Unrest Intensifies at Superdome Shelter

[leftchick]

NEW ORLEANS - Fights and trash fires broke out at the hot and stinking Superdome and anger and unrest mounted across New Orleans on Tuesday, as National Guardsmen in armored vehicles poured in to help restore order across the increasingly lawless and desperate city.

"We are out here like pure animals. We don't have help," the Rev. Issac Clark, 68, said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, complaining that he and others were evacuated, taken to the convention hall by bus, dropped off and given nothing.

The Superdome, where some 25,000 people were being evacuated by bus to the Houston Astrodome, descended into chaos.

Huge crowds, hoping to finally escape the stifling confines of the stadium, jammed the main concourse outside the dome, spilling out over the ramp to the Hyatt hotel next door — a seething sea of tense, unhappy, people packed shoulder-to-shoulder up to the barricades where heavily armed National Guardsmen stood.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hurricane_katrina

[rodeodance]

1. msnbc said many now going to Convention center-which is dry but no

drinking water or good their either.

[MADem]

21. There are crazy assholes with GUNS at the convention center

They beat back 88 cops who went in to try and restore order.

[calimary]

23. Evidently, from the reports I saw/heard, it's because looters also

stole guns and ammo from stores. Not just food, water, fishing poles, and Huggies.

I seem to recall, also, that this is how the then-budding insurgency in Iraq got started. That's how they got THEIR guns. They looted the ammo dumps and armories that WE left completely unguarded after we invaded.

Iraq. Brought HOME.

[JaySherman]

2. All I can say is, at least the guard is finally in there.

It's a small step, but at least it's something. I'd hate to be the soldiers guarding those people though. What a nightmare.

[goforit]

17. Yep I have to agree...pure mahem

[calimary]

3. This is what I was afraid of.

I saw some of the survivors on TV yesterday, yelling in anger and outrage and fear and panic and growing desperation.

These people are getting desperate. And desperate people are sometimes driven to do desperate things.

This is a recipe for disaster. ANOTHER disaster. Sigh...

[rodeodance]

4. and the misery continues.

....The first of hundreds of busloads of people evacuated from the hot and stinking Louisiana Superdome arrived early Thursday at their new temporary home — another sports arena, the Houston Astrodome, 350 miles away.

But the ambulance service in charge of taking the sick and injured from the Superdome suspended flights after a shot was reported fired at a military helicopter. Richard Zuschlag, chief of Acadian Ambulance, said it had become too dangerous for his pilots.

The military, which was overseeing the removal of the able-bodied by buses, continued the ground evacuation without interruption, said National Guard Lt. Col. Pete Schneider.

The government had no immediate confirmation of whether a military aircraft was fired on.

[roguevalley]

5. they are traumatized. I hear a baby died there.

:cry:

[calimary]

24. More than one baby died there, I'm sure, by now.

It's said to be Hell-on-earth in there, from the reports I've seen/heard.

We could be looking at a serious cholera outbreak at this rate. And soon. You do not get out alive with no food, no water, no sanitation, contaminated water, filth, heat, humidity, and overcrowding. You get dysentery, runaway infection, cholera, and who knows what else from that witch's brew. Possibly also Black Plague - since we have the ingredients for it, including fleas and the rats they rode in on (and I'm not talking about the bush cabal in this case).

AWFUL.

I told my kids they're witnessing ASTOUNDING history in the making. In my 52 years, I've NEVER seen it like this in America. NEVER. It is staggering.

[sabra]

6. Chaos engulfs New Orleans shelters (Desperation at Superdome)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/

Chaos engulfs New Orleans shelters
Desperation at Superdome, convention center; safety fears halt some work

NEW ORLEANS - This city spiraled into chaos Thursday as thousands of desperate residents begged for help and rising tension from the desperate situation led to fights, fires and fears for the safety of emergency responders.

“We are out here like pure animals. We don’t have help,” the Rev. Isaac Clark, 68, said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, complaining that he and hundreds of others were evacuated, taken to the convention hall by bus, dropped off and given nothing.

