Breakdown
What bothers me this evening, in watching the goings-on on TV and in reading a series of stories, is how quickly the social order has broken down in my beloved city.
I’m a pretty lassiez-faire kinda guy. I know the police, fire, National Guard and other official agencies are more than overwhelmed by this once-a-century type of event.
But damn, y’all….
I am well aware the logistics of providing help in this situation in this city are unprecedented. And the levee breach is potentially catastrophic, even more than the hurricane itself. But it also seems to me that we’ve been overly eager, as a nation, to rapidly deploy needed manpower to just about anyplace in the world to face a perceived threat. From what’s I’ve seen and read so far today, now would be a good time to employ this same kind of quick action to at least provide a little protection to folks who just want to get through the next difficult day.
I know — it’s only been 48 hours or so. And conditions are uniquely staggering. But authorities have to get a handle on, well, their authority.
Please.
Related posts:
Amen. And when the politicians fail, we need volunteers. We need doctors and medical supplies to Baton Rouge immediately (please fwd far and wide).
Upwards of 60,000 people will eventually arrive over the next few days from hospitals and elsewhere in New Orleans to the LSU Field House at the LSU campus in Baton Rouge. This will be a medical command center.
WWL news is requesting medical supplies and doctors to this area.
Med Professionals: “Your liability is covered” according to news.
I lived uptown for four years before I left for the Midwest. New Orleans is beloved to me, and I mourn its fall. But, I am not at all shocked at the looting and general degree of lawlessness among many of the people who stayed behind. The pervasive lawlessness of New Orleans was bound to take over the moment that the police (never a source of great confidence in any event) were distracted by search and rescue.
If we had the troops, I would argue that we need to deploy 25,000 armed troops to the area to enforce the martial law order.
The next problem, one that should be far more troubling, is how we will manage these numerous troublemakers, scofflaws, and hooligans when the gov’t starts redeploying people to refugee camps. Will these paragons of civic virtue stay put in a camp, or take their lawless act on the road to the rest of America.
I should note than a few thousand people are already at the Field House and more are coming every minute. Obviously the Field House will not hold them all eventually, but this is where they will come first.
Is there anyway those of us up north of Mason-Dixon Line can help someone immediately? Our hearts go out to all the good people in the affected area.
Call a doctor or nurse and tell them to get on a plane.
How can we help ? Please let me know. This is sickening, there are calls to evacuate.
But f%@&#$g how ?
This particular disaster to our own homeland is exactly why we do not need to be expending our precious resources in other countries when our own people need the help right now. There is no reason why the military should not be deployed to help with the looting. Mighty nice of our president to cut his vacation short because of this disaster. I bet if it would have been a terroist attack, he would have called in the special forces.
My prayers go out to everyone in NO tonight and Austin Texas is sending as much help as we can.
IMPEACH BUSH!!!
Bravo New Orleans
In a time of crises you show America and the rest of the World that you do not come together as a community, but you loot and cause more havoc.
You get what you deserve.
Guys, the frustration is understandable, but the problem isn’t lack of NG troops, but the sheer impassability of NOLA right now.
It kills me up here to see this stuff going on, but first things first, they need to get the people who fled the city pre-Hurricane 150+ miles from the city to free up places to accomodate medical personnel, engineers, and volunteers coming down. The response has been pathetic so far, Bush in particular, but I get the sense that the regional coordination has been almost as bad.
I’m certainly not going to blame the president or any one level of government (or even government itself) for a lack of response. I don’t think this kind of event can be completely planned for, unless you want to cry wolf and suck scarce resources away from other pressing needs each time there’s a named storm out there. I know we’re all tired of hearing how Hurricane Joe is “the big one,” only to see it peter out after overturning an F-150 pickup and blowing the window out of a Subway in Coastalville USA.
I’m not going to play Monday morning QB, since likely any solutions I could have come up with would be equally as flawed or (more likely) completely useless. I certainly would not want to be in the shoes of Mayor Nagin or Gov. Blanco.
…but it has been 40 years since Hurricane Betsy, 36 years since Hurricane Camille, 16 years since Hurricane Hugo, 13 years since Andrew and less than one year since Ivan. It would seem to me the Wheels of the Gods would be greased a little better than they appear to be.
Hopefully it will make you feel better to know there are 125,000 national guardsmen coming, as well as 3 Navy ships (One is the Comfort, a giant floating hospital) and several Air Force planes.
