Katrina Discussion Threads 

Index:

Not Hyperlinked (yet, use string for search, there may be more that one entry) 

Abuse, Deaconess Jailed

Animals, Condition of dogs in New Orleans, Poverty

AR Report

Army Corps Neglect, Levees were weak from corruption

Army Corps of Engineers Neglect

Before Hurricane, Funds withheld from Army Corps for Levees

Brown is Removed

Brown worried about abilty to resond

Bush denial

Bush Lowers Worker Wages

Bush takes responsibility for slowness

Bush theart under insurrection act, war against America

Bush tries to take control

Bush, Aware of Dangers including Superdome as a shelter

Bush, Aware of Flood

Bush, Ben Stein speaks for him

Bush, Chertoff Aware of lack of support in area

Bush, Chertoff, Brown wasnt so bad

Bush, Katriana forgotten

Bush, Missing katrina Tape

Bush, public relations

Bush, Smirk

Bush, state of emergency

Canada Reaches Scene 5 days before FEMA

Captial, Condemns NOLA Schools

Care2 Animal Group

Causes, Loss of Wetlands

Changing group to new action, Insider Problems

Cheney comes back from vacation

Chertoff Denial is Falst

Chertoff

Chertoff, Cover-up, Neglect

Chertoff, guilt

Chertoff, Homeland Security Head

Citizen Action

Citizen Action, Six year old hero, abandoned children)

Condi Rice enjoys NY

Congress Abuse, Bankruptcy

Congress agrees to investigate

Congress, less hurricane research

Congress, Refuse lift new bankruptcy law for victims

Constitional Rights, Residents

Constitution, Journalists

Constitutional Rights, Journalists

Death Toll

Death

Death, bodies in freezer at Convention Center

Death, Doctors had to euthenize patients

Death, Dozens found dead in hospital

Delay, visits shelter

Federal Corrpution, Funds withheld from New Orleans

FEMA blocks Linux users from site

FEMA camp conditions

FEMA Communications Neglect and Sabotage

FEMA Corruption, Checks

FEMA Debit Cards

FEMA Fraud, prior to Katriana

FEMA Incompetence

FEMA Neclect, Medical Professionals

FEMA Neglect becomes homicide

FEMA Neglect

FEMA Neglect, Buring British Food

FEMA Neglect, Firefighters held in Atlanta

FEMA Neglect, Michael Brown

FEMA Neglect, Plaquemines Parish

FEMA Neglect, Weather Specialts

FEMA Public Relations

FEMA Refuses International Help

FEMA scraps debit card program

FEMA sends away Red Cross

FEMA, Animal rescue permission slips

FEMA, Communications Sabotage

FEMA, Deliberate Nelect, report by Animal Group

FEMA, List of Negligence

FEMA, Michael Brown Lies

FEMA, Neglect, Supplies sitting

FEMA, Push blame to later

First bus reaches Astrodome in Houston

First Lady, Government Neglect

Futher comment on Rescue

Gov. Blanco issues state of emergency

Goverment Neglect

Goverment Neglect, FEMA

Government Response, Administration Neglects New Orleans

Government Response, Brown, FEMA, holds back aid

Government Response, Congressional Outrage

Government Response, Gov Blanco

Government Response, Miltiary, At the Scene, Wanted to Help

Government Response, Miltiary, Command, Neglet

Government, Neglect

Group discussion

Group Infighting, Dynamite S, first post

Group Member Comment

Group member Jeanie

Group member Jeanie, rescue volunteer

Group Report

Group

Group, Citizen Action effort

Group, comment about slow aid

Group, from Jeanie W.

Group, from Jeanie

Group, Infighting problems, about State Vs Fed, shows typical activist paranoia

Group, Infighting

Group, Issues

Group, Member reports from New Orleans

Group, message from Plaquemines Parish

Group, my comment

Group, organizing

Group, Problems, SaraJane

Group, Racism, Dynamite

Group, Sophia Dalle Reports Police Shooting Pets - Animals

Group, Statement about Red Cross from Group Member

Halliburton, corruption

Hearings, Brown, Chertoff

Help from Citizens, Symphonies

Hurricane Experts Complain

Jaun, Man with Silver Canoe

Killig Pets

Killing in the city

Land Grab

Last Useful Post

Local corrpution, blacks being kept out

Local Corrpution, Levees

Local Corrpution, Taking land from blacks

Local Corruption, Community Blocked from re-building

Local Corruption, Levee Boards

Local Neglect, buses that drowned

Local Officals, Shooting Pets - Animals

Local officials fight back at Fema, President of Jefferson Parish Aaron Broussard

Lousiana Corruption, Vitter

Marshland Loss

Mayor Nagin

Medical Professionals Denied Opportunity to Help

Meditation, Lessons Learned

Meditation, whole issue

Neglect, Death in the City

New Orleans Mayor Nagin, on September 2

People refused helicopter, couldnt afford ticket

Police Abuse, Common Ground Wellness refused

Police Shooting Pets - Animals

Police, racism

President faces worst criticism

President

President, Neglect

President, Racism

Presidential Attitude

Presidential Cover-Up

PTSD, Candian rescuers return

Race

Racism Issues

Racism on Care2, New Orleans Celebration Group

Racism

Racism, Accusations from Conservatives

Racism, Elderly Black Beating

Racism, Lies about looting

Raped and Killed Child found

School Buses

Scientists report fears for Louisina Coast

Some People Return to New Orleans

Song, R&B Hurricane song

State resists control

The Group

Titanic comparison

US Localities and citizens, bypass FEMA

Witness

Woman's Issues 
 

Events by Date

Index Tags are at the head of each entry, after date information was entered 
 

September 2 

(Government Response, Administration Neglects New Orleans)

It is known that the walls have broken, flooding the city.  The discussion group was still the Matrix of Trust, a discussion for equal relations between nations who have achieved equal status.   

The President, Secretary of State and the Vice President fail to respond to the crisis.  The Vice President and the Secretary of State are absent.  The Vice President is in vacationing Montana, the Secretary of State is enjoying New York.  The Secretary, Condi Rice, is reported to be enjoying the Spamalot musical when she is informed of the disaster.  There is also a report from a shoe store, where a passerby confronted her about her disregard for the crisis. 

(Racism)

At the Superdome, a group of wealthy well dressed hotel guests is put ahead of the group that had been stranded there for days for getting on buses. 

''How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?'' exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get

in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.  The 700 guests, who were put on buses had been trapped in the Hyatt hotel, near the Superdome. 

September 3 

(Government Response, Congressional Outrage)

NY Rep. Jerrold Nadler: "there is also outrage. We still haven't dedicated enough resources to

improving our emergency response capabilities. The people of the Gulf Coast are crying out for leadership." 

David Vitter Louisiana Republican Senator :  "My guess is that the death toll will start at 10,000, but that is only a guess" 

(Government Response, Gov Blanco)

Vitter calls for the "immediate deployment of regular US combat troops."  Blanco said on Thursday that she had asked for 40,000 troops, the majority of which are National Guard units from Louisiana and elsewhere. 

There are rumors of bands of armed men are roaming the streets. 80 percent of the city is submerged from floods that the hurricane brought in on Monday.  Vitter, gives the federal government a grade 'F' for its response. 

(Race)

The majority of those stranded in the New Orleans could not escape; they were overwhelmingly Black. 

(AR Report)

"The first few days were a natural disaster. The last four days were a man-made disaster," said Phillip Holt, 51. 

(Government Response, Miltiary, At the Scene, Wanted to Help)

Maj. Keith Waddell, commander of the 769th Engineer Battalion, said his unit was never asked to help. "The idea of helping with the convention center never came up," he said. "We were just preparing ourselves for the next mission."  "I feel confident we could have controlled it, with the numbers we had."  

Many of the guardsmen had recently returned from Iraq, they encountered virtually no violence.. There were only people desperate for food and water.  

"A lot of the people at the Dome said we should have been there earlier," said Spec. Keithean Heath of the Arkansas Guard's 39th Infantry Brigade.   

Soldiers faced little interference as they moved to help frail and elderly people in wheelchairs in urgent need of care, women cradling tiny infants and others about to give birth. The soldiers set up food lines to hand out bottled water and packaged military meals, and people lined up to receive them. 

(Government Response, Miltiary, Command, Neglet)

The military command refused to allow troops to help the stranded and restore order. 

Col.Stephen C. Dabadie, chief of staff of the Louisiana National Guard, said the engineer units were "not designed to secure the convention center."  Commanders had worried the crowd would rush medevac helicopters. 

On Saturday, soldiers again lined up people and searched them before loading them onto buses. They counted as many as 16,000 people who got on the buses, an eerily quiet process. 

September 4 

(Government Response, Administration Neglects New Orleans)

Bush Fails, Clinton Protects Him, Condi Rice Laughs Troops were pulled out and held back by Chertoff, director of the rescue effort he said on TV that troops had been prevented from working in the rescue delilberately. 

(Government Response, Brown, FEMA, holds back aid)

It is becoming clear that troops were withheld from New Orleans by the Homeland Security Secretary, Micheal Chertoff. 

We learn that, on August 29, Michael D. Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Managment Agency "urged all fire and emergency services departments not to respond to counties and states affected by Hurricane Katrina."  They had to be requested and "lawfully dispatched" by state and local authorities. 

(Local officials fight back at Fema, President of Jefferson Parish Aaron Broussard)

FEMA turns back three Wal-Mart semi trucks with water. They said "we didn't need them."   FEMA also turns back 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, 'Come get the fuel right away.' When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. 'FEMA says don't give you the fuel.'  

"Yesterday FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice."  The parish reconnects them and protects them with armed guards.  "No one is getting near these lines," he says. 

(Goverment Neglect)

The USS Bataan, a 844-foot amphibious assualt ship, with helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water, is in the area when Katrina hits New Orleans. 

Fema sends first supplies for use against chemical attack, especially Anthrax.  A Baton Rouge official asked "'Why did you send that?"  They replied "that's what it says in the book." 

"...I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid." says Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La. 

Amtrak offered trains to evacuate victims, FEMA did not respond.  

FEMA ignores offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items.  

Flying over the city, a helicopter pilot spots a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity. 

Home Depot had a fleet of trucks, along with stockpiles of building materials and drinking water, in Tallahassee and Houston,  FEMA turns away the supplies. 

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard tells a story of a fellow official.  His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" and he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you." Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday… and she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night. 

(Presidential Attitude)

President lands in New Orleans, "shirt-sleeves rolled up, he chuckles about his wild boozing days." 

(Killing in the city)

Just reported, 4 men where shot who were just crossing a bridge in New Orleans, shot by U.S. forces. They turned out to be 4 male VOLUNTEERS FOR THE Engineering Corps., for the levees, etc. 

(The Group)

Matrix of Trust becomes Katrina, Failing Disaster. 

