Bus passengers from New Orleans’ Superdome — who have spent 12 hours on the bus with no air conditioning and no open windows — arrived in Houston only to be turned away because the Astrodome is at capacity.
The passengers are furious. Some have passed out from the heat on the bus. The CNN reporter says he’d thought that every nook and cranny — even the Astrodome’s club rooms and hallways — would be used. But that isn’t the case.
They will be transported somewhere else, destination unknown. (CNN TV, 9pm PT)
how they can be planning this so poorly. It is, afterall, what FEMA does (or is supposed to do).
I can only think that the neglect stems from the racist and anti-poor people ideologies of the people in charge.
It doesn’t help that Michael Brown, director of fema, had very little experience with disaster planning.
But we all know experience or competence doesn’t matter. As long as you kiss bushes ass every chance you get, you’ve got a job
Did anyone else see Ted Koppel rip the clueless Mike Brown a new one on Nightline? It was brutal. Several variations on “this is the situation. You’ve known this is the situation. Why hasn’t X happened yet?” – followed by 5 or more seconds of dead silence while Brown tried to figure out what the hell to say, when there was plainly nothing to say.
Even Joe Scarborough took off the gloves to a surprising extent.
I’ve hoped so many times that a particular event woud mark the end of the RWCM Bush butt-kissing. Once more, I am daring to hope.
Will have to find it on the web. I feel like I am in the Michael Jackson “Thriller” video, and all the dead journalists are crawling out of their graves to tap dance some questions into the fucking empty heads running this show.
I just heard that, now I am just so pissed…..
and btw there was a typhoon in china and 600,000 people evacuated, don’t know any more details as I just caught the tail end of the news cast about it. Wonder how they managed that evacuation..
It’s a lot easier when you can issue orders and command all available resources without worrying about being re elected or pissing off campaign contributors.
(from another list the Chinese evacuated more than 790,000, sourced to Sydney Morning Herald, Australia…)
Not sure what the story is at the `dome…
The planning problem I think stems from typical BushThink… Clinton had a competent FEMA staff with expertise, so they must be removed and replaced. The current head of FEMA is supposedly an estate tax attorney. Of course in ShrubWorld the estate tax IS an emergency management issue on its own, but still…
How much more can these people take? Landrieu has taken a beating here but her office released these figures tonight. The true facts of the Bush budget cuts and the levees. From Reuters:
Levees were fortified after floods in 1927 and 1965, and Congress approved another ambitious upgrade after a 1995 flood killed six people.
Since 2001, the Army Corps has requested $496 million for that project but the Bush administration only budgeted $166 million, according to figures provided by the office of Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.
Congress ultimately approved $250 million for the project during that time period.
Another project designed to shore up defenses along Lake Pontchartrain was similarly underfunded, as the administration budgeted $22 million of the $99 million requested by the Corps between 2001 and 2005. Congress boosted spending on that project to $42.5 million, according to Landrieu’s office.
Right there it is in black and white. She did say tonight there would be time to lay the blame. Guess she meant sooner than later. I have a feeling she is going to be out to get Bush and the cons in a big way now.
Landrieu is part of the problem. Guess you didn’t hear her congratulating all of her cronies on Anderson Cooper. Don’t expect her to solve the problems. Don’t expect any politicians to solve the problems…have they so far?
It is up to us.
Yeah I did but I think it was fear of pissing off the powers that be when she needs them. No time for making excuses though she needs to step up in a big way your right.
It’s getting worse. It’s supposed to get better, not worse. IS THERE NO ONE COORDINATING ANYTHING?!?!?!?
Their Katrina Blog (good source of updates):
I have no words. Really. Cursing doesn’t even help. Or crying.
don’t have radios or tv’s to hear her.
My recollection of Kent State 1970 is that those guardsmen had been taken off a hostile patrol of a teamsters’ strike.
Not a good omen. And they’re not going to be aiming at high-profile university students there either. Just when we begin to compare New Orleans with Baghdad, it may be going Fallujah.
hear Reginald Green (sounded like a young black man still stuck at the NOLA convention center?) talking to Larry King on CNN?
He was so coherent, so rational, and just told it like it was. It was heartbreaking.
