Monday, September 05, 2005
Hope everyone is off of work on Labor Day and enjoying it. Please though let us not forget how lucky we are to have work and to complain about our jobs and the little/big things that bother us. Because most of the people in New Orleans and the majority other areas of the Gulf have nothing. They're refugees in their own country. I really pray that help arrives to them. I hope they can find work, shelter, food, medical attention, put their children back in school and go on. I stupidly thought at first why didn't they leave? They knew the hurricane was coming. But these people are poor and really had no means to get out or money for a hotel if they could find a way to leave. And I was angry for all the looting that was happening, but you know if I was stranded their by my own country I would be very, very angry too and probably start behaving badly. I am so very upset at how little is being done to help these people. I am humiliated that the greatest and richest country in the world's government, my government has turned a blind eye to this tragedy. I want those people to get help! Why aren't those people getting help?The government has known for a long time those leavies were going to break for God's sake. And they let it happen. They get hurricanes all the time. Why couldn't they fix something that would have cost little and now is going to cost billions. And yes I think finger pointing is in order too. How FEMA was turning away help! How the president is responding to this. Some stupid comments that are being said. These people live in our country and they need help. But I guess since we can't even correct health care, social security, help the homeless, then what's a few extra thousand problems right?
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12 comments:
Well the whole levee thing is a cluster F, so I don't think you can really blame any one person for that. I think what it boils down to is, these people are regarded as being poor, and noone really cares. If this flooding problen were present in Malibu, it would have been taken care of years ago. Sad...
But what really bugs me is that the president didn't send the national guard in last weekend with armored personal carriers or transport helicopters to transport people out of the gulf coast BEFORE the storm hit. Would have been so much easier than trying to get people out after the city was flooded. Sure you would have had the stubborn people who refused to leave, but I think there would have been far fewer people left behind.
Yes I totally agree but I think it's a disgusting excuse that they are poor and black they shouldn't be helped. We should be past that and want to help even more since they are poor. And levee problem was known about for years and couuld have been repaired. The governement knew it would break but that money went someplace else.
Yeah I agree with you. I wasnt implying it was a valid reason. My point was that generally tax money is spent where in turn, money will be replenished back into the economy. A tax payer in Malibu probably pays more taxes in a year than a person in New Orleans will spent in 10 years. It's a sad reality.
What I don't agree with is the mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana trying to deflect all the blame to the federal government. It's just a matter of them trying to take the heat off of themselves. A lot of businesses and housing was built well after the 1960's when they first discovered how prone New Orleans was to flooding. I didn't see anyone in Louisiana saying they shouldn't build there. The more shops, the more casinos, the more bars and restaurants, the more people come to visit New Orleans. So they're motivation was the same...MONEY
My heart just aches for all those affected.....
I wasn't disagreeing with you Mike. I know that is the reason. I was just saying it was a gross reason for them to have.
Lousiana asked for that money from the federal government. They couldn't get the money any other way.
I agree MM.
9/11 couldn't be helped. Although some say that there were warnings. Niether could have a hurrican but there could have been better preparing. The politicians or whoever know that is a dangerous place to live because of natural disasters and they knew the leeves needed work but did not do it. And now look at the mess. Those leeves were in the budget for years asking to be fixed but the governement did not do anything. Plus the construction on it was for only a stage 3 hurricane why not make the construction for the highest possible? Maybe have less destruction? It's the responsibility of the people who run the governemtn to think ahead and be prepared. And Fema turning people away who want to help is disgusting. It's their job to help. And the reaction to what happened was too slow. So yes I am very angry about it and am wondering is all the help that is being offered being turned away? And why?
Maybe we should order everyone out of San Francisco because some day the "Big One" is gonna hit.
:>~
I'm ususally the first to want to throw Dubya under the bus, but blame sqaurely falls on FEMA director Michael Brown.
He is now saying taht he doesn't have first responders ... Desn't the FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY manage emergencies? Maybe I'm wrong. At this point we shouldn't be pointing fingers, and the peopel who should be working non-stop to help those people certainly shouldn't be pointing fingers!
The only reason that Bush is to blame because he ddin't address the nation quick enough and he hasn't fired this dimwit.
Bush as far as I know is the president of the United States and he could told the governor to evacuate the state. I believe he has that power. For the people that could have gotten out by car or family in another state but the ones that could not should have been some sort of transportation out. And so what if it would have been a logistical nightmare better than what is happening right now. We didn't have the troops available because they were in Iraq. As a citizen I like knowing that my government will help me in a time of crisis. This ball was dropped on many levels. Those leves should have been repaired back then. The bill should have been passed. Hurricane's and other major natural disaster cannot be stopped but they can be prepapred for.
It's all very easy to say what should have been done looking back at what we know now...
However, as far as the logistics go of evacuating a city. What is more efficient? Having 10 families drive 10 different cars to get our of New Orleans or sending in armored personell cariers in that could transport dozens of people out in one vehicle? Or lets take the military aspect out of this. I'm sure there are tons of chartered buses in New Orleans. Buses that take people down to the river boats to gamble. Plenty of buses down at the airports that transport convention attendees to their hotels. They could have been used to transport people out of the city. Did the mayor have a plan in place to get people evacuated?
I think New Orleanians have become jaded because they've been told the "perfect storm" was going to hit New Orleans every year for the past 30 years or so. I guess they got tired of everyone crying wolf. So I think a lot of people would have stayed even if they had a way out. Plus one other thing that complicated matters is that the levees all held during the actual hurricane. It was several hours after the hurricane passed through that the levee gave way. So people had begun coming back into New Orleans thinking they were "out of the woods".
I was watching Foxnews the other night, and they had a former member of the army core of engineers and he said in his opinion that they could have spent a billion dollars on building up the levee system, and it still wouldn't have held back the water. It was simple just too much water, with too much force.
Im starting to get annoyed at the mayor of New Orleans. He's passing the blame on to everyone else. That's not the sign of a good leader. My boss always tells us to come to him with solutions, not with problems. I don't hear the mayor coming up with any solutions, he's just doing a lot of finger pointing.
Im just glad this didnt happen last year, or else right now we would be hearing how much better John Kerry would have handled the situation. And his wife would be on tv donating a million gallons of Heinz ketchup.
I'm not denying it is a catasrophic situation and I am happy that there is help being given now by the powers that be but also private and some public citizens. I just beleive everyone in charge could have done more to be better prepared and reacted better.
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