The content on this webpage contains paid/affiliate links. When you click on any of our affiliate link, we/I may get a small compensation at no cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure for more info -----------------------
Last updated on July 26th, 2017 at 12:20 pm
Heartbreaking work for New Orleans police:
“People don’t want to come out,” said Capt. Tim Bayard, commander of the narcotics division of the New Orleans Police Department, who is supervising the water rescue effort. “They say they have enough water and food to sustain themselves. They don’t understand. It’s going to take six to eight weeks before the electricity comes on.”
The water has receded only about a foot in many places, he said, adding that it was still 20 feet deep in spots. “They need to come out,” Captain Bayard said. But some residents fear that if they leave, their houses will be ransacked by looters, he said.
“They’ve already lost their cars,” he said. “All they have left is their house. They don’t want those animals stealing from them. Write that, animals. Anybody that would take advantage of this is hardly better than animals. Not the people who are taking food and water and clothing. Those stealing TV’s and shooting at police. What can you do with a TV? There’s no electricity.”
Meanwhile, CBS commentator Nancy Giles just knows whites would’ve been rescued earlier:
If the majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were white people, they would not have gone for days without food and water, forcing many to steal for mere survival.
Their bodies would not have been left to float in putrid water.
They would have been rescued and relocated a hell of a lot faster than this. Period.
Not if Sean Penn had anything to do with it.
UPDATE: “Some people became animals. We became more civilized.”
- This has probably been the case all along. They are more afraid of their neighbors than they were of the hurricane.Posted by Spiny Norman on 09/04 at 09:50 PM • permalink
- It probably didnt help to open the prisons and let the felons loose either.Posted by Deo Vindice on 09/04 at 09:53 PM • permalink
- If the majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were white people, they would not have gone for days without food and water, forcing many to steal for mere survival…
Damn straight- most would have been smart enough to get the fuck out of a city that’s metres below sea level and bordered by a massive malarial swamp when there’s a cat5 hurricane heading in. Any who remained would probably not shot at rescue helicopters and would be to busy organising rescues, food banks, generators and all the other shit you would normally do when trapped in a disaster area, leaving them too busy to rape babies and murder people for their sneakers.
But Jessie Jackson says it’s all GWB’s fault, and black people can rest content with their victim status unaltered.
- Geez, I hate it when the
white people
code gets broken and other folks learn our secrets.I think Nancy has been listening to too much Art Bell/George Noring. According to one of the guest -I think it was the nut job Richard Hoagland (sp?), the guy who says there is a face on Mars – this whole Katrina hurricane brouhaha is the result of weather wars. Apparently, we were attacked with Katrine. Unfortunately I fell asleep before I learned who launched the attack.
Anyway, Nancy Giles makes as much sense as Richard Hoagland.
In the absence of information and outside assistance, groups of rich and poor banded together in the French Quarter, forming “tribes” and dividing up the labor.
Tribes? I definitely would NOT want to be voted off that island.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 09/04 at 09:58 PM • permalink
- All that opportunistic, left-wing point-scoring that was thwarted by the “unprecendented generosity” in the wake of the Asian tsunami crisis will undoubtedly be released now. The race card is being played, and played shamelessly. Talk of “concentration camp conditions” on SBS for the mostly black victims, and the use of offensive “slave ship” metaphors by Reverend Jesse Jackson and repeated by ABC reporters, is just a preview. The Sunday program’s righteous moralising and harsh judgements yesterday were almost gleeful. Clearly, many of those who talk up the “racist” aspect of government failures are actively invested in the maintenance of past racial tensions, because without them they would simply have no presence and nothing to say.
- #3, Habib, I heard Jessie Jackson’s rant – didn’t the blacks behind him jeer? It’s another example of racism.
#5,
I definitely would NOT want to be voted off that island.
Me either!
The concentration of so many people in the sports arena probably made things more difficult, logistically. Darwin after Tracy in 1974 was small beans compared to N.O. after Katrina. I am curious to see how we would cope if something similar happened in Aus – maybe a smallertiny comparison is the Brisbane floods of 1974? I wouldn’t be concerned with looting for food and water and other necessities, but stealing electrical goods?
- #2 exactly – and here’s an insghtful analysis of events in New Orleans. though I suspect many people just don’t want to hear any truths.
- And here are a few facts for Nancy – she should read the part about the 200 hundred or so school buses that were not deployed. Then again, facts get in the way of a ‘good story’.
- #7 About the racism, shouting that this is an example of racism isn’t going to achieve anything – and it’s not racism.
#9 I noticed the garbage and wondered, why don’t the people clean up around themselves? But then I thought, well, there’s probably no bags to put it in; and there is flooding all around, so where to put it so it’s away from them; and they are all hot and thirsty and hungry – I thought it was a reasonable thought. I read this comment by Robert Tracinski and I can see his point. I don’t think that the prison in Darwin was affected by Tracy in 1974, it is at Berrimah and miles away from Darwin itself – and the cyclone path was not as wide as Katrina.
