"But given the fact that everyone anticipated a possible [Category 5 hurricane] hitting shore," Diane Sawyer asked him, "are you satisfied with the pace at which this is arriving and which it was planned to arrive?"
"Well, I fully understand people wanting things to have happened yesterday. . . . I mean, I understand the anxiety of people on the ground. . . . I don't think anybody anticipated the breech of the levees," Bush said. "They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached and, as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded and now we're having to deal with it and will."
and and and!
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, under questioning, attributed the problems to "real physical constraints . . . impassable roads. . . . It's not a question of not having enough assistance.
"The critical thing was to get people out of there before the disaster," he said on NBC's "Today" program. "Some people chose not to obey that order. That was a mistake on their part."
i guess Alan C was right. why, even the head of the dept now controlling FEMA is saying it!
― kingfish 'doublescoop' moose tracks (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 1 September 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)
also I heard busho on NPR this morning and his shit about not anticipating the levee's breaching made my blood boil - i had heard it was a possibility at least 24 hrs before it occured, and I don't even pay attention to the news
― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Thursday, 1 September 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)
― gear (gear), Thursday, 1 September 2005 16:50 (twenty years ago)
LSU has been shut down for the day,as there was a carjacking this morning.
The police here are already stretched thin, as some of them are in New Orleans for relief efforts. Any more evacuees might overtax law and order, although the people left in New Orleans are more concerned with staying alive than Baton Rouge's civil disturbances. It's getting restless though. Just a handful of people can cause a lot of problems with law enforcement mostly working rescue & relief missions. The vast majority of evacuees are distraught, but peaceful.
Back from Tangipahoa Parish. There are not hundreds of trees down. It's probably tens of thousands. Electric poles are snapped off and splintered. Electric cables are strewn on the ground like spaghetti. No power. No gas. No food. Still, it's a hell of a lot nicer than New Orleans.
― badgerminor (badgerminor), Thursday, 1 September 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)
Those people aren't stupid. I've never bought batteries or water for any of the world ending blizzards that have come through, nor did I do anything to prepare for Hurricane Bob when it made landfall near my house. They just did as many of us would do.
― Alan Conceicao (Alan Conceicao), Thursday, 1 September 2005 16:58 (twenty years ago)
you may have been proved right, but was that wise?
― stet (stet), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)
Probably not. But that's how a lot of people are conditioned. I'm so skeptical of forecasts during the winter, I usually don't even watch the news, as its so often wrong about predicting giant storms and the like. Besides, if I have to go to work, I have to go to work. No one's going to take my place.
― Alan Conceicao (Alan Conceicao), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)
― Alan Conceicao (Alan Conceicao), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)
is this real? how are they relaying the info if there are no phones or computers and electricity. that said if this is real, i can't believe how bad it is re: armed thugs.
― breezy, Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:11 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)
According to Drudge, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recently enjoyed a little Broadway entertainment. And Page Six reports that she’s also working on her backhand with Monica Seles. So the Gulf Coast has gone all Mad Max, women are being raped in the Superdome, and Rice is enjoying a brief vacation in New York. We wish we were surprised.
What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman.
Angry Lady, whoever you are, we love you. You are a true American.
― O'so Krispie (Ex Leon), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)
Meanwhile:
12:38 P.M. - (AP): Two French Quarter hotels says federal officials have foiled their plans to hire buses to ferry guests to higher ground.
The general manager of the Astor Hotel at Astor Crowne Plaza says the hotels teamed to hire ten buses to carry some 500 guests.
But Peter Ambros says federal officials commandeered the buses, and told the guests to join thousands of other evacuees at the New Orleans convention center.
One man says he and others had paid $45 a seat for the buses, and that they were "totally stunned" when the buses never arrived. Another woman said the crowd had waited 14 hours for the buses. She says the idea of walking to the convention center scared her because of reports of looting.
The woman says it appears Louisiana officials have forgotten about tourists, and are just intent on getting their own residents out.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)
― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)
Fuck, right now the best trumpet player in the world is stuck in a 4th fl. apartment on Tulane.
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:25 (twenty years ago)
It's hard to believe this is New Orleans.
We spent the last few hours at the New Orleans Convention Center. There are thousands of people lying in the street.
We saw mothers holding babies, some of them just three, four and five months old, living in horrible conditions. Diapers littered the ground. Feces were on the ground. Sewage was spilled all around.
These people are being forced to live like animals. When you look at the mothers, your heart just breaks.
Some of the images we have gathered are very, very graphic.
