Thread: The Katrina Story in New Orleans

This was a letter and video sent to me by brasscheck

This Sunday in Miami the New Orleans Saints
football team is going up against the...
what the heck's their name? I forget.

Anyway, over 90 million people will be
watching the game.

It might be a good time to FINALLY get the story
straight on New Orleans:

1. In 2005, long AFTER Hurricane Katrina passed, the federally
built and maintained levees failed nearly destroying the entire city

2. The federal government provided no aid to the
survivors of this engineering catastrophe for nearly a week.

Not only that they actually interfered with aid efforts and
blocked people stuck in the city from leaving the city.
(They don't even do that in Haiti!)

3. Then, instead of protecting the city, the local
police - and all the other law enforcement that
made it to New Orleans days before meaningful
relief did - went door to door, car to car, boat to boat
and SEIZED FIREARMS from normal citizens who needed
them for self-protection.

Video:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/144.html

Kathyet

I am about FED UP hearing all the liberal whining about the poor victims of Katrina. They have had plenty of help and it's been 5 years. In the mean time, Houston got ZERO help from anyone when IKE hit Houston. No singers or movie stars donated money, FEMA did little and those few trailers they provided for the homeless are already gone. No one helped me clean my yard, gave me water or food, or helped me repair the damage to my home the storm did. Most all of us are completely recovered by now. The only ones that aren't have been screwed by their insurance companies. enough is enough. Let these people do something for themselves for a change and quit sponging off the kindness of the American tax payer.

Originally Posted by bigtex

I am about FED UP hearing all the liberal whining about the poor victims of Katrina. They have had plenty of help and it's been 5 years. In the mean time, Houston got ZERO help from anyone when IKE hit Houston. No singers or movie stars donated money, FEMA did little and those few trailers they provided for the homeless are already gone. No one helped me clean my yard, gave me water or food, or helped me repair the damage to my home the storm did. Most all of us are completely recovered by now. The only ones that aren't have been screwed by their insurance companies. enough is enough. Let these people do something for themselves for a change and quit sponging off the kindness of the American tax payer.

It is clear you didn't watch the video....

Did the National guard march through your streets and confiscate your weapons when there was no need to. Were you or your family force-ably removed from your home..even when you had no flooding in your area and you had plenty of provisions.....Did the National guard force themselves into your home with out your permission and rampage through your belongings.....just to mention a few things....

If you see no problem with these things then you may be part of the problem....or you look but you don't see...


Kathyet

I am also sick and tired of hearing the "truth" about Katrina from both sides of the issue.

1. Rule of thumb for hurricanes: You will ALWAYS be on your own for at least 2 to 3 days if your area is hit. Plan for it.
2. As we have seen with Haiti, getting any kind of outside help into a disaster stricken area is difficult if not impossible. In the case of Katrina, roads into and out of New Orleans were severely flooded and damaged. Both airports were also damaged and had limited operations. Remember also, that the entire Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Pensacola, Fl was ripped, and the severe damage extended as far 60 miles inland in Mississippi. This scale of hurricane damage was unprecedented. I know because I also went thru Hurricane Camille in 1969, and it was the worst hurricane in history up to that point. But it primarily affected the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
3. Compounding this problem was the reluctance of the governor of La at the time to turn responsibility over to the Feds. That was her right, but she should have accepted Fed help sooner.
4. Also compounding the problem was the failure to evacuate New Orleans BEFORE the storm. This was especially tragic for those who were in hospitals, rest homes etc,, as well as for the aged living in residential areas. Moreover, many of the people in the worst affected areas had no means of transportation if they had wanted to evacuate. The true tragedy here was that in 2004 there was an exercise between La and the Feds called "Hurricane Pam". The purpose of Pam was to exercise emergency plans, test response capabilities, and identify serious shortfalls or problems. One of the major problems identified in Pam was evacuation of New Orleans. Obviously, the state and city officials did not do anything to fix this identified shortfall. Even more tragic is that the city had several hundred buses sitting idle that could have been used to address evacuation problems, but by the time they realized this, the area had flooded and the buses were useless.
5. For nearly 20 years before Katrina I heard the commentators on radio station WWL in New Orleans discussing the condition of the levees. They interviewed local officials, state officials, Army Corps of Engineers officials, etc. Always, the questions asked centered around whether or not the levees were safe and could withstand a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane. Almost invariably they would be assured New Orleans was ok. Millions of dollars every year were tagged for levee upkeep, repair, etc. Invariably, also, would be comments about how "some" levee funds had to be diverted to more pressing projects and priorities.
6. After the hurricane, while thousands of people had taken shelter in the Superdome, city officials actually refused to allow food and water to be delivered because the did not want the dome to become a "magnet for refugees". We actually saw video footage of this happening on a Mobile, Al tv station's newscast.
7. We also saw footage of people stranded on one of the city bridges leading out of the city who were not allowed into the next parish by the local police. They had little food, water, medical aid, or shelter. Newscasters were able to get to them to conduct interviews but no city, state or federal officials could manage to get them any help. Or get them off the bridge. This lasted for 2 to 3 days after the storm. Go figure.

