Aftermath

1. New Orleans has had an evacuation plan for years.

The evacuation plan.

"Under the direction of the Mayor, the Office of Emergency Preparedness will coordinate activities in accordance with the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan to assure the coordination of training programs for all planning, support, and response agencies. Departments, authorities, agencies, municipalities, and all private response organizations bear the responsibility of ensuring their personnel are sufficiently trained."

"Under the direction of the Mayor?" Exactly. Mr. Ray Nagin is responsible.

"V. TASKS

A. Mayor

* Initiate the evacuation.

* Retain overall control of all evacuation procedures via EOC operations.

* Authorize return to evacuated areas."


2. Why didn't people help sooner!? They were turned away.

"Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?

* Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

* The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city."

Commentary:

Digest this: government turned away one of the world's most skilled and experienced agencies from bringing relief to starving, thristy, dying New Orleanians. Why? Why? Why???

Judging from the Red Cross's explanation (above), government apparently feared that the Red Cross would deliver relief with too much success. Why else would people choose not to leave a destroyed city, and even want to return to it?

So, government decided that letting people die was a better course than risking any success that the Red Cross would likely have at providing disaster relief.

According to this Knight-Ridder report, the Red Cross isn't alone among well-respected private relief organizations kept, by government, from saving lives in New Orleans. The Salvation Army was stopped from carrying out a planned rescue operation. Here's the key part of the report:

As federal officials tried to get some control over the deteriorating situation in New Orleans, chaos was being replaced with bureaucratic rules that inhibited private relief organizations' efforts.

"We've tried desperately to rescue 250 people trapped in a Salvation Army facility. They've been trapped in there since the flood came in. Many are on dialysis machines," said Maj. George Hood, national communications secretary for the relief organization.

"Yesterday we rented big fan boats to pull them out and the National Guard would not let us enter the city," he said. The reason: a new plan to evacuate the embattled city grid by grid - and the Salvation Army's facility didn't fall in the right grid that day, Hood said in a telephone interview from Jackson, Miss.

"No, it doesn't make sense," he said.

Source.

3. Now to the charges of racism. "They weren't helped because they were black!" Some people blaim the president etc. Fact is, the mayor is black. Much of the cities elected officals are. Local officials are responsible for evacuations and immediate relief.
(Once again, I refer you to the evacuation plan under point 1.)

The Mayor told people to go to the Superdome. After a few days that turned chaotic. People waited outside for days and days on the i10 overpass with no food, no water, and no help. They were exactly where they were told to be.

The mayor told people to go to the civic center. They waited there FOUR DAYS with no help. Only after Geraldo Riviera reported from there did people start getting help.

Watch the video here.


4. You might ask,"Why didn't the president do something sooner?"

Technically President Bush cannot force a governor to act in a natural disaster. He must first be invited to send in Federal troops.

"Posse Comitatus Act

From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful to employ any part of the Army of the United States, as a posse comitatus, or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress; and no money appropriated by this act shall be used to pay any of the expenses incurred in the employment of any troops in violation of this section And any person willfully violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars or imprisonment not exceeding two years or by both such fine and imprisonment."

Source.

Commentary:
"The law, was championed by far-sighted Southern lawmakers in 1878. They had experienced a fifteen year military occupation by the US Army in post-Civil War law enforcement. They understood the heel of a jackboot.

In a nutshell, this act bans the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines from participating in arrests, searches, seizure of evidence and other police-type activity on U.S. soil. The Coast Guard and National Guard troops under the control of state governors are excluded from the act."

The Louisiana National Guard that turned people away was under state control, not FEMA government control. Just to clarify, The Guard only does what its ordered to; that was not their personal choice.

[Had to clarifty that so people wouldn't be tempted to blaim the national guard. They do what they are ordered to do.]


5. Could a large group of buses be arranged to get the people out?

Yes. When it was voting time and Mary Landrieu was trailing badly in her race with Woody Jenkins for the Senate, a large group of busses took people to the polls.

"'Within 45 minutes, we arranged a motorcade,' Tucker says.'We found Mary and Marc [former Mayor Marc Morial], got school buses for workers and sound trucks with music and put on a parade to flush out our voters. Mary and Marc were in Norma Jane Sabiston's little red convertible. (Sabiston was Landrieu's campaign manager.) It was a tight fit for Marc, big as he is, but they were both up there waving. We moved them into the major housing project areas blowing horns and playing New Orleans music. We were doing what we do best in New Orleans, having a parade.' The phone bank was operating at another location. Workers were calling voters asking them to get to the polls and asking them if they needed a bus. Surge time was 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. when large numbers of voters get off work and go to the places. There were more parades in key areas." - New Orleans Times Picayune of November 9th, 1996

I guess, when you need to save lives its "impossible" to find buses quickly. But when you need votes, they magically appear!

