|
|
Post by pitbulllady on Sept 5, 2005 19:06:49 GMT -5
Well, all of the people who were holed up at the Convention Center and the Superdome in New Orleans have been evacuated, many to other states. Entire families have been split up, with many children being separated from their parents, so it's still a mess. The only people remaining in New Orleans, besides State and Federal troops, are those tough, eccentric die-hard residents, and the governor is probably going to have them removed by force if necessary. I have to admire them, though, for sticking out such a horrible situation. Louisiana is founded on toughness. The US Army Corp of Engineers have finally plugged the big breach in the 17th Avenue levee, and have begun the arduous task of pumping the water out of the city and back into Lake Pontchartrain and the river. Meanwhile, the mayor of the city has been forced to basically lay off all city employees and surrender his own position to the state and to the Federal government, for the time being at least, which means that for now, as a city, New Orleans has been unincorporated, and no longer officially exists until things are back under some semblence of control.
The CONSERVATIVE estimate of the death toll in Louisiana alone is expected to top 10,000, when all is said and done. Many countless bodies will never be recovered, having either decayed completely, or having been washed down-river and out to sea, before the water can be removed enough for authorities to search. This is by far the worst disaster, natural or otherwise, in US history, in terms of both financial impact and loss of lives. What is so amazing is that the greatest help, in terms of physical manpower needed to operate heavy equipment and search door-to-door for survivors still holed up in houses, is from the Cajun people who live for the most part south and west of the city, who are used to working and living in swampy conditions, amid gators and Cottonmouth snakes(HIGHLY venomous) and leeches. If you watch a news program and see them in action, y'all will understand why I love this place and those people so much.
What really, really angers me, though, even worse than the horribly slow Federal response, is the attitude that some people, including one of my own best friends and some people in Congress, that New Orleans should be allowed to die. Never rebuild it, never allow anyone to live there, just wipe it off the map, forever. Anyone who says that, and believes that, has clearly never been there, and never experienced that magic. They have never known what it was like to walk the sidewalks in a huge, major city where someone like Randall would be as welcome as someone like me, and never thought of as "strange" or an "outsider". How many places do y'all know of like that? We CANNOT allow it to just vanish, in all but pictures, like mine on DA, and memories. I will not live long enough to see it return to its former glory, but maybe the rest of you will, and if you ever get a chance, please go there.
pitbulllady
|
|
|
|
Post by Light Rises on Sept 5, 2005 21:45:57 GMT -5
It's still hard for me to wrap my head around what's happened down there, and I don't envy anyone who's now involved with the process of cleaning up. But it's truly been one of those situations where the best and worst of people have emerged -- all the lawlessness, juxtapositioned with people helping each other out. It truly is something, to hear about the toughness of these folks, and how they're acting as the best help now in this crisis. What really, really angers me, though, even worse than the horribly slow Federal response, is the attitude that some people, including one of my own best friends and some people in Congress, that New Orleans should be allowed to die. Never rebuild it, never allow anyone to live there, just wipe it off the map, forever. Anyone who says that, and believes that, has clearly never been there, and never experienced that magic. They have never known what it was like to walk the sidewalks in a huge, major city where someone like Randall would be as welcome as someone like me, and never thought of as "strange" or an "outsider". How many places do y'all know of like that? We CANNOT allow it to just vanish, in all but pictures, like mine on DA, and memories. I will not live long enough to see it return to its former glory, but maybe the rest of you will, and if you ever get a chance, please go there. pitbulllady *raises eyebrows* NOT rebuild New Orleans? *shakes head* I pray it doesn't come to that. And I do, absolutely plan on visiting there someday -- THAT'S not changing, not no way, not no how. ~Light Rises |
|
|
|
Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 6, 2005 13:50:48 GMT -5
Blasted politicalers....
|
|
|
|
Post by lizardgirl on Sept 6, 2005 14:04:56 GMT -5
You know what really pisses me off? That people actually VOTED for Bush. Now all of this has happened and the people of New Orleans' help was SO delayed that it's just ridiculous! There was more of a response when the tsunami happened!
