Emerging National Emergency

[Doc]

The incidents you mention are not really widespread, I think the media is playing them up a bit.

This e-mail was sent to me 09/02 by a Law Enforcement Officer on scene:


---
All fine in Baton Rouge so far. We have 50,000 refugees in a town of 300,000 so you can imagine the problems. So far the lid has been kept on and FEMA is starting to show a bigger presence. They are talking about moving the bulk of them to other cities. So stand by. You may be getting a chunk of the Big Easy coming to you.

I went down there (NO) yesterday on a SWAT operation to rescue specific individuals..... The physical damage to the city, other than flooding, is not catastrophic. The city looks the same in the daylight as it always did. The human situation on the other hand is insane. There is NO law and order anywhere in the city limits. The area of the French Quarter is a free fire zone as is the area around the Superdome. We were all over the city and we were the ONLY organized law enforcement on the street, period. There were 14 of us. Saw some dead bodies but not an overwhelming number. As of 3 p.m. yesterday there were only about 100 or so NOPD officers left on the job. The rest of the 1100 man department had quit and left the city with their families and I don't blame them. Most of them had been simply thrown onto the street the morning after the storm and had not see or spoken to their chain of command since. I mean NO contact. NOPD SWAT is about all that is left and we gave them ammunition. They looked like they had been through hell. We were out of the city by dark. One of the eeriest sights that I have ever seen was driving over the bridge and seeing a black void where the lights of N.O used to be.

We are going back down there in a day or so and set up a more permanent presence. This thing is going to start being fixed so the situation will start to improve over the next couple of weeks. There is going to have to be a complete federal take over and martial law declared over the whole area for an unspecified amount of time.

--------------------

Devoid of media hype, presented to you. Please send cash to reputable agencies. Pray if you will.
`

 

[clive francis]

This e-mail was sent to me 09/02 by a Law Enforcement Officer on scene:


---
All fine in Baton Rouge so far. We have 50,000 refugees in a town of 300,000 so you can imagine the problems. So far the lid has been kept on and FEMA is starting to show a bigger presence. They are talking about moving the bulk of them to other cities. So stand by. You may be getting a chunk of the Big Easy coming to you.

I went down there (NO) yesterday on a SWAT operation to rescue specific individuals..... The physical damage to the city, other than flooding, is not catastrophic. The city looks the same in the daylight as it always did. The human situation on the other hand is insane. There is NO law and order anywhere in the city limits. The area of the French Quarter is a free fire zone as is the area around the Superdome. We were all over the city and we were the ONLY organized law enforcement on the street, period. There were 14 of us. Saw some dead bodies but not an overwhelming number. As of 3 p.m. yesterday there were only about 100 or so NOPD officers left on the job. The rest of the 1100 man department had quit and left the city with their families and I don't blame them. Most of them had been simply thrown onto the street the morning after the storm and had not see or spoken to their chain of command since. I mean NO contact. NOPD SWAT is about all that is left and we gave them ammunition. They looked like they had been through hell. We were out of the city by dark. One of the eeriest sights that I have ever seen was driving over the bridge and seeing a black void where the lights of N.O used to be.

We are going back down there in a day or so and set up a more permanent presence. This thing is going to start being fixed so the situation will start to improve over the next couple of weeks. There is going to have to be a complete federal take over and martial law declared over the whole area for an unspecified amount of time.

--------------------

Devoid of media hype, presented to you. Please send cash to reputable agencies. Pray if you will.
`

this is what we have been seeing on the news, they showed a british camera crew driving for their lives after being threatened by locals.

there maybe some selective reporting as well, as here in the uk, they have
(as far as i have seen any way) only talked to two white americans and showed only black americans looting in NO.

 

[freefall2]

Our hearts are breaking for all the people who lost their homes and we're praying that the refugees get the help they need before any more of them die. Our boss' home and businesses are in NO. Our cousin owns a restaurant in the quarter and spent the storm in the apartment upstairs - she and her daughter finally got out of the city. All our friends and family are accounted for but the property loss remains to be seen.

I just donated to www.noahswish.com They are helping animals abandoned in the area. I'm still trying to get onto the Salvation Army site. The adventure motorcycling forum we post on is matching all donations by its members!!

Alcina - I agree that it is very frustrating to hear some countries offer criticism instead of help. I'm a Canadian, married to an American living in Honduras with our Mexican Kitty. We could teach a course in international relations!


I'm happy to see that Canada is helping. It's times like this you learn who your friends are.

Canadian navy heads to New Orleans on Tuesday
HALIFAX (CP) - Defence Minister Bill Graham says three warships and a coast guard vessel are being packed with relief supplies and will be sent to Louisiana on Tuesday.
The ships, which will also carry 1,000 personnel, are expected to arrive in the Gulf of Mexico three to four days after departing from Halifax.
Organizers of the mission, dubbed Operation Union, were still compiling a list of what's needed on Friday. They expect to provide humanitarian aid, along with divers, and engineering expertise for reconstruction.
Three Sea King helicopters will also be sent to ferry personnel into the devastated areas.
Graham says he's been consulting with Prime Minister Paul Martin and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, who is leading a cabinet committee on aid response.

