New Orleans

Things are rapidly deteriorating. The Superdome is to be evacuated. They’re evacuating the hospitals, the prison. All of New Orleans is to be evacuated. A looter apparently shot a cop in the head. I heard a rumor that martial law has been declared. [That is still not confirmed by the way.]

Brendan Loy has been tireless over the last 5 days. It’s awful reading, in some respects – but it’s fast-breaking. People in the comments send in links to TV reports, news reports, updates from the area. Way more fast-breaking than regular news channels. But here’s the “evacuate New Orleans” notice on Fox.

In that piece:

“The looting is out of control. The French Quarter has been attacked,” said Jackie Clarkson, a New Orleans councilwoman. “We’re using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue.”

Sounds like things are getting exponentially worse with every passing moment. I can’t imagine how they will evacuate everyone who is in that Superdome. There are rumors that there are now 60,000 people in there.

This is the worst-case scenario people have feared (and many warned of). It’s happening right now.

More updates here – local TV station – although it’s hard to know what is happening – it’s all happening so fast. You can keep clicking on that link for updates as they come in.

People of Louisiana, people of Mississippi, Alabama, everyone affected by this horrible storm … my thoughts and prayers are with you all.

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63 Responses to New Orleans

  1. damian says:

    Red, as I write two very elderly friends of mine who used to live in Bucks Co. are on their way from NYC to stay as they cannot get back to their home in teh Frrench Quarter. They were on vacation in Russia, arrived at JFK this morning, and are coming home to this; in Russia, they’d heard NO had been spared. I feel so sorry for the New Orleans citizenry, but we’re utterly helpless to assist at this point. Nothing can be done until the levee’s repaired.

  2. Emily says:

    Fuck the looters. Shoot to kill. It only takes one. I know that sounds harsh, but it makes me SICK to think that people are taking advantage of this massive amount of suffering to steal themselves a shiny new home theater system.

  3. red says:

    That was my thought, too, Emily. We’re not talking about Jean Valjean’s here – stealing bread so they won’t starve.

    There was one report of a guy coming out of an electronics store, loaded down with gadgets, shouting, “This is EVERYBODY’S store now!”

  4. Laura says:

    Sheila, have you seen the video of that poor guy in Biloxi I believe. His house split in half, and he was struggling to save his wife, but couldn’t. Some reporter found him, and was reduced to tears by his story. I’ve seen the video a few times and it tears me up each time.

  5. peteb says:

    We’re not talking about Jean Valjean’s here – stealing bread so they won’t starve.

    Indeed.. it’s opportunistic (and parasitic) crime.

    as the report says –

    Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley said that in one case, a looter shot and wounded another looter.

    Re-establishing some kind of order will provide the best assistance at this time to the recovery for New Orleans.

    But the comments from the Louisiana Gov. and the N.O. Mayor are chilling.

  6. mitch says:

    A horrible situation indeed – but not quite the worst case.

    That would have involved the levee letting go, and letting go fast, at the height of the storm, when no escape or rescue, much less relief, would have been possible.

    As bad as it is, it could have been MUCH worse.

  7. Mr. Lion says:

    It’s ‘martial’ law, not marshall.

    Things are looking pretty nasty, to be sure.

  8. red says:

    Oh – thanks, Lion. I typed this up really fast.

  9. Dave J says:

    And yes, the Governor declared martial law in Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines Parishes sometime this morning. But in a situation like this, there’s really only so much even the National Guard can do. Things are rapidly spiralling even further out of control.

    As for evacuating the Superdome, the only thing I could think of would be to park stripped-down barges and container ships as close as possible (which would mean on the river, about two or three miles straight down Canal Street), and then try to get the people in the Dome to them on smaller boats and/or helicopters. Then you’d have to send the evacuees up the river at least as far as Shreveport (maybe further north) or out across the Gulf to Houston or Tampa. For tens of thousands of people, that would be a gargantuan operation.

  10. Dave J says:

    I don’t know how deep the water is on Canal Street right now, so it may conceivably be possible to get to the riverbank on foot. But many of the people in the dome are either very old or very young, or were already sick before the storm hit. And though there’s probably no info on their current condition, someone else suggested using the paddle-wheelers that normally take tourists up and down the river for this purpose as well: the Mississippi Queen and Delta Queen have very shallow drafts and maybe in some cases should actually be sent INTO the city if the water’s high enough.

  11. Cullen says:

    My heart has been broken over this all day long. Whether it’s been lamenting the fact that my wife and my courting grounds are now underwater, or worrying about her father — a Biloxi resident — it’s been a tough day.

