[Rhodes22-list] New Orleans Flood control problems

[ed kroposki]

Wrong:  The Red Cross should always beat the National Guard to a disaster.
The National Guard is a military organization, not a social relief
organization.  Better yet, national religious organizations should also beat
the National Guard.  States, Counties and municipalities should have
disaster plans.  Obviously, New Orleans, Louisiana and southern Mississippi
did not good evacuation plans.  Did you see the pictures of people trying to
leave on the northbound interstates?  It was a six-lane road.  Three lanes
bumper to bumper trying to get out.  Three lanes with occasional traffic
going south.  The proper thing would have been to close all traffic going
south and divert traffic going north onto the south bound lanes.  Six lanes
out would have expedited the evacuation.  They should have had gas tank
trucks filling up cars before they got on so that people who had limited gas
could go farther away.  Blame the wimpy and slow to act local and state
officials.
Now the National Guard and military police are needed to control the
situation.  I would hope that they are armed with orders to shot to kill
troublemakers.  There is no need to tolerate bad human behavior.  They
jeopardize the efforts of good people trying to do good deeds.  Did you see
the pictures of all the private fishing boats, bass boats, fan boats,
volunteering to assist.  There is good and bad.  This situation is
illustrating both.
Why is the Federal Government the one to blame about lack of flood control
funding.  Why aren't municipal and state governments responsible?  It is
because they would have to raise local and state taxes.  Why should people
in Minnesota have to pay for flood control in New Orleans?  Facilities and
businesses could locate in safer locations, and some have.

Oh, hum.
Ed Kroposki
Greenville, SC, USA





-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of anima13
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 8:13 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: RE: [Rhodes22-list] New Orleans Flood control funding

Yes, Saroj,

The Red Cross should never beat the National Guard to a disaster.

Anne

-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org]On Behalf Of Saroj Gilbert
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 6:55 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] New Orleans Flood control funding


Interesting piece tying in the impact of the Iraq war with the current
disaster in New Orleans:
=======================

"No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming"

By Sidney Blumenthal

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the
three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New
Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,372455,00.html

========================

This is sickening... I just can't figure out why the streets (or should I
say  "streams") of New Orleans and other gulf coastal areas are not swamped
(sorry) with U.S. Military handing out food, water, diapers, and other
essentials... oh... they're all in Iraq... well I guess the Navy got soft
and decided to deploy a ship out of Norfolk yesterday.... hmmm... should
arrive in a week?  The way the government has responded to this disaster so
far is shameful.  We treat citizens in other countries better than we treat
our own.

Saroj

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