So, were the Feds to blame for the lack of response? Yes, but...Go back to rule 1. You have to take care of yourself for the first 3 days. If you get help sooner, terrific, but do not count on it. Also, while the Feds did not do a very good job, take a hard look at the state and local officials. What happened in New Orleans was entirely preventable. Hurricane Katrina did not even hit the city full force. It came ashore in Waveland, MS (same spot as the eye of Camille), and the most damaging winds were to the east. It was the storm surge brought by Katrina that breached the levees, and in my opinion there was no excuse for those levees to have failed. Blame it on politicians and officials that had other priorities. Blame it on a Corps of Engineers for not evaluating the levees and identifying deficiencies that could have been fixed before Karina. Blame a lack of effort by state and local officials to insist on such evaluations. Blame the governor of the state and the mayor of New Orleans for failing to address the deficiencies identified in the "hurricane Pam" exercise.

As a parting shot, you can also blame all of those responsible for extending the original city into a flood plain. The French Quarter did not flood, and most of the rest of the old city did not flood either.

Originally Posted by kathyet

It is clear you didn't watch the video....

Did the National guard march through your streets and confiscate your weapons when there was no need to. Were you or your family force-ably removed from your home..even when you had no flooding in your area and you had plenty of provisions.....Did the National guard force themselves into your home with out your permission and rampage through your belongings.....just to mention a few things....

If you see no problem with these things then you may be part of the problem....or you look but you don't see...


Kathyet

I did not watch the video. Had the federal government kept out of there in the first place and allowed people of New Orleans to solve their own problems like we did in Texas, none of that would have taken place.

We didn't need the National Guard here because most Houstonians put up signs that anyone coming on to their property would be shot on site.

Not one time did the people of Houston/Galveston cry about the government owing us something. We never cried about expecting big brother to help us or re-build. We banded together and helped ourselves without becoming a burden on the federal government or another state. Those that got screwed by insurance companies have had lawyers solve their problems. My HOA has had to sue our insurance company because they didn't want to pay up.

Again, no National Guard came to my neighbor, no police, no Red Cross, NO BODY. We were without power and water for in my neighborhood for almost a month. The big difference is we didn't want the help and took care of ourselves. Those that had gave to those who did have. Our power came on first and we gave food and water to our neighbors who didn't have. Had the National Guard come to my community and tried to take guns I am afraid there would have been a war.

Now how many residents of Galveston do you think were forced from their homes? How much of Galveston do you think was left after IKE? How many times have you heard anyone from Galveston whine about the federal government owing them something? Much of the island is still devastated as is their entire economy. Yet no one complains, no media shows the heart aches there and no one expects the rest of the world to feel sorry for them.

My advice to the people of New Orleans is to learn to help yourselves and quit depending on America to do it for you. This comes from a man who has been through every hurricane that has hit Houston since Carla plus Andrew when I lived in Miami.