Group reports that "Slow Response was really No Response."  "They set people up, DELIBERATELY PREVENTING SUPPLIES FROM COMING. The vast majority of "looters" were desperately hungry and thirsty people. IT WAS SHOWN ON TV, BOXES OF FOOD BEHIND A STEEL FENCE IN THE DOME, THAT WERE -- WITHHELD -- FROM THEM." 

(Goverment Neglect)

Canadian agencies are saying that foreign aid is probably not being permitted into Louisiana and Mississippi because of "mass confusion" at the U.S. federal level in the wake of the storm.  Group member from Canada says, "Our Prime Minister and Primere Dalton McGinty as well as others have offered the US help it is up to the US to say yes." 

(Presidential Cover-Up)

The President directed administration officials not to respond to criticism about the response ... and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials.  Congressional Republicans complained to White House officials about what they saw "as a feeble response by Mr. Bush to the hurricane." 

(Chertoff, Homeland Security Head)

"We will have time to go back and do an after-action report."  NY Times is covering  for him here, after he admits that he deliberately held back aid. 

(Condi Rice enjoys NY)

Condi Rice did not return to Washington from Greece until Thursday, after she was spotted at a Broadway show and shopping for shoes, an image that Republicans said buttressed the notion of a White House unconcerned

with tragedy.  

September 5 

(Group)

The five days that they waited to go to New Orleans were deliberate, I saw Certoff admit that at a news conference, he said "he held people back."  Troops should have been on their way to New Orleans during the storm with small craft.  The cruise ships should have been commandeered and sent to the docks as well as navy and coast guard craft.  Failure to do these things is homicidal negligence. 

(Racism, Accusations from Conservatives)

"Even a lot of conservative whites are angry,"  says Rev. William A. Lawson "there is a lot of anger here in Texas." 

Many blacks voiced suspicions that thousands of people were left to suffer and die in the floodwaters because they were, for the most part, poor and black. 

"This looks like an undeveloped country," says Ms. Waters, a California Democrat, "No time did I think in America we would see this kind of homelessness, this kind of displacement. This is the worst thing I have ever seen."  She was reviewing the packed sidewalk where families had gathered, their belongings in torn trash bags.   Rev. Jesse Jackson said "This looks like the hull of a slave ship." 

Kanye West, the rap star, said: "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food." 

(Some People Return to New Orleans)

A week after Hurricane Katrina hit, some people in the New Orleans area are being allowed back home.  

(Group)

Goals and Focus of the Group:  The hope here is to collect information about the failures of the President, FEMA and especially Michael Chertoff the Homeland Secuirty Secretary to provide support for the hurricane Katrina surivivors in New Orleans.  With that information we can create a variety of documentation directed at congress with the hope of making Chertoff, the President, Homeland Secuirty and FEMA accountable for all the deaths. 

(FEMA Neglect)

FEMA has hampered many who ache to help Katrina's victims with red tape.   

(FEMA Neclect, Medical Professionals)

Hospitals around the country were standing by with empty beds, staff, triage centers and air transportation to fetch patients, yet there was a  federal plan to create 40 new emergency medical centers with 250 beds each.   

Victims could have been here a week ago, and now they're spending a lot of time and money making triage centers? In situations like this every minute counts, not every day counts. Why not get them to these open beds?"  

(US Localities and citizens, bypass FEMA)

Gary Maclaughlin bought a school bus and headed straight for the New Olreans shelters, By Sunday evening he was driving loads of evacuees from the New Orleans Airport to a rescue shelter in Covington, La.  

(First Lady, Government Neglect)

Laura Bush, the President's wife, shut down refugees' access to phones for 8 hours during her photo op visit to the Superdome. 

(Goverment Neglect, FEMA)

FEMA knew the storm was a category 4-5. FEMA knew the levees were built to withstand a category 3. FEMA knew that 100,000 or so in New Orleans decided to stay behind.  How many lives were lost due to a knowable and obviously possible outcome of this storm? 

(FEMA Communications Neglect and Sabotage)

Ham radio operators are reporting that communications in and around New Orleans are being jammed. In addition, perplexed ham radio operators who were enlisted by the Federal government in 911 are not being used for hurricane Katrina Federal relief efforts. 

(FEMA sends away Red Cross)

Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard, and simply cannot enter New Orleans against FEMA orders. 

"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," from the Red Cross. 

(President)

President told the Fema boss, Michael Brown, on Friday morning that he was doing "a heck of a job."  

According to White House supporter on the staff of the New York Times, columnist David Brooks, "Leaving the poor in New Orleans was the moral equivalent of leaving the injured on the battlefield."  

(Hurricane Experts Complain)

"We told FEMA, and we told them long ago, and we told them more than once that they needed to purchase the land for tent cities with full facilities in anticipation of this," said Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, where experts warned since the late 1990s that New Orleans' levees couldn't withstand the storm surge of a major hurricane.  "They told me Americans don't live in tents."  

(FEMA, Michael Brown Lies)

Michael Brown insists plenty of food had been provided to the Superdome refugee site and more was on the way for those stranded at the city's convention center.  He says, "the whole country needs to take a collective breath." 

(Witness)

"You can do everything for other countries but you can't do nothing for your own people," complained 47-year-old Daniel Edwards outside the New Orleans convention center, speaking to the Associated Press. "You can go overseas with the military but you can't get them down here. They've been teasing us with buses for four days." 

Semi trucks carrying ice and water arrived, but there was no one to distribute the supplies. National Guard members and police were instead were keeping anxious and thirsty residents under control.  

(New Orleans Mayor Nagin, on September 2) 

"I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here." 

(FEMA Neglect, Michael Brown)

He made several shocking public admissions; he suggested FEMA was unaware of the misery and desperation of refugees stranded at the New Orleans convention center. 

His area of expertice was  the certification and training of horse show judges. ``This was his full-time job . . . for 11 years."  He  was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures. He was invited to join the White House administration by his college roommate Joseph Allbaugh, the previous head of FEMA. 
 

(Futher comment on Rescue) 

"Did you see the men who were approached by rescuers at their homes and were told that they would be fed and clothed if they "came along and left all of their worldly goods behind"?  They chose to stay and defend what they have worked for all of their lives.  Rescusers just shrugged and moved on.  (Why didn't they have some supplies on-board to leave behind?)  

Those men still need food and water.  Who will look after them?" 

(Mayor Nagin)

I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention center. It's bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish. ... We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish. It's awful down here, man.  We're getting reports and calls that are breaking my heart, from people saying, "I've been in my attic. I can't take it anymore. The water isup to my neck. I don't think I can hold out." And that's happening as we speak. 

"They allowed that pumping station next to Pumping Station 6 to go under water. Our sewage and water board people ... stayed there and endangered their lives.  And what happened when that pumping station went down, the water started flowing again in the city, and it starting getting to levels that probably killed more people." 

"Organize people to write letters and make calls to their congressmen, to the President, to the Governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous," he said. 

"I'm at the point now where it don't matter," he said. "People are dying. They don't have homes. They don't have jobs. The city of New Orleans will never be the same in this time. 

(Chertoff)

Mr. Chertoff said, that he had not heard of such things.  That you couldn't believe every rumor from the streets of the area.  That he wasn't in a position to argue about what the NPR Reporters had witnessed. 

(People refused helicopter, couldnt afford ticket)

New Orleans Detective Lawrence Dupree. He told me they were trying to rescue people with a helicopter and the people were so poor they were afraid it would cost too much to get a ride and they had no money for a "ticket." 

(FEMA Neglect becomes homicide)

Some rescuers are not taking any more food and water to those who have decided to stay in an effort to force them out. 

Keeps Doctors Ready To Help Away From The Sick and Dying 

(President)

Bush is working so hard to paint Gov Blanco the villain, but there's no reason to think she didn't screw up too. 

(Medical Professionals Denied Opportunity to Help) 

Hundreds of doctors and paramedics ready to help and being kept away.  100 surgeons and paramedics in a state-of-the-art mobile hospital, developed with millions of tax dollars for just such emergencies were marooned in Mississippi.  "We all got off work and deployed," said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," he said. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said. 

(Group Member Comment)

Eight days in and the incompetence and misery is still staggering. 

(FEMA Refuses International Help)

FEMA indicated that the U.S. health care system is meeting current needs stemming from the hurricane.  

September 6 

(Racism)

Racism 

Linda Chavez, from Mr. Bush's own administration, appears to shed more light on what Mr. West must have meant. Her statement strongly supports Mr. West's contention, not only with regard to Mr. Bush, but also with regard to his whole cabinet. Keep in mind that Ms. Chavez is the President of the Center for Equal Opportunity and former head of Bush's U.S. Civil Rights Commission, to make her statement even more Orwellian. She observes as follows: 

    (1) In New Orleans, you are dealing with the permanently poor -- people who don't have jobs, are not used to getting up and organizing themselves and getting things done and for whom sitting and waiting is a way of life, . . . 

    (2) This is a natural disaster that is exacerbated by the problems of the underclass. The chief cause of poverty today among blacks is no longer racism. It is the breakdown of the traditional family. 
 

(Group, Statement about Red Cross from Group Member)

I work for the Red Cross in the Disaster Mental Health Services, Blood Collection, and training sectors.  I have this to say about donating to the ARC.   

"If after 9/11 people are still willing to throw their money at the Red Cross at the drop of a hat then they are fools.  There are many more relief agencies now that have sprung up out of the realization that there are individuals who don't get served by the "main stream" relief efforts, who still need help." 

"Look at the the millions of dollars that were tossed at the ARC after 9/11, that they decided to lock up in their savings coffers.  Do you remember the outrage then?  And, their hands were out again, before the rescue, with no mention of their huge trust account left over from 9/11.  The ARC and FEMA are necessary branches of the govenment relief effort, and are on the government teet.  This disaster, and their failure to respond without George Bush's okay, validates their interconnectedness." 

"So, you can give more money to the money mishandlers, or find an agency that is more intimately connected to the cause that you want to contribute to and give until your heart is content." 

(FEMA Neglect) 

Brown waited before asking Chertoff to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region -- and gave them two days to arrive..  

(FEMA Public Relations)

Brown said Home Land Secuirty employees were "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims, to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public." 

(FEMA, Push blame to later)

"There will be plenty of time to assess what worked and what didn't work," Knocke said. "Clearly there will be time for blame to be assigned and to learn from some of the successful efforts." 

Homeland Security employees required approval and at least 24 hours of disaster training in Maryland, Florida or Georgia before being able to do rescue work.  

A required 48-hour period suggested for the Homeland employees was because "They were training to help the life-savers" according to FEMA official.  

(Group)

Jeanie W.

       September 06, 2005 3:18 PM

The only thing  we for sure on a death toll is those who died at the convention center, the super dome, in the hospitals,  and here at the airport awaiting evacuation which  is59, the toll otherwise is unknown, well let me restate that 61.   

A July 24, 2005 article in the Times-Picayune began, "City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give the poorest of New Orleans' poor a historically blunt message: In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own." 

(Army Corps of Engineers Neglect)

Army Corps of Engineers said they had "difficulty of gaining access" to the gaps in the canal walls for three days; yet, a local contractor "drove to the mouth" of the 17th Street Canal and "began driving steel slabs into the breach." 

(Death)

The Times-Picayune reports that about 100 people died at Chalmette Slip, where they were deposited after being rescued from their rooftops, while thousands were still 'awaiting deliverance.' 

(Bush, Smirk)

A reporter said, "I just finished watching Bush as he was touring Biloxi, and never has his perpetual smirking been more out of place. There were points where he literally looked like he was stifling a case of the giggles.  Honestly, I can hardly stand to watch." 

any families in the affected area treated their pets as a member of the family, and refused to evacuate without them. Some pet owners were so attached that some field hospitals even allowed pets to enter with their patients. However those who were evacuated from the Astrodome were not allowed to take their pets with them.[30] The following article tells of a sad case where a boy was parted from his dog. [31] The response of the American public is unprecedented. The Humane

Society (HSU had received $3.5 million in donations just a week after

the hurricane occured. [33] 

(Neglect, Death in the City)

Witnesses trapped at the Superdome and the Convention Centre, said rape and death were common; they accused the police and National Guard of standing by, ignoring their pleas for help.   

Federal and state authorities denied this, they said that there was instead looting and lawlessness, which the result of a series of isolated incidents. 

A trapped witness said, "We had to wrap dead people in white sheets and throw them outside while the police stood by and did nothing."   

"'The police were in boats watching us. They were just laughing at us. Five of them to a boat, not trying to help nobody. Helicopters were riding by just looking at us. They weren't helping. We were pulling people on bits of wood, and the National Guard would come driving by in their empty military trucks," said Correll Williams. 

(Bush, public relations)

After days of televised suffering by black people in the city, White House officials ensured that the television pictures of Bush's trip would include shots of the president with black survivors. 

(Help from Citizens, Symphonies)

Symphony orchestras across the nation have adopted Louisiana classical musicians, brought them to where the symphony is located, and given them jobs so that they can support themselves and their families. 

(Before Hurricane, Funds withheld from Army Corps for Levees)

Army Corps of Engineers requested $27 million for hurricane protection projects around New Orleans, they eventually go $5.7 million from congress. Their annual budget was reduced 20% because the money was needed for the war in Iraq. 

(First bus reaches Astrodome in Houston)

A group of people who commandeered a school bus in the city ravaged by Hurrican Katrina and drove to Houston looking for shelter.  Jabbar Gibson, 20, said police in New Orleans told him and others to take the school bus and try to get out of the flooded city. 

(Death)

Sept 3

Rape, murder and trigger-happy guards at the two centers -- the Superdome arena and the city's convention center. 

Officials closed down the shelters, but then penned the storm victims outside in sweltering heat to keep them from trying to walk out of the city.  They waited in orderly lines in stifling heat outside the flooded convention center as military helicopters and buses then away by the thousands. 

Witnesses described how the convention center and the Superdome became lawless hellholes beset by rape and murder.  Several residents of the impromptu shantytown recounted two horrific incidents where those charged with keeping people safe had killed them instead. 

In one, a young man was run down and then shot by a New Orleans police officer, in another a man seeking help was gunned down by a National Guard soldier, witnesses said. n Police here refused to discuss or confirm either incident. National Guard spokesman Lt. Col Pete Schneider said "I have not heard any information of a weapon being discharged." 

"They killed a man here last night," said Steve Banka, "A young lady was being raped and stabbed. And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street to get help from troops, to try to flag down a passing truck of them, and he jumped up on the truck's windscreen and they shot him dead." 

Wade Batiste, 48, reported, "Last night at 8 p.m. they shot a kid of just 16. He was just crossing the street. They ran him over, the New Orleans police did, and then they got out of the car and shot him in the head," Batiste said. 

Sadly and horrifically, it sounds like rapes of girls and women happened on a continual basis. The rapists would wait in the women's washrooms for them and then attack. It is absolutely dispicable. I saw one man say he couldn't take his eyes off his daughter (she was like 9) because of how quickly she would be attacked without him there. 

(Group Report)

What was left  here is  the rape and murder of a 7 year old little girl  at the Dome,  Thursday  night. I hope they find the  creep who did that.  Jeanie W.   

http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/profile.html?pid=156988506 

(Gov. Blanco issues state of emergency)

Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco today declared a state of emergency starting August 26.  The Governor, followed this with a letter on August 27 as requied by the Stafford Act. 

(Bush tries to take control)

The Bush administration sent Blanco a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans. " The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law." 

(State resists control)

Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals." 

(Bush theart under insurrection act, war against America)

A senior administration official said that "Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor." 

Whitehouse official blamed state and local officials for the delays in bringing relief to New Orleans. 

(President faces worst criticism)

The president faced the most serious political crisis of his presidency 

(Bush denial)

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees"; studies had predicted the disaster almost exactly. 

(Cheney comes back from vacation)

Vice President Cheney will visit the Gulf Coast on Thursday and focus on whether red tape slowed the federal response to the emergency. 

September 7th 

(FEMA Debit Cards)

The federal government will begin issuing debit cards worth $2,000 and up to victims of Hurricane Katrina to help those displaced by the storm. 

(Scientists report fears for Louisina Coast)

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, NOAA and other federal and state agencies along with university experts agree that nowhere in the world is a coastal region losing wetlands and protective barrier islands faster than Louisiana. 

It is predicted that by 2050, one third of coastal Louisiana will have vanished. 

Without wetlands to buffer storms, our people and property and the nation's energy supply are at risk. Oil and gas pipelines and facilities, which provide 25% of the Nation's energy needs, are more vulnerable with each storm.

(Group member Jeanie, rescue volunteer)

There are animal rescuers down here, not many but  they are here. I am not  able to state more than that, I am  not here for the animals  my job concerns human life, I am not saying that we have not rescued  some of these animals  but  we are really not supposed to. That is just the way things are. 

(Death, bodies in freezer at Convention Center)

"Don't step in that blood - it's contaminated," he said. "That one with his arm sticking up in the air, he's an old man." Then he shined the light on the smaller human figure under the white sheet next to the elderly man.  

(Raped and Killed Child found)

That's a kid," he said. "There's another one in the freezer, a 7-year-old with her throat cut."  

(Group member Jeanie) 

I am not really happy about  what happened down here and is still going on,they are still making it difficult for rescue workers to get into the parish (jefferson) since we are using the airport for staging now.I am supposed to get off to day  because I have been here 7 days now, but who knows what Mchael Brown has oredered FEMA and others to do, I suppose I will have to do a transfer to some where to find out  if I can even get out.This is hideous, it is almost as bad  as when we were stuck at the Dome with no food or Water. I just would like to go back to Baton Rouge and take a long hot bath. 

(Jaun, Man with Silver Canoe)

By Saturday, Glenn Carvin was planning to drive down from Atlanta to try to get to his parents' house. Then a family friend told him about the man with a canoe and passed on his cell phone number. All he knew was that his name was Juan and he was a nice fellow who had rescued other elderly folks in the neighborhood. 

Carvin messaged back: I'm a son looking for my parents. Can you help? Address was 57 Neron. 

Yes, Juan Parke said, I can help. 

(FEMA blocks Linux users from site)

A message just posted in the Linux for Newbies group by Sue C. 

"Have you seen this??? FEMA has stopped Mac and Linux victims of hurricane Katrina from applying for relief. 

(Group, organizing)

I think we have done such a good job of collecting information that I feel that there will not be too much to add in the future. 

I think now is a good time for us to consider what kind of actions we can take, mostly letter writing, faxes, emails and petitions. 

And also think about what we would want to put in those letters.  Keeping things short, and to the point is probably the best strategy, but also the statements will have to have significant meaning. 

It is so nice to have such an active group, where things NEED to be done, rather than just waiting for people to participate 

(Group, from Jeanie)

Jeanie W. 

The miserable truth is  that this has more to do with  the outcome  of  this huricane than anyone  factor  in the matrix. I saw the desperation for all of the days I was there. I finally got to leave  about 7 last night, it was welcomed  believe me, but that is a small piece of personal  part of this. The body count is already in thousands  the stinch can be smelled as far away as LaPlace, ( abedroom community  across the BonneCarre Spillway/Lake Ponchiatrain, headed west on I-10.  To address thwe issue of why you willnot being  seeing the dead on TV, it is grizzly , floaters are not pretty corpses and  some of the bodies that are in buildings are full of maggots, I really cannot believe any one would want to see this . Baton Rouge has turned into a zoo, it used to take us  30 minutes to go across town to where we  pick up our trucks down there. I was  so ready to take a real shower with hot water, I was unphased by all of the delay . I have to come back to Baton Rouge , in about 2 weeks  after I am immunized for all the possible diseases I was exposed to due to that nasty toxic soup  in the streets of New Orleans. I am greatful I got out  before Cheney's arrival today, I don't think I could stomach another day of photo-op's  for people from Washington, who do not give a damn about this city. 
 

September 9th

(Group, Sophia Dalle Reports Police Shooting Pets) 

"i just heard on cnn they are going to start shooting animals, remaining pets, on the street can anyone verify?" 

"I have started a petition to the mayor there (http://www.thepetitonsite.com/takeaction/366281507). 

(FEMA Incompetence)

The three top jobs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Bush went to political cronies with no apparent experience coping with catastrophes, the Daily News has learned. 

(FEMA camp conditions) 

A FEMA camp host has issued rules for one of their refugee camps:  

 
 

Churches had enquired about whether they could come in on weekends and fix meals for the people staying in their cabins.  The response was that FEMA woundn''t allow it because there could be a situation where one cabin gets steaks and another gets hot dogs - and...it could cause a riot. 

When a woman apporached a church she was denied access: "No ma'am. You don't understand. Your church no longer owns this building. This building is now owned by FEMA and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. They have it for the next 5 months." 

(President, Neglect)

On August 30, Bush played a guitar presented to him by Country singer Mark Wills, after the president gave a speech in San Diego.  The president did this while flood waters are rising in the city of New Orleans. 

(President, Racism)

Some people disagree with Colin Powell that the failure of the federal emergency response in New Orleans "wasn't a racial thing." If it were really about poverty, as Bush defenders claim, then his administration wouldn't spend so much time cleaning up his record on blacks, says the Palm Beach Post. 
 

President Bush so wanted minority voters to believe that his administration "is working very well for them" that a report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality was changed last year to downplay that ethnic and racial "disparities are pervasive in our health-care system."

(Brown is Removed)

Michael Chertoff announces that Michael Brown is removed as "managing director of the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts."  Chertoff says Brown will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who earlier this week was named as Brown's deputy to "oversee relief and rescue efforts." 

(Group, from Jeanie W.) 

