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lagilmanETA:
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jaylake's journal:
The president, as heard on NPR this morning:
"I don't think anybody anticipated the breaking of the levees, I don't think anybody anticipated such a severe storm."
(pause for everyone to look askance at the Moron on the Hill and say WTF?)
ETA furthermore -- question of the day: can we impeach the President for Terminal (for others) Stupidity? Can we? Huh?
-------------------------------------------------------
I’ve been here in Baton Rouge for a little more than 6 hours. I came in on a helicopter with a group of Red Cross workers that had been in New Orleans to get a look around. This place is Heaven compared to the Hell that is New Orleans. I will be going back to New Orleans at 6:45 local time. While here I took a shower, used a real bathroom with a toilet that flushed, and got to call (name deleted). I woke him out of a sound sleep as it was after midnight in Florida, but he didn’t mind.
I have been watching the 24 hour cable stations while I have been here. If what I saw is typical of what people around the world are seeing… well, al I can say is how absolutely sad that is.
Yes, there is looting. Yes, the criminal element are running around. Yes, police and guard people are stretched thin. Yes, it’s hot, there’s no water, there’s no food, there are lots of dead bodies, it’s beginning to smell, people are now getting sick, tempers are short, relief is hard to come by. Yes. All of that is true.
And it’s also true that the city is filled with people saving lives. Where is that on the news? Every minute of each day that passes, rescuers are saving lives. They aren’t here for the money or the glory or for anything other to help. Some are paid: Coast Guard, National Guard, local EMS and fire. Most are volunteers: people like our teams and so many others from across this country. Even those people paid aren’t being paid for the work they’re doing here. They are working every minute of every day with no other thought than to rescue as many people as we can.
Time is not on our side. There are still THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of people still on roofs and in attics. They have NO FOOD and NO WATER. It is almost 100 degrees. They have no insulation from the sun. Time is critical for these people, and just as I told you that the death count would be staggering here, long before the press keyed on these “possibly thousands of deaths” (I’ll say it again… there’s no possibly about it. We were told before we even left Florida to expect between 3000 and 9000 deaths. We’re ready. It’s happening. God forbid the press get a hold of that), I will tell you that not all of the people waiting for rescue on their rooftops will be rescued in time. Some will die of dehydration. Some will die because they need medication that they have no way to get. (edited for some details I'm not comfortable sharing -- LAG) Not everyone here will be saved. That’s just the way it is.
I heard on CNN or MSNBC, I don’t know which, that there is a lack of communication between agencies and the somewhere along the way, things haven’t happened the way they should. People are complaining that there doesn’t appear to be enough help here yet. There are no relief stations with food and water; plans of relief aren’t getting to the citizens. Well… no shit… this is a city where more than 100,000 people did not evacuated when they were told it was mandatory to do so. Trust me, every single agency that is here and every single agency on the way is doing the best they can do.
Maybe if the city didn’t have to cut rescue operations in more than half to go address the problems of looters stealing guns and raiding hospitals, maybe if the press would use their trucks and vans to help bring in water for people instead of for inciting panic among the people, maybe if everyone would stop for one minute and truly let the magnitude of what is happening here sink in… maybe it’d be better. Well, that’s not true. It isn’t going to be better for a very long time. But maybe it’d be something other than it is being reported by the press to actually be.
I wish everyone could see what’s happening here the way I see it. One rescuer reaching out to one person and saving that one life. Every minute of the day.
The next time that I hear someone say to me that Dan Marino is a hero or that Elton John in a hero or that Jon Wayne was a hero, I think I’ll tell them the story of James Delory. He has broken through attic after attic and has pulled 311 people to safety. He has saved 311 lives since Monday night. He’s how hero is defined.
From
jaylake's journal:The president, as heard on NPR this morning:
"I don't think anybody anticipated the breaking of the levees, I don't think anybody anticipated such a severe storm."
(pause for everyone to look askance at the Moron on the Hill and say WTF?)
ETA furthermore -- question of the day: can we impeach the President for Terminal (for others) Stupidity? Can we? Huh?
-------------------------------------------------------
I’ve been here in Baton Rouge for a little more than 6 hours. I came in on a helicopter with a group of Red Cross workers that had been in New Orleans to get a look around. This place is Heaven compared to the Hell that is New Orleans. I will be going back to New Orleans at 6:45 local time. While here I took a shower, used a real bathroom with a toilet that flushed, and got to call (name deleted). I woke him out of a sound sleep as it was after midnight in Florida, but he didn’t mind.
I have been watching the 24 hour cable stations while I have been here. If what I saw is typical of what people around the world are seeing… well, al I can say is how absolutely sad that is.
Yes, there is looting. Yes, the criminal element are running around. Yes, police and guard people are stretched thin. Yes, it’s hot, there’s no water, there’s no food, there are lots of dead bodies, it’s beginning to smell, people are now getting sick, tempers are short, relief is hard to come by. Yes. All of that is true.
And it’s also true that the city is filled with people saving lives. Where is that on the news? Every minute of each day that passes, rescuers are saving lives. They aren’t here for the money or the glory or for anything other to help. Some are paid: Coast Guard, National Guard, local EMS and fire. Most are volunteers: people like our teams and so many others from across this country. Even those people paid aren’t being paid for the work they’re doing here. They are working every minute of every day with no other thought than to rescue as many people as we can.
