New Orleans evacuation

[:FI:Snaphoo]

none of us saw this ever happening.

I can't believe they can say this with a f*ing straight face. But I've seen it myself.

Not only has money been miss managed, but I've read funding for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA has seen large cuts in the past years.

Snoop "pissed off" Baron

The whole thing is a complete travesty. A horrible macabre debacle. And our leadership is to blame. It doesn't help that everyone in charge, with the exception of Mr. Nagin the embattled Mayor of New Orleans, wants to talk to the camera and have their little photo ops about how they're beginning to get things moving when (to quote the Tragically Hip) "New Orleans is sinking". Or more accurately New Orleans is currently sunk.

After 9/11, there was a veritable army of rescue workers that showed up to help. After Hurricane Andrew (and others in Florida) there were FEMA workers there within 24 hours. Here, though I'm not there to verify, there have been little efforts by the outside world to get to these people and provide them help.

This is completely unacceptable as a whole. And if the american public doesn't call for the immediate resignation of several inept, incompetant people in office currently in our government, I will be sorely disappointed.

Sorry for ranting.

Sna "not laughing" phoo

[:FI:Heloego]

...


It does my heart good to see that HELP HAS FINALLY FRIGGIN" ARRIVED!


The Red Cross, for all its claims to the contrary, refused to go south of Birmingham, Alabama because "Gee, the roads are dangerous." This while they're TV ads claimed " We are currently on the spot giving help as needed.". Liars. Once there, you can bet they'll be SELLING blankets to survivors just like they did after Hurricane Andrew! Assholes. Meanwhile are they asking for all donations? No. Just hard cash. Then they have the gall to organize a TV Marathon to garner blood and money donations. I guess the RC officials need bigger and better Executive Jets to compete with their peers in the other so-called "Charitable" organizations.

I have already, and will continue to send donations to my company, based in Louisiana, because they will ensure that every penny goes to relief.

Bush was on vacation in Texas, KNEW of the impending Hurri, left no one in charge capable of making a common sense decision, waited until TWO DAYS after the disaster to do anything, and since has spent more time for photo ops than doing anything proper. (What's he got to lose? He can't run for re-election.) Offers of assistance by Germany, France and Australia were refused. The dumb ass! Currently Australia, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia are also sending help at the request of Mayor Nagin who thoughtfully side-stepped Bush's lack of concern.

A few years back, a government-sponsored study was done to determine the effects of a Cat 5 Hurricane on the New Orleans Area. It depicted the exact results recently experienced. This advice was ignored and further cuts made to the budget of the Corps of Engineers responsible for completion and maintenance of the levees around New Orleans.

Hundreds of local volunteers from surrounding areas left their jobs, got their personal boats ready and drove to the area to help. They were driven off by snipers.

Martial Law should have been declared IMMEDIATELY after the disaster for a minimum period of 90 days, with the provision it could be extended for an additional 90 if coonditions warrant. This would have brought the Military in IMMEDIATELY, and the Snipers/Looting Issue could have been dealt with more effectively. Simple: Shoot the snipers on sight. Shoot any looter in possession of anything not essential for their survival. Tag the snipers/looters as such and tie their bodies to any remaining upright lamp or sign posts as a message to any wannabe troublemakers. Bush and Governor Blanco dropped the ball here.

Local Hospitals are already overwhelmed. The Navy hospital ship in altimore has yet to leave dock and is not expected to arrive until Thursday next week. That will be a full TEN DAYS after the disaster! It should have been ready and already there. You can't respond to a disaster if you're not ready before-hand. The Hurricane Season is unavoidable. It happens EVERY year, and the potential for a disaster such as this has ALWAYS been there. Why wasn't this ship ready to go at a moment's notice?



My ranting aside, I have/had many good friends who lived along the Gulf Coast, and of those in areas affected by the storm I still do not know how many survived. Certainly many still working for my employer were evacuated prior to landfall, but of most of the remaining I know nothing, and may never know.

I spent 12 years in South Louisiana, and developed a real love for the land and the people. It really saddens me that these same people so ready to help when disaster strikes elsewhere, so giving of their time and money to any good cause are treated so callously, and referred to as "refugees" by the media who never heard of a dictionary.

It saddens me to see that for all our pretenses, once disaster strikes that veneer of "civilization" can disappear so quickly as some selfish individuals place their priorities higher than the lives of others.



I'll shut up now. I'm really appalled.

[:FI:Mefisto]

well, Polish emergency services like special rescue teams (searching living persons in fallen buildings, special trained dogs etc.) and some others that have experience in flooded areas offered their help... no response...

what i do not understand is that military forces that could deliver forces able to fight e.g. the army of Iraq, are not able to "retreat" civilians from this area before or just after this tragedy...
same goes with "war-time-order" and rules guarded by US Army

If ordinary people could help anyway...
Just if you Falc and your family would spend some time in Europe...

