New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin gave one of the most passionate interviews I've ever heard. He was interviewed on local radio station WWL-AM, who incidently have some excellent reports of the ongoing disaster and its aftermath on their website. Mayor Nagin has more first hand knowledge of this situation than almost anyone else, and was furious about the slow response of both National and State government to this disaster. Within 24 hours of his radio 'tirade', Mayor Nagin was on board Air Force One meeting Pres. Bush.

'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.'

Sounds a little like the Titanic disaster, doesn't it? Even after all these years -some things never change.

My understanding is the tourists had been terrorized by the gangs who resented their supposed affluence. These bands also hurt some of their own, but seemed determine to get back at the world by shooting and robbing tourists of all nationalities and races.
Also New Orleans needs to take care of its visitors if ever intends to have vistors return to their city. The tourist revenue has keep that city alive, without it they will never be able to recreate itself.

The tourist revenue may keep the city alive, but without a strong workforce in the city, there won't any places for the tourists to visit. Considering most of that workforce is now stranded, I'd think they'd be more concerned about them.

Not only that, Indie. Who can say the life of one human is more important than another, when it comes to rescuing this group of people or that one? That's a pretty scary thought.

The people who got pushed out of the way were mostly just ordinary citizens who hadn't had any water or food for several days. The Hyatt crowd was reportedly in pretty good shape and were from all accounts - actually clean.

But without the tourists they won’t need a work force and then what happens to all those people.
I have been thinking about this situation and how awful the response was helping the people in the inadequate shelters in NO.
My question now is, did the city or state government make any effort to help physically evacuate the poor and ill when they declared a mandatory evacuation of the city? And secondly where were all the emergency provisions? They knew the scenario was possible and I wonder if they had prepared for it at all.
I can’t forget riding from Florida to Texas a few years back. Interstate 10 in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi was a super high very well maintained, then we crossed the boarder into Louisiana and the road became a shambles, pot holes so large you were almost tempted to ride on the shoulder of the road. These conditions continued until we reached Texas and the well maintained super highway reappeared. I10 is an interstate highway and is funded mostly by the federal government, one has to ask what happen to all that federal money, it was obvious it hadn’t been spent to build the road or maintain it properly. I have to wonder if the money allocated to prepare for disasters went into the same pockets?
I know the answers won’t help these misplaced people, but maybe it will help prevent it from happening again.

After watching and reading about the horrific devastation wrought upon all people of the Gulf Coast, and crying my heart out for them, I must comment on the negative words here about the looting that went on. I don't know why people are driven to do that. I certainly do not condone it. I was an eyewitness to some of the looting that took place during the NYC black-out of 1977 and it was extremely disturbing, but I still could not find it in myself to condemn the people who did it.

When people are poor their entire lives, and treated--as African Americans certainly are in America--as third-class citizens, there must be an awful lot of anger, resentment, and the desire to "get even" during any sort of disaster. Perhaps centuries of atavistic anger that, like a volcano, sometimes has to be released in terrible ways.

Many, many of those people seen "looting" were desperately trying to keep their families alive. They were not all criminals, intent on stealing whatever they could. The ones who took to the streets with guns and intent on violence are despicable, I agree. But how many of us can possibly imagine the desperation, the repeated promises of "help is on the way" that did not materialize, the hunger, the thirst, the unbearable heat and humidity, the mere sight of the waters surrounding them with floating corpses, dead animals, and life-threatening diseases polluting the water...how can we possibly imagine what these people were feeling? The phrase, "There but for the grace of God go I" comes to mind.

And those who "shot" at helicopters that kept passing them by, most of them were only trying to get attention, after days of being on rooftops with no water, food, or shelter. In a disaster as enormous as this one is, and will continue to be for a long time, I pray that people will find compassion in their hearts to help them every way we can, and not focus on the negative events that took place.

