WORD.

a prayer of comfort and support

This (and what it represents):

"Hospitals are trying to evacuate," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan, spokesman at the city emergency operations center. "At every one of them, there are reports that as the helicopters come in people are shooting at them. There are people just taking potshots at police and at helicopters, telling them, `You better come get my family.'"

[...]

A National Guard military policeman was shot in the leg as the two scuffled for the MP's rifle, police Capt. Ernie Demmo said. The man was arrested.

"These are good people. These are just scared people," Demmo said.

...in combination with this (and what it represents, from the same article):

Terry Ebbert, head of the city's emergency operations, warned that the slow evacuation at the Superdome had become an "incredibly explosive situation," and he bitterly complained that FEMA was not offering enough help.

"This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace," he said. "FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."

...are going to utterly and completely destroy Bush, I think.

"This is a desperate SOS. Right now we are out of resources at the convention center and don't anticipate enough buses. We need buses. Currently the convention center is unsanitary and unsafe and we're running out of supplies."

We all should hang our heads in shame that help isn't getting to all those people--the best country in the world my ass. It's beyond shameful...

Thanks for that link, amberglow.

It just might, kmellis. This disaster was anticipated days in advance and preparations were terribly inadequate. What if a disaster of this magnitude occurred without warning? Would the response time actually be SLOWER?

MeChatters, we are very lucky and have much to be thankful for.

I don't know what to say about all of this. It seems like our society has failed these people.

Meanwhile, everyone around me is worried about the price of gas. As if that matters.

I'm with selfnoise.

I'm at a loss for words, too, but I don't think society failed. FEMA, the State of LA, the leadership of the Federal government, all failed.

Failed, mostly, to take the poor people with them when they were evacuating the rest of the city.

Shame of the nation? Of society? Nope. The shame of quite a few specific individuals, who probably are too busy now to sleep anyway; it is my hope, though, that these individuals never sleep again.

And of course that those in need find speedy sanctuary.

I wish there was more I could do.

I just emailed my Senators yelling for them to help those people. Everyone should do it--they need to all get off their asses. Even if they can't do anything it made me feel better (but they can do stuff)

2 things have impressed me..

1. Lousianna Cathedral has a devastated backyard with among others, a 200 year old oak tree uprooted; yet the statue of Jesus remained untouched. It's a sign I tellya!

2. I am 100% convinced now that GWB uses an earpiece and is fed his shtick. It's probably less embarrassing all round though.
================

Oh, and what's quonsar's guitar doing in New Orleans hm?
≡ Click to see image ≡

I am 100% convinced now that GWB uses an earpiece and is fed his shtick. It's probably less embarrassing all round though.

Many of us have been saying it for ages. We've heard him without--appalling and brain-damaged.

I quit watching. I can't do anything about it from here aside from donate money - and I have none to donate, I have been considering canceling my cable and net access to save the money. And what I was seeing was just making me want to curl up in a little ball.

Babies, elderly and sick people dying from the heat and from dehydration because they have been sitting in the sun on a highway for over two days with no food or water. There was a Fox news reporter there who left last night when things became too dangerous and then came back today - so we know people can get in and out of there, but nobody is coming to help and they have no idea what to do but wait. Like one old man said "Why can't they just drop us some water at least?"

Several murders and rapes at the convention center last night, people are afraid for nightfall to come. Nobody is there to provide security, the last I heard there had been one air-drop of water - enough for a few dozen people, and people were fighting over it. Those that did not get it were bitter towards those who did. Dead people being covered with anything that can be found or moved out of sight so people do not have to keep looking at them.

Police looting, people attacking rescuers, gangs of armed thugs going around attacking whomever and whatever they can, cottonmouths floating around in water that has everything from dead people to sewage in it, a few reports of alligators in the water, fires erupting from gas leaks.

Really the rain they received today was probably the only good news a lot of people had. At least it cooled the air down some for a while and possibly allowed some people to get some moisture on their tongues. It wasn't enough for people to collect - if they had anything to collect it in, but it wasn't enough to make the flooding worse either.

What was the deal with GWB's speech yesterday? People on TV were saying it was the worst one he has ever given. I obviously heard none of it.

I quit watching. I can't do anything about it from here aside from donate money - and I have none to donate, I have been considering canceling my cable and net access to save the money. And what I was seeing was just making me want to curl up in a little ball.

I feel much like you, weretable. Helpless. Wanting to do more but not knowing what exactly to do and not having all that much to give. Angry that more isn't being done now.

weretable: NYTimes today on it: ... George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end. ...