I just caught a replay of Oberman and they did a story on the tourists who are living in groups on rooftops all over the city. this might have been brought up earlier, but I just can’t keep up with all of the comments. They figure they can last about 5 days with what they have. They are in fear of the roving gangs. They are not seeing too much hope of getting out any time soon.
Saw it the woman from Ireland crying. Doubt they will vacation in the states again seeing as we have no government.
A WW2 Scots couple stood in as parents for my wife at our wedding since hers were deceased. They’d told us that even back in the 50’s, a lot of Scots would be angry at emmigrating relatives who chose the U.S. instead of Canada & other locales with better education and all-around more civilization.
That, during what the Right calls our good old days.
The governor of Texas announced hours ago that Texas would shelter 25,000 more refugees in Dallas and another 25,000 in San Antonio. 75,000. so. far.
He is apparently the only elected OR appointed official willing to step in and address the crisis rather than his reputation or even (gasp) the state budget.
Now that’s a headline: Texas governor makes an end-run around team Rove & DeLay.
Thank you God.
no really, Perry, can’t even get our schools financed. Please for the sake of my tentative sanity do NOT start getting all gooey over Perry. You bet your ASS he’s doing it for political reasons.
And please give credit to the Mayors and county people first. I haven’t a clue about Dallas, but San Antonio and Houston are mayoral involvements, bigtime. I heard Bill White, Houston mayor, talking about this as early as Monday evening. By his estimate there are 100,000 of our Louisiana neighbors sleeping in Houston tonight. Lots of the ones who escaped the storm by car came here last weekend. No one knows but they’re estimating that based on scarcity of hotel rooms, 55,000 or so at last count. Already some of these survivors funds are running out, and some are reported transferring to Red Cross shelters.
Also, please keep in mind that many of these unfortunate people will be here for months.
Think about the last time you spent a little time in a town with a population of approx. 8000 and ask yourself how many astrodomes you could place inside the city limits. 8000 might not seem like much when it seats 60k full to the roof for a football game, but it also might be a very wise figure for the amount of people who can live there 24/7 over weeks and weeks.
just my 2¢ Time tell tell though, who can say?
As far as I know now the dome is a red-cross operation, start to finish, I’ll know more about this in the next few days.
Houston Chronicle Special report and local help links
Did you mean to respond to Only Love Prevails?
If not, I don’t understand what you are responding to in my post.
FWIW, I agree with you completely that the local officials are the ones coming through big time — i saw the mayor of San Antone on the TV last night — these people will get things done, in spite of fucking worthless feds.
no, im responding to you because i agree with you about Perry. Perry’s just doing what he does best. I think he’s pretty much cashing in on the efforts of others. Am I not being clear? sorry if not.
I agree that the real story here is about cities stepping up to bat when the federal government is failing.
Alright- since I have been watching in shock and awe at this whole mess- I need one of you on-the-spot people to tell me what to do. Brinnainne- bayprairie? step up? I will send you a personal check. I don’t think the gov or any agency is ready for this-not even the Red Cross.People on the ground can determine what is needed -which i cannot do from here.Email me- painebillAThotmail.com(that is hubs addy)GEEZ had the checkbook out waiting–and– I do still have a house that is vacant-altho it is pretty far away.
Shycat, I have been reading your comments for days now and you have to be one of the most generous people I have seen in a long while.
I can only say, what a gal, especially for a “shycat” who is not so shy anymore it seems.
Best of everything to you and yours and personal hugs from me.
Diane- I have it- there is a need-a big one-I can’t sit here cozy while other people suffer. This is a dreadful thing that I never expected to see, not in this supposedly civilized country.
I know that in many other places there are systems that are nearly unuseable because of government corruption and so on.And I cannot change that.
But this filthy racist neglect is tearing me apart.
And we KNOW that is what it is.
Goddammit.
this weekend — I would love to go out and buy a boatload of toys, school supplies and/or clothes for the children. But if you would like to send us a check, you can decide exactly what we do with it, and we will.
Just let me know — we’ll be going to the AstroDome, to other local shelters, we are going to personally hand things to people (at least as much as they will let us).
I too, am wary of large national charity drives, it’s sort of like paying my taxes, I never know if the money actually gets where it needs to go, so if you want to cut out the middlemen, ejmw and I just might be your ticket….up to you of course, and whatever you decide, bless your big, beautiful heart.
Suggestion
Before going talk to a person at your local Red Cross office and ask what help/stuff they need. Merely showing up with stuff you think they need doesn’t help the people in or the people running the shelter, necessarily. They may need: pens and paper, toys for children, people to wash dishes, people to set-up cots, AM/FM radios or a television so the people in the shelter can get news, books and magazines, people to do registration, people to do the back-office paperwork (there’s a lot of it), people to help with Disaster Inquiry, if you are a ham they may need you for radio traffic, and on and on and on.
Thanks — I’ve been on it for two days now! 😉
OK– i need an address-Email it to me
you can email me at caiteclare AT yahoo DOT com
and I’ll send you my address and phone number
check your email- painebill is ME!!
I’m giving to Red Cross, locally, earmarking the funds for Katrina relief. To tell the truth though the closer you can get to the devestation the more you’re money will help. I think about it this way. New Orleans is a city with a Democratic Mayor, a Democratic Senator and a large black population. Louisiana, Put your money as close to them as you can. Also, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is where the need is (if I’m leaving things out please post corrections or thoughts). Locally, the Red Cross is running at least 20 shelters that I know of in the Houston area alone, and I haven’t had anyone say I shouldn’t donate to them.
Oh yeah and quit makin the shyone cry!:P
Susan I wish someone would put you in charge of FEMA…
ugh… I’m sure reaching capacity (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/01/AR2005090102151.html?nav=hcmodule) at 11,000 is a nice way of saying we don’t want any more america refugees here.
I loved what an older gentleman said a couple days ago… Why should I go from the superdome to the astrodome what am I a football team…?
The Red Cross Spokeswoman who’s comment you seem to be sneering at is Dana Allen. Evidently you aren’t aware who she is? Perhaps you really ought to walk your fingers on over to google and do “Dana Allen” plus “Red Cross” and read a little about her past experience at disaster relief. You might find her experience tends to validate her opinion. She’s worthly of being believed when she says things such as “We’ve actually reached capacity for the safety and comfort of the people inside there,”….
This is the Red Cross A team talking. She doesnt work for the Bush Aministration.
I’m not sneering at the red cross or anyone who is at the ground zero of helping these people… something that not many of us, myself included, are not doing much of anything (outside maybe opening our wallets)…
What I am a little sarcastic about is how the astrodome is being sold even at this hour in the snews as the icon of “salvation” for the majority of the superdome crowd still waiting for buses.
So everyone can tune out feeling grand that these folks are moving from the safety of one sports arena to another.
Really no need to get defensive about it — the point is not that the red Cross isn’t doing what they can for the people there, the point is that people are still being SENT there and told that it is where they should be going and then, turned away.
That is fine if they’ve reached capacity, but they need to have a PLAN fro taking care of these people — where are they sending them?
I have heard that there are other shelters in Housston, I have heard that they’re bussing some of them to San Antonio, Austin, Dallas — what is sneer-worthy is the utter lack of occordination, organization and leadership that is being shown in ALL areas. Big Picture stuff, no offense to the people on tha ground who have been working around the clock all week.
actually im not being defensive at all. Ronald stated:
I’m sure reaching capacity at 11,000 is a nice way of saying we don’t want any more america refugees here.
and I’m pointing out that Dana Allen of the Red Cross is saying that the astrodome cant take anymore people because “We’ve actually reached capacity for the safety and comfort of the people inside there,”….
so i feel he’s saying “capacity is reached because we dont want any more refugees”. i say that statement is false and not the reason why capacity has been reached.
From The Indterdictor’s interview with an occupant of the Convention Centre.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/2005/09/01/
There is an armed blockade around New Orleans, no one is allowed in.
By Nagin. Pissed. Cussing on air. Being bleeped out. Appalled by response. Says there is one general, “A John Wayne” dude, who is actually leading. The rest, he is just pleading for busses and troops and some resposne.
He sounds real. He and Anderson Cooper are in the same place.
Is anyone in charge?
Bush and Brown… so no, nobody’s in charge.
Blanco seems to have a clue, though… just she’s got nothing much to back it up with, thanks to Shrub..