Mobilize to Save New Orleans
Something HAS to be done!
-------Original Message-------
From Subject: Re: Mobilize to Save New Orleans
My father has a small plane and has been trying all week to get info on how he can help and he says he is being refused and that FEMA is lying on TV about having all their rescue teams on the way. He said he just got off the phone with the head of a 400 unit rubber boat FEMA approved rescue squad who are not being allowed to help. The FEMA folks he was finally able to get on the phone referred him to their webpage titled "How to Work with FEMA" that is all about how to become a PAID contractor - not a volunteer.
Meanwhile...
Nagin: 'No more goddam press conferences'
5:30am CDT -- CNN is rebroadcasting a radio interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. He is demanding help, urging the nation to flood Washington with phone calls telling the CUT THE BULLSHIT. Where are the promised 40,000 Guard troops? Where are the 500 buses?
Audio soon.
PERMA-LINK http://www.total411.info/2005/09/nagin-no-more-goddam-press-conferences.html
Feds bar US' local govts from aiding New Orleans?!
Total411.info monitors LibertyForum fairly regulary and finds this has the ring of truth. Everyone around the country should confirm with any local officials you know personally and then call the White House and tell them to STOP BLOCKING AID TO KATRINA VICTIMS. 202-456-1414.
via LibertyForum http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php? Number=293930967:
"I just got this e-mail from a friend. I've cut the last names out, but I know this guy well enough to know this isn't bull shit".
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to share a very interesting story with all of you. After watching CNN for the past few days Jennifer and I were trying very hard to figure out a way we could help these poor people out in New Orleans.
I wanted to personally find someone I could trust and work with so today I made contact with the Mayor of XXXXXXX, MD. who's an old friend, a member of the local Catholic Church and extremely experienced with disaster relief as he has been involved all the way down to South America personally rebuilding homes for three families with funds raised strictly out of XXXXXX.
XXXXXX is not much different from New Orleans and the coast as it is a barrier island and most of the Eastern Shore is below sea level and in flood planes everywhere.
Heck, most of you saw photos of our home early this summer and the flooding we had after a severe rain storm. I spent three days pumping the water off our property and thank God the water never came close to our home but we're 40 miles from the ocean. Imagine how Ocean City looked during and after that same rain storm.
Nevertheless, I called Jim YYYYYY, (Mayor of XXXXXXX) and asked him how we could help and to my surprise I could not believe Jim YYYYYYY actually sounding frustrated and even upset as he had already set up a task force completely packed and ready to go as of this past Monday morning. Jim was at a convention in Miami last week for disaster relief and hurricane relief when they were updated the entire time about Katrina.
When he returned home Sunday he immediately put things together to help out and get this, they had to apply to the Federal Government to volunteer! After Sept. 11th Bush created a new task force in which any disaster relief had to be approved by the Government and background checks would have to be done first before any person or group could go and help.
Jim had been waiting 4 days to hear something back and they have heard nothing at all. So if everyone wonders why these people are dying and why there's no real help like there was immediately while the Twin Towers were hit, this is why. In my opinion
I am outraged to hear they want to rebuild and use Federal Funds to do so in an area that floods out completely just in regular rain storms. If you haven't been there when it's raining then you have no clue how bad it is there. One thing we agreed upon is that XXXXXXXX does not have the poverty New Orleans has and it is extremely sad these people never had a real chance to get out because they had no transportation or money to get out. So before you throw money into relief funds, please wait and see where your money will be going. We need to help these people directly and not the Federal Government.
Jim YYYYYYY will once again be using local funds in which we will personally be heading down there and rebuilding families homes that will be in dry areas and not rebuilt in wetlands. The funds will be personally handled for probably three families and this is what we should all be doing to help. It's too easy send money to the Red Cross but it sure does feel better to give knowing your money is truly helping certain people directly. We all need to help one way or another. However, you needed to know why no one is truly coming together and helping these people the past three days and this is a fact. Hopefully you can find a local group that can help as well but if you want to know more about what Jim YYYYYY is doing just let me know and I'll keep you posted.
