Katrina

[dissention]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

No one's seen him.

Have you seen Faux News imploding? Shepherd Smith was cracking up a little while ago, yelling at O'Reilly and Hannity, telling them that what he's seeing is not conjecture, it's reality. He said he hasn't seen one Red Cross truck since he got there five days ago. Hannity then had the gall to say that New Orleans was facing "a slight distribution problem."

Geraldo was even more shocking. He was lifting up babies and screaming "Let these people leave! Save them! Get them out of here! Look at this baby's face, we can't let them die!" Then he started crying.

[SapphireSister]

This is all truly appauling, hearbreaking, and depressing. I was in tears reading those people's cries for help. I don't understand with so many resources and $$ available how there could be American people that are basically refugees stranded and losing their lives. With all of the manpower, donations, and money seriously how could this be happening? Are we living in a third world country? I saw the report last night on 5,000 people that were told to evacuate their homes and go to the convention center in New Orleans. As of yesterday morning they received NO water or food. How in the hell could this happen? How difficult would it be to drop supplies to them? Now a bunch of them are dead. I don't understand this. What could have taken so long? This is america. How could we leave these people standing out there with nothing when we are one of the wealthiest countries in the world?

[Brwn_eyes0511]

Originally Posted by dissention

Have you seen Faux News imploding? Shepherd Smith was cracking up a little while ago, yelling at O'Reilly and Hannity, telling them that what he's seeing is not conjecture, it's reality. He said he hasn't seen one Red Cross truck since he got there five days ago. Hannity then had the gall to say that New Orleans was facing "a slight distribution problem."

Geraldo was even more shocking. He was lifting up babies and screaming "Let these people leave! Save them! Get them out of here! Look at this baby's face, we can't let them die!" Then he started crying.

OMG! Yea I saw that...I couldn't it when he started to do that.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

Why don't they use all the abandoned military bases to house some of these refuges? Wouldn't that make sense?

That's a damn good idea.

[DownOnRodeo]

On CNN when the storm was approaching New Orleans, Chad Myers was saying that the biggest threat was of Lake Pontchartrain (sp) breaching. If even the TV weatherman could see this coming, why didn't they reinforce the levees somehow in the 10 or so hours beforehand? Obviously it would have been easier than trying to mend it after the fact..

[amber]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

It's commonly referred to as LIHOP.

right. And Cheney's in his home state, BTW.

[DrummerDeanna]

Originally Posted by dissention

Have you seen Faux News imploding? Shepherd Smith was cracking up a little while ago, yelling at O'Reilly and Hannity, telling them that what he's seeing is not conjecture, it's reality. He said he hasn't seen one Red Cross truck since he got there five days ago. Hannity then had the gall to say that New Orleans was facing "a slight distribution problem."

Geraldo was even more shocking. He was lifting up babies and screaming "Let these people leave! Save them! Get them out of here! Look at this baby's face, we can't let them die!" Then he started crying.

Not surprising - I don't know how these journalists have done this all week and stayed sane.

There was a report on NPR today - a couple of the reporters basically saw a women dying in front of them - they asked a guard (who was watching as weel ) if anything would be done to help her...the guard was like.."Um yeah - I'll get back to you on that"

It's wan't a report as much as it was as NPR refers to as "audio essays" It was heartbreaking though - and you could hear that it's hard on those covering it too....

[estranged4life]

Originally Posted by dissention

Have you seen Faux News imploding? Shepherd Smith was cracking up a little while ago, yelling at O'Reilly and Hannity, telling them that what he's seeing is not conjecture, it's reality. He said he hasn't seen one Red Cross truck since he got there five days ago. Hannity then had the gall to say that New Orleans was facing "a slight distribution problem."

Geraldo was even more shocking. He was lifting up babies and screaming "Let these people leave! Save them! Get them out of here! Look at this baby's face, we can't let them die!" Then he started crying.

I saw that...Shocking is all I can think of.

[dissention]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175928
Horrible scenes at New Orleans airport
In triage center, baggage conveyor used for grim task of moving bodies

By Kerry Sanders
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 3:26 p.m. ET Sept. 2, 2005

NEW ORLEANS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - I cannot believe what I am seeing here in the New Orleans area. I’ve been reporting for 21 years around the world and I've never seen the likes of this.

I landed here at the New Orleans International Airport in a helicopter on Thursday to get fuel in order to continue an aerial tour of the devastated area.

There was a Blackhawk helicopter just beginning to crank up on the tarmac. I ran over and asked if the NBC team could go along, figuring that they were going on a medical run. They said that they had room for one more. So, I jumped on board with a home video camera.

About six minutes later we were circling a parking garage at Tulane Hospital. We finally touched down and picked up the last 19 hospital employees being evacuated. Many of them had their families as they scrambled into the helicopter and we lifted off in the darkness.

There was a sense of excitement among the family members as we were leaving. But, personally, for some strange reason, it reminded me of that picture of the last helicopter fleeing Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.

These people were excited to get out, but weren’t even thinking about what they were leaving behind — their jobs, their community and their city.

