Resonant Information - Angry - Comments

Sure it will. Let's see how

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 12:27:39 -0500

Sure it will. Let's see how they do when the Avian flu starts killing 10's of thousands of Americans.

We live in a "JIT (Just In Time) society that doesn't have the ability to do that effectively.

FYI

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 02:04:17 -0500

to date, the mall you are referring to, Oakwood Shopping Center, actually in Terrytown, Louisiana (an unincorporated city / town in Jefferson Parish, not Gretna) is still not open, (apparently less than 50% of the stores are not open)

Please get informed.

many homes and lives were

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 01:54:09 -0500

many homes and lives were saved due to the HEROIC efforts of our police. remember we had no outside help, just a small police force holding our city together. the people that did make it through actually set our only mall on the westbank ablaze, and as of today, Feb. 20, 2006 has yet to re-open due to the substantial amount of damage.

GET INFORMED!!!!!!!!!!!!1

listen up

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 01:51:15 -0500

if you know anything about the city, you would know that the bridge connecting Gretna to New Orleans is actually over dry land, so if anyone drowned it surely was NOT in Grenta. Once you are over the Mississippi River from New Orleans you enter into Algiers, which is STILL part of NEW ORLEANS, then you pass into Terrytown, which is an unincorportated part of Jefferson Parish, THEN you pass into Gretna, which is a Corportated part of Jerfferson Parish, with it's own government (mayor, council, etc.)

fema sucks

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:32:05 -0500

fema sucks. how do you live in the middle of a swamp with fish and gator swimming in front of were you use to live,and they say you dont have enough damage.

Another great interjection by FEMA...

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 14:17:18 -0400

I am a member of a DMAT team and as with any "orginization" there are always things that make you say umm..... Take care of your own first before you help others I always say.....

Updated: 10-04-2005 10:01:23 AM
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ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHOENIX (AP) -- The Phoenix Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue
team has been suspended from a federal agency because it sent armed
police officers to protect firefighters during the recent hurricanes
in the Gulf Coast.

At issue is a rule in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Code
of Conduct that prohibits Urban Search and Rescue teams from having
firearms.

Phoenix's team that deployed for Hurricane Katrina relief and again
for Hurricane Rita included four police officers deputized as U.S.
marshals.

The team was credited with plucking more than 400 Hurricane Katrina
survivors from rooftops and freeway overpasses in flooded sections of
New Orleans.

Phoenix officials now are threatening to refuse some of the most
dangerous deployments in the future or possibly even pull out of the
federal agency altogether, unless the rules are changed to allow teams
to bring their own security, even if that means police with guns.

Assistant Phoenix Fire Chief Bob Khan said his department also is
questioning the federal agency's ability to manage working conditions,
security and communications.

''Our priority has to be the safety of the firefighters we're
sending,'' Khan said.

Phoenix police were added to the team about a year ago, and officials
say they are essential to protecting firefighters and FEMA's $1.4
million worth of equipment. Firefighters do not carry weapons.

''This is crazy,'' Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said Monday. ''This is a
rule that was designed before the world changed, pre-9/11. You can't
stand on bureaucracy if we're going to protect and save lives, and
that's what these teams do.''

FEMA relies on 28 elite teams like Phoenix's across the country to
perform specialized rescue operations immediately after terrorist
attacks and natural disasters.

After Hurricane Katrina, firefighters faced deployment to areas
plagued by looting and lawlessness. Twice, Phoenix's team was
confronted by law enforcement officers who refused to let them pass
through their communities and told them to ''get out or get shot,''
Gordon said.

Phoenix's team was demobilized unexpectedly on Sept. 26 after members
were seen embarking on a helicopter sortie with a loaded shotgun while
assigned to help with the aftermath of Rita.

In a letter to Phoenix Fire Chief Alan Brunacini dated Sept. 29, FEMA
said Phoenix was placed on ''non-deployment status'' essentially for
including armed police on the team without approval.

Gordon has sent a letter to FEMA officials requesting that the Code of
Conduct ''be changed from an unrealistic 'No firearms allowed' to a
common-sense 'No firearms allowed except for U.S. marshals integrated
into the USAR team.'''

Doing anything useful?

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 17:00:44 -0400

Doing anything useful? Let's see, I spent 2 weeks in LA doing relief aide with FEMA - I am a member of a DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team) and we converted a high school into a hospital while the local hospitals were not able to take all the patients (we supplemented for them, which is what FEMA does - supplement not first responders).

FEMA is not military, we don't carry weapons! I talked with some of the members of the two DMAT teams that were in the Superdome (these are veteran DMAT members that have been deployed before) and they were shell shocked by how the people in the dome were treating each other and the relief workers (threats of being killed, raped, etc). If you wish to look for blame as to what happened in the Superdome, try the Mayor as it was his plan to house people there and also his inadequecy to not know well enough that there was no food, no pottable water, no supplies waiting for these folks. Where was the Mayor during all this, why he was safe and dry somewhere else.

Also, the DMAT\DMORT\VMAT teams are all made up of VOLUNTEERS that have to leave behind thier families and full time jobs to respond to a disaster. I had approximately 2 hours to tell my boss, tell my wife, get my stuff and get to the airport - I didn't even get to tell my kids goodbye.

FEMA is a SUPPLEMENTAL organization, FEMA does not act as first responders (that is the local Fire, Police, and the like). THere were 19 DMAT teams waiting for Katrina to make landfall and then moved on the "states" orders to FEMA for where to go and what to do.

There was failure at every level of government on this Natural Disaster, everyone has learned from this and it will make this country stronger.

Possibly one drowning as well

Zed — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:43:58 -0400

As an additional note, there is a (currently still unsubstantiated) claim that at least one person possibly drowned when the crowd fled the gunfire at the bridge, but I consider that almost incidental to the greater crime against the several hundred.

Many died

Zed — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:36:34 -0400

As of September 21, the death toll in Louisiana was 799. We will never know how many of those people died because they were prevented from evacuating via Gretna, but the number is likely to be significantly larger than zero.

Bridge

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:29:41 -0400

How many died on the Bridge blocked by Gretna Police? 0

desperate refugees

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:23:56 -0400

What did New Orleans do for the desperate refugees? They didn't feed them. They didn't provide them with transportation. They didn't even police them. They sent them to Gretna just to get them out of their way.

NEWS

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:19:09 -0400

You are absolutely right. If your reference, all the way in Baton Rouge, is the media, your right. We all know that the media tells the truth. Dan Rather proved that. It really is meaningless for me to make any statements, considering I can't prove anything. But on the other hand, neither can you. I guess we are both banging our heads against a brick wall. I suppose that is what makes this so frustrating, yet entertaining. Thanks for the debate.

Hitchhiker

Zed — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:09:35 -0400

You don't seem to have picked up yet on the fact that I don't live in New Orleans, and never have. Between walking and hitchhiking for about 8 hours, the hitchhiker had made it to the outskirts of Baton Rogue, which is where I picked him up.

The problem is that you don't provide any references at all. You have blanket claims about police being shot at, but no names, no references, nothing to indicate that Gretna police actually were shot at. You claim that 50% of the stores aren't opening, and then don't provide any way to verify this claim. You say that Gretna provided safe transportation for 4,000 refugees... but have nothing to back this up, and the evidence I've seen (and linked to) is that this didn't actually happen.

You're expecting me to believe some random stranger on the internet on claims that are contradicted by existing evidence. Yes, when all the evidence points in one direction, I tend to find that pretty convincing. If you want to change my mind, the answer is simple: you have to actually provide some evidence of your own.

Incidentally, the Gretna police technically "abandoned their city" to put up that roadblock — they were on the New Orleans side of the bridge, and were outside of their jurisdiction. I'm quite curious to see whether that has legal repercussions for them. In any case, if you're going to send a couple dozen police to attack refugees, you can probably spare a couple to lead them to safety.

YOU GOT ME

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:54:52 -0400

It's amazing that all of these people were trapped, yet you were able to make your way to the "possible" evacuation point at I-10 and Clearview, the Oakwood Mall, the Fischer Housing Project, and still pick up a hitchhiker. Tell the police officers that were shot at that the bullets weren't real. Tell the thousand or so mall employees that their workplace is intact and that they can return to work. (By the way, over 50% of the stores are not opening, due to fire and smoke damage). I'm assuming that if the fire didn't reach the roof in the entire mall, it simply didn't happen. I guess the Gretna Police should have abandoned their city to escort New Orleans evacuees. SMART! Look, we could go back and forth all day long, but the fact still remains that New Orleans did not properly attend to the citizens. False information from the Mayor and media caused the evacuees to walk to Gretna, at which time Gretna safely provided transportation for over 4000 New Orleans evacuees. Sorry I can't give as many references as you, but you are obviously convinced of your truth.

Try providing references

Zed — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:03:46 -0400

If you want to be convincing, you might want to provide references for your assertions. In particular, the rumor that looters began burning down the local mall has been previously described to me as false (there was one incident at Oakwood Shopping Center involving a fire, and the satellite photos from shortly after the event show that it was definitely not burned down). Also, reports of gunfire have apparently been vastly exaggerated even in New Orleans, and I found exactly zero reports of gunfire exchanges in Gretna. In addition, which "evacuation point" are you referring to? The I-10 highway overpass that Chief Lawson pointed at? As far as I can tell, no official evacuations were actually taking place there and no supplies were dropped; it appears to be a dumping ground to take people away from Gretna without providing them with any real help.

When I looked at the maps, the Gretna police were blocking the only usable exit from the city from the Superdome area. There is one rather silly map that has been posted elsewhere that you're probably referring to... expecting the refugees to follow the flooded river next to damaged levees to go across the length of a mostly flooded New Orleans to reach this mythical evacuation point that nobody told them about, as opposed to walking on a dry road to the nearest shelter. It's worth noting that the Gretna police didn't even so much as suggest this route to them. Even if such a passage was possible, it wasn't known to be so at the time.

Incidentally, I'm not convinced that there was in fact a dry route to I-10 from the east side. I picked up a hitchhiker who got out that way... but only with the aid of a canoe he got from his neighbor.

And for the record, no Gretna police officers had to deal with the same conditions as the NOPD. The Gretna police were relatively well supplied, with relatively safe families and homes to go back to. New Orleans police had practically no supplies, families in neighborhoods under twenty feet of water, no communications, and were sometimes taking fire. I've seen pictures of Gretna, and I've seen pictures of New Orleans; if you are attempting to equate the two, the cluelessness is not on my part. I can also assure you that I didn't require evacuation, nor have I accepted federal emergency funds.

As a final note, nothing justifies attacking a refugee encampment with helicopters to break it up, and then stealing their supplies. If this is your shining example of true courage on the part of the Gretna police, then yes, I don't use the word like you do. Even assuming all of your claims were true, the correct action was to have a pair of police officers simply lead the group to the other exit. That would have been courage. Attacking an unarmed crowd and sentencing the entire group to possibly die because a few of the members might have been criminals is cowardice, no matter how you paint it.