New York Times: Police in Suburbs Blocked Evacuees, Witnesses Report:

Police agencies to the south of New Orleans were so fearful of the crowds trying to leave the city after Hurricane Katrina that they sealed a crucial bridge over the Mississippi River and turned back hundreds of desperate evacuees, two paramedics who were in the crowd said.

The paramedics and two other witnesses said officers sometimes shot guns over the heads of fleeing people, who, instead of complying immediately with orders to leave the bridge, pleaded to be let through, the paramedics and two other witnesses said. The witnesses said they had been told by the New Orleans police to cross that same bridge because buses were waiting for them there.

Instead, a suburban police officer angrily ordered about 200 people to abandon an encampment between the highways near the bridge. The officer then confiscated their food and water, the four witnesses said. The incidents took place in the first days after the storm last week, they said.

“The police kept saying, ‘We don’t want another Superdome,’ and ‘This isn’t New Orleans,’ ” said Larry Bradshaw, a San Francisco paramedic who was among those fleeing.

Arthur Lawson, chief of the Gretna, La., Police Department, confirmed that his officers, along with those from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Crescent City Connection Police, sealed the bridge.

“There was no place for them to come on our side,” Mr. Lawson said.

Daily News blogger Will Bunch (one of the greatest blogs in Philly IMHO) had the following to say at Attytood: There’s an old sheriff in town: The legacy of racism in the parish that blocked N.O. from fleeing Hell

…it could be said that Jefferson Parish is in some ways like a lot of American suburbs — comprised of white-flight refugees from a decaying city, and overly anxious to keep out what they left behind.

And sadly, in a time of chaos, they just did what came naturally. With a few warning shots, for good measure.

Meanwhile Bush cronies are are getting rebuilding contracts – including Haliburton. Who coulda guessed?

Must reads are articles in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Lots of blame to go around. Complete failure of leadership from top to bottom. And saddly it looks like those nearest the horror had the fewest resources to deal with it – and when they asked for help – it was slow in responding.

Duncan Black issues a call to keep light on NOLA’s reconstruction:

It’s going to be boring, monotonous, dreary work, mostly leading to a bunch of boring, monotonous stories that no one cares much about. It’s going to involve maps and city council meetings and minutes and documents and building permits and construction contracts and titles. But, it will, if done right, also involve people.

Please, press, both local and national, do your job following the saga of the reconstruction of New Orleans. There are going to be land grabs and corruption and bribery and efforts by the NO elite to keep the poor from returning.

Please, follow the story. You’ll be the only watchdog for this.

A prayer for all those that stand in harms way to protect what we hold dear, a prayer for families who have lost so much, and a prayer for peace in our time. Remember. Reflect. Learn.

I have this to say, and apologies to all those I offend: Four years. Four years after the horror of 9-11. Four years, and the bastards that committed their evil are still permitted to walk this earth, their message has spread, and they have committed more horrible acts. Four years and the unprecedented one party rule of our Senate, House, and Executive branch hasn’t sealed the deal. Four years, and it would appear, observing our response to Katrina, that we are no safer than we were. Four years. Four years. Four years. Don’t just remember and stew in anger. Reflect and learn. Then find a way and act. Three is work to be done.

PHOTO TAKEN- 0911901- of twin towers ground-zero

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “2005?!?! My god, fill me in. These last few weeks have been rough! Give me some hope, okay?”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “Well…”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “Come on! Four years! Where did they finally find Osama? And what did they do to him?”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “Well…”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “I assume the Taliban are long gone from Afghanistan, right? This war we’re fighting can’t take too much longer.”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “Well…”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “And what with the outpouring of international support for the U.S. these days, there must be some wonderful achievements in global cooperation!”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “Well…”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “Oh, yeah, now there are these bizarre anthrax incidents… Who was it, anyway? What a relief it must have been to find that out!”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “Well…”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “You’re not saying very much. What gives?”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “You remember all that talk about Iraq at the start of the first Bush administration? They invaded.”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “Yeah? Don’t tell me — Saddam was behind the anthrax!”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “No, no…”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “Or, what, did he finally find a way to launch his own terrorist attack?”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “Nope.”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “They caught him building a nuke!”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “Well, no.”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “So…?”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “They told us Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But we never found the weapons, even after we toppled him. Then they told us it didn’t matter because we were building a better democratic Iraq. Then they told us not to give up despite thousands of American casualties, because if we pulled out we’d be dishonoring the soldiers who’d already died.”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “Damn. I guess that means Bush lost the election in ’04, huh?”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “Well…”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “Anyway, the most important thing is that, four years later, the U.S. has had enough time to plan and prepare for another horror. The next time an American city is endangered, we’ll be all set, right? Swift response. Leaders who spring into action. Better communications. Organization. The can-do American spirit.”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “Well…”

