shimmer

"Some of them, it was their last night on Earth," Terry Ebbert, chief of homeland security for New Orleans, said of people who ignored orders to evacuate the city of 480,000 over the weekend. "That's a hard way to learn a lesson."

Yes, that will teach those damn people to be poor! Many of those stranded and dying in New Orleans now could NOT evacuate. The hurricane came at the end of the month, when the poor are usually completely broke and awaiting the first of the month for paychecks. They did not have enough money for transportation out of the area, and nobody could be bothered to help them out.

I was watching Jim Lerher interview Mike Brown, head of FEMA, last night. Here's a quote I found particularly disgusting:

MIKE BROWN: Well, let me answer the question two ways: First, with regard to the evacuation of the Superdome and the convention center, we have had an ongoing supply food and water to there. They've had meals every day that they've been there. They had meals this morning.

Really? He must have missed this story (from the Gwinnett, Georgia paper), and the dozens of stories just like it. Here's a short passage about those at the New Orleans Convention Center.

At one point the crowd began to chant, ‘‘We want help! We want help!’’ Later, a woman, screaming, went on the front steps of the convention center and led the crowd in reciting the 23rd Psalm, ‘‘The Lord is my shepherd...’’

‘‘We are out here like pure animals,’’ Issac Clark said.

‘‘We’ve got people dying out here — two babies have died, a woman died, a man died,’’ said Helen Cheek. ‘‘We haven’t had no food, we haven’t had no water, we haven’t had nothing. They just brought us here and dropped us.’’

Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance, and his response was, ‘‘'Go to H--- — it’s every man for himself.’’’

‘‘This is just insanity,’’ she said. ‘‘We have no food, no water ... all these trucks and buses go by and they do nothing but wave.’’

FEMA director Michael Brown said the agency just learned about the situation at the convention center Thursday and quickly scrambled to provide food, water and medical care and remove the corpses.

If he only learned about it yesterday, how was he also asserting yesterday that they were given food and water?!?

In the meantime, Nero fiddles....

Posted by Jean on Friday, September 02, 2005 at 9:14 AM | Permalink