Several companies have aready made million dollar donations…
I know my company is currently rounding up volunteers to go to Red Cross training next week to help out in shelters for the long haul, since this isn’t going to end for a long time.
It’s just really hard to get people there right now. :( Everyone’s doing their best, but I know their best won’t be enough to save everyone, and that’s a shame.
It is easy to play monday morning quarterback, but when people have been saying these things down there for years (see attached URL from the T-P, which eerily predicts most of what we have seen in the past 48 hours), people need to pay attention. There are going to be near-misses between the big ones that will draw people into complacency.
The Red Cross has identified this as # 1 on their list of disaster prone areas. Environmental erosions issues have been known for years. There are inevitable, extreme difficulties, but it’s pretty easy to see how some things could have been done to alleviate a substantial portion of the loss of life and damage. Levee age suseptibilities were known. The possibility that of pumps flooding was known. Why weren’t they housed in elevated, reinforced structures? Most of us aren’t employed to think about these things, but in a post 9/11 era, I would hope that those who were/are (including the fed) would. The cost to fix this problem will run in the billions of dollars and most likely thousands of lives, lost economic opportunity for the region, a disrupted oil supply, and higher home insurance premiums for those who choose to rebuild. Catastrophies are inevitable (like a cat 5 worst case is). I realize how much pride people have of NOLA , but if things can’t be done to improve the infrastructure for a cat 4 bad hit/cat 3 worst case hit, what is the point in rebuilding if such a storm will inevitably hit again within the next 50 years?
I agree about the authority thing.I saw the senator tonight on tv and she could barely compose herself. In retrospect, I think about the “strength” Guliani showed after 911. I think the senator should introduce herself, and then let the people doing the coordinating talk about what they are doing. She spent to much time,almost in tears, talking about how catastrophic things are. We know that. It’s time to come on tv with your game plan. Sure you’re still rescuing, but what other things are being done now. Just think back to the 3rd day of 911 and how Guliani handled the whole thing. He began mobilizing and sharing to the public where resources are, who has housing to provide, what the telephone numbers are where people can reach people, how people with cell phones can help etc.
Sandy:
Giuliani was the Mayor, not a Senator, so had more authority over NYC.
The Mayor and the state needed to do better planning for evacuation. They stuck their heads in the sand for years. How did they think they’d get all the people out, especially those who had no cars?
My sister (who evacuated to Memphis) says that the city faxed churches on Sunday am asking that parishioners take a neighbor who is without transportation with them out of town. A fax on evacuation day - what a joke of a plan! Why can’t the bus drivers be considered emergency personnel like the police, fire, and hospital staff, and have to drive people out of town in the buses? Apparently Miami has a much better evacuation plan; people without rides can go to bus stops with evacuation signs and get a ride.
Now we need to get all the folks out so there won’t be a greater public health disaster. How are they going to go street to street to find people? I think there’s going to be a high mortality figure unless something happens pronto. We need the national guard to protect people and get them out. Who cares about the looters and property…you can always start over if you are alive.
With respect to having the pumps in “elevated, reinforced structures”, that does not work. For a pump of the size that New Orleans is using, it actually has to be below the level of the water that it is pumping in order to function, and it has to have somewhere to pump the water. Right now, with the levee breaks, any water pumped out is coming right back in, unless the pump are keeping an elevated area from flooding further. A better case can be made for elevating and hardening the control positions, back-up generators, and fuel supplies for the generators. However, all of this does cost money, a lot of it. No one was willing to pay the necessary tax dollars for the needed improvements. Also, this may sound harsh, but New Orleans is primarily BELOW sea level. If you choose to live there, you need to be ready to accept the consequences of things like hurricanes hitting.
Preface note: I am not condoning behavior by the following comment.
I wanted to make a comment about the havoc being wreaked by looters. If one takes a step back and looks objectively at the situation, you will be saddened by the situation and not because they are embarassing NOLA on national television. Consider this-the people you see looting are the people left behind. The people who couldn’t get out or didn’t think it would be that bad. The people who’ve grown up in the poorer wards of NOLA and lack the social and coping skills necessary to handle the situation. Where they are from looting, shooting, etc, are the street skills necessary to survive and are prided by some. Put them in un-observed streets when they feel panicked or in the Superdome with 20,000 other people and what more do you expect? They’re coping the only ways they know how.