    Biloxi’s WLOX has a great slide show of the damager there. Pic 5 is a shot of the Gulfport Grand Casino, which was literally lifted up out of the water and dumped on Highway 90. I used to gamble there a decade ago. I’m looking at these pictures and simply cannot comprehend it. The collapsed bridges from Biloxi to Ocean Springs … blows my mind.

  12. Alex Nunez says:

    Dave J,

    Just updating you here: martial law was not declared today. That was a widely, and incorrectly, reported by just about every media outlet. Fox News even issued a correction on-air. There is, however, a state of emergency in effect, and that’s what the National Guard is in there to help out with.

    As for the looters, police and national Guard need to get that under control before N.O. becomes Dodge City. In case you haven’t heard, there has also been a prison riot, and inmates are holding hostages (including women and children) in a New Orleans detention facility.

    This is going to get worse before it starts to get better.

  13. ricki says:

    It’s just unbelievable. I see the pictures on tv and in the paper, but I can’t believe it – it’s like I’m looking at a disaster movie set.

    It’s just horrible. It breaks my heart to think of all the people who have lost everything, especially the people who have lost family. (And it also breaks my heart to think of all the HISTORY lost; the French Quarter will probably never be the same).

    The looting makes me sick. Like someone said, this is not Jean Valjean, this is in no way noble or necessary. It’s just selfish and parasitic and people compounding evil upon a natural disaster because they can. (Especially the people looting people’s HOUSES. That’s SO wrong, and if karma exists, those looters are gonna really get walloped).

    And anyway – to just think of it: “Hundreds of people lost loved ones. Thousands to tens of thousands lost family pictures, heirlooms, pets. But look! I got this cool iPod!” Sick f*cks.

  14. ricki says:

    As someone who firmly (but perhaps naively) believes in the saying “Every act of love increases the balance of love in the universe,” I will point out that Michele has got a couple posts up on POSITIVE stories (rescues, people stepping in and helping).

    I will also add that when I tried to call the Salvation Army this morning to make a donation, their circuits were all busy. And the donation website timed out several times before I was able to get on. Babalu-blog (Val Prieto) has got a list of charities doing work to help folks out too.

    (Optimistically and naively I think: maybe if enough people chip in, if enough babies get rescued from danger, that will outweigh the looting and general bad behavior on a cosmic sense. Or at least that’s the kind of thing I tell myself to keep from going utterly mad.)

  15. damian says:

    Absolutely NO excuse for looting is right.

    The first time I was in New Orleans visiting my friends who’re now sheltering with us, I was thoroughly shocked. Whether we can bring ourselves to admit it or not, New Orleans and many of the cities in Mississippi and Alabama are only a hair’s breath from being ‘third world’ cities. The houses in many parts of the outlying cities are little more than shacks. Little wonder these houses floated in the surge. It’s deplorable to see that kind of situation in a country like the US.

    Even our friends who’ve been living down there for ten years now say outside of the Quarter and some other wealthy parts of New Orleans, it’s decidedly third world.

    I see a former mayor of New Orleans is now demanding on CNN that the President act and act now ansd send the army or New Orleans to work on the levees or New Orleans will be lost.

  16. Jen says:

    The scariest things that I have heard of are that New Orleans will be completely under water, because the levee holding Lake Pontchartrain broke. The water then flows into the city, which is the low point between the lake and the Mississippi. Some are saying that it will be completely destroyed and that the entire city will be lost. They would have to just fill in where the city is and rebuild on top of it. Does anyone think this would actually happen? It reminds me of hearing about ancient cities where they just built one on top of the other for centuries…
    I only visited N.O. once, and despite all the horrible Mardi Gras festivities, it was a lovely city with beautiful architecture. I don’t even know how to feel for people that are losing entire cities (like Biloxi and NO). Where do you start?

  17. mitch says:

    I have to wonder – will they ever rebuild New Orleans?

    Really – other than tourism and oil refining, what is there in NO that half a dozen cities in the Gulf that are *above* sea level don’t already do equally well?

    The previous commenter was right – much of N.O. is – well, not “third world” per se, but barely removed from the “Old South”, where poor people live in shacks because shacks are pretty much good enough. If you keep that population out of N.O. for months, what are they going to do? Find work and start lives elsewhere, I’d guess.

    In the great Grand Forks flood of 1997 (in a city about 1/10 the size of N.O.), in a city which had about the same area flooded (although not as deeply) and which wasn’t evacuated for nearly as long, a good percentage of the people just never came back; they moved elsewhere, or they stayed where they evacuated to and rebuilt their lives.

