Now that the Houston Astrodome isn't accepting any more refugees, what's the plan? I've read that some are supposed to be taken to San Antonio -- is that right? And I'm concerned for the tens of thousands of people without safe water, food, or medical care, not just in New Orleans, but elsewhere in LA, MS, ALA, even parts of FL.

Am I right in assuming that lots more people will die before adequate basic help arrives?

Yeppers. Many more are gonna die before this is all finsihed. I personally believe that part of it is a manifestation of the ingrained racism that exists in this country. I just believe in my soul that if it was 30,000 white people stuck at the NOLA convention center and superdome, they all wouldda been outta there by tuesday.

My personal beliefs aside...

San Antonio is supposed to accept up to 25,000, but I dont know how just yet. We only found out this afternoon that they were coming and at 5PM they were still grinding off the bolts that stuck out of the concrete (that held down equipment) in the warehouse where everyone is staying. I dont know how it coudl be ready already.

What would be real nice would be if the right religous brother Joel Osteen would shut his mouth for once and open his church. He just moved his congregation to the former Compaq Center. Bet that place could hold some refugees.

BTW, on CNN I just saw Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Katrina Task Force - some dude named General Honoree was all apologetic saying (and I am paraphrasing here) that "there was absolutely NO way anyone could have seen this coming." Really? Cause a few lowly New Orleans Times-Picayune reporters figured it out some three years ago. See their story (I cant find a dateline) HERE. (Read 'Day Two' - its a play by play of whats happening now - and this was written (I believe) three years ago.

I just dont understand how it's 2005 and were gonna have THOUSANDS who have died in this. When 8,000 died in the Galveston storm in 1900, I can understand. They had no warning. But being the weathiest, most powerful country in the world, how did this happen here in 2005? How were we this vunerable? How did we not have a plan?

These are the questions that we keep asking ourselves. I'm sorry, I just cannot comprehend what is happening here. We've been watching Today and they were just interviewing the head of FEMA. It sounded like this guy pretty much said that the people in New Orleans were getting help, but the pictures certainly said something completely different.

Why is this happening in our own country? It's my understanding that many other countries have already offered tangible help to us, but this assistance has been turned down? I hope I'm wrong about that!

Why can't I shake the feeling that if this devastation had happened anywhere else, the US would have had help there in 48 hours? Why can't we take care of our own country in a true time of crisis?

Yep. I agree.

My line sister works at the Holiday Inn in Tallahassee and she says its been PACKED in there with all sorts of pets running around. They are, however, KICKING THEM ALL OUT because of people who reserved hotel rooms for the Miami football game on Labor Day...these people have no-where to go and people are just breaking down in her arms...another Soror helped make 700 meals at her church that is being used as a shelter.

You are not the only one that thinks this and it pisses (excuse my language) me off. Someone shot once at you 2 days ago and they ain't been back since (and that IF they really were shot at because on NPR yesterday, they interviewed a rescue crew and they were like no one has been shooting at us)? WTF? If these are people that work in New Orleans, I'm sure they've been shot at before because all of NO's neighborhoods ain't like the French Quarter.

There is a reporter in reporting from downtown that is saying that the water has subsided and that you CAN get to the convention center / downtown by vehicle so where the heck are they???

I'm sorry to get all political but this is frickin' ridiculous. Yeah, my family is ok, but many people's are not. Those are someone's mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son that has been left there to basically die - and for what.....because those in charge are running around like the Three Stooges.

I'm watching the President right now and I totally agree with him - the results so far are unacceptable. And they have planned poorly.

I agree also. It's been a week. A week.:(

Ugh, this is another thing that makes me fucking sick about this situation. The damn hotels in LA, MS, AR, and TX. They jacked up the prices so high that many people couldn't afford to stay there.

I was thinking that it was tough to get supplies in there because of flood waters and debris, etc., until I saw Harry Connick Jr on the Today Show this morning. He said they drove right up to that convention center. Days ago, they could have asked for every charter bus company in the country to send one bus down there to help. They could have asked every bottled water company to send a couple truckloads of water. Why is this so impossible for them to pull together? We look like a third world country down there.

The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 was a Cat 4 when it hit Miami. It took a few decades for the area to completely recover. Not sure what the population of Miami was at that point, though.

Trivia: The University of Miami opened it doors for the first time just days after the Great Hurricane. That's why they named their athletic teams "The Hurricanes."