(Remember the recent report published–500 blank rounds were fired in the more dangerous areas and during those times not one phone call was made to authorities to report any shots fired.)
Takes TIME to get from HERE to THERE - I know volunteer groups that started packing Sunday up here, and the second shift crew is packing now - folks are on the way, but in general, figure 72 hours to get first major outside aide - and that’s IF your credentialed - remember, they won’t let Joe Random in to help (which is why everyone says “you need a 72+hr kit”)
Help IS coming - try to hold out as best as you can. You should start seeing stuff later today, and the real mass of help will start arriving late tomorrow/Friday time frame
Why would the police “police” areas/communities/people that were basically lawless before the hurricane? When I was stationed in NO, over on the Industrial Canal, the PO in charge of the gov vans stated not to stop when some was laying in the road adjacent to the housing projects, stating they didn’t care about the vehicle, just that the people holding the stickup would kill even if they were handed over the vehicle. I also remember report of NO police not going into the projects during times of crisis. So how can you expect a handful of officers or soliders to maintain control of a uncontrollable situation?
The people who are looting maybe the “left-behinds” but they are still humans and should act like it. They have never been held responsible for their actions before, so they do what they want now.
These will also be the first groups of people complaining that there is no food or relief in NO.
First and most importantly, we must not lose hope.
Help is on the way. Power crews from Indiana have mobilized and a convoy is en route even as I type this. Amateur Radio operators from all over the country are starting to head towards New Orleans to help in whatever way possible. The Red Cross has volunteers coming, as does the Salvation Army. All these groups are going to do their best to help stabilize the situation.
With all the due-est respect, we need to be focusing our energies on helping in whatever ways we can — NOT playing the blame game yet. There will be a time for blame later, but right now we need to focus on the problem at hand.
Best of luck!
My 24-year-old daughter JUST moved to NO August 1st and furnished her apartment Uptown. She moved in finally on the 15th. Now she has had to evacuate and has no clue what to do. She moved there for a reason - to pursue her dream and to live in a beautiful city - but how long will it be before the city comes back? She doesn’t have a job yet, either. I told her if she loves it so much, she needs to go back and help rebuild the city.
Thank you for posting about Uptown. I forwarded that info to her. The whole situation makes me sick. I don’t understand how the levee system was created to withstand only so much when authorities know its a hurricane-prone area. I live in DC. We have our own hurricanes of another kind.. it isn’t fun.
I can’t believe people are using the word “looting” to describe people taking food and drink out of grocery stores! What are they supposed to do if they’re trapped there? Starve? Hope to find a store that is actually operating? Those stores have insurance. Letting what is in a grocery store be destroyed by flooding rather than having trapped people use it is stupid.
Also, see Daily Kos on looting vs. getting food (you can guess which skin color gets which photo caption):
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/8/30/192236/013/241#241
Barry,
Perhaps you didn’t see the people taking tvs, dvd players, jewelry, etc on tv. Food, water, diapers, formula are things I can understand, but not taking a shopping cart from WalMart and putting a wide screen tv in it.
How can they watch it? They don’t have power. Besides, when they carry it home in knee-deep water, will it still work?
People are drowning in their attics, & broad swaths of the city that would otherwise have escaped the destruction are being ruined, for want of a competent civil engineer to stop the rising water from the canal-levee breaches. NO ACTION all day Monday! FAILURE overnight Monday night! Apparently the Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t HAVE a competent engineer, and no one has the authority to keep the necessary helicopters from diverting all day Monday to dramatic TV-worthy rooftop rescues that could have been performed more safely and quickly, if less dramaticly, by small boats; I’m surprised Mayor Nagin has kept his temper as well as he has. Time to get real: the city doesn’t need hundreds of doctors & nurses, nor to stop the looting (offensive to look at but utterly inconsequential except for (duh) the stores with stocks of firearms); it needs (1) to CLOSE THE BREACHES & (2) the Nat’l Guard’s big trucks & the boats to go block by block w/ bullhorns & get everyone to buses that can take them out of the city to Baton Rouge, the North Shore, Houston, or wherever else people can be taken on the way to making new lives for at least months elsewhere.
Cara, I can’t say I really care at this point. If there aren’t enough resources to prevent further flooding of the city and to rescue people, then having authorities prevent looting of electronics that won’t work sounds like a huge waste of resources to me.
