Replies

What you say is true. In addition, the Superdome (and for that matter the convention center) was never meant to be a shelter, but it was opened as a shelter of last resort when it was realized just how many people didn’t leave. There were no water and food supplies at all set aside for these people by the Red Cross because they decided a year before to not set up shelters below I-12. Also, the plan by the city govt was to wait 3 days for a rescue by the state and federal govts while the local residents sustained themselves off their own emergency supplies. That plan was doomed to failure because far too many people either didn’t have 3 days of emergency supplies, left the supplies behind in their homes, or they were stolen by others.

Just so that you are aware, the city/ state had nothing to do with what was set up at Qualcomm. Volunteers set the entire operation in motion and have maintained it all through this crisis.

The supplies, food, diapers, etc ALL came from volunteer organizations. Walmart committed $1 million worth of products. A Hyatt sent one of their Chefs who proceeded to cook, out in the open, a sumptuous dinner...for 10, 500 of his closest friends.

Bands showed up, unbidden, to play for the evacuees. A masseuse arrived. She said that she didn't have much to give but she would give free massages, which she proceeded to do for the elderly, for firefighters and for the police.

People like my son who is a student, his girlfiend, his roommate and a friend, made sandwiches, bought water, diapers and baby wipes and took them down to Qualcomm...and waited in a long line for almost an hour to deliver what they had brought.

And then? They stayed...helping others to unload the things that they had brought in their cars and trucks.

Later Monday night, at about 1:30 he received a call from a friend. He and his Mom had to evacuate their home in Spring Valley and didn't have enough space in the car to load their things.

The Sofalad told them to leave what they wanted him to pick up in the front room, go to the shelter, and he and another friend that he called and woke, active Navy, I might add, drove out to Spring Valley at 2am, found the key that his buddy had left, loaded up their things and brought it home.

Spring Valley is anything but an affluent neighborhood. It's a blue collar neighborhood, filled with folks who bust their hump to make a living...people who are the salt of the earth...our friends and neighbors. People from every walk of life, from the extremely affluent to the homeless were affected by this fire. Everyone from LaDainian Tomlinson to the homeless.

The difference between San Diego and New Orleans is stark and quite simple to explain.

We want to help each other. When the fit hit the shan, we wanted, and needed, to help. We're proud of our city, we're proud of our people and we're proud of the fact that we are a 3 million person community.

And today, even more than I was on Sunday, I am so proud of my city and her people. This disaster has brought our city together. White, Black, Brown, Pink, Blue and Yellow..no-one cared. Homeless, Celebrity, gay, straight, we're San Diegans, and we'll rebuild together.

We have our gangs and we have our celebrities. We have poor folks and we have immensely affluent folks. But when we have a problem? We just have San Diegans. We get off our arse and we help each other.

I've quoted this several times over the past 2 days. One evacuee at Qualcomm said, "We can deal with this or we can whine about it". He evac'd with just the clothes on his back, and he was helping volunteers set up tents for other evacuees at the time.

The difference between San Diego & New Orleans? We get up and "do". We don't wait for the government to arrive.

Just so that everyone here knows how fast things were put into place at Qualcomm.....when we evacuated from Rancho Bernardo around 8am on Monday morning, we were told that we could go to Qualcomm but that there wasn't anything there but port-a-potties. The Red cross hadn't already set things up and stood waiting for people to arrive, It was the other way around.

We were on our way to the Q when my DH got a phone call from a friend in Sripps Ranch. We quickly exited the freeway (I-15) and took them up on their kind offer because, contrary to popular belief, sleeping on the asphalt didn't seem like much fun.