Katrina - Mother of All Terror

[mtmynd]

Amazing power, amazing destruction, amazing consequences from the aftermath...

Looters in New Orleans... now there's a real prize! Steal flat screen t.v.'s and have your pick of Nike's... walk the flooded streets back to your shelter that has no electricity, no fresh water, no sewage and pride yourself on your latest score. Your friends can come over and oooh and ahhh over your newly looted treasures. Next day loot the jewelry stores... have your pick of diamond rings and expensive wristwatches... man, you are in material heaven, baby!! Show off your newly ripped-off bling-bling to your friends while they take a shit in the corner of your flooded apartment. No way outta town, the waters are still rising and you plan your next looting... how about the liquor store? Yeah... that sounds good! No water, hell! drink some fine cognac and sparkly... tastes better than the dangerous waters soakin' those Nikes... Yessir! Go down richer than you've ever been, before disease and pestilence and the rising waters from Lake Pontchartrain float your ass out into Canal Street. Your corpses will feed the mosquitoes and water moccasins... it's too late, you spent too damn much time lootin' instead of footin your ass outta harms way. You had warnings... the mayor, the govenor and even Dubya all said "get the Hell outta there!"

How quickly humanity can resort to primitivism. How fragile this civilization really is.

[judih]

G's comment from the other room as he's watching the antics of New Orleans stay-at-homes: "They're looting the homes of those who left! Barbarians. People are the same wherever they are - tsunami, floods, Indians, Americans, it's all the same"


and so it is.

[mtmynd]

Judih - It is now Day 4 and amazingly the situation is getting worse. Even the events 4 days after the tsunami were more under control.

[stilltrucking]

And Iraq has nothing to do with it I am sure. Reading Z's post about the cost of the war.

The absence of these "first responders" back home has become a major preoccupation for local and state governments, including those in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama hardest hit by Katrina.

I could not care less about the looting. But it does make for riveting TV. I can hardly wait until the next episode of COPS or America's Most wanted.
Take those fucking camera men an newpeople and put them to work digging through the rubble looking for survivors.

edited once
never mind

How quickly humanity can resort to primitivism. How fragile civilization really is.

Reminds me of Sam Kinston talking about camera men filming starving children. "you would think one of them would stop shoting and give the kid a sandwhich" paraphrase from memory. I heard a woman on Diane Rehms today a call in. She was fighting back tears, said I have not heard from my mother in new orleans I don't care about the looting, find her for me.

[mtmynd]

truck - perhaps you've viewed videos of the war in Iraq... compliments of the newspeople. Should they arm themselves and shoot the terrorists, too?

New Orleans Super Bowl is filled with dead people, old, young, babies, people in their wheelchairs... feces is everywhere. No food, no water... can a newperson take care of that situation? Does a news crew have excess supplies to pass out to the needy? You know the answers to that...

FEMA just announced they will suspend all rescue operations because of fear of what is happening!! Suspending fresh water, food, blankets at the minimum would aid thousand of people desperately hungry and thirsty. The buses have not moved. Helicopters are no longer picking up the stranded.

Is this America? We do more for foreign countries than what is happening here. Dubya should be ashamed of his response to this tragedy... the worst thhis country has ever seen. Our government should feel embarrassed by their response to this tragedy. People cannnot wait five, six days for fresh water. People cannot wait for any sign of assistance. The government is totally at fault here... your government, my government, the people in New Orleans government.

Is fear any reason to suspend aid? Where are the 'brave' of this country? Where are they? The government is hiding from the reality... cowering in their own fear. Our government winces not at the pain and agony of the innocent is Iraq... and they are apparently doing the same for the people of New Orleans.

I am sick, I am saddened, I am discouraged by the path of my country. There must be many, many millions that share my feelings.

[Doreen Peri]

There's another thread about Katrina in Discussions. I wish I could merge them but I would have to add a modification to the software in order to do it. But I can move the thread over here to Culture so they are both in the same place. That way all the comments about this tragedy can be more easily accessed.

[stilltrucking]

okay doreen should I post reply to cecil here or there.

Cecil I think a free press is vital, but I am starting to wonder just how free our press is. The press has let us down big time on the war. I don't got much respect for them anymore. And now after a break for commercials we will be back with some more horrible pictures from Katrina. How is Judith Miller doing these days I wonder. Still in jail?
I grew up before TV. It don't have as much a hold on me as it does on the youngsters here. I was twelve when we got our first TV. I only regret that I was too old for the Cookie monster and Snaggle Puss, Mr Roberts. The fifties black and white shows when they were still live. Yeah I distrust imbedded journalists. Vietnam those guys were heroes, not I don't know anymore. Just don't know. The relief Helicopters grounded last thing I heard. I wonder are the news choppers still flying?