That stuff will be covered by insurance anyway since those stores will probably be unusable for some time. If some looting happens, that’s the least of my concerns. I’m more worried about things like the environmental disaster this could be.
Here is a story from a couple of months ago. It is very interesting, read it.
It shows two things, one for sure is that NO knew what they needed to be doing but just didn’t
have the funds. In fact they were going to be cut again. You need to remember also
that these are not rich states or cities in this general area.
But then again, protecting a city in a bowl, surrounded by water is a hard thing to fix.
Maybe it would be cheaper in the long run just to buy a few small mountains from somewhere
and haul them to NO and fill up the “bowl” and then build again. I don’t know.
If you have to rebuild every fifteen to twenty years , it could get real expensive both in lives and dollars.
Newer Levee constructionn has caused more problems, (and wetlands being used for development).
It is fast becoming a real possibility that the coast line in this area will change where NO
and the surrounding communities won’t be able to exist as they are now.
Its a mess..
Oh, I heard the laughs at my comment on filling up the bowl by hauling in dirt.
Japan just completed an International Airport built in the middle of a lake.
It took them five years. and it is a very large airport complete with
transportation systems to the island.
Anything is possible.
Hey, what was that really bad USA movie where New Orleans was caving in, and they filled the area under the city with a fast-expanding epoxy-based foam?
I’d say abandon New Orleans, but the costs of rebuilding its economic infrastructure elsewhere are prohibitive. The city is there for a reason, because the things that it does need to be done where they are done.
God Speed, folks, and remember that when you don’t learn the norms of good behavior as a child — i.e. how to act when no one is watching — those norms will be forced on you by law enforcement as an adult. Get food, get water, but five finger discounts are not on the itinierary. I’ve lived through a devastated urban environment before, and New Orleans devolved from order faster than anyplace I’ve seen . . .
That was indeed an interesting article, Papa Ray. In view of the events of the last few days, it looks like the billions spent to this point were not exactly worth it. Maybe the House was prudent to realize they weren’t getting their money’s worth out of the Corp down there (the cuts mentioned were for the 2006 budget).
Yes I can understand looting in the face of a disaster of this magnatude, if we are talking food, bottled water, baby needs……but a bucket o beer….tv’s….guns..be real. Haily Baber has the right answer to this….martial law,,,,and if need be shoot the looters. These up standing citizens when relocated to other areas and states will continue being such up standing moral citzens. Don’t tell me they do not know better. They know right from wrong. And no matter the spin you put on it, the are vermin, each and every one of them. They hamper efforts of those who are trying to help.
It does not suprise me at all at the looting going on. I spend a little time in New Orleans, and the crime there is crazy. There are people getting mugged at the cemetaries that are beside the projects. Not to sound racist, but why is it that whenever some really bad happens, the news is full of video of black people looting and rioting. Is it a poverty issue? Are people in New Orleans and LA which just happens to have a high black population just more violent than the rest of the country? I’m just asking questions that many people are scared to ask.
This reminds me of Haiti during their civil war, There are dead bodies floating in the streets and all these(i’m not racist but all of the looters I can see are blacks) people can do is loot and shoot and don’t tell me they are taking food.
They all should be shot like a dog.This is not somalia
Has anybody considered that Bush’s pet project(created only to distract the public)THE IRAQ WAR is WASTING billions of dollars and the energies of thousands of Military personnel who otherwise could be deployed to the Gulf region?
Maybe The Katrina disaster is the equivilent of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which forced the fanatical Japanese government to give up it’s silly war.
I believe it’s pretty obvious that with the US industrial economy weakening, millions more Americans descending into poverty and global climate change spawning more and more extreme natural disasters, THE U.S.A. can(and will) NO LONGER be able to afford it’s IMPERIAL AMBITIONS and Shortsighted, Materialistic life style
(HAVE IT YOUR WAY,GET-IT-NOW, JUST THROW IT AWAY!, DEMAND MORE-YOU DESERVE IT!!).
It’s NOW time to GET OUT OF IRAQ and depose the anti-federal-gov’t, Country-Club Administration!!!
Here are comments from 3 people across the US:
Subject: Bush and Katrina
Texas:
I am livid. Katrina hit the Gulf Coast with a fury. There are people trapped
with no food or water. They are outside in the heat of the day and the dark
of night. The filthy flood waters are rising all around them. There are
hoodlums with guns running free in the streets…
And what does our esteemed President do? He stays on vacation. I don’t care
if he has a duplicate White House at the ranch, he should have gotten his
butt back to Washington right away and acted like a leader.