Yesterday whenI finally got home, I sat down and began reading all my backlogged email  from every agency and special interst group in the country(I work on the side as a Congressional District Field Coordainatorfor theDNC) I began  to fume, as if I had ever really calmed down  from the hassle i went through to leave New Orleans after 7 days, they do not want professionals  down there, people who actually know how  to deal with search and rescue, people who know  how to deal with thedead and dying , people who can see the mistakes  Halliburton will make, the mistakes  other FEMA contractors will make because they will not be properly trained.I know that there are crews of  EMS and fire  personnel sitting in Baton Rouge waiting for permission to be allowed into New Orleans, well EMS will be going to the airport  but this is hideous, alot of  people down there have  been there  for 10 days, I pulled in a favor  to get out  there because I was exhausted and I knew it was time to go . 
 

(FEMA scraps debit card program)

FEMA said "it will discontinue its program to distribute debit cards worth up to $2,000 to hurricane victims" only two days after hastily announcing the novel plan to provide quick relief.  Debit card program later used as a scape goat for larger FEMA corruption. 

(Citizen Action)

David Perez, using $200,000 of his own money, chartered a Boeing 737. Upon arriving in Louisiana, he unloaded supplies he had purchased and left with 86 weary hurricane victims.  

(Police Shooting Pets) 

"Update from Pasado Rescue in New Orleans - horrible news!" 

"Authorities have informed our rescue team that they have three days to rescue all dogs before they start shooting them." 

"They believe that dogs are eating dead bodies to stay alive and need to eliminate them." 

"Animal rescue groups were not allowed into the water until last Tuesday. To give us just another 72 hours to get a job, of biblical proportions done, is ludicrous." 

"We are doing our best to beg for more time." 

"We would ask you to call or write to someone but frankly, the lines of communications are so poor, we have no clue where you can begin." 

"Because our team is on the ground, they have direct contact with law enforcement. If we have to, we'll work 'under the radar' to get the job done." 

(FEMA, Deliberate Nelect, report by Animal Group)

"We are hearing so much about thousands of people and companies (Walmart with trucks of water for just one) with trucks and boats who came to help and were turned back saying they weren`t needed that its starting to look like it was by design." 

"Our team is heading into the hot zone with a team from AZ. They must wear dry suits to be allowed into the toxic waters." 

"They are using a list of abandoned pets that pet owners have supplied to a national database. They are breaking and entering to get the animals out. Many are too weak to bark, or come to a window or door." 

(Titanic comparison)

As portrayed in the film Titanic, that the passengers in steerage were literally locked in, trapped, so that they could not escape.  Bill Fletcher, Jr. is the President of TransAfrica Forum  

(Canada Reaches Scene 5 days before FEMA)

A Canadian search-and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiana state senator said on Wednesday. 

(Constitutional Rights, Journalists)

Reporters have witnessed the militarization of the city and are starting to feel the effects of the government crack-down on information gathering.   

Brigham writes: "Bush is now censoring all reporting from New Orleans, Louisiana. The First Amendment sank with the city." 

(Delay, visits shelter)

U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay approached three boys in a shelter, he likened their stay to being at camp and asked, "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"  They nodded yes, but looked perplexed. 

(Killig Pets)

"Officials Shooting Dogs in Louisiana--Feds Must Hear from You Today!" 

Video footage posted on the Web site of the Dallas Morning News showed officers shooting dogs in New Orleans. "At least one of their victims survived the gunshots and was apparently left to die a slow, agonizing death amid debris from the storm." 

As reported on CNN,  "On the flooded streets of New Orleans you can hear the dogs barking for miles. They are trapped -- in houses, on roofs, tied to porches. They are frightened and hungry." 

Rescue workers are worried most about pets locked inside homes and whose food and water supply may have run out. For them, rescue is their only chance of survival. 

(Bush Lowers Worker Wages)

President Bush issued an executive order Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.  

The 1931 Davis-Bacon law requires federal contractors to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted. It applies to federally funded construction projects such as highways and bridges. 

Bush said that the Davis-Bacon act permits ts him to take such action. 

"The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Rep. George Miller of California  said. 

(PTSD, Candian rescuers return)

Our Canaidans from B.C. rescue team had to come back because the PTSD and the horror is so massive, and no relief for them. They regretted this, however, they said the groups mental health, possibly for life, was at stake. 

(Constitional Rights, Residents)

New Orleans residents on dry land defied Mayor Nagin's orders to leave, saying he violated their constitutional rights if

he forces them out of the homes they own or rent. 

One family said "They have a dog to protect them, a car with a full tank of gasoline should they need to leave quickly and a canoe as a last resort. They said they used it last week to rescue 100 people." 

No laws supersede either the state or federal Constitutions, but anyone seeking to challenge the forced evacuations would have to travel to Baton Rouge where the Federal courts based in New Orleans, have relocated. 

(Chertoff, Cover-up, Neglect)

Chertoff said on TV,

(Chertoff Denial is Falst)

"The moment the president declared a federal disaster, it became a federal responsibility…. The federal government took ownership over the response," she said. Bush declared a disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi when the storm hit a week ago,"  said former FEMA agency chief of staff Jane Bullock. 
 

September 10th 

(Bush, state of emergency) 

Bush declared the Gulf Coast a disaster area two days before the storm, this would put FEMA and its parent agency in charge.  Under federal law, Bush was suppposed "Appointment of Federal coordinating officer Immediately upon his declaration of a major disaster or emergency." 

Under these laws, the federal coordinating officer would: 

(Group, from Jeanie W.) 

Walmart  which is not favorite either, also threw open the doors of their stores in New Orleans  to let people take what they  needed  when things got really bad.  I have to commend these  people who usually don't care too much about the poor who  frequent their stores  for doing that.However in Arkansas , Walmart is the only place  evacuees can spend their  REd Cross Vouchers , i found that to be interesting, they gave 23 million to the Red Cross and made sure they got it all back. 

(Congress agrees to investigate)

"At last there is a light in the darkness. Washington was slow to respond to Katrina's victims, but now Congress has finally sprung into action. It has bravely promised to investigate the situation" reports New York Times. 

(Citizen Action, Six year old hero, abandoned children)

Six year old by leads toddlers to saftey, carries baby: In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard in New Orleans last Thursday, one group of survivors stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9230423/\ 

(Bush, Ben Stein speaks for him)

Ben Stein tells America to get off Bush's back: 

George Bush did not cause the hurricane 

September 12

(Death, Doctors had to euthenize patients) 

"Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leaving them to die in agony; senior doctors took the harrowing decision to give massive overdoses of morphine to those they believed could not make it out alive." according to the Daily Mail in London.  What happened is, of course illegal, but families of those that died accepted the confessions of the doctors and believe them to be an indictment of the appalling failure of the Federal goverment and the military to those in desperate need after Hurricane Katrina. 

(Bush takes responsibility for slowness)

WASHINGTON (AFX) - US President George W. Bush took responsibility for the first time for the government's slow reaction to the Hurricane Katrina disaster which has badly hit the standing of his administration. 

(Death, Dozens found dead in hospital)

The bodies of more than 40 mostly elderly patients were found in a flooded-out hospital; the exact circumstances under which they died were unclear.  An official said the rising temperature in the hospital afterward likely contributed to some of the deaths. 

(Chertoff, guilt)

The Governer of Louisiana DID request aid on time  

Chertoff -- not Brown -- was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan 

But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder,  

Chertoff didn't shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi.  

That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department. 

(Group, comment about slow aid)

My theory is Bush held the aid hostage unless Gov Blanco allowed him to declare martial law , which, in her courage, she did not. FEMA withheld aid until the pubic outcry was so great they had to do something. 

Jeanie W---

I have said this before that she requested aid  on time infact she made several calls Sunday night. what she refused to do was allow FEMA to federalize the Louisiana National Guard and Reserve.  

As you notice  they have been called home [from Iraq]. If Gov. Blanco can do it maybe they all can.  

Because of her refusal  on this issue the White house chose to do nothing, but shut down alot communications into and out of New Orleans. 

(Group, my comment)

The average person can figure out what to do in a crisis, 

These people can't.  Probably their disfunction is a key ingredient of the Authoritarian culture. 

(Group, message from Plaquemines Parish) 

I have been in contact with the New Mexico National Guard that has been assigned to southern Plaquemines Parish (Which is south of New Orleans)- and they are in dire need of help with the animals down there. Thousands of dogs, cats, goats, horses, cows, & other livestock are dropping dead or stumbling around everywhere. 

This area had most of the people evacuated because it was expecting a direct hit from the hurricane (Which, it got- by the amount of devistation evident in the area). So they actually left earlier than what has been seen on the news covering New Orleans. So you can imagine how long those animals have been alone. People were not counting on being away from their farms and homes for so long- so of course any food or water they left was long gone 

(FEMA, Neglect, Supplies sitting)

More than 100 tractor-trailers packed with water, ice and other critical hurricane-relief supplies have been sitting at an Air Force base in Montgomery, Ala., for nearly a week while the federal government pays $600 a day for each truck. 

(Constitution, Journalists)

1st Ammedment violations September 15, 2005 8:55 AM 

U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order Friday against a "zero access" policy announced

earlier in the day by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director. 

In explaining the ban, Ebbert said, "we don't think that's proper" to let members of the media view the bodies. 

Army Lt. Col. Richard Steele, a member of Honore's staff, told CNN Saturday night that Honore was partly misunderstood.  Steele said Honore meant that no media would be allowed to be imbedded with teams recovering bodies. However, recovery groups would not prevent reporters from doing their jobs, he added 

(Care2 Animal Group)

The transport group, On the Road Again, has a bus (seats removed) with a/c loaned to them, to take the animals out of the Katrina hurricane area to safety with rescues. Joanne has been taking a busload out daily (In spite of the fact that her home was damaged by Katrina, too!). She really needs some help with the gas. Please help us keep the bus rolling & save as

many lives as possible, while there's still time! 
 

(Group, Member reports from New Orleans) 

What I have seen:

The poor hurt by the storm.

Neighbors going door to door helping one another.

Thugs and hoodlums going door to door looking for someone vulnerable.

Ice and water being fought over as police tried to keep the peace.

Out of town volunteers coming with food and staying for now a week still serving it.

The Red Cross doing a great job in the shelters.

The Salvation Army doing a great job in the community.

Four Hundred crewman from everywhere bring back the power to homes, churches and businesses.

Lines at service stations a block to a mile long.

National Guardsmen patrolling the streets of Mccomb

Doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel working tirelessly, even sleeping in the hospital.

People from all over the world giving what little they have and pulling together.

When It comes down to it " We are all in this together " 

What I have not seen:

The President and his family,

Past Presidents,

The Governor and her Family,

Mayors

members of congress  

pitching in and dirtying their hands. 

The president doing anything to help unless he is on camera first. 

Those of us lucky enough to escape Hurrican Katrina don't blame the President,or anyone in Congress for our Hurricanes,and Tornados... however we do point fingers because of their re-action or lack of it. 

(Land Grab)

A real estate agent has been wired $10 million by an investor; the agent's instructions were to "scoop up houses -- any houses. Flooding no problem."  Obviously, the city's poor will be forced out. 

