NationStates Jolt Archive

This is news that I've just heard and pieced together. The Red Cross seems to have been ready to provide their relief operations after the winds of Hurricane Katrina died out. But the LA Department of Homeland Security stuck to a plan that denied aid to people that took shelter in a 'shelter of last resort'. Turns out the Convention Center and Superdome were this type of refuge.
This is defined in the LA Emergency Plan (http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:_je6xBAh_AgJ:www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/plans/EOPSupplement1a.pdf+last+resort&hl=en) as:

The definition of Last Resort Refuge is a place for persons to be protected from
the high winds and heavy rains from the storm. Unlike a shelter, there may
be little or no water or food and possibly no utilities. A Last Resort Refuge is
intended to provide best available survival protection for the duration of the
hurricane only

So, the state doesn't want these folks to get comfortable. To insure that they don't get comfortable, the state doesn't allow the Red Cross to go back into New Orleans with the staged food, water, blankets, and hygiene kits that they normally provide to disaster victims. The Red Cross doesn't want to rock the boat, so they don't go back into the city. See the Red Cross FAQ (http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html)

The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.
[cut]
The original plan was to evacuate all the residents of New Orleans to safe places outside the city. With the hurricane bearing down, the city government decided to open a shelter of last resort in the Superdome downtown. We applaud this decision and believe it saved a significant number of lives.
Meanwhile, the state and local officials are complaining about the lack of relief efforts...

This doesn't excuse anyone from Nagin's, Blanco's, or Bush's administrations for the lousy response, but it does shed some light on why the folks that concentrated in the Superdome and Convention center didn't get any relief in those first couple hours. I'm certain that if the Red Cross had been allowed to truck in supplies while the roads were still passible, there would be many more live victims of this hurricane.

I just saw the interview with the Red Cross spokeswoman on FOX. I have 2 words. MY GOD! She said the state of Louisiana refused to allow the Red Cross in to discourage people from staying. An interview with a National Guard commander said they were asked to have 400 troops at the SuperDome. 30,000 people came to the dome after the hurricane and the 400 troops were unable to control such a large crowd. He said the governor did not request more so they couldn't sent more in. He said that evacuees were told to bring 3 days of supplies and that it would be a campout with no food, water, or anything else needed. When the guard discovered that most of the people did not bring their own supplies, they went over the governor's head and brought supplies in. The feds made some mistakes, but the local and state government in Louisiana made big mistakes. I'll keep trying to find a link to this interview but it may not have time to be posted on the net yet.

Hmm, I could've sworn there was an evacuation order well in advance of the hurricane...

Hmm, I could've sworn there was an evacuation order well in advance of the hurricane...
Yeah, just that it's kinda tricky to get out if you're 70 or in a wheelchair. :rolleyes:

Hmm, I could've sworn there was an evacuation order well in advance of the hurricane...
That's the whole point of these last resort refuges. Something temporary that 30,000 people can share.

If I were the LA Gov, there would be some healthy revisions in our plans to handle disasters. First thing would be more flexibility to deviate from the plan when it was obviously inadequate.

Yeah, just that it's kinda tricky to get out if you're 70 or in a wheelchair. :rolleyes:

So, you're telling me all the people in the superdome were either over 70 or in a wheelchair?

That's the whole point of these last resort refuges. Something temporary that 30,000 people can share.

If I were the LA Gov, there would be some healthy revisions in our plans to handle disasters. First thing would be more flexibility to deviate from the plan when it was obviously inadequate.

So then why is everyone bitching that there should have been more food and such provided? It's supposed to be Temporary - by your own admition. If people are directed to bring their own supplies and dont, who's fault is it?

So, you're telling me all the people in the superdome were either over 70 or in a wheelchair?
Judging by the TV pictures I've seen, yeah, a lot of them were.

Many were of course too poor to own cars, and weren't able to walk a hundred miles to safety. In America, I understand it is still the case that no responsibility is accepted for people without means. :)

Yeah, just that it's kinda tricky to get out if you're 70 or in a wheelchair. :rolleyes:

Wake up!! Katrina hit Florida 5 days before it hit the gulf. Even the weather channel made it clear it was heading for the gulf and gaining strength. That gave them 5 days to plan and execute an evacuation. The mayor and the governor finally did something less than 24 hours before it hit. When they declared a mandatory evacuation they stated it was at Bush's insistence. Tell me why 150 NO school buses sat in a parking lot and are now sitting in 5 foot of water when they could have been deployed for the evacuation?

