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This is really unbelievable. While the USN hospital ship should have
evacuated the two big hospitals in New Orleans BEFORE the storm hit
(when people were told to evacuate) since power outages and flooding
were to be expected, I bet by now the Europeans are sitting there
scratching their heads and wondering if they shouldn't have sent
their militaries' hospital ships to New Orleans, Gulf Port, and
Biloxi since the USN doesn't seem to be able to get our own off its
moorings in Maine. People are dying in the hospitals there (2 so
far) and all they managed was to air lift 4 infants (of more than 20)
out of the NICU in NO and to a hospital in Birmingham. The braying
about this minor feat is endless though as hundreds of patients and
medical personnel have yet to be evacuated.
I think we'd be a lot better off if we admitted to the world that
we're a 3rd world country which would enable other nations to come in
and lend direct assistance during catastrophes here. And as two
other USN ships are PLANNING to come to NO, the people there are
drudging through 4 and 5 feet of water teeming with alligators and
poisonous snakes to lug along air mattresses with their elderly on
board. This is unbelievable. You'd think the life boats and
motorized rubber rafts of our military could navigate the flooded
streets -- if they were anywhere near that is. And while our big
choppers are busy getting shot down in Iraq and Afghanistan, the CG
plucks thousands of people off their roofs with tiny helicopters
that can only carry 2 or 3 passengers at a time. It appears that as
people were told to evacuate, nobody actually showed up to help them
do this, so the poor, disabled, sick, and elderly had to stay put
and, of course, the rest of their families would stay with them.
Of course, some idiots stayed put too but they're the least of
anybody's worries.
Our military is now planning on delivering a few thousand MREs to the
Superdome in NO where around 30,000 people are seeking refuge but at
least our troops were capable of delivering 500 bombs to dump on one
building in Iraq. We're sure able to create catastrophes elsewhere
expecting people there to deal with them while we really have no clue
how to deal with disasters here. Of course, the coup de grace was
when our "military intelligence" informed us that trying to plug up
the breaks in the levees in NO is a difficult task because a disaster
occurred there. No shit? Would they be expected to respond to this
emergency situation if no disaster had occurred? In fact, aren't the
broken levees the major cause of the disaster there seeing that
Katrina veered Eastward?
At any rate, the USN hospital ship is still sitting in Maine with
PLANS to move to the disaster area and two other USN ships are also
still at anchor on the East coast PLANNING to come to the disaster
area -- eventually whenever. In Houston, a few USN ships are lolling
around THINKING about maybe planning to go to the disaster area full
speed ahead whenever they can find their engines' start switch.
Unbelievable. Meanwhile we get to see on the foreign news how one
small, old, rickety wooden boat from the Coast Guard is bravely
plowing through the streets of NO while CNN repeatedly shows us a
video of some tiny CG chopper rescuing some guy from his roof 3 days
ago.
Everybody on TV and radio screams sanctimoniously about the "looters"
and even the police gets diverted from rescue missions to guard
flooded stores when in reality Wal-Mart, for example, had already
announced that people can take from their stores whatever they want,
it's all theirs because it'll be ruined anyway, besides it's all
insured. I suspect other stores have made similar announcements.
Shows you the priorities of the police, huh?
When the Rhine River flooded some years ago, it affected more people
than there live between New Orleans and Biloxi because there are many
major cities along the Rhine. Well, in Germany, the people from
downstairs moved in with the folks upstairs (bringing their own beds,
which was comical in itself), and the German military came along and
built balcony-type structures above flood level so people could go
for walks around the buildings or sit outside, 3 times a day the
Bundeswehr showed up to deliver meals to everybody, pick up shopping
lists and delivering the merchandise, and they even carried the
people to work and back every day. They did all this in motorized
rubber rafts which don't have to worry about the water being a bit
shallow in some places. That's how emergencies of this nature are
dealt with in real 1st world countries.
The spectacle we see on our Gulf coast is truly unbelievable.
Primitive rescue operations is a mild way of putting it, and too much
emphasis on material losses shouldn't surprise anyone since this is,
after all, America. Now our brilliant commander in chief finally
decided which croney he wants to appoint to oversee the disaster
operations and even released some stock-piled crude oil for the
affected areas. Too bad their refineries are out of commission,
huh? As the people need potable water, he sends them crude oil.
Let's hope it's unsaturated and cholesterol free at least since
apparently he expects the people to drink it.
Of course, king George already dropped the ball on 9/11, and if it
hadn't been for the Mohawks to think of carting in truckloads of
potable water for the firefighters, they'd probably all keeled over
dead. Then again, if it hadn't been for the local casino tribe there
to come and ferry the people off Manhattan Island, the folks would
have spent the rest of the week running around there like chickens
with their heads cut off. Let's face it, when it comes to
catastrophes, the US can dole them out to others but doesn't have a
clue how to handle them at home, that's for sure.
And while the navy didn't have the brains to bring their life boats
which can navigate in relatively shallow water, the people of New
Orleans who don't have an air mattress on hand were given big orange
plastic crates in which they can pull their children, sick, and
elderly though 4 and 5 feet of water as the disaster is already in
its 4th day. This country must surely be a joke all the way around.
As we are one of the 25 1st world countries, of course, other nations
aren't permitted to just come in and help out. They're probably
groaning watching this BS going on here on TV where the most
important issue of the day seems to be for various administrations to
get the appropriate papers signed by somebody who postures big time
in order to even be permitted to send a roll of toilet paper to the
Superdome. So we just pluck along here in a style that would even
make Paraguay ashamed of itself while all these high-titled officials
here just pat each other on the back on CNN.
And 8 more hurricanes are on their way, I've heard. Can't we all
hardly wait? Say George, are you sure there's no global warming? It
seems even US meteorologists have concluded that it's the global
warming that caused this hurricane to gain the strength it had. And
how come downtown New Orleans is actually below sea level anyway?
Has been for decades already due to faulty damming of the Mississippi
but I see the city kept issuing one building permit after another for
those high-rises to be erected totally relying on some old levees from
the 60s. You'd think someone could have had the idea of building the
downtown area North of Lac Pontchatrain, huh?
But watch them rebuild everything in the same stupid place with just
yet another li'l ol' levee to stave off a disaster. BTW, what's
happening to the people in the gadzillion small communities between
Biloxi, Gulf Port, and New Orleans? But never despair, Dubya will
show up there on the weekend for photo-ops and to do some
grandstanding. Maybe he'll even echo his daddy and tell
everybody: "But I care."
<sigh>
Bryan M.
Arizona, US
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