Scott @ 19 et al. A passport was not required for military personnel in Europe in the late 70s and early 80s for travel within and between NATO member countries plus France. I travelled all over Western Europe on my Army ID card.
The only time I ever ran into any friction was in the UK where an officious immigration officer insisted that he had to stamp something. We examined my leave form and found a empty rectangular box labeled "Remarks" which he promptly stamped and sent me on my way.
Born in 1956. I remember spreading the newspaper out on the floor to examine the aerial photos of the missile sites in Cuba. As we lived in Tampa, only a few miles from Macdill Air Force base, the news dominated the papers and local television for days. I could only read a few words, such as "Cuba", but I was able to match them up with what I was hearing on TV, and the pictures in the paper were clearer.
Tancredo? I thought that was the core religious belief of sun worshippers.
::ducks and runs::
Tavella: I had only heard about outlying towns getting power.
The French Quarter has underground power lines that are pretty much floodproof, and I suspect many of the larger buildings downtown have the same. I now guess that both will come back online when the substations come back, but the areas that had overhead lines will be dark for weeks or months even.
Also, power is not water or sewer. There's still a public health hazard until those get fixed. I don't like the thought of forcing people out of their homes at gunpoint either, but I think they have valid reasons to evacuate the city and keep it evacuated.
I also don't really think that the rescue personnel will actually shoot someone in order to evacuate them. In some cases, having that gun pointed at you means that you can leave with your pride intact. "They had to put a gun to my head to make me leave." The couple of photo-essays I've seen showed people being coerced out by being told they would get no more water delivered. The shotguns stayed pointed at the ground and pistols holstered.
It's all terrifying and horrible and uplifting and exasperating at the same time. Fact competes with rumor and opinion with prejudice. Heads need to roll for this one. Heads need to roll for months and years to come.
There seems to be some geographical confusion. New Orleans is like Boston in that it's a city surrounded by smaller cities and towns, cheek by jowl. It is not unusual that they might be evacuating New Orleans at the same time that people are returning to parts of Kenner (two towns over) to pick up belongings and have some electricity and they expect to restore some utilities to Metairie just next door. The non-local press may report all of these as New Orleans, umbrage not withstanding.
Had to run off to work 30 or so posts ago. More little points about The Scotsman. The article in question also states:
"Bush announced active duty troops from ..., the 1st Calvary, ...would arrive..." What? You mean the Golgotha brigade?
There's another article in the sidebar entitled Escape from a hotel full of looters which includes the following sentence:
"A Jewish missionary couple working there warned the tourists to be on their guard..."
Uh, wait a second. Jewish missionary couple? Damn near stripped my cerebral clutch shifting mental gears on that one. (I mean, after spending a small fortune on Jeho-No-Mo spray, I would welcome Jewish missionaries at my front door on a Sunday morning.)
I do not get a sense that The Scotsman is exactly a reliable source. Perhaps it should have a yellow background on the web pages.
The euthanasia story sounds like bull to me. No names, no hospital name, and 380 pounds is not THAT heavy.
Sorry Other Bob (if there is an Other Bob), meant Another Bob.
Actually Other Bob, people here would be first in line to rip Kerry a new one if he had appointed incompetent hacks to FEMA, resulting in thousands of deaths.
You gotta understand that us "lefties" and "tree huggers" and "just plain decent folk" don't give up our right to think in order to march in lockstep with the party of our Dear Leader.
My SO just pointed out that my post made it seem like I was a little too knowledgeable about this topic. I just want to assure everyone that I have no hands-on experience in this area. I just look around a lot and notice everything while I'm waiting for a prescription to be refilled. Honest. I read the ingredients on food containers too. I just happen to pay attention to these things. Really.
Make sure you have a hand sledge, cold chisel, and (important!) safety goggles before you hit the pharmacy, because the opiates are in locked dispensers.
True enough John, but DHS hasn't even organized the division that's supposed to replace FEMA. Widespread catastrophic incompetence. Heads would roll all the way to the top if I had my way.
To go along with Feeble Emergency Management Attempts I would also propose redefining DHS to mean Don't Help Survivors.
Apparently FEMA now means Feeble Emergency Management Attempts.
A point that people seem to have missed - the American Red Cross is not really a first response organisation. They don't go into an area until after the disaster is over. As Rachel indicated above, their volunteers are not trained for emergency response, but for aftermath services.
From what I've pieced together, the ARC deployed all around the anticipated emergency area, preparing sites for an influx of casualties and refugees and did so with reasonable competence and efficiency. The local city and parish first response teams were so overwhelmed by the onslaught of the hurricane and subsequent flooding that they could not properly do their jobs, and FEMA failed utterly and catastrophically to do theirs.
The Coast Guard and the LA State Fisheries and Wildlife people moved in and began rescuing people from the water, but their job is to take evacuees to pickup points and then go back to rescue more. FEMA still did nothing to get people to shelter and then to get them out of the city. FEMA did not get the National Guard units moved into the city, FEMA did not get additional Guard and Regular military deployed, FEMA apparently didn't even watch sufficient television to see what was happening in the city. Most damning of all, FEMA even failed to fill out paperwork to get things moving. Never mind an emergency, FEMA can't even manage the paperwork for their own bureaocracy.
So the ARC people are likely sitting there feeling helpless. They have food and water and social services, exactly what the citizens of New Orleans need. The National Guard still has not made it in to secure the city due to criminally incompetent delay on the part of FEMA, so the ARC offers to send in food and water and gets rebuffed by FEMA.
What can they do now? What if they ignore the rebuff and try to send in a convoy only to be prohibited from entry, and meanwhile the first convoy of evacuees gets out only to find a partially staffed Red Cross center? Meanwhile, FEMA keeps assuring the ARC that the Nat Guard is on the way and just sit tight.
The duty of the Red Cross groups in this type of disaster is to setup in a safe spot and wait for the emergency services to bring people out. It would be extremely difficult for a Red Cross commander to ignore the plan, take matters into their own hands, and risk making things worse.
Of course I wasn't there, and I'm only guessing as to what went on the last few days, but I place the blame squarely on FEMA for failing to plan better for a foreseeable disaster, for failing to prepare for it during the warning period, and for utterly failing to act when decisive action would have made a difference. Ultimately the responsibility resides with Bush. (Foaming at the mouth expletive laden rant deleted.)
On a slightly lighter note, a commenter at Eschaton posted a nice email received from Netflix detailing how his account would be paused and recent charges refunded until such time as he wanted to resume the service, plus the promise of a gratis month upon resumption. Netflix had already received notice from the USPS that mail was not deliverable to his address. Apparently the oft maligned US Postal Service is the only part of the Federal Government that is capable of operating efficiently and effectively during a disaster, despite the fact that their role usually ceases to exist in a disaster area. Maybe next time we should simply mail food and water to the victims. It would be more likely to get there.
I'm red-green color blind and I find the new color scheme to be much more readable.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 2 |
| 2007 | 3 |
| 2005 | 11 |
| 2003 | 1 |
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