Need to Vent!!

This is a post that I posted one the Lap Band message board earlier, I'm sure that all of you can relate to this and feel as I do. It's about 1:25 A.M. here and I can't sleep. This post is not personally intended to hurt anyone but I need to get it out. I am so overwhelmed with the life changing events of the past 6 days. If I offend anyone I apologize. As I previously mentioned I live 55 miles northwest of New Orleans. The government did know that this would happen. Growing up as a child I remember my grandparents who were in their 60's+ always saying that if a major storm ever hit the NO area head on the entire NO area would be under 20+ feet of water. As a child it is hard to imagine this. THe reason for this is because NO is a bowl shapped area that is 20 feet below sea level in some areas. It is surrounded by 3 bodies of water, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississipppi River and Lake Ponchartrain. The levees were built to sustain a Category 3 storm at the most. When the levees are overflowing the pressure caused it to break in some places, the water had no where to go but into the bowl. It will not drain out but will have to be pumped out which can take up to 2 months. Right now the levee has not been repaired. Pray to GOD that we do not get the usual rain that we normally get. Thank GOD that it has been a dry summer here. The bodies of water were very low for this time of year. It could have been worse. 1st - Jessie Jackson and the NAACP is wrong.. This is not about race. It makes me so mad that they are trying to make it a racial issue. If anything it is about poverty. The 100,000 people that were trapped in New Orleans, were people that were too poor to leave on their own. They had no car, no money and no where to go or get there. I blame the state because they should have bussed them out before the storm hit. They should have brought in school buses in from the entire state if need be in order to get them out. 2nd - There are old people and babies starving to death. No water, food, etc. and trapped in. Today is day 5 and it is the first real day of help arriving. FOr many it it too late. When the final count comes in between MS and LA it may well be in the 10 to 20 thousand people dead. THis is an embarrassment to our Nation. I blame President Bush. Gov. Blanco asked for help starting on Monday, he sat on it and waited for this tragedy to take place. Why is it that when disaster strikes in other countries, the US is the first to offer assistance. Iraq for instance, they do not even want our help they are killing our people there, we need our people here. FEMA should be blamed also, they waited 3 days to step in and help. WHy is it that in NY on 9-11 search and rescue began the same day? Here it took 3 days. Also I just saw on a national television station a picture of the Superdome which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and then by the 25,000 evacuees. It will need to be leveled. The reporter was debating as to whether it shoud be rebuilt. The superdome is just as symbolic and monumental of NO as the twin towers were to NY. 3rd - Looters: If my family was starving, my baby needed water, I would do whatever it took to save them, and I think that you would too. The majority of these people only want food and water. THey are only looking to survive. Of course there are some bad apples in the bunch. THey are looting hospitals for drugs (as stated by the mayor drugs flowed freely on the streets of NO) these drug addicts are desperate. THe media is only showing the worst of this. IT is bad and the army is needed but most of these people only want to survive. They were placed in shelters that did not have enough food, water, personal hygeine products, bathroom facilites to survive 4-5 days or longer. 4th - People had died in hospitals all over the city waiting for help to arrive. This is a shame. Why couldn't we get them out? We can send men to the moon. 5th - My town: I am being selfish here but the Baton ROuge population alone has increased by 500,000 people in 5 days, GOnzales and the surrounding areas have thousands more. I do not want to live in a large city. I do not want to wait in line at the grocery store, fast food resturants, and at red lights. Today it took my 45 minutes to get across town, and it usually takes 10 minutes. Guess what this is my life now. Gas is becoming shorter, how will I go to work in two weeks? I work in BR which is 24 miles from my house, that's 50 miles a day. We HAVE NO public transportation AT ALL here. Everyone drives a car everywhere. NO buses, subway, train, just a car which takes gas. My husband wants me to go tomorrow to trade in my 2004 4 runner on a Corolla in order to get more gas mileage. I LOVE my 4 runner. I want to keep it. We work hard and I think that we deserve a nice vehicle. We will have no gas. 6th - Schools: Last week our school board proposed a 2 mill property tax to be brought to a vote in Oct. in order to build more schools, our schools were 1000 children over crowded. My DIL teaches in our school system, she has 7 classes of 32 children by herself all day. We do have a great school system and people move here for our schools. Today she had to go to a meeting. We HAVE to enroll 1000+ students from the NO area that are staying in our parish into our schools starting Tues. Every school will have National Guards posted there during the day. How many students will they have in one class now? How will our children learn. We already know that the students coming in from NO are nowhere near the level as our children. Standardized test scores overwhelmingly prove this. IS this fair to our children? Why can't we open schools in empty buildings, bring in teachers from NO and buy them books and supplies. This would make more sense to me. BUt I don't count... LAst: I just saw on ESPN a person that I must mention.. Professional football player Warrick Dunn. In case you don't know he is from Baton ROuge and played high school ball for Catholic High in Baton ROuge. His mother was a BR police officer killed in the line of duty leaving him and small siblings several years ago. He is amazing, every year he builds homes in BR for poor single mothers. The homes are fully furnished for the families to start over. Now he is asking every professional football player to donate at least $5,000 to the Katrina disaster relief fund. I would love to meet him one day. He should be a role model to every child in America. Now I'm crying again. Lastly, please pray to GOD, only he can help us. If you get a chance please email your sentors and congressman to place your support of our state. This may be the only way that we can survive. Maybe someone can get this effort started. If every family would donate whatever monetary offering they could to this effort, we can start to rebuild New Orleans, we can never replace the history and the city as it was but we will rebuild. The next three days, my family is going to voulunteer at the shelters in our area. There will be no Labor Day Celebrations here but we are thankful for our survival. OUR WAY OF LIFE AS WE KNEW IT HAS BEEN CHANGED FOREVER. PLEASE PRAY FOR US. THANKS FOR LISTENING. DEE