[Grecian]

I,m an ousider looking in, so am probably not really qualified to comment.

However I will, I too am apalled by the perception in the UK at the lack of response by the US government to this disaster, the reasons for this are best left I think for the US citizens to reach conclussions.

I would comment that I am proud of the UK's response to natural disasters, however I believe we here have no real understanding of the scale of this tradgedy, I understand from news sources that the area effected is the size of the UK :

Reflecting on that I then wonder how we could possibly have coped with the enormity of such devestation.

[:FI:Genosse]

It saddens me to see that for all our pretenses, once disaster strikes that veneer of "civilization" can disappear so quickly as some selfish individuals place their priorities higher than the lives of others.

Yes, ...

... I can feel with you, Dan. As an outsider I go with Grecian and won´t/can´t give any comment of how the US government, Governor, other authorities and help organizations kept/keep handle the situation down there ...

But I´m shocked about the reported riots, rapes and pillages there because it obviously shows how fragile a so called "civilized" nation can be. I suppose this can happen to any other "civilized" nation as well, can´t it?

This scares me the most ...

[:FI:Fenian]

It's a sad fact that people can turn into a mob or into raving psychos at the drop of a hat.

Civilisation is just in-bred fear of incarceration and eternal damnation.

When there is no law the true nature of the beast is exposed. We are no better than animals, and in many cases much worse.

I've been reading comments on the US administration on other boards by ex Vets and they are sickened by how their country is being allowed to degenerate into a welfare State where personal responsibility comes second and the common good is no longer paramount.

I have a funny feeling that the war in Iraq and now this natural disaster (which according to many accounts might have been prevented if money had been spent in the right places a few years back) will mark a shift in how the US is percieved - both at home and abroad. A superpower that cannot look after its own is no superpower in my book.

Is it time for the American people to take a closer look at how their fine country is being run into the ground?

All this is just stuff I've been picking up on other forums from Americans, but I can understand their sense of pain and disbelief.

Look east for your next superpower guys. China. Us soft Westerners don't stand a chance....

[:FI:Igor]

I'm very happy to hear Falcon and family made it out of New Orleans. You can be very proud of the efforts and conduct of your wife in this national emergency.


Now my two cents worth on the federal responce.

I'm an enployee of the federal government. Yes, the 9/11 responce was very quick; but remember only a very small portion of NY was destroyed, all roads, airports, power, water, and infastructer of NYC and surrounding states were intact.

In New Orleans, it was the entire city and southern half of the state of Loiusianna destroyed (and Mississippi ans Alabama). i.e under water, homes gone (i mean NOT there anymore), no power, few passable roads, no clean water, 1/3 of the New Orleans police deserted (the rest being shot at), a mayor who's more conserned about blaming 'whittey' and the government for a slow responce than his own ineptness, relief heliocopter that can't land because the victims are shooting at them. Most of the residents are now evacuated (about 120,000 people, hard enought to do when the transportation system is completly intact) .


Igor

[:FI:Snaphoo]

I'm very happy to hear Falcon and family made it out of New Orleans. You can be very proud of the efforts and conduct of your wife in this national emergency.


Now my two cents worth on the federal responce.

I'm an enployee of the federal government. Yes, the 9/11 responce was very quick; but remember only a very small portion of NY was destroyed, all roads, airports, power, water, and infastructer of NYC and surrounding states were intact.

In New Orleans, it was the entire city and southern half of the state of Loiusianna destroyed (and Mississippi ans Alabama). i.e under water, homes gone (i mean NOT there anymore), no power, few passable roads, no clean water, 1/3 of the New Orleans police deserted (the rest being shot at), a mayor who's more conserned about blaming 'whittey' and the government for a slow responce than his own ineptness, relief heliocopter that can't land because the victims are shooting at them. Most of the residents are now evacuated (about 120,000 people, hard enought to do when the transportation system is completly intact) .


Igor

I understand that New Orleans is mostly gone. It would seem that in upwards to 80% is now gone, or destined to be gone. And there are few passable roads. But there are passable roads. There are passable roads from the north or west(in the case of New Orleans) into most of the coastal region at this time. There is no excuse for the level of ineptitude that was shown for this disaster. No excuse for the near criminal level of neglect that happened for this disaster.

I was a bit harsh in my post, to be sure. I am speaking as a very frustrated person compelled to help, but unskilled in emergency situations, so I'm relegated to sending money. While I have done that, I hate throwing money at something. I would rather get in and help.