No-one seemed to be organised, or organising, except the nurse filmed at the sports arena, and it seemed like she was fighting a losing battle.
- I think it is plainly obvious as to why this rescue effort has been one monumental cock-up. The authorities didn’t leave all the important decisions to the experts in the media and they are now paying the price for this gross error of judgement. Don’t the authorities understand that the fourth estate knows all??? (In case some didn’t get it – sarcasm flowing freely.)
On Melbourne radio (3AW) this morning I couldn’t help but detect a certain amount of glee in the voice of U.S. correspondent, Robert Penfold, when discussing the N.O. situation. Comments along the lines of “if the media can get in I don’t see what’s holding up the authorities” were uttered without a hint of shame. Just what would we do without them????
Of course it doesn’t help when the likes of the mother of an Australian tourist caught in N.O. makes the startling declaration “thank god for the journalists” (can’t you just see their collective egos exploding following a comment like that!!!) whilst kicking the crap out of Australian officials for their supposedly “botched up” rescue efforts. Fekking ingrate!!
Ignorance as far as the eye can see.
Posted by TruthHandler on 09/04 at 10:52 PM • permalink
- Those buses are Bush’s fault! The Federal Government should have provided amphibious buses!Posted by richard mcenroe on 09/04 at 10:56 PM • permalink
- Hope they keep the shoot-to-kill policy even after Katrina’s long gone…
Every larger American city has awful, lawless no-go areas. This is the real shame of the US.
I’m a consie, but anyone can see the decline of the US. Ineffective, poorly done Iraq occupation, economic mismanagement, a (for fuck’s sake, let’s be honest) stupid president, poorly handled catastrophes, the list goes on…Posted by Honkie Hammer on 09/04 at 10:56 PM • permalink
- Maybe the displaced in NOLA can tap that great humanitarian Sean ‘Spicoli’ Penn for some duckets and maybe food and lodging in his palatial Malibu pad.
Sean! SEAN!
Posted by Jay Santos on 09/04 at 11:29 PM • permalink
- #6, I agree Brian. What’s the next beat-up?
How about Chimpy McHitler secretly told the Jews to leave town well before the hurricane hit and left everyone else to die?
Posted by ArtVandelay on 09/04 at 11:38 PM • permalink
- HonkieHammer thundereth:
I’m a consie
Suuure you are. And I’m a little teapot.
Please take your divisive crap elsewhere.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 09/05 at 12:42 AM • permalink
- #11
The prison in Darwin during Cyclone Tracey was Fanny Bay jail and they let them all out.
Fanny Bay jail was very close to the waterfront and took the full brunt of the cyclone. Darwin was quite a bit different from the NO situation.The Darwin situation is probably more comparable to Biloxi. There was massive destruction of property but no long term flooding. New Orleans appears to have had little in the way of structural damage to houses however access has been severely limited because of the extent of the flooding.
A quick evacuation of Darwin was possible because it was easy to access airport runways. I’m not sure about NO airport but access to it and use of it is probably very limited.
There was no shooting at rescuers in Darwin and the mentality of such action beggers belief.
- #25
Oops, I stand corrected (I forgot Fanny Bay Gaol – the other gaol is a recent construction). Darwin was flattened, but not waterlogged. I recall there were complaints about how long it took for help to arrive, but it was Christmas Day, and basically everything was shut down – civilian communication channels were destroyed by Tracy. People in the south were unaware of the disaster in Darwin until much later – these days we would know almost immediately, if not before!
There was no shooting at rescuers in Darwin and the mentality of such action beggers belief.
Yes, it is unbelieveable that people bringing help are fired on.
- OK, Polly, Katrina was launched by Saudi Arabia. Hey don’t believe me go ask NASA and scroll down midway on the right. Looking at hurricanes is the title.
Spiney, you forgot the metro busses about a mile away. All 150 of them, before they got water logged. Check out Junkyardblog.
- Darwin still had a big storm surge, and because it’s flat it didn’t get that high, and drained quickly because it’s above sea level, as opposed to NO. What do you expect for a city built by the French? My old man was sent up there to help Stretton run the whole thing, and they didn’t even have to declare martial law even though Darwin in those days had a lot of ner’do wells, and it was the middle of summer with no power, and thus no refrigeration- most people behaved themselves and did what they could to help. The behavior in NO is indefensible.
- Habib: the French part of the city is above sea level. It didn’t get flooded.Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 09/05 at 02:18 AM • permalink
- Honkie must be one of those deep cover trolls, who rose to the occasion only because it couldn’t stand the pressure of being exposed to reality for so long.Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 09/05 at 02:56 AM • permalink
- I went there once a few years ago, not during Mardi Gras. My friend and I stuck to the French Quarter mostly. We had to go to the famous cemeteries, though (it’s part of the whole New Orleans Experience™), and the oldest one is in the worst part of town. We didn’t get hassled by anyone, and in fact had a pleasant time while we were there. This was in the late 90s, after they had cleaned up the tourist areas at least. I hear that since then the city backslid somewhat in the crime area. It’s a strange place.Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 09/05 at 08:33 AM • permalink
