GhengisFarb's Top 5 Things to Do with New Orleans

[DanS]

Killing gangbangers = the Lord's work. Rock on.

[Fake Boris]

At 5% interest it would mean 217 billions.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Theben


Yeah, I love CNN's forward thinking. "Are you a survivor of NO and want to let your loved ones know you're okay? Go to CNN.com and let them know!"

I would have thought that survivors who were able to relocate outside of the disaster area, would be able to find a public place or business where they provide Internet access (public library for example) and be able to reach out to family and friends that way.

[GhengisFarb™]

I wasn't too happy about going to New Orleans but it is part of the job of being in the National Guard. Several observations I have made from being here.

I was actually starting to become more social supportive and did feel that social programs and safety nets were a good thing. The events in New Orleans have given a very stark example of the result of wonderful welfare program. Every other disaster I've been in, the locals and local authorities pitched in and worked to rebuild.

Not New Orleans.

With over half the population below poverty level and many on welfare they were so used to being taken care of that they were too lazy to help themselves. This crap the media gave us about food and shelter being available on the other side of the bridge? True. The crap about them being turned away if they tried to cross? False. I was on two of those bridges. We turned away people and vehicles that were trying to get INTO the city, only emergency and cleared support vehicles were allowed in. Anyone leaving was given no resistence at all. THEY SAT THERE AND WHINED WHEN A 25 MINUTE WALK WOULD HAVE GOTTEN THEM OUT.

They were given food (mre's and candy) and water and they wouldn't get up off their keesters to walk 15 feet to the corner. We had to have volunteers carry individual water bottles to them, many refused to eat the MRE's saying it wasn't good enough for them and most of them just gorged on candy.

The New Orleans Police Department offered little to no help, they worked long hours but refused to go into the city and the bulk of law enforcement was done by out of state police volunteers (NYPD, ST Paul Police, many Texas police from various cities), National Guard from other states, and active duty military personnel. All in all the out of state people are doing 98% of the work while the local authorites sit back and watch.

Overall assessment of groups and individuals:

FEMA: Did way better than they were given credit for. The bulk of the problems were caused by the idiot Governor of LA for total incompetence. There was a huge political circus where the Mayor was trying to control everything, FEMA tried to control stuff, and the Governor was trying to control stuff. The stuff FEMA controlled KICKED BUTT. Eventually, the Coast Guard Commander forced everyone into line (by gunpoint?) and stuff got working better.

Mayor of NO. Screwed the pooch pre-Katrina, did a great job motivating and getting NO back on track afterwards though. He's a business man and he's working to get NO back to making money again.

New Orleans current situation is no where near as horrific as the media presents it. The areas that are opened today should be opened. They've been secure and fairly clean for over a week. Most have electricity and the owners need to clean and repair the damage to get them back to normal. We've moved out so they won't be in our way.

Most of the areas (if not all) that are still under water will never be opened to their owners until after they are bulldozed. They are a total loss and too dangerous to public health to allow anyone near them.

Funny, we drove to get a hot breakfast at the FEMA cook site 2 days ago and the civilian security wouldn't let us park we had been. Said the EPA had stated the area was too contaminated to allow anyone to even walk over. "Hmmm, we spent the last two weeks SLEEPING ON THAT ASPHALT as we had no beds and cots, and now your telling us its too deadly to park on?"

We were outside some $100,000 per condos and 26 pigeons were milling around, but two of them were from out of state. We knew that because when we tossed some bread crumbs two started eating them while the 24 local pigeons looked at us indignantly wanting us to hand feed them.

[hexagonian]

Originally posted by GhengisFarb
We were outside some $100,000 per condos and 26 pigeons were milling around, but two of them were from out of state. We knew that because when we tossed some bread crumbs two started eating them while the 24 local pigeons looked at us indignantly wanting us to hand feed them.

Sorry... but I am crying with laughter...

[Sikander]

Thanks for the update Ghengis.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by GhengisFarb
UPDATE:

My unit's been busting in doors, killing gangbangers, gathering dead bodies, manning checkpoints, and lots of other stuff. Huge battle between all the forces on our side and the gangbangers last week. Our group supposedly killed about 40+ of the gang members, but I didn't get any official number.

Really? I didn't see anything about this in the news. Maybe the media misplaced it as having taken place in Iraq?

[Japher]

Are they going to call it New New Orleans?

[conmcb25]

Interesting GF, thanks for the update, are you going home at the end of the month?