Anyone suprised at all??

[DrippingSprings]

NEW YORK The battered Times-Picayune of New Orleans, which evacuated its downtown office this afternoon, posted a simple note to it staffers on its Web site late this afternoon: "We are working at the Houma Courier for a few days. If you have news, call 985-850-1182. We plan to set up a longer term newsroom in Baton Rouge. Call the Advocate to find out where we are."

Meanwhile, two staffers published a story on one of the Web site's blogs, reporting on the looting in the city -- joined in by cops and firemen who had been called to the scene.

Other reports, and TV footage, have shown brazen looting at many sites around the city. One compared the current climate in the increasingly desperate city to "Sodom and Gomorrah."
HURRICANE COVERAGE

One looter shot a local police officer, but Tuesday night word came that the officer was expected to survive.

At the Times-Picayune Web site, Mike Perlstein and Brian Thevenot wrote that at a Wal-Mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, mass looting broke out after a giveaway of supplies was announced at that location. While some did indeed carry away food and essentials, others "cleared out jewelry racks and carted out computers, TVs, and appliances on handtrucks. Some officers joined in taking whatever they could, including one New Orleans cop who loaded a shopping cart with a compact computer and a 27-inch flat screen television.

"Throughout the store and parking lot, looters pushed carts and loaded trucks and vans alongside officers. One man said police directed him to Wal-Mart from Robert's Grocery, where a similar scene was taking place. A crowd in the electronics section said one officer broke the glass DVD case so people wouldn't cut themselves.

"The police got all the best stuff. They're crookeder than us," one man said. Most officers, though, simply stood by powerless against the tide of law breakers.

One veteran officer said, "It's like this everywhere in the city. This tiny number of cops can't do anything about this. It's wide open."

Some groups, the reporters wrote, "organized themselves into assembly lines to more efficiently cart off goods. Inside the store, one woman was stocking up on make-up. She said she took comfort in watching police load up their own carts. 'It must be legal,' she said. 'The police are here taking stuff, too.'"

[mightybooboo]

No surprise.The cockroaches always come out in times of turmoil.

BooBoo

[lgslgs]

I'm suprised by two things:

1. There is already talk of "rebuilding". How come nobody's talking about the folly of even considering rebuilding on land that is below sea level?

2. Why are all of the refugees standing and waiting, like we saw after the Asian tsunami? My husband and I are able bodied (like many of those standing around folks) and for years we have been in agreement that if we are ever in a disaster or civil unrest area, we start walking out immediately while others mill about. Why wait for violence and disease to take off? The day after the hurricane, an able bodied person could have walked and swum as needed at least far enough to marginally increase their odds of finding food, a water supply, and possibly even some help - and a marginal improvement may determine whether you live or die. No matter how horrifying the present is for these folks, it is going to get worse by the day and hour. I am so suprised that we aren't seeing waves of refugees trying to move to safer areas. Anything has to be better than remaining behind with a crowd of hungry, soon to be starving, scared, angry, pooping and peeing into the water people and hoping that civil order will somehow prevail.

I don't mean to be insensitive about this, and am genuinely distressed by seeing so many people waiting and essentially sealing their fate by being passive. This is going to get so horrible as disease spreads, stray dogs form packs and hunt for food, insect levels increase, and sewage ripens. The able bodied will lose their window of opportunity to help themselves, and will further tax overloaded relief efforts that even now cannot care for the less abled or helpless.

How can anyone use their body's energy stores to loot a store to steal consumer electronics when the same effort could have given them a start at a possible journey out of that mess? I honestly cannot understand this.

Lynda

[Lerxt]

Originally Posted by lgslgs

I'm suprised by two things:

1. There is already talk of "rebuilding". How come nobody's talking about the folly of even considering rebuilding on land that is below sea level?

2. Why are all of the refugees standing and waiting, like we saw after the Asian tsunami? My husband and I are able bodied (like many of those standing around folks) and for years we have been in agreement that if we are ever in a disaster or civil unrest area, we start walking out immediately while others mill about. Why wait for violence and disease to take off? The day after the hurricane, an able bodied person could have walked and swum as needed at least far enough to marginally increase their odds of finding food, a water supply, and possibly even some help - and a marginal improvement may determine whether you live or die. No matter how horrifying the present is for these folks, it is going to get worse by the day and hour. I am so suprised that we aren't seeing waves of refugees trying to move to safer areas. Anything has to be better than remaining behind with a crowd of hungry, soon to be starving, scared, angry, pooping and peeing into the water people and hoping that civil order will somehow prevail.

I don't mean to be insensitive about this, and am genuinely distressed by seeing so many people waiting and essentially sealing their fate by being passive. This is going to get so horrible as disease spreads, stray dogs form packs and hunt for food, insect levels increase, and sewage ripens. The able bodied will lose their window of opportunity to help themselves, and will further tax overloaded relief efforts that even now cannot care for the less abled or helpless.

It the "do it for me/give me what I want" mentality. People, especially people used to living off of government hand-outs, don't even consider doing something for themselves. It's been trained out of them by years or generations of such coddling. (don't worry...I'm getting my flame-proof undies on)

Admittedly, some of them really do have circumstances that prevent them from "just walking out" - small children, health issues, etc. But I'd bet the vast majority of them are capable of walking 20+ miles in a day and reaching a better refuge in short order.

How can anyone use their body's energy stores to loot a store to steal consumer electronics when the same effort could have given them a start at a possible journey out of that mess? I honestly cannot understand this.

Same issue taken to a different extreme. These people are willing to do something to help themselves but only because they've seen the system fail so horribly that they no longer have any use or respect for any part of the system or anyone who does. They see the "haves" as the reason they "have not" and intend to "work" outside the law to take what they think they are owed.

I'm not going to begrudge someone taking groceries. I know they shouldn't and I know they had a chance to get out of the city before the storm hit but I'll make allowances for people making honest mistakes. The people taking anything that doesn't involve survival...well that's just going to backfire anyway. You think they can get that stuff out of the city? And if they think they're going to have a high time of it while the city is closed I think they're in for a nasty surprise.

[Quint]

I'd like to say I'm surprised about the cops and firemen looting but having been to and known people from N.O. I'm not surprised. Very corrupt. The cops could have kept a lid on the looting if they would have shot looters and left them where they dropped. Instead they joined in or just pointed their weapons and told them to stop. Fat lot of good that did.

I've seen several disasters in the Midwest. Several floods and tornadoes that wrecked entire towns. You simply didn't see looting. Stores blown wide open but no one took merchandise. Neighbors who found their neighbors belongings blown into their yard didn't take them they returned them. In 93 when the Mississippi and the tributaries flooded I heard of exactly one case of looting. A couple of dirt bags out in a boat stealing air conditioners out of cabins along the river. That was it. Why the difference?

If this teaches people anything maybe it will be to take responsibility for your own safety and preparedness. It isn't like this situation was unexpected. People were told for decades that this could happen. They were given plenty of warning that this hurricane was coming.

I've got kin down there that I haven't been able to get in contact with yet but I'm pretty sure they are ok since they were pretty far inland and they are pretty prepared folks. My place is one of their designated "bug out" places so they may show up on my doorstep in a few days.

[mightybooboo]

We were evacuated for 2 weeks here.We didnt have a looting problem either,then again,the whole system didnt fail either.

BooBoo

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

Animals, just animals of the 2 legged kind.

[Kenneth in NC]

Look "They have to Rebuild New Orleans" If not the refugees may be coming to your neighborhood.