I Remember...

I remember where I was on Sept. 11th, 2001. I was watching the Today Show. Things seemed unreal; the first plane everyone thought was some bad aviation accident. But later there was another plane. And the buildings fell. We all knew the truth of what had happened and the nation was in a state of collective shock.

We learned of heros; men and women who had risked - in most cases lost - their lives to save others.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

There are heros in this country. We are still the 'city on a hill' that reagan spoke of. Hold your head high as an american.

Next time you hear someone downing our country, next time you hear someone complain about how terrorists/prisoners are treated, point them to the 2 towers that fell.

The Flag Still Waves

In gorey days
The flag still waves,
In our darkest hour
We call on a higher power,
American will bend and carry the load,
We will not break though we take a sad road,
Band together and keep our flag flying,
This nation will not be dying,
We have not and will never
Bow to a threat,
Band together and remain unbroken,
Look up at our bond unspoken-
Our flag still waves.
With clarion call,
Shout out to all,
"Our flag still waves!"

Press Pass Hacked to Save Lives

Two students from Duke university were fed up with the responce to hurricane Katrina. So, they decided to do something about it. On Thursday they drove all through the night to new Orleans. They had faked press passes in order to get past check points. They managed to rescue 7 people. One of the rescuers is Hans Beuter.

Excuse the rushed nature of this. Thats the best I could do from memory. The story is little under an hour old, seen on Fox and Friends this morning.

When I get a link to the story, I will share that to clear up the details.

The Official Story

The students were very brave. It took a lot of moxy to do what they did. Hopefully, they avoid any legal problems. :) See, hacking can be a good thing. :)

Media Pressure Brings Results

Thanks to pressure from the news media, things are finally getting done as they should have in the first place. Sheperd Smith and Geraldo Riviera both deserve excellence in journalism awards. If not for freedom of the press and brave reporters, this disaster would have been much worse! The government had been feigning a sense of control; the press demonstrated that to be false.

I'm overjoyed that things are getting done. People are being evacuated. The prayers of many have been - and will continue to be - answered! :)

Even people in the disaster have been helping others. There was an older man pushing a shoping cart full of diapers, formula and other baby supplies. He has been distributing them to people with children. I hope that there is some sort of citizens medal of valor that will be given to him and others who have helped out.

The armed forces and the coast guard are a God send to those in need. The Coast Guard alone has performed over 5,000 rescues.

Please continue to give. There are still hundreds of thousands in need. It will take a long time for people to rebuild their lives. People need housing, food, water, and employment.

This is a monumental disaster. Its so sad to see all the people who are hurt and hurting because of it. However, there is hope. Over 500 people have been rescued from rooftops/flooded areas. The national guard, coast guard, and other rescuers are doing great work.

I am quite annoyed by the scantimounious statements of some reporters in refrence to looters. If a person doesn't have food/water and they break into a store to get it (to survive!) why do some news reporters take that chance to condemn them? I wonder what those same reporters would do if their family was in that situation! (of course they would just sit on the sidewalk and die rather than ever steal...yeah right.)

The stores aren't losing anything as it will be declared as a loss and covered by insurance. (They wouldn't be able to sale any of the food products anyway due to health concerns.) You have to be a heartless person to say people should die, rather than steal food/water.

Far as the people who are taking tv's, and other non essential items that is not nessessary. However, when people are dying on roof tops and need to be rescued should there really be law enforcement officials arresting people for stealing Nikes???? Would they not better serve by handing out food/water and rescuing people? *sarcasm* But I digress...money is always the most important thing in life. *end sarcasm*.

Or perhaps some people want to be arressed. If they are taken into custody then they probably will get food/water.

A Walmart in one of the areas told people to take whatever they want. People were taking food/water and handing it out to others. That is what all the stores should be doing. People are always more inportant than things. Or if you want to be a greedy person, consider all the possible publicity you get from giving away free stuff to people in need.

One reporter on the scene was in a conversation with a reporter in the studio.

"Its aweful all the people looting there."

"Actually, some people got food and water and were passing it out to others. And a local walmart has told people they can take anything they want."

A different perspective from the front lines. The reporter on the scene clearly has a better sense of the realities of the situation.


On cnn they interviewed a guy that suffered through the hurricane. He said that the waters had came up so they (he, his wife and 2 children) went up on the roof. He was holding onto his wife but she had told him that he couldn't hold her and to let go and take care of the kids. He hasn't seen her since. Its so sad!

Pray for the people that were affected by this hurricane. If you don't beleive in that (or even if you do) consider donating money to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.

How you can help.

Looking for relatives? Looking for help?