CITY OF NEW ORLEANS THREAD

This morning they (CNN) is reportimg that they have stopped the buses that are taking people to the Astrodome, because someone was shooting at a helicopter that was evacuating people...
 
\"The rescuers in the boats that picked us up had to push the bodies back with sticks,\" Phillips said sobbing. \"And there was this little baby. She looked so perfect and so beautiful. I just wanted to scoop her up and breathe life back into her little lungs. She wasn’t bloated or anything, just perfect.\"
A few hours after Phillips, 42, and five members of her family and a friend had been rescued from the attic of her second-story home in the 2700 block of Painter Street, she broke down with a range of emotions. Joy, for surviving the killer floods; pain, for the loss of so many lives; and uncertainty, about the well-being of her family missing in the city’s most ravaged quarters.

In a darkened lobby of the downtown Hyatt hotel turned refuge, she hugged an emergency worker closely; a handful of his sweaty blue T-shirt rippling from each of her fists.

She had barely gotten out a fifth thank you when the emergency worker whispered into her ear that \"it was going to be OK,\" and that \"it was our job to save lives.\"

\"I can still hear them banging on the ceiling for help,\" Phillips said, shaking. \"I heard them banging and banging, but the water kept rising.\" Then the pleas for help were silenced by the sway of the current, she said.
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:( From New Orleans
 
I don't understand why the Superdome isn't ringed by a battalion of military police this morning. I don't understand why these crowds of people aren't surrounded by armed troops. Why is it taking so long to deploy military forces in the city? There's little choice left but to assume we don't have the resources stationed here in this country to respond with the overwhelming presence this crisis requires.
 
Originally posted by Amos Magliocco
There's little choice left but to assume we don't have the resources stationed here in this country to respond with the overwhelming presence this crisis requires.
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I'm as fatalistic as the next guy, but I think there are many other explanations that can be logically assumed other than inadequate resources nationwide.

Are you sure you can't fathom any other explanations? :?
 
There are a few concentrated areas of survivors where suffering is maximized, like the Superdome and the Convention Center, where new reports indicate there is NO police or medical presence whatsoever. None! There are estimates of 15,000 people in the Convention Center.

I don't understand how small, specific areas such as these cannot be secured by the military within a 24 hour period. I know the US has forces supposedly prepared for emergency 24 hour deployment anywhere in the world. We're told it's necessary to spend hundreds of billions on our defense budget every single year, but we can't secure throngs of disaster survivors in small, well-defined perimeters?? Right here in our own country? This isn't happening in Asia!

I don't know what the freaking answer is, and the excuses sound pretty pathetic. It just has to get done right now. I recognize we can't occupy the whole city overnight, but I know damn well we can secure the perimeter of a handful of structures.

Where are the troops?
 
Originally posted by Amos Magliocco
I don't know what the freaking answer is, and the excuses sound pretty pathetic. It just has to get done right now. I recognize we can't occupy the whole city overnight, but I know damn well we can secure the perimeter of a handful of structures.

Where are the troops?
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I couldn't agree more, but I don't believe that there are no more troops in the entire country. I mean, even if that were true, theres several idle US army divisions sitting around doing nothing, probobly a few marine divisions as well. And thats not even including national guardsmen.

My first instinct here is too believe the directors of these units, whoever they are, are afraid to send troops into the city. Maybe their afraid of casualties, or afraid that they might accidentaly gun down some innocent people and start riots.

Whatever the reason is, they need to give us one. The explination "no one has asked for help" is fucking ridiculous-there are people in the streets BEGGING for help.
 
At this point sending in massive amounts of troops would not help the situation overall. There are already shortages of water, food and other supplies. Troops that are brought in will need those supplies as well and at this point there are just not enough supplies. Also keep in mind not all, but a lot of the people of NO are not cooperating real well, alot of the folks seen on the media begging for help are the same ones rampageing the city, also lets not forget that the city of NO was under a mandatory evacuation before the hurricane hit, what are these people doing there? This is a horrible situation that is being made worse by the people of NO after every tradjedy this nation has had, people have pulled together to help one another and as of now the people of NO just arent doing that.
 
Watching this disaster unfold over here in the Uk I am finding it more and more upsetting to watch. People with children with no water or food - how many are going to die from lack of basics. I just feel this tragedy is going to get so much worse it doesnt bear thinking about. What I dont understand is why the very poor people or sick people were not provided with buses to get them OUT of New Orleans before Katrina struck. Surely the authorities knew that there were thousands who didnt have the means to get themselves to safety. Or am I just being too simple?
 
Aside from the carnage at the convention center, many hospitals, nursing homes, and care centers are reporting people dying at an alarming rate because generators have failed and water is running out. Meanwhile, on the online national guard scanner, people are arguing about who is responsible for ferrying a general between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. We can drop hundreds of paratroopers and big palletes of water and food in Afghanistan and Iraq but we can't get them in time to downtown New Orleans to prevent dehydration. Simply ridiculous, and we MUST hold our elected officials responsible at every level.
 
On the news conference with the DHS/AG czars that just completed, they stated that there are a huge amount of support personel in the city, but it isn't showing up on the media. I really hope that is true and not just polti-speak.

I have to agree completely with the previous post about us sending troops and supplies half way around the world in a moments notice, but we can't seem to do it here. Perhaps it is a reluctence to put them in harms way. If this was happening in the middle east, you can go in and 'take care' of trouble makers without much fear of consequences. But go into NO and 'take care' of some people there, and watch out for the backlash and uprisings that may occur.
 
If you search my post history, you'll see that I was as frustrated as any with those who COULD have evacuated but DIDN'T. These folks then expect to be rescued, which means putting more lives on the line. There were many folks who COULDN'T evacuate, and I feel horrible for these folks. That said, I could have told you before the event that some people wouldn't evacuate. Our elected officials knew darn well that there would be a lot of folks who didn't evacuate... Heck, the mayor said on Sunday that up to 100,000 people would not evacuate. This has been a well-known disaster threat for all emergency personnel. As the FEMA director said, they TRAINED for a Cat 5 hurricane in New Orleans when they were doing "drills" for a catastrophic event. As Kevin said, we can drop food and water half-way across the world in 24 hours, but we can't drop food and water to those who are in New Orleans (regardless of whether they couldn't or wouldn't evac). The officials have TRAINED for this, and the execution of it seems to be a disaster in itself.
 
It's indescribable. Those doctors Kevin talks about are calling the Associated Press for help after contacting the police, the mayor, the national guard, and everybody else they could think of. They're calling the PRESS.

Let me repeat that: the doctors in two New Orleans hospitals are calling the Associated Press to help them evacuate patients on the verge of death.

This has nothing to do with party politics. In fact, I think the Republican leaders in Texas, including Governor Perry, the mayors of San Antonio and Houston, and the Taylor County Judge, have demonstrated more courage and leadership than anybody in Washington D.C. by far. I wish Rick Perry would mobilize the Texas National Guard and invade Louisiana without federal permission. I wish New Orleans Mayor Nagin would send a plea to the U.N. for foreign troops, just to make those guys in D.C. look like the impotent buffoons they've turned out to be.

Eventually, if they keep taking a pounding on CNN, they'll get moving. Here is the most stark and profound lesson on why a free and independent media is the absolute lifeblood of a functioning democracy.
 


I couldn't agree more, but I don't believe that there are no more troops in the entire country. I mean, even if that were true, theres several idle US army divisions sitting around doing nothing, probobly a few marine divisions as well. And thats not even including national guardsmen.
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I don't think you can have the regular army intervene because of posse comitatus.
 
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