No Where to Go

[sisabet]

So now, NOW they are gonna bring in buses and transport the survivors at the Superdome to Houston so that they can live in the Astrodome. Nice. Really nice.

I'm just -- yeah, I went through evacuations and what not when I lived there and it is true that the population tends to accept/deny the level of danger kinda willy-nilly. But I don't think that with this HUGE thing getting bigger and bigger in the Gulf, that this was one of those times that the people who stayed behind did so because they under-estimated the seriousness of the situation. Not all of them.

People stayed because they had no where to go. I will keep harping on this and coming back to this and focusing on this and never ever getting over this because we need to have this drilled into our heads: People Had No Where to Go.

There was no big meeting place with buses that would transport the sick and the elderly (those living independently or with family members) and the poor and the carless. That does not exist. If you cannot leave town of your own accord and by your own means -- you don't leave town. Simple as that.

Because giving people an option as to whether they might like to protect their children or their elderly parents or themselves would just be coddling - don't you think? In a city ruled by poverty, it is obvious that the people left behind have some serious issues with their bootstraps. If they cared about their children then they should have had a good job that allowed them to buy a car and insurance (and let us not ever forget that New Orleans is one of the most costly cities in the US to insure a car) and gas and arrange to stay with family out west or in a hotel up north. Yeah - if you love your family you will do all these things, right? Cause it isn't as if finding a job is a hard thing to do -- New Orleans has tons of jobs. You could be a hotel maid or... a hotel maid... or... a busboy or.... huh. Wait, no - getting a job in New Orleans is actually kinda tough. Getting a job with a living wage is next to impossible.

I know because I was there. And as much as I loved living there, I could not find a job (even with a college diploma) that would allow me to make a living wage. And I tried. I really did but it was so hard. For a long time the trade-off seemed worth it: I lived hand-to-mouth, but I could ride my bike to the Quarter and I woke up every day knowing this. My 11 year old car was stolen and my house was broken into more than once, but the Maple Leaf Bar was 2 blocks away. My job was hard and the hours were long and I physically hurt from picking people up and caring for them and more than once I was attacked or bit or hurt or covered in waste but I was needed and the people I took care of were safe as long as I was there. And I did it until I couldn't.

But I also had a lot of benefits that no one else there did -- I was in New Orleans by choice and I always had a safety net if I couldn't make it. And I couldn't. I wanted to and one of the big regrets of my life is that I didn't make it work - but I did try as hard as I have ever tried to succeed at anything. And it was not enough.

And the kind of poverty we are talking about here isn't even the kind that I experienced - this is ingrained and deep down and generations back. It is - I don't even have the words right now - it is a part of life.

And none of this is news to anyone. The poor people of the Deep South are not putting on a brave face saying, "Oh, no. Now, y'all go on without us. We'll be fine right here." They had no choice. They had no options. The Superdome was a shelter of Last Resort but for most people it was the only other option.

And it wasn't much of an option. I could start in about the sheer stupidity of opening a shelter in which you expect thousands upon thousands of people to be trapped for at least a few days without even adequate food or water supplies for these numbers. The people that came to the shelter? Were expected. There just wasn't any supplies for them beyond what they brought in for themselves.

But what twists me up inside is that none of this was really a surprise. There are Worst Case Scenaro Disaster Model television shows shown weekly in the city during hurricane season. Those in charge new what to expect. FEMA knew what to expect. Katrina hung around in the Gulf and got bigger and bigger and slower and they knew it was coming. And yeah - the contraflow of traffic got evacuating motorists to Baton Rouge in under 4 hours instead of the usual 11. Great. That is nice evidence of planning ahead. NOW - what about everyone else?

Cause, I'd hate for George Bush to have to cut his vacation short a few days. That would be fucking tragic. And I'd hate to think that our society actually cared about protecting the lives of all of its citizens before a rescue operation had to be mounted because where is the cost-benefit in that?

And it really fucking sucks to be reminded that life is not really viewed as precious by all those pompous assholes who cry in front of abortion clinics for the camera and try to control choices I make with my body. Because apparently life is only precious if it is comprised of fetal tissue. Once born it is every man, woman and child for themselves in this unlevel playing field of life, class and geography. You fuckers.

