The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

[SieSie]

Here's a blogger who has a running list of donations.
Americans Aiding Americans

 

[SieSie]

SieSie-

A few families are here. My sister has a website here with information about them, though it needs to updated. As of last night both families had received more donations than they knew what to do with.

Thanks for the link, Amanda!! Glad to know our state is helping.

 

[tybee204]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050909...hVl8Vob.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

NEW YORK - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized the response to Hurricane Katrina, saying "a lot of failures" occurred at all levels of government.

"I think there have been a lot of failures at a lot of levels — local, state and federal.

I don't think it's racism, I think it's economic," he told Walters.

"When you look at those who weren't able to get out, it should have been a blinding flash of the obvious to everybody that when you order a mandatory evacuation, you can't expect everybody to evacuate on their own.

 

[DEPUTYDAWG]

Well, I agree with everything he said. JMHO.

Since the interview is pre-taped, wonder which day it was taped. Wonder if Babs will ask him about him going down to NO to help lead the area...I'd love to hear what his response to that will be.

 

[shopper]

Hello,

Just came across this article at WND:

Tales of horror
from New Orleans

Evacuees in Texas relate similar stories of violence, filth, rats, gators

The harrowing, heartbreaking stories of Katrina evacuees are innumerable, with many containing similar accounts of life-changing horror – first, waiting for eventual rescue from their homes submerged by the killer floodwaters, and then surviving the filth and crime of spending dark nights with thousands of other refugees on the streets of New Orleans.

Dr. Edward Lias interviewed six evacuated families at the Fredonia Hill Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Texas, last weekend. The church is hosting between 200 and 300 people from New Orleans, many of whom make up incomplete families still searching for lost loved ones...........


much more at the link...
tis disturbing though(as much of the news is, naturally )--

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46234

with love,

Ariel

What a living nightmare. It will be a miracle if any of these people get out of this without severe PTSD. I'm serious as I can be when I say if I had to fend off rats, I would wind up in a mental hospital. I hate spiders and snakes (even though I know that not all are poisonous) but I have a morbid fear of rats, to the point where I have a physical reaction when I see one on t.v.

It's pathetic that they had to endure this kind of crap for one day, never mind several.

 

[less0305]

it should have been a blinding flash of the obvious

One of my MOST favorite little sayings!!! BFO - we say that all the time - blinding flash of the obvious.

 

[Olivia77]

Despite everything else I have read and seen on tv, that article is the first that has made me physically violently ill. I can't imagine "living" through that, oh my god. I just can't.

 

[cynder]

"The deployment of thousands of National Guard troops from Mississippi and Louisiana in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina struck hindered those states' initial storm response, military and civilian officials said Friday.

Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that "arguably" a day or so of response time was lost due to the absence of the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade, each with thousands of troops in Iraq.

Blum said that to replace those units' command and control equipment, he dispatched personnel from Guard division headquarters from Kansas and Minnesota shortly after the storm struck.

Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., whose waterfront home here was washed away in the storm, told reporters that the absence of the deployed Mississippi Guard units made it harder for local officials to coordinate their initial response.

"What you lost was a lot of local knowledge," Taylor said, as well as equipment that could have been used in recovery operations.

"The best equipment went with them, for obvious reasons," especially communications equipment, he added."

Read the rest at:http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2005/sep/09/090903265.html

 

[cynder]

They would have had to shoot ME before they shot a single one of my pets. I can see someone needing a weapon - but they should NOT have been used for anything but self defense. Shooting a beloved pet in front of the owner against their wishes is NOT self defense.
Who were these people reporting too? Under who's orders were they shooting pets? I hope the SPCA or HSUS follows up on this, this is unacceptable - even in a crisis situation.
As if everything else wasn't bad enough these people have to live with that "picture" in their heads forever. After all they did to save their pets to have them "murdered" in cold blood by their supposed rescuers?
If it were me I'd have to be on a valium drip now to function - my WORST nightmare. I know some don't understand, but my pets are my kids, truly a part of my family. It would be like watching someone shoot my flesh and blood child for me.
And I am sure some of these people felt the same way.

 

[shopper]

They would have had to shoot ME before they shot a single one of my pets. I can see someone needing a weapon - but they should NOT have been used for anything but self defense. Shooting a beloved pet in front of the owner against their wishes is NOT self defense.
Who were these people reporting too? Under who's orders were they shooting pets? I hope the SPCA or HSUS follows up on this, this is unacceptable - even in a crisis situation.
As if everything else wasn't bad enough these people have to live with that "picture" in their heads forever. After all they did to save their pets to have them "murdered" in cold blood by their supposed rescuers?
If it were me I'd have to be on a valium drip now to function - my WORST nightmare. I know some don't understand, but my pets are my kids, truly a part of my family. It would be like watching someone shoot my flesh and blood child for me.
And I am sure some of these people felt the same way.