2001 Scott Rosenberg: “Enough! Get back to the future already! You’re just bumming me out.”

2005 Scott Rosenberg: “Hey, you’re bumming me out, too!”

Simple instructions can be found here.

Thanks for the pointer Bill!

The story I shared yesterday is now getting exposure all over the web. Rogers Cadenhead summarized it to its core and his message thread is filled with outrage (and trolls):

As the situation grew steadily worse in New Orleans last week, you might have wondered why people didn’t just leave on foot. The Louisiana Superdome is less than two miles from a bridge that leads over the Mississippi River out of the city.

The answer: Any crowd that tried to do so was met by suburban police, some of whom fired guns to disperse the group and seized their water.

Around 500 people stuck in downtown New Orleans after the storm banded together for self-preservation, making sure the oldest and youngest among them were taken care of before looking after their own needs.

Two San Francisco paramedics who were staying in the French Quarter for a convention have written a first-hand account that describes their appalling treatment at the hands of Louisiana police, a story confirmed today by the San Francisco Chronicle, UPI, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

I added the following in his thread:

Shepard Smith on Fox News (video) confirmed this story as well:

They won’t let them walk out of there because I’m standing right above that Convention Center, and what they’ve done is they’ve locked them in there.

The government said you go here and you’ll get help or you go in that Superdome and you’ll get help. And they didn’t get help.

They got locked in there. And they watched people being killed around them. And they watched people starving. And they watched elderly people not getting any medicine.

And now they know it’s happening because we’ve been telling them. Repeatidly. Over and over every day.

And you know what they’re doing now? And I’m not blaming anyone, I’m you telling what’s happening.

They’ve setup a checkpoint at the bottom of this bridge. This is the bridge that takes you from New Orleans over into Gretna. From Orleans Parish, into Jefferson Parish. It’s the only way out. It’s the connection to the rest of the world. And they’ve set up a checkpoint and anyone who walks up, out of that city now is turned around.

You are not allowed to go to Gretna Louisiana, from New Orleans Louisiana.

Over there is hope. Over there is electricity. Over there is food and water. But you cannot go from there to there. The government will not allow you to do it.

It can all seem so… pointless… at a time like this. When faced with so much pain. So much death.

It’s like a veil has been cast back and we can see – clearly for a moment – how things really are – and it fills our hearts with sorrow and dread. That veil will soon be placed back. Things will flow to back to ‘normal’ (what ever that is) for most of us. But before that happens many will take stock.

At times like this, especially a times like this, along with grieving, along with sharing – many feel an overwhelming need to reach out and do something – taking our horror and doing something with it – shape it – mold it – redirect it – try and do some good with it.

The dimensions of that are different counting upon who we are – and what we do. For artists and musicians, some attempt to record it and relate meaning. For pundits and analysts, well it’s in the truth telling. For others, tool builders and engineers, it’s in building solutions to cope with the the aftermath and the future. For many it is in direct volunteering and fund raising. For some it is reaching out to family members, some we’ve pushed away for years. For others, it is simply in telling those we love – we love them. And maybe a few strangers too.

Not all folks are like this – you know the ones – who even now seem oblivious. Maybe you are jeallous of them to a degree. Cognitive dissonance, willful ignorance, whatever you want to call it, these folks are not demonstratably moved and are just going about their business.