Ms. MysticCat and I both commented watching the news how almost all of those stranded in NOLA that we saw on TV were black.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with your observation about how the speed of reaction might be different if those stranded were white. In addition, Ms. MysticCat and I were commenting on how what we were seeing showed the vast socio-economic divide that still exists on racial lines. Most of those who could get out did. Those who did not have the resources to leave couldn't, and as we can see they were overwhelmingly black.

This whole thing is just so sad in so many ways.

Okay, I should preface this by saying that I know nothing about how the media works and how reporters/film crews work their jobs. And I certainly don't mean to offend any of you who work in media (DeltAlum, I'm talking to you!).

But what I want to know is, as I sit here and watch the news coverage of all of this, I want to know why, especially in NO, where the reporters are shooting images from their car windows, are they just standing there and capturing all this on film? I realize it's their job, but isn't there a point where the situation becomes so urgent that you need to just stop and help?

If I were down there, I would be helping every person I could. I would be shuttling people back and forth in my news van. I would be giving out my bottles of water. Otherwise, I'd go out of my mind if I had to just stand there and look at it all and do nothing.

I don't know. Maybe that is how all the reporters feel. It just seems like such a waste to have able-bodied people standing there while all this is going on. Maybe I've reached an emotional breaking point and I am just overwhelmed and am just not making sense about anything anymore.

It's difficult because where do you start? In a devastated city where there are 100,000+ people stranded, who do you go to first? The sick and the elderly? The children? They're all over the city. People are so spread out, it's impossible to find and get to them all right away. And while you're rescuing those, you have to leave behind others who may be in just as dire straits and who may not be there when you get back. How do you choose between two people who are both straddling life and death and you can only take one?

The United States may be a powerful and wealthy country, but we still have our weaknesses. This is evidently one of them.

You would think that after 9/11, we'd be a little better equipped to deal with a national disaster like this. Hell, they knew this was coming, it's not like it was a suprise. You would think that they'd have a better emergency plan put together, a better communications system and a way to get bodies and supplies down there to help ASAP.

You would think.

It's just so sad.

I know I asked about this, and others may be curious as well, so I'll post the info in case anyone is interested.

Form a Volunteer Team: Hands On Network (www.citycares.org) is organizing and deploying coordinated volunteer teams of 25 or more people to serve in the Volunteer Operations Center set up by the Red Cross in Montgomery, AL. Volunteers will help provide for the basic needs of displaced individuals and families by helping erect temporary shelters (tent cities) and organizing support services such as dispensing water, serving food, administering first aid, providing comfort, etc. Volunteers will receive on-site training from the Red Cross to support specific recovery and emergency needs. If you are interested in volunteering for this effort, please make note of the following eligibility requirements.

1. Seven-day Commitment: Volunteers can only be accepted if they commit to at least a seven-day shift (Sept. 6-13; Sept. 14-21; Sept. 21-28; October and beyond).

2. Groups Strongly Preferred: Groups of 25 or more are strongly preferred over individuals. This will help maximize our efforts. Individuals must form teams that have a designated Team Leader, and he/she must supply a name, address, direct phone number and email address, as well as the number of people in the group.

3. Travel: Volunteers must arrange for their own transportation to and from Montgomery.

4. Housing: Volunteers will be provided with shelter and food in the same tent cities where they will be serving. Volunteers must bring their own sleeping bags and be prepared to sleep in makeshift structures.

5. Medical Needs: Individuals with medical issues that require regular or rapid attention are strongly discouraged from volunteering at this time. Medical personnel are already overextended serving immediate emergency needs.

6. Insurance and Liability: The Red Cross does not accept liability for volunteers serving in disaster response efforts. Volunteers should be covered by their own individual or company policies and will be required to sign appropriate waivers upon volunteer registration.

If you have a group of volunteers that meets all these requirements, please contact the Hands On Network at takeaction@handsonnetwork.org or call the special hotline at 404-979-2933.

I've gotten the sense that many reporters are doing what they can to help, but what they can do may be limited. They don't have cases of water to hand out. They don't have food. I think lots of reporters have notebooks full of names and phone numbers to try and help reconnect families.

But realistically, perhaps the best way the reporters could help yesterday was to get it all on film/record to show FEMA and the White House what was really going on. I mean, sheesh, Chertoff was telling NPR yesterday that their reporter was basically repeating rumor about what was going on at the NOLA Convention Center -- one of his spokespeople sent NPR a message later in the day to say, basically, "guess what, turns out your guy was right." :rolleyes:

I think MysticCat is right. There are also probably liability issues/concerns that prohibit reporters from just providing basic help (such as taking names and numbers of family members, etc...).