People outside the center, some holding crying babies or elderly barely able to stand up, shouted for help as TV news crews passed by.

Police told reporters to be careful. “We were told don't drink or eat in public as it could lead to a mob situation,” NBC's Michelle Hofland said. “We were told that by sundown to get out of here.”


Conditions inside and around the Superdome, such as this view Thursday morning, were said to be chaotic, with medics pleading for help to curb people with guns in the area.

[izzie]

7. Guess we can wipe off helping other countries after this. Right?

I think we need some German order brought in.

[Zenlitened]

8. I wonder of the "looting is bad" folks will be chiming in?

The major "relief" centers are in chaos. :(

Outside the Convention Center, the sidewalks were packed with people without food, water or medical care, and with no sign of law enforcement. Thousands of storm refugees had been assembling outside for days, waiting for buses that did not come.

At least seven bodies were scattered outside, and hungry, desperate people who were tired of waiting broke through the steel doors to a food service entrance and began pushing out pallets of water and juice and whatever else they could find.

An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hurricane_katrina

[Bridget Burke]

9. So the strong push through & carry out pallets of water & juice.

Too bad for the babies & old folks.

[Zenlitened]

10. Pushing out pallets of water and juice... to where, do you think?

To the crowd outside, perhaps?

Or do you imagine they grew wings and flew away with it?

[Bridget Burke]

11. I missed the part where they distributed the drinks.....

To the youngest, oldest & sickest first.

[Zenlitened]

14. Perhaps to the nearest? And seriously, are you arguing that...

... people who've gone days without water, waiting in vain for help to arrive -- at the spot where they've been told help would be -- are you saying they should just lay down and die when water is within reach?

Is that your position? :shrug:

[LostinVA]

13. Situations like this bring out the worst in bad people

And the best in most people. Goddess, please let enough help get their before the bad people completely take over the situation....

[LostinVA]

12. Looting IS bad. People taking food and water and medicine aren't looting.

People taking food and water and medicine aren't looting. The strongest people taking what they want and victimizing weaker, sick people is bad... and is looting, as far as I'm concerned. This si literally turning into Somalia, when warlords and thugs took over everything. THis is not my country.

Seriously, how can people let Bush stay president after this????

[Igel]

15. Sure.

Very few of the 'looting is bad' folks say to shoot those taking water and food from stores in quantities they reasonably need for survival, unless they're armed.

Mink coats, guns, tvs, very large quantities of food from stores, they'll condemn. Even reasonable quantities of food from private residences they're very likely to condemn.

I've wondered about the wisdom of dropping pallets of food and water into such an environment: if they're desperate, it means you get the strongest gathering as much as they can for themselves and theirs. And the strongest are likely to be armed. If it's a case of people being civilized and carefully rationing out food and water to the neediest, they're not acting like they're truly desperate.

[Zenlitened]

22. Get food and water to those in need quickly, and most of the...

... bad behavior is avoided.

Wait three days while people are dropping like flies at the designated 'relief' center... and, yeah, people are likely to act out in desperate ways.

Too bad the people in charge of anticipating and responding to disasters don't have a shred of common sense.

[Jacobin]

16. Actually, I'll chime in

Your beloved looters are now in my city 200 miles west of New Orleans mugging people in parking lots to steal their shopping carts.

Shall I send a few your way?

:mad:

[NorthernSpy]

19. do you suppose that next time they'll try evacuating people BEFORE...

... the storm hits?

Contrary to much of the vehemently-expressed outrage, looters aren't the lowest form of life. The lowest form of life are those refused to help the poor flee while Katrina was still offshore. Apparently, fellow Americans can be left to die in thousands -- and morally, that's no big deal. But when those left behind to drown start stealing stuff from a WalMart? Oh, shame.

[Zenlitened]

20. Sounds like you have quite an outbreak of that on your hands

[Roy]

18. Couple dozen MREs divided by 15,000 -20,000people = ????

CNN reported that with 15000 - 20,000 people starving for the last couple of days at, I think the Super Dome, a helicopter dropped a couple of dozen MRE's.

If I was a cynic, I would be wondering if this situation is being created purposefully.