other that giving money to the red cross .. does anyone have any ideas to help those ppl in the south?


Id be willing to put a family up in my house.. but i have no way to get them here..

and was anyone here effected?

I have a guildmate, in my game of Guild Wars, that lived over in that area and was quite hard hit by the storms, altho' not as bad as some. He noticed a 10 yr. old girl who was out in the storm and ran out into it to get her somewhere safe. For his efforts, he received a gash in his back from a flying tree branch and 51 stitches. :shock:

My hats of to you, Will (aka serokarm monikear), for unselfish bravery in a turbulent time!!

Another of our friends hasn't been heard from lately as he was in the thick of it. I hope he contacts us soon, as I will worry until he does. :(

And, yes, what can I do to help, other than giving money (as we just don't have that much)? We have outgrown clothing and other items in good enough shape that would have been put into a garage sale to clear up space for winter. Looks like someone else needs them more. :) Hmm..I suppose I'll contact the Red Cross and see what they have as a collection point.

What they need most of all is some law and order.

It's supposed to be the United States of America, not some tinpot 3rd world dictatorship.

If you want to help, perhaps you should have a look at what's really happening on the ground there, then start haranguing your government to mobilise the resources necessary to resolve the problem. Right now, the US gvmnt should be thoroughly ashamed of it's inadequacy.

you might want to start here...

http://mgno.com/

Julius is dead right. I've been telling people not to play the blame game as to whose fault it is until after the situation is handled.

But the lack of organization is simply disgraceful. I am embarrassed that my country's government response has been so pathetic.

I turned on the tube only to hear the reporter say how the hygeine and infection level is sky high. Showing a person parked in a wheel chair with a white sheet over their head, neighboring another two body size sheets in use. A report from one of the refuges stating how he had to steel from stores to keep his family alive..... Since the writing of the declaration of independants we as americans have not had to deal with such a blow. Our people are now in a third world class in itself, suffering, death, hunger, there is no room for the blame game. Detroit, north from here is asking for any doctors, nurses, anybody with some skill to help. By this weekend two hundred brave souls from Michigan will travel down there to feed and treat our people. Im sure even the closer states will be doing the same. Time is the only thing that will help them, but also is the only thing working against us. Money and blood donations are the best way to help from home, and if you have any to spare, now is the time to be a hero. Thank you.

Giving blood .. id had forgotten about that little thing.
iv scowered my home looking for things that could be usefull.. ie
diapers.
baby wipes.
blankets.
a couple of small toys to help kids
some caned food.
and i think ill throw in some cigeretts. although i know in this day and age smokeing is frowned on. but if i was down there.. i think id need one.


but giving blood .. i need to get over to the bloodbank and donate.... Thanks bloodfrost

[quote:c0ff449b0b="Drain"]other that giving money to the red cross .. does anyone have any ideas to help those ppl in the south?[/quote:c0ff449b0b]

Sack Bush?

When my family lost everything two years ago, there was plenty of help (or at least offers of help) for the first week or so but it soon dried up. Four months later, people had moved on with their lives but my family were still homeless and still waiting for their insurance claims to be processed. I imagine it will be the same for these people. Just don't forget them in a month or so from now.


Here's an off-the-top-of-my-head idea:
You can be sure that there are already plenty of people sending food, water, medicine, etc. I doubt there is much any of us can do to immediately help these people however there are things we can do towards rebuilding. ie: Start collecting books. When you have a couple tonnes of books for K-12 grades, sweet talk TNT, FedEx, etc into shipping them to Louisana for free. Then when they rebuild the schools, they'll have fully stocked libraries for the kids :)

Another idea:
Talk to your local church group and tell them that you want to use them as a local drop off point for canned food donations. Forget about clothes as someone will need to check, wash and mend each item which is much too time consuming. Then make big signs and flyers to put around your neighbourhood asking people to take canned food to the drop off point. Then use TNT, etc to ship.