PERMA-LINK < http://www.total411.info/2005/09/feds-bar-us-local-govts-from-aiding.html
FEMA declares war on Louisianans' property rights
This is from the FEMA briefing held Thursday afternoon. Here's the C- SPAN video <javascript:playClip('rtsp://video.c- span.org/project/hur/hur090105_fema.rm')>. This bit starts at 24:17 --
REPORTER: Did you hear that today, people were refusing offers of rescue? We've heard over and over that today and yesterday that sometimes when approached by rescue teams in boats, some people say "No, we're staying." Do you know if that's still happening?
MIKE BROWN, FEMA DIRECTOR: I don't know if this is still happening. But I do know that it's happened some yes and it's happening some this morning... and I have no rationale to give you why that's the case....
Sometimes people just refuse to be taken away, and we may reach a point where we have to take them out.
REPORTER: That was my question. Do you force them out at some point?
BROWN: At some point if someone refuses to move, it will hamper the rescue effort, the clean-up effort, and at that point there will be a plan developed, a decision made, about how we will extract those people from the area.
Then at 31:42: REPORTER: There's been some talk by some Parish presidents, specifically the one in Jefferson Parish, about encouraging people to come back Monday. Do you think that would be an unwise thing to suggest to people?
BROWN: It's really incumbent upon everyone to recognize that we shouldn't do anything that's going to hinder rescue efforts, we shouldn't do anything that's going to hinder the recovery efforts it's still a very dangerous situation...
We will actually send a lot of urban searech and rescue teams that have been identified as having been under floodwater and we will check the structural integrity of those homes. And some of them may be reflagged where they cannot go in except with a local official, or with one of the team members to get what belongings they can and get out of there. It's going to be that kind of tedious longterm process that we have to do house by house.
-------
This last part is particularly outrageous. Most of the houses that will still be standing have been flooded before, and FEMA is going to play code-inspection games while people to get back in the city and get on with rebuilding. State and local authorities should not stand for this. The beginning of Brown's response here is a not-so-veiled threat against local officials to back off. If New Orleans is to be saved, state and local officials need to stand up to these fed thugs and the rest of the country needs to back them.
PERMA-LINK http://www.total411.info/2005/09/fema-declares-war-on-louisianans.html
Thursday, September 01, 2005
FEMA bars rescue volunteers from New Orleans Live interview on Fox News Channel at 9:43 am -- volunteer rescue worker indicated that FEMA has barred hundreds of rescue volunteers with boats from going into the city.
Pretxt for this is a purported incident of gunfire.
PERMA-LINK http://www.total411.info/2005/09/fema-bars-rescue-volunteers-from-new.html
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Nagin: White House ignores pleas to save New Orleans; helicopters diverted
Total 411.info) 8:07 pm CDT -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has given a remarkable interview to WWL TV, broadcast on wwltv.com. Nagin said that the National Guard's Blackhawk helicopter carrying the sandbags to plug the hole in the levee on 17th St. Canal was diverted to rescue misssions.
Nagin said he called the governor, and that he and other state and local officials are unsuccesfully trying to get through to the White House to ask if the people in Washington know what they're doing.
The White House switchboard is 202-456-1414.
To ask the La. Air National Guard to ignore Bush's treasonous orders and plug the hole, call (504) 271-6262.
PERMA-LINK http://www.total411.info/2005/08/nagin-white-house-ignores-pleas-to.html
--- In ABORDC@yahoogroups.com, "Debbie Russell" <debstuff@h...> wrote: This is disgusting. We are the richest country in the world, by FAR, and we can't airlift food and water into New Orleans. People are dying and BUSH DOES NOTHING! FEMA (declared a national emergency on GAS, but not for PEOPLE!) & National Guard are not being called in. Red Cross is nowhere to be found.
RALLY at NOON; BRIDGE ACTIONS at 5pm; Meeting at 6pm
-----------------------------------------------------
COME HELP: NOONTIME RALLY AT CAPITOL: bring poster & banner & paint/marker materials to work on banners for 5pm bridge actions.
