Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts

It's the perfect circumstance to drive the prices even higher.

Gas company executives are most likely sitting back, absolutely loving it. One situation after another, that they can exploit in their favor.

I feel horrible for the people in New Orleans. A lot of them had nowhere to go, no way to get there if they did, and now they are left suffering.

I also found it horrid, how companies such as Wal-Mart, Win Dixie, etc were turning everything around to make themselves look like heros. "We donated over $2million to the relief effort"

Excuse me if I see it as "You had no choice. You either give it to them, or they take it anyway."

Then you have the people who are looking for the handout, and taking advantage of the situation themselves.

I watched a kid on CNN taking 4 boxes of AirForce Ones. Another lady going into a food line where they were giving away free food to the people, being picky about what she was getting, while the people behind her were needing food, and would have taken anything given to them.
 
What also bothers me is all of the websites that are springing up.
People are trying to stroke their egos by starting family search sites and help sites when their energy would be far better spent attracting attention to the established sources.
 
It shouldn't even be a question of what website to use. If there is more than one website where people post that someone is missing or okay, then there's a chance that the message won't get to where it needs to go. There needs to be a central, government run database. It would not be hard to create.
 
Here's something odd and may just be a coincidence:

It's reported that Alabama and Mississippi both have the necessary aid and support. Their governors are Republican. In Louisiana, they need the help desperately. The Louisiana governor is a Democrat.
 
It's coincidence.
First of all, Louisiana is a Red state. They vote Republican.
Also, all of the aid to Alabama and Mississippi came from the North and/or East.
You cannot access New Orleans from the East. The entire causeway over Lake Ponchartrain is destroyed.

That does not excuse the pathetically slow response though.
There is no excuse for not flying in food and water to those stranded.
There is no excuse for them not having coast guard speed boats in the city doing rescue work.
There is no excuse for a bunch of pompous asses patting each other on the back for a failed rescue effort.
There is no excuse for them not to have a "tent city" established somewhere North or East of New Orleans that they could evacuate people to.
There is no excuse for not having SWAT teams in the city on Wednesday with snipers on the roof tops to control the violence.
There is no excuse for Bush to say that the response was inadequate and in the same day praise the director of FEMA for their brave and fast work.
There is no excuse for Trent Lott to claim that the response was just fine and then scold reporters for asking if National Guard troops are depleted because of the war in Iraq.
There is no excuse for Michael Chertoff to praise the director of FEMA and make the claim that the hospitals have been evacuated when at the very moment he is saying that there are hundreds of stranded sick people being held hostage by criminals and snipers.
There is no excuse for Bush to take 5 days to visit the region when it only took him a day to visit Florida after Charlie during an election year.


The list goes on and on and on and on.
 
In a just released report by Barbara Starr who is at the Convention Center in New Orleans things are still getting worse.
Even though the so called calvary has been in the city for a day conditions are deteriorating.

Perhaps this is another blunder by the military.
They are so concerned about image they cannot do their job.
The general on the ground there has paid more attention to how the soldiers hold their weapons, so it won't look like Iraq, than he is on getting the city secured.
 
I live in a region of the world where the US is seen as a model in many ways. If this is how the authorities of the model country react, I hate to think what's in store for people living in small, developing countries.

Interesting that a nuclear war can be started within minutes should the situation so require, yet people in disaster areas have to wait for days to get the help they need so, so much, and all this after actually having time to prepare things in advance.

Bad!
 
After thinking about what I saw on television today in regard to the President's visit, I noticed that not once did they show him walking passed the many dead bodies scattered around the streets. Not once did they show any acts of violence. The pictures that were seen were so tightly controlled to make the world believe that the situation was under control and people were no longer in danger. However, there are constant reports and other footage that show otherwise. His visit was not to get a first hand look at the destruction, it was a PR stunt to get the world to see that the situation was improving when it only getting worse in certain respects. It's a shame that the US has to be seen this way by the rest of the world, but it's the truth, and should be a wakeup call. Things need to change! This cannot happen again!
 