I must say that, as a "white" American citizen, I am deeply ashamed of how long it took to get to these people, the cavalier attitude of the Federal government, the incredibly insensitive and inappropriate actions of Bush & Company--flying over the scene in Air Force One without stopping, attending fund-raisers, demeaning the efforts of Cindy Sheehan by gathering mothers of dead soldiers who supported him, having to "cut his FOUR-WEEK vacation short" because of this catastrophe--all PRIOR to making the trip to the Gulf Coast yesterday. This, to me--and to many former Bush devotees--is unforgivable.

This man is not qualified to lead a country of this magnitude. I would not even want him as a local dog-catcher. Every newspaper in this country, including the most staunchly conservative, has condemned his handling of the situation. Sadly, it took this--the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States--for people to finally see the current administration for what it really is.

Condoleezza Rice was in NEW YORK CITY this past Wednesday, buying thousands of dollars worth of shoes at Ferragamo's when another shopper screamed at her, "HOW DARE YOU SHOP FOR SHOES WHEN THOUSANDS ARE DESPERATE AND DYING??" That night, she decided to take in a Broadway play, and was BOOED by the audience. This administration--the self-titled "compassionate conservatives"--have proven themselves to be anything but compassionate. They are selfish, greedy, in bed with the big business fat cats of Corporate America, sending off innocent people to be maimed for life or die, under the guise of "fighting terrorism" or "spreading freedom" when all it really is is GREED for Iraq's oil supply.

I have long felt that Americans needed a rude awakening...the gas-guzzling SUVs, the multiple-car families, the compulsive materialism, the indifference to the poor and those in need...well, it looks like that time has finally come. I am not saying this applies to ALL Americans...God knows, we have many good and caring and honest citizens, bless them all. But it certainly does apply to the current "leaders" in government. I came of age in the Sixties, and I still hold true to the beliefs I held then. I'm sorry if I offended anyone with this long post, but to ignore or treat lightly the suffering of innocent people, in my eyes, is just unacceptable.

May God bless the people of New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and everyone everywhere in the world. I think we're going to need it very soon.

(Edited for easier reading!)

Apparently some christian web sites in the USA are saying that the disaster is God's revenge for New Orleans being a den of iniquity.Not forgetting to mention that al zarkawi is saying that it is Allah who is striking back at the ungodly Americns

http://www.onlinejournal.com/blog/blogger.html

Heavens -where does it end? George Bush did not cause this hurricane. He isn't that talented. All he did was grieviously botch the rescue of it's victims. Global warming in all likelihood did not cause the storm, either. These squalls have been hitting our coastlines for as long as men have been sailors.And, [ I'm sure He will be relieved to read] God didn't send the tidal wave to punish errant Bourbon Street, either [if that be the case - He missed. I am convinced God has much better aim than that.]

The simple truth must be somewhere in between the extremes...this is old, old planet, subject to naturally induced ice ages, warming trends and slight shifts caused by the occasional meteor strike. Things like that just happen here, and will continue to happen long after we are done accusing each other, writing the scenario to fit our particular belief system or political viewpoint.

Quote:

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And those who "shot" at helicopters that kept passing them by, most of them were only trying to get attention, after days of being on rooftops with no water, food, or shelter. In a disaster as enormous as this one is, and will continue to be for a long time, I pray that people will find compassion in their hearts to help them every way we can, and not focus on the negative events that took place.

---

What? Trying to get attention? Surely a waving a sheet around or any other numerous other things might have been a better result. Quite frankly, those kind of incidents were the most dispicable things I had heard.

Okay, so we've defended looting - even of non essential items - shooting at helicopters evacuating people out of a hellhole. Anyone want to have a go at the animals that were shooting at staff and patients of the hospital when it was being evacuated?

nicely stated, Copago.

Why are so many focusing on the few bad ones (please try not to call them "animals"--animals behave as God intended them to; "human" beings do not) as opposed to the many more good people, in the midst of one of the worst catastrophes in the history of this country? It matters NOT what crimes were committed during the course of FOUR LONG AND HORRIBLE DAYS OF WAITING FOR RESCUE. Know why? Because the biggest crime of all was the lateness of the response, the initial lack of action and/or interest of the federal government, and allowing people to suffer terribly. And that crime was committed not by the people of New Orleans, but by the very people whose fundamental job is to "protect" us. Oh, they are spinning damage control 24/7 now, but it's too late. Their callous indifference has captured the world's attention, and now they're going to pay for it. No more rubbish about the "criminals" please. Focus on the human suffering instead. Thank you.