But not rebuilding New Orleans...Personally, I wouldn't even consider that an option- I've never been to the place, and I haven't seen much of it, not even in pictures, but I've heard that it's so wonderful that it would be SO SAD to loose something as special as there.
|
|
|
|
Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 6, 2005 14:16:15 GMT -5
Yeah....
But they're so worried about killing people in Iraq that the people here are left alone.
|
|
|
|
Post by lizardgirl on Sept 7, 2005 12:03:58 GMT -5
Yeah, it was silly to send all of those troops over there.
|
|
|
|
Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 7, 2005 14:27:23 GMT -5
Silly?
It was stupid...
|
|
|
|
Post by pitbulllady on Sept 7, 2005 18:58:05 GMT -5
I hate to break the news to you political pundits, but lack of troops was not now, and never was the problem. There are plenty of Reservists, Active-duty personel, and National Guardsmen here; the problem was that they had NOT been given any orders, by anyone, to get to Louisiana until much death and suffering had occurred. Troops cannot just pack up and go someplace-they must be given appropriate official orders, and for some unaccountable reason, this did not happen. Much of the blame can be placed on FEMA, our Federal Emergency Management office, which is basically in charge of such things, but this office apparently did not take the indications of the storn hitting this area seriously, or something. Few plans were made to do anything afterwards. On top of that, budget cuts had depleted the funds for shoring up the levees in New Orleans, when it had been known for a long time that even a moderate hurricane would likely overflow, if not break, the levee system. Right now, there are thousands of National Guard, Marines, and Army troops in New Orleans alone, but for many residents, they got their "marching orders" too late.
pitbulllady
|
|
|
|
Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 7, 2005 20:13:05 GMT -5
I don't need orders to help people...
Even if I do something wrong, it's human nature. At least I tried to do something instead of just sitting around...
|
|
|
|
Post by pitbulllady on Sept 7, 2005 20:44:14 GMT -5
That's how most of us feel, but remember than anytime you're dealing with government agencies, there is always going to be tons of "red tape". THIS is what has, and still is, the biggest impediment to helping people. Military troops CAN'T act without orders, and in the case of a natural or man-made disaster, the first line in this country is supposed to come from FEMA, and the President actually has to act on THEIR recommendations! I don't agree with it, and clearly it needs to change, but that is how it is. Like I said, it's not that we don't have the troops here; we DO, but getting them in place in a timely manner was the big problem, and it's a problem than must be addressed, the sooner the better. Also, the director of FEMA has no more qualifications for that post than *I* do; he was an Arabian HORSE judge prior to this, with no rescue experience or any other experience that would prepare him for something like this. He got his job the same way that James P. Sullivan got his-by knowing and being friends with the right people.
A lot of the blame must be put upon officials of the city of New Orleans, too, including their mayor, who has been pitching such a fit about help not getting in sooner. New Orleans had developed an emergency plan in the event of just such a catastrophe, but did not follow through with it. Part of that plan was to use the parish's school buses to evacuate people, but those buses are currently sitting in six feet of water. Not one bus was used to get people out before things went from bad to worse. They KNEW this was coming, if not with this storm, with one down the line. It was inevitable. Yet there were no drills, nothing. Cities like Seattle practice what to do in the event of earthquakes or Mt. Ranier erupting; many major Japanese cities practice earthquake and tsunami drills, and coastal South Carolina cities now practice hurricane evacuation after Hugo and Floyd.
It also irritates me that some people are trying to make this out to be a "race" issue. It isn't. The media has focused all its attention to poor African-Americans, while ignoring thousands of mostly-White, mostly-Cajun people who have been killed in the bayous south of New Orleans. People of ALL races have been horribly impacted by this thing. Poverty is color-blind and if you were poor, you didn't stand a chance. Help was not slow getting there because the people shown on tv were mostly Black, but for the reasons I've posted above. Back in 1989, when we got hit by Hugo, with 135 mile-per-hour winds, the National Guard was in place the very next day! The "Low Country" and "PeeDee" areas of South Carolina are 67% African-American, but at the time, procedures for government agencies and military to get in and help were much more efficient, and there was less red tape to cut through than there is now, in this post 9/11 world.
pitbulllady
|
|
ScrewyOldDame
Randall's Head Servant (300-799)
The classes that wash most are those that work least.
