ---- i gues it isnt just us who are thinking the official reaction might be a little behind. but the citizens, they are coming together fantastically and  hopefully the govt will pull it together too. 

 

[vunil]

I agree with everything d's Mom said.  I was going to say a lot of it before but wasn't sure how to put it.  To know that this many people are that close to the edge-- that close to losing everything and not being able to ever recover. It is really sad.  And to know that people died because they couldn't afford to leave. 

A friend of mind from the area has been e-mailing about it and evidently the local gov't was really incompetent, too. It's not just the feds.  They didn't call for enough school busses to evacuate folks, and made a bunch of similar mistakes along the way-- too slow to react, not taking action enough.  Nobody in charge really behaved in a way that could be called heartening. 

It just gives the impression that our society/economy could collapse so much more easily than we ever imagined it could.  I don't mean to be dramatic, but look how things just utterly collapsed, and because of something absolutely predictable that should have been expected, not surprising.  Ok, Sept. 11 was just so out there-- who would expect something exactly like that?  I can understand not directly anticipating it.  But a storm on the coast where there are always storms, a category 4 storm-- those happen.  Why was there a highway built essentially in the water, a major US highway?

Anyway.  Sorry. I am in a doomsday mood, I guess.

On the other hand it's true that a lot of citizens are really pitching in.  It is amazing to see, heartwarming.  Every list I am on has been calling for help.

[miss piggy]

Hello all,

It is so terribly shocking.  I can only speak for myself, but I really didn't realize the imminent danger of this particular storm.  The south has hurricanes and tornadoes all the  time, wreaking their annual damage and locals seem to handle it however they do.  I'll take my earthquakes any day--no anticipation, just boom.  It didn't sink in (again no pun intended) that this was just beyond anything anybody had experienced before.

As in the tsunami, many of the people who would be in charge are probably wiped out themselves as well as the communications tools they would use.  I really feel for the mayor.  The FEMA guy was on PBS too, getting raked in the mild PBS way.  But he understood why people would be frustrated and he was frustrated too.  His explanation was that if they rushed in, they would have been victims too.  It's just a delicate balance and relief never comes quickly enough.  I was astounded that survivors could even be interviewed.  I would have been just trying to hold myself together, being hungry, waterlogged, and sleep deprived.  And stressed out of my mind.

I didn't mind the looting, except for the guns.  It is a war zone there.  I really hope order can be restored for the folks closest to the actual disaster affected areas so they can keep their sense of humanity. 

Keep praying, MP

[amethyst]

Hi Everyone,

The NOLA disaster is almost beyond belief. None of us have ever seen a total urban infrastructure break down. It is very frightening. Supposedly FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security had done disaster planning for NOLA and had things ready to go. Has anyone heard Mayor Ray Nagin's interview on WWL, which also aired on CNN? He blasted the federal government and Bush, who were horribly slow to respond. To blame the city for not being prepared is incorrect...because of spending cuts, most of our large cities are on the brink of economic disaster. They can barely fund their police and fire departments. There is no way that the mayor or even the governor could have funded the transportation out of there for the population before the event. Even after the event, certain rescue attempts were stopped because of FEMA. Al Gore tried to get the doctors and patients of Charity Hospital out of there, making all kinds of phone calls, arranging for placement in hospitals in Chicago, and chartering two airplanes on his own dime...but was stopped by FEMA because of a regulation....private transport cannot be used in the case of publicly funded patients. 

My husband lived in NOLA for several years in the late 1970's. He was a grain inspector, so he was very familiar with the shipping, the port, and the river. He said that everyone knew even in the 1970's that NOLA was a disaster waiting to happen....and that if disaster did strike, the poor, most of whom are African-American, would be left behind. The local and the state government made proposals and tried to get help to rebuild the levees and the wetlands, but the current adminstration cut the budgets to accomplish these tasks by 80% in one case and 90% in another. Of course, the hurricanes have been intensifying, which is probably a result of global warming.

I am sure this has been a shocking spectacle for many in our nation who have lived with blinders on. It is also a shocking spectacle for the world to see that our wealthy nation takes so little care of our people who happen to be poor....the people who could not leave. I am sure that the world is shocked to see how poor these people really are....it looks like the third world.

The disaster on the Gulf Coast certainly exposes our vulnerability to terrorism, which is not a good thing. Like many people, I am seriously wondering how effective rescue and assistance would be in any urban situation.  I am sure all of us, especially those of us in large cities, are wondering what we would do in case of attack or disaster and whether everyone could leave. I live in a big city with a large population that is below poverty level, another huge group of people that live in third world circumstances, surrounded by affluent suburbia. That's our dirty little secret as a nation, the elephant in the living room.  I would hate to think of leaving anyone behind that needed and wanted to go. But without rolling back the tax cuts that this administration given to the wealthy, trying to balance the budget, trying to reduce our reliance on oil, and getting rid of the us vs. them mentality... and even perhaps leaving Iraq... people will continue to be left behind in so many ways.

I am so happy that people are giving as much as they can and that the response to the disaster is heartfelt and warm. It affirms my belief that most people are basically good and want to do the right thing, at least in the short term. I am so hoping that people realize that much more than temporary charity will be required to address these problems in the long run. What we have seen over the last few days are not just local problems to NOLA and the other gulf cities; they are problems that have not been dealt with for years throughout the United States.

Yup...the secret is out and the USA doesn't look too good. No amount of PR and spin is going to cover this one up.