Or:
Start telephoning discount stores, chain stores, companies, etc and ask them to give you diapers, blankets, kids clothes, canned food or whatever item they stock or produce. It's often a lot more cost effective for a company to donate product rather than cash. Have them ship it direct or use TNT, etc to ship.

Or:
Sign up as a foster parent or emergency carer. I'm sure there will be plenty of kids needing a home until their parents either recover, are located or identified.

If I think of anything else I'll post it here :)

I was looking at satelite photos of N.O. today. Although I feel badly for those who've lost their homes, I am glad that the French Quarter has not been flooded.

The thing I don't understand are those idiots who are shooting at the resuce helicopters and sniping at people trying to get out. WTF is wrong with those pieces of shit?

We were talking about this at work today...and someone said if it had happened to say ...Florida....help would have got there a damn sight quicker. Not because of it's location but because the majority of people who live in new orleans are coloured, therefore the authority's don't seem in that much of a hurry to get aid/help to them.

It's not a pleasant thought and I prefer to think that the slow movement of aid/help has being down to lack of coordination etc .

Well we have found out that those 'thugs' have been waiting for this chaos so they can do their dirty work. They stayed behind for a reason - to steal, kill, and rape.

Last I heard they attempted to take control of the 'stuper' dome (as they tend to call it now.). They did a lot of damage from raping and murdering people to beating them to death.

There's also quite a bit of corruption in N.O. so it's not really surprising to hear nobody seriously intervening about these things. (Sad, but not surprising.)

At least more troops are on the way, but it's a little late I think. The response was too slow too little. I highly doudt the people who leave N.O. will want to return again. In fact many of those who took refuge here in washighton say they will NOT be returning to N.O..

Uh, in the US (for the most part), ANY large urban area is going to be predominantly colored, and if it is not colored, it will be hispanic of one demonination or another. LAck of governmental response in this case has absolutely NOTHING to do with whether they are black or white, it has to do solely with the ineptness of the administration. I would argue that both the state of Louisiana's administration AND the Bush Administration are idiotic. It has nothing to do with racisim.

Generally, in the US, distasters are first dealt with on a STATE level. Thus, the National Guardsmen that are swarming into New Orleans and the surrounding environs are LOUISIANA STATE MILITIA not the regular army. Regarding the National government's response, they WERE beginning to respond BEFORE the storm even hit. They were mobilizing naval units and what not, but as anyone with access to any sort of media should be aware, unless they are retarded, most the the US assets are currently geared to blowing shit up in the Middle East. The naval units that were in the theater, obviously were moved out of the path of the storm and then brought back in once the path was cleared for them.

If it had happened in Florida the response would have been quicker. Actually it DID occur in Florida several years ago. And yes the response was quicker. They were more prepared for it if for no other reason than their infrastructure is much newer due to the constant rebuilding process of major storms hitting Florida. That and Florida is mostly above sea level. It was not because Florida has less black people (well, it prolly does, but not less minorities, the stereotypical minority of Florida is hispanic). If people are looking at it that way (playing devil's advocate) are they saying that the US Gov't prefers spics to niggers? Neither of them is white, both have their own criminally undersireable subculture, and with the obvious exception of Colin Powell and perhaps Gloria Estafan, they have no redeeming qualities as far as whitey is concerned. If THAT were the case, I'd say that with the exception of putting a cordon around the St.Petersburg/Tampa area of Florida (that's where rich whitey lives) and around Orlando (Whitey loves Mickey Mouse) there would not have been any response to any of the Hurricanes of the late 80s and 90s that killed thousands of people in Florida and did BILLIONS of dollars in damage.

The reality of the situation is, Louisiana has not been hit with a storm of this magnitude in ages. The dykes and levees are earthen berms from the Depression era (1930s) and MOST OF THE DAMNED STATE IS UNDER SEA LEVEL. Had Louisiana been pasted earlier and more often as is the case in Florida, the levee system most likely would have been more updated as it is in the Netherlands with steel and concrete reinforced works, the result probably would have been different. They tried evacuating New Orleans in the days leading up to landfall, but the people would not go. In this situation, if Abraham Lincoln himself (in case anyone didn't know, he freed a slave or two and generally liked black people) were president the initial result would be the same or similar.

Then again, maybe people who believe it is racially motivated are right. I mean, what the hell, the Federal Government created sickle cell anemia and AIDS to kill off the black man.

I'm not accusing the US government of racialism ...I was just relaying what was said to me at work. I don't think any government ...no matter where, would be able to cope with the events of the past few days.

I feel so sorry for the people who have losted everything and could do nothing to stop the situation they are in now from happening.

There is a racial issue to this, but it's not about responses to the disaster or anything like that.

Fact is, people in NO were told to bug out, cos the excrement was about to hit the turbine.

Those who could afford to, did.

Those who couldn't didn't.

NO is pretty much of a black ghetto, hence the urban poor who couldn't afford to get out of town are largely black. Hence it appears as if it's the black community who has the rough deal, in fact it's the poor community who (as ever!) have the rough deal. Mostly, they happen to be black.

Didn't someone famous once say something like civilisation is 24 hours and a hot meal away from barbarism?

Shoulda sent in the regular army and dealt with the situation. I mean shit... they can police Baghdad, but not New Orleans? Just can't be bothered with it, that's what I think. It's only poor people after all.

I agree with you Peter.

[quote:de8e10fbab="Eveshka"]They tried evacuating New Orleans in the days leading up to landfall, but the people would not go.[/quote:de8e10fbab]

They [b:de8e10fbab]would[/b:de8e10fbab] not go or [b:de8e10fbab]could[/b:de8e10fbab] not go?

My understanding is that people who owned a car got in it and left the city. Those who had funds available to buy a bus ticket also left the city. It appears that the people remaining in the city (with the exception of the self-serving opportunist thug element) were elderly, ill or very poor. If this morning's newspaper reports are accurate, black people represent 98% of city's population. I think this simple statistic gives us a clue.

The Government issued storm warnings and put the onus on the individual to remove themselves from the city. Their only available alternative was to hole up in the Superdome. The Government must have expected many thousands would need to take shelter there so why were they so ill-equipped?

A point of interest: Did you see what happened to the roof of the Superdome? It's such a lucky thing that the storm didn't hit the city with the ferocity they originally predicted. Had the storm not eased, the Superdome may have been flattened and those people killed.


[img:de8e10fbab]http://www.vampirerp.com/no_dome.jpg[/img:de8e10fbab]
[i:de8e10fbab]Thousands of residents are shown gathering outside the storm damaged Louisiana Super Dome in New Orleans.[/i:de8e10fbab]


Although I don't believe the Government deliberately herded these people to their likely end, I do think they deliberately failed to give them the same courtesy and priority as they might have given a predominantly white demographic.

I have to ask: Why didn't they use these buses to help with the evacuation? How many families, nursing home residents, hospital patients, etc would be safe and sound right now had the Government bothered to utilise the available resources?


[img:de8e10fbab]http://www.vampirerp.com/no_buses.jpg[/img:de8e10fbab]
[i:de8e10fbab]Caption: An aerial view of flooded school buses in a lot in New Orleans.[/i:de8e10fbab]


The US Government has still refused to allow Australian consular staff into the area to rescue our own but a team of journalist have gotten in and removed two dozen Australians. Why does it look like the US Government making this as difficult as possible?


Peter, I hope I didn't take your quote out of context, as I admit I'm not sure what you mean by "landfall".


[quote:de8e10fbab="Isabella Garrett"]I'm not accusing the US government of racialism...[/quote:de8e10fbab]

I am. And I am putting the blame squarely on the Bush administration. If you're interested, [url=http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=183]Michael Moore's open letter[/url] to Bush makes for a good read.

Here's one more visual aid for you:

[img:de8e10fbab]http://www.vampirerp.com/no_lootfind.jpg[/img:de8e10fbab]


(Photos stolen from the Sydney Morning Herald website. Screenshot from Yahoo looted found elsewhere.)