Found these two comments on an ebay disccussion thread on NO, thought they were interesting:
drlucha (367 ) View Listings | Report Sep-02-05 09:10 PDT 17 of 105
This is a tragedy of such magnitude it is almost incomprehensible. Where was the Mayor and Governor before the storm hit? Here in Florida our local government starts planning as soon as a storm is spotted.>
Everyone in LA knew the levees of New Orleans could only withstand a cat 3 storm. The state officials should have been bussing people out before the storm. The state Government in LA should be held responsible for their lack of planning.>
Days before the storm hit, experts from the storm center in Miami were predicting 50,000 lives would be lost in New Orleans if the levees broke. This information was on national TV. They also knew the levees were not built to withstand the storm that was coming. What did the Mayor do? Told people to leave. Who better than the Mayor to know that the vast majority of his constituents had no transportation to leave.>
After the storm, the Gov. of LA was on TV saying it was OK for the people to break into stores to get food and water. What an insane idea to have government officials advocate lawlessness in one of the murder capitals in the USA. When the looters ran wild she was back on TV begging for help with law enforcement.>
No one in charge in New Orleans even told FEMA that people were at the convention center until yesterday. Four hours after FEMA was made aware of the convention center situation they had water there.>
I am just one old retiree in the backwaters of Fl. and I knew what was going to happen just by reading the hurricane warning sites and watching TV. Why in heavens didn't the Mayor of New Orleans and the Gov. of Louisiana know what could happen? They should both be held responsible for their lasse fare in the face of such a certain danger to thousand of citizens.
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lost_spirits (529 ) View Listings | Report Sep-02-05 11:36 PDT 34 of 105
As you may or may not know, I live on the Gulf on the west side of the state of Louisiana. Though we were under advisory for evacuation before Katrina hooked north to New Orleans, we have been spared our homes, our jobs, & our families living here. I work at a TV station here in town where the impact of the disaster is nearly tearing our town apart.
drlucha is absolutely correct in her politics. Govenor Blanco was approached 3 months into her term by the State Fire Marshall concerning the state's evacuation and hurricane preparedness plans being deplorable and in need of immediate attention. The Govenor FIRED him and her administration took the attitude within the public media that the poor man was nuts and that everything was in order here. The Baton Rouge media tried to apply pressure on the Govenor's office after the firing because we knew evacuations in our Gulf cities were shoddy and that there is no such thing as "hurricane preparedness" down here! The govenor's response was just like the pretty lip service you are hearing now. I hope all of you noted the bottle-necked disaster throughout our state when the mass evacuation came! And the rest speaks well enough for itself as a testimony to our Govenor and all governmental officials, Federal included!
Immediately after Katrina and the flooding, the NO parish sheriff was sending out pleas across the state for all available flat-bottomed boats to come to NO. This is the Sportman's Paradise State where there's a flat-bottomed bass fishing boat in every yard! Young men gathered together with their bass fishing boats. Each boat had 2 young men (all of them volunteers with jobs & families) with survival & first aid equipment. They all met in Lafayette and then departed in a convoy. With gas prices already soaring and all out of their own pockets, 200 bass fishing boats (we were told) traveled in a convoy to New Orleans to go rescue lives. The military authorities denied them entrance into New Orleans and made them ALL turn around and leave immediately! It seems that EVERYONE is running the show over there and the right hand keeps breaking the left one! How many lives could those young men have saved?
We are infuriated! We are heartbroken...so many of us have families who once lived there. At the station, we watch old tapes of the tsunami disaster and see medical tents, helicopters, water trucks, food lines, etc. in a place as remote as Indonesia. Here in our own backyard, the authorities won't even get a gallon of pure drinking water into NO! You & I can't even volunteer to wade a gallon of water in there to them!
Meanwhile, our town is bulging at the seams. Our Civic Center is housing 1200 refugees. Today we are opening our little rodeo coliseum, which will not be a very warm or welcoming place but it's all we have left.
The bad news...Baton Rouge is experiencing outbreaks of violence with these refugees and our town's crime rate just soared this last week. Our only mall has been devastated by the NO crowd of professional shoplifters..the cons. The stores reported their worst "shrink rate losses" ever. Their 1st day at the Civic Center, they set fire to a police car. Day 2, when the fundraiser was being held at the center, they pulled knives. Yesterday, they found the elite neighborhood's Walmart and accosted folks in the parking lot for their money. In case all of you have forgotten, NO did have its name on the top 10 city list for crime & corruption. Guess what? The plague is in our town, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette! Coming soon to a local neighborhood near you!!!
Banking is a mess, deliveries are a mess, cellular service is a mess, medical care is a mess, internet services are down, and the list keeps piling up here in the surviving towns to the west. But we have our lives, our homes, & our jobs and that makes us put up and shut up with the difficulties that are growing every day but still seem so minor compared to NO. All we truly know anymore is that this is an American disgrace of unforgiveable proportions! And here's another horrifying thought...the hurricane season is in its prime time right now with another 2 months to go. Sigh.
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