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....the population of New Orleans. It was the first such news report I've had a chance to see on the situation there. The report suggested that no one at the federal level gave any orders to the military, the national guard, the local police and federal disaster agencies to do anything for five days. The military convoys of food and water and fresh clothing and medical supplies only began arriving today, although according to the report such supplies could have been lifted in by the Louisiana national Guard (2/3 still in the state) within 24 hours after Katrina left the city, but no one gave any orders to do so.
Clips from the Tom Kopple interview with the FEMA director were shown with this guy looking straight into the camera saying FEMA did not know what the need was until that day of the interview.
Hospitals and medical care facilities all sent out urgent calls, emails, faxes for supplies, dialysis machine water, air lifts to critical patients, etc. but there were no responses until yesterday in many instances.
Private for profit hospitals evacuated their patients who could pay, but dropped off all social cases at the cities two state run hospitals causing severe over-crowding in these facilities which had no running water, no electricity and whose generators were all flooded out.
Race and extreme poverty were the only apparent reasons for this negligence, concluded ABC, based on the obvious racial mix of who had been horded together and enclosed in such horrific and unsanitary conditions at the Super-dome and the convention center and a number of prominent blacks and congress persons came out and said this is interviews by ABC reporters.
The one hour covered many more topics, but those were ones which I have suspected all week and what jumped out at me from the program broadcast. The focus was on New Orleans, but unless I missed it, there was no mention as to whether supplies and help arrived at the other affected areas along the Gulf in Mississippi or Alabama within 24 hours, or that the delays were for New Orleans only. If the latter, then I would have to conclude that the New Orleans victims were deliberately and criminally discriminated against by all federal agencies who should have been there for them. That neglect can be traced all the way to the president who choose to dally at his ranch in Crawford and do PR photo ops until he flew over the stricken area in Air Force One late on Wednesday following which he gave orders for to supplies and assistance which began arriving only today. This is truly a national disgrace!
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