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I might not like some things Bush does, but I can't see how he is responsible for this natural disaster.

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You should cut the man some slack, he is your president.

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I think some people just don't like George Bush, and anything bad that happens in the world gives them an opportunity to somehow lay the blame on him.

Billy

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You can't help people who refuse to help themselves.

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the welfare and criminal class

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blackest and poorest Detroit neighborhood

Of course, Blacks are poor by choice, right? Their ancestors also came to America by choice.

BTW, when showing us web sources explaining the true roots of this, you forgot to mention that all this mess is doing of DNC, ACLU and UN!

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BTW, when showing us web sources explaining the true roots of this, you forgot to mention that all this mess is doing of DNC, ACLU and UN!

I thought it was the doing of Bush?

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Hey guys, I'm alive.

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One part of the culture of New Orleans was crime, murder, and the life of a thug. The vast majority (not all) of the people who stayed behind were the welfare and criminal class whose role models were Tupac, C-Murder, and other thugs.

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It is good to hear you are okay for now. Hang in there!

Edit: Looking at the map / pin system from the other thread, Kenner looks like it escaped most if not all of the flooding, but has a bit of wind damage.

Edit 2: Wow. Knowing Lectric's name from his public BBS user information, I was able to internet search, got a possible address, found out where it was on Google Maps and cross referenced it with the Katrina Map. The good news is that there does not look like there was any flooding in this area, except for isolated reports (less than one inch, already gone) the next street over. There were a few people asking for information, but the reports seemed to show all was mostly dry. The bad news is that this is really, really scary from a Big Brother paranoia front...

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Hey guys, I'm alive. I actually live in Kenner, outside of NO. I am CURRENTLY living in my office as my house is still flooded. Working as part of the government through this lends a different perspective of what's going on.

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For the record, then National Guard WAS deployed before the storm hit. I have become friends with our contingent here as is bound to happen to people when they are living under these conditions. Unfortunately, the NG was intended to be here on a humanitarian effort only. They were not planning on needing ANYTHING like they need now. Despite what is being reported, I have seen massive federal aid coming in. For a long while it was more than our airport could handle. Our government is not holding out on us, it as just caught ith its pants down.

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Also, communications here are a complete nightmare. We cannot make phone calls out from here. We can only recieve some phone calls. This will vastly slow response time.
One thing I am grateful for is that I have no access to TV. I don't think I could handle atching hat is going on. 2 police officers here commited suicide last night as a result of the stress. I know of 5 other people personally who did the same because they couldn't take it.

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Yesterday I was assigned to escort our media person to the media trucks. I had to see first hand the destruction in Orleans Parish. The pictures you are seeing are still likely current. As of last night, the water is still past the rooflines of all the homes I saw. I also had to go to the airport. I can't describe the suffering I've seen. Ya'll, please, we need your support. Forget about placing blame for now, please. We need your efforts to be used in a better manner. Understand, we have FEMA and police and firefighters being fired upon while they're trying to help save people. I just recieved word that the police chief of NO committed suicide. Still a rumor at this point, but unfortunately a believeable one.

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As to the numbers of people dying, the initial estimates are ranging from 15-20 thousand, but that number will surely rise as more people are found trapped in their attics and drowned and further still from the disease that is sure to come.

I'm trying but words fail to describe what horror I'm being witness to. My access is very spotty, but I'll try and give updates when I can.

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I have tried to figure out how to respond/help in my very limited terms. I have to say -- so shoot me -- that I wouldn't give a freaking *dime* to the Red Cross given their horrible track record over the past decade. So what is a secular humanist to do? Giving money to "faith-based" soup kitchens is not an option....

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EXCLUSIVE: BRITS' HELL INSIDE THE TERROR DOME
British students, Sarah Yorston, Jane Wheeldon, Jamie Trout, Marisa Haigh
TERRIFIED British students tell of dead bodies, rape, crack, gunshots, filth and a sickening stench filling the thick air.
From Ryan Parry, Us Correspondent, Inside The New Orleans Superdome

BRITISH students told yesterday how they stepped out of the horror of Hurricane Katrina into the hell of their Superdome "shelter".

A place of refuge became a terrifying trap, where knives and guns, crack cocaine use, threats of violence and racial abuse were rife.

Jamie Trout, 22, who kept a record of his four days there, said: "It was like something out of Lord of the Flies - one minute everything is calm and civil, the next it descends into chaos."

In one diary entry, he said: "A man has been arrested for raping a seven-year-old in the toilet, this place is hell, I feel sick. The smell is horrendous, there are toilets overflowing and people everywhere."

As the evacuation of the 70,000- capacity arena continued yesterday, the swamped city of New Orleans descended into near barbarism.

The looting and carjacking of recent days showed no sign of slowing. Gunfire was aimed at police and helicopters attempting to ferry the sick from hospitals, accompanied by shouts of: "You better come get my family."

