Friday, September 16, 2005

A Letter From A Friend ...

Got this from my friend Neal today... in response to another email a friend had sent us....




Well everybody's got an opinion & U know me, I always stick my 2 cents in...

The day Katrina hit, B4 it was over & when we knew NO was under water the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted 2 send the county's only hovercraft, (Remember, there is a major river that flows thru this county so we deal with floods here regularly), down there. They asked the only 2 civilians in the whole county who R certified to operate it, (U'rs truly being 1 of them), 2 go with it. So, my good friend K.J. McCabe & myself piled into an RV furnished by Alpin Haus, an RV dealer in Amsterdam, NY which was fully loaded with food, 250 gallons of purified drinking water as well as 250 gallons of all purpose water, 250 gallons of gas along with the hovercraft & we were there in less than 24 hours. We were among the 1st 2 respond, (Hence the term "1st Responders"), along with about a hundred other civilians from all walks of life who came from all over 2 help. Many came from far away towing row boats & fishing boats. We met a guy & his son from Colorado who brought along a small row boat with a trolling motor on it. There were many regular people there 2 help, but NO OFFICIAL PEOPLE AT ALL, besides the NO police, who were absolutely fantastic to deal with, & U know me, I'm not a lover of law enforcement people. These guys were soooo happy 2 C us as they hadn't even heard from anybody in an official capacity at all, not from the local, state, NOR FEDERAL levels. Some of the NO police were victims themselves having homes completely under water, some with missing family members but they were out there trying 2 do whatever they could 2 help others. They bent over backwards 2 help us.

I don't want 2 gross U out by trying 2 describe the smell that is still stuck in my head, a combination of decaying bodies, raw sewage, gasoline, ocean, rotting fish & trash, or with descriptions of decaying bodies floating face down in the water, bodies of adults yes but also of children and animals partially eaten by gators. Let's just say that Apocalypse Now was mild in comparison. I can't begin 2 describe the infected oozing rash I have broken out with from the waist down from spending 2 weeks walking in it. The point is that there was absolutely NO help AT ALL on ANY government level until about 3 days into this. NONE, NADA, ZIP! Everything broke down completely on the local, state and especially the federal level. I agree with U Steve, the Mayor blew it as did the Governor, absolutely. But so did the boy george's administration. The government did NOTHING. We all knew this was gonna B devastating a couple of days B4 it made landfall. In my opinion george should have declared martial law & sent the guard in there regardless of whether they were asked or not. If they can take U'r property by eminent domain 2 build something 2 better the community then they sure as hell can march in & start removing people who otherwise have no place 2 go & no way 2 get there. Steve, U live in Fla's panhandle so I'm sure U've C'n poverty up close. The south has some of the most extreme poverty I've ever C'n. There R a lot of folks there that quite literally don't have a pot 2 piss in nor a window 2 throw it out of. This is very well known, as much as nobody wants 2 talk about it. There R some so poor there that they can't even identify their bodies with dental records as many R so poor that they have never C'n a dentist & have no dental records. I don't think george has quite grasped the concept that U lead by example. The NO Mayor & LA Governor were looking 2 him 2 lead but he has no clue how. HE was the 1 who should've taken the bull by the horns & sent the guard in there B4 the storm hit. Now granted, we have never had 2 deal with anything of this magnitude here B4 & I don't think anybody really knew just how devastating this was gonna B nor how 2 deal with it but complacency was certainly not the order of the day, & that's just what the government did, they took a wait & C, reactive stance instead of being proactive & getting the poor, elderly & invalid out of harm's way. There is certainly enough blame 2 go around here & this is not all george's fault but everybody followed his lead & did nothing until it was 2 late. He is the prez, the big dog, the 1 everybody looks 2 4 direction in times like these. A leader leads by example & everybody followed his lead & did nothing. If he was more proactive then maybe others would have been as well & maybe things would have been different.

Idunno...this thing is a horror show all the way around & it is not all bush's fault & we can all play arm chair quarterback but hind site is always perfect. Look how fast the Guard was in North Carolina today. That just proves how quickly help could've been sent without a lot of red tape. I don't think the ball was dropped, I don't think it was picked up in the 1st place. This just proves that we're not as well prepared as the government would like us 2 believe. bush is still the worst prez of our time & the polls & his approval rating prove it. This was not all his fault but it is just another example of his lack of leadership qualities.

I have been a Red Cross Disaster Relief 1st responder 4 nigh on 20 years now & I hope I never, ever have 2 C anything like this again. The only thing that even came remotely close is when the Tennessee Gas pipeline that runs through the southern end of this county exploded & completely removed the town of Blenheim from the map along with all of it's residents, and then only 147 were killed & it was instantaneous. We was in NO 2 weeks & as we were fixin' 2 leave a National Guard craft had just pulled a 74 year old man out of his house 2 weeks after the storm. He had no food nor water & was barely alive, emaciated & hardly breathing. There R STILL people trapped down there. The good part of this is that KJ & I were able 2 pull a bunch of people out & I know that we saved some lives down there & made a difference in some people's lives. People who's names I don't even know. I know that I feel good about that but that feeling is overshadowed by the sight of the 1's floating by & buried under rubble & those who initially survived the storm but died later because there was nobody 2 help them. I feel that the government, on ALL levels, let it's citizens down terribly. 4 being the wealthiest country on the planet we sure do have a gross inequity between our citizens, an inequity that seems more times than not 2 follow along racial lines. This is just my observation but there has got 2 B a better way 4 us 2 take care of our citizens. People should not B left 2 die just because they R 2 poor 2 get out of the way. I feel that Martial Law should have been declared B4 the storm hit & the Guard should've been sent in to help evacuate. The levee system has been a political football 4 many years & no doubt the $$ was used 4 other things but it was common knowledge that a storm much bigger than a Cat 3 was gonna do the levee system in & flood the city. Everybody knew this but still the gov't did nothing 2 help the people get out of the way & I feel bush is directly responsible 4 that, along with the Mayor & Governor. But again, george is the top dog & it was his place 2 do something but he chose 2 do nothing.

1 Comments:

Blogger Ria said...

I noted the mayor of NO got the heck out of there in enough time. No excuse for any gov't officials; they knew the demograpics of their city; they know that the citizens who live in that area do not have the financial means to move themselves quickly, they do not have cars to take themselves out of the way of a disaster and the public transportation in that area could not handle a mass exodus out of the area. They know that a lot of elderly are in that area. Yet at the super dome and at the community centers there were buses and public motor vehicles and gov't issued motor vehicles that could have been used to transport people to safety. Yet, there those motor vehicles sat. No one did anything to help the citizens get out of the way of the disaster.
And as far as the levy, the Army had published reports a while ago that the levy would not hold past a category 3 hurricane; the local and state gov't as well as the federal gov't knew the levy would not hold. Yes, you are right; the National Guard should have been called in to move the citizens out even if they didn't believe they needed to leave.
Yes, you are right. The government from the top down was disappointing as leaders. They let us all down. People died who should not have. People suffered and are still suffering from this catastrophe.

11:10 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Locations of visitors to this page