Well then there you go! Dates don't lie..
Read this..This is from a man in Baton Rouge.
Those of us in La. know who screwed up this disaster. Our Governor, the
levee board, the Corps of Engineers and the New Orleans Mayor are
primarily to blame with the incompetence of FEMA being secondary. By
the way, things have improved significantly. We give credit to our
armed forces who have taken the pressure off of local law enforcement
allowing them to regain control of our cities. I've often wondered why
New Orleans police have a reputation for being tough, no nonsense guys
-- I now understand.
The looting here has been bad. You won't see it on TV, since we're not
even close to being newsworthy considering all the deprivation, death
and suffering being reported. Our parish took in the first 600
evacuees, and put them up in one of our brand new high schools located
next to I-10. In l0 hours they had trashed the school, torn out
urinals, ripped the bleachers out of the gym and trashed the classrooms
and computers. We moved them, plus
600 more to a place across the Interstate at an expo center. By Tuesday
night, there were 3 car jackings and 3 armed robberies. So we had to
call in our deputies, police and Nat'l Guard troops to guard the
evacuees. Most of our law enforcement had been down in NO working the
rescue mission. The same stories apply to BR, only multiply the numbers
10 fold. My godson/nephew is the chief of the K-9 Department in
Shreveport, 250 miles north of BR. He had been in NO working on the
rescue till now, except he has been called back to Shreveport tonight
to protect against the looting there. Mandy works for a doctor in a
clinic next to our small hospital in Gonzales. It's situated across the
Interstate from the evacuee center. At 11 AM yesterday (Thursday), the
police locked down the hospital and the clinic to protect them from
looters. The clinic closed down at 2 PM and the medical staff got
escorts out of the vicinity.
The national news seems to carry a constant theme of Louisiana
politicians crying "shame, shame America". "Where's the government?"
It's the mantra de jour. Our governor had the power to declare martial
law and commandeer school buses to evacuate the NO folks. She did not.
Her news conferences are unscheduled, unformatted ramblings, punctuated
with tears and calls for help and prayers -- but not much information
or direction. She has been noticeably absent from sight today since the
President toured. Maybe I can't see the forest for the trees here, but
I don't want any of you "Americans out there" to accept any blame for
the lack of immediate response when it was clearly the responsibility
of local and state government officials. |