People, there is plenty of blame to go around as to why its taken so long to get help to these people. But let's not forget the scope of the situation. Over 100,000 square miles has been destroyed, that's the equivalent of all of New York and New Jersey combined. All infrastructure in the region has been destroyed. Most roads impassable.
Yes, we can start by asking why the city of New Orleans didn't have a plan (the poor and the tourists were left to fend for themselves), why the shelters didn't have food and water, how can you stick 20,000 people in a stadium with no supplies? and continue up the chain to the President. But right now the important thing is to focus on helping those people, not playing the blame game.
It's easy to play monday morning quarterback, for some reason people seem to think that it's easy to coordinate a huge (biggest in US history) rescue effort. It's not just New Orleans, there are people all along the gulf coast that suddenly have no home, no job, no food, no water. I have seen many people question why the police and guard in Louisiana let things get so out of hand. But I guarantee you many of those same people would be demanding heads roll if the police and guardsman had started shooting from the get go.
It's a mess, It's a disgrace that things have taken so long, but the magnitude of the damage is unimaginable.
 
"The blame game" needs to be played. The people that need help are not getting help. By drawing attention to the people who have the ability to direct help to these people will hopefully attract their attention and rescue these dying and suffering people. People need to understand WHY things are the way that they are and what can be done to prevent this from ever happening again. The damage is not important right now. The most important thing is that these people lives are saved. These people don't care about their houses at the moment. They care about themselves and their families. Property is secondary.
 
Xcel_Hosting said:
"The blame game" needs to be played.
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I agree, but only after the people have been helped. The poor people stuck at the convention center could care less about whose to blame, they want food, water and a way out. Wasting time and effort to find someone to blame would be a disgrace. Once everyone it taken care of, there will be plenty of time for the democrats and republicans to beat up on each other.
This is the worst natural disaster in US history, the largest national relief effort in US history, more people homeless and in need than ever in US history. When all is said and done we absolutely need to review what happened, learn from it, and try to put things in place to do better if/when something like this happens again.
 
Well I think both games need to be played.

We need to help these people, and blaming won't help that. Action will.

However, the people behind the action need a push sometimes. That push often comes in the form of angry citizens blaming and screaming at them...."Why aren't you helping these people!"

The fact is, for the past few years, the citizens of New Orleans have been writing, and begging for something to be done about the weakening levey. The pleas were ignored much like the warnings of 9/11 that sat on the President's desk, unread.

We are playing catch up far too often in this country, living by the theory, "That could never happen, and certainly not here." Our officials wait for something to actually happen, then take action. This time an unimaginable amount of people have to suffer for it. Many of these people did not have the means or technology to get themselves out of town, let alone battling something like this by themselves.

The additional fact is that our government is so wrapped up in Iraq, that the people trained and paid to handle these things (The National Guard), are busy fighting and rebuilding Iraq. If this were not the case, the Guard's job is to setup basic utilities, camps, food and water, sanitation, as well as law and order.

Terrorists don't have to do a thing in the US. Our government will do it for them. No one kills off more US citizens by ignorance and lack of effort, than the US government themselves.

We can move hundreds of thousands of troops to Iraq, setup elaborate communication networks, form a coalition between multiple countries, plan, and then conduct one of the most elaborate attacks ever conducted on a country, and all in under a month (most of which done in just a few week's time), but we cannot move people from one state to another, or even the same state, to safety, with food and water, and nothing is wrong with that?

As many of you here know, I am a former military man myself. I have never been as pissed at our government as I am right now.
 
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Thomas, other than giving my donations there is not much I can physically do.
What I can do is express my disbelief in how this is being handled.
It took a desperate call from the Governor of Louisiana to even get Bush off of his vacation to deal with this.

This is not the way a real leader is. This is not a partisan issue. I have been just as disgusted my many of the Democrats I have listened to telling the world how well things are going.

3 times I have heard high level officials say that everything is fine and that all of the hospitals are evacuated. As I write this there are still 200 dying people at the Charity Hospital in the city.
 
ANMMark said:
What kicks the hell out of me though is when you consider that the gas that is already in that underground tank, is already delivered and paid for. That gas will cost no more to pump than it would have the day it was delivered.
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I have heard that the oil & gas companies use LIFO accounting ... Last In First Out ... which means increases happen at the pumps immediately. Decreases take 3+ months to register at the pumps. Our governments should force them to use FIFO accounting ... First In First Out in my book. At least then we would have warning that the price is going up and by how much.