Baggage conveyor being put to grim task
The airport, meantime, has been converted into a triage center. There are so many bodies that medical staff are using the baggage conveyor to carry the stretchers.

There are just so many patients and so few people to help. I would estimate that there are at least 1,000 patients who have been brought in here.

The patients range from babies who are 2 months old to a 91-year-old man. There is no discrimination. If you were a patient at a hospital or you were injured by the hurricane in New Orleans, you could be in this crowd.

People are coming in here with all sorts of conditions — from those who were on chemotherapy for cancer to those with heart failure.

Then there are those who were injured by the hurricane and its aftermath. I spoke to a man who was beaten up at the Superdome. His jaw was broken and he had a friend with him who had a concussion and was basically unconscious.

The man with the broken jaw said that he had another friend who was beaten to death at the Superdome. He said that they had no choice but to leave his body there.

One woman was just put down on the tarmac and left. She was there on the tarmac and clearly had no idea where she was.

I ran over and grabbed her hand and whispered in her ear, “You are OK. You are with people who will help you.” She reached up and kissed me which made me just shudder inside. She was just so frightened, as are so many of these people who are brought in here. They don’t know where they are and are just confused.

Patients are being flown out from here to Houston, Nashville, and Atlanta and then transferred from there to local hospitals.

But, not all of these patients have been identified. People are coming in and many don’t have hospital tags. Others are arriving with recent injuries dazed, unconscious, and not even knowing their own names, but they are being shipped off on planes to other hospitals. Family members may not know what happened to their loved ones. They are being distributed across the country and people don’t even know who they are.

Rude awakening
Perhaps the most difficult thing for me was when I woke up this morning next to two dead bodies.

I spent Thursday night in the triage center and went to sleep last night on an extra stretcher. When I woke up this morning, there were two body bags beside my stretcher.

The cameraman with me said they actually tried to take my stretcher during the night. They thought that I was one of the victims, until he told them I was OK and to leave me there.

The stench of death reeks inside portions of the airport here. Other parts of the airport just smell as any hospital would if there was no way to clean up. It is human misery as people are lying in pain, ailing and wailing.

The pained screams from patients is like fingers on a chalkboard because there is nothing you can do to reach out and help these people. They have limited medical supplies. They do have aircraft coming in. The C-17s, Storm-30s are moving people out of here as fast as they can.

But, as they take them out, there are still more medical choppers arriving with more patients that are coming in from hospitals that are flooded in downtown New Orleans.

Gut-wrenching
This is, I think, the hardest story I’ve ever covered. Emotionally, I’m just really being tested. I cannot believe what I’m seeing.

A reporter is supposed to remain detached and just report what’s going on. But, when there is a man lying on the ground, and he’s yelling out to anyone walking by, “Help me! I need some water! Help me!” and there is no one to help this man.

There is no one to reach down, give him some water, or hold his head, and tell him to breath slowly.

It is unimaginable. It is absolutely gut-wrenching. It’s horrible.
NBC News correspondent Kerry Sanders spent the night at the The New Orleans International Airport, now a make-shift triage center. He filed this report by satellite phone.

[GypsySorcerer]

Originally Posted by dissention

Have you seen Faux News imploding? Shepherd Smith was cracking up a little while ago, yelling at O'Reilly and Hannity, telling them that what he's seeing is not conjecture, it's reality. He said he hasn't seen one Red Cross truck since he got there five days ago. Hannity then had the gall to say that New Orleans was facing "a slight distribution problem."

Geraldo was even more shocking. He was lifting up babies and screaming "Let these people leave! Save them! Get them out of here! Look at this baby's face, we can't let them die!" Then he started crying.

I saw Shepherd. Of course, O'Reilly was trying to downplay everything that he said.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by amber

?????
WTF!!!

okay, my political guy and I were having a convo today - he said, although he doesn't think Bush et al were in the planning of 911, that they let it happen on purpose. He also said he believes there was a similar agenda for Katrina - which is bearing out - the lack of response and the lack of preventative actions point in that direction...

There was delivery man on CBS a few hours ago who said that he was told to halt his delivery of bottled water to New Orleans a couple of days before the storm hit. He just got the order to deliver the water yesterday. That strikes me as very odd.

[amber]

Originally Posted by dissention

There was delivery man on CBS a few hours ago who said that he was told to halt his delivery of bottled water to New Orleans a couple of days before the storm hit. He just got the order to deliver the water yesterday. That strikes me as very odd.

me, too - I was thinking, "for his safety reasons?" - but if it was a couple days before, he would be perfectly safe.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by amber

me, too - I was thinking, "for his safety reasons?" - but if it was a couple days before, he would be perfectly safe.

Cafferty on CNN said earlier that it strikes him as strange that the guardsmen and aid packages are just now rolling in while Bush is touring for his photo-ops.

And he's right, this **** stinks.

[Moony]

I don't think I've ever been so disgusted with my own country.

[amber]

Oh, that article you posted...My god...

"The man with the broken jaw said that he had another friend who was beaten to death at the Superdome. He said that they had no choice but to leave his body there."

Oh, the humanity.....