I’ve been operating under a weird haze of rage for the last few days.
It started when I read about how funding for flood management and levee construction had been slashed in the past few years, and how advice from experts has been steadily ignored for even longer. (This is not a bash on the Bush administration, by the way—Clinton was just as guilty of ignoring sound advice about development on flood plains and not funding flood management research adequately.)
It escalated when I read that big chunks of the National Guard are in Iraq, instead of back home.
It shot through the fucking roof when I realized that help was going to be a long time a-coming for the people hit hard by Katrina, especially the residents of New Orleans, and that the authorities were trying to spin everything to a fare-thee-well so they don’t look like quite the incompetent, brain-dead fuckasses that they are. Then I read about how a guy who should’ve hailed as a motherfucking hero was instead called an “extreme looter.” (What, does he snowboard, eat Doritos AND drink Mountain Dew on top of stealing an unused bus to ferry over a hundred people to safety?) And then I read this bit here on Daily Kos (link courtesy of Kate Rothwell):
It goes to show how overwhelming things are here right now that I encountered the First Lady yesterday and I almost forgot to put it in this e-mail. It actually couldn’t have been a worse experience; a team of us were working to put up a website with directions to every Red Cross shelter in the region when we were evicted from the computer room by the Secret Service. There’s only one room in the Cajundome with telephones and internet access for refugees, and Laura Bush shut it down for eight hours (along with the food service rooms to the side and the women’s showers). You may have seen it on CNN; apparently seven refugees were allowed back so Laura could help them in front of the cameras.
Add to that an article about how food sat undistributed all fucking day because of Bush’s visit to New Orleans, plus assorted comments from assorted people on assorted blogs about how it’s the residents’ own damn fault for not evacuating and/or for being poor, and I can’t concentrate on anything right now. My husband has had to listen to me ranting and raving all day. I suspect the poor darling has resorted to drink to drown out the sound of my dulcet voice.
Regular programming should resume tomorrow.
I think.
Edited to add:
Just found this link courtesy of Making Light:
The state Homeland Security Department had requested—and continues to request—that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.
Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.
Motherfucking…what the…GAAAAAAAHHHHHHH.
That popping sound you heard? Was the sweet symphony of several blood vessels exploding in my head.
Carry on.
Rage doesn’t begin to express what I feel. not so much at the initial choas, or the fact that relief efforts are held up due to needless bureaucracy, or even the diverting of funds and personnel to a stupid war in Iraq.
What enfuriates me are the lies we’re being told by the administration – stupid, CYA, needless, easy to disprove lies. Lies about just about everything touched by Bush, by HSA, by FEMA. And we’re expected to believe them, because They told us so. And, too many people are believing them, in spite of all the masses of evidence to the contrary.
Oh, my poor country!
Lilith is right, the Gov. did declare a State of Emergency. Why the Mayor and the Gov. didn’t continue following the Louisiana State Disaster paln is a good place to start with the questioning. Then move right up the chain all the way to the President. There is alot of blame to go around. Personally, I am interested why 400 buses sat unsused and are now flooded out. Simple math will tell you hundreds, if not thousands could have been saved, had the Mayor and Gov. followed a preset plan. Then the Presidents response has been well covered.
While people are thinking of donations, money is good. Blood is great, my husband and I donated today. However, and I know alot of us can relate to this, feminine hygeine products are in need. On Friday night a friend of mine volunteered her nursing skills. She said several women came up to her asking if she had any to spare. So, if you at a donation site please don’t forget what is like to be without those crucial things.
I really do enjoy this blog. Whether people agree with each other or not. OK, really, I only come for the snarky comments about the book covers.
DOH!
“Simple math will tell you hundreds, if not thousands could have been saved, had the Mayor and Gov. followed a preset plan. Then the Presidents response has been well covered.”
That should read “followed the preset plan.”
Sorry, husband was talking while I was typing.
Stevie, if it helps, try to remember that anger is one of the seven stages of grief and everyone goes through these stages in their own time and way.