[dogbit]

Yup...the secret is out and the USA doesn't look too good. No amount of PR and spin is going to cover this one up.

Amethyst....Excellent post.  I believe we all are to blame.  And I wish I had a gun for anyone who tries to use this situation for political fodder for the next election.  The only answer is to acknowledge the deficiencies and proceed.  No blame game is going to really help.

[bliz]

Having lived through hurricanes and hurricane preps, what is the most interesting to me about this thread is the desire to place blame.  Acts of God happen.   I dont think the city, state or Feds could have possibly been ready to handle this.  THere isnt enough money in the world to prevent any of a number of disasters from hitting anu of a number of US cities.  Tomorrow an earthquake could hit Topeka.  Yes, NO is under sea level.  Do you think that stopped the City of NO from continuing to build, build, build? 

Does anyone here work for a city, state or federal government in a related disaster field?  If you do I think you would know that you just cant mobilize people over night.  Most of the guard have other jobs.  Half of our equipment is probably in Iraq.  What has really po's me is to make this a black thing.  Like somehow people didnt mobilize because the refugess were black.  Please!!!!The very same thing happened with Hurricane Andrew in 1992. All the blame placing did nothing towards getting things done sooner.  These things take time. 

Did someone here say they actually had no problem with the looting?  Okay that one has me stymied.

 

[irishrose]

I have been avidly following the hurricane news and am distraught about the loss of life.  These are my thoughts about strategic planning in the US.  Please note I'm not interested in 'bashing' politicians but I think it's true.

I find it beyond comprehension that contingency plans for a Cat 5 hurricane hitting a city like NO weren't in place PRIOR to this disaster. A mandatory evacuation was ordered but not enforced, why? The national guard should have been in the city before the hurricane struck to ensure all citizens were evacuated to a place of safety.

Had this happened, NO would still have been devastated but there would be no need for a search and rescue operation, no looters to deal with and the priority of halting the flooding, clearing up and rebuilding the city could have begun immediately.

[bliz]

To answer the mandatory evacuation notice. Even under a mandatory evacuation it is pretty difficult to physically make people leave their homes.  How would this be accomplished?  At gunpoint?  The other issue is, even if you get them out of their houses, unless you have a way to transport them and a place to take them, it is meaningless. 

[Brigid]

I'm seeing an awful lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on here.  And along with that comes the Bush bashing--like he can somehow be held responsible for an act of God.  NOLA has been in a precarious situation since long before Bush came into office, but why is he the only one being blamed?

A mandatory evacuation was ordered but not enforced, why?

Because you cannot force adults to make this decision.  Should they have been lead out at gunpoint?  I can only imagine what the press would have said about that if the disaster had not occurred.  If more people had followed the instructions to leave, the help could have been directed more toward getting people into shelters away from NOLA rather than rescuing them off of rooftops.

I also cannot see how anyone could condone the looting.  It is one thing to take the necessities of life--food, water, diapers, formula, medicines--but what the hell do you need a flat-screen TV for in the middle of a flood.  This has also diverted so much of the personnel who could be helping to make people more comfortable into protecting the city from thugs who don't care who they hurt.

I think it's very sad that we are taking this horrendous situation that no one could have been prepared for and turned it into a political discussion.

Brigid

[irishrose]

Hopefully lessons will be learned from this and if such a disaster recurs, I think evacuation should be 100% mandatory.  If people are too poor to move, then bus them out to healthy and hygienic shelters, not a stinking cesspit like the sports stadium.  If anybody is stupid enough to REFUSE to leave, then yes, they should be escorted to safety.  It is unacceptable that a stricken city is taken over by armed rampaging gangs.  How many additional fatalities do you think have occurred because the rescue services could not gain access?  Once order is restored, I think this statistic will emerge and people will be horrified.

[amethyst]

OR, I hope and pray that your brother in law and family are safe.

It actually was much worse than looting. A fourteen year old girl was gang raped in the SuperDome and died. A child was also raped and murdered. Tourists and fellow sufferers were preyed upon. I think much of the violence had to do with drugs and gangs. No way is that to be condoned. In the case of someone sniping at rescue workers coming in, robbing, beating, raping others, shooting at helicopters, there is a perfectly justifiable shoot to kill order...and that should be carried out.

I did condone the taking of survival necessities...I would do the same. When there is no help, I don't call that looting. BUT when I saw the people with computers and such, I thought,"What are they thinking??? What good is a computer or TV going to do when there is no electricity? They are looting that stuff because they are the kind of people that grab anything they can. Hopefully, some force and authority will get there before they start in robbing and pillaging from the other victims." There's a huge difference between taking food, liquids, clean clothes, Depends (in one case), sanitary supplies and looting computers.

NOLA has always been a place of high crime. So are all our inner cities. I believe there is always going to be a criminal element in any society, but in places of poverty and deprivation it is worse. However, most of the refugees, despite days of hunger, thirst, and being crowded into the worst possible conditions, came through with their humanity intact. I also saw incredible acts of altruism, such as the woman who was trying to care for her elderly patient in impossible conditions.

NOLA is our biggest port. In addition, there are oil refineries, chemical factories, and grain elevators all up and down the river. Somebody is needed to work in the port, the refineries, and the factories. In addition, there is a shrimping and fishing industry. Should we close the port and shut down the refineries, factories, and grain elevators? Unfortunately, wherever there is industry, there have to be people to work in the industries....and those people have to live somewhere.