    I’m betting New Orleans ends up a much smaller city.

  18. Ken Hall says:

    The Quarter is irreplaceable.

    There was a story this morning that a band of looters had, in effect, laid siege to Children’s Hospital. Inside were the on-duty medical staff and about 100 patients. I haven’t been able to find an update.

  19. Emily says:

    Looting a friggin’ HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN? My gawd, that’s the lowest thing I have ever heard in my life.

  20. j swift says:

    We are talking about 1.3 M people in the N.O. metro area minus those lucky enough to have the resources to evacuate and not get stranded on the way out. I am reading that 5M people are without power, unknown number without food, drinkable water, and maybe homes. It is 90 degrees there today.

    The city is in a soup of water, bodies (hopefully few), animal carcasses, sewage, chemicals, garbage, gasoline, etc. The entire city is being set up to be a pertri dish of various diseases and then you have the wildlife, (snakes? alligators?).

    While I am sure there are scumbags in there stealing stuff. I suspect some are just looting necessary items. Considering that those people do not have communication and do not know when or who will be bringing relief it somewhat reasonable that they take items to survive.

    This is shaping up to be an unprecedented disaster where the US is going to have to write off a good portion if not the whole city.

    Maybe we should not shoot all the looters just yet.

  21. Emily says:

    I don’t think anyone’s advocating shooting them all. Like Sheila said, we weren’t talking about the Jean Valjeans. We were talking about the people stealing high priced luxury items. Death is almost too good for them at a time like this.

  22. j swift says:

    I try to remember that even the luxury items are just stuff. Hypothetically,If I am living there and some s.o.b. comes into my house or place of business armed it is the same as if he is coming to kill me or my family. I shoot his ass on the spot and drag his carcass into the street.

    Someone breaks into my place of business and I arrive to see him wading through water with a t.v. he just stole, I laugh at the stupid bastard. Same thing if he or she is wearing my wife’s jewelry as they flee. It is just stuff.

    Threaten my life or the lives of my family (this would include looting the last of my food or water, necessities.) I beat them to death if I have to, the rest is just stuff.

  23. red says:

    It’s not about the stuff, j swift. It’s about the breakdown of order, and the joy-ride aspect of it that I’ve seen on the news (as silly as it all may seem – these people can’t plug in those microwaves, what the fuck are they thinking?) Why I think these people are scumbags and are behaving atrociously is not because they are “stealing” – it is because civilization is a thin thin thing, and the fabric of it can be easily torn. Each of us has a choice. It’s NOT “just stuff” in that larger context.

    During the blackout last summer here in Manhattan – there was next to no looting. I have no memory of the looting that happened in 1977 during the blackout but I’ve seen footage. It was utter chaos.

    These people were not breaking into stores to get supplies. They just gloried in the breakdown of rules, and took advantage.

    Also, j swift: where on earth did you read ANYBODY on this thread say that we should “shoot them all”? Nobody did. Don’t make shit up and then quote it back to us like we said it.

  24. Lisa says:

    There’s a post re: looting at Hawkins’s place and this dude made the most intelligent argument against looting that I’ve ever heard in the comments. His name is Celebrim, but he gave no e-mail or blog so I can’t link him, but I’m going to quote him AND give him mad props.

    I’m in Baton Rouge. I’m currently without power at home (posting from work), as I’m on the very very northwest edge of the ‘dark zone’.

    Let’s get this straight. We have 100,000+ refugees in the city right now. We expect upto 100,000 additional refugees in the coming days. Food and gasoline are already in short supply. D cell batteries are very hard to find. Nothing is critical right now, but there could conceivably be severe shortages in the coming days as we try to take in extra people. Now, imagine what it would be like if people started looting what they needed? Noone would deny that the need is there, but does the need alone justify the actions?

    The problem with looting is that its an extremely inefficient means of distribution. Talking about the necessity of looting in abstraction indicates to me that you’ve never actually seen in it take place up close and personally. Looters don’t care what they waste. They also tend not to be very efficient shoppers. Looters take a big armload of whatever they can grab, and they run with it. This leaves the looters with a big armload of say, broken Lay’s potatoes chips and a sack of cookies. Half of that (or more) ends up uneaten somewhere, left in the sun and the water, and the other half ends up eaten by young men who by virtue of thier strength dominate the distribution of resources in an anarchy situation.