Bush's nemesis, Michael Moore, has an open letter to Bush published on his website that you might be interested in reading.
http://www.michaelmoore.com

I have friends that live south of Baton Rouge a bit. They had some friends arrive from New Orleans arrive on Sunday to "wait out" the hurricane. They have one of those grand old plantation style houses ... lots of room. They didn't get anything in the way of damage ... they just said they have some nasty critters showing up in untraditional areas :) When the learned of the devastation in New Orleans they started turning a few of their main public rooms into dormitory style bedrooms are in the process of trying to contact other friends from New Orleans to offer them a place to stay for the coming months. On Tuesday, after finally getting ahold of them, I packed up a bunch of clothes and asked the neighbors for any they wanted to get rid of ... and then sent the packages down. As they said, if the ones that are staying at their place can't use them ... there will be others that can. Trouble is ... they are having to drive out of state in order to find food they can stock up on. They figure if they fill all the beds in their house that are set up now ... they will have about 40 people. Methinks by November things might be a little too cozy for everyone :)

Those packages arrived on Thursday down there ... and still the news stations were reporting there was no real help for the masses.

Canada offered help on Tuesday ... and from the sounds of it ... the US was refusing it until yesterday (Friday).

As ticked off and disappointed and dismayed I might be at the US government and their "relief efforts" to date ... I am finding myself even more ticked off at the Canadian government right now. On Tuesday the government was saying they had ships loaded with supplies ready to go when the US gave the go ahead. Now that that go ahead has been given ... they are saying the ships will be loaded by Tuesday and should be in New Orleans by Friday. How many thousands of more people are going to die by the time our ships arrive??

Governments on both sides of the border have much to learn from this disaster.

The beginning of the week they were touting about our DART teams which, they said, could be deployed within hours ... and set up to provide fresh safe water, hundreds of hospital beds and be able to serve thousands of meals 3 times a day. Now that the go ahead for assistance has been received ... not one word on our DART teams.

SHEESH !!!

So ... as we all know, and this disaster has confirmed ... both our governments are very skillful liars.

The thing that gets me ... everyone knew on Sunday afternoon where Katrina was going to hit and had a pretty good idea how much damage she would do. They should have started "mustering the troops" then ... so that they could just move in after the hurricane passed.

I give a lot of credit and kudo's to those few troops & the New Orleans PD for doing as much as they could do with their limited resources available and against such impossible odds. But they were just too few to do much more than make a barely noticable dent in what was needed.

And I just about croaked when I heard the prison officials just opened their doors and told all the inmates just to leave !!! What in blazes were they thinking??? Unleashing murderers, gang members and rapists on a city already victimized by Katrina !!!! As far as I am concerned ... who ever is responsible for that decision should be taken out and shot. I would not be surprised if it turns out most of the reported gun toting looters & rapists are those released from the prison.

It just boggles my mind that something like this could happen in the USA. Not the disaster ... but the governments delayed response. I figured the relief effort would be in full swing within hours after the hurricane passed. I could be wrong, but it just seems the US relief aid to the Tsunami victims was quicker than its been to the people of the Gulf Coast.

When all is said and done ... it will come as no surprise to learn that a thousand died due to the storm ... and many more times that died because of the delay in receiving help.

And ... DANG IT. There are Canadian tourists in the devastated areas ... and Canada was not given permission to even send people in to find them and bring them home until yesterday. So now ... apparently ... most of them are scattered throughout the neighboring states. That permission should have been received by Tuesday at the latest.

Enuff venting ... everyone write to their elected officials and tear strips off them right left and center. If you can't physically help, the only way for any of us to be of assistance is to donate $$$ to the agencies providing relief ... and screaming to our governments so loud that no one will dare let something like this happen ever again.

JMHO
Peter
 
That Moore's letter, Peter, is sure a treat. Thanks. :)

The hurricane vaguely is the reason for gas prices. With demand for oil higher than supply, it is only an economical reaction for the prices to go up. Hurricane is not to blame as gas consumption by affected State is not big to influence such increase. It might just be he new normal prices. Look at the U.K. British have been paying double of what we've been paying for over 6 months now.