That editorial (or rather, the ignorance, smugness and callousness that it points out) literally nauseated me.

Many people had dogs and they cannot take them on the bus. A police officer took one from a little boy, who cried until he vomited. "Snowball, snowball," he cried. The policeman told a reporter he didn't know what would happen to the dog.

and the emailed jokes are starting:

What is the difference between Baghdad and New Orleans?

The Louisiana National Guard is protecting Baghdad.

On another note, I've been trying to figure out how to help. I'd get on a fucking plane and volunteer out there if they'd let me, but the Red Cross seems to require training for disaster relief workers.

So, I go to make a donation with money I really shouldn't spend. (Rent's due today, I'm unemployed, there's no food in the house.)

The Red Cross donation page makes a point of telling you that the best way to ensure your donation gets to the ARC is to donate directly through them.

Okay.

So you click on the link, and you're redirected to their Yahoo store.

Your donation options: $25, $50, $75, $100, $250, $500, $1,000, $2,500, $5,000.

There's no option for "donate X amount." To donate any other amount, you have to call their 800 number.

Why do they make it difficult? How hard is it to set up a donation page that doesn't require a set dollar amount?

And by the way -- I can't get through on the 800 number either. (1-800-HELP-NOW.)

I tellya one thing, you would think in 2005 that the rescue helicopters would have a smarter basket/retrieval system -- the thing they use is so obviously cumbersome and unadaptable. I know they must work within finite paramaters but it really begs for some redesign. Same for the winching and pulling them in up top. It seems positively medievel in this day and age. No, I don't have plans on me - I'm just reacting to what I see. I can't believe that the unwieldly metal basket contraption is the smartest apparatus ever manufactured.

I'm trying (self link) to go down to the Gulf with the Red Cross. I'm hitting red tape. It's driving me crazy. The Red Cross says that they have waived most of their training requirements in order to send more people down there, but in actual fact they seem to be running around like (pick a metaphor) chickens with their heads cut off or ostriches with their heads in the sand. Birdbrains anyway.

From what I learned at my "training" tonight, Red Cross disaster relief is set up for small local disasters that have parameters: the next town over is okay, half the affected town is okay, etc. They don't seem to have a clue how to cope with a disaster on this scale. Nobody does. This is a new thing. But it's totally inconceivable to me, in our post 9/11 or hell, post Millennium Bug world, that there were/are no plans in place for what to do when a city is essentially wiped out! Even at the small provincial museum where I used to work we had disaster plans - elaborate, bizarr-o, yes - but we had plans. There seem to have been no plans at all for this, on any level from the local to the national. And that is just inexcusable.

from ten minutes ago:

New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out, cops turned in their badges and the governor declared war on looters who have made the city a menacing landscape of disorder and fear.

"They have M-16s and they're locked and loaded," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said of 300 National Guard troops who landed in New Orleans fresh from duty in Iraq. "These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will."

Four days after Hurricane Katrina roared in with a devastating blow that inflicted potentially thousands of deaths, the fear, anger and violence mounted Thursday.

"I'm not sure I'm going to get out of here alive," said Canadian tourist Larry Mitzel, who handed a reporter his business card in case he goes missing. "I'm scared of riots. I'm scared of the locals. We might get caught in the crossfire."

The chaos deepened despite the promise of 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop the looting, plans for a $10 billion recovery bill in Congress and a government relief effort President Bush called the biggest in U.S. history.

New Orleans' top emergency management official called that effort a "national disgrace" and questioned when reinforcements would actually reach the increasingly lawless city.

About 15,000 to 20,000 people who had taken shelter at New Orleans convention center grew ever more hostile after waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead. Police Chief Eddie Compass said there was such a crush around a squad of 88 officers that they retreated when they went in to check out reports of assaults.

"We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten," Compass said. "Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon."

Col. Henry Whitehorn, chief of the Louisiana State Police, said he heard of numerous instances of New Orleans police officers — many of whom from flooded areas — turning in their badges.

"They indicated that they had lost everything and didn't feel that it was worth them going back to take fire from looters and losing their lives," Whitehorn said.

A military helicopter tried to land at the convention center several times to drop off food and water. But the rushing crowd forced the choppers to back off. Troopers then tossed the supplies to the crowd from 10 feet off the ground and flew away.

In hopes of defusing the situation at the convention center, Mayor Ray Nagin gave the refugees permission to march across a bridge to the city's unflooded west bank for whatever relief they could find. But the bedlam made that difficult.

