Plenty of Blame to Go Around, page 1

Originally posted by nikelbee
Catherder

Why are you talking about searching through the ENTIRE state in 4/5 days? How about starting with the people all amassed in the Superdome? At one time there were over 70,000 in and outside, getting no aid whatsoever.

No, that's just untrue. The seating capacity of the Superdome is 70,000. You have confused one bit of information reported with the number of people at the Superdome. The highest number ever reported accurately was quoted as "25,000 victims, the majority of them at the Superdome." (Some reports said up to 30,000.) On September 2nd there were already evacuees from the Superdome being interviewed in Texas at the Astrodome -- so that means they were being relocated within 2 days of the flooding).

Were they taken care of properly? I dont think the criticism is for the entire 90,000 sq mass and for helpers not being able to find everybody when this isn't what people are complaining about.

No, they weren't taken care of quickly enough. I'm not arguing that at all. But it's sure as hell no conspiracy -- it's a failure in the response at many levels. I'm not sure the proper plan to rescue 25,000 people would have been to start showing up with a few buses here and there, I'm positive this would have caused a riot when you consider the situation in the Superdome as reported by actual survivors who were eventually moved from there to other locations. Showing up with a large group of National Guard and buses, to ensure it was an orderly evacuation, was most likely the best reponse (even though it was slower than I would want).

There are some disasters that no one can do anything about. What we witnessed was the screw up AFTER the winds and storms died down. Failure of communication, trucks being sent back full of supplies, not letting people in to help, disorganisation, chaos, you name it, it was happening and smack dab in the middle of the city. The failure, delay and confusion to act was NOT part of mother nature.

I see some incompetence, I see a lot of people overwhelmed with the size of the task at hand, I see a lot of people trying to do what they could (and some of them being overwhelmed by the task that they left their jobs or in some cases comitted suicide). But where is the conspiracy?

Yes it is important to be aware of the landmass that was hit, but also to be honest that the reason there were so many people ammased in one section was because they were told to go there. Surely the rescue operation would have gone more smoothly for those people and for rescuers themselves because they were all in one place and they didn't have to go up and down the country looking for the majority of the population, thereby wasting precious time and supplies and manpower: they were in one neat, convenient bulk.

Somehow, the "government" managed to relocate over 5 million people to safety beforehand. Then, somehow, the "government" managed to relocate or rescue another 500,000 people in the first 7 days following the disaster. I think that's a remarkable task to achieve, but then apparently that just makes me one of the brainwashed sheep...

And somehow the "government" managed to rescue those 25,000-30,000 from the Superdome within 3 days of the hurricane hitting. It wasn't a week, it wasn't an eternity, nobody starved to death. Should the Superdome have been better prepared to handle the "refugees"? You bet your ass it should have been, it was designated as a spot to gather -- local and state officials should have ensured it was stocked with water and other essentials when they deemed it to be a sanctuary for such an event (but it wasn't). Is that a conspiracy? No, that's a failure on a state and municipal level to plan ahead.

Not to mention that some folks were in the superdome and then after seeing what was happening and how they were treated, they fled elsewhere. Where are they now? Probably dead or waiting in some waterlogged attic.

"Probably"? That's what this forum is mostly about. Speculation, jumping to conclusions, and active imaginations. There is no conspiracy, it's a disaster of an enormous scale.

I agree that it was a disaster that was the cause of many failures. No way around it.

Absolutely. There is the failure of many government agencies at many levels, state, federal and local in their response to the disaster. There is the failure of planning, and the failure of pre-disaster funding. There is the failure to heed advice from many different scientists and groups regarding the levee system and the preservation of the wetlands. I'm not disputing any of this at all, and it needs to be addressed by anyone with a voice. But does that make it a conspiracy? No.