Of course there are many wonderful stories of human decency in the face of adversity to come out of such a disaster, like the man who rowed around his neighbourhood in a little dinghy and got hundreds to safety for one. Great stuff. And I don't mean to focus on the small element that were taking advantage (animals will have to do for me - any other word would have been censored) of such a tragedy but I think it is a long stretch to try and defend their actions.

On another note - there was a story about one of the evactuating buses that rolled over killing one passenger and injuring many more. At that stage you would have to wonder what you did wrong.

As a Louisiana resident, please let me clear up some misconceptions. My governor and the mayor of N.O. were totally unprepared for this storm. Gov Blanco did not have NG troops ready to move in. Mayor Nagin did not prepare the shelters to handle these people. I'm talking about the SuperDome and the NO convention center. Nagin told people to go there yet he failed to get even one porta-potty, much less food and water in the dome for these people.

The structural damage caused by the storm created unique challenges not normally faced during the aftermath of hurricanes and were not properly prepared for by state and local officials. The job of FEMA and the federal government is to provide assistance as requested by local and state officials who are organized to provide relief and restoration to storm damamged areas. My state had no organization. There was no central command structure in place. There was no communication between agencies; it was a free for all. Bush had to nudge Gov Blanco to mobilize the NG.

The situation only improved with the arrival of federal agencies and with the feds taking control. Gov Blanco was like a deer caught in the headlights. She is still providing no leadership. Nagin did not mobilize efforts to evacuate those who wanted to leave but didn't have the means to. He did not have a plan to handle failure of the levees even though everyone know a category 3 or greater would flood N.O. Yet he can't get help from the state because our governor is catatonic.

The way I see it, the federal government did everything the could considering Louisiana was leaderless and chaotic. We do have a constitution and Louisiana is a sovereign state. The feds had their hands tied for days trying to ask Blanco to let them take over. She refused. If you can believe it, as of Saturday she still had not declared a state of emergency.

The problem in N.O. is not due to Bush, FEMA, or any other federal agency. Sure, a critique may show that they could have done things better and differently but it may not. However, the indictment of state and local goverment will be strong. They simply failed to prepare and react.

Compare the relief efforts in Florida last year to this fiasco. It's the same FEMA, the same president, the same federal agencies. In Florida, the response was coordinated and efficient. In Louisiana, the response has been chaotic. What's the difference between the two? Local and state leadership and preparedness. That is the key to any disaster relief.

Such a crazy situation.

Good to see you, DieHard. Hope you were and are safe.

The Bush administation's most recent budget proposal recommended slashing $34 million from the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, leaving the city with a $581 million shortfall for flood control and coastal erosion improvement projects.

Granted, when a city is nestled this far below sea level, there are bound to be flood/drainage problems. But to just leave New Orleans 'twisting in the wind' so to speak - suddenly on their own to try and raise repair money, via higher taxes isn't right. The repair funds had been promised and were never received by the parishes who needed them.

Nobody would dare tell the folks in southern California or Florida they just needed to 'move someplace else'. Instead, year after year we keep plunking out federal money to clean up wildfires, hurricanes and mudslides. And nobody seems to think anything about it. New Orleans deserves the same consideration.

An interesting story:

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/melendez090105.html

My sis down in Atlanta and I were talking about this today. She was reading stories off the AP wire. She saw a photo in one story of a little boy in New Orleans with a bag full of food. The caption read "A boy in New Orleans returns to his family after scavenging for food in local stores." In another story, another photo of a little boy with a bag of food had the caption, "Boy returns from looting a store." The difference between the photos? The boy who was "scavenging" was caucasian. The boy who was "looting" was not. They had done the same thing. They had gone to a local store, filled a sack with food without paying for it, and returned to their families.

