New Orleans blog

toddjh

Illuminator
T
Joined
Mar 26, 2002
Messages
3,247
In case people haven't seen it yet, a DirectNIC employee has set up a blog for his group, who are holed up in a high-rise, trying to keep their generators running and internet connection up.

It sounds pretty awful; even worse than the news is saying. It's good to know that some people are keeping their heads down there.

Jeremy
 
Incredible..

Sounds like the talking heads are missing a lot...


Written 9/1 1150 CST

It's raining now and I guess that's a relief from the heat. It's hot as hell down there in the sun. Crime is absolutely rampant: rapes, murders, rape-murder combinations.


I have really cut back answering IMs. Not enough time. I apologize people.

In case anyone in national security is reading this, get the word to President Bush that we need the military in here NOW. The Active Duty Armed Forces. Mr. President, we are losing this city. I don't care what you're hearing on the news. The city is being lost. It is the law of the jungle down here. The command and control structure here is barely functioning. I'm not sure it's anyone's fault -- I'm not sure it could be any other way at this point. We need the kind of logistical support and infrastructure only the Active Duty military can provide. The hospitals are in dire straights. The police barely have any capabilities at this point. The National Guard is doing their best, but the situation is not being contained. I'm here to help in anyway I can, but my capabilities are li
Click to expand...
 
what makes you think it is genuine?
 
geni said:
what makes you think it is genuine?
Click to expand...
If it isn't, he's got some great photoshopping skills from all the webcam shots on the site.
Scanner links have also been posted around and it sounds pretty bad. Combining that with the above blog, I'd say it's not going well so far.
 
geni said:
what makes you think it is genuine?
Click to expand...

Well, there's a live webcam feed. Also, the blog corresponds to other verifiable things -- for example, he says that he has to take somethingawful.com down, and sure enough, it went down right around that time (I happened to be looking at it earlier this morning and it was still up).

I think it's real. Whether he's being entirely truthful, or relaying accurate information, is, I suppose, open to debate.

Jeremy
 
Reading through the blog, which is scarcely more horrific than CNN's reports, I realize that the greatest loss is not that of a city of half a million.
It's not the loss of our most important port.
It's not the loss of the petroleum and refining resources.
It's not the loss of a cultural icon and a living museum.

No.

It's the loss of humanity.

The gleeful, feral abandonment of all that is decent in humanity by so many... and for so little reason.

And after 9/11, I expected so much better.
 
Jocko said:
No. It's the loss of humanity.

The gleeful, feral abandonment of all that is decent in humanity by so many... and for so little reason.

And after 9/11, I expected so much better.
Click to expand...
I am appauled at the level of anarchy in just a few short days. People shooting at cops, rapes, looting and shooting at hospitals and shooting at rescuers. What the "f" is wrong with people down there?

The whole world is watching and frankly Americans look really bad.
 
zenith-nadir said:
I am appauled at the level of anarchy in just a few short days. People shooting at cops, rapes, looting and shooting at hospitals and shooting at rescuers. What the "f" is wrong with people down there?
Click to expand...

One of the news agencies (sorry, I forget which) actually had sort of an interview with a looter. He said that the hurricane was payback against society for "oppressing" him, and his looting was "justice."

I know these people were probably poor and desperate even before the disaster, but that's no excuse for acting like a damn animal. Honestly, I wouldn't be too broken-hearted if guys like that got left behind.

Jeremy
 
toddjh said:
One of the news agencies (sorry, I forget which) actually had sort of an interview with a looter. He said that the hurricane was payback against society for "oppressing" him, and his looting was "justice."

I know these people were probably poor and desperate even before the disaster, but that's no excuse for acting like a damn animal. Honestly, I wouldn't be too broken-hearted if guys like that got left behind.

Jeremy
Click to expand...
I've always hated looting. However if I were there and I had no food or water I would do so for my family.

BTW toddjy I posted your link to directnic on the forum community.
 
RandFan said:
I've always hated looting. However if I were there and I had no food or water I would do so for my family.
Click to expand...