BRIDGE ACTIONS - 5pm: organize one of your own or find those at bridges over I-35/downtown. Remember that hanging banners over the railing is illegal, but holding banners above the line of the railing is not.
6pm MEETING: Meet at Enchanted Forest on Oltorf, 1 block east of S. Lamar to plug into organizing to help refugees in Austin. This is a beautiful piece of land that can house at least 100 people camping - with bathhouse and portapotties. Start asking friends and neighbors for tent/sleeping bags/pillows/camping chair donations (write names/numbers on all items, both bag cover and item) - and drop off to Enchanted Forest-just inside the beautifully crafted front gate, in front of the dome structure. Also need: water donations (large 2.5 gallon preferred over small bottles); food
(simple, non perishables); folding tables and ice chests (ice donations occasionally would be great!). If you can volunteer a significant number of hours to help with operations there, please contact me at 573-6194 if you can't show up to the meeting today.
A letter from a CodePinker:
(SEND LETTERS TO): comments@w...
To President Bush:
I heard on the radio this morning that a 10-year-old girl in the New Orleans convention center was raped yesterday. There are dead bodies out front and people inside without food and water. There are people in hospitals dying because the generators aren't working and the workers can't keep the patients alive without electricity to help.
The people needing to be rescued in New Orleans haven't seen FEMA or the Red Cross, and the governor of Louisiana says there aren't enough National Guard troops to keep the order.
This is the consequence of your war in Iraq. Utter chaos and American citizens dying of starvation, dehydration, and worse. I will have to learn to forgive you one day for these unimaginable sins, but I hope you never forget what you did to these people.
I heard you flew over the area in a helicopter two days after the hurricane was over, and that's it. At least have the decency to look like you care, to look like you're doing something. But better yet, get your act together and fix this problem. I am outraged and saddened beyond belief. I am not an angry person by nature, but as I type this, I am shaking with anger I have never felt in my life.
These people are dying. Do everything in your power to fix this.
Right now.
Informant: smilingmoon14
-------Original Message-------
From Subject: Re: Mobilize to Save New Orleans
My father has a small plane and has been trying all week to get info on how he can help and he says he is being refused and that FEMA is lying on TV about having all their rescue teams on the way. He said he just got off the phone with the head of a 400 unit rubber boat FEMA approved rescue squad who are not being allowed to help. The FEMA folks he was finally able to get on the phone referred him to their webpage titled "How to Work with FEMA" that is all about how to become a PAID contractor - not a volunteer.
Meanwhile...
Nagin: 'No more goddam press conferences'
5:30am CDT -- CNN is rebroadcasting a radio interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. He is demanding help, urging the nation to flood Washington with phone calls telling the CUT THE BULLSHIT. Where are the promised 40,000 Guard troops? Where are the 500 buses?
Audio soon.
PERMA-LINK http://www.total411.info/2005/09/nagin-no-more-goddam-press-conferences.html
Feds bar US' local govts from aiding New Orleans?!
Total411.info monitors LibertyForum fairly regulary and finds this has the ring of truth. Everyone around the country should confirm with any local officials you know personally and then call the White House and tell them to STOP BLOCKING AID TO KATRINA VICTIMS. 202-456-1414.
via LibertyForum http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php? Number=293930967:
"I just got this e-mail from a friend. I've cut the last names out, but I know this guy well enough to know this isn't bull shit".
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to share a very interesting story with all of you. After watching CNN for the past few days Jennifer and I were trying very hard to figure out a way we could help these poor people out in New Orleans.
I wanted to personally find someone I could trust and work with so today I made contact with the Mayor of XXXXXXX, MD. who's an old friend, a member of the local Catholic Church and extremely experienced with disaster relief as he has been involved all the way down to South America personally rebuilding homes for three families with funds raised strictly out of XXXXXX.
XXXXXX is not much different from New Orleans and the coast as it is a barrier island and most of the Eastern Shore is below sea level and in flood planes everywhere.
Heck, most of you saw photos of our home early this summer and the flooding we had after a severe rain storm. I spent three days pumping the water off our property and thank God the water never came close to our home but we're 40 miles from the ocean. Imagine how Ocean City looked during and after that same rain storm.
Nevertheless, I called Jim YYYYYY, (Mayor of XXXXXXX) and asked him how we could help and to my surprise I could not believe Jim YYYYYYY actually sounding frustrated and even upset as he had already set up a task force completely packed and ready to go as of this past Monday morning. Jim was at a convention in Miami last week for disaster relief and hurricane relief when they were updated the entire time about Katrina.
When he returned home Sunday he immediately put things together to help out and get this, they had to apply to the Federal Government to volunteer! After Sept. 11th Bush created a new task force in which any disaster relief had to be approved by the Government and background checks would have to be done first before any person or group could go and help.
Jim had been waiting 4 days to hear something back and they have heard nothing at all. So if everyone wonders why these people are dying and why there's no real help like there was immediately while the Twin Towers were hit, this is why. In my opinion
I am outraged to hear they want to rebuild and use Federal Funds to do so in an area that floods out completely just in regular rain storms. If you haven't been there when it's raining then you have no clue how bad it is there. One thing we agreed upon is that XXXXXXXX does not have the poverty New Orleans has and it is extremely sad these people never had a real chance to get out because they had no transportation or money to get out. So before you throw money into relief funds, please wait and see where your money will be going. We need to help these people directly and not the Federal Government.
Jim YYYYYYY will once again be using local funds in which we will personally be heading down there and rebuilding families homes that will be in dry areas and not rebuilt in wetlands. The funds will be personally handled for probably three families and this is what we should all be doing to help. It's too easy send money to the Red Cross but it sure does feel better to give knowing your money is truly helping certain people directly. We all need to help one way or another. However, you needed to know why no one is truly coming together and helping these people the past three days and this is a fact. Hopefully you can find a local group that can help as well but if you want to know more about what Jim YYYYYY is doing just let me know and I'll keep you posted.
PERMA-LINK < http://www.total411.info/2005/09/feds-bar-us-local-govts-from-aiding.html
FEMA declares war on Louisianans' property rights
This is from the FEMA briefing held Thursday afternoon. Here's the C- SPAN video <javascript:playClip('rtsp://video.c- span.org/project/hur/hur090105_fema.rm')>. This bit starts at 24:17 --
REPORTER: Did you hear that today, people were refusing offers of rescue? We've heard over and over that today and yesterday that sometimes when approached by rescue teams in boats, some people say "No, we're staying." Do you know if that's still happening?
MIKE BROWN, FEMA DIRECTOR: I don't know if this is still happening. But I do know that it's happened some yes and it's happening some this morning... and I have no rationale to give you why that's the case....
Sometimes people just refuse to be taken away, and we may reach a point where we have to take them out.
REPORTER: That was my question. Do you force them out at some point?
BROWN: At some point if someone refuses to move, it will hamper the rescue effort, the clean-up effort, and at that point there will be a plan developed, a decision made, about how we will extract those people from the area.
Then at 31:42: REPORTER: There's been some talk by some Parish presidents, specifically the one in Jefferson Parish, about encouraging people to come back Monday. Do you think that would be an unwise thing to suggest to people?
BROWN: It's really incumbent upon everyone to recognize that we shouldn't do anything that's going to hinder rescue efforts, we shouldn't do anything that's going to hinder the recovery efforts it's still a very dangerous situation...
We will actually send a lot of urban searech and rescue teams that have been identified as having been under floodwater and we will check the structural integrity of those homes. And some of them may be reflagged where they cannot go in except with a local official, or with one of the team members to get what belongings they can and get out of there. It's going to be that kind of tedious longterm process that we have to do house by house.
-------
This last part is particularly outrageous. Most of the houses that will still be standing have been flooded before, and FEMA is going to play code-inspection games while people to get back in the city and get on with rebuilding. State and local authorities should not stand for this. The beginning of Brown's response here is a not-so-veiled threat against local officials to back off. If New Orleans is to be saved, state and local officials need to stand up to these fed thugs and the rest of the country needs to back them.