Posts: 402
|
Post by ScrewyOldDame on Sept 7, 2005 23:01:32 GMT -5
I don't think anyone can really say why help was so awfully delayed, but I think it's safe to say it was not directly the president, or the conservatives as a whole. There is more than one person involved in the descision making. It is just a tragedy help came so late.   |
|
|
|
Post by pitbulllady on Sept 8, 2005 5:49:10 GMT -5
You can blame complacency on the part of officials in Louisiana, the "it can't happen here" attitude, along with a massive beuracracy, that has gotten worse since 9/11. It's ironic that policies put into effect to help people after a terrorist attack actually interfere with them getting help following a natural disaster, but honestly I don't think anyone realized this would be the case until it happened.
Some people in the celebrity camp are actually blaming George Bush for THE STORM ITSELF!! HELLO, but the President of the United States does NOT control the weather!
On a side note, Steve Buscemi's fire unit from Brooklyn is down in New Orleans right now, battling fires that are raging from broken gas lines, looters, etc. I'd almost bet a paycheck that he's down there with them, instead of sitting up in some Hollywood mansion running his mouth.
pitbulllady
|
|
|
|
Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 8, 2005 13:59:48 GMT -5
Really?
Heh...
You truely are right that Randall would do something like that ^_^
|
|
Beboots
Randall's Head Servant (300-799)
Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a plague in Equatorial Guinea that I have to attend.
Posts: 646
|
Post by Beboots on Sept 8, 2005 20:02:24 GMT -5
We were discussing the disaster in English class today, and someone said that they'd heard an interview with a journalist(?) and one of the officials from down there (I can't remember the names she stated) and after the official finished ranting about how there wasn't enough help down there, and that they need more money, volunteers, etc., the journalist asked outright that if that was true, why was the official sitting there doing the interview instead of down there helping out? ...It was funny at the time, because the official couln't answer.
It is my belief that the delay in help and unfollowed/infeffective procedures wasn't really anyone's fault, but a contribution of several people/organizations, not just the President's (not that I'm his biggest fan, but I agree, it's not like he ordered the hurricane to hit New Orleans - he can't controle the weather, because he's just as human as the next person).
I can only hope that one good thing resulting from this tragedy is that, in all likelyhood, new and more effective disaster/emergency procedure will be develloped for the cities in areas that could possibly be hit hurricanes in the future, so the damage won't be as severe next time.
|
|
|
|
Post by pitbulllady on Sept 8, 2005 20:27:44 GMT -5
We were discussing the disaster in English class today, and someone said that they'd heard an interview with a journalist(?) and one of the officials from down there (I can't remember the names she stated) and after the official finished ranting about how there wasn't enough help down there, and that they need more money, volunteers, etc., the journalist asked outright that if that was true, why was the official sitting there doing the interview instead of down there helping out? ...It was funny at the time, because the official couln't answer. It is my belief that the delay in help and unfollowed/infeffective procedures wasn't really anyone's fault, but a contribution of several people/organizations, not just the President's (not that I'm his biggest fan, but I agree, it's not like he ordered the hurricane to hit New Orleans - he can't controle the weather, because he's just as human as the next person). I can only hope that one good thing resulting from this tragedy is that, in all likelyhood, new and more effective disaster/emergency procedure will be develloped for the cities in areas that could possibly be hit hurricanes in the future, so the damage won't be as severe next time. I couldn't have said it better, Beboots! The whole system is just screwed up, so you cannot put blame on any one person or group or office. Like you, even though it's a horrible, horrible thing, I hope some good will eventually come of this in the form of a revamped system, since we clearly see that what we have in place is not effective. pitbulllady |
|
