How many of us from the States?

[StephanieCordray]

Sorrry... but this hurricane thing is uppermost in my mind right now. I have family there, all survived physically, but a lot of damage and several are homeless now. My good thoughts, wishes, and hope for survival to all affected by this.

[SiteExpress]

I am in Indiana, but my inlaws live on their boat in New Orleans. We lost contact with them the night of the storm, but heard from them this morning. All is ok, but the boat is gone. It was Just material anyway, and we were so relieved to hear from them.

I am a Paramedic of 16 years, and have offered to go down and help. As of today, there has not been a call to the Indiana EMS commission for assistance, but when, or if there is, I plan to go. I just can't imagine what they are all going through.

[StephanieCordray]

Take care, SiteExpress. We just got news today that one of the sisters who thought her house was gone miraculously found it still intact along with the small neighborhood where she lives while everything around them has been flattened. Husband's family I should say since I'm from further north than even where I'm living now. Another sister rode it out along with my father in law and were relatively unscathed both in homes and otherwise. Another sister's home was flooded although on 16 foot stilts.

The whole thing is a nightmare... I don't know the area well but I remember many of those places there. Unfortunately I never visited New Orleans and wish I had. I've been watching videos online and on tv along with stills. The whole thing is heartbreaking. If it weren't for my health I would be volunteering, too. I have Red Cross training, :-(. As far as I know TN hasn't been called upon either but if they are, I'll see what I can do from here.

[SiteExpress]

WHat part of Tn are you in? I have a brother near gallatan.

[StephanieCordray]

Haha... neighbors... look in my info to the left.

[ian]

It was terrible the devastation, but what I couldnt understand is why so early on, the military switched from search and rescue to one of stopping the looting.
They showed one lady on the news who took some running shoes from a store, and they asked her why she was stealing it, she said I dont have any shoes, I cant see through the water, what do you want me to step on some glass. I mean if I were in that position, and needed food or water or some clothes to wear, I might find myself doing the same thing, its hard to say. Besides most of the people/businesses have insurance, I would have thought the safety and welfare of the people would have been the number one concern.
Im glad to hear that your relatives are ok.

[StephanieCordray]

ian... they won't do anything to a person who just picked up a pair of shoes or those who took water, food, blankets, etc. but they do have to ask them what they are doing. The kind of looting that was going on down there was not just desperate people but crooks stockpiling goods for later to sell to the unfortunate or to sell in the aftermath to people moving back into the city. The cops were looting just as badly as the crooks in some areas... actual looting.

However, having lived in that state, I know how that state is and kind of expected it. That state from local officials up has been crooked for so many years I don't know if they would know what honest is. I mean you hear there are crooked people in every government,right? Louisiana has a shortage of honest people to offset them.

A lot of things disturb me. Not least is why they had no disaster plan in place while blaming the federal government for it. It takes time to load and shift that much stuff from one place to another. The difference between Louisiana and Mississippi are profound in that respect, yet you know both states have experienced this same type disaster time and time again. MS knows, has plans in effect that go into effect immediately because it does take time to organize and shift what will be coming from the federal government. Louisiana did nothing. Mississippi is sending aide to Louisiana.

Poverty aside, the people in Louisiana should know that if a storm comes through at the least they will lose power which could be off for long periods of time. Bottled water does not cost that much, canned foods to eat in an emergency... food that they would probably have as a matter of course because it is the cheapest to buy. Water doesn't rise so quickly over such a wide area that they didn't have time to grab something but they grabbed nothing. The people were ill prepared for a disaster of any type and panicked or left thinking that help would be on higher ground. Their state and local government let them down in that respect because they had nothing ready to provide that assistance. Once it's over with I can almost guarantee that some few survivors will be telling stories of being robbed of what little they salvaged of food and water before abandoning their homes. Just because they are poor doesn't mean they are all stupid but that's what the press makes it them out to be.

I don't understand why the press could stand around and push cameras and microphones in people's faces while reporting that there are no communications systems for workers to use to coordinate anything but can give us nationwide coverage of the nightmare. And put someone on the cameras who was too good to eat an MRE cold.

I don't understand why everybody is pointing a finger at the president when none of this is his fault. They snicker about him not leaving his ranch until Tuesday when much of what he could do initially on his own could be done by phone call, yet fail to mention that Congress, who would be needed to enact long term relief and set aside monies, didn't start moving back to the capitol until Wednesday. Why can't they put their enmity on hold long enough to just get the job done as best they can in the face of a disaster... Why do they have to use this as an opportunity to take potshots at him just because they don't like him instead of using that energy and brainpower to deal with a castastropic situation?

In MS I have: 3 sisters-in-laws, a Father-in-Law, his wife, and 3 stepbrothers. They are stretched across the whole area. Father in law lived between Long Beach and Pass Christian as does one sister 1/2 mile from him. 2 sisters lived in Gulf Port. The stepbrothers likewise.
In AL I have: Mother-in-law, her husband, 1 sister-in-law, Aunt Faye, her 3 children, and their children. All live in Mobile and Mother is very near downtown.
In Fl. I have some nieces but I lost count of how many.
In LA I have a nephew who had a baby sick in the hospital.

All are fine.

FEMA and the federal government are taking huge hits from this and truly unable to answer it without making things worse because it would become a finger pointing match. So they tap dance around the real answer and the stupid press keep asking the same stupid questions over and over again.

I'm so sick of the press right now. I'm probably in a minority over that, too. Hardly anybody likes the president these days but, man, it's time to put that aside and deal with this problem realistically. If you ask me, the press is just making the situation worse and don't seem likely to let up because worse increases their stupid ratings.