    This means that the most critically needy people – the elderly, the sick, the children, the babies, don’t get food. That means that they die. Period. Every time you see looting on TV, you are seeing people die. Period. Unquestionably. In this situation it is absolutely critical that those tied down resources – possibly endangered by flood waters – get distributed, but looting is no means of successfully doing that. In New Orleans, the stores are being ‘looted’ by two groups. One is the State Police, which are taking non-perishable goods out of supermarkets whatever, and taking them to the 30,000+ people without water or food being sheltered around the city. There are literally people dying in those shelters, and who you’ll see dying on live TV around those shelters today because they don’t have fluids. The other group of looters are smashing goods, taking them out in to flood waters and destroying them, and hiding food in places that they’ll later have to abandon. It’s not like we don’t have footage of this on local TV. Those people are killing themselves and their neighbors, and they ought to be shot on sight for the sake of everyone else in the city.

  25. Cullen says:

    We should shoot them all.

    ;)

    Seriously though, it is just stuff. Breakdown of society … Yes, but these folks are going to pay a hefty price. Where do they think they are going to go with this stuff? They’re going to die, or they’re going to have to leave it behind.

  26. red says:

    I am merely making an observation that I think they are scumbags. They will pay a price, I’m sure – karmically or otherwise – but that’s not up to me to say. I’m just a chick with an opinion and I think their behavior sucks.

  27. Cullen says:

    Okay. Now I feel like an idiot after reading Lisa’s post (which was posted while I was posting and didn’t get to read it).

  28. Lisa says:

    In some cases, Cullen, it’s “stuff” that could be used to keep people alive, like the supplies and food at Tulane University Medical Center that is being looted by armed gangs.

    TVs, shoes, clothes, yeah, that’s “stuff”, but the other things like food and water? That’s crimes against humanity.

  29. Lisa says:

    See? Now I’m sorry for the little verbal spanking I gave you, Cullen. ;)

  30. red says:

    It’s a sucky situation all around.

    I’m sorry, too. :)

  31. Cullen says:

    I’m not defending looting. Not only do I believe it’s a crime agains humanity, and seriously believe that they should be shot, I think they’re deluding themselves by thinking they’re getting anywhere by looting.

    As you posted above from the rather eloquent individual from Baton Rouge, it’s the strong who can secure it and will leave a good majority of it uneaten, not drank, or broken. Because they have no plan. Again, they will die or they will have to abandon their plunder. I think it’s insane.

  32. Cullen says:

    P.S. I’m not trying to be snarky. Thanks guys.

  33. Laura says:

    The worst I saw was a guy, carrying what literally looked like 20 packages of kotex. KOTEX?!!?

  34. David Foster says:

    I wonder how in the world they are ever going to get it pumped out again. Apparently many of the pumps, some of which are a century old, are underwater, which is not a good thing for electric motors.

    We as a society need to do a lot of thinking about infrastructure vulnerability and how to reduce it. New Orleans is a special case because of its geography, but there are lots of vulnerabilities elsewhere. I think it’s true that in most cities, the water distribution network depends on electrically-powered pumps which have no backup in case of sustained power failure.

  35. Emily says:

    It’s not just the stuff or the break-down of order as far as I’m concerned. Every minute that a cop is trying to stop one of these shitheads, it’s one less minute he gets to spend helping people who desperately need it.

  36. Lisa says:

    One guy on that thread I mentioned said that if the looters are strong enough to wade through waist-deep water to steal beer and cigarettes, then they’re strong enough to stop and help people.

    It seems like natural disasters either bring out the best in people (the tsunami) or the worst (this shit).

  37. red says:

    Letter from New Orleans – written by a pathologist, who is there – working in a makeshift hospital they set up in a bar:

    “Our biggest adventure today was raiding the Walgreens on Canal under police escort. The pharmacy was dark and full of water. We basically scooped the entire drug sets into garbage bags and removed them. All under police excort. The looters had to be held back at gunpoint. After a dose of prophylactic Cipro I hope to be fine.”

  38. j swift says:

    “Fuck the looters.” (doesn’t differiate between any subset or whatever of looters so it implies all of them.) Shoot to kill. (following a statement that does not differentiate between any group of looters would seem to say shoot them all). It only takes one.” (I guess Emily meant you can get away with just shooting one as an example but I am not sure.)

    In subsequent comments it is clear that no matter the emotionality of our comments no one really meant shoot all of them.

    The point I was trying to make was that there are just desperate people there as well as the scumbags who will waste, kill and steal just for giggles. The situation is not the usual looting situation. Say in LA after the Rodney King trial. That was vandalism, theft, assualt etc.

    This is a disaster where the value of necessities each possesses is more important than luxury items stolen for mere jollys or to enrich oneself, or out of rage, or being swept up in the anonymous mob.

    Example: What is the guy who loots the t.v. going to do with it. Sell it to a fence? What value is it to a fence? Can he resell it before it rots in the 90 degree heat and damp? Is anyone able to plug in it and watch it? Do they hope to store them and save it for later? It is futile at some point isn’t it? Same with a gold necklace, is this item of more value than a gallon of water, now, tomorrow, next week to a person wading in the mess in N.O.?

    And while it is true that there are irrational scumbags who will think this very thing (I will steal all this money or stuff and in a few days be in Kansas City or Houston and spend it) and steal anyway, the rest of us human beings in this position or put in this position are not required to add to the breakdown in society and shoot people where there is not sufficient reason. Let the dumb s.o.b. steal the stuff or money even. I would rather stay alive and say good bye to material things, even if they are highly and personally prized by me. Rather that than give in to my anger, fear or hatred and kill someone without sufficient reason. Same applies to the cops and guardsman.

    There comes a point where you have to ask yourself where you personally would draw the line. At what point are you willing to scar yourself by killing someone not to mention end that someone’s life.

    Finally, what I or Emily or anyone says here is somewhat suspect isn’t it, unless we have been put in that situation (I have not) where we actually have to make that kind of moral decision. What we write is our passionate opinion and emotional response to the disaster. I for one don’t know for sure how I would act. I would only hope I would act in line with my moral beliefs, do the best and most moral thing I could.

  39. red says:

    Well, like I said earlier: civilization is a thin thin thing and can be torn apart very easily. By only a couple of people. I include myself in that. I don’t know how I would act, but I hope I would choose the better path – rather than stealing fucking Rolex watches in the middle of a catastrophe.

    One of the reporters in New Orleans last night said one of the main problems is communication. There are supplies (or at least there were) at the superdome and other areas – but there was no way to get the word out to the city. The reporter had seen no cars going by with megaphones, announcing what to do, where to go … I think because even the emergency services people were unable to communicate with one another. So – general lack of information in such a deadly situation can, of course, lead to panic.

    I remember the first moment when the F16s whizzed over Manhattan on the morning of September 11. Nobody had told us they were coming. Nobody announced in an official voice: “More planes will fly by – very low – and at top speed.” They just arrived. And – at least where I was – for about 20 or 30 seconds – before we knew they were “ours”, people absolutely panicked. Screams erupted down the street, people were pointing at them as though it was a horror movie – I felt like I had shivers of glass in my veins. The FEAR. The life-force. The fear of losing my life. I thought we were being attacked again. No announcements had come. And these were planes – zooming towards us – terror could rain down upon us …

    People (myself included) started running. Wildly. Where were we going? Where could we hide? Nowhere. I thought they would drop a bomb on us. That morning – at 11 am or whenever it was – we had just seen the buildings collapse – ANYTHING seemed possible.

    So when those military jets arrived – with no warning – there was mass panic. People racing for cover, running zigzaggedly around, looking over their shoulder …

    Then some knowledgeable person shouted, “THEY’RE OURS’ and the word spread …

    It was only much later that afternoon that cop cars started riding around with megaphones, telling us where to go if we wanted to donate blood. That was really all we could do.

    But anyway. Long tangent. That was what i thought of when the reporter last night said that there was no communication coming in to these people from anywhere.

  40. red says:

    Oh and j swift:

    My opinion is “Suspect”?

    I’m just a writer. Babbling about my opinion. I have no power whatsoever. This is my online DIARY that you happen to read. Who gives a shite what I say?

    I am also not objective. Never pretended to be. And I do not sit around agonizing about showing both sides. You know why? Cause that’s boring writing in my opinion.

    And lastly: I am not completely sold on the “unless you walk in someone else’s shoes your opinion is suspect” school of thought. I can see its purpose sometimes, but I think it’s WAY over-used. It is meant to shut people up.

    I see it a lot with mothers, actually. Like: because I have never had a child means I must be totally unqualified to even have an opinion about childrearing. I don’t buy it.

  41. red says:

    All of this is neither here nor there, in the end. What’s going on is a disaster.

    I do hear your point, j swift, and I get what you’re saying – I just don’t like about 10 of your word choices (which also is neither here nor there).

  42. peteb says:

    In re: the “unless you walk in someone else’s shoes your opinion is suspect” school of thought.