And did anyone get the feeling this morning that Baghdad looked over at New Orleans and said "Shit, another city is trying to claim our title of Suckiest Place to Live Ever. Quick - a mass dying is in order!" cause I just feel surrounded by a surreal cloud right now. This can't be right. This can't be real. Somewhere along the way we got trapped in a movie and I really would like it if the reel would stop now. At least -- intermission. An intermission will be nice.

My god. Have you seen the pictures? To just anywhere? Everywhere. Have you seen the pictures?

Comments

[maggiesox.livejournal.com]

::stands, applauds::

PREACH IT.

[klia.livejournal.com]

And it really fucking sucks to be reminded that life is not really viewed as precious by all those pompous assholes who cry in front of abortion clinics for the camera and try to control choices I make with my body. Because apparently life is only precious if it is comprised of fetal tissue. Once born it is every man, woman and child for themselves in this unlevel playing field of life, class and geography. You fuckers.

I've been preaching that same sermon since the Reagan era, and it's beyond comprehension that, 25 years later, *nothing* has changed in that regard. The hypocrisy sickens me. How do those bastards always manage to *forget* that Christ's teachings are about caring for the poor and treating others the way you, yourself, would want to be treated? How can they think of themselves as Christian in any way? Gaaaaarrrrr!

cause I just feel surrounded by a surreal cloud right now.

Same here, and my brain just can't process everything that's happening.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Word. To everything.

[loligo.livejournal.com]

There was no big meeting place with buses that would transport the sick and the elderly (those living independently or with family members) and the poor and the carless. That does not exist. If you cannot leave town of your own accord and by your own means -- you don't leave town. Simple as that.

:: boggle ::

This whole time, I'd been assuming that there *was* something like that going on, but that they just didn't have enough time to get everyone, or people (the old & infirm especially) weren't able to even get to the central point.

Because... WOULDN'T THE NECESSITY FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS BE SELF-EVIDENT? I mean, if you live someplace where there's a good chance that a natural disaster will kill thousands, and it's a disaster that gives you a good long warning, wouldn't it behoove a responsible local government to PLAN SOMETHING?

Gah!

[lydiabell.livejournal.com]

Too many people, on all sides of issues, act like humanity is a zero-sum game. If you care about the unborn you can't care about the born, or vice-versa. If you care about terrorism victims you can't care about civilians in Iraq. If you care about crime victims you can't care about the rights of the accused. Because there's only so much human rights and human dignity to go around, don'tcha know, so you have to grab your group's share and everyone else can go to hell.

And yeah, that sucks. Because the way I see it, we're all in this together, and it's up to us to recognize that. And thank goodness, some people do -- a lot of them are on the ground in LA and MS right now. I'm not religious at all, but I certainly appreciate the work that groups like the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities and Mennonite Disaster Services are doing, in addition to the secular groups of course.

What burns me is that people have known for years this could happen, and they've known what they needed to do about it. But funding for strengthening the levees has dried up in recent years because that money was being wasted spent elsewhere.

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

Some of the things taht could have helped would not have cost much at all.

How hard would it have been to arrange for school buses to cart people further inland? They probably couldn't have gotten everyone, but it would help. School isn't in session yet. Those buildings could have easily been used as shelters.

[irishcaelan.livejournal.com]

I said to someone the other day that NO was a disaster waiting to happen. It did. It finally did. The disenfranchised are always screwed, but here is the in your face proof.

[ann1962]

Thank you for this.

[askye.livejournal.com]

I'm so pissed off at the President and his lack of interest in the situation I want to throw things and scream. Seriously.

And there was some ass in my offiec today claiming that there were actually pick up points, where buses went for the poor and carless to get taken to safety. I asked him why we hadn't seen it on the news and he claimed he did see it on the news, but people didn't want to go becuase they are too stupid or too poor to care and got what they deserved and we shouldn't be helping them.


I don't know how people who think like that can live. I just don't. It's sick.

No compassion at all.

[petronelle.livejournal.com]

I wish to heaven that you were making this stuff up. It makes me cry that you are telling the truth. Thank you for this post.

[minim_calibre]

It just makes me so angry, between the "well, they chose to stay"s and the "well, that's what you get for choosing to live there"s. I feel like people have no concept of what poverty is, or compassion, either.

[heresluck]

Yes. Just... yes.

Reading the news for the past couple of days has made me so angry, and so sad, and...I hate that LJ is my best source for sane and socially responsible political commentary, but I am so glad you posted this.

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for posting this. I haven't even looked at the traditional TV coverage for this; it's too rage-making.

[nakedwesley.livejournal.com]

Someone on CNN was talking about the bussing to the Astrodome and said that anyone not from the Superdome showing up at the shelter would be turned away. Yeah, because all the other homeless and starving that might not even have made it as far as the Superdome, or got out of town and are now homeless, they don't need help too. /sarcasm. Not that I'm not grateful to FEMA and Houston for arranging better shelter than the Hell Hole they're in now... Too bad they couldn't have thought of it a few days sooner. >:o(

I'm so sick of all the news agencies making sure to mention that Dubya had to cut his vacation short a few days. Because that's the biggest tragedy right now. Sheesh!

I'll admit I was unaware of the full situation in NOLA (and the other coastal areas hit hard) before the hurricane. It simply didn't occur to me that there'd be so many people unable to get out (at least in part because none of the news agencies thought to mention it or be at all worried). Thanks to you and many others for setting things straight.

Oh, and the German Red Cross is standing by, waiting for us to request help. HELLO!! This is us, REQUESTING HELP! ::headdesk::

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

FEMA et al was pretty honest from the get go: if the worst happens, we simply don't have the resources to deal. They don't. There aren't enough people, there isn't enough food, and there is no way to get the available resources to the people who need it. It's not really any govt. organization's fault. This was just too big.

Feel free to blame Bush for anything though. Just on general principle.

[valerie-z.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this. I thought I was crazy for feeling angry about this.

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

Ditto and "Word!" to your whole post, but this last bit especially resonated with my own current sense of surreal outrage and approaching numbness at the total, unbelievable disregard for and waste of human lives in the world right now:

'And did anyone get the feeling this morning that Baghdad looked over at New Orleans and said "Shit, another city is trying to claim our title of Suckiest Place to Live Ever. Quick - a mass dying is in order!" cause I just feel surrounded by a surreal cloud right now. This can't be right. This can't be real. Somewhere along the way we got trapped in a movie and I really would like it if the reel would stop now. At least -- intermission. An intermission will be nice.'

I also really appreciated your personal testimony to the pervasive and inescapable nature of poverty in New Orleans, and the unforgivable stupidity and selfishness of giving the poorest and most vulnerable of our neighbors no decent option, other than to fend for themselves in a sports arena.

I'm sure you've enjoyed

[aexia.livejournal.com]

"It's not looting if you're white" (http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/8/30/192236/013/241#241) series of pictures that have come out the past couple days... (as seen at Wonkette and Fark.com!)

[aithine]

Amen, sister.

So we dance the sidewalk clean

[kimera.livejournal.com]

I really do not understand it at all. I mean, I can understand being caught without proper evacuation procedures in the case of, say, an earthquake, which is not predictable. But the thing about hurricanes is that you can see them coming! Which, logically, would mean that it would be *easier* to have evacuation plans in place! But apparently not.

proud of your post

[retired-mom.livejournal.com]

I am very proud of your post...I have been asking since Monday morning, where is our military...navy med ships, air force helicopters, army trucks...do we have any left in the US..I am becoming very disappointed in our government and for me to say that is a big left turn.....Liz, you need to run for office...think about it...love, mom

[margarks.livejournal.com]

wow. I've never read your journal before but was pointed here by someone. that was so well written, very articulate and well thought out. thank you. I hope you don't mind if I point other people here as well.

[herself_nyc]

Thanks for saying thisa lot of people who've been commenting about the looters and those who stayed in general just clearly don't understand what these people were up against logisticallyie, they had no logistics for going anywhere.

And heads should roll on a state & Federal level, which of course they will not, because as you say, this was anticipatible, but nothing was done in advance to ameliorate the situation.

And I've gotta wonder if part of the reason for that is that the sufferers are mostly black and/or grindingly poor.

You rock. Thanks for setting things straight.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

And did anyone get the feeling this morning that Baghdad looked over at New Orleans and said "Shit, another city is trying to claim our title of Suckiest Place to Live Ever. Quick - a mass dying is in order!"

Yes! Yes I did! The showoffs.

::snorts with horrified laughter::

[phendog.livejournal.com]

Thank you for writing this. You make excellent points.

And did you know that they were going to put in more safety measures THIS YEAR for the area, but didn't because the money got reappropriated to Bush's war instead? Bastard.