Hurricane Katrina

[Heads22]

Iowa doing it's part. Awesome.

 

Hurricane survivors refuse trips to Iowa

 

 

 

DES MOINES (AP) --- The airplanes are ready and the housing available, but Hurricane Katrina refugees apparently don't want to move to Iowa.

 

Gov. Tom Vilsack said the state was prepared to accept about 1,000 refugees Tuesday, but they decided to remain in the Houston Astrodome and consider their options.

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"They're tired, they're frustrated," Vilsack said Tuesday evening from the Capitol. "They're separated from their families, so we're going to give them a breather and see where we are tomorrow."

 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will contact Vilsack and other governors Wednesday morning to update them on any changes, Vilsack said.

 

The governor estimated about 40 refugees have trickled into Iowa since Hurricane Katrina hit last month, but there are no guarantees the refugees in Texas will ever step on the plane.

 

"We don't know, at this point, where we're headed," Vilsack said. "It changes from hour to hour."

 

Meanwhile, about 1,000 green canvas cots remain empty in long rows in the Varied Industries Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

 

Forty Iowa National Guard soldiers spent Monday night setting up the cots, said Brig. Gen. Mark Zirkelbach.

 

"They worked all night to get this thing together ... so we can be good to go today," he said.

 

Refugees' stay at the fairgrounds would be brief -- it would serve as a holding area before the American Red Cross sends them to hotels. Zirkelbach said he didn't know which hotels would take them.

 

"This will allow them some time to make a decision. During that period, we'll offer the services of Iowa," he said.

 

Children in the group would be welcomed with toys -- board games, train sets and footballs -- collected by the nonprofit Toys for Tots.

 

Staff Sgt. Brett Blazicek, who was unloading boxes Tuesday, said he was happier at this task than his 2003 tour of duty in Iraq.

 

"More of what I think we signed on for was to help our fellow citizens being in the Guard," he said.

 

Marlys DeVries, spokeswoman for the Red Cross, said volunteers will welcome the refugees and then will move them through a series of stops.

 

"We have a system in place that moves large numbers of people ..." she said. "We will move them through Red Cross, and offer the assistance that we can provide, and then they go to Public Health and then the Department of Human Services, and this is, we're hoping, a one-stop opportunity so they can access a lot of benefits without having to make 10 or 15 calls, or stops."

 

The refugees will be directed to area hotels, where they'll spend the first two weeks of their stay in Iowa. After that, DeVries said, they'll hopefully be placed in temporary housing.

 

"That temporary housing should also include accessibility to jobs and some of the other economic things that they're trying to get back their lives together.

 

"It may be in Des Moines, or in another location," DeVries said.

 

DeVries said Iowans who want to help the evacuees should make monetary donations through established agencies.

 

"We can give them money directly on a debit card, so that helps their immediate needs," she said.

 

So far, she said, the Red Cross chapter in Des Moines has collected more than $900,000.

[southsider2k5]

Iowa doing it's part. Awesome.

 

Wow does Iowa suck so bad that even people with nothing don't want to go there?

[Heads22]

Wow does Iowa suck so bad that even people with nothing don't want to go there?

 

 

 

Shove it.

[Steff]

:headshake

 

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/06092005/140/stor...themselves.html

 

Storm Survivors Told To 'Expose Themselves' Tuesday September 6, 03:28 PM A group of female hurricane survivors were told to show their breasts if they wanted to be rescued, a British holidaymaker has revealed.Ged Scott watched as American rescuers turned their boat around and sped off when the the women refused.

 

The account was just another example of the horror stories emerging from the hurricane disaster zone.

 

Mr Scott, 36, of Liverpool, was with his wife and seven-year-old daughter in the Ramada Hotel when the flood waters started rising.

 

"At one point, there were a load of girls on the roof of the hotel saying 'Can you help us?' and the policemen said 'Show us what you've got' and made signs for them to lift their T-shirts," he told the Liverpool Evening Echo.