 

[H2Andy]

As always, there are some lunatics who take advantage.

sadly, true... the overwhelming majority of those people are just scared, tired,
hungry, thirsty, and desperate for help

 

[mike_s]

I can't believe today that the President congratulated the FEMA director for the "good job" he'd been doing. Especially when in an earlier press conference he stated that the response by the government was not adequate.

Since people at the conevention center have been there since monday and they just today got anything, I don't see how he can congratulate somebody for that. Especially when the news media can drive a SUV up to the center and they can't get rescue vehicles there.

Obvisously, the folks running the show there are clueless.

 

[ScubaFishee]

this is what we have been seeing on the news, they showed a british camera crew driving for their lives after being threatened by locals.

there maybe some selective reporting as well, as here in the uk, they have
(as far as i have seen any way) only talked to two white americans and showed only black americans looting in NO.

Here is the word straight from the mouth of Mayor Nagin... no sugar coating here. Some may not like it, but I think his passion and emotion cuts straight to the heart. The pain and frustration and suffering is real.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/4929731/detail.html

 

[H2Andy]

Especially when the news media can drive a SUV up to the center and they can't get rescue vehicles there.

mike, it's not the same for some press guys to jump into an SUV and go there
and for tons of supplies to get there.

the supplies need to be gathered together, troops need to come together,
etc... it just took time (4 days), but they are there now

actually, i don't think 4 days is that bad, considering the magnitude of this
disaster. no one has seen 80% of a major american city under water.
no one had seen a Category 4 hurricane affect an area the size of Great Britain

four days is pretty darned good... but, for those folks in the city, i am sure
each second was hell, and for that, my heart goes out to them

just wait until the blame-game about the Bush administration cutting the Army
Corps of Engineer's budget (responsible for keeping the New Orleans levees going)
from almost $150 million in 2001 to $87 million this year and a proposed $56 million in 2006.

there's blame enough to go around, but the guys on the ground busting their butts ARE NOT the right target

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=32144&dcn=todaysnews

 

[mike_s]

mike, it's not the same for some press guys to jump into an SUV and go there
and for tons of supplies to get there.

the supplies need to be gathered together, troops need to come together,
etc... it just took time (4 days), but they are there now

actually, i don't think 4 days is that bad, considering the magnitude of this
disaster. no one has seen 80% of a major american city under water.
no one had seen a Category 4 hurricane affect an area the size of Great Britain

four days is pretty darned good... but, for those folks in the city, i am sure
each second was hell, and for that, my heart goes out to them

just wait until the blame-game about the Bush administration cutting the Army
Corps of Engineer's budget (responsible for keeping the New Orleans levees going)
from almost $150 million in 2001 to $87 million this year and a proposed $56 million in 2006.

there's blame enough to go around, but the guys on the ground busting their butts ARE NOT the right target

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=32144&dcn=todaysnews

Well the Bush Administration isn't the only administration to decline funding of fixing the levee's. It's been declined by previous administrations also. So no "single administration" is to blame.

As for the supplies, a LOT of the supplies have been there for days just waiting to be distributed. My wife works for a large national freight company and trucks have been tied up there for days "waiting". They (FEMA or New Orleans city) just didn't have a "plan" for distrubution, rescue, etc.

I've got to agree with CNN's Anderson Cooper. He stated that he was sick and tired of seeing politicians get on TV and slap each other on the back and "thank each other" for what a good job they are doing. When Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu got on his show and started her political "back slapping", boy did he let her have it. I'd love to have a tape/video of it.

There should have been a contingency plan all along for filling breaks in the Levee, no matter how the were created.

For what I can see, Al Qaeda could have driven a large ski boat up to any of the levee's with enough explosives to have submerged the city with a single explosion.
If they had done it with several teams like they did on Sept 11th, then it would
have caused more damange than the WTC attack with a much more low-tech attack.

It's a good thing they never read the Corp of Eng reports on the Levee's.

 

[jonnythan]

Have you guys read the WWL interview with Mayor Nagin?

It's CLASSIC. He spent 10 minutes tearing into the feds. And I don't blame him.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/index.html

 

[H2Andy]

He spent 10 minutes tearing into the feds. And I don't blame him.

well... it sounds like the City of New Orlean's plan for dealing with a hurricane
was to say "Help" and wait

the State of Lousiana didn't pick up the slack... they said "Help" and waited

and then, four days later, the Feds show up

why weren't local and state plans in effect long before the Feds came on the scene?

at any rate, i guess my point is that finger pointing won't help a single New Orleans
resident get food and water and somewhere to live while the clean up takes place