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Ten thousand National Guardsmen were sent in from across the US to the flood-ravaged Gulf coast.

At least seven bodies lay unclaimed in the streets around the New Orleans Convention Centre - one a woman in a wheelchair covered by a blanket.

Daniel Edwards, 47, pointed at her and said: "I don't treat my dog like that...I buried my dog."

Amid criticism of government inaction, he added: "You can do everything for other countries but you can't do nothing for your own people.

"You can go overseas with the military but you can't get them down here."

Thousands of storm refugees massed outside the convention building, waiting for buses that never came. They had no food, water or medicines.

The Rev Issac Clark, 68, said: "We are out here like pure animals. We don't have help."

In what may be America's worst natural disaster for a century, 80 per cent of a city of 500,000 people was under water up to 20ft deep. Thousands could be dead.

At the Superdome, at least 25,000 people were moved out yesterday as New Orleans Mayor Nagin vowed: "Come hell or high water we will evacuate people today, I'll march them out if I have to." Soldiers with M16 assault rifles and grenade launchers tried to control crowds desperate to get out.

At least one person died in the arms of a soldier. A National Guardsman was wounded in the leg by his own gun in a struggle with two men and a military helicopter was shot at while ferrying away a casualty.

Brit diary-writer Jamie had been coaching football to disabled children as part of the Camp America scheme.

Jamie, who was with two friends, said: "We were in Miami for three or four days when Katrina first hit.

"We rode that storm out and then decided to go to New Orleans. We didn't realise the storm was heading that way."

He said of his eventual Superdome refuge: "There was a lot of heat from the people in there, people shouting racial abuse about us being white.

"The army warned us to keep our bags close to us and to grip them tight."

Jamie, an economics student from Sunderland, said he saw crack cocaine being used in the filthy toilets, youngsters breaking into soft drink machines and men brawling. Urine and excrement spilled into corridors where they were sleeping.

At one point, up to 30 British students gathered in the dome were so terrified of attack when the power went down that they set up a makeshift security cordon.

Zoe Smith, 21, from Hull, said: "All us girls sat in the middle while the boys sat on the outside, with chairs as protection.

"We were absolutely terrified, the situation had descended into chaos, people were very hostile and the living conditions were horrendous.

"We had to wash with tiny bottles of water, the sink was blocked and full of gunk. Even when we offered to help with the cleaning, the locals gave us abuse."

Some students said they saw an 18-inch knife confiscated from one man and many others had guns and other weapons.

Marisa Haigh, 23, from Guildford, who is studying at Birmingham University, and Claire Watkins, 23, a student from Bradford, had arrived in New Orleans last Saturday after a trip across the US.

Claire said: "We went out drinking on Saturday night and had an awesome time.

"On Sunday we had hangovers and hadn't heard or read anything about the hurricane coming in. We only realised there was something wrong when we went out in the street and no one was around, everywhere was shut or boarded up."

They were in the Superdome when Katrina hit. Marisa said: "There was a series of almighty bangs when the roof went and a panel flew off.

"There was a woman screaming, 'We're gonna die, we're all gonna die'."

Eventually many of the students were moved to the nearby basketball arena, thanks to Sgt Garland Ogden, a full-timer with the National Guard.

Jane Wheeldon, 20, said: "He went against a lot of rules to get us moved."

Yesterday Texas was ready to house 50,000 flood refugees - 25,000 of them in the Houston Astrodome, 350 miles away. The rest will go to San Antonio.

Rescue in some areas was suspended as looters ran amok.

Coast Guard Lt Cmdr Cheri Ben-Iesan said at emergency HQ: "Hospitals are trying to evacuate. At every one of them, there are reports that as the helicopters come in people are shooting at them, telling them, 'You better come get my family'. City leader Mitch Landrieu toured stricken areas and was besieged by rescued people begging him to pass information to their families.

His pocket was full of scraps of paper on which he had scribbled down their phone numbers.

He contacted a woman whose father had been saved and told her: "Your daddy's alive, and he said to tell you he loves you."

Landrieu added: "She just started crying. She said, 'I thought he was dead'."

In Britain, worried relatives of the Superdome students were told by the Mirror their loved ones were safe.

From details given to our reporters at the scene, we passed on messages to families nationwide.

Zoe Smith's mother Sharon said in Hull: "That's brilliant. It's been horrendous not knowing what on earth has happened to her. I have barely slept."

Fine art publisher Janet Murray, 55, from Frome, Somerset, whose daughter Hannah was stranded, said: "I had not heard anything, thanks so much for letting me know."

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I have tried to figure out how to respond/help in my very limited terms. I have to say -- so shoot me -- that I wouldn't give a freaking *dime* to the Red Cross given their horrible track record over the past decade. So what is a secular humanist to do? Giving money to "faith-based" soup kitchens is not an option....