I suppose I am just too old. I don't want to look at the images. All I can say is I know, I know, I know. Hundreds of national guards man why not thousands, see Zlatko post. I am telling cecil pretty soon Bangledesh will be sending us aid. Be nice if France and England, German, etc decided to help us out with some of the billions we spent rebuilding Europe. The money Only one country has ever paid us back. Finland. Has any foreign country offered to send any aid to us?
Ashamed is that what you are. Ashamed to be an american? Oh yes self loathing is very useful.

Life Against Death
Norman O Brown
A disease called man.\\ and undoubtedly Americans are the sickest.

[mtmynd]

truck - best I can tell, the news copters are not flying, but those amazing newspeople are on the ground bearing the same problems as the reg folks on a 'now' basis, i.e., no great amounts of water or food, putting up with the possibility of diseases, 'skeeter' bites, snake bites, etc... since the initial winds of Katrina began.

How they get out of the problems that the 'natives' are enduring..? well, quien sabe? They have small vehicles that can't pick up all the folks that need help, obviously, but I have heard they have shared their two bottles of water with some folks...

A large news conference with the head of Homeland Security, Attorney General, head of National Guard claim all efforts of releif are being hampered by lack of accessible roads...? I question why not flying the relief into them via copters..?

Supposedly 1400 Nat'l Guardsmen are coming into NOLa tday, followed by another 1400 tomorrow and another 1400 the next day. Remains to be seen. I do recognize the logistics of where are these add'l troops going to sleep and eat. Very much a problem but I feel that given the experiences of our Armies, they could easily figure that barrier. But who am I?

BTW: T.V. is the two-dimensional (2D) of radio (1D)... but I'll save that rant for another time.

[Doreen Peri]

I've been in tears for 2 days, watching the film footage on CNN.

Now, we are seeing dead bodies on the street, 15-20,000 people at the Convention Center where they are out of resources, it is unsanitary there, people are starting to fight each other, rape each other, several people have dropped dead, I heard.... it's hot hot hot outside, there's no water, no food. There are not enough buses to carry them to Houston as planned. It's a major major mess and it will get worse. It's so awful and ugly and sad and I am aching for those people. And these are the people who have shelter!!! There are many many people still stranded in New Orleans which is flooded by polluted water.

What can be done????? How can we help?

They need to bring our troops home from Iraq and put them right here to help these people!!!!

Cecil - where are the troops going to sleep and eat? Why can't they set up refugee camps like they do for the displaced in other countries? Why can't they bring tents and bedding and outhouses and water? Yes, I know they say help is on the way, but it's taking too long... We've never seen anything like this in our lifetimes... this is soooo awful.

[stilltrucking]

It is now Day 4 and amazingly the situation is getting worse. Even the events 4 days after the tsunami were more under control

You are reaching hard to paint a picture here Cecil. What was there to control in Ache, what was their to loot? How many milions and millions of people were involved. There just wasn't much there to control amigo. And they had the advantage of being less civilized than we are. You know there was no black and white TV until color TV came out. There is a word for that but I can't think of what it is.

Doreen I think about a wreck on the highway and people slowing down to get a good look. A young girl laying there in the center of the road with a six inch shard of glass through her eye. Standing with a Arizona state trooper. He asked me to stand beside him to block the view out of respect for the dead. people trying to peek around us. Why do they need to see it he asked me. The van had flipped over right in front of me I was first on the scene.

[mtmynd]

Truck - Ache..? I presume your referring to the tsunami, yes? That was totally unexpected... hit hard and ran fast. Katrina was mapped and watched for days.

[Doreen Peri]

Well, 'truckin', I don't consider myself a person who can be compared to a rubbernecker on the highway. Nor do I consider anybody else who is watching the news and witnessing the situation from afar such a person. We are concerned and want to help. We are watching because we need to know what's happening there.

[stilltrucking]

Ya how soon we forget I think that was the name. Cecil our country is in the hands of

the hands of

the hands of

I don't know what to say, I want to break down and cry

I just don't know what to call the people who are running our country.

I have heard that people get the government they deserve. What did we do to deserve this government.

I was listening to a guy from FEMA he was talking about what is normally done in these situations. Supply centers set up items need wharehouse can be there in four hours. Not this time. I want to fucking cry. Trying to figure out what I can do. Money to the red cross I suppose.

[Doreen Peri]

Cecil - the storm was mapped and watched for days, but it quite rapidly escalated into a class 5 storm from a class 1 storm when it was off the coast of Florida. Unfortunately, New Orleans is a city which was built below sea level with levees which were only supposed to withhold a class 3 storm, not a class 5. There are many who weren't able to leave. Many, though, stupidly stayed when they could have left. Now we have thousands and thousands of displaced persons, a dangerous situation in regards to health threats, and way more... It's just so awful. I can't stop saying that. I'm so upset. I want to help. I don't know how. I was thinking of offering my two spare rooms but can anybody get 1500 miles to me? I donno.

[stilltrucking]

No doreen read the un intended consequences new orleans was not was not built below sea level, it is those fucking levees. The city is sinking because all the silt that was deposited is going out to sea. When the city was built it was above sea level. There is a fix but it costs money.