But by all accounts available, people in New Orleans went 96 hours without food or water being sent to them from the federal government organisations. Yes the infrastructure collapsed, but someone tell me about a hurricane in the last 20 years that took that long for help to arrive. Roads are down, I agree. But if Harry Connick Jr. can make it into town on the good roads that are available, why can't our inept president, and the people he's appointed, figure out how to get in and start providing order sooner? There is no answer to these people who've suffered, because our leadership let them all down. All of them along the gulfcoast. It wasn't like this was a huge surprise hurricane that suddenly dropped on the gulf coast region. The hurricane sat in the gulf and strengthened for a few days prior to hitting the region. There was plenty of time to plan strategies, and contengency plans.

For the most part, I'm just as much an outsider looking in as someone across the pond. Because if you're not in the mess, you don't know what's going on. But it frustrates me to see people trying to survive by their wits when our Federal Government should have done something prior to this situation getting to this level.

I, too, am very happy that Falcon and family got out and are well. I hope that any other FI that might've been in the region got out as well.

[:FI:Snoop Baron]

Even President Bush had to admit that the response was not acceptable. Don't get me wrong many brave men and women were there helping with all their might but more help could have and should have been there and earlier.

Snoop

[:FI:Heloego]

...Agreed, Snoop. The necessary help is there, and thank goodness things are going relatively smoothly. It appears there are excellent efforts by LOCAL groups to get things back to some semblance of normality. Electricity has been restored to some small areas, and cleanup is already starting for some.

The outlying states are doing a fantastic job providing shelter for evacuees! Most notably Texas and Arizona!

I really hope Falcon's home didn't suffer much damage.

Obviously I'm in the same dilemna as many Americans during this crisis. I'm bound to remain where I am and lend my support in the form of donation(s) only, so if my previous rant has offended anyone, or anyone has felt I was trying to round up sympathy for me or support against my government please understand that was not my intention.
There is a very large amount of helplessness felt here, and I've already forced the missus to listen to my rant, so I guess I just need to vent.
Even if one doesn't agree with me, thanks for listening anyway.

But a bad situation keeps bringing out the worst in some people...

According to the Louisiana State police, someone systematically looted every Gun Store and Pawn Shop in the New Orleans area of all weapons as soon as it was safe to venture outside. (Remember this was done within a 72-hour period!) Currently, a group of snipers that have been killed were found using some of those missing weapons. You do the math.

In a MAGNANIMOUS gesture of good will, Fidel Castro offered help in the form of 1000 (count 'em. 1000!) doctors from Cuba!!! With his understanding of American Law, Fidel conscientiously specified that these doctors would be of invaluable assistance to the 40 (count'em, 40!) local Medical Examiners (Coroners) who are expected to ID the over 10,000+ corpses expected. Amazing!!! What an incredible offer from an "enemy"!!!

Equally amazing is Bush refusing even to accept Fidel's phone call!


But it seems that every time things are starting to look better, something rears its ugly head. In this case, FEMA.

It has been reported today on most of the networks that the reason for the serious lack of communication among the State and Local Authorities was because the lines for the Emergency Channels were cut, put out of commission. At first it was believed that Drug Lords or Gangs were responsible.
Investigation by the Louisiana State Police discovered that FEMA, without permission or consultation with the appropriate authorities cut ALL Emergency Communications and spliced their own equipment into the system, preventing all State and Local Emergency Services from communicating with each other when the need was paramount.

They did WHAT?????????

This activity is illegal in any case. Much less so given the circumstances. The Governor and State Police are really pissed off, want to press criminal charges, and have asked FEMA to give up the person responsible.

So far, FEMA has not commented.

[:FI:RULES]

FEMA?

[:FI:Genosse]

FEMA?

I had to look for myself on Google ...

http://www.fema.gov" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[:FI:Genosse]

A real serious question for everyone - also for us European?

Today I´ve heard a call-in program on my favourite radio station asking the audience what they think about giving donations to the relief organization of the UN or the Red Cross in order to help the people in the crisis areas.

Many of the callers thought that it´d be a good idea because it doesn´t matter where human beings suffer on the globe even if it´s in the USA. Moreover there´re still a lots of Germans remembering the help provided by the US government after WWII by sending so called "Care Parcels" to the starving people of the former enemy.

Just a few stated that they wouldn´t like to give any donations because as the citizen of a so called "Super Power" the US people don´t need any kind of help and it´s able to cope the situation on its own. Even some of them argued that by giving money the war in Iraq would be funded by supporting the US budget.

What do you think about this question (esp. the non-US members)???

[Ianus]

Interesting comment Gen.. Personally I would like to see all of us all culpable and responsible for each and everyone else on the planet...

I think I'm just an ageing Hippie though

[Ianus]

Roflol,,, Just noticed your sig Gen,, thought "Oh someone else playing BF2" Then I looked a little closer