One of the questions many of us are talking about is what we are doing online. Billmon at Whisky Bar in “Hitting the Wall” shares he’s planning to take a break for a bit – and it is understandable why:

…last night I came across an account of the search for real bodies — not metaphorical ones — in the stinking ruins of New Orleans. It’s like something out of the charnel houses of World War II

…It is reported that the state of Louisiana has placed an order for 25,000 body bags.

For some reason, it wasn’t until I read that story that the full horror of what happened in New Orleans finally hit home for me. Maybe it’s because I was on the road part of last week, and missed most of the live broadcasts during the days when the city was in complete chaos. Maybe it’s because I don’t watch TV much even when I am home. But until now I’ve thought about the catastrophe more in terms of the loss of a great American city — and less in terms of the individual human lives that were destroyed.

No longer. The image — of a man frantically trying to breath through a pipe stuck in a ventilator grate as the waters rise over his head — is too searingly to hold at an emotional distance. How long did he survive, submerged in total darkness? And how many others died in the same bizarre trap — too weak or terrified to break through the layers of plywood and asphalt that had suddenly become the lids on their underwater coffins?

Thinking about those deaths is like looking at pictures of people jumping, hand in hand, from the windows of the World Trade Center on 9/11 — forced in a moment of howling panic to choose between the flames and the long fall to the pavement below. Such images are unendurable. The mind recoils from them as if we ourselves were caught in the same trap.

And suddenly all the backbiting over who failed first — or most often, or most spectacularly — seems too vile to worry about, much less write about. Even the big, important questions — the future of New Orleans, the threat of global warming, the paralyzing problems of race and poverty in America — have lost their intellectual appeal. Too many people have died, and too much has been destroyed to try to make sense of it now. And as stupid and obnoxious and insane as the powers that be have been this past week, they don’t seem very funny now — not even Dick Cheney.

I need a break, in other words — time to simply grieve for New Orleans and its dead, and for their lost world, now slipping into history. Which means I may not be posting much for the next few days.

*The* must read of the week. You will be inspired by heroism – and horrified at the man-made predicament set upon them:

EMSNetwork: Hurricane Katrina – Our Experiences:

By day 4 our hotels had run out of fuel and water. Sanitation was dangerously abysmal. As the desperation and despair increased, street crime as well as water levels began to rise. The hotels turned us out and locked their doors, telling us that the “officials” told us to report to the convention center to wait for more buses. As we entered the center of the City, we finally encountered the National Guard. The Guards told us we would not be allowed into the Superdome as the City’s primary shelter had descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole. The guards further told us that the City’s only other shelter, the Convention Center, was also descending into chaos and squalor and that the police were not allowing anyone else in. Quite naturally, we asked, “If we can’t go to the only 2 shelters in the City, what was our alternative?” The guards told us that that was our problem, and no they did not have extra water to give to us. This would be the start of our numerous encounters with callous and hostile “law enforcement”.

We walked to the police command center at Harrah’s on Canal Street and were told the same thing, that we were on our own, and no they did not have water to give us. We now numbered several hundred. We held a mass meeting to decide a course of action. We agreed to camp outside the police command post. We would be plainly visible to the media and would constitute a highly visible embarrassment to the City officials. The police told us that we could not stay. Regardless, we began to settle in and set up camp. In short order, the police commander came across the street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans Bridge where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the City. The crowed cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and explained to the commander that there had been lots of misinformation and wrong information and was he sure that there were buses waiting for us. The commander turned to the crowd and stated emphatically, “I swear to you that the buses are there.”

We organized ourselves and the 200 of us set off for the bridge with great excitement and hope. As we marched pasted the convention center, many locals saw our determined and optimistic group and asked where we were headed. We told them about the great news. Families immediately grabbed their few belongings and quickly our numbers doubled and then doubled again. Babies in strollers now joined us, people using crutches, elderly clasping walkers and others people in wheelchairs. We marched the 2-3 miles to the freeway and up the steep incline to the Bridge. It now began to pour down rain, but it did not dampen our enthusiasm.

As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander’s assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn’t cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans.