If you're poor you have to ride out the storm? Is this America?

[Stephanie]

I just can't believe this is happening to people! There is no assistance for them? They have to take their chances in the hurricane because they lack BUS FARE? Where is the PRESIDENT? Somebody has to help those people. It's unconscionable. I just can't believe it. Can anybody? It's absolutely shameful. I weep for my country.

[SouthernDem2004]

1. They can go to shelters and yes there are rides there if needed.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Even the shelters aren't safe

says the Red Cross.
They call them the shelters of last resort. In other words--a place to put people who have nowhere to go.

These people need to be taken out of town, not to a shelter that may or may not make it through the storm.

[Midlodemocrat]

18. I agree with you, HWNN.

The shelters are makeshift buildings with the Super Dome being the shelter of last resort. Built to withstand sustained winds of 200mph, but what about the inevitable flooding.

It is unsconscionable that even one person who wants to evacuate must remain in NO.

No one, anywhere, but least of all in America, should be forced to be afraid for their lives during a natural disaster.

[JimmyJazz]

9. That's completely disgusting. They have to go to shelters during a

mandatory evacuation of the area. :( May God be with those poor people in the Superdome. If something happens to that building.....I can't even think about it.

[barbaraann]

2. or a Bosch painting?

n/t

[Inspired]

3. It is Bush Country. eom

[CountAllVotes]

8. * doesn't give a god damn about the American people

:puke: god * makes me sick. Shilling for the Iraqi "constitition" while thousands of Americans are and will be dying.

In the meantime, * and Co. are trying to slip through Social Security reform while no one is looking .

Son of a bitch! :grr: :grr: :grr:

:kick:

[Mairead]

4. I'm sure that if you got a few treble whiskies inside FEMA people

they'd tell you that the poor are 'surplus population' anyhow.

[Surya Gayatri]

6. Refuge of last resort

is the Superdome that can accomodate up to 80,000 people. There are 12 or so pick-up points around the city for free bus transport to the Dome.
Still, it's the elderly, ill and poor who will suffer disproportionately.

[barbaraann]

11. It can't hold that many because it will be flooded.

I heard the official in charge say that. He wouldn't give exact numbers.

[Horse with no Name]

14. I heard the Homeland Security guy say that too

They will pack as many in there as they can without any care for comfort. He said the bottom of the Superdome will be flooded.
I can't even imagine this horror.

[Surya Gayatri]

19. The mayor mentioned some secondary

points of refuge that may be opened in case of need...

[Bluebear]

7. "They should have gotten jobs."

Government is the enemy of the people, more tax cuts for all. :sarcasm:

[salin]

10. Wish we could get tons of buses

and route them from NO to Crawford. Plenty of land out there... what a perfect place for an evacuation and an excellent chance for the president to actually mingle with the people. :sarcasm:

[patdem]

12. bush** could send every amtrack train..every semi truck and every bus

and any means of transportation available to go to NO and move those people out...he can do that..but he is on vacation..nevermind!

[Double T]

13. In bush's America everyone but the rich are left behind

[wli]

15. they figure it'll kill more Democrats n/t

[Generic Other]

16. Now we know where we stand, right?

In a real emergency, you are on your own!

[Cleita]

17. Somebody in the administration, Bush, should have arranged days

ago for military transport and helicopters to evacuate the people who don't have their own transportation. But he didn't and now it may be too late.

[steve2470]

20. check out this comment

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4485981&mesg_id=4486209

DWolper (222 posts) Sun Aug-28-05 05:10 PM
Response to Original message
3. What are you suggesting?


Edited on Sun Aug-28-05 05:14 PM by DWolper

What do you suggest? The people who can't get out now are victims of what? Would it be better for everyone to be poor? Is that what you are suggesting? Anger that if everyone can't out - nobody should? Politicizing this and finding a way to promote far-left ideology in this is despicable.

[Divernan]

22. Far left ideology? Like saving the elderly, retarded & poor?

Sounds like a damn fine moral ideology for any human being with a heart. Of course, if you have your stock portfolio where your heart should be, like DWolper, the Bush dynasty, Chaney & Rumsfeld et al. . . . . .

Politics ARE largely determinative of survival. Remember when all the state institutions were closed down and the mentally retarded were promised rich, full lives in the community? Well the money never materialized to subsidize a decent quality of life for them in the community. I've worked in this field in state government and we calculate 30% of prison inmates are retarded. They need to be institutionalized, but not in the hellholes of US prisons. The point I want to make is that mentally retarded may be able to barely function in society, but they do not understand having to evacuate and are not likely to do so voluntarily.

And then we have the elderly - if you're too feeble to drive, or too poor to own a car, where's the safety net.? This is another group which may not be able to understand or accept the necessity of evacuating. I don't know what the percentage of elderly is in New Orleans, but in some parts of Florida, there are overwhelmingly large numbers of elderly living in fragile trailer homes. Even if they each had cars and could drive them to evacuate, Florida is so crowded, its road systems could not handle timely evacuation of its residents


Our once extensive rail system has been largely abandoned. I mean, I like the Rails to Trails bike paths, but often wonder how many communities would survive if people in them could not afford gas, or even cars, or if truckers found it too expensive to service the remote areas. Now I have just heard that many owner - operator truck drivers cannot afford the gas to operate their rigs. If the National Guard were in this Nation, where they belong, and not dying in Iraq, they could sweep in with convoys of trucks to evacuate people, and later to deliver water and medical supplies and food. I bet there is no one more upset about this hurricane than Louisiana national guard troops in Iraq.

[FloridaPat]

21. Where do you put 500,000 people in one day? This stuff is not easy.

This storm is going to create a disaster 100 miles inland and a real mess for at least another 500 miles. This is not "check into the hotel in the next town and watch TV stuff". Even if they had the money, the buses are probably filled, the planes filled, the cars are having trouble getting out. This is a disaster of gigantic proportions. Any other city but New Orleans would be able to handle things because the city would not take the damage they think will hit New Orleans. And this is only the third cat 5 hurricane -and it still has 12 hours before it hits land. Getting 1/2 million people out in a day I think is impossible.

And please forget the damn president. We don't need him in the middle of all this with his lies and photo ops.

[Corgigal]

23. I just posted this on another thread

but it should be here.

My husband and I wondered why they weren't doing an airlift of some of the citizens of NO. My husband called the mayors office , then unto the Emergency Operations Center, then to FEMA.

The Emergency Operations center thought that this would cause a run on the airport but wanted him to call FEMA. FEMA mentioned they don't have enough airplanes in the US to assist the population.

Hubby then called CNN and spoke to someone who couldn't believe FEMA's response. They asked him to send an email with the names of the people he spoke to, which he did. CNN is also worried about the SuperDome and said the local govt will put 70,000 people in there.

I personally still think it's Bull Shit that this country couldn't have done a humanitarian airlift. This country and it's govt should hang it's head in shame.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

24. We are WAR poor... we have pissed away Clinton's surplus... we

could use the hundreds of billions that we waste on the so called "Defense Industry", the Military Industrial Complex, and all the rest to purchase a REAL set of pumps for New Orleans, REAL shelters for the people along the Gulf Coast, REAL road and bridge improvement for our OWN people with our OWN tax dollars instead of letting some little pissant cowboy run amok with our military, tearing apart their lives, tearing apart their bodies, people, the time for a return to sanity is long overdue.