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What's going on in New Orleans...

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17:52 / 01.09.05

I may have missed something, but I haven't seen much about the societal breakdown that's happening in New Orleans at the moment. Thousands dead, people stranded inside an enormous flooded area, many of whom haven't eaten in days. Widespread lawlessness and looting. Poor expenditure on defences with a large proportion of the money being spend instead on a mythical anti-terrorist threat. Significantly now there also appears to be a problem with all the after-flood support and insufficient reaction to the catastrophe. Reaction all over the country. What on earth is going on?

CNN: Death, Despair pervade New Orleans
CNN: 'A scene of anarchy'
CNN: Chaos in increasingly desperate New Orleans

18:10 / 01.09.05

I agree, I wanted to hear a Barbelith's-eye-view from people near those areas - what is happening with you?

Phex: Dorset Doom

18:38 / 01.09.05

There's been some weird stuff coming out of this.
For the religious right, the whole thing is a punishment from God, in a Sodom and Gommorah idiom, for a forthcoming gay and lesbian gathering in New Orleans, and the general level of sin in the city.
For the left, some of the blame lies with the military for not being able to field enough rescue helicopters and national guard to help with the evacuation because of the Iraq war. This obviously makes more sense than the above explanation, but it still feels a little like a politically motivated cheap shot.
And now, in New Orleans No Mans Land, in addition to looting, people are shooting at rescue choppers. Now the police have been re-tasked to stop looters, as opposed to help with the evacuation. Things are getting pretty crazy in there.

18:39 / 01.09.05

Just heard from my cousin in Baton Rouge, where the Nat'l Guard is amassing: she said it seems that half of NO's evacuees are now in BR. Many are staying in low-end motels -- not paying, stealing food, numerous muggings & car-jackings, some sniping. There have also been reports of people breaking into homes, whether they're occupied or not.

Just saw a CNN report from Mississippi: a man shot his own sister in the head for her bag of ice.

Beyond horrific . . .

18:40 / 01.09.05

Another report from New Orleans' Children's Hospital: Snipers shooting at rescuers evacuating the hospital.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:45 / 01.09.05

There's also a fair bit of news and linkage in the Hurricane Season thread in the Convo.
It's all going a bit nuts. Very, very frightening. Shooting rescue choppers? I mean, what the fuck?

18:47 / 01.09.05

What's happening here is a stark exposure of America's race and class divides.

New Orleans, for all its splendor, is smack in the middle of a terribly economically depressed area. The Gulf Coast is home to some of the poorest people in this country.

And they're the ones who are left now—the folks who couldn't afford to get out. The people without transport, without prospects, without travelling money. Most of them are black. Most of them were living lives just a paycheck short of desperate before the fucking hurricane came. Now the hammer comes down, and it's Lord Of The Flies.

It could be months until the restoration of basic services, years until the restoration of infrastructure. I'm afraid that New Orleans is on its way to becoming a for-realsies feral city, a No Man's Land with no Batman to save it.

Tryphena Absent

19:07 / 01.09.05

This item is currently on the front page of the BBC news site. It's four sentences long, I think that really tells us everything we need to know about how desperate the situation must be.

Tryphena Absent

19:11 / 01.09.05

I don't quite get this- not the reaction but the seeming lack of response from the US infrastructure. This is a first world country sure but if they're having so much trouble with this then why haven't they called in international rescue workers?? Wait... what am I saying? This is the US.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

19:17 / 01.09.05

Well, normally we would have scads of National Guardsmen for this kind of thing, but they're mostly over in, ah... What's the name of that place again... You know, the one with the weapons of mass destruction?

Tryphena Absent

19:21 / 01.09.05

Since when do National Guardsmen have the kind of training that rescue workers have? I suppose they travel to countries every time there's a huge earthquake or tsunami?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:30 / 01.09.05

Shouldn't, like, FEMA or somebody be in there?

19:36 / 01.09.05

FEMA was largly re-tasked to deal with terrorist attacks.

All Acting Regiment

19:55 / 01.09.05

I read an opinion peice today that suggested the lack of response was somehow intentional, because, as was mentioned upthread, the current administration see N'Orleans as a hotbed of sin?

While this might seem more of a headshop line, could it really be true that the poor response is a) intentional and b) down to a "moral" judgement by those in power?

Phex: Dorset Doom

20:47 / 01.09.05

And of course, as Jack mentions above, the people who couldn't get out are 'undesirables' anyway -black, poor etc. Not that they're helping matters by shooting at the few people that are coming to save them; a minority of course, but you've really got to wonder what the snipers' motivations are. Even people who are normally, and understandably, distrustful of cops should put their survival first.

