What are we supposed to do? We can give money, but we have to count on others to do the work. We can't all hop on planes and fly down there and bring people food.
Tonight they were reporting that they weren't letting people into the next town "where they had electricity". They acted like that was horrible.
Well first of all, if the people could walk to the next town, they must be getting some food and water. Second, if you let 10,000 people run into the next town you would simply have a disaster there as they pillaged looking for food and water.
The mayor at one point had actually told his people to run over the bridge and try to find food and water elsewhere.
Why wouldn't a city like New Orleans have a supply depot above sea level with enough food and water for the city for a few days?
You know there were enough grocery stores in the city to feed the city for a week. They must have all either been flooded, or looted. Canned goods, canned soda, bottled water, juice, even milk would have been good for a day or two, and unaffected by the floods. This isn't Somalia.
You watch pictures, and you see people DRIVING AROUND IN THE CITY. I know its a small part, but the entire place isn't a war zone. They show people with cartloads of food and bottled water, I assume taking the food somewhere but maybe not over to the bridge where people need the food.
I simply have a hard time believing the superdome didn't have enough bottled water and soda for 20,000 people for a couple of days. Certainly they were stocked for concessions for a 72,000 person football game?
So the problem is that the entire thing is unbelievable. We sit here in Virginia, and elsewhere, and can't believe that while the old and infirmed are on that bridge, all the able-bodied men of the city are elsewhere. We know that in our town we would be there bringing food and supplies. We have done so in the past. Our neighborhood checked up on each other after the hurricane two years ago.
We simply don't understand how a major city like New Orleans could be so unprepared.
on 9/11, the NY emergency preparedness center was in the trade center complex. Obviously they were going to have problems. But Rudy set up an entire new center a few blocks away, and had control of the situation.
I don't see that from the officials in New Orleans (who probably all evacuated long before the storm).
Instead, I see people incredulous at normal, predictable events "Oh no, windows got blown out! What, there is rain and flooding? Why did so many people stay? I can't believe there is rioting and looting. We can't run the pumps because the flood water has flooded them. Oh, the brand-new canal wall has collapsed -- Who could have imagined THIS FLOODING???? What, the people in the convention center want food and water? "
We don't understand that while some people are being rescued from their roofs, others are shooting at helicopters, or threatening to kill old white people to make room on the bus. Or why Geraldo holds a pretty healthy-looking baby in his arms but can't give anybody a candy bar. Where is Geraldo getting his dinners?
We can't understand why the local police are allowed to keep people trapped in the convention center. We can't understand why they don't take supplies to the bridge.
I don't think people here are insensitive to the death and injury, we are simply trapped like deer in the headlights, unable to figure out why something like this could be happening when we are sure it would be different where we live. Even if we are wrong.