 

"When the girls refused, they said `Fine' and motored off down the road in their boat."

 

At one point he had to wade through filthy water to barricade the hotel doors against looters.

 

He said the experience made him want to vomit.

 

Mr Scott also slated the rescue operation, saying police were more interested in taking snapshots of the devastation rather than rescuing the victims.

 

"I could not have a lower opinion of the authorities, from the police officers on the street right up to George Bush," he said.

 

"I couldn't describe how bad the authorities were. Just little things like taking photographs of us, as we are standing on the roof waving for help, for their own little snapshot albums"

 

He added: "The American people saved us. I wish I could say the same for the American authorities."

 

Mike Brocken, of Chester, said he feared his wife Christine and 18-year-old daughter Stephanie would be raped when they went into the Louisiana Superdome.

 

The family were also racially abused by other refugees in the stadium.

 

Mr Brocken, a BBC Radio Merseyside presenter and music lecturer, told the station: "We were going to go inside the Superdome.

 

"I approached two members of the National Guard and they said to stay outside because they knew it was hell in there.

 

"One female office basically said under no circumstances take the women in there, because she knew what it was like.

 

"We were so frightened and we stayed alongside the National Guard for some kind of protection.

 

"It was at that stage that they started to take us under their wing and eventually managed to get us into the basketball stadium."

 

He added: "Everyone talks about the National Guard in rather derogatory ways historically, but I've got to say that, but for them, and one man in particular, I may well have lost my family."

[Steff]

http://www.algore-08.com/index.php?option=...d=273&Itemid=78

 

 

Gore accompanies about 140 arrivals from New Orleans but declines to take credit

From the Knoxville News Sentinel

By ROBERT WILSON

They saw nature's unmatched fury up close.

 

Now they would see unbridled human compassion.

 

About 140 people - mostly elderly and infirm - arrived Saturday at McGhee Tyson Airport on a chartered mercy flight from hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, welcomed to East Tennessee by a bright sun and a host of medical professionals straining at the reins to help their fellow human beings without regard to whether they were on the clock.

 

The displaced hurricane victims came to Tennessee on a hastily arranged flight, accompanied by doctors and carrying whatever they had in boxes, bags or, in one case, an old suitcase tied up with rope.

 

Former Vice President Al Gore arranged the flight and was on board, but he declined to take credit for the airlift, fearing it would be "politicized."

[Steff]

A little law and order..

 

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N0685475.htm

 

 

New Orleans bus station becomes temporary jail

06 Sep 2005 22:38:37 GMT

 

Source: Reuters

 

By Mark Egan

 

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Rapists, an attempted murder suspect and dozens of men who looted New Orleans after hurricane Katrina huddle in a temporary jail set up as police try to regain city streets which were lawless last week.

 

The scrawled cardboard sign on the front door of the Greyhound Bus Station, now a makeshift jail reads simply, "We Are Taking New Orleans Back."

 

Inside the accused, almost all black men aged 18 to 35, are herded out of confinement into buses by heavily armed officers from Angola State Penitentiary.

 

They stand handcuffed, disheveled and filthy, many with torn clothes, waiting to be taken to a place where they will stand trial via videoconference with judges in Baton Rouge.

 

The trial facility became operational on Sunday as part of an effort to restore law and order to a chaotic city, rife with crime and lawlessness for days after Katrina hit.

 

Louisiana State Department of Corrections Lt. Col. Bobby Achord described those held as mainly looters. Others were incarcerated for more serious accusations.

 

"One guy here is up for attempted murder on a New Orleans police officer," Achord told Reuters. "He was involved in a shootout with New Orleans police in an incident where the officer shot four of them dead."

 

"We had another guy here last night who was found shooting at a helicopter," he said.

 

In another case, a homeless man is accused of raping a woman in a deserted downtown street. The woman fought and freed herself then flagged down police, who apprehended her attacker.

 

Other crimes were less serious. Achord said some looters were caught with absurd spoils, like the man arrested fleeing a hardware store with a large bag of screws.