Enough food, clothes, and medicine for your family, sure. Televisions? DVDs? Jewelry? Stacks and stacks of expensive shoes? Shoot 'em on sight. :mad:

Jeremy
 
toddjh said:
Enough food, clothes, and medicine for your family, sure. Televisions? DVDs? Jewelry? Stacks and stacks of expensive shoes? Shoot 'em on sight. :mad:

Jeremy
Click to expand...
I'm on your side on that one. The stuff isn't going anywhere though. How do you carry stacks of stuff out of New Orleans with no transportation and few exit routes? Answer: You don't.

I watched on TV a guy stealing a plasma TV. Yeah, no electricity, no where to put it and you've got to protect it from a mob.
 
Jocko said:


And after 9/11, I expected so much better.
Click to expand...

People weren't deprived of shelter or the necessities of life for days at a time during 9/11 either.
 
Jocko said:
Reading through the blog, which is scarcely more horrific than CNN's reports, I realize that the greatest loss is not that of a city of half a million.
It's not the loss of our most important port.
It's not the loss of the petroleum and refining resources.
It's not the loss of a cultural icon and a living museum.

No.

It's the loss of humanity.

The gleeful, feral abandonment of all that is decent in humanity by so many... and for so little reason.

And after 9/11, I expected so much better.
Click to expand...
The thing about humans is that we are all noble and good-hearted as long as it's an easy way out. Post 9/11 patriotism and community was the order of the day, because someone had attacked you. When everybody else are all nice and helpful, it's extremely easy to be nice and helpful yourself.

Then come Katrina and all the things that makes your life bearable is gone. Even if everyone you know and love made it, there's still no grocerystore to go to in order to buy food. Civilization got taken away.

They say that any major city in the world is five days away from barbary. Take away the food-supply and watch nobility evaporate.
 
PogoPedant said:
They say that any major city in the world is five days away from barbary.
Click to expand...
Or in this case 6 - 12 hours. It breaks my heart to see a city descend into anarchy like this so quickly. :(

My faith in humanity is not shaken however. I've had to hunker down through a hurricane (Fabian in 2003) and the aftermath was the opposite of what is being shown in NO. Everyone started cleaning the streets, people were going to other homes to check on neighbours and relatives, no reports of looting or at least if there were I never heard of it. If someone had a generator they let neighbours plug extension cords into it so that they could keep a fridge or a water pump going. Granted the devastation was no where near as NO bad but construction codes are such that even a Cat 5 wouldn't be able to destroy most buildings here (I hope). The Government had little choice in having such strict codes as the island is only 20 sq. mi. There was no where to evacuate to.
 
Renfield said:
People weren't deprived of shelter or the necessities of life for days at a time during 9/11 either.
Click to expand...

This is quite disingenuous. The people of 9/11 didn't have two days' warning, either.

Are you saying that plasma TVs, jewelry and liquor are neccessities of life? Because those seem to be the favorite targets of these "poor victims."
 
New Orleans has had the highest crime rates in America for many years.

Here's a story from a month ago:

(AP) Last year, university researchers conducted an experiment in which police fired 700 blank rounds in a New Orleans neighborhood in a single afternoon. No one called to report the gunfire.

New Orleans residents are reluctant to come forward as witnesses, fearing retaliation. And experts say that is one of several reasons homicides are on the rise in the Big Easy at a time when other cities are seeing their murder rates plummet to levels not seen in decades.

The city's murder rate is still far lower than a decade ago, when New Orleans was the country's murder capital. But in recent years, the city's homicide rate has climbed again to nearly 10 times the national average.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/18/national/main786780.shtml

New Orleans murder rates are, consistently, more than double that of New York City's:

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_02/html/web/offreported/02-table06NO.html

What did you think would happen when there was no police around? NO has a concentration of African Americans, most of the residents there are black.
 
Jocko said:
This is quite disingenuous. The people of 9/11 didn't have two days' warning, either.

Are you saying that plasma TVs, jewelry and liquor are neccessities of life? Because those seem to be the favorite targets of these "poor victims."
Click to expand...
Are these the favorite targets? I know that conservatives have been harping on the looting of non-necessities, but is this really what the bulk of people are taking? I mean, if two hundred people raid a grocery store for food and bottled water, and ten armed guys raid a Best Buy and swipe thirty plasma screen TVs, are the TVs really the “favorite” targets?
 
jay gw said:
What did you think would happen when there was no police around? NO has a concentration of African Americans, most of the residents there are black.
Click to expand...

:jaw:

Did he just say what I think he said?

Jeremy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom