GuardianUK- 'They're not giving us what we need to survive'

[RightSightBrightLite]

'They're not giving us what we need to survive'

Jamie Doward reports on the fury of New Orleans residents who say they were ignored and mistreated by the authorities

Sunday September 4, 2005
The Observer

Only now, a week after Hurricane Katrina roared across the Deep South, leaving a trail of devastation across America's psyche, is the true story of the Battle of New Orleans emerging.

As convoys of commandeered school buses and Greyhound coaches transported tens of thousands of refugees out of the submerged city yesterday, in a belated and much-criticised relief operation, each vehicle brought with it new tales of horror.

Those trapped inside the two main shelters, the Superdome and the Convention Centre, paint a picture of a city that was subsumed beneath waves of violence, rape and death and accuse the police and National Guard of standing by, ignoring their pleas for help.

The claims are rejected by the federal and state authorities, who instead suggest the looting and lawlessness which followed the extensive flooding of the city was the result of a series of isolated incidents perpetrated by a few.

But it is clear from talking to survivors that what happened in New Orleans last week was far more extensive, bloody and terrifying than the authorities have admitted so far.

'We had to wrap dead people in white sheets and throw them outside while the police stood by and did nothing,' said Correll Williams, a 19-year-old meat cutter from the Crowder Road district in the east of the city, who waded two miles through waist-high water to make it to the Convention Centre after hearing on the radio it was being turned into a refuge.

'The police were in boats watching us. They were just laughing at us. Five of them to a boat, not trying to help nobody. Helicopters were riding by just looking at us. They weren't helping. We were pulling people on bits of wood, and the National Guard would come driving by in their empty military trucks.'

Williams only left his apartment after the authorities took the decision to flood his district in an apparent attempt to sluice out some of the water that had submerged a neighbouring district. Like hundreds of others he had heard the news of the decision to flood his district on the radio. The authorities had given people in the district until 5pm on Tuesday to get out - after that they would open the floodgates.
(snip)

As the repeated promises of buses failed to materialise, people in the shelters started stealing cars. 'How do you expect people to act right when they're starving to death?' asked Williams. 'There were bodies all over. We were just throwing them out the front. They (the authorities) are blaming it on the people, making it look like it was the people's fault, but it's really their fault because they're not giving us what we need to survive. So now people are going and getting guns in order to fight back, in order to survive cos they don't want to help us.'

Outside the Convention Centre, where an estimated 15,000 people were seeking refuge, bodies lay ignored. A woman in a wheelchair and an elderly man on a chaise longue could be seen festering in the heat. On Wednesday, eight 11-strong teams from the Louisiana State Police entered the centre, where they were repelled by angry gangs, some of whom were armed. Yesterday scores of police officers were said to have resigned from the force, complaining their jobs had become too dangerous.
(snip)
The chronic failure to resolve the situation in the Convention Centre - and to a lesser extent the Superdome, where the situation was apparently more calm - was described as a 'national disgrace' by the increasingly angry Nagin.

'You would think that on day five of the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States, and possibly the world, we would not still be waiting for troops and buses,' Nagin said on Thursday.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1562415,00.html

audio interview with Mayor Nagin he is confounded and dumfounded, very, very upset
listen@ http://www.deadlykatrina.com/Nagin.mp3


more danger & death after the storm passed !

[whistle]

1. This must be documented before these people disappear permanently

[RightSightBrightLite]

2. some documentation I pulled together from search for Gulf bloggers

There is a war on 'little america'

Grokking, Grasping the Legacy of Hurricane K - bl0g rep0rts 8/31
author: CultureJamCleveland

Citizen media, journalism, & reports as it happened on Wednesday August 31st. Real time web dispatches from across the Gulf as the historic disaster unfolded, survivor accounts, photos, amateur video, links to TV station forums, and a sample of the best bloggers - discovered in a half-day scour using blog search engines. This story must be told, full documentation and a wide-eyed, open assessment must be adamantly sought, to insure better preparation in the future, and accountability for the slow, lame, immediate response which unnecessarily fomented greater tragedy upon the refugees above and beyond the devastating force of Mother Natures pass through. Without further adieau, this info-share is a
webs-eye view on the lesson & legacy of Hurricane Katrina. Refugee's, keep your hopes alive, look for the silver-linings from those clouds, we can only feel deep empathy, as the 'unpredictable' weather affects & connects Us All, as the famous playwright noted,
" One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
William Shakespeare

see~ http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/09/324064.shtml

~always trying to make the best of even utter adversity is one of the main functions in the repertoire of humane, caring people with the aim of spreading love.

~~is this a lesson asking for integration, realization to jump-start transformation in the quest for some unification to congeal at a higher-level?

*There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.
R. Buckminster Fuller

homepage: http://www.clevelandmetronews.com