 

Facilities, where the inmates are kept for up to 24 hours before being shipped out, are crude. In cramped enclosures made of wire fences topped with barbed wire, they sit on concrete floors stained with oil from busses that normally load passengers here.

 

In the corner of each enclosure is a "porta-potty" with no door and a water cooler. Meals are military rations.

 

The temporary jail can hold 700 inmates.

 

Those locked up here are guarded by corrections officer from Angola prison -- a notorious facility known for it's hardened criminals and tough guards.

 

Pointing at officers nudging prisoners to waiting busses, Achord said, "These guards are used to handling people who are real bad. They are very professional but very firm."

 

Those charged with felonies will go to Angola if they are convicted. About 90 percent of Angola's inmates -- currently totaling 5,108 -- usually die there.

 

Since Katrina devastated New Orleans and other Louisiana towns, another 2,000 prisoners have been temporarily transferred to Angola.

 

Officials at the bus station jail said they want to get the message out that they are in business because most police in the mostly evacuated city are unaware it exists.

 

Asked if reporters could talk to the inmates, Achord suggested that was not a good idea.

 

"The thing is," he said, pointing at the men behind the fence, "if those guys got rowdy we do have non-lethal weapons we could use to try and control them. But if they started pushing that fence down, we'd have to kill somebody."

[Soxy]

Achord said some looters were caught with absurd spoils, like the man arrested fleeing a hardware store with a large bag of screws.

Wow.

[LosMediasBlancas]

One thing this disaster has done is exposed all the ramifications that poverty can have in some inner citites. From the sounds of things, the N.O.P.D was a joke, a disaster plan was not in place, or not funded properly, or funds were cut off etc, etc. Unfortunately for them, N.O. has been looked at as some sort of exception. I bet it is not.

To put it in perspective for you, think of N.O as the west side or southeast side of Chicago. Kind of hard to imagine, but if a similar disaster hit that part of Chicago, do you really think the effort and response would have been much better? Ever been in a poor part of town during a snow blizzard? Those areas don't even see a plow truck until the snow has damn near melted. Now imagine a major catastrophe. Drive through other areas and the trucks are out before the snow has even hit the ground.

Might seem like an apples and oranges analogy, but you get the point.

[southsider2k5]

Some encouraging notes from New Orleans...

 

In some areas the water has receded by up to a foot. Also the city is down to only 60% flooded, versus 80% at the height of the flooding.

[Soxy]

Nice story from NY Times

 

Remembering Help Received After Sept. 11, New York Sends Officers to Louisiana

 

By AL BAKER

Published: September 7, 2005

 

HARAHAN, La., Sept. 6 - Some New York City police officers who arrived here over the last few days were serving on the front lines of a national crisis for a second time. They had been there, too, when the attack on the World Trade Center, a man-made disaster, took the lives of 23 members of their department.

 

New York City police officers on Saturday boarded buses to New Orleans. Many officers were sent because they had military experience.

 

The New York police volunteers arrived in caravans only a few days before the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack and set out, often without sleep, on search-and-rescue, security, evacuation and patrol missions. To exhausted police and emergency crews in Louisiana, they are an army of relief, their numbers and discipline providing steady hands in a challenging situation.

 

By Tuesday afternoon, there were 303 New York officers, the largest deployment outside the city in the department's history, said Thomas Reppetto, a police historian who helped write "NYPD: A City and Its Police," (Henry Holt, 2000).

 

They are working mainly around New Orleans, but some members of the department's elite Emergency Service Unit are working in Hancock, Miss., near Biloxi, where 500 houses were blown off their foundations. One of their jobs there is to slog through eight-inch-thick mud and cover bodies with tarps so they can be picked up later.

 

Those who remember the 2001 attacks said the devastation they faced this time was much different.

 

"We were in a 16-acre disaster zone that went for 10 or 12 blocks," said Inspector Thomas Graham, a 33-year veteran who commands the Disorder Control Unit, based in the Bronx.

 

"Here, there is no water," Inspector Graham said. "There is no electricity. I've got my people housed in a nursing home. There's not enough water pressure to take a shower. And the death toll, I think, is going to be more severe.

 

"We had a toxic stew because of the fires and the dust," he continued. "Their toxic stew is you cannot drink any water from the tap, because of the pollution, because of the dead bodies in the canals."

 

Some of the first New York officers to arrive were quickly put to work on Sunday helping provide transportation for National Guard troops who were moving into New Orleans. On Tuesday, some were dispatched west of the city.

 

Many of the officers have military experience. Others sent south were chosen because they had expertise in large search-and-rescue operations or building collapses.

 

When they think back on Sept. 11, Inspector Graham and many others who arrived from New York remember especially that officers from New Orleans were among the first to join them at ground zero.

 

"They were there in the first 24 to 48 hours," Inspector Graham said. "Not our request, they just came. They got on a bus and headed up. During 9/11 they were cooking gumbo and feeding us. So, when we got a request for Jefferson Parish, I think that is one of the reasons we came."

 

With more than 2,000 additional officers having volunteered from station houses around New York's five boroughs and the relief effort entering a longer, more grueling phase, more officers from the city may be on the way, officials said, raising questions about whether New York could afford to give up that many officers, even temporarily.

 

New York's police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, has characterized his department's effort as one small way to pay back the nation for all the help it received after Sept. 11. And police officials pointed out that while 303 officers from New York represented less than 1 percent of the department's 38,000 officers, they represented about 20 percent of New Orleans's 1,500-member force. In addition, a significant number of officers in New Orleans have resigned or abandoned the force, others are unaccounted for, and two have committed suicide in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

 

The New York officers are working under an agreement with Louisiana that gives them full law-enforcement authority. State and local officials outline the mission and determine where the New York officers are most needed.

 

In smaller areas, like Jefferson Parish and Harahan, calls are being dispatched by local police departments and communicated to the New York officers, who are supervised by their own commanders, including two inspectors, an assistant chief, several captains, lieutenants and sergeants.

 

"Right now the chain of command is what it normally is in the N.Y.P.D.," said the department's chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne. "At the higher level we get guidance as to how they want us deployed. And their supervisory people are in with our sergeants so they can have joint face-to-face communication out on patrols."

 

Inspector Graham said officers had "started to create our own radio network," using a repeater on a truck, to get up to 10 miles of coverage and help cope with spotty cellphone service.

 

Through it all, he said, residents have been "lovely to us, happy to see us."

[Texsox]

Iowa doing it's part. Awesome.

The results are in and refugees agree, anyplace in Texas, even the Astrodome, is prefered to Iowa.

 

[FlaSoxxJim]

Cheer up, Heads. If my family gets displaced this season I'll thoughtfully consider all that Iowa has to offer me as a prospective refugee (which shouldn't take very long).

[Texsox]

Cheer up, Heads.  If my family gets displaced this season I'll thoughtfully consider all that Iowa has to offer me as a prospective refugee (which shouldn't take very long).   

 

The best part of Iowa is the view of Chicago from atop your pickup truck.

[southsider2k5]

Blurp from cnn.com

 

The Louisiana Superdome was so heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath that it likely will have to be torn down, a disaster official working with the governor's office told CNN. The Superdome is the home of the New Orleans Saints professional football team. The Saints will play their home opener in New Jersey Monday against the Giants, but it is unclear where they will play the rest of their games.

[southsider2k5]

This will probably throw a little gasoline on the fire, but it is interesting to see the local angle examined in the response to Katrina

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/344065p-293598c.html

 

A couple of things that blew me away.

 

New Orleans, with fewer than 500,000 people, had almost half the murders of New York, which had 570 homicides last year in a city of more than 8 million. Put another way, if New York had New Orleans' murder rate, we would have more than 4,200 murders a year.

 

Then there's Mayor Ray Nagin, a Democrat, who has blamed everybody but himself. Maybe he has forgotten his plans for dealing with Katrina.

