Katrina Visits "big Easy"

[Alias]

Firstly, many people criticized America for comparing the Boxing Day tsunami to the events in New Orleans a week or two ago, but yet it's ok to compare the grimmer aspects?

 

DTCM + cm: Stop playing jealous. Poland isn't going to be a superpower soon. If you're wanting to criticize the racism of America than you should at least drop your extreme national pride view. When that much water hits you, it doesn't matter much whether you're white or black.

 

Anyone looked at the updated images on Google Maps? They have before and after (showing parts of NO submerged in water).

[MrsTrellisfromNorthWales]

I was wondering about this.

 

If New Orleans is the home of jazz . . . how come Katrina and the Waves are all over the city?

[Mr. Sausages]

I've already made the Katrina and the Waves joke, thank you.

[MrsTrellisfromNorthWales]

I've already made the Katrina and the Waves joke, thank you.

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Yes, but not with my panache.

[Amadeus]

Well done George:

 

President's approval rating dips below 40

 

President Bush's job approval has dipped below 40% for the first time in the AP-Ipsos poll, reflecting widespread doubts about his handling of gasoline prices and the response to Hurricane Katrina.

 

Nearly four years after Bush's job approval soared into the 80s after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Bush was at 39 percent job approval in an AP-Ipsos poll taken this week. That's the lowest since the the poll was started in December 2003.

 

Seems, a presidency based on personal gain and financial interests for him and his friends wasn't such a good idea after all..

 

And the next storm is already on the way:

 

Ophelia reaches hurricane strength

[Lonan3]

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." American Declaration of Independence, 4th July 1776

 

11 September 2005

"A Louisiana police chief has admitted that he ordered his officers to block a bridge over the Mississippi river and force escaping evacuees back into the chaos and danger of New Orleans. Witnesses said the officers fired their guns above the heads of the terrified people to drive them back and "protect" their own suburbs.

Two paramedics who were attending a conference in the city and then stayed to help those affected by the hurricane, said the officers told them they did not want their community "becoming another New Orleans".

Arthur Lawson, chief of the Gretna police department, said he had not yet questioned his officers as to whether they fired their guns.

He confirmed that his officers, along with those from Jefferson Parish and the Crescent City Connection police force, sealed the bridge and refused to let people pass. This was despite the fact that local media were informing people that the bridge was one of the few safe evacuation routes from the city.

Gretna is a predominantly white suburban town of around 18,000 inhabitants. In the aftermath of Katrina, three quarters of the inhabitants still had electricity and running water.

[matty]

thanks for link lonan

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,21...1766253,00.html

 

it states

 

'The estimated cost of rebuilding New Orleans and its environs is at least $26 billion (to finish the levee projects would have cost $208 million, of which the Bush Administration sent $10 million).'

 

thats quite an expensive headache for a nation and especially their present govt. Hard luck george.  Has aid from Cuba been accepted yet? In addition i wonder if the late US objections to UN reform will be quite so vigorous around the bartering table in light of recent assistance offered by the UN?

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Compared to the amount being spent slaughtering Iraqs it's a drop in the ocean (no pun intended).

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I've read the US is spending $5.2 billion a month "rebuilding" Iraq.

[Virginia P]

Heard on Radio 4 today that armed white militia turned fleeing black people back into New Orleans because they didn't want black people taking refuge in 'their' areas.

 

 

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11 September 2005

"A Louisiana police chief has admitted that he ordered his officers to block a bridge over the Mississippi river and force escaping evacuees back into the chaos and danger of New Orleans. Witnesses said the officers fired their guns above the heads of the terrified people to drive them back and "protect" their own suburbs.

 

So. for White Militia, read 'Police.'

 

What a wonderful country.

 

And can you imagine dead bodies being left out in the streets of Britain over two weeks after the event? It just would not happen.

[Declan]

I've already made the Katrina and the Waves joke, thank you.

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Ahem.

[P.K.]

I hear Bush has visited the devastated area for the third time:

[Addie]

I saw this (posted today) written by a member of another group I'm involved with. It certainly illustrates much of what's happening.

 

 

 

I typed this on my laptop as we drove back from New Orleans last night.

 

These are my thoughts on what I saw and felt. Those that know me are aware just how much I love the city and how deep this has hit me. I will publish the photos I took in an online photo album this weekend and will send the link out.

 

_____

 

 

Sixty miles outside of New Orleans, traffic came to a dead stop. A thick fog (called swamp gas) had crept over the landscape of trees bent over backwards by the hurricane winds as dawn slowly rose on the horizon casting an eerie glow and adding to the dread we felt. None of us spoke of it, but we all felt it; we all knew it. In a few hours, we would be entering the city and we don't know how to brace ourselves for the sights that lay ahead.

 

None of this seems real or even comprehensible. How could an entire city be under water? How could upwards of 500 lives be lost? How could a street that once held revelers year round, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week be void of all human occupancy with the exception of armed military men and woman, AK47s at their sides, marching through the streets with helicopters flying behind them? How could the wealthiest country in the world come off as being a third world country due to the lack of government response and the complete disregard for the safety and well being of a city with over 500,000 residents?

 

On the road to New Orleans, one shouldn't see military vehicles and Red Cross trucks. Road signs shouldn't read, "I 10 closed". It should be packed with people heading to the crescent city in search of laughs, jazz, blues, ghosts, Cajun cooking, beautiful Creole men and woman and on and on.

 

We all know that what we were about to see would change our lives forever but we all know that it can't be avoided. To see it is to start healing. We passed the smaller towns that sustained some damage but the closer we got to the crescent city, the more intense the damage became.

 

Finally, we got to New Orleans.

 

It looked as if a bomb had been detonated. The roads were littered with cars that had been thrown about as if there didn't weigh a thing and branches, some of them massive enough to block the entire width of the road. Orange spray paint marked the houses that had been searched and I soon learned to read the markings; The date they were checked, by who, and how many (if any) were dead inside. An entire city void of life; there was nothing. Not a person without a drawn weapon to be seen.

 

At the house we were going to in hopes of retrieving some of the personal items that belonged to my friends, the foul smell of rotting flesh mixed with the sewage in the street made me gag and I prayed that I could hold back the vomit. There were no marks on the doors to the houses to let us know that the neighborhood had been checked for bodies. No one had been here yet. I kept telling myself that I needed to be strong for them. This was their home. This is where they made their life.We had already gotten word that most of their friends had made it out alive, but they lost everything. We also had gotten word that all of the fish at the Aquarium had died. Thousands and thousands of tropical fish, sharks, and dolphins

didn't make it through the storm. We had already heard about St. Rita's rest home where 34 elderly patients had been left by the staff. The water rose almost seven feet inside the small home (the owners are now being brought up on charges for not evacuating them).

 

One of my friends asked if I could go in the house first, for in the back room they had to leave their birds in their cage; they had to leave them behind because they didn't have anyway to transport them. Several of their local friends said that they would go into the house and get them, but no further contact could be made due to the phone lines being down. Stepping over fallen wires and broken limbs, I climbed the porch and crawled over the massive tree that had fallen across the yard. I placed the key in the deadbolt and after several attempts, finally got the lock undone and opened the door and was greeted with a musty and damp smell. I made my way to the back of the house and parted the curtain that closed off the back room from the rest of the house and looked into the bird cage, hoping that their friends had made it by and taken the birds out. Please, please, please, please.

 

I buried them in the back yard in the garden. Neither of them could do it and they asked me to take care of it. A little over a month ago during my birthday trip to New Orleans (which marked my 15th trip to the city in 5 years), I sat on the back porch with them as they sang and talked to me. As I dug the hole to place them in, I realized that I had gone numb. When I found them, they were lying at the bottom of the cage; much like two lovers might do if they knew that their time on this earth was ending, facing each other and their bodies were so close, like they were holding one another.