I just want to reiterate that by my previous comment I was not trying to be critical of the press, I was just trying to express that I don't understand. I'm overwhelmed with the urge to go down there and help just by seeing these images, let alone if I were standing there amidst all the destruction. I can't imagine what they're feeling.

Well, Mr. xo_kathy thinks that FEMA has been so obsessed with tryong to plan for terrorist attacks on our major cities that they have completely stopped worrying about anything else. Probably true, and it's obviously backfired... :(

IN terms of the media, I was reading a NY Daily News reporters story yesterday and he pointed out that he and his photographer are down there living out of the car they are in. They have no supplies to offer and no room to fit anyone in the car. Also, they mentioned they wouldn't know where to start. If they offered help to one, there is the possibility of people getting angry and trying to car jack them - or worse.

And I sadly think lifesaver is right - if they were rich white folks, they wouldn;t still be there.

No worries. I think we all share your sense of complete dumbfoundedness, and we would all like to just jump into our TV sets and help.

In a strange way, it has really hit Ms. MysticCat and me. We don't have family down there (any more -- up to a few years ago, we did), but we honeymooned in New Orleans -- a truly ideal location for a honeymoon. It's hard to see a place so intertwined with wonderful memories for us suffering so.

I wonder if some of the people that are like shooting at the rescue helicopters and that sort of stuff are doing it for some sick, twisted reason. Maybe they think if someone arrests them, they'll at least be rescued and in a jail somewhere (or wherever they're putting people). Yeah, they might get shot, too, but at this point, a lot of these people are close enough to death that it wouldn't matter to them much.

Of course, there's no excuse for the gang rapes and all that other stuff going on...

I don't think you were being critical, I don't think anyone really understands what is really going on down there and why or why not there is or isn't help.

This is not directed at anyone in particular, it's just something I've noticed, and not only about the relief efforts in LA, MS and AL, but about other issues.

It's so easy to sit here, safe in our houses or offices and say "Well, if I were there I would [insert the blank]." But no one can honestly say those things. Until you're placed in that exact situation, you never know how you personally will react.

I'm sorry to all of you who think so, but I just do not think that race has as much to do with this as you all think. Black or white, Americans are Americans and I do not think that the government is going to be less concerned about these people than if they were white.

I am appalled to hear about beatings and rapings that are supposedly going on now. I understand fear and desperation, but I don't think any of this calls for lawlessness. It does not justify people attacking the police, stealing guns, and shooting at the people who are trying to do what they can to help.

Everyone agrees that it is taking too long to help those who are still there. But, I do NOT think that it would get there any faster if these people were mostly white.

I don't condone what the looters or shooters are doing but I think it's a cry for help. I almost sympathize with them in a way. They're hungry, tired and many of them will probably die. The US government has essentially told them that they don't care. Their behavior is out of desperation. It doesn't make what they're doing right and it certainly doesn't help the situation but I can see why they're doing it.

I've seen several reporters help different people. I don't remember the network, because I've watched so many, but one reported was in this area where men were walking in water with a boat rescuing people. The men rescued 2 elderly women and after the reporter talked to them they took the 2 ladies to a so called staging area for transportation to a shelter.

Another reporter (I know this was ABC it was Michel something--the AA reporter with the short natural) was taking information from people who had been separated from their loved ones.

This is the most heart wrenching thing I have ever seen. To see people litterally dying on the street from dehydration is beyond belief.

CNN played an part of a radio interview with the Mayor of New Orleans. He was livid that they(I don't know who he was referring to) are still considering on how to recruit bus drivers to drive the buses out of NO. He asked why hasn't Greyhound sent buses down there.

From GMA, they told a story how some victims pooled their money to charter a bus. They got on the bus and National Guard stopped the bus and made them get out.
As well a 18yr. old boy got hold of a yellow school bus. People piled in and they drove all the way to Houston. There's a possibility he may be brought up on charges. It's not like he took a plasma tv. He was trying to get himself and others out because time is ticking away.

I don't think this is true at all. People and the government are TRYING. Yes, it is taking much longer than it should. But, the government has not done anything to tell them that they just don't care.

I don't think race is intentionally part of it, but I think it has played and in playing a role in the disaster we've seen.

This is from today's New York Times, in a discussion of how all the planning and scenarios over the years failed to take into account dealing with much of New Orleans' population:

Brian Wolshon, an engineering professor at Louisiana State University who served as a consultant on the state's evacuation plan, said little attention was paid to moving out New Orleans's "low-mobility" population - the elderly, the infirm and the poor without cars or other means of fleeing the city, about 100,000 people.

At disaster planning meetings, he said, "the answer was often silence."

The plain reality is that these 100,000 people they're talking about are overwhelmingly black. I think that's a reflection on the socio-economic differences that still exist.

And while I agree that Americans are Americans, I can't discount the question -- might things be different if most of these people were white.

This may be more a matter of perception. Those of us with access to TV, radio, the internet know what the government has been saying -- including Bush's statement that the government's response so far has not been acceptable.

But the folks at the NOLA Convention Center have had no means of communication at all. (Even the police have had no means of communication.) All they know is that it's been days and no help has come. If I were in their pretty desperate shoes, I would take that to mean the government didn't care.

If the government was trying there damndest and this was the best they could muster - well lets just say that erodes my faith in the US Administration even though I thought it couldn't get any lower.

If the government really cared - then FEMA would have been in place the day after the hurricane, not today 6 DAYS LATER!!!... I mean seriously Fire & Resuce vehicles from LA could arrive at the same time as the first FEMA convoy - that is pathetic.

If the government really cared - they'd be dropping food and water supplies to those stranded at major gathering points... not dropping sand bags trying to plug breaks in the levee (helicopters really can't do that).

If the government really cared - THEY ACCEPT HELP FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES DAMMIT!!! Many countries have offered to send disaster relief teams as well as experts to help in any way they can - and yet Bush and the State Department haven't given permission for any teams as of yet.

If the government really cared - they'd have listened to the warnings that have been made concerning the threat to NO and Louisiana... instead of CUTTING the funding to the levee system.

I'm seriously disgusted by the response from the federal government and the US Administration - after all isn't this what millions of dollars have been spent on training for?

I also wonder what is being made of this overseas in Iraq - I mean if they can't get their heads out of their asses in responding to Katrina, it's seriously no wonder that Iraq is still so f*cuked-up... (although a BBC talking-head had a intersting observation: Was the response planned by Rumsfeld and Cheney? Because it bears all the hallmarks of their "foresight" and understanding of the situation)

Ok, I need some prayers for a friend. I'm not sure where else to put this, so I'm sticking it here.

No one has heard from one of my friends, Troy, who went to undergrad and now grad at Tulane. His cell phone keeps giving us the all circuts are busy line. Troy is a great person and a fellow greek as well so please give your prayers/good vibes/thoughts.

Thanks everyone.

Rob,
Please take a moment and stop posting stuff like this.

Anyway, back to the hurricane. Where in the survivor mentality does rape, shooting at rescuers, and stealing plasma televisions fit in?

I don't think it's an issue of race at all. I think it's an issue of money.

-Rudey

Thank you Rudey. I agree.

Prayers are on the way. In a previous post, I posted some websites that allow people to post messages to loved ones that they are trying to get in contact with. Here it is again....


Various Websites are hosting message boards and other information for people searching for the missing. Here are a few:
The National Next of Kin Registry
http://pleasenotifyme.org/nok/restricted/home.htm

Craig's List
http://neworleans.craigslist.org/laf/

NOLA.com (The Times-Picayune)
http://www.nola.com/forums/searching/

WWL-TV
http://www.wwltv.com/forums/viewforu...4bd2e188d4f473

Hope this helps

What on the fact that my post was "ignorant"? Or Rudey's wondering about the reactions of the survivors?

I agree with this:

The rest is between the two of you.

I was watching the coverage on MSNBC last night. They were showing the thousands of people outside begging for help. There was something I saw that was particularly disturbing. Elderly people who had DIED due to exhaustion, starvation, or other conditions were LEFT in their wheelchairs, on the curb, wherever -with a NOTE attached with their next of kin's information on it. And they were left right out in the open with the LIVING. That can't be right or sanitary. :(

Website for safe victims
 

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/hur...ist/index.html


You can visit this website to see if those listed are people you are concerned about and you can also add the names of those you know for sure are safe.

Try sending a text message, even if they are not receiving calls. I got in contact with a few people through text. Hope this helps.

Damn that. I wouldn't let anything prohibit me in helping these people out. Forget about liabilities, forget about possibly losing my job, I'd help out anyway I could. Prohibit? I would find it very sad if some of these people weren't helping out in certain ways because they were prohibited to do so.

I understand I'm not there so it's hard to say exactly what I'd do. But I tell you this much, my duty as a human being is to help out others in need. My job would be the least of my worries in such a situation.

I would like to think that wouldn't prohibit me either, but who knows what those anchors are told, or what their contracts stipulate. Ridiculous, I know, but I don't know if everyone would be willing to sacrifice their livelihood like that. And for some it's probably easier to keep their distance and not become emotionally involved by helping. Why do so few people stop and help at accidents?