I bristle at the thought of shooting and rape and all the other horrible things that are going on. I wasn't offering an excuse for looting of non-essential items, either, but a reason. I won't defend that any more than the rapes. But the former I think can be understood, at least, even if it isn't defended, and the "looting" for essential items I think can only properly be called scavenging and needs no defense. It is a reasonable thing to do, and no one could condemn a person for doing it. And I'm going to go ahead and throw shoes and clothes into that description, too. Even expensive ones.

I just think this attitude of "I hope they were planning on paying for that eventually because stealing is wrong" is displaced at the moment, at least for most of the things being taken. The likelyhood is that those inventories were already being counted as total losses on the insurance statements before the scavenging began. The stores will be paid. And maybe some people will live who otherwise would not. I know that I would "steal" to save my family. I wouldn't be human if I didn't.

I just think it is so very easy to analize and pass judgement from here, where I am, and that's exactly why I want to do it as little as possible. Yes, there are some things that are happening that are indefensable, but there are other things that are happening that are, while perhaps not legal, and under normal circumstances not moral, completely moral to my eyes at the moment. And if you want to know the truth, I just don't understand any other viewpoint on the matter.

As for the politics, I'm sure there were breakdowns all over the place. I don't know a thing about Louisianna politics, so I can't comment, but I'll believe Diehard, since he probably does. But I feel that the federal government's hand in this tragedy isn't only in the response time. That's for another discussion, though.

Maybe God and Allah got together on this one. Maybe they'll get together in Iraq next. Maybe then we could deal with things like this at home.

ktstew, you are right about funding but there is more to it than what is being protrayed in the press. I just think there is some disinformation being put out in the media; some with good intention but some for political gain.

Let me give you some history. In 1947, NO was hit by a hurricane that flooding the NO with about 3 feet of water. So the powers that be said, "Let's build a levee system to prevent this." Hurricane levees were built along Lake Pontchartrain's south shore. Then in 1967 Hurricane Camille struck with a storm surge in NO of about 10 feet. Those two hurricanes gave everyone some foresight into a worst case scenerio. They raised the levees by 12 feet. They saw how difficult it is to evacuate an entire city that depends largely on just a few highways expanding over water. The levees were never built to handle a hurricane of Katrina's strength even though everyone knew of the possible consequences. It wasn't considered cost effective.

This from National Geographic:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been building levees along the Mississippi River since the late 1800s. The artificial, reenforced soil embankments are designed to curb periodic and destructive floods.

But determining the level of protection needed versus what Congress and the public are willing to pay for isn't often easy.

Acceptable risks must be weighed, including the statistical likelihood of catastrophic events and the possible consequences if they do occur, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials.

The costs of protection against extreme natural disasters are juggled with other public priorities. Environmental considerations are debated. Stakeholders from all levels of government and the private sector weigh in."

It doesn't make sense to just say, "Bush cut funding". Repair of the levee system would have taken 20-25 years and millions if not billions of dollars. This system was designed decades ago and wasn't constructed to protect against a category 4 or 5 hurricane. That's not Bushes fault, Gov Blanco's fault, or Mayor Nagin's fault.


It is the responsibility of the LA Congressional Delegation to ensure critical needs are funded for LA. They have had years to pitch for funding yet failed to convince their collegues that the cost was worthwhile. Bush cut funding but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Not one congressional member from LA, to my knowledge, fought tooth and nail to keep the funding in the budget. Congress approved the cuts. Congress controls the purse strings, not the president. If the funding wasn't there, it falls squarely in the lap of Congress and particularly in the lap of the LA congressional delegation.

It is only fair to judge current officials on the one thing they could and couldn't control; response. From my perspective, my state leadership failed to lead and the NO administration failed to anticipate and prepare. The feds have done an admirable job mopping up the mess created by state and local officials.

It is totally understandable that people won't allow their children or elderly parents to starve. But saying the other crimes don't really matter betrays every dignity we hold dear as a society...as human beings. If we have been taught any kind of decency and self control by our parents, we know that things like rape, robbery and murder are wrong under any circumstances -and are not to be excused.