Personally, my heart has been broken by what I’ve witnessed this past week and experiencing anger for a few days seems only just and right and natural to me. I’m actually still experiencing a few things from the prior stages, truth be told, such as denial and shock, so it doesn’t yet seem to that I’ve come to this stage and lingered at it over-long.
Finally, I also agree that anger can work as a great motivating force for change and I think one thing everyone can agree on is that the disaster management “plan” must change. Examining where something breaks down is a legitimate step that, for example, any manufacturing plant would undergo in attempting to fix a problem. Why is it any less legitimate to examine where and why bureaucracy went wrong – especially when the cost of the breakdown has been so dear?
I think the Mayor and the Governor had their hands full dealing with a flooded city. They are on the ground trying to help, and as far as I can see, have handled the crisis with dignity and appropriateness. The inappropriate responses have come from Bush and his handlers/cronies. (Crandlers? Handonies?)
Unfortunately, a great mass of the populace will believe what they want to despite the evidence. It seems that Bush has found the same universal truth of human affairs that Hitler did: find or create someone to blame, someone socially “lower on the totem pole” that people can feel superior to, and the masses will respond with adulation and blind support. To a great many people, truth isn’t nearly as important as feeling superior in one petty little area of their lives. Add to that the fact that the truth is so outrageous that it DEMANDS action, it demands that people may even have to admit they were (gasp) wrong about supporting Bush, and you have a lot of people emotionally invested in a dream world where the people in Louisiana and Mississippi somehow “deserved” the devastation because they were poor or sinful. Or the people in Iraq “deserve” devatation because they “had WMDs” or have brown skin.
After all, most people, not just in America, would rather die than admit they were wrong. Wars have been fought over less, cities leveled, whole peoples put to the sword.
I agree with Becca. It isn’t so much the unpreparedness as the stupid CYA lies. Lie to me? Better make the lie a good one, or when I find out I’ll be twice as pissed- both because of the lie, and because of the insult to my goddamn intelligence.
Amen, Becca. O, my poor country…
Letter from the Times-Picayune
In this letter:
We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.
Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.
It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?
State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: “Buses! And gas!” Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.
I agree the Mayor and Gov were busy. However, those buses were high and dry Saturday when the mandatory evacuation was called for. Why were over 400 buses left to sit when a Cat 5 hurricane was coming towards their city and state?
The Official Hurricane evacuation plan for SouthEastern Louisiana says:
The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.
There were at least 400 of them in NO on Saturday. If you do rough math, estimate 55 people per bus x the conservative estimate of 400 seen of recent staelitte images = 22,000. If you had taken them to Baton Rouge which is roughly an hour away, how many trips back and forth could those buses have made?
I’m not a Bush fan. I had him as Gov and I didn’t vote for him as President. (I’m Libertarian.) I’m just saying there is enough blame to go around. Since disaster preperations start at the local level, it would seem a good place for the invesgations to start.
We are just beginning to hear the faintest rumblings of the shitstorm that’s going to come from this. Think about how upsetting it is under “normal” conditions to lose a loved one. I’m not sure I can even imagine what it must be like to compound such a loss by having that loved one die alone, terrified, with their body left for a week to rot and be eaten by rats. Multipy this by thousands.
What I find most mind-boggling in all of this mess was how, according to the President of Jefferson Parish in NO, FEMA turned away three truckloads of water and a Coast Guard ship full of diesel.
What. The. Fuck.
Rampant speculation: Was the rationale the same as what was given to the Red Cross, i.e. they wanted conditions in the city to be as shitty as possible so nobody would want to stay there? (As if ANYONE wanted to stay in NO after Monday night??)
Anyway, I say cock-ups happened all around. From shitty flood management policies and poorly thought-out development plans to bureaucrats standing around holding their dicks when they should’ve fucking DONE SOMETHING, everyone shares a slice of the blame pie.