God bless you, Dee. I read your message with tears in my eyes. Thank you for your eloquent thoughts and for sharing them. I will keep your state in my prayers. Again, God bless. XOXO Charlene Carlile Texas Message Board

hugs you are right.. im praying for all of you....

hello dee, i read your "vent" with tears in my eyes. i am in total agreeance with all that you wrote. i cannot turn off CNN. i cannot stop thinking about all of the people who need our help. i am so sorry for the devastation to all those who are affected. New Orleans is my absolute favorite city in the world. i have been there a few times and i was planning on going back next month. i am so sad. sad for the people who have literally NOTHING. sad for the loss of lives. sad for the city itself that has been around for hundreds of years and has so much history and now that history is literally under water. i am so sorry. my heart goes out to you. i have already donated to the red cross. i have some bags of clothes (womens, mens and childrens) as well as toiletries that i would like to send out as soon as i can get an address to send them to. i wish i could do more. my thoughts are truly with you and others like you. brandy

My heart is bleeding with you Dee! I have thought these same thoughts that you are having. My biggest ache is those who are trying to make this a racial issue. Here in Lake Charles, everyone of every race and color are stepping up to help those in need. It hurts me and every other person who is reaching out to help that this is a racial issue! Today I took several bags of good clothes and some blankets to the Civic Center. Three nice men helped me and my daughter unload the bags. One was an older man, very nice and polite. He asked my daughter her name. Two were teenagers. One teenager, probably no older than 15 took a bag with a blanket in it and looked at me and asked timidly, "May I have this blanket?" I told him he sure could. He said softly, "I don't have a blanket." As he walked off he bent his head and smelled the blanket several times. I had just washed it and dried it with Bounce. My heart ached and my eyes teared as I watched him walk away. He is the same age as my youngest son. As so many have said here, every little bit matters. Tomorrow we will be going to the Civic Center to help volunteer for a few hours with the Red Cross. I plan on taking a pocket full of tissues. I pray that everyone, in their own way, be it prayer, money, volunteering, whatever, will reach out and help. Peggy B.

Dee you have every right to VENT... I think many many many AMericans feel the exact same way as you do. I don't understand why the docs and nurses at Charity hospital were the absolute last to be evacuated... its not about race... it was all financial... they were either medicaid patients or no insurance at all... the other hospitals were airlifted out well ahead of the storm!!! I keep echoing ... they didn't learn anything from Hurricane ANdrew... and here we are... repeating the exact same mistakes over and over and at the expense of the poor, the weak, the ill, the young, the old... The media attention has just made me sick! The slant they have put on this... I am so angry... I am sure they have costed the relief efforts millions of dollars in donations. Who wants to send money to help a thief? A sniper? That is the only story as far as they were concerned. Hopefully America can see thru that and realize they are shooting for ratings.. not for human kind! Hell yes, I would steal water, food whatever I had to to get by. I would steal clothes and shoes... if I thought I was going to have walk across a bridge (that was once no place for a pedestrian) in the heat of NO... oh yeah... let me loose in Payless!!! As far as the football player BRAVO!!!! I heard one last night pledged $1 thousand... and challenged all other professional sports players to ante up the same... I was glad for the challenge but at the same time it pissedme off too... To him what is one thousand dollars... HE MAKES MILLIONS A YEAR!!!! A thousand is pocket change... A thousand is 10 seats at a game! Give me a break... and what has hollywood, Nashville and all the money hungry "stars" put up? With 9/11 Rosie O'donnell challenged every star to put a million as she had done. I haven't heard a peep from them. Guess this wasn't close to home for them... Oh well, Just know we feel your pain, and are keeping you in our prayers and also pray that the life you loved and had found will return to a sense of normalcy SOON! Hugs to you from VA Wanda R

I agree with much of what you said. Someone in charge of the City should have come up with a plan to help anyone evacuate that wanted to. But many people refuse to leave even when ordered to. I think the mayor of New Orleans looked foolish when he turned down school buses for evacuation and demanded that Greyhounds be collected from across the country. There are 65 parishes in La (most were unaffected by the storm), the buses from those areas could have moved people to safety...... why wait for Greyhounds to be driven across the country. People outside of the coastal areas are not as familiar with hurricanes and their damage.......... things need to be pointed out to them, sometimes more than once so that they realize the magnitude of the problem. New Orleans has special problems because they are below sea level......... influential people like John Breaux (and others) need to use their influence to see that improvements are made to levee systems. People in storm affected areas need to leave when huge storms aim at them, and people in government need to see that there is a way for them to leave. Louisiana needs a vast improvement in the highway system heading north so that people able to leave feel that they have the chance and won't be stuck in traffic on a roadway when the storm hits.

Dee, Ditto from me on most points...would like to add that I think that more could have been done before Katrina hit. Levees that should have been dealt with long ago to ensure their capacity to withstand hurricanes of category levels 4 & 5. EVERYONE knew that the levees could not withstand more than category level 3 hurricanes. This should have been taken care of even before we heard of Katrina. EVERYONE knew that Katrina was going to deal out massive destruction before she even hit Louisiana. Why wasn't the relief effort planned out in advance? If the relief effort had been planned out in advance then it wouldn't have taken 5 days for some people to get some help. I think that if the Mayor wants to point fingers he needs to take a good look at himself first. Just my opinion...for what it is worth... Teresa

I really feel bad for the people down there but (and I may get slammed here) Bush did ask the Mayor to evacuate the city beforehand and the Mayor called Gov. Blanco and was told that she needed 24 hrs to "think it over". The Feds couldn't come in without the State asking them to. That's the law. There wasn't a good evacuation plan to start with. The Mayor should have updated his plan and prepared for the worst a long time ago. Blanco should have made a decision within the hour of being notified (for heavens sake it was a Cat 5 hurricane headed your way). Both the mayor and the Gov. knew or should have known that the levees were inadequate for that strong a hurricane and acting immediately. They had the warning. From the reports I've heard, there were about 500 buses in the immediate area that could have been used to start bussing people out. But I guess hindsite is 20/20. I'm glad people are focusing on the problems now and getting help for all the people. For the record, I heard reports that they don't want the people evacuated too far from home because they want them to come back and the fear is that once people get settled, they won't go back. I also hope that when it comes to rebuilding, they rebuild on higher ground even if it means moving the city several miles away. Building in a bowl doesn't really sound like the smartest move to me. I'm sorry for your city, I'm sure it's putting a huge strain on your residents. Hopefully, these people will be able to "spread out" and get settled in other places so as not to drain the resources of the small towns and cities. I can't imagine how all these people must feel, the loss of their home and jobs and possibly loved ones. I also feel so sorry for the people who have to leave their pets behind, I don't think I could!

Thanks for clearing that up about Bush, who declared NO (LA) a disaster area days before the hurricane hit, just so they would have immediate access to funds and emergency aid. That doesn't get reported at all now as the finger-pointing begins. Also, I'd like to point out that someone was taking pot-shots at choppers whe were trying to rescue people. The same thing happened in Los Angeles during the riots. People were shooting at the firemen who were trying to put out fires, and at ambulance attendants who were trying to help. Where's the outrage at the jack-a$$es who killed the policeman in NO? All of that hampered the rescue attempts until the National Guard could be brought in for protection. MANY policemen walked off the job, one committed suicide. I was watching the people waiting in line to get INTO the astro-dome before the hurricane hit. One little old lady was walking across the street with 2 heavy bags, and NOT ONE of those healthy-strong men lifted a finger to help her. Shame on them. Apparently all of those people have not learned common decency, respect for elderly people, a lesson in sharing or common courtesy. There were literally thousands of people in line, and NOT ONE helped her. This is a big wake-up call for all, but it is not Bush's fault, like the media portrays. It lies on the shoulders of all people who have not learned life's lessons, and who continue to act like pompus a$$es. -SD.