by Starman » Thu Sep 01, 2005 1:30 pm
Simply amazing, unprecedented levels of idiocy.<br>Thanks for that story, DE; That editorial is right-on. At a minimum, I'd say the National Guard and military ought to be taking a pro-active role in relief and damage-clearing, setting-up supply distribution and emergency shelter camps -- And couldn't jobs clearing damage and building be coordinated for those who have lost everything? Fer chrisakes, what a huge labor-force that could be put to constructive use, plus giving able-bodied people made refugees an opportunity to begin working constructively on urgently-needed tasks, rebuilding their devastated lives.<br><br>But WHY isn't the Mississippi river being used to aid evacuation, with ships? Or Lake Ponchetrain, which is actually closest to the farthest-reaches of the submerged city? Is anything being done like this?<br><br>My earliest, first thoughts when the situation of New Orleans flooding became an issue, I realized it HAD to be a priority to set-up temporary staging centers, refugee camps, where evacuated citizens from NO could be taken quickly OUT of the city -- this would have freed-up buses and trucks to make much more frequent trips to the Superdome. Getting people MOVING on a sufficiently-large scale is CRITICAL, to prevent the situation from spiralling out of control. Now, perhaps fueled by desperation and outrage over the utter breakdown in communication, people not being told what to do, what to expect, how to get their urgent critical needs taken care of, someone took some shots at a military helicopter, they've suspended evacuation efforts.<br><br>???? Those were the reports -- now they're apparently back-up.<br><br>But the evacuation and search-and-rescue is simply much too little -- the lack of effective response is incredible.<br><br>I guess I appreciate the reluctance of officials from setting-up refugee camps, but they absolutely HAD to know how essential it would be to streamline the process of recovery and use resources efficiently -- the kind of massive evacuation needed to rescue and relocate the refugees of New Orleans is just NOT happening -- a huge bottleneck of inefficient use of busses -- on top of the idiocy that when the levee-break was known, that EVERY effort all day Monday wasn't made to at LEAST repark the NO school busses so they wouldn't get flooded -- that is the model for me of poor-thinking, and plain incompetance. In fact, it maybe criminal, considering the additional burden that poor decision-making placed on other resources. Those busses should have been immediately been put to shuttling people out of the city.<br><br>Ah, my heart is aching. I keep thinking about the children and sick and disabled folks trapped in the farthest reaches of the city -- I'm not assured any emergency relief efforts have been made for them, how many who survived the flooding are now close to dying from dehydration or illness, or now even hunger. FEMA has authority to temporarily appropriate whatever emergency equipment and supplies they need -- as the more resourceful police officials have been forced to scavenge and appropriate private vehicles to keep providing services.<br><br>This sure shows how fragile our society is. But heads sure should roll over the incredible incompetance shown with inadequate response.<br><br>Chertoff's foolish promoting Terrorism Alertness -- I'm wordless. As stupid as New Orleans police being directed to restore law and order -- they need to evacuate the whole frigging city!<br><br>And GAWD I find the commercials so incredibly tasteless and vapid and insulting -- I've never watched so much news since 911 -- and the quality of news coverage is sometimes so fucking awful -- But CNN just showed, FINALLY, a heartbreaking report by Chris Warren from the convention center, describing what I had suspected, uncounted thousands of desperate people waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for help and busses, with no food and water, living under absolutely deplorable, filthy conditions, people literally dying for want of attention, and NO information or officials at all, occasional militia-troops driving by in armoured vehicles in a show of force, but the utter lack of ANYTHING being done -- ???? God, I hope somebody with authority is watching or others will call them to task -- They need an IMMEDIATE drop of emergency water and food and force on-the-ground to coordinate rescue -- I just can't believe the degree of ineptness.<br><br>Enormous resources are so stupidly engaged in Iraq and in some 1000 foreign military bases, and obviously lacking to help the Gulf and NO folks. But for Chrisakes --There ARE such things as jet boats and flat-bottomed skiffs and barges -- the Navy has hundreds if not thousands of suitable boats -- there just isn't the will or effort to make use of what's needed because apparently the poor people aren't a high priority for this administration. GodDAMN but people need to take notice.<br><br>(sorry, I'm just so outraged I needed to rant).<br>I STILL say it was criminal to not have heavy-lift helicopters on-hand within 12 hours capable of dropping some big stiff into the levee breaks -- all I see is a lot of officials passing-off responsibility and excusing the lack of effective response while people are dying. Inexcusable. This lack of leadership is a direct Bush legacy.<br>Starman<br><br>And again -- they need to drop some 10 to 20,000 gallons of fresh water to those areas where people have been stranded. NOW!!!!<br><br>(And WHY is CNN showing stale day-old video images -- don't they have any news-copters in the air or crews on the ground?) <p></p><i></i>