    Not only is it WAY over-used.. but it is also WAY over-used in diguising bias.

    I made a comment earlier that I’ve yet to hear any argument against, or a refutation of, and I stand by it –

    “Re-establishing some kind of order will provide the best assistance at this time to the recovery for New Orleans.”

    Looting, of any kind, does not assist that re-establishing of order.

  43. mitch says:

    What this all illustrates, in my book, is how fragile are the bonds of civility in our society.

    They say that in any population in crisis, one in ten will steal for food, one in a hundred will attack people for food, one in a thousand will kill for food and one in ten thousand will resort to cannibalism.

    Situations like these are one of the reasons I went from being a gun-control advocate in my early twenties to an avid Second Amendment guy today. Sometimes order in society has to come from below.

    I’m remembering the LA riots, where Korean shopkeepers in neighborhoods abandoned by the LAPD took to their roofs, rifles in hand, to deter (usually successfully, without a shot being fired) the violence.

    As a side note, I accumulated (through sloppy shopping) about a month’s supply of canned food in my house. Watching the events in N.O., I think it’s a better idea all the time.

  44. Cullen says:

    Mitch,
    My wife and most of her family are Mormon. It’s part of their doctrine to have 72-hour supply kits and to try and have a year’s worth of food storage.

    They are continually being proven right.

    In that regard, anyway.

    I just hope the sandbagging works and we can start getting some of that water out of the area.

  45. red says:

    But then on the bright side, Mitch (hopefullly?) – 9 out of ten people will behave themselves. Is that the statistic? Or am I pollyanna? We have also seen much selflessness in the stricken cities over the last couple of days.

    I am all for being prepared. Makes perfect sense to me and in times like this you can see why it makes sense.

    Cullen: where are you right now? I mean, geographically? How are you faring?

  46. Ken Hall says:

    Right there with you, Mitch, except for the “sometimes order has to come from below part.” Amend that to “almost always”…in the end, at any rate. Note that a few of the looters in New Orleans wore blue, if you can get your mind around that. I don’t know how this comments section likes linky things, so you’ll have to add the usual beginning to:

    nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html#075195

  47. Cullen says:

    Sheila,
    I and the immediate family (wife and kids) are well out of harm’s way. I’m in Southeast Georgia right now.

    My father-in-law is in Biloxi and my brother-in-law is in Hattiesburg. They’re without power but well.

    My F-I-C, who refused to evacuate, and in bull-headed stubborness wondered why his entire family was worried about him, just today has gotten out and seen all the damage around him. Saw the Biloxi Grand Casino, where his wife works, thrown up on Highway 90. He called us today to apologize and let us know that he understood why we were all worried. Hopefully a lesson learned.

  48. Cullen says:

    Make that, Southwest Georgia. Jeez, I’m tired.

  49. red says:

    I saw the footage of that casino. Just mind-blowing. I’m glad everyone in your family is okay.

  50. red says:

    I’m watching Larry King right now – and Haley Barbour – governor of Mississippi – just said: “We have been dealt a grievous blow, but we have not been dealt a mortal blow.”

    Bless those people down there.

  51. red says:

    What’s F-I-C?

  52. Cullen says:

    Should have been F-I-L for father in law. I am amazingly tired.

  53. Dave J says:

    Ken, as for “looters in blue,” there appear to be tweo different groups. The State Police are deliberately taking non-perishable foodstuffs, etc., for the evacuees. Some of the NOPD, however, are just taking whatever they can get their hands. They are not as corrupt a department as they used to be (Ray Nagin’s drawn a lot of grief from all directions in his time as mayor, a good sign), but then everything’s relative: they’re still marred by more dirty cops than a typical big-city police force.

  54. red says:

    cullen – ah. :)

    I should have known but I did spend a couple of minutes trying to work it out.

    Father in … combat?

    Anyway, I am glad that he is all right.

  55. red says:

    I am watching the news. Anyone who thinks the looting is about the stuff – is out of their minds. Sorry. It is like a war zone, now. Cops being diverted from search and rescue to deal with the looters, buildings on fire, citizens wandering around with guns trying to stop the looting themselves. It’s too dangerous for law-abiding citizens to go out in search of help, or food – because the looters have taken over.

  56. red says:

    Someone fired shots at a rescue helicopter coming in to the Superdome.

    Savages. These people are a waste of fucking space.

  57. Tom in south carolina says:

    I am very sorry to see what has happened to the beautiful city of New Orleans.

