St. Bernard Update, 9-2 1:05 AM CST
1;05 AM Chalmette Standard Time
1) 100 dead at Chalmette Slip from tardy rescues that came too late and a dearth of supplies.
2) Water level still dropping...3 ft on Paris Rd. north of JP.
3) Parish officials are in bad need of supplies...keep the heat on Blanco please...they need clothes and medicine.
4) Rescues continue. Localk efforts will be augmented with 6 search and rescue boat teams from Mobile, AL. Bless our neighbors.
5) Village Square Shopping Center is no more. The apartment buildings are also mostly rubble according to a deputy.
6) Please continue posting addresses and names at savingstbernard.blogspot.com for places that SHOULD be checked.
7) All CMC employees have been evacuated for a long time...they are no longer in the parish. Await word from them later personally.
8) All gov't personnel are present and accounted for. (cops, workers, firemen, etc).
9) Shootings have gone down. Orders have been given that looters will be fired up in St. Bernard.
10) Please be patient and continue to pray. More news tomorrow.
1) 100 dead at Chalmette Slip from tardy rescues that came too late and a dearth of supplies.
2) Water level still dropping...3 ft on Paris Rd. north of JP.
3) Parish officials are in bad need of supplies...keep the heat on Blanco please...they need clothes and medicine.
4) Rescues continue. Localk efforts will be augmented with 6 search and rescue boat teams from Mobile, AL. Bless our neighbors.
5) Village Square Shopping Center is no more. The apartment buildings are also mostly rubble according to a deputy.
6) Please continue posting addresses and names at savingstbernard.blogspot.com for places that SHOULD be checked.
7) All CMC employees have been evacuated for a long time...they are no longer in the parish. Await word from them later personally.
8) All gov't personnel are present and accounted for. (cops, workers, firemen, etc).
9) Shootings have gone down. Orders have been given that looters will be fired up in St. Bernard.
10) Please be patient and continue to pray. More news tomorrow.
posted by BourbonConservative at 11:06 PM
2 Comments:
I've been reading your posts blaming the Governor and others for the disaster in St. Bernard. And I'm not going to dispute her share of the blame (although let's face it, the vast majority of aid to New Orleans has been by bus, and driving to St. Bernard, well, forget about it. And as we well know by now, the National Guard's amphibious vehicles are in Iraq.
However, I think that one question needs to be asked of President Bush today: Within hours after this began, Hugo Chavez offered humanitarian aid. President Bush, carrying on a long standing (and stupid) policy by the United States, refused the aid. Now, even if we assume the worst (that Chavez is a cynical socialist politician who just wanted to be able to use it for propaganda purposes), it should have been accepted. If the situation were well in hand and the aid was not needed then it would have been fine for President Bush to have refused the aid. But the situation was NOT well in hand. (and, by the way, just as St. Bernard and Plaquemines are the farthest parishes from where aid can be bused to, just geographically, it is likely that aid deployed by sea from Venezuela would have gotten to these coastal areas first). The price for the President's arrogance is being paid in lives. And, since then it isn't just Venezuela, at least twenty other nations have made offers of humanitarian aid (including at least one other Caribbean nation, Jamaica) and he has refused every single one of them. Maybe he wants to keep Americans thinking that we never get these kinds of offers so they will support his next unilateral decision, or maybe he is too proud, or too concerned with the image of people eating food donated from another government, or who knows why?. But with people dying out there, I don't think he has the moral authority to refuse any aid at all. Heck, if Osama bin Laden sent a ship full of supplies, we should take it (not that that would happen, jihadists have been outright happy and gleeful about Katrina.)
Oh, yes, and one other question for the President. Given that roads are impassible and waters are choked with debris, the most logical way to get aid to areas like St. Bernard would be an airdrop. We did that in Mozambique a few years ago, an airlift on a massive scale to a flooded area. Mozambique is literally on the other side of the world, so why can't we do the same here?
Like I said on one of your other posts, there is more than enough blame to go around. But for every finger you can point at Governor Blanco, you can find one to point at President Bush.
Very well said Eli.
I'm in agreement that there is enough blame to go around, and that it should go all the way to the top office in the nation. The hurricane didn't sneak up on the state of Louisiana, neither did its existence come as a surprise to federal agencies. For desgnated shelters to not be stocked with food and water in excess amounts, so it would be reachable to distribute in a worst case scenario is just inconceivable to me, for there not to be a rallying of National Guard and assistance agencies to various positions not far outside of the projected storm path so they could move in quickly is equally inconceivable. Many are to blame for poor planning and inaction, but it was the people of New Orleans who inevitably paid the price. I'm disgusted on so many levels that all I can do is shake my head as I type this.
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