TMPletz said:

WTF! Looters suck, but after all of this, how could be rooting for more people to die. I don't get it.

MendesCity said:

Shooting does not have to equal killing.

MendesCity said:

Because in times of need, people need to band together and help each other. Reports are coming in of gangs of armed looters terrorizing and robbing people who have already lost so much!
THESE SCUMBAGS DESERVE NO MERCY!!!

Reincarnate said:

I REALLY FEEL WHAT YOU ARE SAYING. I TALK ABOUT THEM EVERY DAY AT MY JOB AND I'M PRAYING FOR EVERYONE.

debbiedean2 said:

... Also VainAndy - please let us know you're safe

I'm watching the dateline special on this right now and I can't stop the tears from flowing. The reporters there seem to be barely able to keep it together to report what they've seen and are seeing.

i just heard on foxnews that the prisoners are being set free because they can't be cared for anymore. there was a reporter that said she was staying in the French Quarter when the city announced over the PA system for everyone to get out because prisoners were going to be set free and no one could guarantee their safety. WTF?! as if there aren't anymore problems. i agree with all of you when you say that reinforcement should have been there a long time ago.

people are being bussed here to Houston because there isn't anywhere else for them to go. as a city we have raised over $10 mil to help our neighbors and we will continue to do so. kids are being allowed to register for school here and companies are donating heavily for those in need. some firestations have turned themselves into temporary housing.

i hope everyone is safe and i pray for everyone it is so sad that this has happened and it seems so unreal.

here is something that one of our local radio stations is doing.

http://www.thebuzz.com/pa...athon.html

For being such a "developed" country, the US really seems to not have its shit together on this. It seems like after the tsunami those countries were much more organized and working together. Even the N.O. mayor is saying the relief effort is disorganized. And I read in the NYTimes that Army Corp of Engineers hasn't even started pumping the water out of the city yet! Our summer intern was supposed to begin his first year at Tulane this week. Fortunately, we heard from him today and he is okay--Tulane evacuated them on Saturday.

It's really disheartening to see the poverty and desperation in New Orleans. I agree that looting for necessities (food, water, etc) is unavoidable, but those people stealing electronics etc are messed up. I mean, wouldn't all the stuff have water damage anyway?

I would like to hear what, if any, kind of coverage this is getting overseas....Orgers from other countries?

PurpleJedi said:

I couldn't condone shooting someone stealing diapers, or food at this point. I couldn't condone shooting anyone, actually, but I think its total crap the opportunists are taking with stealing everything.

so many people are being ignored, it's sad we can do more.

bluesbaby said:

It's also total crap to hear New Yorkers on TV bitching about paying 3 bucks for gas.

New Orleans has an incredible amount of poverty. A lot of these people probably feel like they're doomed to die anyways, storm or not. And while looting people's homes sucks big time (and especially sucks if they're actually harming anybody), I can see how if you couldn't afford to flee the city when the country's worst storm ever was coming down the pike, and nobody had bothered to fix any of these damn levees, your sense of morality might get a bit wonky.
[Edited 8/31/05 20:22pm]

gemini13 said:

His name is Hardy Jackson; I just watched the local news (it was a reporter from Mobile who did the actual interview) and she was doing a follow up on this story. He had to identify her at a funeral home in nearby Gulfport, MS. Her name was Antoinette rtsp://mgs.mgbg.com/wkrg/..._street.rm
(Realplayer needed)

CoJones said:

At least he can have a sense of closure knowing where her body is.

TMPletz said:

He had told the reporter today that he had lost all hope, but hearing about all the prayers about he and his family restored it. The station is reuniting him with family around the country

MendesCity said:

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
Do you feel then, that it's alright for consumers to get fleeced in times of crisis (whether it be the Iraq invasion or Katrina)? What exactly are you saying by this?



So...first you excuse the oil barons...now you excuse the hoodlums?
Read this;

Thousands Feared Drowned in New Orleans
Aug 31, 11:24 PM (ET)

By ADAM NOSSITER

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - With thousands feared drowned in what could be America's deadliest natural disaster in a century, New Orleans' leaders all but surrendered the streets to floodwaters Wednesday and began turning out the lights on the ruined city - perhaps for months.

Looting spiraled so out of control that Mayor Ray Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and focus on the brazen packs of thieves who have turned increasingly hostile.

[edit]

Looters used garbage cans and inflatable mattresses to float away with food, blue jeans, tennis shoes, TV sets - even guns. Outside one pharmacy, thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break through the glass. The driver of a nursing-home bus surrendered the vehicle to thugs after being threatened.

Police said their first priority remained saving lives, and mostly just stood by and watched the looting. But Nagin later said the looting had gotten so bad that stopping the thieves became the top priority for the police department.

"They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas - hotels, hospitals, and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

[edit]

So...while people are in dire need of help, officials have to use their precious manpower to CONTROLLING THE LOOTERS instead of finding stranded victims. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Please don't try to justify the vile behavior of these scumbags simply because their crimes are being committed during a natural disaster. You should crucify them ESPECIALLY because they are causing mayhem in such a devastated area!!!

What I'm saying is that I'm more worried about lives than consumers of any kind at this point right now.
[Edited 8/31/05 21:09pm]

I see nothing wrong with these people looting for means of survival...the folks I seen going in the stores on TV had Diapers,Toilet paper,and water....wtf is this shoot all the looters bullshit about???? put yourselves in their shoes!!!
[Edited 8/31/05 22:23pm]

TMPletz said:

I saw the original too. I am glad he found her, at least.