When you think of it in that light, who thinks more of human life when that life means nothing but an extra rating point to those stupid people? Celebrities and posturing politicians going on camera and saying things outright like: "The president doesn't like black people." That's what people are going to remember from all this. The truth will be buried in a mountain of press ratings and ad sales revenues. ****, since I know how the press is now and how they slant things and practically all out lie, I might actually start liking the president again myself. Maybe I've misjudged him all this time because the press said so.

I'm done ranting now. Sorry.

[StephanieCordray]

Oh, yeah. One more thing, although not more ranting. Directnic, which many of you may know, is based in New Orleans and stayed operational through everything. They have a running blog going, lots of images; some video and audio feed as well.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/

[SiteExpress]

Steph,

I couldn't agree more with you on most points. However, having the education that I have in just this type of emergency, I can see a few things in a different light.

To put things into prospective. Alabama is basically the central hub in the US for training and education on such things including emergency preparedness, hazardous materials events, incident command and incident management, biochemical events, and much more. the state of Alabama offers almost all of its training and education free to every other state government and emergency reponders in the country. Since it is a neighboring state of LA. I know that LA. has had the opportunity to be ready for this. In reality, they should not have even needed FEMA for things like evacuating people and providing food and water and shelter. Those are basic essentials that are available for even a state to have ready for an event like this.

The fact is that there are two problems here now. One is that even with warning, people simply did not listen and evacuate, and the second is the lack of effective help once the damage was done. I am not talking about the handful of people that could not afford the gas to leave, or simply just did not have the means to leave. I am talking about the majority of those people that didn't leave because they were either too stubborn to do so, or they just thought they new more about the weather that the Weather Channel. these people stayed in that city, when every reliable resource told them to get out because it would be a "death trap." Now, these people are calling on us as taxpayers, and our governement to bail them out for their stupidity. Not only that, they are mad at everyone else for not helping them immediately.

Don't get me wrong. The efforts of the state and federal governemnt, to get these people out now, have been pretty pathetic. The people that are stranded on that highway overpass now for 5 days, and being kept there at gunpoint because the government will not even allow them to walk out. Armed guards prevent them from even walking out of the city. I received a bulletin from our Indiana State Emergency Commission yesterday. It stated that it is forbidden for any municiple or emergency entity to attempt to go down and provide assistance for people. the bulletin stated that anyone attempting to do so would be turned away, along with any goods that they brought for those people.

Now I could understand this philosophy if there was an organized and working effort ongoing that was actually doing something effectively. However that is not the case. the fact is that the state level help is pretty much non-existant, and the Federal Aid is just now beginning to take hold. I can understand why it takes a while to mobilize Federal help, but it is the duty of the state to be the "First Responders" in such an event and that just did not happen. So in light of the pathetic effort of relief for these people trapped there, why not allow other states that know how to handle the situation send help? Why wait on the Federal help, when you know it is days away?

Help is there now, and thankfully those people can begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel. But, it is now too late. The people stranded there lived in misery, and horror, and many died because of the lack of response.

As far as the looting, let them have it all. Why waste valuable resources on such petty things? My wife is an insurance adjuster for a major insurance carrier. She says that it is all going to be considered contaminated and burned or thrown away anyway. Let those people take what they want. After all, what are they going to do with it now anyway? They cant carry out a big screen to houston. They cant leave it along side the road. They can't stay in New Orleans with it. They are going to have to lose it anyway. Leave them alone and focus on the higher crimes like murder and rape, and rescue those people from it all, by getting them out of there.

I guess I dont understand why every bus from every school, every available bussing company, and every type of shuttle available was not lined up on the highway by the second day. All it would have taken was a phone call. We built tent cities for our soldiers to live in overseas. Why were they not built for our own citizens? And why were they not set up by the second or third day to receive all of those people?

Ok, i am done with my rant. Sigh!

Thanks for listening and I hope I don't offend anyone.

[StephanieCordray]

My point with the press is that they are glossing over the state's lack of preparedness and targeting the president as being to blame because it FITS their agenda.... in every situation such as this one you'll have people who just simply don't listen... My father-in-law being one of them although he came out of it relatively unscathed. We begged them to come here. We could have vacated the office and its adjoining bathroom to make room, too. Computers will fit in our bedroom... but no, they don't listen... this i understand... well i don't really understand why they don't listen but i understand what happens because they don't.

The lack of preparedness is directly due to the state and local authorities attitude toward the people for whom they are supposed to be responsible. They are supposed to have things in place and didn't.

I understand why other states couldn't get through, too. They couldn't guarantee safety... people were shooting... people shooting hold everybody else hostage. You don't know where they are and that's the sad thing about this whole mess. People in those crowds looted Walmarts and other stores stripping guns and bullets off the shelves... some probably to protect what little resources they had for themselves and their families but still... you know?

That's why you don't see the smooth flow of help that is normally seen during disasters such as this one. There should have been measures in place at the state and local levels to initiate solutions to the problem while FEMA and the rest of the country could mobilize.

As to the last part of your rant... well... my cynical self says that's because it would take resources from the state's coffers that the 'officials' hoped to later stick in their own pockets. It costs money to move all those buses and other resources in from other areas money they didn't want to spend because it meant less for them. When a state elects government officials based on whether the crook denies being a crook or admits to being a crook, it's got problems. That actually happened and I'm assured things haven't changed much since then.

I feel for the people trapped in that situation but for the state as a whole, I really don't have much sympathy.