Eight homeless people burned to death in New Orleans trying to stay warm last night.

[jobycom]

Yeah, it's not as important as a former convict getting a high-paying job and doing well at it, but some would say it's a sad commentary on America's priorities, the poor, the homeless, the response to Katrina, and our national concern for the victims of our plunging economy, nonetheless.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/At-least-8-dead-2-survive-fire--112543334.html

NEW ORLEANS – Eight people who were apparently trying to keep warm inside of a Ninth Ward abandoned building were killed when structure caught fire early Tuesday morning.

Firefighters responding to the scene made the gruesome discovery of the bodies, burned beyond recognition.

One man was able to escape and another woman who had been staying in the building said she saw it in flames as she returned to try to spend the night and escape the near freezing temperatures.

[salin]

1. how tragic.

on so many levels.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Oh God!

:cry:

[Little Star]

3. This makes me sick! What a country, have we no shame?

But the rich need a tax break, gmafb!

[jobycom]

4. And it's not even a major story for the networks.

CNN.com has it as a minor story down-thread, and it's not even on MSNBC.com. Stories about people stuck on a ski lift take precedence. Homeless deaths versus vacation inconveniences, you see.

[TexasObserver]

5. recommend

[dkf]

6. I thought they open emergency shelters in bad weather?

Is that not normal?

[OneGrassRoot]

7. In many cities, there simply aren't enough shelters to accomodate...

the growing need.

Plus, GETTING to the various shelters is problematic for many people. Shoot, when you're cut off from communication as you focus on sheer survival, you may not even know where these emergency shelters are.

:(

[pitohui]

9. getting to the shelters from the 9th ward is not problematic

see my other post

this may be the case in some cities, but it was not the case here

crack and the fact that crackheads are slobs who start fires has been a very real problem here since the 1980s...it has NOT gone away

[pitohui]

8. the shelters were open but no crack smoking allowed in the shelters

as horrific as this story is, it didn't happen because of lack of shelters -- the freeze plans were in effect and heavily publicized

it happened because we are unwilling to allow people to gather and smoke drugs in the shelters, as we should -- those who don't smoke crack would prefer not to be burned alive in their sleep by those who do

we've had many homes and motels etc. catch fire over the years, not just abandoned dwellings, the reason is crack pure and simple

i hate that drug, just hate it

some people won't give up their drug even for a night, and in that case, what do you do? allow them into the shelter anyway to endanger everyone else? or let them gather in abandoned houses that are almost certain to catch on fire? there's no good answer

i choose to save myself and will no longer associate with or tolerate crack users period, i feel like i couldn't help them, i could only hurt myself, i formerly lived in a neighborhood where multiple houses (and NOT even abandoned houses, the people's own houses) burned down because they got involved in crack...this stuff might not kill the way heroin does but it kills

after OVER five years since katrina unsafe buildings need to be knocked down, pure and simple, instead of keeping them around as deadly attractions for homeless drug addicts, we need to get people off the streets, out of rotten moldy fallen-down post-flood buildings, and into rehab if you ask me...not that anybody did

[jobycom]

11. I haven't seen anyone say anything about crack.

Not in any of the online stories. The officials weren't saying that. If people are speculating on television, I don't have access to NOLA tv.

There are other reasons to avoid city shelters. Safety is the top one--people are afraid of being raped or mugged, or of meeting the wrong people and being stalked later. The victims here were teens and young adults, so some may have been runaways trying to avoid shelters where they could be spotted.

The building had been sheltering a lot of homeless for a long time. Doubtless many just thought of it as their home, and felt safer there than in a public shelter.

[cutlassmama]

10. the article doesn't say anything about "cracK", just that they were trying to stay warm

It's tragic

[sarcasmo]

12. Sad, just sad.