    God Bless,
    Tom

  58. ricki says:

    It’s been loudly bruited on the news here (North Texas area) that the police have STOPPED “search and rescue” in favor of “restoring order.”

    Now, on one hand, looking at it objectively – there may not be that many people still alive to rescue. And there may be people (National Guard?) arriving who have better training in that area.

    But. It makes me kind of sick to think that the cops have to be putting out this kind of “fire” at this time. (And doubly sick to think that there are cops participating in it).

    Granted, it’s only “stuff.” But the principle is bigger than that – what I see when I look at the looters, is someone who’s saying “F*ck the rest of humanity, I’m gettin’ what I always wanted…” And the people who make the point that most of the looted items will have very little value in a world where there’s no electricity and water is scarce, and those items will probably have to be left abandoned, is a very good point. Of course, the looters don’t look at that, they’re not looking more than 15 minutes into the future, or else they somehow believe they can get the stuff out of town and fence it.

    (I don’t regard breaking into a 7-11 – under police protection or not – and grabbing a gallon of water and a loaf of bread to be looting per se, given these conditions. But then again, the point that someone else made – that it’s largely the young strong men, the alpha male lions of the pride, who are getting the food and who are not likely sharing it with the females, or the cubs, or the males too old to fight and push their way in.)

    I don’t know. I’m closing my eyes and rubbing my temples hard and trying to think of the people donating to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and the fact that there are large quantities of bottled water on the way there from various sources, and that the Texas Baptist Men have a team of search and rescue and disaster-relief folks on their way there, INSTEAD of the people who are simply being opportunistic.

  59. PS says:

    I have to say I would not feel awful if the police shot EVERY looter on sight. I was in NY during the two blackouts, and 9/11 and with very few exceptions, people were calm, orderly and cooperative…..they had to be. I met people in my neighborhood I had never met before. They invited me to share what they had I in turn shared what I had.

    To excuses anarchy for any reason is naive. These vermin were given notice to leave, they did not. They stayed anticipating that it would be an opportunity for them to do exactly what they are doing. A day or two after this tragedy it is unlikely that anyone is starving and, if they were, electronic equipment, jewelry, antiques, and other peoples’ belongings will not feed them.

    The classic picture to me was the guy chest deep in water hauling a tub of beer…..BEER! While it may not be just for breakfast anymore it is not tops on my list of survival rations!

    These pricks are using weapons and assaulting police who now have to stop saving people to protect them from thier neighbors. But look at the bright side…if they get caught we will have to pay to house and feed them in prison. A bullet is cheaper.

    If I sound like an angry reactionary it is because for all the good that thousands are doing it’s the dozens of scum bags who will be remembered as the face of the tragedy. It’s sickens me.

  60. red says:

    I could definitely see looting some beer. Sorry. Hot sticky humid weather, no water, nothing … a beer might be nice. also – it’s liquid. the feel of having ANY liquid going down your throat is probably really crucial. i would definitely steal beer, if i were out scrounging for food, and saw a fridge full of 6 packs.

  61. Joe says:

    New Orleans is a beautiful city. Unfortunately, it is also full of ignorant dumbshits who lack education and would rather spend their money on gold fillings, guns, drugs and other stupid things. They wait for their next opportunity to steal. New Orleans, as long as I lived there, was a haven for criminal activity. In large part, this was due to corrupt politics and a corrupt police force. The sense of lawlessness was evidenced daily in the newspaper. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was the “murder capital” of the world, with a drug murder rate of better than one per day, or ten times higher than average. I know because I used to live there. It doesn’t seem that many tourists are aware of the rampant criminal activity in New Orleans that occurs even on a normal “peaceful” day.

    There are also many wonderful people there. If they were able, these people probably mostly evacuated. Now, what you have left are the weak being bullied by the murderous dumbshits who have been waiting and planning for this day when they could walk freely in a flooded city taking whatever they like, and killing or injuring whomever might get in their way for sport.

    I’m sorry to sound so negative, but New Orleans was a scary place to live long before the hurricane ever hit. If any good happens out of all of this, the hurricane will only focus attention on an American city that is truly third world. I’ve always been apalled at the amount of spending this country applies to foreign nations on infrastructure, while I’ve known all along that problem cities like New Orleans and Detroit are virtually ignored by our own Federal government.

