New Orleans
What can I say about New Orleans? There are many bloggers with better positions or abilities to describe what is happening. I will say this to all those who have written that this is "our tsunami." Hurricane Katrina did not cause the loss of life the tsunami did. We had foreknowledge of the hurricane's approach. We have officials who were supposed to have evacuations plans in place. We have many more resources available. Yet, we have this:
"I don't want to see anybody do any more goddamned press conferences... put a moratorium on press conferences, don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city, and then come down to this city and stand with us... Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here - they're not here; it's too doggoned late. Now get off your asses and let's do something..." -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin
You can find the entire interview online: mp3, mp3, or mp3. I'll post a link to the transcript when it becomes available.
A DirectNIC data center crisis coordinator is posting from downtown New Orleans. The CEO of DirectNIC, Sigmund Solares, has posted some pictures that should be viewed because they are not professional and weren't shot for their Pulitzer Prize Potential. Not that every professional photographer in New Orleans has his eyes on the prize, but professional photographers have a natural self-censorship amatuers do not.
I'll end with a pair of quotes from the journal linked above:
Although obviously he has no exact count, he estimates more than 10,000 people are packed into and around and outside the convention center still waiting for the buses. They had no food, no water, and no medicine for the last three days, until today, when the National Guard drove over the bridge above them, and tossed out supplies over the side crashing down to the ground below. Much of the supplies were destroyed from the drop. Many people tried to catch the supplies to protect them before they hit the ground. Some offered to walk all the way around up the bridge and bring the supplies down, but any attempt to approach the police or national guard resulted in weapons being aimed at them.
Before the supplies were pitched off the bridge today, people had to break into buildings in the area to try to find food and water for their families. There was not enough. This spurred many families to break into cars to try to escape the city. There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area -- Saulet Condos -- once they tried to get cars from there... well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed. Snipers got on the roof and told people to get back.