 

Last July, his office prepared DVDs warning that, if the city ever had to be evacuated, residents were on their own. According toa July 24 article in The Times-Picayune (spotted by the Web's Drudge Report), "Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm's way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation."

 

"You're responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you," one official said of the message.

 

And how's this for preparation? Cops were told not to work on the day Katrina hit, one officer told The New York Times, but "to come in the next day, to save money on their budget."

[Balta1701]

Cheer up, Heads.  If my family gets displaced this season I'll thoughtfully consider all that Iowa has to offer me as a prospective refugee (which shouldn't take very long).   

Seriously guys...stop dissing Iowa...it's not just Iowa.

 

FEMA arranged for 3 luxury cruise ships to be leased and move off the Gulf Coast. There are beds, toilets, and food on them for roughly 6000 people.

 

The problem...the people sitting at the Astrodome are so scared about being lost or accidentally cut off again now that they actually have supplies that none of them are willing to move. The people are also worried that if they move away from the big body of refugees, it'll make it harder for them to find homes and schools for their kids whenever the government actually starts dealing with those people.

 

So while the Iowa jokes may be funny...the problem isn't Iowa...the problem is the Hell that those people have been put through.

 

Full story here.

[DBAHO]

Blurp from cnn.com

That's the final nail in the coffin for sure.

[FlaSoxxJim]

No, I'd agree the incompetence is pretty much 100% throughout, at all levels other than the actual local first responders (including lots of residents who are heroes). Early in this thread I mused that Nagen looked like he had it together and could be the big hero. Obviously, I was a bit overoptimistic.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Seriously guys...stop dissing Iowa...it's not just Iowa.

 

FEMA arranged for 3 luxury cruise ships to be leased and move off the Gulf Coast.  There are beds, toilets, and food on them for roughly 6000 people.

 

The problem...the people sitting at the Astrodome are so scared about being lost or accidentally cut off again now that they actually have supplies that none of them are willing to move.  The people are also worried that if they move away from the big body of refugees, it'll make it harder for them to find homes and schools for their kids whenever the government actually starts dealing with those people.

 

So while the Iowa jokes may be funny...the problem isn't Iowa...the problem is the Hell that those people have been put through.

 

Full story here.

 

And it doesn't help instill confidence when your rescuers do things like cold-calling officials in Charleston, SC, to tell them you are flying in refugees in 30 minutes to be housed, but then go and land in Charleston, WV.

 

I can't remember where I saw that last night, I think somewhere in the nola coverage.

[LosMediasBlancas]

Forced evacuations?? what an impossible and horrible idea!

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/

[Cerbaho-WG]

I'm donating my time today to volunteer at an American Cross blood drive, donate $50, then give some blood. Hopefully I can now be forgiven of being a huge cynical asshole.

[southsider2k5]

I'm donating my time today to volunteer at an American Cross blood drive, donate $50, then give some blood. Hopefully I can now be forgiven of being a huge cynical asshole.

 

Actions speak louder than words.

[Balta1701]

And it doesn't help instill confidence when your rescuers do things like cold-calling officials in Charleston, SC, to tell them you are flying in refugees in 30 minutes to be housed, but then go and land in Charleston, WV. 

 

I can't remember where I saw that last night, I think somewhere in the nola coverage.

I think you may have seen it 2 pages ago in this thread.

 

[FlaSoxxJim]

I think you may have seen it 2 pages ago in this thread.

 

Ah Ha! Possibly the only post I missed in the entire damn thread.

[Steff]

I'm donating my time today to volunteer at an American Cross blood drive, donate $50, then give some blood. Hopefully I can now be forgiven of being a huge cynical asshole.

 

 

We spent 5 hours on Sunday preparing supplies and I got to talk to several people on the phone from Houston who were searching the RC database for missing family members. Heartbreaking... I'm going over the weekend again to help at the 2 shelters near us that are expecting about 80 families over the next 2 days. I can't wait to meet some of these people.