    It’s a shame, but I can’t say that the looting and lawlessness surprises me. The fear the outright lawlessness following this long predicted disaster is one big factor that eventually convinced me to move away. I don’t know that if the place I’ve moved to is better, but it’s got a tiny murder rate and crime is more under control–perhaps it would be in such a situation. On the other hand, perhaps this New Orleans disaster can be viewed as a lesson to all of us in this country, where social services and police are undervalued and underfunded until something like this happens. Instead of blaming ourselves, we blame the looters whom we know have been lying in wait all along. This city could have and should have been much better prepared for criminal mobs now terrorizing the weak.

  62. Joe says:

    Just read an article about the looters in which it was mentioned that the sounds of gunfire can be heard everywhere. I’m just glad that it’s coming to people’s attention. The fact is, gunfire can be heard every night and often during the day, even in the nice neighborhoods I lived in, which are adjacent to the subhuman outposts. Sad to say, but the bad side of New Orleans that is repressed for the benefit of bringing in tourism is only being revealed to the rest of the world through this disaster.

    I’m not saying this to trash New Orleans. I absolutely loved living there. Besides the great food that everyone knows about, there is an abundance of theater, art and music–and it is much more accessible than anywhere else I’ve lived. In fact, snooty New England only wishes it could offer 1/2 the culture New Orleans can, and what New England does offer is expensive and requires distant travel for the same variety. But I grew tired of lawlessness one encounters every day in New Orleans. Everyone I knew when I lived there had gotten mugged at gunpoint in broad daylight at least once–some even more than once. I also know a few shooting victims who were shot for their wallets, even after handing the wallet over.

    Has everyone forgotten that this is the city in which large posters have to be distributed conspicuously throughout the city around New Year’s to stop people from shooting guns into the air? The poster campaign also only came about after a tourist from Cleveland was killed in the Spanish Plaza one New Year’s Eve by a falling bullet. Of course, the silver lining is that roofing companies do well going around plugging all the holes in the roofs.

    As for looting, well, I guess it’s only called looting during a big flood. Residents of New Orleans know that if it ain’t nailed down, it’ll disappear. If you like that porch furniture you just put on the porch, you’ll have to take it into the house with you every night or it’ll disappear. I was sitting on my stoop one night smoking a cigarette around Christmas. My neighbor came home and placed two pointsettias on either side of the steps leading up to his house and went inside. Before my cigarette was burnt out, some guy on a bicycle comes by and takes both pointsettias and pedals off. Another night, when I was working on my car (which I didn’t like to do after dark at all) some guy goes riding by on a bike with the brand new wicker love seat another neighbor had put on the porch. On another day, someone broke into my neighbor’s house, a spritely, independent and friendly 80 year old woman, broke her glasses, raped her, and then broke her nose and ribs and robbed her. This was in the afternoon! Her name was Bernice and she lived in a tidy home on the corner of Audubon Street and Nelson Street. After that attack, she went to a nursing home and never came back. I’d heard later that she died; she just didn’t want to live anymore after that.

    Maybe after all of this bad news New Orleans will finally do whatever it needs to do to annihilate the lawless violent inbred subhuman urban dwellers who think nothing of murderous gunplay and preying on the weak. They have for too long kept the city from being the glorious place it really could be for everyone, especially those good people with the courage to raise families there. For every Louis Armstrong there seems to be a hundred Antoinette Franks’ or Phillip Anthonys. Why? I don’t have an answer. Corrupt politicians and police, I guess–and bad schools–the earmarks of the third world. I’m just glad that the word is getting out. Hopefully, the city will benefit and finally get the crime under control, even during “lawful” times.

  63. PS says:

    Joe it is truly unfortunate that this is the face that the city shows the world. And, as my father liked to say, if the fish stinks at the tail it stinks at the head.

    My reference in this case is the mayor of New Orleans screaming how everyone is doing it wrong. WHAT IS HE DOING!?!?! He knew the levee’s were time worn….what did he do? He knew about the thefts Joe described…what did he do? He knew the storm was coming…what did he do…a proclamation? When we’ve had storms in the northeast the police have evacuated people and it is not an option. He knows his city was as close to third world as it is and he did nothing and is doing nothing.

    He is making the situation worse and is living proof that in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. Not part of the solution…never has been…never will be. N.O. politics has been and continues to be corrupt and run by thieves. (Yes it is a generalization since there are good, honest people too.) Get someone like Rudy Giuliani down there for one term and see what happens. I didn’t agree with everything he did but he made all of NYC safer, cleaner, and friendlier.

    The last time I visited the N.O. I was struck by the pan handlers, grifters, beggers…human roaches which the police herded like wild animals. They were all looking for a hand out not a hand up. Sad really.

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