PERMA-LINK http://www.total411.info/2005/09/fema-declares-war-on-louisianans.html
Thursday, September 01, 2005
FEMA bars rescue volunteers from New Orleans Live interview on Fox News Channel at 9:43 am -- volunteer rescue worker indicated that FEMA has barred hundreds of rescue volunteers with boats from going into the city.
Pretxt for this is a purported incident of gunfire.
PERMA-LINK http://www.total411.info/2005/09/fema-bars-rescue-volunteers-from-new.html
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Nagin: White House ignores pleas to save New Orleans; helicopters diverted
Total 411.info) 8:07 pm CDT -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has given a remarkable interview to WWL TV, broadcast on wwltv.com. Nagin said that the National Guard's Blackhawk helicopter carrying the sandbags to plug the hole in the levee on 17th St. Canal was diverted to rescue misssions.
Nagin said he called the governor, and that he and other state and local officials are unsuccesfully trying to get through to the White House to ask if the people in Washington know what they're doing.
The White House switchboard is 202-456-1414.
To ask the La. Air National Guard to ignore Bush's treasonous orders and plug the hole, call (504) 271-6262.
PERMA-LINK http://www.total411.info/2005/08/nagin-white-house-ignores-pleas-to.html
--- In ABORDC@yahoogroups.com, "Debbie Russell" <debstuff@h...> wrote: This is disgusting. We are the richest country in the world, by FAR, and we can't airlift food and water into New Orleans. People are dying and BUSH DOES NOTHING! FEMA (declared a national emergency on GAS, but not for PEOPLE!) & National Guard are not being called in. Red Cross is nowhere to be found.
RALLY at NOON; BRIDGE ACTIONS at 5pm; Meeting at 6pm
-----------------------------------------------------
COME HELP: NOONTIME RALLY AT CAPITOL: bring poster & banner & paint/marker materials to work on banners for 5pm bridge actions.
BRIDGE ACTIONS - 5pm: organize one of your own or find those at bridges over I-35/downtown. Remember that hanging banners over the railing is illegal, but holding banners above the line of the railing is not.
6pm MEETING: Meet at Enchanted Forest on Oltorf, 1 block east of S. Lamar to plug into organizing to help refugees in Austin. This is a beautiful piece of land that can house at least 100 people camping - with bathhouse and portapotties. Start asking friends and neighbors for tent/sleeping bags/pillows/camping chair donations (write names/numbers on all items, both bag cover and item) - and drop off to Enchanted Forest-just inside the beautifully crafted front gate, in front of the dome structure. Also need: water donations (large 2.5 gallon preferred over small bottles); food
(simple, non perishables); folding tables and ice chests (ice donations occasionally would be great!). If you can volunteer a significant number of hours to help with operations there, please contact me at 573-6194 if you can't show up to the meeting today.
A letter from a CodePinker:
(SEND LETTERS TO): comments@w...
To President Bush:
I heard on the radio this morning that a 10-year-old girl in the New Orleans convention center was raped yesterday. There are dead bodies out front and people inside without food and water. There are people in hospitals dying because the generators aren't working and the workers can't keep the patients alive without electricity to help.
The people needing to be rescued in New Orleans haven't seen FEMA or the Red Cross, and the governor of Louisiana says there aren't enough National Guard troops to keep the order.
This is the consequence of your war in Iraq. Utter chaos and American citizens dying of starvation, dehydration, and worse. I will have to learn to forgive you one day for these unimaginable sins, but I hope you never forget what you did to these people.
I heard you flew over the area in a helicopter two days after the hurricane was over, and that's it. At least have the decency to look like you care, to look like you're doing something. But better yet, get your act together and fix this problem. I am outraged and saddened beyond belief. I am not an angry person by nature, but as I type this, I am shaking with anger I have never felt in my life.
These people are dying. Do everything in your power to fix this.
Right now.
Informant: smilingmoon14
Starmail - 2. Sep, 19:04