 

I know that the story of the birds may seem overdramatic, petty and trite, but the only sounds I heard in the city were those of military personal and helicopters. There were no birds singing. There were no dogs barking. No children laughing and no music playing.

 

At the Audubon Park where my friends worked, we were stopped at a road block by four men in full army fatigue and weapons drawn. Those working security at the Park got us in and took my friends to their offices to get their things. The Audubon Golf Club had been turned into a military, police and fire fighter refuge. Army tents were scattered all over the once tranquil grounds with the vehicles close behind. The restaurant itself had been turned into a military headquarters and there was easy access because the huge doors that lead out to the veranda had been completely blown off the hinges. The private party room has now been turned into a sleeping quarters. It was all so overwhelming and gut-wrenching. Such a beautiful city in such chaos; So much history lost.many don't know that one of the four casts of Napoleons death mask is in City Hall. Who knows how many documents, paintings, art work, books and photos, were lost.

 

But there was something that made me breathe a sigh of relief; a sight that brought some sense of ease to my mind. The oak trees, some of them 300 even 400 years old were still standing. They had lost many branches and limbs, but they were still there and that was when I saw something so beautiful and majestic that I began to cry. The whooping cranes had returned to the park and were walking along the grass and searching for food; hundreds of them across the greens far from the military men and woman were going about their business as if nothing had happened.

 

I've always had a deep spiritual connection to the city of New Orleans. When things became difficult in my life, the city was my escape; my refuge and a place of solace. I would only have to close my eyes and I could hear the blues bands playing, the smell of magnolia and jasmine shifting through the humid air would come to me as if I were really there! I could hear the crowds singing and they would sing their hearts out so loud as if to tell the heavens, "Hey! We're here and we are loving life!"

 

I don't hear the music anymore. I don't smell the magnolia and jasmine and the only cries I hear are those of the people that will never leave New Orleans; The ones that became permanent residents of one of the most haunted, oldest, and beautiful cities in the United States. Those voices that once sang are now silent to most ears.but I know that the sounds that I so long to hear will return one day, but it will never be the same.

 

Many lives were lost to the murky swamps that New Orleans sits on and thousands upon thousands went through hell on their rooftops, attics, the convention center, the Superdome, and the many others who may still be in their homes, no longer able to cry out for help or get out of the house, those men, women, children and pets that either drowned or slowly died from dehydration. All sides are at fault. People were dying and all that most of those in charge could do was sit by and wonder what their next step should be and point the finger. But natural disasters are just that, natural and there will always be human error, but this is unacceptable. This level of inadequateness cannot be repeated and now the whole world knows just how unprepared we are to deal with catastrophic events by not

only Mother Nature, but man made as well.

 

I'm asking everyone to pray for those that made it out, those of us that are taking care of them, those of us (including me) that will return to city and help re-build it, and those that will haunt the city forever.

[Amadeus]

From USA Today:

 

President hits new lows in poll

 

WASHINGTON — Americans' view of President Bush and his leadership has soured in the wake of dismay over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, the course of the Iraq war and the future of the economy.

 

Bush's rating for handling each of those issues dropped to the lowest of his presidency in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday. (Related: Poll results)

 

Assessments of his personal qualities also fell: For the first time, a majority say he isn't a strong and decisive leader.

 

Bush's overall approval rating is 40%, equaling a previous low. His overall disapproval rating is 58%, a new high.

 

...

 

A 54% majority say the best way for the government to pay for hurricane relief is by cutting war spending. Just 6% support spending cuts in domestic programs, as Bush has suggested.

 

Nearly two-thirds of those polled, 63%, say some or all of the U.S. troops in Iraq should be withdrawn. A record-high 59% say it was a mistake to invade.

 

Seems, you can only make a retard appear as a leader for so long - took'em a while to realize that, though...