(Abuse, Deaconess Jailed)  

September 16 

Deaconess, 73, Jailed for Alleged Looting

Detroit Free Press, Sep 15 

Maten's diabetes, her age, not even her lifelong record of community service could get the system moving. Even the store owner didn't want her charged. "She has slipped through the cracks and the wheels of justice have stopped turning," her attorney Daniel Beckett Becnel III said, frustrated 

(Group discussion)

>nobody to take visible control in the way that Rudy Giuliani did in Manhattan on the day of the 11 September attacks. 

Giuliana didnt have any real role in the 9/11 rescue, it was entirely done by volunteers.  The government and the Red Cross were kept out by an ad-hoc operation that was democratically elected 

On 9/11/2001, FEMA appeared at "Ground Zero" and found everything ORGANIZED LOCALLY ... and government was kept "out" --- perhaps that's why things didn't get messed up in NYC. 

Jeanie W.

I guess the scariest thing is Turd Blosssom is administrating the  rebuild New Orleans/ Gulf Coast  project for FEMA, I suspect that the (th ward and other low income areas will be sold off to the highest bidder. It will end up being like when Bremer left Iraq last summer, what happened to the money? who got bribed with it and how big were the kick backs. If you missed it last night  it seems the pipeline  that runs  gas from the off shore loop to the East coast is up and running in fact  it was up and running in less that 16 hours after Katrina, seems Uncle Dick made some phone calls had all the power  cut  that was still on so they could repair his pipeline. 

September 17th  

(Government, Neglect)

Blackwater (Security) Mercenaries Deploy To New Orleans.  Mercinaries used in Iraq, have been killed by the insurgents, when they died, they were reported as contractors. 

FEMA history 

1979 by President Carter, designed by Prof. Samuel P. Huntington, a Harvard professor who wrote Seminal Peace for the Trilateral Commission in the mid 70's,   

Huntington criticized democracy and economic development as outdated ideas, his concepts and the creation of FEMA is cynical about humanity to an extreme level. 

"We have come to recognize that there are potential desirable limits to economic growth. There are also potentially desirable limits to the indefinite extension of political democracy. A government which lacks authority will have little ability short of cataclysmic crisis to impose on its people the sacrifices which may be necessary." 

Core to FEMA's concpetual designe is the Emergency Mobilization Preparedness plan; its purpose is to suspend existing socio/economic rights and regulations in the event of a national emergency.  It was signed into law as Public Law 101-647, signed by President Bush in November 1990. 

In the event that the President declares a national emergency, for any reason

FEMA can then, at their discretion, implement Executive Orders 10995 through 11005.  

These are Executive Orders, not laws; they allow FEMA to take over local, state, and national governments with the suspension of constitutional rights. 

With this authority to run the country, FEMA would have the ability to exert any sort of control that it deems necessary.  Their enforcment agency, formally referred to by the name of Multi Jurisdictional Task Force (MJTF), would be a force wearing black uniforms and would be composed of specially selected US military personnel, foreign military units carrying United Nations ID cards, and specially trained existing police groups from larger metropolitan American cities. 
 

Their directive is to relocate families and businesses, confiscate property, commandeer goods, direct labor and services, and establish martial law."  
 

(Police Abuse, Common Ground Wellness refused)

A New Orleans police officer prevented the Common Ground Wellness group from setting up a clinic in the 9th ward.  He said "You can't start a clinic here, that would give people hope. My job is to make their lives as hopeless as possible so they will leave." 

"It's not so much that the government is not responding [with storm relief], they are obstructing the response. They are telling us we can't bring people the basic necessities of life because that would give them hope" 

"It is a question of oppression vs. mutual aid. That is the revolution."

-- Jesse from the Common Ground Wellness Center in New Orleans 

(FEMA Fraud, prior to Katriana) 

FEMA has for years been fraught with waste and fraud; it poured at least $330 million into communities for forest fire, flood and extreme weather relief that were not damaged.  "All you've got to do is say something was damaged," said Tasha Williams, a 26-year-old mother of three and tenant of Imperial Courts, a public housing development in Watts. "It's free money."  "The whole thing is a surprise to me," said Mayor Beverly O'Neill of Long Beach, where 1,922 residents received $1.7 million from FEMA for the wildfires. "There were no fires in Long Beach…. Nobody said anything about this." 

(FEMA Neglect, Firefighters held in Atlanta)

Firefighters who had been called from throughout the United States by FEMA assumed they would be deployed as rescue workers.  Instead, they were trained as community-relations officers for FEMA in Atlanta.  FEMA was keeping rescue workers out of the area, saying they needed traing, when the trainng was for public relations postitions.  They were to be sent throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.

  

Many of the firefighters put in this position refused to work under FEMA's orders. 

(FEMA, List of Negligence) 

(FEMA Neglect, Weather Specialts)

"We told these fellows that there was a killer hurricane heading right toward New Orleans," Leo Bosner, a 26-year FEMA employee and union leader told CNN. "We had done our job, but they didn't do theirs." 

"New Orleans is of particular concern because much of that city lies below sea level," he warned in his daily alert [27 August] to Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, then-FEMA chief Michael Brown and other Bush administration officials. 

(Chertoff, guilt)

Chertoff worked from home the day Bosner first warned of the hurricane's catastrophic potential for New Orleans, CNN's Tom Foreman reported. Chertoff also has been criticized for writing a memo the day after Katrina struck, delegating authority to Brown and deferring to the White House rather than taking charge. 

(Racism, Lies about looting)

Experts question how much looting and mayhem really took place in New Orleans.   

In fact, if criminal violence were indeed rampant in New Orleans after Katrina hit (setting aside the taking of food, water, bandages, and other necessities of survival),  

that would contradict much of what sociologists have learned in a half century of research about such situations.  

"The evidence is overwhelming," says Enrico Quarantelli, an emeritus professor of sociology and the founding director of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, "that in the standard natural disaster you're not going to get looting." 

(Group, Citizen Action effort)

I am into the positves! 

I worked with a New Orleans's residient in a Batron Rouge, LA service center for a major releif agency.  This person explained her experience at a cash-out line at a Walmart.  She had her order together and was about to pay.  Her charge card from a Bank in New Orleans was rejected.  When the person in front of her and behind her heard of her plight.  They each handed her $100.00 to cover her order. 

  A man I was talking with in Houston, TX where he was staying in a hotel told me about his car hitting the curb blowing a tire and damaging the rim.  He went to a garage, the garage could not fix it, but made contact with another one that could.  He was also handed $100 to help cover the cost out of the person's pocket. 

People in Batron Rouge were welcoming strangers into their homes.  Red Cross had shelter housing for 25000 or so people.  The city had asorbed 250,000 people from New Orleans in homes etc.  The population of Batron Rouge doulbled causing traffic problems, school crowding, limited phone service and store shelves that were empty. 

So, look to the postive.  Do not expect the Government to be the only solution.  It is not!  People are the solution and they are good at it too! 

Spencers list:

S c B.

      Mobilizaton Efforts September 18, 2005 7:54 AM 

When a disaster strikes, how fast can people respond?  What are the steps needed? 

(1) Initial assessment 

(2) Getting people to safety 

(3) Detail Assessment of needs 

(4) A management plan to meet those needs 

(5) Moblization of equipment and trained people to the area. 

(5) A managemnt plan to feed, cloth,etc 

(Lousiana Corruption, Vitter)

Jeanie W.

       September 19, 2005 1:36 PM

Senator Vitter may be angry but his voting record on this  shows a lack of concern, either voting NO or not showing up to vote. Rep. Bobby Jindal is  in charge of health care and education in the PELICAN PROJECT package , Rep. Jindal is the one who single handedily  destroyed the Louisiana Charity Hospital System, it is now  a guarantee of 6 months  for a clinic appointment  unless you are a pregnant woman or dying .Non emergant care  has increased 10 fold in the emergency rooms across Louisiana because of this action, and we all know what the Republicans have done to education, elementary, secondary, and post secondary.multiply that by 10 and you will come close to what he did to Louisiana schools. 
 

September 20 

Jeanie W.

       PM

This past July i attended Beaucoup Blue in New Orleans, iy's primary function was to begin  the process of turning Louisiana blue again. We have so many registered Democrats in this state that simply will not be who they are. Jim Dean, began with if you cannot be a real democrat then I will show you the door. This group was largely the left wing of the Louisiana Democratic party, we a re small in number apparentily  about 60, 000 thousand of us , if I base it on the Dean vote in Louisiana last year. Hurricane Katrina did us a huge favor by bringing the issues of poverty and social injustice to the streets. We  could not have had a better way to do other than the Diocease of Western Louisiana, allowing Bishop Doss, to do what he does best  draw attention to these issues. (Doss is one of the original radical priests from the 60's) I  only hope that this movement that has been spawned from this disaster will open the  eyes of the American people that  voted  for Bush  and let them see that holding their nose when they pushed the send button or pulled the lever  onlyt made  it worse for the poor and disenfranchised 
 

(Local Neglect, buses that drowned) 

One of the great and enduring mysteries about the aftermath of Katrina has been the Great Bus Question. Where were they? Why weren't they used to immediately evacuate the Superdome and the Convention Center? National Review posed this question vividly -- and tacitly placed the blame for the lack of buses on local officials, not FEMA -- by filling its cover with a famous photo of a  

fleet of New Orleans schoolbuses trapped and useless under water Why weren't they used to immediately evacuate the Superdome and the Convention Center.  Hours after the hurricane hit [Monday] Aug. 29, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a plan to send 500 commercial buses into New Orleans to rescue thousands of people left stranded on highways, overpasses and in shelters, hospitals and homes. 

    On the day of the storm, or perhaps the day after, FEMA turned down the state's suggestion to use school buses because they are not air conditioned, Blanco said Friday in an interview. 

    ....The state had sent 68 school buses into the city on Monday. Blanco took over more buses from Louisiana school systems and sent them in on Wednesday, two days after the storm. She tapped the National Guard to drive them. 

. "Mike [Brown] had emphasized the buses to me personally. That was not my first concern until I realized that they were not there." 

    Meanwhile, the state continued to send school buses into the affected areas. 

One of Blanco's aides, Leonard Kleinpeter, said FEMA told him at one point that the state could stop sending school buses because the agency was going to bring in helicopters and use them instead of the commercial buses that still weren't there.  That was ignored. 

September 26 

(FEMA Neglect, Plaquemines Parish) 

Plaquemines Parish had to wait till Sept 13th for Federal Aid money.  FEMA promised it for day's, but it never came.  Plaquemines Parish was hours from releasing local agencey workers and their police officers from duty due to lack of finacial recourses to run operations. 

(Group Infighting, Dynamite S, first post) 

Gives account told to her.

Well I don't have all the articles you guys have but what I do have is a first hand account. In Chalmette help was lined up outside waiting to get in (wal-mart, home depot, etc). There was no FEMA or Red Cross waiting to get in. The first person of "Authority" they saw was a Mounty from Canada who rode in on a bicycle! 

Now it is important to note that St. Bernard Parish extends out at about a 45 degree angle, and Katrina's eye went through the middle of it so a lot of the help (not FEMA but just regular help) couldn't get to them because of the damage. The only way to get to them was by chopper or boat. (Chalmette is at the top) 

(FEMA Neglect, Buring British Food) 

Hundreds of tons British military food rations meant for the victims were burned by federal authorites. Termed a red tape problem, in reality, FEMA rejected it false technical grounds.  It was the same food eaten by British troops in Iraq; it had been condemned as unfit for human consumption by FEMA officials.  British aid workers who accompanied the shipment called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".   The mean trucks that carried it were sent back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant. 

(Congress, Refuse lift new bankruptcy law for victims) 

Changes to bankruptcy laws created for the benefit credit card industry, are going to hurt people who have lost everything, especially from disasters.  Yet, James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, has refused to create an exemption in the new credit card industry-written bankruptcy law for those who have lost everything. 

(Army Corps Neglect, Levees were weak from corruption) 

Forget the Bush Administration claim that the unprecedented size of the storm caused the levees to break. In fact, the reason why the levees gave way was due to faulty design and inadequate construction of the levees by the contractor(s) chosen by the Army Corps of Engineers, and that makes it a federal responsibility to remedy. 
 

(Group, Racism, Dynamite)

THE DELAY WAS NOT ABOUT RACE!!!!! 

Yes, most of the people stranded were black Duh! New Orleans is 85% black people! They are the Majority there!!!

And what about Nagin? "I had no drivers for my busses"... What!?! All those people and none new how to drive a bus?  Even I would've at least tried! And it was BLANCO who caused most of the delays because she was having pissing contest with Bush and Nagin! 

You guys are just promoting media lies and people who want to stir the sh;t pot when they have NO IDEA what really happened or what's really going on!!! 

SarahJane M.

      Many thanks, Dynamite! Wishing you strength and solidarity in the times ahead  It's difficult for most of us to work out what's going on, if all we have to go on is the media and opinionated blogs. As for who's to blame: you don't often catch me saying this,  

but I agree with Bush.  

There were failures at all levels of government, and each must be prepared to accept its fair share of responsibility. 

John V.

Go read the racism thread if you dont think this is not about racism 

If you havent experienced it, then you wont understand it 

If you are part of it then you want to hide it 

There is truth that is it is a black and white issue, and the bias is not entirely about pure racism, wealthy whites look down on poor whites in the same way they look down on poor blacks 

It is about deprecating the majority of working people because the belief is still that the southern economy cannot survive w/o slavery, this theory was created when the abolitionist north had the highest per/capita income in the world 

The KKK still runs the country, and definately runs Northern Lousiana 

Its about culture as much as race, in slavery times poor whites were tricked into supporting slavery 

"Stirring the Sh*t" is a phrase I have ONLY heard from racist whites 

The data fits the theory, and that is all you need for the scientific theory 

If you can predict an event, and the data fits the theory exactly then chances are overwhelming that the theory is correct 

If you prefer not to use the scientific theory, go read the racism thread 

Jeanie W.

On another group  there was apost on how  liberals were dancing on the graves of the dead black citizens of New Orleans, it really set me off  because I had read  a equally as disgusting piece in my local paper written  by Ann Coulter, only with even fewer  points of truth to it. Obviously the author and Ann Coulter may have had the same Lexis/nexis however that is dubious  since Ann's is a complete work of fiction. I don't remember any of us that dealt with the Super Dome or the Convention Center or the flooding in mid town rejoicing at the death of the poor and the people of color we  rescued  or evacuated.Perhaps this person was not aware of how it really was, perhaps watching some parallel world Republican Censored  to the hilt news  station  would have shown these things, but nothing i saw showed joy  on anyones face 
 

September 27th 

(Congress Abuse, Bankruptcy)

Right after Hurricane Katrina struck, several lawmakers - mostly Democrats but including some Senate Republicans - suggested that storm victims along the Gulf Coast should get relief from the new law's stricter provisions, which are intended to screen filers by income and make those with higher incomes repay their debts over several years. Under the old law, which remains in effect until mid-October, many more filers can have their debts canceled quickly in federal bankruptcy courts. 

But House Republicans, who fought off a proposed amendment that would have made bankruptcy filings easier for victims of natural disasters, said there was no reason to carve out a broad exemption just because of the storm. 
 

September 28th 

Left to Die in a New Orleans Prison 

The group Human Rights Watch has just issued one of the first independent analyses investigating what happened in the jails. 

The group alleges that in one facility the sheriff's department abandoned hundreds of prisoners. The group also says that there are some 517 prisoners unaccounted for and is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into the Orleans Sheriff's Department. 
 

September 29th 

(Congress, less hurricane research)  

Hurricane frequency is growing, a trend expected to continue, federal spending on storm research has been declining.  is not keeping up.   The federal Hurricane Research Division has a staff of about 30 scientists, down from about 50.  Some researchers say they need a budget of $10 million to hire more staff and modernize equipment, a small number considering the amount of damage Hurricanes do. 

(FEMA, Communications Sabotage)

Jeanie W.

Seems FEMA enjoys cutting off communication  with approved  contracts , and survivors, too. They shut down alot of the EMS radio and  communication networks. Most of us took down their antennas and replaced them with functional repeaters.  

October 1, 

(FEMA, Animal rescue permission slips)

In an email form a Care2 member, Carolyn M about pet-rescue details, I read that permission slips needed to rescue animals from people's homes.  Knowing the evacuees are so far away, how would that be possible, it seems that those in charge wanted the animals do die. 

(Song, R&B Hurricane song)

http://www.hurricanesong.com/ 

(Group, Problems, SaraJane)

John has brought it to my attention that some of you have been upset by my having moved messages around. 

I was asked to do this, to tidy up the threads and make messages easier to find. John also made it clear what he wanted posted and how, so I tried to encourage folk to stick to those guidelines. But I now realise I went too far, and hurt valuable members' feelings in the process. 

I also should have emailed you each time, as those stark messages from Care2 don't tell you anything about why your message has been removed or where it's been reposted. 

October 5 

(Local Officals, Shooting Pets)

When we left New Orleans, the rescue operation was being called off. The city is still full of dogs and cats running scared and

hungry down the streets.  

Law enforcement agencies told us they have been given authorization to SHOOT ANY STRAYS LEFT IN THE STREETS. 

The quick sum up is that dogs are loose because the National Guard told people they couldn't bring their pets when they evacuated, then broke into homes looking for people, and let the dogs out. 

(Animals, Condition of dogs in New Orleans, Poverty)

I was part of a rescue expedition from Portland, Oregon (including a veterinarian,) that spent the past week (Sept. 24th through Oct. 2nd) on the streets of New Orleans, breaking into homes for 12-14 hours per day to try to save any animals still alive and trapped in their homes without food or water.  

It was a difficult job. We were in extreme heat, without much sleep or food. We saw hundreds of trapped, dead animals. Still, hundreds of us stuck it out, because we knew how many had already died and we wanted to try to save the remaining live animals.  

When all was said and done, our group brought five of the rescued dogs back to Portland with us. 

The dogs are positive for heartworm. This is a fatal parasite infestation, carried by mosquitos and rampant in the southern region of the country. It is usually treatable (if caught in time) but treatment is not cheap, nor is prevention. These infected dogs have been shipped all over the country, and are being happily reunited with their owners from Louisiana and Mississippi, who can scarcely piece their own lives together, let alone afford to test or treat their dogs for heartworm.  

The prognosis is only months. Approximately 9 out of 10 dogs are positive. These dogs come from an impoverished community that cannot afford preventative care for their dogs.  

We are told they are educated about this epidemic problem and the outcome, but either can't afford prevention. 

While in New Orleans, I noticed none of the thousands of dogs we saw had been spayed or neutered, and all were very young. I hadn't put it together in my head until just recently. Almost all dogs in Louisiana die before they reach age two. They wander the streets, have a few litters, then die from heartworm (a very unpleasant way to die.) The only reason there is a population of dogs left in Louisiana must be that they have a few litters before they die. 

(Racism Issues)

Dynamite S:

I'm sorry, I realize that the news is all you have to go on but I am the type of person who doesn't believe EVERYTHING I read in the papers or hear on the news. Yes, I also believe there were failures at every level of government, but I believe that Blanco was the most responsible for the delays. 

"If you haven't experienced it, then you wont understand it"  (me)

I have experienced it first hand (just ask the Dr.'s who treated me after being beaten). Have you? (Dynamite) 

""Stirring the Sh*t" is a phrase I have ONLY heard from racist whites"  (me) 

Funny you should say that because that came directly from a survivor (a black survivor) who was in the Convention Center and stayed with us for 3 days. She's the one who told me to add it in, lol! If she decides to join Care 2 (I've asked her to join and she says "maybe") I will direct her to you to argue the point. (Dynamite) 

I didn't come here to argue ( I just don't have the time to waste when so many here need help) I just stated my (and many of the survivors I've talked to) opinion and what we believe to be true from our experiences. I probably won't be back for a while. (Dynamite) 

Dynamite, your input is far more valuable than news reports as you are telling us how it really is! I admire you greatly for taking the time and effort to contribute here, when you've so much else on your plate (SarahJane) 

It's easy for most of us to get worked up over politics, but forget that for folk like you it's REAL LIFE that's under fire.  Please stay with us; we need you! We also need to support you and your neighbours, by fighting for truth and justice. Not fighting each other (SarahJane) 

October 10th

(Woman's Issues)

Sunshine brought up some issues wrt to women being counted out of the planning commitees for restoring New Orleans. 

I found a thread on a Care2 support group for the military. 

The thread is mostly written by women discussing the role of women in war. 

Of course, as a pacifist, I am  opposed to ANY war, but from the equality point of view, hey women can pull the trigger just like any man. 

Plus I hear women tend to aim lower.. true !! 

Here is the thread, I think it is very interesting and may shed light onto this topic. 

What worries me isn't the bad attitudes of the men she serves with. Women deal with that kind of crap all the time. 

What bothers me is that even the ones who deal the crap go nuts when a woman gets killed. There are men who would rush out foolishly after a woman was killed and risk killing the rest of the platoon.  

No matter how well they are trained, people will lose their objectivity and their training and behave like they have no clue what to do when the pressure gets high and worst they can imagine happens. And for some men, that would be watching a woman, especially a woman who reminds them of people they left at home, die in front of them. 
 

October 12th 

(Racism, Elderly Black Beating)

One was an article in the times, where yet another elderly black person was beaten by police, and then an associated press camera man was assulted by the same police. 

The police shouted at the reporter that they had good reason to beat the black man after six weeks of troubles.  The policeman was very detailed about his complaints as he vented on the elderly man, all three uniformed beaters plead not-guilty. 

Three New Orleans police officers have pleaded not guilty to beating a 64-year-old man they had arrested for public intoxication. 

One the tape, one officer is seen hitting suspect Robert Davis four times in the head. 

The three were suspended without pay on Sunday, said Capt. Marlon Defillo, a police department spokesman. "It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it," he said. 

Davis, a New Orleans resident, has been charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation. 

After being treated at a hospital, Davis was released into police custody but was later freed. 

nowing of the NO police record..., it kind of puts all that Katrina "thuggery" in perspective dosn't it. Or why anyone would perhaps want to take a pot shot or two at the police during the disaster. 

Asked about what might have caused the incident, Davis said: "I don't know what caused it. I don't want to say this, but it was probably racially motivated." 

(Racism on Care2, New Orleans Celebration Group)

The other was on Care2.  I went to the New Orleans "happy" group looking for images of the Black mardi gras culture, and that request alone was enough for me to be accused of "stirring the sh*t" 

One member of that group gave me useful information about a mardi gras group, the rest attacked me in a cultish way. 

I posted one last time to mention that I obviously hit a nerve, and then I left the group. 

The moderater sent me harrassing emails, telling me the last laugh was on me. 

Anonymous Post:

Aparently people were offended by whatever John said. I'm sure he had his reasons, because IF you got to know him you would discover he's a good and honorable person. He may be impatient with with people he feels could be inconsiderate with minorities, but in my book that's a quality, as it ask's that people examine more than the obvious - John tends to pick up on the subtlity in things and ask's for more from people than may be generaly considered "enough". 

He may have a hard edge, but if people reflect & take in what he may be trying to say, they will find the seeds to further personal growth - further progress that improves the llivily hood of minorities, but would also have to lay down the indignent roll and listen first. 

We are not interested her in maintaining personal ego's and slamming people back and forth in an attempt to defend people, stroke ego's, or prove loyalties! We are here to try and make the wrongs that happened in Katrina right! To focus on the tradgedy. It's not a place for "debate" or eve casual conversation. If you joined to defend friends, argue your case and target John for insult's, will you please promtly check yourself out of here!! 
 

October 14th 

(Causes, Loss of Wetlands)

More than any other factor, I believe NOLA suffered because the water usually absorbed by the wetlands flooded the city because the wetlands have been destroyed by developers. 

Louisiana's barrier islands are also disappearing, Sallenger says. The Chandeleur Islands are eroding at a rate of 33 feet per year on one side.  

Some of the changes are natural. Southern Louisiana has been sinking for centuries. The sinking is also caused by oil and gas production, which sucks fossil fuels and water out of underground reservoirs, says Bob Morton of the U.S. Geological Survey. 

Jeanie W.

The irony of all it is David Vitter sits on the Enviromental Protection Comittee and has voted against every bill to protect the Louisiana coast. much less rebuild it. I  guess if he could build Indian Casinos  in the Gulf Intercoastal waters  he would be all for saving it. I am being a real cynic  here but Vitter  just  ticked me off at a meeting I had with him  earlier to day. 

S c B

When mankind tries to adjust the natural character of the Mississippi iver in one place such as for river negavation dams, dikes on upper sections of the river, the results is a change in the flow at the lower end of the river...over the last few decades the delta lands have been declinning.  The river is carrying less silt from the upper areas along the river. 
 

October 15th  

Sunshine R.

      

John, What happened to the actions this site was going to take, the program you were going to write, the Senator that is watching, petitions to be written, pressure on government change, What happened to all that John?

(Group, Issues) 

We are not interested her in maintaining personal ego's and slamming people back and forth in an attempt to defend people, stroke ego's, or prove loyalties! We are here to try and make the wrongs that happened in Katrina right! To focus on the tradgedy. It's not a place for "debate" or eve casual conversation. If you joined to defend friends, argue your case and target John for insult's, will you please promtly check yourself out of here!!  (Sunshine) 

There is no focus, action regarding Katrina because of John, he keeps changing it, the name, the rules, the focus the intent, and now I feel is belitteing the WHOLE SITATION. 

For most change is good,  however, some project need to keep their focus, intent and have LEADERSHIP, with some room for changing not chaing it all the time. Petitions and actions could have been put out long back, putting a face on the group and it getting recogniztion as John wanted and more particpation, now he says it's an Amerian group and issue 
 

October 16th 

(Meditation, whole issue)

It was NOT the hurricane that hurt NOLA, it was the flood and the savage treatment of the stranded and the animals that hurt. 

My hope for the group is that all the knowledge we stored will create a legacy which can be used to bring justice to all the guilty in this situation. 

The emergency is not over for the animals, the rescue continues,  and I am very grateful for posts about the rescuers. 

I want to get a head of the wave, and start truly locating sources of the problems. 

Some are environmental, but global warming and HAARP were not directly related.  Oil drilling is said to be causing NOLA to be sinking !!  I would have never guessed.  Wetlands destruction is a given in this case because all the water buffers were destroyed. 

The race problem was a given; whites were rescued from the Dome and the Convention Center while Blacks were deliberately stranded.  This is reminiscent of the stranding of Native Tribes on the reservations; they were put there to suffer and become docile, nothing has changed. 

The attitude was that African Americans are dangerous crack addicted animals, the governor stated this, with the threat of military action.  The only substance abuse problem was when a gang found the alcohol supply in the Convention Center, the miltary (nat guard) was ordered NOT to protect the victims of the gang by the Govenor. 

The recent beating of the elderly Black man brings this point home, the cop explained why he was justified in beating him because of Katrina, while he was beating him. 

The killing and stranding of the pets shows how unconcerned the US federal government is with the welfare and property of the US citizens.  The orginal name for this group was Eminent Domain which, if you know, was a Supreme Court plan to take people's houses at will for the benefit of developers.  The states are making it illegal now. 

It is well known that the City, State and Federal governement are planning to give over NOLA and the Mardi Gras culture to the very developers who contributed to the disaster. 

This travesty is happening everywhere; what we can prove, and court trials we can initate, will help people everywhere in the country -- possibly the world. 
 

October 23 

(Halliburton, corruption) 

Suspected Illegal Workers Found at Halliburton Job Site

Federal agents have identified 10 suspected illegal immigrants working at a naval base near New Orleans where the Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root is leading hurricane reconstruction.\ 

(Meditation, Lessons Learned)

Spencer 

Lessons learned, the initial responce for Katrina is now history.  What have we learned about disaster responce?  What can we expect from each level of government: local, state, federal, and UN?  What can we expect from other disaster relief agencies? 

So, what is next?   What will happen next year?  OH, we are not done with this year, we are still in the process of planning how to repair the damage of 2005.   
 

November 14th 

(FEMA Corruption, Checks)

Jeanie W. 

The sad thing is alot of them still haven't gotten their checks.or any idea when they will get  housing  . That is here in Louisiana, in the parish I live in we still have 600 without a place to live  and no money from FEMA or the RED CRoss to date. We still have our disaster relief center open here . In  the greatest stretch of it I AM NOT AMUSED 
 

November 19th 

(Group, Infighting)

SarahJane M.

I resigned, Patt. Initially this was because of disagreements with the group host, but in any case  Jeanie is far more suitable as she's actually there. She has also contributed a lot of valuable info that we wouldn't have found elsewhere; doing a great job, Jeanie! 

You can only have 5 hosts per group, so it makes sense to choose the 5 most suitable folk. I still want to do what I can to support the people of the Gulf Coast, and will continue to contribute to this group as and when I can. 

Jeanie W.

My favorite right wing myth was THE FLOOD WATER WAS NOT A TOXIC BREW OF CHEMICALS , SEWAGE, AND OTHER  CONTAMINANTS  NO ONE SHOULD BE EXPOSED TO.  was that supposed to reduce the necessity for all the shots  we all had to take.  Or did FEMA not want to pay for those either, not that I had any thing to worry about I just went to my Dad's office and loaded up  up a few syringes and injected myself 

November 27th 

(Captial, Condemns NOLA Schools) 

Wall Street Journal Editors: Public Schools In New Orleans Should Never Reopen 

    That damaged city's public schools remain closed, but at least eight of its 35 private Catholic schools are already back teaching, less than three months after Katrina. Here's a modest proposal to help that city's poorest kids: Don't reopen any of the old public schools, 102 of 117 of which were performing below the state average in any case. 

There are some conservatives who honestly want to improve public schools by focusing on accountability. Others are just interested in destroying the public school system. We can safely put the editors of the Wall Street Journal in the later category.  

(Local Corruption, Levee Boards)

The numerous levee boards in the parishes were also diverting money from levee construction and maintenance to such projects as a fountain and landscaping for a park, and developing gambling sites. 

The levees didn't fail because of 5 years of neglect, they didn't fail at all. 

The canal walls - which were much smaller, thinner and weaker than the levees are - failed. 

December 8th 

(School Buses)

Jeanie W

The school buses could leave the parish  however those owned by the city/parish could not...just a glitch in Louisiana law.  Police cars can leave  their jurisdiction to transport prisoners and ambulances can leave for long distance transport as long  as they are not property of the city /parish government. Robert there may well have been 1200 buses  in the bus yard for Orleans Parish and Jefferson Parish however that does not mean people  are going to leave  alot of these people  never got  the  news  sorry but  a lot of word of mouth  is still necessary  and people are not going  to go into certain areas  of new Orleans  and knock on doors with out an armed escort. 
 
 

December 12th 

(Bush, Katriana forgotten)

Bush Advisor To Reporter: Katrina "Has Fallen So Far Off The Radar Screen, You Can't Find It" 

On September 15, President Bush stood in Jackson Square in New Orleans and made a promise: 

    And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again. 
 

December 18th 

Jeanie, from your above I take it that a piece of paper stopped the buses from being used to save lives? Who was responsible for that decision? People weren't warned because it was too dangerous to ebter some areas of the city? Who made that call? 

The city leaders were responsible to do whatever it took to get those people to safety. Commandeering the buses was just pure common sense. If the drivers couldn't be found, at least the keys were there for the taking. LANGs were available to Gov Blanco. She should have used them. 

FACT: LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD REQUESTED 700 BUSES FROM FEMA FOR EVACUATIONS, FEMA ONLY SENT 100: The Boston Globe reported, "On Sunday, the day before the storm, the Louisiana National Guard asked FEMA for 700 buses to evacuate people. It received only 100." [Boston Globe, 9/11/05] 

I know where they could have found those additional 600 buses. 
 

January 14th 

(Local Corruption, Community Blocked from re-building)

I heard an NPR piece yesterday by a tearful NOLA resident who was prevented from re-building her home by the N.O. rebuilding commission.  The radio reporters show sympathy, but offer nothing but superficial explanations, implying it is for the best of all.  They had to be on the scene, the interview was at a city hearing; they had to know what the plans were about and who the players were. 
 

January 18th 

(Police, racism)

Police kill mentally-disabled man on St. Charles Ave.

A man known to the neighborhood around Felicity and St. Charles as a harmless but friendly mentally-disabled individual was shot Monday afternoon by Sixth District New Orleans Police.  

