New Orleans Mayor-Out of Line?

[RICHARD]

I heard the radio interview that the NO mayor gave.

I thought it was pretty raw......but I liked it...


Here's my POV....If he was so ticked off at the Prez, why was he standing behind GWB during the Prez' visit.


I think if I was the mayor I would have issued a statement and ditched the media.

"I will meet with the president when I am assured that my people get the aid that they need. I will instead be working to assure the safety of the citizens of our city......"

So you miss a photo op with GWB, so what?


I guess that's why I am not a politician,


I have standards....

[clara4457]

It might be called a "race" issue, but it is a "class" issue. I want you all to think - back to the days where you had no car and no money. It is the 29th of the month and your paycheck is due tomorrow or the next day. You are living paycheck to paycheck - you only have $5.00 left until you get paid. That is OK - because you are going to take your paycheck and buy enough groceries (even rice and potatoes) to last you until you get paid again. You only have enough money to survive.

The mayor says you have to evacuate the city - you have no car, no money for the bus (you only have $5.00 left) and you cannot afford to go somewhere. You don't have credit cards to pay for a hotel, you don't have enough money to pay for any housing at all. You don't even have enough money to pay for one more meal. So what do you do - you stay in your home hoping that that 10 pound bag of potatoes will last. You fill your bathtub full of water and hope for the best. You don't realise that that bathtub will fill with contaminated water and your housing development will have no walls within a day.

New Orleans has some of the poorest people in the United States. They have no means of support AT ALL!!!! You have to understand that some of these people are decendents from sharecroppers and are still living in the most sqallid of conditions. Some of the people in the bayou don't even have running water or electricity and are totally living off what they can farm or fish for.

I grew up in New Orleans and saw this every day. These are not people who live in the city - these are people who live in the bayou 50 miles outside the city and depend on the land to survive on a daily basis. The land is flooded - you can't fish or hunt anymore, your shack is gone - you have no roof anymore, your vegetable crop is 6 feet underwater. These people have no phones, no televisions, no means of communication. They probably only knew what was happening by word of mouth, and by then it was too late.

This is not California where mudslides take a $2 million dollar home - this is Louisiana where the hurricane has take your $200 shack.

Did the mayor do everything right - NO. He should have sent buses into the poorer neighborhoods and tried harder to get them out. But I do think that if we can respond to the Tsunami in 2 days and we don't respond to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama for 5 days - there is a problem.

Think about it.

Think about it.

[Scooby4]

Part of the remanents of Katrina passed over my house. I am in Alabama. It had already downgraded to a tropical storm/Cat 1 by the time it got here. What most of the people don't seem to understand is that storm took HOURS to pass over to be "safe" to go out in. The storm reached me at about 5 pm and the winds did not let up until after 12 PM the NEXT day!!! The side that hit me was the "worst" side of the storm as well. It was extremely frightening. I lost half a tree in the back yard that just missed my back deck. There were leaves/debris everywhere. The roads were impassible for a period of time from downed trees. Thousands were without power for almost 2 days. I wasn't able to walk outside to clean up any debris for the winds. It was waaay too dangerous. Needed a hard hat to check the mail!
So when I hear that "help" was "Slow" in getting there. I just don't think so!!! I think help was there the NEXT day. You must remember the Coast Guard itself had "pulled" out prior to the storm's arrival!!! The Coast Guard had to evacuate their equipment to Florida or into the gulf to protect it. If they didn't it would have been destroyed with everything else. There was no way a helicopter rescue would have been possible for atleast 10 hours after the storm had ended.
That is what made me soo mad at the media. A reporter said they should have had the equipment ready once the storm hit. Do you think there is some kind of "ACT OF GOD SHIELD" around possible rescue equipment? or the people who operate it? NO!!! That stuff would have been damaged and rendered useless if any of it had stayed in the area. Emergency equipment is subject to the same conditons everything else is!!!
We also MUST remember New Orleans SURVIVED the hurricane for almost 2 days!!! It was NOT until the levies broke that New Orleans was in trouble. It is the levies breaking and NOT the hurricane that is the problem for New Orleans. It was the Hurricane that is for the rest of the gulf coast! A completely different disaster conditions.
No one was prepared for this. Especially when you have 2 different types of catastrophes into one. Flooding and wind/surge damages. I say give the government officials a break. It wasn't like homeland security can control mother nature!!!

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by clara4457

This is not California where mudslides take a $2 million dollar home - this is Louisiana where the hurricane has take your $200 shack.

In California the earthquake comes by and takes care of the rest of us AHs that can't afford the two million dollar house.

The homes in CA are a far cry from a 200 dollar shack in LA but they are both worth the same amount afterwards.

The only difference is, in California the pile of scrap that used to be a house isn't wet.

[Luvin Labs]

The NO mayor and the LA governor dropped the ball when the evacuation was announced. They had a emergency hurricane evacuation plan (http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26) all mapped out, its just the Government decided to not follow it all through... making sure people got out safely.

The government in LA needs to stop pointing fingers at the President and FEMA and take a long hard look in the mirror, that is where the failure started... and it just snowballed.

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by Luvin Labs

The government in LA needs to stop pointing fingers at the President and FEMA and take a long hard look in the mirror, that is where the failure started... and it just snowballed.

After years of 'sitting this one out' the weather caught up with those poor people.

When Katrina passed over FL i was downgraded to a Cat One storm...It picked up speed in the Gulf and that's where the it started to go wrong.

It's sad and unbelieveable that all the pundits, Left and Right are so stupid, wrong and evil.

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by Luvin Labs

The government in LA needs to stop pointing fingers at the President and FEMA and take a long hard look in the mirror, that is where the failure started... and it just snowballed.

After years of 'sitting this one out' the weather caught up with those poor people.

When Katrina passed over FL it was downgraded to a Cat One storm...It picked up speed in the Gulf and that's where the it started to go wrong.

It's sad and unbelieveable that all the pundits, Left and Right falling all over themselves to make a point....

[moosmom]

As an American with mixed heritage, I am disappointed that the "race card" is constantly played

Personally, I'm sick and tired of the "race card" being played. I see it almost every single day in one newspaper or another, newscast, etc. On the newscasts, they EMPHASIZE a black man being shot by a WHITE cop, a WHITE woman being mugged by a BLACK thug, and on, and on, blah, blah, blah. It's not about color. It's about crime and humanity.

It's sad and unbelieveable that all the pundits, Left and Right falling all over themselves to make a point....

AMEN to that!!!

[Daisy and Delilah]

I'm with you moosmom! Perhaps if we eliminate the playing of the "race card" we can actually get down to basics in this country. It seems we're so wrapped up in color that we're carelessly avoiding the real issues at hand.