Stupid comments like Dubya’s about how much he’s looking forward to enjoying Trent Lott’s new porch are not helping my rage. Every time I think I’ve calmed down, I remember that comment and I start to red-line again.
From Paperbackwriter’s blog:
I’d like to post a positive observation.
After hurricane Ivan threatened NOLA and people spent 10 hours in the car getting to Baton Rouge (should be a 75-90 minute drive) local governments put a contra-flow plan in place. This is where both sides of I-10 are west-bound, both sides of I-55 are north-bound and people move out much faster. They documented this in free pamphlets that were distributed through every hardware store, grocery store, home-improvement store and library in the southern third of the state. The radio announcers repeated the instructions over and over to everyone that listened and televisions had great graphics showing how it worked.
And it did work. It worked very, very well. When we evacuated from Katrina, we got to Baton Rouge in 3 hours. That’s a long way from 10 and I am convinced it saved lives.
It was something good and worth mentioning so, in the future, we don’t loose it to some new plan that gets adopted just because it is new. F. O’Brien Andrew
I’m not a Bush fan. I had him as Gov and I didn’t vote for him as
President. (I’m Libertarian.) I’m just saying there is enough blame to go
around. Since disaster preperations start at the local level, it would seem
a good place for the invesgations to start.
My concern is that if investigations are started at the local level before we take a look at the overall levee-breakin’ picture, Bush will have many many years before he is called to account for his actions, if at all. And forget ever bringing his handlers to justice either.
I also simply don’t see that the governor and the mayor are culpable; IMHO they had all they could deal with in front of them and FEMA’s sluggish response wasn’t their fault. Nor was the levee breakage.
So I suppose my biggest problem is this: not only has Buch & Co’s negligance contributed to a horrific disaster, but they probably won’t even be called to account for it. Money, privilege, and power will shield them. And I can see that money, privilege, and power shielding them more and more effectively the longer we wait after Katrina to hold them accountable.
Here’s my perspective after spending a couple of days working with the evacuees that came to Austin.
One couple told me they’d been told the Superdome was a hurricane shelter. They were told to go there. Not, “if you can’t get out, go there as a last resort.” They were told, that’s the shelter, get your ass over there. This lady (who, btw, was poor and black) told me, “You hear on the TV how there weren’t enough cots, food, or water? There WERE no fucking cots, food, or water. We slept on carpet that we ripped out of the private boxes BY HAND.” She also told me about a 14 year old girl who went missing and was found 4 hours later, gang-raped to death. She, btw, was poor and black.
A very nice lady named Esther (a retired teacher who was—you guessed it—black) was shoved down and trampled when the airplanes finally arrived at the New Orleans airport. Her husband picked her up and dragged her out of the flow of traffic. The National Guard was standing 5 feet away when people were stepping and walking on her. They didn’t help her husband pick her up.
Several people told me how pissed off they were that the prisoners got taken out before they did. “They broke the law, let them die of thirst!” one man said. “I never broke the law in my life and they left me to die!” And my God, y’all. They did. These people were left to fucking DIE.
When the buses came to the Superdome, people were told to get in, sit down, and shut up. If they wanted to know where they were going, they were told to shut up. Now how fucking hard is it to say, this bus is going to Austin? This one’s going to Houston? Why is it so hard to tell people that? Instead of taking the sickest people first, they took whoever was at the front of the line. Guess who can get to the front of the line first? Yep, the younger, healthier, faster people.
The sick were left to die. One lady told me she heard a Nat’l Guard person saying that they wouldn’t be back for the sick who were still barely holding on. She said she was on the next to the last bus out. I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s what she heard.
Walgreens in Austin, Texas had people removed from their stores when they showed up with prescriptions and Louisana Medicaid cards. Walgreens will never get a fucking PENNY of my money ever again. My wife-in-law (ex’s new wife) works for the Texas Medicaid office. They got desperate calls from people trying to fill heart meds, insulin, life-sustaining meds, and Walgreens had security push these people out the door. CVS pharmacy took a mobile unit to both Austin shelters and donated a free month’s supply of medication to everyone. EVERYONE. Shop at CVS.
I’m about to blow an aneurysm too, so I’ll shut up. Anyone else want the soapbox?
<i>Walgreens in Austin, Texas had people removed from their stores when they showed up with prescriptions and Louisana Medicaid cards.
OK, that? Is SHITFUL FUCKING BEHAVIOR.
Gaaaaah.
Damn straight I’m not shopping at Walgreens any more.
I guess we are going to have to disagree on this one Lillith. If the plan had been followed, people had evacuated on those buses then less people would have been left in the city. That isn’t FEMAs job, it is the Mayors Head of Emergency Operations job to get those buses filled and moved per the disaster plan. I don’t know if it was a lack of communication between him and the Mayor but someone on the local level and federal level dropped the ball.
Flooded school buses
http://tinyurl.com/dd43p
Flooded city buses
http://tinyurl.com/78n4g
As for Bush never being held accountable, don’t think that will happend. The Democrats won’t let it and I know I sure won’t let him forget.
Christina: I think we are doomed to disagree. I think you’re overlooking one small thing: I don’t think any city around has the resources to deal with this level of catastrophe and damn near a week of no federal aid at all. As far as I can tell, the Superdome was intended to be a place to wait out the storm for those too ill or too poor to get out, it wasn’t intended as long-term refugee housing.
I don’t think there is a single city that could have handled this type of disaster gracefully with no federal aid at all. Instead, it seems to me that the measures the mayor and the governor took were meant to be adequate because they were relying on promises of FEMA aid, promises that were still unfulfilled two, three, four days after the disaster.
What do you think? Sorry for the longwindedness, and thank you for the civil tone and the calm discussion.
I don’t think any city around has the resources to deal with this level of catastrophe and damn near a week of no federal aid at all.
I agree with this. After the levee broke, NO was SOL. FEMas response was so disorganized or bizzare, my 10 year old neice could have done a better job.
However, in my thinking, why have a plan if you aren’t going to follow it? Isn’t that what we elect out Mayor and Gov to do for the citizens? Had the Mayor and Gov. looked at the plans that were in place, implemented them and got moving on the evacuation in the buses, I don’t think we would be looking at the number at such a high loss of life.
Don’t get me wrong, Bush and FEMA have a lot to answer for but I think Blanco and Nagins lack of action *before* the hurricane came ashore have to be looked at.
I also appreciate the chance for a calm and rational discussion.
Christina,
Where could they have sent them?
From what I can understand (bits of newspaper articles etc) they did get out a million people but there was nowhere else to send the poorest of the poor—the ones who couldn’t pay for alternative shelter outside of NO. Anyway there weren’t enough of those sorts of shelters set up. Days later and they’re still scrambling for places to put the displaced citizens.
I think that before hurrican season, it was an Army Corp of Engineers type who’d suggested having refugee type camps set up beforehand, or at least have the supplies for such a camp on hand, but FEMA responded by saying Americans won’t live in tents. (This is from memory of last friday’s NPR Sicence Friday interview with Ira Flatow if you want to check the wording or facts)
Even if they stayed in Louisiana, it was far, far too large an event for a single mayor, or even a governor to deal with.
Where could they have sent them?
From what I can understand (bits of newspaper articles etc) they did get out a million people but there was nowhere else to send the poorest of the poor—the ones who couldn’t pay for alternative shelter outside of NO. Anyway there weren’t enough of those sorts of shelters set up. Days later and they’re still scrambling for places to put the displaced citizens.
Baton Rouge, Houston, Dallas, Baytown, Orange. Baytown and Orange had shelters set up for the evacuees that drove their own vehicle out the Monday that the hurricane hit.
I don’t accept the excuse there was no place to send them to as a reason not to even try to get as many as possible on a bus and get that bus headed in some direction of safety. Houston has 200,000 evacuees, whether they came on Sunday before the hurricane or the Tuesday afterwards, I honestly, in my heart, think Houston (and every other city who has taken in evacuues) would have responded the same way.
I agree w/ Christina that the firstp riority was to get these people out and put them in nearby cities before Katrina hit.
However, still it does not excuse the federal response. Or heartless comments from Barbara Bush (former first lady and the current President’s mother):
“Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we’re going to move to Houston.
“What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.
“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this—this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them.”
Since these are underprivileged people, it’s great that they lost EVERYTHING????
I don’t get this at all.
I’m just afraid that those who were raped and murdered at the Superdome will never get justice in this case (unless someone is willing to speak up and testify). And what’s equally upsetting that the media will just list these casualties as just numbers in a body count and not as individuals who lived and breathed and died horribly.
Candy and Sarah,
Thank you for giving us a place to vent. There are so many of us enraged by the government’s appalling incompetence and the needless suffering of so many people.
I’m in Houston and have seen some amazing folks at work helping out the evacuees who made it here before the storm and those who finally got out in the aftermath.
I have donated blood, food, clothing, toys, diapers, formula and cash. And that’s chump change compared to what other private citizens have done in their bid to help.
Also, many families and strangers are taking in folks from Louisiana, acting as their own shelters. They aren’t getting help outside the generosity of fellow friends, co-workers and relatives. We recently set up a small food drive for two brothers who are currently housing and feeding 41 members of his displaced family. Another co-worker is sheltering 30 family members in a 2-bedroom apartment.
Beyond the urge to help out in some small way, I feel like I need to somehow make up for the disinterest and callousness of a government who thought nothing of letting the population of a city suffer and struggle in such horrific conditions.
Speaking only for myself, I feel as if what little trust or faith I might have had in the governmental system that controls this country has been completely destroyed. We are a wealthy nation with advanced technologies and good infrastuctures, yet it didn’t amount to anything when control of such things rest in the hands of such uncaring, incompetent people. I think to myself that for the grace of God, that could well have been me and my family and many of those I hold dear, and I am frightened to know should such a disaster like this happen again, we are on our own.
I’m not embarassed in the least to be an American. I am utterly ashamed of the government that currently runs my country.
From my “offered without comment” file, quoted from a CNN news story:
“So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway. This is working very well for them.” — former First Lady Barbara Bush, regarding flood evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston.
You know, I thought I was numb this morning when I first heard the Barbara Bush soundbite being broadcast over the radio.
But then I read this list of very specific types of aid that had been delayed or denied, and I realize: Oh HELL no. I’m not numb.
I am, in fact, still quite ragingly angry.
I hadn’t heard that Barbara Bush thing….and here I had made it through a whole morning without seeing white spots and feeling a throbbing in my head, but now that’s over. I had my evening dose of rage last night while watching about 15 seconds of a round table discussion on Fox; that was all I could take before the steam whistle went off in my mind and I feared I would lose consciousness or something – like how Kramer went into spasms when hearing Mary Hart’s voice.
Anyway, this reminds me of something Al Franken wrote in his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them about Barbara Bush. It was an anecdote about his curiosity concerning her that started when he was seated near her on an airplane and ended with some revelations made by those who know both of them regarding her personality and how George takes after her in certain ways.
Candy, regarding that list of supplies that were refused, we can add the Austin SWAT team. I spoke with one of the SWAT officers today who said they’d been requested by the Louisiana governor to go help restore order in New Orleans, request approved by proper officials here in Austin, only to be told later that the military would do it and the Austin police should stay home.
What makes me fucking angrier than anything is the widely circulated implication that these people DESERVE what happened to them because they stayed in New Orleans. Does no one understand that these people are destitute? They’re incredibly poor and don’t have cars? There was no public transportation out of the city?
How about next time an earthquake hits California, let’s blame the victims because after all, they chose to live there. Yup, those multi-millionaire movie stars had it coming, baby. Don’t bother digging their asses out from under the rubble of Prada shoes and Gucci bags. Leave them to starve and die of thirst. After all, they have it coming, right?