Witnesses reported at least ten bullet casings on the ground after police opened fire on the man. Although the police spokesman said that the man lunged at a police officer with a [three inch] knife before he was shot, witnesses all say that the man was backing up when he was shot numerous times by police 

(Death Toll)

The official death toll stands at about 1,300 but thousands of people are still reported missing.  

One newspaper reported the whereabouts of 6,600 people reported missing have not been determined.  

Newsday reports the number of missing include over 1,300 children. [includes rush transcript]  

The reports are based on figures provided by two groups: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Center For Missing Adults. 
 

January 22nd 

I don't think it's right that you take our properties. Over my dead body. I didn't die with Katrina." - Lower 9th Ward resident Caroline Parker. 

The mayor was a hero fighting at the time of the crisis; his election was based on the promise he kept that he would throw open city hall's books to rid New Orleans of curropution.  He has become now, like most large city mayors a friend of developers, this includes most black mayors; he has become danger to the communities that elected him. 

His plan for the African American Neighborhoods has been crafted to preclude most of the residents from returning, preventing New Orleans from becoming the two-thirds Black city it used to be.  The law, preventing the return of Blacks, and especially preventing them from working on their own houses, was crafted by a Nagin associate,who is also a George Bush fundraiser, Joseph Canizaro.  The plan, put in effect, imposed a four-month moratorium on building in poor neighborhoods such as the lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East.

December 19th 

(Local Corrpution, Levees)

Research into financing and construction for hurricane and flood protection in New Orleans, over the past ten years indicates that local and state officials did not use federal money that was available for the purpose.  They did not raise funds to secure matching funds for levee improvement, either. 

Jeanie W.

The blame still lies with the DOD, Hoimeland Security on this , Robert. They all made mistakes but  with holding vital help because we did not federalize our National Guard  is  the biggest reason  for the delays.  

Now the DOD has charged the Louisiana Guard as being AWOL AND SUBJECT TO COURT MARTIAL BECAUSE  GOVERNOR BLANCO BROUGHT THEM HOME from Iraq.  

IS THAT A CIVIL AND COMPASSIONATE ACTION ON THE PART OF THE NEO-CONS AND THOSE WHO WANT TO DESTROY A CITY WITH AN IMMENSE  CULTURAL HERITAGE. THE CITY I WAS BORN IN. MY HOME  BY ALL REASONS  THAT  ARE LEGALLY DOCUMENTED .YOU HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT CRUEL PARTICULARLY TO ME BECAUSE I WILL NOT PROVIDE YOU WITH PROOF I WAS IN NEW ORLEANS ... ACTUALLY IT REALLY IS NONE OF YOUR 

Please consider that Florida has not repaid one cent of FEMA money from 2004? Nor from the hurricanes that hit the Florida Gulf Coast in May, June, and July. Mississippi to my knowledge has not paid back any FEMA money either. Seems states with Republican governors get a break from  repaying loans for vital services like fire and police protection and keeping ambulances running when they belong to the city/ parish / county. I am writing this  from  awareness of facts  that have some how evaded the media, Louisiana is severely cash strapped yet  Governor Blanco called a moritoreum on all state taxes last weekend to give those  who are struggling a chance to have some kind of a Christmas. Yet the Republicans  complain that  too much is being sent to the Gulf Coast. That too much has been spent on Katrina and Rita survivors. There are people still living in tents in state parks here in Louisiana ,the winters are cruel if there are alot more days like to day( where I live it is 28 and the wind chill is 12) many still have not received their Red Cross or FEMA checks with some really lame excuses offered as explaination. The trailers sit and Hope Arkansas, the ones  that have arrived are in such remote areas that there is no local,place to shop, they are not on bus lines  and many of these individuals do not own a car or lost it in the floods  thinking  it was just another hurricane and in a few days we will be able to return home.Yet all these things are already provided to Brother Jeb. 

(Group, Infighting problems, about State Vs Fed, shows typical activist paranoia)

Barbara T. 

Robert and people who exhibit his sort of cruelty are going to rot in Hell forever, if there is a Hell; and if there is not, I hope the Goddess constructs one just for him and his ilk  Please PAY NO ATTENTION to him and to his ilk. They are on someone's payroll, to do what they do. Not on the payroll of anyone WE would have the slightest iota of respect for!!! 
 

January 24 

Jeanie W. 

Gee Robert , I was talking about  that problem  shortly after the levee breaks. You fail to mention the  Republicans in Washington were the one who cut the funding  to the Levee Boards and it was in no way the fault of the state of Louisiana.The Levee Board and the Corp of Engineers is federally funded  not state funded. 

January 25th 

Blogs started to report cuts to budgets by the Federal goverment that all but stopped work to levees and walls in New Orleans.  New Orleans area's east bank is a complex network of concrete walls, metal gates and giant earthen berms that won't be finished for at least another decade. 

New Orleans officials reportedly feel they have to persuade those who control federal spending that protection from major storms and flooding are matters of homeland security. 
 

February 1st 

(Marshland Loss)

Katrina destroyed the Big Easy -- and future Katrinas will do the same -- not because of engineering failures but because one million acres of coastal islands and marshland have vanished in Louisiana in the last century due to human interference  These land forms served as natural "speed bumps," reducing the lethal surge tide of past hurricanes and making New Orleans habitable in the first place. 
 

February 8th 

(Local Corrpution, Taking land from blacks)

Plans are underway that would permanently shut out Black and poor folks from New Orleans. The message from Washington is loud and clear: without a public outcry, the folks who were abandoned before Katrina will be betrayed once again. Legislators who want to gentrify New Orleans see no political consequences for abandoning Black and poor people. Legislators who should have their backs are too afraid or unmotivated to move without loud popular support. 
 

February 10th 

(Hearings, Brown, Chertoff) 

Brown testified today that he told the White House that flooding had begun in New Orleans on the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall 

Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight. 

Mr. Chertoff failed to name a principal federal official to oversee the response before the hurricane arrived, an omission a top Pentagon official acknowledged to investigators complicated the coordination of the response. His department also did not plan enough to prevent a conflict over which agency should be in charge of law enforcement support. And Mr. Chertoff was either poorly informed about the levee break or did not recognize the significance of the initial report about it, investigators said. 
 
 

March 1st 

(Bush, Aware of Flood)

Linked by secure video, Bush's confidence on Aug. 28 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm. 

(Bush, Aware of Dangers including Superdome as a shelter)

federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, 

(Bush, Chertoff Aware of lack of support in area)

A top hurricane expert voiced "grave concerns" about the levees and then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren't enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome. 

(Brown worried about abilty to resond)

"I'm concerned about ... their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe," Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall. 

March 2nd 

Feds are prosecuting Forrest County, Mississippi Sheriff Billy McGee for commandeering two FEMA ice trucks and giving their contents to locals in the midst of the Katrina disaster, when FEMA was too bolloxed up to order it themselves. 

A National Guard trooper tried to stop McGee; the sheriff handcuffed him. Perhaps that was a bit of an over-reaction. But, as one fire chief told the paper, "We had diabetic people who hadn't been able to put their insulin on ice for three days." 

March 3rd 

(Bush, Missing katrina Tape)

In its handling of the missing Katrina tape, the one where Bush reacts like a  deer in the headlights to the alerts of catastrophic damage, the media has once again proven itself to be incompetent and shallow. There was barely a mention in the traditional media about how the Bush administration represented to Congress that the tape did not exist. Rather, when this previously-non-existent tape magically appeared, the media called it an "embarrassment" for the President rather than evidence of a cover-up.  
 

March 4th 

(Bush, Chertoff, Brown wasnt so bad)

Experts from right and left say Brownie didn't do a bad job after all - the real problem was Chertoff and Bush 
 

March 8th 

(Local corrpution, blacks being kept out)

Six months after Hurricane Katrina, some public officials in New Orleans are waving a "Keep Out" sign in front of some of its poorest residents. In many instances, the culprits are Black. If some of the statements made by New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas, an African-American, had been uttered by a White person, he or she would have been lambasted as a racist.  

(Federal Corrpution, Funds withheld from New Orleans)

Just $25m of $2b Katrina fund has been spent; 0.125%  
 

March 16 

(Changing group to new action, Insider Problems)

Most had left group, to go to another groups about Katrina that were not announced on my group.   

I don't remember joining this group. I heard of threads being hijacked, but this must be the first group to be hijacked! 

Isn't this like promising a little girl a piece of candy and then abducting her? 

For God's sake, even the guy who once impersonated Care2 wouldn't do that! 

What has the world come to? 

Please tell everyone you know about this hijacking. Most of the members of the Katrina group will have NO CLUE about the name change. If you have other members on your friends' list, PLEASE INFORM THEM. It will appear on their Profile Pages that they are endorsing this man, Evan Bayh, whether they know or like him, or not. This is not fair to those who are judged by their Profile Pages 

Say You Wanna Promote Pornography 

You bring together a bunch of people who think Mother Teresa is a saint and then you innocently start peddling your pornographic wares to them. 

That's how intelligence services recruit their moles. 

I'm not sure if any good can still be expected from this group in spite of the good intentions of most members. These are my reasons for this conclusion: 

   1. "I was planning to switch it back, but..." Making decisions out of spite is not the way to help the victims of Katrina.

   2. "So, what is in it for me? Do I get respect that I give to everyone else?" What's in it for me? Is this overriding issue when people are getting together to help the victims of a catastrophe? 

The fellow can do whatever he pleases. The group is his and we can all pack up and leave any time we want. Even members who feel cheated and mislead are not the real victims here. The real victims are the people of New Orleans who have been victimized once by nature and many times over by humans. To be victimized one more time on the boards of Care2 is unconscionable. 

I'm not going to start talking about the person's integrity when I really don't know him. But the evidence is out there for everyone to see. Mistakes are made. Everybody makes mistakes. But to say "I was planning to switch it back, but..." is further evidence that the fellow doesn't have his priorities right! Or more accurately, his priorities and those of the victims do not quite match! 

Why not put a final plan to deal with the situation? The co-hosts and members, I believe, are in a position to issue invitations to "a Katrina" group that can fulfill the original mission of this one. Any valuable information here can be transferred over to the other group. That should get us back on track and there will be less energy wasted over spilled milk! 

I`m remembering now John, that your original concept on Katrina was to find evidence that the Bush administration failed to respond in a timely manner to the devastation to help its victims. 

So now that you want to morph this group are you saying that there is no evidence or that the victims no longer need help? 
 

April 3

Jeanie W.

      

Let's see there is an election next month, this weekend we had all kinds of people down here rallying to stop this election because the displaced people of New Orleans by and large have not been told they can vote absentee in other parts of the country, actually I think that if the Iraqi people in this country can vote for what goes on in Iraq then the residents of New Orleans can vort from where they are in the Mayor's race.Nagin will go, and New Orleans sure as hell does not need FORMAN 
 

April 27th 

(Last Useful Post) 

A Senate inquiry into the government's Hurricane Katrina failures ripped the Bush administration anew Thursday and urged the scrapping of the nation's disaster response agency