Time is not on our side. There are still THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of people still on roofs and in attics. They have NO FOOD and NO WATER. It is almost 100 degrees. They have no insulation from the sun. Time is critical for these people, and just as I told you that the death count would be staggering here, long before the press keyed on these “possibly thousands of deaths” (I’ll say it again… there’s no possibly about it. We were told before we even left Florida to expect between 3000 and 9000 deaths. We’re ready. It’s happening. God forbid the press get a hold of that), I will tell you that not all of the people waiting for rescue on their rooftops will be rescued in time. Some will die of dehydration. Some will die because they need medication that they have no way to get. (edited for some details I'm not comfortable sharing -- LAG) Not everyone here will be saved. That’s just the way it is.
I heard on CNN or MSNBC, I don’t know which, that there is a lack of communication between agencies and the somewhere along the way, things haven’t happened the way they should. People are complaining that there doesn’t appear to be enough help here yet. There are no relief stations with food and water; plans of relief aren’t getting to the citizens. Well… no shit… this is a city where more than 100,000 people did not evacuated when they were told it was mandatory to do so. Trust me, every single agency that is here and every single agency on the way is doing the best they can do.
Maybe if the city didn’t have to cut rescue operations in more than half to go address the problems of looters stealing guns and raiding hospitals, maybe if the press would use their trucks and vans to help bring in water for people instead of for inciting panic among the people, maybe if everyone would stop for one minute and truly let the magnitude of what is happening here sink in… maybe it’d be better. Well, that’s not true. It isn’t going to be better for a very long time. But maybe it’d be something other than it is being reported by the press to actually be.
I wish everyone could see what’s happening here the way I see it. One rescuer reaching out to one person and saving that one life. Every minute of the day.
The next time that I hear someone say to me that Dan Marino is a hero or that Elton John in a hero or that Jon Wayne was a hero, I think I’ll tell them the story of James Delory. He has broken through attic after attic and has pulled 311 people to safety. He has saved 311 lives since Monday night. He’s how hero is defined.
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 02:25 pm (UTC)Thanks for sharing this.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 02:42 pm (UTC)Maybe if the US Army weren't occupied elsewhere, there would be more manpower available to police the ruins. And more money for relief. Moron on the Hill, for a certainty.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 02:57 pm (UTC)Never mind. Don't answer that. One eventual comes down from a high. Terminal stupidity on the other hand...
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 03:14 pm (UTC)Gah. The man is a horrorshow. The people with their hands up his bum are the stuff of nightmares.
There was one thing in that report that pissed me off a bit, though, the thing about "hey, those evacuations were mandatory! and 100,000 people didn't listen!" I heard that from the governor and it pissed me off just as much from her.
Any mention of HOW a seventy year old man with four great-grandchildren and no car was supposed to obey the mandatory evacuation notice? Because just saying "I command you to FLEE!" accomplishes nothing.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 03:27 pm (UTC)If I do, they bleed. Bastards.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 03:52 pm (UTC)It looks like the tracks are not just on the water, they go over it.
I think I recall hearing Governor Blanco say that the airlines stopped flying out of there earlier than they needed to, but I don't remember hearing anything about other transport outlets. (Anything official, that is.)
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 04:37 pm (UTC)I can't even respond to Shrub's comments about the storm and the levees. I just ... I can't. It makes me too angry.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 05:42 pm (UTC)Oh, Jesus Christ. I glare at him with my Bad God icon of RAGE, because it prevents me from genuinely ranting for hours about the moronity. Honestly, what does he think scientists do, sit around playing tiddlywinks and thinking of ways to topple religion all day long? God forbid meteorologists or urban planners or disaster management specialists be listened to before it's too late, let alone the scientists who have been predicting for years in mainstream news around the world that global warming would make storms more severe.
The New York Times had an editorial today just ripping into his response.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 06:48 pm (UTC)Sarcasm alert Scientists? Dangerous radicals who have the temerity to put data and empirical evidence over Credo/True Belief/the divinity of Jesus and Evangelical Christianity?
Global warming? The disdainer of the Kyoto Accords, the entity whose fellow Republican Rep. Barton is witch hunting climatologists...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1558884,00.html
"Republicans accused of witch-hunt against climate change scientists
"Paul Brown, environment correspondent
"Tuesday August 30, 2005
"The Guardian"
"...A far-reaching inquiry into the careers of three of the US's most senior climate specialists has been launched by Joe Barton, the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on energy and commerce. He has demanded details of all their sources of funding, methods and everything they have ever published.
"Mr Barton, a Texan closely associated with the fossil-fuel lobby, has spent his 11 years as chairman opposing every piece of legislation designed to combat climate change."
A different Republican Representative, Sherwood Boehlert, who chairs the House Science Committee, condemned it--apparently the entire party hadn't been completely taken over by the Marching Moron Masters. (There are multiple levels of nastiness in that story--the Marching Moron culture was vile, but viler still were the people behind it, who then arranged for a "solution" to too many conditioned to not think consumers and not enough producers visionaries, by utterly ruthless, psychopathic means.)