TS and Lady Sidhe live an hour and change NW of New Orleans...hopefully, they and their daughter are doing okay.

i was just nw of there yesterday, abbeville - just south of lafayette and you couldn't even tell that there was a hurricane. they got the dry side. we really need to worry about busterb. if he didn't leave then.....

Sounds like Houston will be taking lots of refugees.

A little message to wish courage to people of New Orleans and south of USA in order to face this disaster... :heart-on:

Bye

I was woundering about BusterB today !!??!!

I hope he's ok !!

What am I saying ,, he's to damn onrie to let a little thing like a big wind ruffle his feathers !!!!!!

I find it's a pity/shame that people have no other efficient federal solution/organisation than military one's.

The 14th of July at the French military parade, our Defense minister was only justifying our army by is ability to help people during natural disasters. She "forgot" mines thrower trucks that were shown for the first time on the Champs Elysées and all kinds of offensive weapons that require most of the money.

Hoping it won't get people used to see the militaries in their streets. :mad:

I was thinking along the lines of hovercraft, amphibious vehicles, helicopters, fast patrol boats, big trucks, stuff like that...and the people who are trained to work in harsh conditions while maintaining discipline. Chaos we've got plenty of. There'll be lots of time to plan the next Mardi Gras after we get people out of the festering choleric cesspool and into some clean clothes and a hot meal.

Not so much the Army, etc, as the National Guard. Since the US isn't under the threat of actual invasion, national emergencies really are what the National Guard is for.

It is rare - mostly unheard of - for the miltary to be involved in national disasters. When disasters are extreme, the state's governor can call out the state militia - also called the National Guard.

In this case, the number of people who did not leave are so numerous that even active military response is required.

Even when racists had less than 100 Federal Marshalls pinned down with little ammunition and under heavy arms attack, President Kennedy still stalled at sending Federal Troops to their rescue. When he finally did order it, Gen Abrams took almost a full day to resuce those Federal Marshalls. Use of Federal troops for anything inside the US was generally frowned upon. The change was recently created by this president with something called Northern Command.

I've been reading nola.com...it's all just...awful.

Indeed.

Can someone explain to me why in the hell people would be shooting at the rescue crews and fire departments? What is going through these people's minds?

Because they are seriously disturbed individuals, taking full advantage of the anarchy which has developed. The only reason these people don't do this every day is because the cops are able to suppress them. Otherwise, they'd be running around the streets with stolen Wal Mart guns shooting people for amusement.

It is sad, but I'm pretty sure that The Powers That Be are going to have to kill a few looters and rogues before things calm down.

It is sometimes helpful to real anarchists to see what real anarchy looks like.

I for one am never impressed by it.

these fools WILL learn that they are NOT the big boys on the block when they start getting shot at with .50 cals

Of course, the looting is being lead by the NO Police...

the words i have for those people, well, i'm just not going to say it here. i might actually offend people here that i care about.

here's a news article on it.

Some people around here find it odd that I include "ammunition" on my hurricane supplies checklist. I'm sad, however, because I was starting to think that item on my list no longer served much of a purpose and that we'd never seen the violent outbreaks like we saw with hurricane Andrew. What is happening in New Orleans is really eye opening.

Does anyone think New Orleans is a special case? We did not see this level of violence and anarchy during the 2004 hurricane season in Florida.

no we didn't. the idiots in N.O. that are shooting are a bunch of uneducated stupid fucking neanderthals that don't even deserve to be with my ex wife.

edit: just to clarify, the shooters, looters, and no good doers.

So, LJ, is that thing true about "never buy a car within 8 months after major flooding?"

[speaking for]The Guard's a bit busy right now fighting an unjust war in Iraq ... See, the disaster is all Bush's fault. First, for causing global warming and making there be more hurricanes, and now any errors related to the recovery (based on disaster plans that have been in place, but refined) since the 60s) is also Bush's Fault. Oh, and it's Bush's fault that all the money that was given to New Orleans over the last 35 years for preparation for such a thing was wasted (instead it went into the pockets of possibly the most corrupt municipal government in the country).[/the left]

I did not, incidentally, make any of that up. I was driving through New Jersey yesterday and about halfway up the Garden State could no longer pick up my radio station. So I ended up channel surfing and found Air America. I have never listened to Air America. I actually put up with about 15 minutes of the above crap before I surfed around to find something tolerable to listen to.

We are all less than a paycheck away from savagery.

a local radio station here is doing a Requestathon . any song you want as long as you pay for it. Here's the price list from their website:
$30 - Buzz Songs
$60 - Non-Buzz Songs
$80 - Way off The Buzz Path (example: Barry Manilow)
$200 - Local Bands
You say it ... and pay it ... we'll play it!! Call 713-212-KTBZ to place your request

y'all can listen here

OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! from CNN

BREAKING NEWS New Orleans hospital halts patient evacuations after coming under sniper fire, a doctor who witnessed the incident says. More soon.

Wolf-the disaster isn't Bush's fault. His INADEQUATE response is his fault. He simply is not prepared to handle these things. It never came up while he was at Yale, skipping class and partyin' hardy! He is, however, very prepared should someone need a fourth at bridge.

We have a local station in KC that has this kind of fundraising every year, except they'll play anything for $25.00 minimum, even your own demo tapes.

that's a pretty cool deal!

<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/">Journal of a guy in a datacenter in downtown NO</a>, complete with webcam.

...and, if you can connect, point your WinAmp/iTunes to http://216.22.26.45:8002/ and give a listen. It is a police scanner feed of the EOC in the area. I assume the feed is packed and might bounce you out, but keep trying.

The atrocities I've heard so far are maddening. I've heard several "Code 4s" (homicides) this afternoon, including a the shooting of a ferry boat captain who was attempting to get people out of the area.

http://www.scipionus.com/

FOund this on Nola....

THAT is the point that everyone should grasp like a life jacket. When the top man, days later, still does not get it, then all those little heros without names are left to organize the impossible by themselves. Watch the news.

George Jr today said that no one expected levees to fail. Everyone with minimal intelligence knew breeches would occur with any storm above Category 3. Katrina was Category 5. Everyone knew days before; repeatedly discussing 'the bowl'. George Jr, mental midget, lives in another world. Four days later, George Jr still says no one expect levees to be breached. How do those little heros get support and organization they desperately require when the president just does not get it. Is he looking to blame this on .... Iran (as he also blamed 11 September on Saddam)?

My God, it's a quagmire.

first to say it: 9/1/05 7:03 pm eastern

I was listening to the nuts on progressive radio today. Someone needs to let them know that the Governor of Louisiana is a Democrat. The ball was in her court initially and she failed to get the poor and infirm out of that city. We can pile on Bush all we want but let's spread the blame to all responsible parties.

:haha: Hee hee... It's funny 'cause it's literal.

I heard at one point about evacuating masses to naval hospital and cruise ships...wonder if that got scrapped.

No, they are still working on ships for housing.

If those people are hungry and thirsty, why don't they just tell their secret service detail to get something for them? Works for W. :eyebrow:

Note on the snipers:

Get a few Predators in the area, with a couple of Blackhawk follow-ups.

It will only take one or two of these actions before word hits the street.. er, canal and that shit stops.

Mission Accomplished!

Snipers should be killed on sight and strung up from lamposts with a big sign that says "I was a sniper".

I'm guessing there'd be many less snipers.

I was being cleverly satiric based on something I'd heard on the radio.

I know a lot more about disaster management than most people, and frankly, the response is not "inadequate" at this point. A Federally Declared Disaster was put in place BEFORE Katrina made landfall, and that declaration is what starts the wheels in motion, literally, for the response.

There are protocols in place for this, none of which are the President's job to determine. That's what FEMA and the equivalent state agencies are for. That doesn't mean that things aren't going to get worse before they get better, of course.

OH?

The House of Representatives wants to cut the New Orleans district budget 21 percent to $272.4 million in 2006, down from $343.5 million in 2005. The House figure is about $20 million lower than the president's suggested $290.7 million budget.

It's now up to the Senate. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans, is making no promises.

It's going to be very tough, Landrieu said. The House was not able to add back this money ... but hopefully we can rally in the Senate and get some of this money back.

Landrieu said the Bush administration is not making Corps of Engineers funding a priority.

I think it's extremely shortsighted, Landrieu said. When the Corps of Engineers' budget is cut, Louisiana bleeds. These projects are literally life-and-death projects to the people of south Louisiana and they are (of) vital economic interest to the entire nation.

New Orleans City Business

Has anyone heard from Busterb or the other Cellarites in the area?

Onyx, did he ever say what Mississippi city he lives in? I couldn't find any reference to it in his profile...

What the engineers say
 

Engineering News-Record:

According to his analysis, Corps funding "has been fairly stable" since the early 1990s and the Corps has spent more than $300 million since 2002 on storm protection in the New Orleans area.

Wow. Completely the opposite from what I heard on the news this morning. Their report said the Army Corps had been "pleading for money for decades" to do work on the levees and had seen nothing but massive budget cuts since the 1970s.

Let the spin begin!

Belmont Club points to this 2003 Civil Engineering Magazine article from 2003

Oops

As Belmont Club says "they got that one right".

We're trying to track them here. Scopulus checked in we haven't heard from busterb as far as I know. Can you think of anyone else?

MORE PICTURES
 

Here is yet another slideshow of the devastation

spend any amount of time in the ghetto and this question becomes self -explanatory

Having not spent the time in the way you've described, perhaps you have some insight to us ghetto-experience-poor dwellars. *Why* in the world is it a good idea to shoot at these people? I really can't imagine an answer to that question.

I wasnt trying to imply that it is a good idea to shoot at the rescue workers, but from experience I do know that very little these people do makes any sense to a logical mind, so I was not suprised at all to hear that sniper shots were being taken at a helicopter evacuating a hospital. It makes no sense at all therefore it makes perfect sense.

ahh. that explains it.



*wanders off....*

Hello there, a bright light in a foggy room. This is obviously a major failure to plan on a LOCAL level folks. Before this storm came in every politician in town was saying how they had been waiting and preparing for this storm for all of their lives. Can anyone identify a single action that was planned? The idea of using the Superdome came at the very last minute. Is there anyone down there who didnt know that this was coming? You cant live below sea level by the sea. And to make matters worse the problem has only been compounded over time by continuing to raise the levees and straighten the river and drain the wetlands. Disaster planning and response begins on the local level, the plan in New Orleans was apparently RUN!!

Busterb lives in Bay Springs, just north of New Orleans. Haven't been able to find any info on the town, but many places in that region seem to be low on food or out and the same with drinking water, and electricity. Ice is being distributed. Hope Busterb is OK.

Most telling are the pictures that do not exist. Such as lines of C5A transport planes lined up in Louis Armstrong International discharging troops and supplies AND taking victims out of New Orleans. That picture assumes the disaster leadership and administration was not in denial for 5 days.

When Air Force 1 arrives in Louis Armstrong International, how much food and water will it bring for the people of New Orleans?

Go read about the Ted Koppel interview last night of FEMAs director. Read the interview of New Orleans mayor. They had been complaining for years about the 17th Street Canal levee that was not finished for two years when federal resources authorized by Congress suddenly could not be found. Need I tell you where the levee broke?

FEMA already did an exercise just for this event. They knew that 100,000 people might not have resources to leave the town. FEMA knew this disaster was coming days before and did not even bring in fleets of flatbed trucks to take the people out. The town was declared a Federal Disaster Area long before Katrina arrived. And yet still FEMA made no effort to provide transport for those people.

You can also blame the Governors. Within hours of the storm, already loaded National Guardsman should have been moving south in AL LA and MS. It is not the long term planning that is at fault. New Orleans should have been more than just flooded. It should have been pummeled by hurricane waves accross all broken levees. New Orleans suffered little of what FEMA knew was coming. Yet FEMA cannot even address that problem. FEMA did not even have plans to immeidately setup air traffic control in nearby airports. Insteaed, cars drove to those airports to distribute satellite telephones. What kind of response is that? Same as the American response to a Tsunami only a year ago. Pathetic.

What Little I just found :

That gave me goosebumps, Glatt. Oh, I so hope busterb is OK! My prayers to him and his family. :( Just damn.

Well, we do know that he lives against the fence of the prison.

We know that he has been putting up vegetables all summer.

We know that he is a very resourceful gentleman.

We know that he has a lot of friends in his community.

I hope that at least some of this works in his favor.

This just in--Superdome to Astrodome transfer of refugees is ended. The Astrodome is full. No Vacancy. Next step, tent cities and get crackin. Likely in Texas, with plenty of open ground for mass scale temporary housing.

I've one question: Where are the French? It's their city!

I am sooo sad over all of this. Then I hear news about snipers shooting at hospital evacuees...then I read wolf saying we're all just one paycheck away from savagery, and I have to agree with that...but, man. This is bad. This is third world shit. Where is America?

This shit *is* America...it is America without cable TV, air conditioning, SUVs, big stereos, fast food.

Pay close attention, folks. History tells us that we're going to see more of this at some point. It may be a different cause, but take away the stuff that keeps the underprivileged and politically suppressed docile, and see what comes about.