"This is a desperate SOS," Nagin said in a statement. "Right now we are out of resources at the convention center and don't anticipate enough buses."

At least seven bodies were scattered outside the convention center, a makeshift staging area for those rescued from rooftops, attics and highways. The sidewalks were packed with people without food, water or medical care, and with no sign of law enforcement.

An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.

"I don't treat my dog like that," 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he pointed at the woman in the wheelchair.

"You can do everything for other countries, but you can't do nothing for your own people," he added. "You can go overseas with the military, but you can't get them down here."

The street outside the center, above the floodwaters, smelled of urine and feces, and was choked with dirty diapers, old bottles and garbage.

"They've been teasing us with buses for four days," Edwards said. "They're telling us they're going to come get us one day, and then they don't show up."

Every so often, an armored state police vehicle cruised in front of the convention center with four or five officers in riot gear with automatic weapons. But there was no sign of help from the National Guard.

At one point the crowd began to chant "We want help! We want help!" Later, a woman, screaming, went on the front steps of the convention center and led the crowd in reciting the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd ..."

"We are out here like pure animals," the Issac Clark said.

"We've got people dying out here — two babies have died, a woman died, a man died," said Helen Cheek. "We haven't had no food, we haven't had no water, we haven't had nothing. They just brought us here and dropped us."

Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, "'Go to hell — it's every man for himself.'"

"This is just insanity," she said. "We have no food, no water ... all these trucks and buses go by and they do nothing but wave."

FEMA director Michael Brown said the agency just learned about the situation at the convention center Thursday and quickly scrambled to provide food, water and medical care and remove the corpses.

Speaking on CNN's "Larry King Live," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the evacuation of New Orleans should be completed by the end of the weekend.

At the hot and stinking Superdome, where 30,000 were being evacuated by bus to the Houston Astrodome, fistfights and fires erupted amid a seething sea of tense, suffering people who waited in a lines that stretched a half-mile to board yellow school buses.

After a traffic jam kept buses from arriving for nearly four hours, a near-riot broke out in the scramble to get on the buses that finally did show up, with a group of refugees breaking through a line of heavily armed National Guardsmen.

One military policeman was shot in the leg as he and a man scuffled for the MP's rifle, police Capt. Ernie Demmo said. The man was arrested.

Some of those among the mostly poor crowd had been in the dome for four days without air conditioning, working toilets or a place to bathe. An ambulance service airlifting the sick and injured out of the Superdome suspended flights as too dangerous after it was reported that a bullet was fired at a military helicopter.

"If they're just taking us anywhere, just anywhere, I say praise God," said refugee John Phillip. "Nothing could be worse than what we've been through."

By Thursday evening, 11 hours after the military began evacuating the Superdome, the arena held 10,000 more people than it did at dawn. National Guard Capt. John Pollard said evacuees from around the city poured into the Superdome and swelled the crowd to about 30,000 because they believed the arena was the best place to get a ride out of town.

As he watched a line snaking for blocks through ankle-deep waters, New Orleans' emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert blamed the inadequate response on the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"This is not a FEMA operation. I haven't seen a single FEMA guy," he said. He added: "We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."

FEMA officials said some operations had to be suspended in areas where gunfire has broken out, but are working overtime to feed people and restore order.

A day after Nagin took 1,500 police officers off search-and-rescue duty to try to restore order in the streets, there were continued reports of looting, shootings, gunfire and carjackings — and not all the crimes were driven by greed.

When some hospitals try to airlift patients, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan said, "there are people just taking potshots at police and at helicopters, telling them, `You better come get my family.'"

Outside a looted Rite-Aid drugstore, some people were anxious to show they needed what they were taking. A gray-haired man who would not give his name pulled up his T-shirt to show a surgery scar and explained that he needs pads for incontinence.

"I'm a Christian. I feel bad going in there," he said.

Earl Baker carried toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant. "Look, I'm only getting necessities," he said. "All of this is personal hygiene. I ain't getting nothing to get drunk or high with."

Several thousand storm victims had arrived in Houston by Thursday night, and they quickly got hot meals, showers and some much-needed rest.

Audree Lee, 37, was thrilled after getting a shower and hearing her teenage daughter's voice on the telephone for the first time since the storm. Lee had relatives take her daughter to Alabama so she would be safe.

"I just cried. She cried. We cried together," Lee said. "She asked me about her dog. They wouldn't let me take her dog with me. ... I know the dog is gone now."

While floodwaters in the city appeared to stabilize, efforts continued to plug three breaches that had opened up in the levee system that protects this below-sea-level city.

