When the levee breaks

Trollbass

Member
man that is a shocking report. This level of informaiton is not available on the cnn or bbcworld channels. it sounds like people are in serious trouble and need to be evacuated and the national guard brought in the keep the peace.

i really feel for these people.

T.
 

DigitalDjigit

Honky Tonk Woman
It's a bit ridiculous about the looting though. How unsafe could it be? People are just taking stuff from stores (perfectly understandable I think). You can see a really vile reaction on a lot of american boards with people advocating shooting looters on site. Why would it be unsafe for people to walk around? I would think the disease, lack of clean water would be a much bigger danger.
 

mms

sometimes
DigitalDjigit said:
It's a bit ridiculous about the looting though. How unsafe could it be? People are just taking stuff from stores (perfectly understandable I think). You can see a really vile reaction on a lot of american boards with people advocating shooting looters on site. Why would it be unsafe for people to walk around? I would think the disease, lack of clean water would be a much bigger danger.

the only people left in the city are presumably people who can't afford to get out
 

k-punk

Spectres of Mark
mms said:
the only people left in the city are presumably people who can't afford to get out

yep.. checkthis out


seems from C4 news that they much of New Orleans may never be recovered...
 
Drove into HELL (New Orleans) last night... Sensitive types stay out

From a Corvette forum, of all places, in the US:

First off I wanted to post what REALLY is going on in this city. Please don't get this thread locked people. The news stations are only showing a minuscule of reality. This post may offend some people but I will post what I saw, like it or not it is REALITY.
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Well last night I was watching the 6pm news when they announced the 17th street canal pumps failed as well as another break in the levee. My house is right off St. Charles Ave. and up to 6pm yesterday is was the only part of the city that was dry. Since the pumps failed and the new break St. Charles Ave. would be under 9ft of water in the next 12-15hrs. My brother and I felt if we wanted to save anything we had to leave NOW. We loaded up flashlights, rope, our medical ID's, both our .45 Glocks, 2 shotguns and rode out. En-route we listened to the radio which broad casted all the news about the looters and what not, in hindsight it was a mistake. My mother didn't want us to go by dad who is a Vietnam vet told to be safe and "shoot to kill" if it ever comes to that.

One the way we had to pass 5-6 checkpoints to allow entry into the city. We stated we were medical personnel who were activated, showed our ID and off we went. On the radio reports were coming in about the officer who was shot in the head, the 2 gunman who opened fired on the NOPD station, and how looters were carjacking cars to get out of the city. This started making my brother nervous and giving seconds thoughts.

Anyway we get to the city and it looks like a freaking war zone. The best visual I can give is the movie "Blackhawk Down" when all the Somalians are rushing the city. They are people EVERYWHERE, they are pissed off, and all have weapons, 2X4's, Axes, and guns. If this wasn't bad enough we are 2 white boys in a truck in a sea several hundred armed pissed off blacks. There wasn't a white person to be found. I couldn't get over the little 8-10yr old kids with weapons, I ever saw one carry a claw hammer!

These people were absolutely nuts rammed trucks(stolen I'm sure) in to jewelry stores stealing items, they were tearing apart Wal-Mart carrying out TV's, Playstations, DVD players, etc. One lady was wheeling out an entire rack of merchandise, not sure what it was but sure wasn't clothes for food. They were all laughing and carrying on like it's freaking Christmas.

We got stuck in traffic when we see the group of guys walking down the street w/ AK-47's, at that point the "pucker factor" kicked in, a couple Glocks and shotguns were no match for that. We haul azz trying to get to Uptown when we see these people chopping down the front door w/ an axe of this $4-5 million dollar mansion on ST. Charles Ave. I was just in total awe because it was so surreal. Making matters worse it's 11pm at night there is no electricity and you really can see anything or anyone until they are right up on you.

Our plan was to be in and out in 30min, this included putting his Harley on the trailer. It would have taken me 5-10min tops to get my stuff, all I wanted was my pictures from college, my clothes/shoes, and my computer tower. Well he got scared saying we are going to get jumped while putting the bike on the trailer. Keep in mind this is the only area in the city that is dry. So just like rats who move to higher ground these people were doing the same. Word must have gotten out that Uptown was dry so there started to be a large influx of people.

Needless to say he wanted to go home rather than take our chances. While it was the smart thing to do I was beyond infuriated w/ him because we made it this far. He just kept saying our lives aren't worth it. So we turned around, our next challenge was getting out of the city while not getting jacked. Reports came out that people were jumping in the back of truck holding the drivers at gunpoint. Traffic started to slow so I just nailed it got out as fast as I could.

Even though he was the voice of reason I'm still pissed. All I have is my life and the clothes on my back. I lost my house(which is now 9ft underwater) ALL my clothes, TV, computer, furniture, and photo albums and videos from childhood and college. What makes this worse is my brother owned the house and I was a tenant and I didn't have renters insurance, hindsight is 20/20.

I also hope everyone of the F*(king looters get Tetanus, E-Coli and F*(KING drown. I'm serious I really hope the all die for what they were doing to the city, killing people, and destroying homes. Never in my life have I ever seen people act live savages, it was truly sicking.
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
It sounds horrible and respect to HMG for turning up this stuff.

I'm not sure I'd have quite the same attitude to looters as the guy in the Corvette forum though.
 

k-punk

Spectres of Mark
HMGovt said:
Stopped reading at "It looks like New Orleans got lucky." It didn't, see thread title.

Yeh, well, you will have missed the point of the piece then, which is only amplified by the fact that more deaths happened than were originally feared.
 

k-punk

Spectres of Mark
HMGovt said:
There wasn't a white person to be found.

Yeh, what a fucking nightmare THAT must have been... and I wonder why there were no white people to be found...
 

mms

sometimes
k-punk said:
Yeh, what a fucking nightmare THAT must have been... and I wonder why there were no white people to be found...


its strange isn't it -
the flooding has exposed to the world the guilty secret - 'america's urban poor' and americas neglect for them when they could be invading countries instead.
that guys description of a movie based in somalia is really telling.
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
it's surreal, to say the least

the city is apparently going to be completely evacuated for 3 months -- mind boggling!

and 30,000 federal troops are being brought in to maintain order -- the most ever in u.s. history

i'm not sure, however, what motivates the looting of stores -- i.e., i can see where people would be desperate for clean water -- and perhaps desperate for towels, dry clothes and the like -- but looting stores for other goods appears to reflect a complete moral breakdown

i can also see how it'd be rational to steal somebody's car to get out of the city -- this makes sense

but ransacking mansions and the like -- looks like a complete collapse of the social order, as though the flood swept all that away -- or maybe the idea is to ransack the homes of wealthier citizens who left the rest of the city behind???

in any case, sounds like it's been a very dangerous free for all
 

mms

sometimes
dominic said:
i'm not sure, however, what motivates the looting of stores -- i.e., i can see where people would be desperate for clean water -- and perhaps desperate for towels, dry clothes and the like -- but looting stores for other goods appears to reflect a complete moral breakdown

i can also see how it'd be rational to steal somebody's car to get out of the city -- this makes sense

but ransacking mansions and the like -- looks like a complete collapse of the social order, as though the flood swept all that away -- or maybe the idea is to ransack the homes of wealthier citizens who left the rest of the city behind???

in any case, sounds like it's been a very dangerous free for all

if you have nothing, you're not going to get anything, you are neglected in a filthy shithole because of your circumstances and none of those rich landowners thought to stick some of your family members in the back of their suv and take you with them, at least you get the chance to die like a rich man
it's a good look anyway.
 
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dominic

Beast of Burden
still unclear why so many people were "abandoned" there -- what the evacuations plan were, why they're still stranded, etc

(though some of the problem seems to be that the initial delay in rescue efforts has resulted in popular hostility to organized help and government aid workers, hindering efforts at evacuation)

hijacking cars at gunpoint and wholesale looting of stores is pretty drastic behavior -- and it's not easy to tell how desperate the circumstances are

i.e., it's only been 4 days -- which is not all that long to go without a solid meal (i.e., i imagine that most people have had at least something to eat)

i think it's more a lack of clean water to drink and the threat of disease -- and there do seem to be lots of dead bodies floating around, old folks having expired on chairs, etc -- plus hard to tell how toxic and contaminated the flood water is

people being herded together like cattle, their movements corraled, after having lost what little they had -- and i'm not sure what the temperature/humidity is down there, which if too oppressive could further incite rage

again, hard to tell from newspaper reports what exactly is going on

i don't want to downplay how desperate the circumstances are -- and yet i don't necessarily want to give people a free pass to loot and hi-jack and push the situation further into chaos

david brooks -- the ny times columnist and easygoing, mild-mannered, "lifestyle" republican (he wrote a book called "bobos in paradise") -- actually wrote a halfway decent column on this subject

here's the link = http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/opinion/01brooks.html
 

DigitalDjigit

Honky Tonk Woman
If you look at the map Highway 10 doesn't appear like it is going over water. Why didn't people just walk out? Is the highway flooded? It's about 40 miles to Baton Rouge where it is safe. About two days walk.
 

sufi

lala
when is it 'looting' & when is it 'finding' ???

38725768_16c66eb58b.jpg

ripped from another forum:
just to balance that corvette c&p above
 

Rambler

Awanturnik
Going back to the Corvette forum guy. OK, possibly he's just a lone asshole, but where the fuck does the mentality come from that prompts you to drive into a major humanitarian disaster zone with a view to 'shooting to kill'????????? What the FUCK???? Damn right a lot of these people are probably going to die from drowning and disease, but it won't be to assuage your fucked ideas of justice you cunt, it'll be because their city has been washed away and no one is bothering to help. Maybe you should have left some of your private arsenal at home to make room for bottles of water, blankets and food in the back of your truck you selfish, shameful bastard. :mad: :mad: :mad:

This is seriously, seriously low.


OK, rant over. That stuff just makes me ill.
 
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