Those people, I'd shoot. Not the PB and J Brigade.
A note of gruesome implication; empty self-powered refrigerated trailers are being routed to the affected areas, as are refrigerated rail cars. They're not likely to be used for storing icecream and sundries.
Some help is on the way.
I know it's a little late for some, but...
Pope airmen on their way to New Orleans
This is reading more and more like some disaster movie... how awful. Horrified.
Help was "On the way" before the storm hit, squinney - as huge an undertaking as this is doesn't come together at the snap of a finger. The magnitude of this disaster is unprecendented in our history - and while its not a happy-feely-touchy answer, "These things take time" is the operative, and inescapable, answer. Among other considerations, in the immediate aftermath of the disruption and devastation, not only is it near to impossible to emplace and deploy what is needed, determining and securing what is needed is an issue which requires somedeliberation and forethought.
Massive assets were pre-positioned, and tremendous preliminary work was done. For any number of perfectly understandable, unavoidable reasons, only over the past 48 hours or so has it been even possible to begin tackling many of the things which need to be tackled. There are going to be failures, and disappointments, and recriminations - none of which do a damned thing for the folks who need, and now are beginning to receive, the help that's been "On the way" since before the disaster.
One thing that is going to be particularly troubling is the restoration of order in what is by default an authority vacuum in an urban area, and another inevitablility of fire in New Orleans, and the inability of the authorities to do much about it, given the collapsed infrastructure. Both are going to be major, major issues over the next few days.
First personal connection -- my dad's wife's brother (my step-uncle, I guess) was on vacation but his house near the French Quarter has been destroyed.
Meanwhile, was just browsing craigslist and noticed new red highlighting for some cities -- clicked on New Orleans and they have a new section, including "lost and found." Made the mistake of clicking on that, and all kinds of hearbreaking requests for help in finding people -- this happened to be the first one I saw, awful:
Looking for 9 year old Michelle Ferguson.
She was last located at a nursing home facility in lumberton, ms/ hattiesburg area.
contact mother, stephanie, in dallas or red cross *
Sure hope they find Michelle safe and sound.
*I just edited out the email address, already out there on craigslist but don't want to contribute to her getting more spam.
Unfortunately, Soz, we're gonna be in for unimagineable heartbreak and tragedy over this - I'm afraid we're going to continue discovering things are much worse than we had expected for a good while before we start hearing things are beginning to go well. This really sucks already, and we don't even fully understand what confronts us.
Are there any A2K'rs from the impacted areas?
If so, have they checked in?
I don't really get this:
Quote:Just above the convention center on Interstate 10, commercial buses were lined up, going nowhere. The street outside the center, above the floodwaters, smelled of urine and feces, and was choked with dirty diapers, old bottles and garbage.
"They've been teasing us with buses for four days," Edwards said.
Why aren't the buses being used? Is it that they can't get anywhere?
Why isn't there any food + water being gotten to the Superdome people? Dropped from helicopters, something? Is it that they think it will make things even more volatile?
Some article I read in the last couple of hours said that people outside had broken in to the food and water storage in the dome... ???
I read that too, not sure how far it would go.
Still remains that (as far as I know), no particular food and water has been gotten to them.
Not sure about that though, part of what I'm trying to establish.
This is the article I think we both read, where I got the above quote:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050901/ap_on_re_us/hurricane_katrina_25
The part before what I already quoted, more about hunger/ official presence (or lack thereof):
Quote:Outside the Convention Center, the sidewalks were packed with people without food, water or medical care, and with no sign of law enforcement. Thousands of storm refugees had been assembling outside for days, waiting for buses that did not come.
At least seven bodies were scattered outside, and hungry, desperate people who were tired of waiting broke through the steel doors to a food service entrance and began pushing out pallets of water and juice and whatever else they could find.
An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.
"I don't treat my dog like that," 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he pointed at the woman in the wheelchair. "I buried my dog." He added: "You can do everything for other countries but you can't do nothing for your own people. You can go overseas with the military but you can't get them down here."
Yes, that was the article.
I am all gloom here. Any procession of food distribution now will be a sad free for all. Unless some natural leaders, other than thugs, come to the fore.
I know the scale is horrendous but it's awful watching a rich nation with so many resources leave so many people in such desperate straits.
Couldn't they reach a great many to give out food and water with flotillas of small boats and volunteers? (Dunkirk springs to mind).
That is what is still confusing me, too.
Mayor has sent out an SOS.
This may have been in earlier articles, but is a more succinct summary of what I've been saying:
Why nothing?
I believe there could be a good answer, but haven't been able to find what it is yet.
Backing up, I was wrong about people breaking into food and water storage at the dome, it was the convention center.