Wake up!! Katrina hit Florida 5 days before it hit the gulf. Even the weather channel made it clear it was heading for the gulf and gaining strength. That gave them 5 days to plan and execute an evacuation. The mayor and the governor finally did something less than 24 hours before it hit. When they declared a mandatory evacuation they stated it was at Bush's insistence. Tell me why 150 NO school buses sat in a parking lot and are now sitting in 5 foot of water when they could have been deployed for the evacuation?
Um ... because the Governor of Louisiana is a stupid, democratic bitch? :D

Judging by the TV pictures I've seen, yeah, a lot of them were.

Many were of course too poor to own cars, and weren't able to walk a hundred miles to safety. In America, I understand it is still the case that no responsibility is accepted for people without means. :)

Yeah, that's why we are all giving til it hurts and working our asses off to help these people, right? It wasn't necessary to walk hundreds of miles to get to safety. There were 10 shelters in NO. the dome and the convention center were the largest. It was just necessary for the elected officials down there to pul their heads out of their butts long enough to do something.

Judging by the TV pictures I've seen, yeah, a lot of them were.

Many were of course too poor to own cars, and weren't able to walk a hundred miles to safety. In America, I understand it is still the case that no responsibility is accepted for people without means. :)

You really need to visit the US before you make judgements. We have public assistance programs aplenty. The much criticized Christians tythe a chunk of their income to organizations aiding the poor. Special education programs and incentives are available for the poor. NO was overrun with gangs, drugs, crime, and government corruption. Louisiana was one of the states to receive the most federal funding. They chose to use it for other projects rather than the levies.

Your statement proves that you know nothing about the US that you haven't read in anti-American propeganda.

The US pays welfare checks to the poor every month. We provide free medical care, free child care, free or almost free rent, free utilities, free advanced education, free transportation, free food, free every freaking thing you need to live without ever having to work a minute in your life. If some of the poor people choose to collect the monetary aid, not take advantage of educational advantages, sit on their ratty couches and cry "Poor me!!" and then bitch that they are suffering because "rich" people are holding them down, what can we do? They voted (most of them didn't get off their couches to even do that) for their local and state leaders and those leaders have made so many fatal mistakes it is criminal.

I am mixed race and Dr Bill Cosby tells it like it is. Get over your propoganized opinions and learn what the real situation is here in the US.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/11/cosby/

You don't want to get Bill Cosby angry.

And Bill Cosby is angry.

Cosby's ire is focused at the African-American community: its rates of juvenile delinquency, its parenting, the coarse language of its youth. You can do better, he exhorts his audiences. Don't let yourself be victims, and especially don't let the poorest in the community let themselves be victims.

"This is about little children ... and people not giving them better choices," he told Paula Zahn in an interview for CNN's "Paula Zahn Now." "Talking. Talking. Parenting. Correctly parenting. That's what it's about. And you can't blame other things. You got to -- you got to straighten up your house. Straighten up your apartment. Straighten up your child."


"Let them stay mad as long as they don't have good sense," he told Zahn. "I don't care what right-wing white people are thinking. ... How long you gonna whisper about a smallpox epidemic in your apartment building when bodies are coming out under the sheets?"

So then why is everyone bitching that there should have been more food and such provided? It's supposed to be Temporary - by your own admition. If people are directed to bring their own supplies and dont, who's fault is it?
I guess the problem is that people didn't leave when they could. Ideally, they would have left Tuesday after all the winds died down. Since they didn't, the state should have changed it's plan. It seems like the Red Cross was begging to give supplies to victims in New Orleans but were prevented from doing that.

I think we all get the point that these were intended to be temporary shelters, but sometimes events don't adhere to even the best made plans.

<snip>



Interesting information, thanks. It seems likely that a speedy federal response was an integral assumption of the City/State emergency plan. I remain a critic of this plan - it made no solid provisions for short-term survival of the residents.

Slightly off topic - just saw on CNN a report of multiple murder/mutilations that occurred in the Superdome. Too graphic to show, they claim.

I surmised that very bad things were happening in there, hence the media not allowed in and the panicked evacuation. There may be more horrors yet to be revealed. Security was completely inadequate, yet so preventable with planning.

Wake up!! Katrina hit Florida 5 days before it hit the gulf. Even the weather channel made it clear it was heading for the gulf and gaining strength. That gave them 5 days to plan and execute an evacuation. The mayor and the governor finally did something less than 24 hours before it hit. When they declared a mandatory evacuation they stated it was at Bush's insistence. Tell me why 150 NO school buses sat in a parking lot and are now sitting in 5 foot of water when they could have been deployed for the evacuation?
Don't forget the 364(As of 2002) NORTA(New Orleans Regional Transport Authority) buses that could have been used for emergency evac.

Looks like even the holdouts are now abandoning the city. New Orleans seems to be going the way of the ancient city's of old, like Sodom and Gomorrah, Nineveh, Pompie, and Babylon.

New Orleans- the first modern first world city to fall to natural disaster.