And since my goal in life is to share all that is monumentally depressing, I suggest this article from the Seattle Times about what’s been happening at the Superdome. If you read one article about the conditions due to Katrina, this is the one you should read.
If nothing else, I hopes this serves a lesson to everyone else that when you are urged/ordered to evacuate a city, you do so. I don’t care if you feared losing your possessions to looters…you more than likely would have lost them anyway to nature. And if you had children or other dependant relatives, your dumbass decision may have just doomed them too. And if you stuck around just so you COULD loot and profiteer from other people’s misery, well then screw you…you deserve the hell you’re living in. Aside from those who had legitimate reasons to stick around, who I truly feel sorry for are the people who now have to go and rescue your asses from the third world situation you helped create. Unlike the tsunami victims, you had a choice in your fate and you fucked it up. I’ll be donating money to the Red Cross regardless, but I feel almost nauseous doing so.
Doob,
While I certainly agree that it’s important to take evacuation orders seriously, even if the city has “cried wolf” before… thousands and thousands in New Orleans could not evacuate because they have no means to do so. Much of the city is very, very poor. Thousands couldn’t afford gas to leave, much less a car in which to do so. People who could take other transportation did, but there’s not enough public transportation for the entire population of poor. So many people were left behind not of their own choosing.
i cant even imagine. i think id prolly go nuts too. if for some reason i was trapped in that dome with crap everywhere and they dont let me leave…id lose it. but hopefully id be one of the ones able to escape before hand. but damn. thats gross. jesus…
Spike, I would include those in the “those with legitimate reasons” category. But there were many others who had the ability to leave but chose not to. I mean, c’mon, why was Fats Domino clinging to his house?
Heh, who knows. But for those who are left behind for whatever reason (choice or lack of choice), survival is the only thought on their mind. People loot for food, water and clothing to survive. Maybe there are some who are looting televisions and guitars (can’t imagine what they’d do with them–maybe there’s a special section on eBay) but the vast majority are just trying to stay alive.
What I can’t understand is how these stories are coming back to us through the media. The article I linked to is from the Seattle Times and Los Angeles Times. Did the newspaper send a reporter into the area, with photographers, perhaps television cameras, etc., take some pictures, write the story and leave? By reading the article, it seems to me the reporter was there, in the Superdome. How did he get there? How can he live with himself leaving people in that condition?
“Thanks, I’ve got my story, good luck, suckers-with-an-f.” Guess that’s something I just don’t understand about the world. It’s like those commercials for adopting third-world kids. They send a television crew down there to take sad pictures and pay well-known stars to be spokespeople. The organizations, funded by donations, must spend more in marketing and advertising than in providing actual aid.
And then they leave.
Well, in fairness to the organizations you mention, if they didn’t spend the money to advertise, they wouldn’t raise any money at all.
Back to New Orleans — here the mayor. Listen ALL the way through.