Helicopters dropped sandbags into the breach and pilings were being pounded into the mouth of the canal Thursday to close its connection to Lake Pontchartrain, state Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry said. The next step called for using about 250 concrete road barriers to seal the gap.

In Washington, the White House said Bush will tour the devastated Gulf Coast region on Friday and has asked his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Clinton to lead a private fund-raising campaign for victims.

The president urged a crackdown on the lawlessness.

"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this — whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud," Bush said. "And I've made that clear to our attorney general. The citizens ought to be working together."

Donald Dudley, a 55-year-old New Orleans seafood merchant, complained that when he and other hungry refugees broke into the kitchen of the convention center and tried to prepare food, the National Guard chased them away.

"They pulled guns and told us we had to leave that kitchen or they would blow our damn brains out," he said. "We don't want their help. Give us some vehicles and we'll get ourselves out of here!"

Bring our people home from Iraq. Bring them home right now, God damn it, bring them back from all over the world and send them to New Orleans. Take all the attack helicopters and lift those people out of there. Set up all of the MASH units. Haul water with the Hummers. Get the Corps of Engineers on the levee. I'm so angry. I'm SO ANGRY.

My 78 year old mother, whose depth of cynicism can scare even me, thinks that the rioting reports are exaggerated and only an excuse for the army to start shooting. "This administration" she says, "would much rather kill poor people than try to help them."

God help me, I'm starting to agree with her.

Wow.

Well, no telling if true or not, but the wiki has a link to this particular story.

Your mother is absolutely right, mygoth.

dream, why is 2-7 empty?

Jeezuss dreamsign...that's heavy duty. Also leaning towards racist. Nevertheless...wow.

[talkin' about the wiki link]

Really good question, amberglow. The "please don't get this thread locked, people" makes me wonder if there is some administrative editing going on.

Yeah peacay, I thought so too. That may explain the editing, if that's what it is, but who knows.

You know what scares me the most? If they do start shooting, and there's a massacre, and the spin doctors then say "Well, that was totally justified, because this whole thing has been an example of what happens when people are soft and fuzzy about the lawless, worthless (subtext black) underclass in our cities, who have no respect for Law and Order - it's time to get Tough and Kick Some Ass."

And then all these reports, of shooting and rioting and looting and mayhem, instead of being a wake up call that hey, racism & classism & terrible, horrible poverty are alive and well in this country in 2005 become instead a right wing gathering call: it's the permissiveness and licentiousness and liberalism that have caused all this, look, some Uzis saved the day.

lord this is getting incoherent. Like puddinghead I'm so angry, and so heartsick and so horrified and so goddamned afraid that this is going to be used not just for political advantage (that, I'm afraid, is inevitable) but also to draw the reins even tighter, use the whip even more, turn things harsher instead of looser. The anger & punishment mindset gone crazy.

I keep seeing "escape from New York" and "mad max" in looking at this. It's just incredible....I'm astounded and horrified. Beyond description...and how unusual that it's those people least able to fend for themselves that are most suffering.

"We tend to think of natural disasters as somehow even-handed, as somehow random," said Martín Espada, an English professor at the University of Massachusetts and poet of a decidedly leftist political bent who is Puerto Rican. "Yet it has always been thus: poor people are in danger. That is what it means to be poor. It's dangerous to be poor. It's dangerous to be black. It's dangerous to be Latino."

You may be right, mygothlaundry.

From Sploid (via MeFi)

Lies Revealed: No Shots Fired at Helicopter
An FAA spokeswoman said she had no such report. ‘We’re controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of them reported being fired on,’ she said, adding that the FAA was in contact with the military as well as civilian aircraft.

FEMA has used the “shots fired at rescue helicopter” as reason for shutting down rescue operations today.

And I had no idea that an evacuation had been ordered without, you know, an EVACUATION. Me and several of my officemates up here in Canadia have been scratching our heads wondering why it is that 20% of the population would choose to stay behind. Friggin hell.

Outside a looted Rite-Aid drugstore, some people were anxious to show they needed what they were taking. A gray-haired man who would not give his name pulled up his T-shirt to show a surgery scar and explained that he needs pads for incontinence.

"I'm a Christian. I feel bad going in there," he said.

The thought of this poor old man who has most likely lost everything, who is alone and helpless, feeling guilty because he needed pads. I just...don't have the words. Just that one small thing, this poor man worried about stealing and feeling like he has to explain himself, trying to keep his diginity. It's too much.