We saw dead bodies. People are dying at the center and there is no one to get them. We saw a grandmother in a wheelchair pushed up to the wall and covered with a sheet. Right next to her was another dead body wrapped in a white sheet.
Right in front of us a man went into a seizure on the ground. No one here has medical training. There is nowhere to evacuate these people to.
People have been sitting there without food and water and waiting. They are asking -- "When are the buses coming? When are they coming to help us?"
We just had to say we don't know.
The people tell us that National Guard units have come by as a show of force. They have tossed some military rations out. People are eating potato chips to survive and are looting some of the stores nearby for food and drink. It is not the kind of food these people need.
They are saying, "Don't leave us here to die. We are stuck here. Why can't they send the buses? Are they going to leave us here to die?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
'We have to deal with the living'Posted: 10:49 a.m. ETCNN's Rick Sanchez in Metairie, Louisiana
We spent the night at the New Orleans Saints' training facility. It is the encampment for the FEMA officials and National Guard troops who will deploy out to certain areas.
They just deployed a new unit out here from California. They're called swift water operation rescue units. These folks are trained to go in and get people out of the homes that they have been stuck in for days now with water all around.
We were with a unit last night on a boat. We watched as they performed many of these rescues. It's quite a sight to see. Bodies are floating along the flooded road. And I asked them, "What do you do about that?" They said, "There's no time to deal with them now. We have to deal with the living."
See the video of thousands stranded among sewage and bodies on the riverfront -- 2:54
We went off into many communities to see if we could find people. As we were navigating through these narrow areas with power lines and all kinds of obstructions above and below us, we suddenly heard faint screams coming from homes. People were yelling, "Help! Help!"
We found one elderly woman in one home. She told us, "I've been here and I need to get out. Can you get me?" Then she said, "But there are people next door and they have babies, so leave me until morning. Get them out now."
So we contacted the swift water rescue units and they went out there. To our surprise and their surprise there were no fewer than 15 people huddled in their home. We could only hear them. We couldn't see them. We were able to assist and get the right people over there to get them out.
Just like them, there may be literally thousands that need to be rescued. It's a very daunting task for these officials.
Chaos at the convention centerPosted: 10:02 a.m. ETCNN's Jim Spellman in New Orleans, Louisiana
I don't think I really have the vocabulary for this situation.
We just heard a couple of gunshots go off. There's a building smoldering a block away. People are picking through whatever is left in the stores right now. They are walking the streets because they have nowhere else to go.
Right now, I'm a few blocks away from the New Orleans Convention Center area. We drove through there earlier, and it was unbelievable. Thousands and thousands and thousands of people spent the night sleeping on the street, on the sidewalk, on the median.
The convention center is a place that people were told to go to because it would be safe. In fact, it is a scene of anarchy.
There is absolutely nobody in control. There is no National Guard, no police, no information to be had.
The convention center is next to the Mississippi River. Many people who are sleeping there feel that a boat is going to come and get them. Or they think a bus is going to come. But no buses have come. No boats have come. They think water is going come. No water has come. And they have no food.
As we drove by, people screamed out to us -- "Do you have water? Do you have food? Do you have any information for us?"
We had none of those.
Probably the most disturbing thing is that people at the convention center are starting to pass away and there is simply nothing to do with their bodies. There is nowhere to put them. There is no one who can do anything with them. This is making everybody very, very upset.
― gear (gear), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)
She's from Birmingham, Alabama.
― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:29 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)
If Alan were still here would he have said "that's what comes of hard work- she studied hard and became valedictorian of her class and now she gets to wear nice shoes instead of suffering and dying in a hurricane"?
― k alan (Ken L), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:31 (twenty years ago)
― gear (gear), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:33 (twenty years ago)
Whoever wrote the bit about feeling ashamed to be human is right.
Corpses everywhere, raped/murdered 12 year old girls, armed thugs, etc. I hope this all will mobilize people to learn a bit more about disaster relief possibilities in their area no matter where they live (can we all not argue about whether folks in NO should be there or not
Earthquake, flood, toxic spill. No need to be perpetually paranoid, but who here is truly prepared for any of the above, or something else?
― Thea (Thea), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:36 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)
― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:38 (twenty years ago)
I just know this could be Miami, just as easily and we havent leavned much from Andrea or the others, it appears
― Thea (Thea), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:38 (twenty years ago)
typed too fast
― Thea (Thea), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)
― gear (gear), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:40 (twenty years ago)
New Orleans hospital halts patient evacuations after coming under sniper fire, a doctor who witnessed the incident says. More soon.
― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:41 (twenty years ago)
― donut gon' nut (donut), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)
― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)
To: Broadcast_LSU_Community@LSUcc:
Subject: Civil Unrest in Baton Rouge
There have been confirmed reports of civil unrest in the Baton Rougearea this morning. These incidents appear to be confined to specific areas in the downtown Baton Rouge area and specific locations around the community. At this time, local law enforcement are reported to have the situation contained. To insure safety, we have instructed that all buildings on campus be locked and we ask that occupants remain indoors. We are confident in the security procedures of LSU Public Safety and these actions will permit their timely response to any incidents that may occur on our campus.
This is a trying time for all of us in the affected areas and beyond.Our efforts now center on safety and recovery. We are primarily concerned with the safety and well being of the LSU community and we urge that safe choices be made. For those on campus who would feel more secure in their homes, we urge that you leave campus in an orderly fashion. Please be aware that these incidents of unrest in the community make travel an unknown risk at this time. Permitting time for the law enforcement personnel to work through these challenges will likely improve the security outlook in the near term.
Above all else, think through the choices being considered to assureyour safety.
Chancellor Sean O'Keefe
― badgerminor (badgerminor), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:43 (twenty years ago)
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:44 (twenty years ago)
1:37 P.M. - (AP): Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday that 1,400 National Guard troops per day are being sent in to control looting and lawlessness in New Orleans, quadrupling the regular police force in the city by the weekend.
Already, 2,800 National Guardsmen are in the city to help local police since Hurricane Katrina produced devastating floods in New Orleans, Chertoff said at a news conference with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Another 1,400 Guard troops and military police units are being added daily, he said.
Also:
1:32 P.M. - New Orleans Homeland Security Chief Terry Ebbert calls FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina an embarrassment.
It begins.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)
Is there nothing that Bush cannot fuck up and break the law trying to fix?
― badgerminor (badgerminor), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)
― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:47 (twenty years ago)
Polly Boudreaux, clerk of the St. Bernard Parish Council, issued an urgent plea Thrusday morning for help for the devastated parish.
Boudreaux, breaking into tears during a telephone interview with WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge, said the parish is wiped out.
"We're just been absolutely devastated,'' she said.
Much of the parish remained underwater, she said, and efforts to get news out have been unsucessful. And many residents still needed to be rescued.
"St. Bernard has been rescuing St. Bernard for days,'' she said.
She said little outside assistance has been able to reach the parish.
"We are not seeing it. We need help,'' she said, her voice cracking.
Boudreaux said shelters set up at Chalmette High and St. Bernard High School for people not able to evacuate Katrina, were underwater and heavily damaged. She said those staying at Chalmette High, over 1,000 people, had been evacuated to an area at the St. Bernard Port.
Food and water is having to be rationed, she said.
She was not clear on where those at St. Bernard High had been moved.
She said parish government officials are holed up at Chalmette Refinery. The parish government building is underwater.
She said parish officials have made pleas for help from the outside.
"It never came,'' she said. "We just never saw it.''
"Everybody is in need. Everybody has just been wiped out.''
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:48 (twenty years ago)
― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:49 (twenty years ago)
http://www.hurricanehousing.org/?id=5947-2900011-uFo15AFhGMy4TLcwnP89PQ
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:49 (twenty years ago)
― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:50 (twenty years ago)
― badgerminor (badgerminor), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:50 (twenty years ago)
www.hurricanehousing.org
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)
― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)
― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)
but i want to! i have rights, you know.
― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:55 (twenty years ago)
1:47 P.M. - Blanco: I've requested 40,000 troops.
1:47 P.M. - Governor Blanco: Superdome now under control, evacuations resume.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:55 (twenty years ago)
― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:57 (twenty years ago)
Cyrus Chestnut
I've got it! He was going to do a chromatic slidedown! Fancy!
― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:57 (twenty years ago)
Well then, stomp your cowboy boots on the floor instead!
― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:58 (twenty years ago)
More on Rice on Broadway in Drudge today:
"Eyewitness: Sec of State Condi Rice laughs it up at 'Spamalot' while Gulf Coast lays in tatters. Theater goers on New York' City's Great White Way were shocked to see the President's former National Security Advisor at the Monty Python farce last night -- as the rest of the cabinet responds to Hurricane Katrina..."
Even Drudge is running this at the top of a column.
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 1 September 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)
xpost
― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Thursday, 1 September 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)
Is it really, though?
― Jimmy Mod Loves Alan Canseco (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Thursday, 1 September 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)