20:55 / 01.09.05

Read it and weep:

Jake, Colossus of Clout

20:57 / 01.09.05

Nina- the National Guard primarily deal with emergency/ disaster situations within the US itself. Hence the term "National Guard." Their original mission was essentially that of Minutemen crossed with rescue workers.

They're soldiers who take on threats within the borders of the US, whether it's a foreign invasion or a natural disaster. Normally, they would have been the guys doing the lion's share of sandbagging, evacuation and peacekeeping, as their numbers are far greater than that of the local authorities.

As for FEMA, the guardsmen were usually used as their grunts.

20:58 / 01.09.05

Dubya's boys continue true to form:

Jake, Colossus of Clout

21:20 / 01.09.05

Holy shit.

Unbelievable.

I love the part where Hastert says we shouldn't shell out 10+ billion dollars to rebuild New Orleans, when we're spending far, far more than that in Iraq. I know which cause I'd rather MY tax dollars went to.

I'm away to email Olympia Snowe. Susan collins can't be reasoned with, but Olympia is a real, live moderate Republican who can be relied on to vote her conscience.

Tryphena Absent

21:40 / 01.09.05

But Jake this is a disaster on a huge scale, don't you think that people who have dealt with this kind of thing on a regular basis would be helpful in this situation? The National Guard might be local and helpful but they're probably not as seasoned with this level of tragedy. It's the difference between advanced first aid training and a paramedic.

21:47 / 01.09.05

are we looking at the end of new orleans, then?
they keep talking about this as though there is no real coming back and it makes me wonder where the hell those who are still alive are going to go. where are they all going right now?
someone even mentioned building the city anew a few miles away from the original site. i find it hard to believe, but then i have never seen destruction anything like as massive as this.
with regards to the army being overstretched due to iraq, the spokespeople on television have been roundly avoiding this one. anytime it gets brought up they seem to have far more important issues to discuss.
isnt american military planning meant to centre around covering two wars and keeping the home fires burning all at once?
newsnight were pushing the question of resources taking too long to get to the people as though the war of error was a factor, and i have read a few blogs wondering why on earth the emergency vehicles were not ready to roll as soon as the wind stopped.
does anyone have any info on how long the various stages have taken?

Jake, Colossus of Clout

21:48 / 01.09.05

That's true, Nina, but it seems to me that what's needed right now are sets of hands.

Apparently, they don't have enough guys to keep looting and violence under control and still rescue people. I think that's the telling point. If the 50,000 guardsmen in Iraq were still in the country, they could have made a HUGE difference.

I'm not saying that it would be a miracle cure for all the tragedy going on right now, but it would be a big help. That's the sort of thing guardsmen expect to be doing when they sign up. If they wanted to go to another country, they would have joined the Army Reserve. Fun fact- only 5000 guardsmen were deployed in Viet Nam. I realize the draft was part of this, but the draft wasn't instituted right away. Bush sent the Guard over to Iraq very quickly, indeed, and a lot of guardsmen were justifiably pissed off about it.

Okay, I'll stop. This is turning into a thread for another time. Sorry.

21:57 / 01.09.05

It isn't just the mayor who is looking for help - I saw G W Bush himself asking for private sector donations of help...

This is meant to be the most developed country in the world... is it me or does something seem seriously wrong here?

Jake, Colossus of Clout

22:09 / 01.09.05

I think it may come down to arrogance, really. There's huge sense of entitlement and hubris in this country right now, best displayed by the Bush administration. They made no contingency plans with regard to Iraq- Greeted as liberators, blah, blah, blah. They took no heed of the outgoing Clinton administration's warnings about Bin laden and Al Qaeda, and ignored a memo from within their own intelligence services titled "Bin laden to strike inside US." They turn a blind eye to scientists warning about environmental concerns. Instead they just hire "experts" to churn out the party line.

There is no accountability, and no desire to enact any change that doesn't directly correlate with weighting the pockets of big business and special interests. They just blithely march on and assume things will work out. Not that it matters whether it works out for the little people, anyway, because the guys who build the voting machine are big contributors.

Personally, I think they'll use this as an excuse to open up ANWR for drilling. And worse, probably. Just look for the money to be made. They're oil barons, for God's sake.

22:15 / 01.09.05

But Georgie boy doesn't want to be seen to accepting outside help from anyone, and especially not to be asking for it! Why that would just make him seem weak to all those terrorist folks out there. Unless of course it's money being offered, because clearly that's what's needed most(!)

article
Still, Bush told ABC-TV: "I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country's going to rise up and take care of it."

"You know," he said, "we would love help, but we're going to take care of our own business as well, and there's no doubt in my mind we'll succeed..."