Now he is going to release gas from the stockpile so we have cheaper gas.
How in the hell is that going to help the poor souls in New Orleans. And
just for fun the Feds are going to suspend the clean air requirement for
refineries. Like that will get water and food to those who need it.
I insist that George Bush get down to New Orleans and sit on a roof where
victims of Katrina were stranded. He deserves time-out to think about his
actions. In two days give him clean water. In four day give him food. Then
let him off the roof and send him to the Astrodome where he can see what a
great place it is to wait around after losing everything.
If you would like to pass this on I would appreciate it.
Minnesota:
I would add, I noticed quite a few Corperations allreaddy doing their parts
to help,non perishable food items being sent, pain relievers and medical
supplies, comunication equip and phone cards, and even oil companies have
done their part. $6 a gallon gas in Atlanta and the promise of $4 a gallon
gas for the rest of us shortly.Oil Co stock holders will be able to escape
to the Spa’s of Europe so the won’t be harrased by the images of the Riff
raff getting what they deserve down there. WHERE THE HELL ARE OUR STATESMEN.
Maybe they did assasinate Sen Wellstone! You would almost think that the oil
co.s are running this country.
Nebraska:
I am appauled, I am ashamed of this United States that we would have this much time go by without feeding the starving, thirsty people of our Nation. This is a time that all efforts should go into saving those lives, and getting them all out of harms way. The world is watching us handle this, and they are not suprised. It seems that we are better at tearing down countries, and lives, more than we are at giving to those in need. I am embarrassed and I am saddened, that my tax dollars cannot save our own people, as the tax dollars continue to destroy other lives and nations. Yes I vote that we give the President a new assignment, perhaps sit on one of those rooftops for a week with no water or food, and then go back to “nothing left”.
People die from no clean drinking water. Why couldn’t there be cases and cases of bottled water dropped where all of the people are sitting. They could have thousands of sandwiches delivered to the starving elderly, and children. What in the heck is going on here? Food and water, MUST be the first and immediate concern for these people to survive.
FEMA director is full of shit.
To all of your poor people in New Orleans, I am so sorry. Many of us in other states are trying to help you, but they make it hard. Every phone call is like banging your head against the wall. Other than donations they have yet to offer us any direct way to give aid; no place to offer housing, transportation, food, etc. Be assured this country and the world are devastated by what you have had to endure. More devastating is knowing that in 2001 FEMA warned our president that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. However, federal funding for levees and flood control was cut to help fund the war in Iraq. I am by no means climbing on a political soapbox, but your loss is tremendous and heartbreaking. Your wellbeing must be the top priority. I’m going to ask the president to offer up his acres of land in Crawford, Texas for hurricane refugees. I feel it’s the least he can do.
Sending prayers and anything else I can get to you.
Best,
Katie
I am embarressed to be an American. Just as someone else said, we run around the world, force our way in to other countries and tell them everything they are doing wrong.
Take a good look world….. You wouldn’t treat a prisoner of war this way, without food and water. There is no excuse Bush and FEMA. You should have been ready to go as soon as Katrina was over. I am praying for all the Gulf Coast victims
This is ridiculous…It’s been 5 days and we should be more on top of things…My cousin called me a few hours ago but I cannot reach her again, she has to save the energy on her cell phone and hope that there will be someway to get help…She has picked up as much of our family that she can fit into her care but with no gas, she can only drive so far…I cannot reach her now…She says the smell of the dead bodies are overwhelming and she is trying to leave… there is no way for me to help her short of going there and picking them up myself…but alas I wouldnt be able to find them and I’d likely run out of gas….I pray for them…I feel so useless…It is so sad.
I thought a hard winter was the end of the world
and nearly was for me and my neighbor
but I survived
I weep for you New Orleans
Mayor Nagin told FEMA that nola didn’t need help after the storm. What a dipsh!t. The people had 3 days to evacuate. What a bunch of worthless bums. The gangs are raping children and killing anyone they want. What a bunch of animals who should be shot on sight.
Now they want to send the dregs of America to other cities. I say hell no. Ship their worthless freeloading welfare check criminal thug assess back to Louisiana.