Bonjour Everybody,

Here in France we have been following the news and our thoughts are with the victims. We know there is very little we can do at the moment, except keep at the ready for the time we are asked for specific help. I for one will be giving something to the Red Cross next time I visit your country (AZ in November, most likely).

I know some people around the world, and some of my compatriots, unfortunately, will make a number of nasty or stupid comments about this disaster being fate/divine retribution for past wrongs/etc. Please take them for the mindless idiots they are, and be sure they are in the minority.

Our thoughts and prayers from your neighbour to the North and the Canadian Red Cross on the invitation of the US Government responded immediately with a Volunteer worker force of 200 into the area. My neighbour next door left yesterday.

We stand with you and will be supporting you in any way.

That great American spirit will truly shine through.

While money is one thing, a lot of these people will need a home or housing for an indefinite period of time.

Lots of people here, in MI, and Iowa also that I know of are getting on lists through their church or community center to volunteer to house a family or individual. One lady who has only an extra room with extra bath has been accepted and they (couple) are on the way.

Someone is already in my MI house who is sick/ recouping from an operation- but I'll be doing this too soon.

Just a thought.

JJ5,

Here's an article about how people are opening up their homes:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9153514/

Just watched the noon news. Can anyone explain why there has not been even a single water drop for those people on the interstate in downtown New Orleans?
I know the problem is overwhelming, but this seems like a nobrainer.

There are so many things that you would think are no-brainers, Patrick, that aren't.

For one thing, there are problems of getting most in a crowd intact water without getting someone hurt BADLY, even in an organized docile crowd. Do you drop it and have them all stampede? So many other factors as well because of types of transit.

One of the ironies, to me, is that some were happy about equipment base cancels and calling them pork just last week. Where's the A-10 Warthog today? Working hard! and it certainly isn't pork when you need it. Wonder if they will close its mechanical base/home near Grand Rapids MI now??

News doesn't tell the entire picture ever. You don't know unless you are there how complicated it is. Because it is complicated. Look what happened on the bridge in Iraq and they were not 3 days wet either.

By the way, do all of you have a couple of gallons of water stocked in a cabinet in your kitchen or garage that you change every month or so. I do. I use old plastic gallon milk containers with tight lids. You should.

I'm thinking of Dunkirk today. That beach was evacuated by small private craft who just went over and plucked the trapped servicemen off the beaches. Private ingenuity is what is needed. Americans (not only buy often) are known for their grit and ingenuity. why are all those who have even a row boat not getting into the nearest flooded area to them and rescuing someone?

Maybe instead of waiting for the huge, slow moving government agencies to get organized, some small groups could organize a flotilla of small craft around a larger craft that could load up jerry cans of gasoline to refuel the small outboards and all head inland starting from east and west working towards New Orleans.

You see the wrecked homes; I see a pile of lumber just needed a few hand tool and some energy to erect into temporary shelters. There are hand tools rusting in some hardware stores in each tiny town and in new Orleans. Tell the looters to find them and use them.

Americans kept Berlin alive for months, defeating Stalin. Why can't all who own small planes wrap bottles water in air mattresses and drop it to those waiting in fields and on highways.

Please, there is true American grit. Those people wandering around just need a little bit of leadership to awaken them out of their shock. Give them some tools. Think small instead of big. Help them help themselves. Stop seeing them as helpless and see them as fellow workers with a huge reservoir of know-how.

Yesterday, on CFCN (our local news) was announced that the Red Cross has Albertans skilled in oil rig work and rescue medicine ready to go, but waiting per instructions until organizers can figure out how to use them. I don't think Americans need outside experts. They have all the know how and resources they need. I think they are paralyzed by red tape. It is the neighbors in small craft that need to duck under the red tape and reach out to the closest parish.

God bless Houston's can-do attitude!

Both craigslist and NOLA.com have listings now of people who are willing to shelter refugees from Katrina. I also heard this morning that the Texas Apartment Association and the National Apartment Association are working together to find temp homes for people.

JJ5 brings up a good point. We should all be prepared for a disaster because you never know. Someone made the comment on CNN last night, if only some of these people had water & battery operated radios.

everittp-Alot of people were told to stay away from the area because it was too dangerous and they were not trained. A friend of ours wanted to go down there and contacted the local red cross here in Ohio and they told him he could not go because he wasn't trained.

I heard that the Navy hospital ship will sail out from Norfolk tomorrow and won't get there until next week. Why wasn't that ship on standby somewhere closer? Apparently, there are not enough busses either to get people out. Why can't they get a cruise ship or decommissioned aircraft carrier of ship down there? And why can't the US Military take over down there and restore order? Anyone impeding the rescue effort by shooting at resuers should be shot. It is unbelievealbe to me that this is going on in our country and that things are getting worse instead of better.

And where is Congress? I turned CSPAN on this morning and it was live and a bunch of senators were going on about Bush's Supreme Court nominee. HELLO! Major disaster here. Get off your butts, get in emergency session and do some good for a change...

hi everitt
in reference to why people aren't getting their boats out to rescue people, they are, and have been since Tuesday, if not before. There has been a call for people with boats to provide them for rescue--however, they are cautioning that they want experienced people and not just anyone who might then in turn have a problem themselve.

Yes, MzPossum that exactly what's happening. You can't send in people who aren't trained, it's just more people to get in the way. Sorry, but it is.

And at Dunkirk they used people with their OWN boats, who knew the channel and knew how to use their own craft, row boat, fishing veseel- expertly. All those craft with personal ownership are down and killed by Katrina- so it's a totally different story. AND the water is so filled with debris that it would be prohibitively dangerous. Also the area is immense. And you can't send big ships in with the levees being sandbagged as they are right now, so that they can stop the breeches. You do know that if the weather changes and they don't do that- it could get worse.
Then you have to pump. You have a very difficult engineering problem going on at the same time. That is why with all the scenarios repeated over and over again every time there has been a hurricane warning, that they have wanted everyone to leave New Orleans- primarily. Andrew last year as well.

They can start on the outsides in grid fashion and just start bringing people out and away- which is what they are doing. BUT IT IS VERY DIFFICULT when people do not want to go or are too thristy, or are too argumentative about what they are taking. They might not be rational about what they are taking with or where they "want" to go. You can't understand the mind set unless you are there. A looter can be a hero two days later. People do not have logic or sense at times.

Do not go there now. The disease factors will be getting much worse and trained or medical people are going there in numbers and it will be resolved. Not perfectly, and this is what the Chinese call "interesting times". The best you can do is take a displaced family into your home for a period of time.

About my "no brainer" above. I guess it offends me that news crew after news crew is able to get onto that interstate and interview and film people who are literally about to die from thirst and heat. Yet no one can figure out how to get water there.
And while it may cause a stampede if not done properly, I'm curious how that is worse than letting them die. Did you see the guy who jumped off to commit suicide because he couldn't take it any more?

When they keep saying there is no way to reach people, I think they're missing a good bet. Hire the film crews and ask them how they get there and back again.

It's wonderful to hear all the humanitarian things being done! Thank you!
We're all getting a little punchy here in Baton Rouge--sirens up and down the interstate trasporting people, tour busses now evacuation busses; not as many helicopters and yesterday. Rumors of roving gangs of carjackers and looters here in Baton Rouge (not true--yet)--there was some problem downtown with the shelter at our RiverCenter and state workers have been told to go home--but we first heard there was mass rioting!
Gasoline shot up from 2.48 this morning to 2.99 by noon--many gas stations empty--you can't go inside the bank lobby and must use the drive through--with waits of 10-15 cars--can't do that on a lunch hour!
Anyway, I'm trying to not watch TOO much news so I can stay sane at work and at home and hopefully be of help when I can. There is a Red Cross donation center by my office (dental) so we loaded them up with toothbrushes and toothpaste today.

Patrick, YOU ARE SO RIGHT! Forgive me for shouting, but I'm asking myself that everyday!!!!!!!!

LoveItaly ~

I am so sorry, I just now read your post on your family friends. I can't imagine being so far away and not knowing if my DH was alive or not. I can't tell you how my heart breaks for this dear lady, her daughter and for everyone is that is living in this nightmare.

My love to you, and to everyone that is troubled or worried.