Never mind how many people might needlessly die along the way

22:34 / 01.09.05

Look, the guy was on vacation for christs sake. And he came back early. What more do you want?

Tryphena Absent

22:45 / 01.09.05

This is meant to be the most developed country in the world... is it me or does something seem seriously wrong here?

I think you have an idealistic view of the US, what do you actually mean by developed?

odd jest on horn

22:47 / 01.09.05

Here's an interesting article laying the blame of the current disaster squarely with the diversion of money to the war effort. It begins with this quote:

It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.

Another interesting article about how, when the National Guard got drafted, they took a shitload of flood resistant vehicles with them.

22:53 / 01.09.05

I think you have an idealistic view of the US, what do you actually mean by developed?

As opposed to developing - as in Indonesia et al.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

23:18 / 01.09.05

FOX News is beating to death the idea that the Louisiana state government is totally responsible for this. They were "woefully unprepared" for this, apparently.

I'm watching it on TV, so there's no link, but it's obvious that the Bush media machine is starting up and diverting blame.

Apparently, the lack of National Guard presence is "totally inexplicable" to Bill O'Reilly and Shepard Smith. It's like a bad joke.

23:23 / 01.09.05

Bush came back 2 fucking days early. 2 days. This even knowing that his daddy lost the election partly because of his mis-handling of Hurricane Andrew. He should have come back to Washington as soon as that thing became a category 5, purely from self-preservation!

To give you a sense of perspective, as of August 2003, Bush had spent 21% of his presidency ON VACATION. Other sources say 40%. This in a country where the average vacation time is 13 days. The people in N.O. are the poorest of the poor. There is no vacation from being poor.

And this is the man who used all his "political capital" after 9/11 to create this new "Homeland Security" department that now controls FEMA, which has sucked its resources dry on corporate graft, while N.O. has been pleading for resources to reinforce its levees. Even a Bush insider, in the first article linked above say that "the government wasn't prepared, scrimped on storm spending and shifted its attention from dealing with natural disasters."

The National Guard issue is real--it's not just cheap shots from the left. As has been stated: they are not just soldiers, this is precisely what their task is supposed to be--they work under FEMA and help make chaotic situations safe for rescue specialists in their ranks, the Red Cross, etc. They are not SUPPOSED to be an "International Guard."

And there's such an edge of racism to all the reporting on the looting and the chaos that I'm feeling positively ill. Even David Brooks, a conservative, can see that there's an ugly history to painting the poor as "animals" in the aftermath of a storm. I'm sad to see that kind of coded racism seeming to appear, here, upthread (in the description of N.O. residents in Baton Rouge).

odd jest on horn

23:48 / 01.09.05

White people "find" things, black people "loot" things.

((One link broken, images can be found here. -A mod))

Jake, Colossus of Clout

23:48 / 01.09.05

Right on, alas. Great post.

O'Reilly and Smith are reiterating that there is "no excuse" for looting, and implying that if you were still in New Orleans when the storm hit, you deserve what you get. The only close-ups of looters they've really been showing are *shocker* of young black men wearing "thug" attire. And they're equating the word "thug" with pretty much anyone who stayed in the city.

What can make people so cruel and willfully ignorant?

Murray Hamhandler

00:02 / 02.09.05

Katrina's Political Aftermath (from ILX)

00:27 / 02.09.05

Oh, I know. This is all some big joke...right? New Orleans is emptied by a very predictable Hurricane (more right behind this one.) Hurricanes destroy the islands for years...Haiti is still rubble as is most of Florida from last year. (Next year will be worse).
Then this leads to the great minds of the Barbelith Underwater a moment to vent concern and really get going on the hypocrisy tip.
I didn't realize that black people are still treated differently in the south then in say ...London. This is news, Gas is fucking out of control (today $3-3.60), yeah I saw that program "Oil Storm". Unlike that nice show and we will see what kind of really scary shit people get into nation wide as gas triples. We (the USA) are not getting much sympathy from anyone at this point after the Iraq money/resource grab. That is no news.

I heard that people at the earliest will be able to return to New Orleans in (as soon as) 6 months....and as late as 6 years. Ouch. Bad Voodoo. Kinda news.
I guess the government truely does control the weather, like the vampires they are, they seem ready to make a profit somehow of this disaster. Or is that all the bands that seem to pop up out of the woodwork to use these events as a promotional stepping stone. Money, power, and government are not here to help anyone...they are here to make more power sons who make more money as we all die of things they have poisoned us with. New Orleans is now just a poison pill that everyone in the U.S. of assholes is more then ready to swallow.
KatrinaCrime

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