Best,
 
Artashes said:
It might just be he new normal prices. Look at the U.K. British have been paying double of what we've been paying for over 6 months now.
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Europe in general has been paying a WHOLE lot more for gas than we have for years. Its something thats been commonly mentioned, complained about and compared in emails I exchange with friends over there :)

Today, our gas price at the pumps in town are $1.35 CDN a litre ... or approx $4.10 USD for a US Gallon (3.8 litres) We are catching up to the UK real quick this past week.

Peter

PS ... glad you enjoyed Michael Moore's letter :) Now maybe he could write one that might smarten the Martin government up a bit.
 
I too am disgusted with how things have been handled for the most part (The people of Texas being a big exception, thank God for their ability to help so many). Starting with how could a mandatory evacuation be declared yet no provisions made for actually getting people out. The poor, the infirm, tourists in hotels, were all just ignored. School buses sat idle when they could have been part of "the plan" for getting people out. The designated shelters had no food/water stockpiles. Failure at the start just compounded the difficulty of providing help latter on. The whole thing is terrible.
I just don't want to see things degrade into finger pointing until after the bulk of the people have received help.
 
Not only Texas ... but all the neighboring states have been "right there" with their offers to help right from the start.

Personally, my own criticism is reserved for the US Federal Government.

The neighboring states, the aid agencies, the people on the ground that have been there for days ... I have nothing but kudo's for all of them and their attempts to help.

The trouble is ... with as widespread as the devastation is ... only the Fed Government has the resources to muster the tens of thousands of people needed and the huge amount of equipment & $$$ that is needed to truly help these people ... quickly. And they did not act for 5 days ... or what little they did do was woefully insuffient. Only now are they "starting" to really help ... and apparently it will be a couple more days yet before supplies & equipment get to all the areas they are needed in. That is ... if you can believe the "PR spin" the government is now trying to cover its butt with.

Peter
 
I truly believe it's time to grab the pen and paper, and start draftng our letters to our representatives.

Let them know we're not about to believe their spin. The entire time they're spinning the story in their favor, people are dying. People are suffering.

If I were these people, I'd never want to pay another tax in my life. What has their tax dollars got them, stranded?.....abandoned?....death?

Once these people are out of this situation, a good hard look at it needs to be conducted.

"We the people" need to put a foot in their a**es, ask Bush why he can get to 50 states in a week, to campaign, but can't get to New Orleans in less than 4. Ask Bush why we don't have enough National Guard units to preserve life, and order in the devastated states. Afterall, that is what the National Guard's first job is, not fighting Iraq. Let's also ask, that while extremely appreciative, why is it that these people must rely on the limited abled efforts of other citizens, instead of the people paid and trained to provide real aid.

I also agree that the guy left in charge of deciding the fate of convicted prisoners, should be hung, old Mississippi style.

I wanted to take a moment however to say something...
All too often we take for granted the things that we have. The most basic essentials for live..food...water. While not to persecute these suffering people, but I'm sure they too took these things for granted. I think however, that their outlook will be much different once this is all over.

I think all of us should reflect on what we have, that is important to us, as well as the things that are not so important. These people have neither. They are fighting to stay alive in their own backyard. You don't have to be a religious person to be thankful for what you have.

Now, once you have reflected on what you have, remember those in need right now. Trully, and deeply consider how you may feel if everything you have to be thankful for, was suddenly, and instantly taken away from you. I'm not saying "just think about it" I'm talking about sitting down and really putting yourselves in those shoes.

Use those emotions that overwhelm you, to help. Ask your church, your school, your state representatives, etc what you can do, or what you can organize to help. Every thing helps, no matter how little you may feel it is. Even if you can only afford to contribute a shirt, that is someone that will have a nice shirt to put on their back. If you can donate $5 to the relief effort, great. Imagine if everyone in your community donated only $5. It adds up.

With Art's permission, avidInteractive will be replacing our top ad for IntelloDesk, and with a banner and link for The American Red Cross' Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.
 
pmhoran said:
Personally, my own criticism is reserved for the US Federal Government.
Peter
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My criticism extends far beyond that. But that is reserved for a future time.
 
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