Katrina

We don't have cable, so I went to a friend's house to watch CNN last night, and listened to Anderson Cooper ream out Sen. Landrieu of Lousiana, and also saw the fire, and some of the scenes of chaos. I wept.

What's to weep for? Stories like this:

3:34 P.M. - (AP) The evacuation of Superdome refugees was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt hotel. They were move to the head of the line to be evacuated -- much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome for days.

The 700 had been trapped in the Hyatt just like the others, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome.

and this blog from Kos:

Hey everyone I am in Baton Rouge living with my best friend and his family. I can tell you that what I have whitnessed is some of the most horrific scenes I will ever see. Yes the Aquarium survived the storm. we are about 90% intact. I was there during the storm.

I am a storm rider for the aquarium. I stayed there to make sure that the animals( fish, Sharks, Penguins, birds, otters) would survive. The Storm was Massive. I saw cars flipping around in a parking lot from the 3rd floor window.

As for the animals we were working around the clock trying to keep them alive. Our generator was running and we were losing power. We had a fuel filter problem that was causing the Generator to lose phase. Everytime we put the life-support equipment online our generator would fail. The best way to explain this is if you have seen the movie Apollo 13? Remember when Gary Sinese was working on how Tom hanks could save energy and was working on a way that they would not go over amps? Thats what was happening to us. for 72 straight ours and I kid you not.

every time our generator started we had to start equipment 1 by 1 to make sure the generator would not lose power. we were also running out of fuel. we were trying to get it pumped in by hose from a boat by river, however we tried we failed. We keep the generator running on life-support air only. the building was hot, dark and water was still on the floor from all of the system overflows.

We hung on as long as we could and would have been better if we were able to keep going. but on weds morning we were told we were going. OK i am now crying here, this is where it gets bad for me. the generator was running and we figured out what we needed to keep the animal alive. we had not eaten or sleeped for 3 days. we were being moved out becaue the RIOTS and the fighting and the water was rising so much that burbon had 8 feet of water. thats only 4 blocks away from us. 7 blocks had 14 feet of water.

There was no way for us to leave once we were stuck. so the best thing for us to do was leave. All 8 of us hurting, tired, mentaly exhausted were told to go just when we had the building stable. its like building somthing from the ground up, you look at it and the bulldozer hits it right after you are happy. we left the generator running and by that after noon the generator died. we had no fuel to keep her running and no air to the animals.

the otters live in 56 degree water and the penguins the same. the sharks were praying on the other fish in the tank and were attacking eachother. but we were doing all we could. This after noon i recieved a phone call to tell me the Generator had failed and the animals were on there own. with 95 degree heat outside the aquarium was getting hot fast. It is my understanding that the fish may last 2 days the otters 1 day the penguins 1 day and the 2 of the ONLY 11 remaining white alligators may last a week.

guys it pains me to see this happen when the animals are going to die, i am scared to think of how many may have already done so. As you know this place is my life and i was there alot. What am I going to do. I do not know only that I can try to keep a level head and pull away from this.

I was able to reach my house in Mandeville today. and I am FINE there. most of my area took tree and wind damage but I was able to walk into my apt and remove all food from the fridge and take care of buisness there. Only lost my fence and a few trees were in my front yard. I have money to survive, but I will and do need a job. I am not sure how long the aquarium will pay me for relief. I know I am getting my next paycheck but after that I have no word.

I may have to take on a job here in Baton Rouge at a fish store. I have talked to someone and they told me to come back next monday. My home town does not expect to be with power for 6 to 8 weeks, and even then there is NO food in the stores, and no place to get gas. Gas here is the MOST valuable thing i have seen at 3.35 a gallen and running out fast.

This next part is not for the faint of heart. so if you dont want to read please do not do so. All of this information i am going to tell you is real and seen with my own eyes.

The looting from the area was so bad that the looters were shooting looters and stealing from one another. I saw 4 murders just standing on top of the building looking at Canal place a local mall next to the aquarium. the police were across the street and were NOT doing a DAMN thing. they only sponded when a bullet went their way. The City is in total shit. What you see on TV is a small portion of what is really going on.

I will say that when I was leaving I saw Thousands of Hillbillies in boats lined up to start rescue efforts. FEMA is so fucked up they cant deal the issue. people are dying in the streets and are leaving the bodies. I saw 12 or so bodies floating in the river and dead babies with mothers screaming for help as we were loading up to leave.

I do not know if New Orleans will ever be anything what it used to be. I am scared for those who lost everything.

I too am scared....my nation is lead by an incompetent chimp who appears to be some kind of sociopath. The sickness at the top is incredible. Dick Cheney is still on vacation. Bill Frist, the Republican senate majority leader, swung into action to....repeal the estate tax (and devastate charitable giving). The world stands by to donate help, and the President said we'll take care of our own (luckily there is still a reservoir of sanity at the State Department, and they are accepting offers of help). Our troops are off in Iraq for the illegal, immoral, and criminally stupid war there, murdering innocents instead of helping victims in our own country. And the malicious and incompetent Bush Administration, having broken both the Army and our budget, now has to begin the biggest disaster recovery effort in US history.

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and its hopelessly incompetent director Mike Brown, have taken a beating in the press. I suspect they are being set to be the fall guys. The Administration planned to fold FEMA into Homeland Security and abolish it, hence it has received little support in recent months. One can already see the smooth move: FEMA takes the blame, disappears as was intended anyway, and the Bush Administration slimes away again....