I couldn't address that part of the nightmare because it's too heartbreaking. That is just too much to take, God bless these people.

 

[tybee204]

Im astounded that these people were rescued from their roofs to be dropped on a bridge with no aid, food, water or transportation. This is insane.

 

[MrsMush99]

Im astounded that these people were rescued from their roofs to be dropped on a bridge with no aid, food, water or transportation. This is insane.

I was thinking the same thing Tybee. Horrible, just horrible.

 

[*02]

Here in my town some are staying way outside of town on the old air force base which is now a college campus. A friend had to go out there and said police are everywhere, checking id's of people entering, and the place is no where near a store or anything. I hate the local papers and news so I don't know if buses are running out there now for them or how they are getting around. I know there was some complaining about the Catholic church taking some in a small town close to here and it is supposedly not up to standards for the people.

Txsvicki, I think we live in the same town- We had 412 at an old air force base 6 miles from the city limits, over a hundred have reunited with their family members and moved on. There was a chuch in the small town where I work that tried to help but put 14 people into a small 2 bedroom house with no a/c. The evacuees called 911 and were taked to the AFB. They do have police checking ID's etc. to get onto the AFB property but from my understanding it is for the safety and comfort of the people-they don't want them to feel like a side show for the circus. Citibus has moved routes out to the base and has been transporting them free of charge and took them on a 3 hour tour of town, the kids are all enrolled in school with buses picking them up. They city set up a job fair today at the base just for the evacuees and have held special concerts just for them. They also moved our 9/11 tribute out to the base to also honor the evacuees that we have here. I'm sure it isn't anything like having your own house to go home to but from what I've seen I'm proud of the way that our town handled it.

 

[concernedperson]

Out of all the horrible things that one stands out to me the most. Why couldn't they give these people water and food? Just leave them stranded on the expressway.......

 

[Mabel]

I suppose this is good news, but I hate the way he worded it:

Although the search for bodies amid the Hurricane Katrina wreckage is only at an initial stage, a top official overseeing the efforts said Friday the results offer hope for a death toll lower than some of the most dire suggestions.

"I think there's some encouragement in what we found in the initial sweeps that some of the catastrophic death that some people predicted may not in fact have occurred," said Terry Ebbert, New Orleans' homeland security chief, at a news conference.

"The numbers so far are relatively minor as compared to the dire predictions of 10,000," he said.

(From CNN.com)

 

[tybee204]

I still cannot figure out why they did not have a staging center outside the disaster zone where people were transported to when rescued. Medical tents and housing tents.

 

[concernedperson]

I just saw that headline on CNN.com and msnbc.com directly underneath the news of FEMA boy being sent back to DC. Is this a way to deflect the news?

Of course, I would be happy to hear the death toll won't be as horrible. But that was a sweep of an area where the water was recently drained not a grid search of homes or hospitals or nursing homes or businesses.

 

[mysteriew]

Christion Troxell was shot at by strangers, but he also was fed by them.

He witnessed a man die, listened to the wail of the man's wife and watched as the corpse was carried off to rot on the median of a highway. Then, the next day, he sat on a bus and saw a crowd of passengers empty their pockets to offer their last bits of food to save the life of an elderly woman.

In his days trying to escape the chaos that enveloped the hurricane-ravaged New Orleans streets, he witnessed the best and worst of humanity. And today - stripped of nearly everything he once owned - he feels lucky.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-09092005-538963.html

 

[kgeaux]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050909...hVl8Vob.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

"When you look at those who weren't able to get out, it should have been a blinding flash of the obvious to everybody that when you order a mandatory evacuation, you can't expect everybody to evacuate on their own.

Well, duh, especially since the state emergency operations plan acknowledges that many people cannot get out on their own.....the horrible fact is that they knew previous to the this hurricane that tens of thousands could not get out on their own, and still no one did what needed to be done.

 

[PaperDoll]

They would have had to shoot ME before they shot a single one of my pets. I can see someone needing a weapon - but they should NOT have been used for anything but self defense. Shooting a beloved pet in front of the owner against their wishes is NOT self defense.
Who were these people reporting too? Under who's orders were they shooting pets? I hope the SPCA or HSUS follows up on this, this is unacceptable - even in a crisis situation.
As if everything else wasn't bad enough these people have to live with that "picture" in their heads forever. After all they did to save their pets to have them "murdered" in cold blood by their supposed rescuers?
If it were me I'd have to be on a valium drip now to function - my WORST nightmare. I know some don't understand, but my pets are my kids, truly a part of my family. It would be like watching someone shoot my flesh and blood child for me.
And I am sure some of these people felt the same way.

I agree.. NO ONE has a right to shoot a beloved pet for any reason... :furious: :furious: :furious: