New York Governor George Pataki pledged $2.5 million yesterday. Australia announced yesterday they're throwing $10 million to Red Cross as well. Over 20 countries have promised aid in the for of manpower, resources and cash. This is easily the greasted natural disaster in the history of the United States. New Orleans is 2005 equivalent of Ground Zero. The destruction is near complete in many areas and worse in others. Thousands are presumed dead all along the Gulf Coast. Entire communities have been blown away like so many cards. New Orleans is facing a nightmare. Biloxi is facing a nightmare. The nation is facing a nightmare.

Hurricane Katrina formed in the Atlantic some time ago. The direction was projected days before the storm hit and while it wasn't exact, it was close. Everyone knew this was going to be one for the ages. It hit parts of Florida but the destruction was minor all compared to what was coming. Then it cut across the gulf and picked up power, the kind of power the wipes out cities and makes people believe in the wrath of God. We knew it was coming. Louisiana authorities called for an evacuation of New Orleans 3 days before the storm hit. What happened? What was the result.

I pulled this story from AP.

New Orleans Left to the Dead and Dying

By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer
12 minutes ago



NEW ORLEANS - Thousands more bedraggled refugees were bused and airlifted to salvation Saturday, leaving the heart of New Orleans to the dead and dying, the elderly and frail stranded too many days without food, water or medical care.

No one knows how many were killed by Hurricane Katrina's floods and how many more succumbed waiting to be rescued. But the bodies are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating among the ruined city, crumpled on wheelchairs, abandoned on highways.

And the dying goes on — at the convention center and an airport triage center, where bodies were kept in a refrigerated truck.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Saturday that she expected the death toll to reach the thousands. And Craig Vanderwagen, rear admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service, said one morgue alone, at a St. Gabriel prison, expected 1,000 to 2,000 bodies.

Touring the airport triage center, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician, said "a lot more than eight to 10 people are dying a day."

Most were those too sick or weak to survive. But not all.

Charles Womack, a 30-year-old roofer, said he saw one man beaten to death and another commit suicide at the Superdome. Womack was beaten with a pipe and being treated at the airport triage center.

"One guy jumped off a balcony. I saw him do it. He was talking to a lady about it. He said it reminded him of the war and he couldn't leave," he said.

More than 50,000 people had been waiting for rescue for nearly a week at the Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center. Most were finally taken out by bus and helicopter on Saturday.

At the convention center, thousands of refugees dragged their meager belongings to buses, the mood more numb than jubilant. Yolando Sanders, who had been stuck at the convention center for five days, was among those who filed past corpses to reach the buses.

"Anyplace is better than here," she said.

"People are dying over there."

Nearby, a woman lay dead in a wheelchair on the front steps. A man was covered in a black drape with a dry line of blood ran to the gutter, where it had pooled. Another had lain on a chaise lounge for four days, his stocking feet peeking out from under a quilt.

By mid-afternoon, only pockets of stragglers remained in the streets around the convention center, and New Orleans paramedics began carting away the dead.

A once-vibrant city of 480,000 people, overtaken just days ago by floods, looting, rape and arson, was now an empty, sodden tomb.

The exact number of dead won't be known for some time. Survivors were still being plucked from roofs and shattered highways across the city.

"There are people in apartments and hotels that you didn't know were there," Army Brig. Gen. Mark Graham said.

The overwhelming majority of those stranded in the post-Katrina chaos were those without the resources to escape — and, overwhelmingly, they were black.

"The first few days were a natural disaster. The last four days were a man-made disaster," said Phillip Holt, 51, who was rescued from his home Saturday with his partner and three of their aging Chihuahuas. They left a fourth behind they couldn't grab in time.

Since Friday, more than 25,000 residents have been evacuated, Mike Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said at a briefing Saturday morning in Baton Rouge.

Thousands of people were at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, where officials turned a Delta Blue terminal into a triage unit. Officials said 3,000 to 5,000 people had been treated at the triage unit since the beginning of the storm, but fewer than 200 remain. Others throughout the airport awaited transport out of the city.

"In the beginning it was like trying to lasso an octopus. When we got here it was overwhelming," said Jake Jacoby, a physician helping run the center.