Peace, Tiff ((L))

LoveItaly, thanks for your kind words.

((L))

:-)

buckeyemom
I could not have said it better. You have said what I have been saying all day! We have been reduced to that of a third world country and it simply should not be that way!

Buckeyemom: Can you hear me applauding you?

Amen Patrick, that is what I am thinking as well, the news crews are driving to Baton Rouge to hotels each night and back, and standing by dead bodies. I don't get it.

Hello dear Tiff and P_M, that is what is breaking our hearts, that she has no idea about her husband. Like I said, it is just one story out of thousands and thousands. In fact received a phone call from a dear friend in my area while ago. She has not been able to reach her family that has a family home along the Alabama shore so she is so worried also. USA Today did indicate Alabama is more or less opening up for the Labor Day Weekend. It is strange she can't reach them. Guess power/phone lines, cell towers are down?

Tiff, thank you for the "upbeat" thread regarding Americans. And P_M, you take good care of yourself. Hope you can have a relaxing Labor Day weekend. Hugs to everyone that is hurting one way or another.

If they can get news crews in, why can't they get a couple semis filled with bottled water. Get someone on the back with a bull horn and tell people there is plenty to go around and not to stampede, old, sick and young served first...

Because the scale is different. The semi has to get through 50 to 100 miles of "roads" carrying that water past OTHER people who want it. And some of those news crews have gotten to places no semi ever could as the "land" lays now.

This is not one small area. This is on a scale where people 40 or 50 miles away have scarcity already. Not water, but other things. There is miles and miles of land / water/ land /water. They are landing huge helicopters with water etc.

And so far, the guy with the bullhorn already got shot a few times. It looks a whole lot easier on tv when you only see the narrow area. This is an area that would be equivilant of South of Chicago all the way to the Wisconsin border that is covered with sea/ sewer water or debris.

The people will have to come OUT to the goods to sustain levels of supply.

I've been almost glued to the TV for this past 2 weeks. I knew that I would see individuals stepping into the breech! I'm dismayed by the inept response by the governmental agencies, but so heartened by the heroic stories I'm seeing. Dangerous waters, criminals, disease, shell shocked survivors are not stopping Americans from using their ingenuity and grit. Maybe Dunkirk wasn't such a poor example after all. I think when all this is over, the stories about the CEOs who chartered jets and flew in as well as the clerks on the lowest rung of the economic ladder who found a way to "borrow" gas from one car to start a bus, to the renegade bus driven by the 20 year old into Houston (bless Houstonians!) to the three kids from Duke who drove their car into NO will all demonstrate what I knew was true. Waiting for government agencies is NOT the only way, maybe not the best way to get help fast. I'm celebrating that I live in a world with a woman minister, blind, who wouldn't leave her dog!

I know that God is working with this pain to redeem it. Those who are giving a minute or a dollar, their sweat or their homes are being redeemed. If the 'sin' that the Taliban wanted to wipe out was the materialism of the developed world, then this storm is demonstrating that we are making amends for that.

Alberta today passed a 5 million dollar donation to Bush/Clinton funds. Our rig workers are likely down there by now. I know some churches are sending workers.

What I hope comes out of this is that the reminder ;we can plan, but human beings can't foresee everything. Old Tower of Babble story taught that. We are always going to need grit, ingenuity, courage and generosity. And I'm witnessing it every day now.
Americans and British have been my heros ever since my uncle fought for Canada (back when we didn't have a flag of our own! another post). I devoured the films and history books about the heroism of the WW11. However, the British at Dunkirk, and the Americans defeating Stalin by the food drop into East Berlin remain my pick for most awesome acts! Lessons to me; when there's a will, there's a way.

Hats off to all the NGOs, the individual CEOs, and the sung and unsung celebrities who found a car, a raft, a syringe and a backpack, a bus, a pair of arms, willing hands to fix this. That's where American shine. I hope that the rest of the world sees this. It will paint the contrast against which the governments' mistakes must be placed. I'm not bashing government organizations right now. They are made up of mere humans. Human error exists. I hope all our local, provincial/state and federal governments will learn from this.

We know about E-coli from our Walkerton disaster. I wonder if the CDC has asked Ottawa for pointers learned from that event.