Katrina info thread II

[Colon™]

For chrissake, some people seem to have reading-comprehension problems or something.

ONLY information here. (here's a dictionary in case someone doesn't understand any of those words)

[Jack_www]

I am watching on TV the are loading people on buses and taking them out of the New Orleans Convention Center. I can see lines of buses now in the Downtown area of New Orleans.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Wow... watching the lines and lines of National Guard hummers and trucks going through the waterlogged streets of New Orleans to the SuperDome was surreal. I caught some of the coverage at the CNN Center at lunch. At least it seems supplies will be coming through sooner rather than later.

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Jack_www
I am watching on TV the are loading people on buses and taking them out of the New Orleans Convention Center. I can see lines of buses now in the Downtown area of New Orleans.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

There's now been an oil spill spotted downriver from New Orleans...some storage tanks (with a capacity of ~2million barrels) are leaking...

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by lightblue
It surprises me how thin the veneer of society is sometimes.

Not really. Deprive people of food and water for a couple of days and they'll start acting crazy.

Hell, I used to do treks into the woods and people are fine on the first day, but some will start to act weird when they realize that civilization is a day's walk away.

[Tingkai]

Man, I feel for those people in New Orleans. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemies.

[Q Classic]

New Orleans is a toxic lake; the water there is mixed with sewage, fuel, and other chemicals.

Once it drains, it'll be pretty awful for the Gulf.

[Chemical Ollie]

I'm currently honouring the victims by listening to a "New Orleans Jazz Funeral" CD and wearing my "Tabasco, Crayfish & 'Gator" shirt. If my kids were at Grandma's, I would also cook some cayun-spiced shrimp, but my kids wouldn't eat it, so I don't.

Right now on Swedish TV2 News, there is an exclusive report from a Swedish news team riding one of the fire department's rescue boats. They said that rescue team alone had collected about 150 floating corpses today, in 2 small outboard engine boats, and that there were about 40 rescue teams doing the same.

[Dis]

CNN is showing firefighting boats directing water at the warehouse fire from the river.

[Chemical Ollie]

A reporter from Swedish TV News, who was also on site in Thailand after the Tsunami, reported live from downtown NO and said that this is worse in some ways. In the Tsunami, the bad things happened within 30 minutes and then it was more or less over, and the rescuers could start to improve things.

In New Orleans, it started out pretty bad to begin with, but is getting worse for every hour, and 1000's of secondary effect deaths are expected within hours if nothing dramatic is done.

[Datajack Franit]

Somethingawful.com wrote its own opinion about this mess

Bless This Mess Most of you probably haven't noticed, but the SA servers finally had their plug pulled Thursday afternoon despite the heroic efforts of the people at DirectNIC. While I appreciate what they did for us, their devotion to some websites seems a little misguided in the midst of what is happening. That "what" is hell on earth in the greater New Orleans area. Rich, myself, Livestock, and probably some of the other writers have been watching the hurricane aftermath with nothing short of dumb shock. There is a disaster going on right now and it is manmade. The disaster is three strangers in Mississippi, together because they're all that's left and alone in a town without buildings, drinking floodwater polluted by corpses, **** and gasoline. The disaster is a woman wading through waist deep streets holding her daughter and wondering why the trucks won't stop to get her out of the city. The disaster is ICU patients dying one after another because diesel didn't flow and order couldn't be kept. It's an uninterrupted chain of personal disasters. It's inept triage on a national scale. It's unbelievable that this is America. It's hard to comprehend that these repeating images of herds of people without food or water or medical treatment after nearly a week are happening on our soil. They're our fellow citizens and while the politicians, directors, planners and generals congratulate each other at press conferences they are suffering and dying. I have seen some efforts in the media to pressure officials to accept responsibility. None have, because in public office the buck stops nowhere. The only person I have really seen come close to capturing the raw fury of the people trapped in New Orleans or forgotten in Mississippi and Alabama is CNN's Anderson Cooper. He confronted Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu on live TV, chiding her with a voice cracking with emotion that he couldn't believe the politicians were patting each other on the back over a job well done when he just saw rats eating a woman's body in the street of Biloxi. On the Internet I've seen people blatantly placing blame on Bush, FEMA, Congress, the National Guard, and even Homeland Security. Who is responsible? Who should be blamed? All of them. This is a colossal failure of our government to care for and protect its citizenry on every conceivable level. The heroes are the men and women on the scene doing their utmost to help those in need. Coast Guard rescue workers plucking people to safety and Red Cross workers feeding people from emergency kitchens are heroes. The man who commandeered a bus and got people out of New Orleans when the government was woefully impotent is a hero. The woman who smashed the glass on a convenience store to loot bottled water for fifteen kids who should have been absolutely inundated with supplies by then is a hero. The doctors and nurses hand-bagging ventilator patients 24 hours a day in dark hospitals are heroes. In the ineloquent but true words of the Mayor of New Orleans: "Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country." CNN was better prepared to deal with this disaster than FEMA was. I am ashamed of my country's government in a universal way right now. Republicans, democrats, opportunists, it doesn't matter; they're all guilty in this situation. In a magical world where justice is actually served most of these people would not have jobs in a month or two. Instead the people without jobs will be the millions who have lost everything and found their government with its back turned. Remember that people are still dying because of this incompetence. Remember that when each and every one of these fools appears on TV for a photo op or complains about "placing blame later," because placing blame now is the only hope America has to change the situation.

[Alexander's Horse]

sorry, I've been away - any new of regular posters like Chegitz and John T? I hope they're okay. I saw Chegitz posting but not John???

[Jon Miller]

how are things there now?

are people getting help?

or are people dying this minute..

JM

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
earlier someone suggested using closed military bases to house refugees. Apparently that is happening - San Antonio will be accommodating some at KellyUSA, the fomer Kelly Air Force Base, now a city owned complex.

Fort Chaffee in western Arkansas is going to be used. I think about 4000 is heading that way in the next few days. It was an Army post up until a few years ago and is now a National Guard post with some of it belonging to a nearby town.