MendesCity said:

I totally see your point, and understand. We cannot fathom the suffering and desperation...at least most of us can't. But about the gas money part--it doesn't make giving any easier if I can't get gas in my car to get to work, or pay so much that there is nothing left to be able to give. It doesn't give the oil barons the right to screw everybody, including those who have suffered in the hurricane, in the process.

CoJones said:

That is something that it would have to take tragedy to reunite families. but praise God that his faith is being restored and that his family is reunituing.

jone70 said:

Well, in the UK we're getting lots of coverage, as we do with most disasters anywhere in the world. We have a history of balanced, impartial reporting focused more on the facts than the emotion, throughout our TV channels, not the sensationalist style the US seems to favour.

I've heard that New Orleans is below sea-level and at the moment that big lake to the north at a higher level than the land - so pumping out of the water can't begin until the massive break in the levy wall is fixed and then the lake water has to recede to it's usual level, so it could be a disaster zone for a while yet.

Can't help thinking we've caused a lot of these problems ourselves, with our intensive urbanisation. Building extensively on a flood plain, anywhere in the world, is asking for trouble from mother nature. We think we've tamed nature but it always throws up some surprises. And then you've got a more turbulent weather and rising sea-levels, which 99percent of scientists and the public know for a fact is due to the pollution we are putting out effecting the environment, but you know, good on you Bush for not doing a damned thing about it (always pays to be in the pocket of Saudi Arabian oil barrens).

Another thing I've noted, this has really exposed to the world that America has a really poor underbelly that it likes to hide from the rest of the world. Like most countries, it should get it's own house in order before telling other countries how to live their lives.

bluesbaby said:

I understand your frustration, but I guess I feel like the gas thing rankles me, because we should focused more on pushing through hybrid (or smaller, for a start) cars instead of just turning the issue into a quick fix of lowering prices for another six months. Yes, the barons screw everybody, but the US gas has been so heavily subsidized for years (Europeans have been paying these rates and beyond for ages) that it's created this unsustainable lifestyle. But I don't want to hijack this thread with this topic(I think there's one happening in the Politics forum right now), so I'll just say I think we're all in tough times right now so we should pick our battles carefully.

thescandalouslife said:

I saw Bush on TV this morning, stating [to Diane Saywer] that no one could have anticapated a breach in the levees...

TonyVanDam said:




No one could have anticapated a breach in the levees?


[Edited 9/1/05 6:30am]

metalorange said:

Mayhem disrupts evacuation







Authorities started busing evacuees from the Louisiana Superdome Wednesday night, but an official with the Louisiana National Guard said that operation has been suspended because of deteriorating conditions.

The stadium has been the shelter of last resort for about 30,000 people who did not escape the city before Hurricane Katrina hit.

Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the National Guard said there were reports that several small trash fires were burning around the building and firefighters were having a hard time reaching the area.

"It's a great concern. We've got to get them put out," he told CNN's Miles O'Brien in Baton Rouge. "Although they're small trash fires and may burn out, we don't want to take the chance of anything spreading."

There were also reports that shots had been fired at an Army Chinook helicopter that was being used to get people away from the Superdome to buses for transport.

Harris County communications director Gloria Roemer told CNN the operations would be put on hold for "a couple of hours." Roemer said the situation in New Orleans was "out of control." CNN has not yet been able to contact New Orleans officials for comment.



New Orleans mayor: Thousands likely dead
Meanwhile, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Wednesday that the storm probably killed thousands of people in his battered and flood-stricken city, according to The Associated Press.

"We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water," and others dead in attics, The AP quoted Nagin as saying. When asked how many, he reportedly said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."

Nagin and other Louisiana officials had refused to give a casualty count in the past, saying emergency workers were focusing on the rescue effort.

Rescue workers continued to push bodies aside Wednesday as they used boats and helicopters to search for survivors. Their efforts have been hampered by lawlessness and damaged infrastructure.

Electricity was out for more than 2.3 million people in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.

Lawless streets
Widespread looting of New Orleans businesses continued Wednesday, punctuated by the sounds of gunfire.

Nagin ordered most of the city's police to halt their rescue efforts and concentrate instead on stopping looters who have grown more aggressive, the AP reported.

Some of the looting was taking place in front of police, with little response. Along Canal Street, the city's main thoroughfare, police allowed people to take shoes out of stores as long as the shoes fit.

Reincarnate said:

Nevermind...wrong person.
[Edited 9/1/05 8:06am]

Alright, I'm sick of people blasting the looters.
Seriously.
The people left behind are undoubtedly largely the people who couldn't afford to get out or had nowhere to go. No one was there to take care of these people to begin with. The city, the state, the government had no evacuation plan to get these people to safety. And they've likely been treated this way their entire lives. Has anyone seen the most destitute places in New Orleans? When I visited years ago a friend of mine was working for project desire and I went with her to take some school children on a field trip. I have never seen such poverty in my life. The kids smelled badly from lack of hygeine and grooming, people were living in shacks that were barely standing. It looked little better than tv images of third world countries and 'sponsor this child' commercials. And now that they are desperate for food, water, diapers and such and what little they had to begin with is gone. They are walking through diseased waters, watching hundreds of dead bodies float by them and living in highway underpasses. How many of us could hold it together in such conditions?
I admit, the theft of guns and drugs and armed gangs of men walking the streets is frightening. I'd like to think better of people.
But, fuck. How much can a person take?

CarrieMpls said:

we are concentrating more on the looting than getting ppl rescued. I think the media needs to relax on reporting on ppl looting diapers, food, shoes etc. All of those businesses will make an insurance claim for a complete loss anyway.

PurpleJedi said:

so you would shoot a mother getting diapers for her child or a person getting shoes so they don't cut their feet while walking in the contaminated water...

that makes sense....protect things....instead of ppl.