Airport director Roy Williams said about 30 people had died, some of them elderly and ill. The bodies were being kept in refrigerated trucks as a temporary morgue.

At the convention center, people stumbled toward the helicopters, dehydrated and nearly passing out from exhaustion. Many had to be carried by National Guard troops and police on stretchers. And some were being pushed up the street on office chairs and on dollies.

Nita LaGarde, 105, was pushed down the street in her wheelchair as her nurse's 5-year-old granddaughter, Tanisha Blevin, held her hand. The pair spent two days in an attic, two days on an interstate island and the last four days on the pavement in front of the convention center.

"They're good to see," LaGarde said, with remarkable gusto as she waited to be loaded onto a gray Marine helicopter. She said they were sent by God. "Whatever He has for you, He'll take care of you. He'll sure take care of you."

LaGarde's nurse, Ernestine Dangerfield, 60, said LaGarde had not had a clean adult diaper in more than two days. "I just want to get somewhere where I can get her nice and clean," she said.

Around the corner, a motley fleet of luxury tour buses and yellow school buses lined up two deep to pick up some of the healthier refugees. National Guardsmen confiscated a gun, knives and letter openers from people before they got on the buses.

"It's been a long time coming," Derek Dabon, 29, said as he waited to pass through a guard checkpoint. "There's no way I'm coming back. To what? That don't make sense. I'm going to start a new life."

Hillary Snowton, 40, sat on the sidewalk outside with a piece of white sheet tied around his face like a bandanna as he stared at a body that had been lying on a chaise lounge for four days, its stocking feet peeking out from under a quilt.

"It's for the smell of the dead body," he said of the sheet. His brother-in-law, Octave Carter, 42, said it has been "every day, every morning, breakfast lunch and dinner looking at it."

When asked why he didn't move further away from the corpse, Carter replied, "it stinks everywhere, Blood."

Dan Craig, director of recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said it could take up to six months to get the water out of New Orleans, and the city would then need to dry out, which could take up to three more months.

A Saks Fifth Avenue store billowed smoke Saturday, as did rows of warehouses on the east bank of the Mississippi River, where corrugated roofs buckled and tiny explosions erupted. Gunfire — almost two dozen shots — broke out in the French Quarter overnight.

In the French Quarter, some residents refused or did not know how to get out. Some holed up with guns.

As the warehouse district burned, Ron Seitzer, 61, washed his dirty laundry in the even dirtier waters of the Mississippi River and said he didn't know how much longer he could stay without water or power, surrounded by looters.

"I've never even had a nightmare or a beautiful dream about this," he said as he watched the warehouses burn. "People are just not themselves."

___

Associated Press reporters Kevin McGill, Robert Tanner, Melinda Deslatte, Brett Martel and Mary Foster contributed to this report.


Response


Corpses lying around, floating around. The gutters run with blood. This is George Bush's America. This is his legacy. This is not our "finest hour." Twice on his watch, we've been hit by two of the greatest disasters in U.S. history. In 2001, he sat on his ranch with reports of terrorist activity a month before the bombing and didn't take it seriously. Cheney said in the aftermath, they didn't expect a hijacking. Now, with reports from various organizations and groups, including FEMA and the fact that we were overdue for a storm of incredible magnitude AND the fact that the protections in place couldn't handle the magnitude of storm that hit, yet George W Bush said no one expected it. Where does the buck stop? Mr. President, in both cases, thousands were dead because the federal government dropped the ball on YOUR WATCH! This is absolutely unacceptible. We were supposed to be better prepared to handle this sort of thing after 9/11. At the very least, it's the same if not worse. There are lots of things that could be said further but I won't for the moment. George W. Bush, President of these United States should be impeached. Articles of Impeachement should be filed based on this administration's ineptitude at the cost of the establishment of Justice, domestic tranquility, the common defense and general welfare. The Blessings of Liberty are left insecure for ourselves and our Posterity. Mr. Bush, you've robbed America of it's dignity and splendour, its life and its livelihood and most importantly, at the cost of liberty. Your very election was crime against the people of the United States and you continue to perpetrate crimes at the cost of those you were sworn to protect. You are a vile and detestable sin Mr. Bush.

posted by Stithmeister @ 11:45 AM
 
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At 8:56 AM,  Rachael Clark said...

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