https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476351/posts
Taking Refuge in the Astrodome
(not the Superdome )
This is a story about a young man (18 years old) who likely faces jail time. Not for looting a TV or jewelry, but for stealing a bus. He found the bus abandoned on the street, started it up, and proceeded to load up 100 local residents, most of whom were strangers. He then drove it for 7 hours, by himself, to Houston, to get these strangers to safety.
When he pulled up to the Astrodome, the officials wouldn't let him enter.
Personally, I think the best punishment they could have given him was to let him drive it back to New Orleans, and pick up another group of people. He is obviously better at this than the "official" drivers.
BTW, he had never even tried to drive a bus before.
My hat is off to this young man.
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 854 85.4%
I remember hearing about this last week, and the fact that they called it a "renegade" bus. The kid took the initiative to save lives. How can they possibly jail him? He did a great thing, and I hope someone recognizes his quick thinking and gives him a hand up.
It's now estimated that there are over 250,000 evacuees in Texas. Imagine the impact on the state financially, the crime rates, the school crowding, unemployment. This is a nightmare for Texas. I hope other states will begin to take in some of these folks.
Then there are those who refuse to leave. Personally, I wouldn't stay in the midst of that "toxic soup." But these are people who were at least partially prepared and can take care of themselves :
QUOTE |
rescuers scouring New Orleans found hundreds of people willing to defy repeated urgings to get out. They included people like Dennis Rizzuto, 38, who said he had plenty of water, food to last a month and a generator powering his home. He and his family were offered a boat ride to safety, but he declined. "They're going to have to drag me," Rizzuto said. That's a sentiment Capt. Scott Powell, of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, has heard before as he tries to evacuate people by air boat. "A lot of people don't want to leave. They've got dogs and they just want to stay with their homes. They say they're going to stay until the water goes down," he said. |
International Level: Ambassador / Political Participation: 595 59.5%
It would be ridiculous if they jail the young man and let free the rapists and thieves *shaking head*. The guy did not steal the bus to sell it, he did it to save lives for heaven's sake! What's wrong with some people?
Regards to people refusing to leave their houses, I can understand them perfectly... at the same time I do not think they are taking full consideration of the possible consequences it may bring. Right now, they have no option since the mayor made an order to force them out of the city. I am sure we will see dramatic scenes on TV and on the net about it.
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 1089 100%
QUOTE |
It's now estimated that there are over 250,000 evacuees in Texas. Imagine the impact on the state financially, the crime rates, the school crowding, unemployment. This is a nightmare for Texas. I hope other states will begin to take in some of these folks. |
International Level: Diplomat / Political Participation: 320 32%
A little story to lighten the mood: One of the ladies I work with was telling me how her daughter has a new student from New Orleans in her class. Her daughter had been told that he was from New Orleans, etc. Well, she came home and said to her mom "Mom, I thought he was from New Orleans, but he says he's form 'Nawlins."
We've been seeing a lot of the "blame game" going around, including some folks who claim that President Bush WANTS poor, black, Democrats to die. After all, didn't he reroute money needed for levee upgrades?
Well, actually, the truth is a little harder to swallow.
https://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page...T20050907a.html
QUOTE |
The Bush administration is being widely criticized for the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina and the allegedly inadequate protection for "the big one" that residents had long feared would hit New Orleans. But research into more than ten years of reporting on hurricane and flood damage mitigation efforts in and around New Orleans indicates that local and state officials did not use federal money that was available for levee improvements or coastal reinforcement and often did not secure local matching funds that would have generated even more federal funding. |
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 854 85.4%
Barbara Bush Calls Evacuees Better Off
WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 - As President Bush battled criticism over the response to Hurricane Katrina, his mother declared it a success for evacuees who "were underprivileged anyway," saying on Monday that many of the poor people she had seen while touring a Houston relocation site were faring better than before the storm hit.
"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas," Barbara Bush said in an interview on Monday with the radio program "Marketplace." "Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality."
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway," she said, "so this is working very well for them."
Ref. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/national.../07barbara.html
I don't anything about new orleans until news about the hurricane devastation spread around the globe. I don't think place will be totally abandoned. a great number will leave but sure enough a lot will also stay and rehabilitate the it. with all those financial campaigns made by the white palace I'm sure new orleans can get back to her feet.
Message Edited! Persephone: no need to put breaks in your messages |