I just heard a while ago that the Mayor of New Orleans from his own mouth, has pretty much had it with the slow speed of the government. I will sum up what he said almost exact words.
1/ “They need to get their a$$ on the plane” and figure something out
2 “It too G.D late”
3/ Write to the federal government and demand them to speed up.
That was mostly what he said. He is convinced that it shouldn’t take as long as it has refering to 9-11 and Iraq.
It was difficult to listen to; he could maintain any composure and really who can blame anyone for cursing and swearing and crying at this point.
The thing I don’t understand is that from what I heard is that troops should have been in the city already dealing with the a$$ clowns sniping at the hospital (honestly who does that?). They were to arrive last night; I have heard them mention anything about this yet.
While you are at it, tell the feds or the power that be, call Koffi Annan and make this a U.N matter. Call in the international community on stand-by. Call them in now because some of the country’s resources will take some time to arrive just because of the distance so better get them going sooner then later.
Another thing he mentioned was “…don’t want to see another press conference” (he may of added a curse word or two) until he sees troops on the ground.
It saddens me to have to convey a message like this but obviously the mayor thinks that it is neccessary at this point to get the general populace of the country, on the butts of the politicians. Please help him.
I don’t know. At this point, whatever police that is there must be allowed to shoot any and all folk who break the law since the national guard isn’t there and current police officers are either dying or becoming sick from the desolate conditions. They must take out thease snipers and rape gangs-no other choice now.
Assistance arriving isn’t news - people dying in the streets and shooting at rescuers (Hey! Where’d they come from - they aren’t here yet!) is news.
As the head of FEMA pointed out - the reserves of materiel that would have helped were also hamstrung by the storm. Moving other materiel in still takes time - remember, the rest of the country hasn’t exactly shut down. People still expect to find a loaf of bread and a jug of milk on the shelf at their grocery store in Poughkeepsie.
Then again - air isn’t an important commodity unless you aren’t getting any.
You know when 9-11 happened, though not on the same scale as NO, both the mayor and govener of NY seemed to get a handle on the events very well, why can’t the govener of LA get a grip on this stuff. I heard that the curfew wasn’t enfoced, people still partying in the french quarter. If he is looking to start pointing fingers, I think that the NO mayor and the LA govener also need to take part of the blame.
It seems that many are forgetting Biloxi was hit much worse, and yet I don’t seem to be hearing of the same insanity as in NO with the looting and you know, if people are able to get in, people can get out, instead of waiting for a miricle to happen, maybe they should start an exodus out. I do have compassion for those in NO, but not sure if I have a ton of sympethy (sp) for those that choose to stay, and look what they did to the stadium, there are reports that people smeared crap “actual crap” smeared on the walls, I also heard that a lot of the law enforcement turned in their badges and left, also the govener is in charge of the LA national guard, not our President. He had to call the guard out, not President Bush, there is some odd law in place that LA didn’t want to turn control/command of the national guard over to the feds. More to this whole mess then is being told.
The mayor of NO’s tears are real and justified. Now the whole country knows what a totally incompetent boob he is. How long was Katrina predicted to make landfall near NO? What kind of emergency plan did the incompetent mayor (hereafter referred to as IM) devise? Hell’s bells, NO has been a potential huricane target since it was built why didn’t IM and his political fllunkies take a brief time-out from their graft collecting to make some sort of rudimentary precautions. Who was it that announced that looters would be given a pass? IM that’s who. I’m not a big fan of mayor Rudy, but the contrast between NYC on 9/11 and NO now is too obvious to ignore and whining about the feds not doing now some of the things IM and his gang of grafters should have done long ago isn’t going to obscure the fact of his gross incompetence.
Jim [tup] if I remember correct, the standing order at first was to ignore them and recue people, understood, butwhen they started to loot for weapons, I think the balance of control was slowly shifting. edblysard on the Katrina thread stated that in Houston is now feeling the animal effect of the NO refugees. On Rushes show they just stated that much of NO is a welfare city, this could explain a lot of the help me attitude and not the I can do reality.
I have a few personal thoughts on this general subject, if I may:
The previous poster is correct, there should not have been so many people still in NO when the storm hit. In many cased (not all to be sure) the plight they are now in is their own fault.
I surely don’t have a problem with folks who have not eaten in three or four days taking some food or water from a local market when it will likely be thrown away eventually anyway. However, I DO have a big problem with the low life Ba****ds who are stealing electronics, booze, etc. and looting private homes. These are likely gang members and they should be shot on sight with no questions asked.
When you live in a toilet bowl you must expect to be flushed at some point in time. That city of NO is in places 20 feet below sea level and it was just a matter of time until this happened. I have been there many times, I know. NO is a dirty, smelly cesspool of a city. They should look long and hard before deciding whether or not to rebuild (I vote NO).
Many of the poor folks left in NO are too poor or sick or something else and can’t afford or manage to get out on their own, but most have just too little brains to have gotten out when they should have, they are animals and deserve what they get. Remember here I am not issuing a blanket condemnation, but only am referrign to able bodied persons who have a few brains but NO COMMON SENSE.
I can understand why the mayor of New Orleans is swareing up and down about the situation. I personally would be too if I were the mayor. I was also informed today that there is aprox 8ft of water in the city, and it’s going to take a very and I mean a very long time to pump that water out of the city and back into the gulf. I beleive the water is being pumped out at about and inch a day or some rediculiosly low number like that. Man that’s a shame, so given this situation I can understand why the mayor is out of sorts about things.
First of all…the last people I’d want trying to save me is the UN…I’d rather have girl scouts in little red wagon try to get me first…You think this is chaos…the UN hasn’t been able to conduct an operation yet that didn’t turn into a fiaso.
The mayor of NO needs to get his house in order before he blames any one…being in charge of the city kind of makes him responsible for the sorry state of it’s infrastructure…
Everyone wants to blame the feds, FEMA, National Guard…everyone is suddenly an expert on crisis management, and mass casualty situations…seems to me that after a crisis there is a lot of advice on how things should have been done…but rarely do the advice givers step forward to take over for the next time…I say put up or shut up…
What the hell is wrong with you dude? I hope I’m out of line hear but you really don’t critisize a man who has had no sleep, low clean water, rampid crime, excriment and urine everywhere, near dead or dying bodies rotting and being feasted on by rats, listening to suffering and plees of mercy.
It didn’t take more then 48 hours to get supplies to Indonesia during the Tsunami but 5 days to get security forces and supplies into your own city? They did take too long. You would have to be a half-wit.
I just he learned that Fidel Castro has offered and mobilized 2600 doctors if needed; 2600! If Bush doesn’t except this, he is a bigger schmuk then I thought he was.
I find it refreshing that I am not the only one who is kind of upset about the way New Orleans has handled this situation.
First, as a human being, I am horrified at this whole thing and have given as much as I could out of my last paycheck to help and will do the same in my next paycheck. Also, as a human, no one deserves to have happen to them what New Orleans is going through.
But, for the major to blame the Feds?!?
(1) They have known for 200 years that they are a target for a hurricane and THEY LIVE BELOW SEA LEVEL. Yet, they couldn’t spend $850 million for a proper levy to protect a $400 billion city? The way I see it, if you live below see level and are that close to the sea, you have two options: (1) move or (2) build a bullet proof levy system.
Now the American tax payer is going to have to spend over $50 billion to fix a problem that could have largely been avoided with a $1 billion levy.
(2) I realize many people did not have the option to leave, but there are many people there now who did. I am sorry, but if you live below sea level in a city that is too penny wise pound fooli***o build a levy system capable of withstanding a category 4 hurricane and a category 5 hurrican is bering down on you and you have thoughts other than get the heck out of Dodge, you should really re-evaluate your thought process.
(3) Do people think the federal government can just teleport supplies into the city? I don’t know what time line they are using, but I have yet to see one good piece of evidence that relief is not moving as fast as it can into an area that has a very poor infrastructure.
Like I said, my money and prayers are with New Orleans and they don’t deserve their fate. But, I don’t know where they get off blaming the government for their problems. They should check a little closer to home first.
Can I ask who your news source is? You may want to try the other media, Talk Radio, I have heard some very interesting facts that as usual the main stream media is all about not reporting or even researching. The National Guard is LA problem to call out. There is a law on the books that they have to call them , not the President. Also, he/she both have been up all night because 1. their conscious is eating at them, they had more then enough time to assess the situation, 2. they are the elected officials that should have been preparing for this disaster all along, what was it she/Govenor stated today or last night? They need to do a Berlin Drop? She actually wants them to just drop food and water into the zone. Guess what, the looters will be the first to parcel out the items. 3. It is now coming out about a lot of the graft and corruption that has been happening in good ole NO and I thing they don’t know who’s hand or palm to grease at the moment. Listen to some of the alternate news sources and start assessing the other facts. Your attitude may change on this matter.
Yeah their are folks in a bad way, but I, you, my mom, nor President Bush, the National Guard or my dog made them stay, we didn’t tell the looters to to do a
Doctors are not needed. Logistics through land that is now lake is the problem.
The Christmas tsunami came ashore, and just as quickly, it receded. And by luck there were two US Marine Expeditionary Units close by, just sitting on the decks of ships.
“2600 Cuban doctors” ----- what a frigging joke! Jesse jackson, Fidel Castro, and now Junctionfan.
The thing that bothers me most about the above is people are using the death and suffering of others to further their political ideologies/hopes.
If such people would say “I think supplies are not coming in fast enough because of problem X, why hasn’t problem X been addressed” I think that would be fine.
You can go to hell. I won’t even rant at you because you seem to be too stupid to learn anything about humanity and timing of politics concerning Castro’s offer.
[V]
I’ll stand corrected on this, but I believe the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is responsible for all of the levies in New Orleans. Several years ago, the New Orleans paper did a five day story on the subject that suggested that the levy system had to be improved, but the Corps stated that the “return” on the project would not justify the expense.
It is supposed to be the Federal Emergency Management Administrtation’s job to have the contingency for just these kinds of disasters. That is not to say that the government should have men, equipment and material standing by near every location that could become the site of a disaster. It is to say that plans should be prepared so that the needed manpower can be rapidly located and called up, the same for equipment and supplies and the means to get them to the site has to be in the plans.
IT IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE! Electric utilities and railroads have become very quick at responding to disasters and restoring their services… I’ll bet the farm that they don’t have to invent their response on the morning after the disaster strikes.
To those of who argue that the state or the cities should have been prepared to take care of their own disaster, I have to counter “with what?” Even if New Orleans and the state of Louisana would be able to muster enough buses to haul the estimated 80,000 who couldn’t drive out. Where would they take them? Then after the event, may I ask, where is the area that has been destroyed suposed to find the resources to take care of its own problem? That’s like suggesting that one keep an emergency supply of things in the house to use in case the house burns down.
If you think the problem is poor foresight by the mayors and the councils of the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana cities hit by Katrina, you might want to start checking into the preparations your own town, city or state to deal with natural or manmade disasters. Just a little scary, isn’t it?