The very worse intervention in a disaster ever!

[Hallarian]

It’s hard to believe that disaster nursing in the US could be more dangerous than anything I’ve face overseas. First somebody shot at the helicopter when I was dropped into a hospital. Then the Army made me leave because they there were no police to stop armed looters who were breaking into the hospital. I am so angry. They evacuated the patients AFTERr taking me to safety. Where? I’m in Texas. I’ve never been too happy in Texas, Here we sit and wait for patients to be shipped in to us. This little Army Lieutenant who is my nurse maid for I don’t know what reason promises us patients will be coming in one hour.

This is the worse non planned disaster intervention I have ever seen even in the 3rd world where they start with nothing. We learned nothing from 9/11.

Anyway now that I have let off some steam/ If any Americans on the forum can spare even a few dollars to help please help. The Red Cross or Salvation Army is the place to put your help. Don’t give anything to spam you get by e-mail or phone.
Gotta run.
H

 

[TDWoj]

I thought disaster planning was de jure these days; obviously, there are a lot of left hands out there that don't know what the right hands are doing. No one actually seems to be "in charge", co-ordinating efforts.

Actually, everything that's happened is unfolding like a disaster movie (why does Day After Tomorrow come to mind?). You see the reports, but there's something vaguely unreal about them, as if one expects that real people don't act like that, it must be just a movie.

The veneer of civilisation is very thin, indeed, and it's being proven to be so in New Orleans and Mississippi.

I hope all the patients get evacuated safely and find their way to safe havens, wherever they may be.

 

[Purplelotus1]

TD there is another movie that my husband watched and he said it is unfolding quite the same actually. I am not sure of the name but it was movie made to look like a documentary and it was about a hurricane hitting the gulf coast and what the effects of that would be like.

 

[Jules]

I am glad to hear you are alright.

It made me cry to see what is happening down there. People attacking the ones coming in to help,looting, hijacking cars, stealing the supply trucks,...

some died at the dome where they asked thousands to wait....some then started asking..."Is anyone out there? Is anyone coming to help us?"

some are totally cut off from the rest of the world. Our local news ran a story where some loved ones are trapped down there and can't find transportation out of the city. They begged relatives up here to help them some how.

....Then to hear the arabs are rejoycing over all this!!! SICK!

 

[Mama San]

....Then to hear the arabs are rejoycing over all this!!! SICK!

I'd like to give those freaks something to celebrate!!!
But then they wouldn't learn anything because they
wouldn't survive what I would have in store for them.
We keep hearing..."HELP IS ON THE WAY"!!!!!!!!!
But the so-called help seems to be too little, too late!!
Our congress and senate, along with our president,
are giving great lip service but that's it.......nothing else!!
Oh, the help will be there in a few days.....CRAP!!!!
24 hours can seem like a year if you are dying from
lack of food and water and medical care.

What about the 18 year old boy that stole a school bus
and picked up as many refugees as he could, then drove 7 hours
straight to Houston. Immediately upon arrival they arrested
him. Plus, it was quite a while before they would allow the
refugees into the Astrodome!! They weren't going to, at first!!
If you ask me, they should pin a medal on that boy!!! At least
he was trying which is more that the other so-called helpers
down there, are doing!!

I wish someone could answer me this.................how come the
reporters can get in and out of places and the red cross can't?
And don't tell me they don't have the trucks and/or the means
because I know they do!!!

It was only a little while before we had help in place for the
victims of the tsunami. Too bad we can't do the same for
our own people!! Why is it that when disaster strikes any where
in the world, we are usually one of the first to jump in with both
feet to help??? But when happens here, it's fend for yourselves
people!!

Sorry, but the longer I type, the madder I get!!!
God bless,
Mama san

 

[TDWoj]

Trouble is, though, Casey, those going in to help are being shot at. It's almost as if the people there don't WANT help, they want power, and with their guns, they have it. And any help that comes in will come in to those who have the power, and not to anyone else.

Your federal government, though, should have mobilised manpower - the army, the National Guard, whatever - the moment Katrina died away. Instead, they waited; and waited; and waited. From the reports I've been seeing, there is evidently no one in charge down there, for disaster relief, or control or anything. There should have been at least some kind of disaster plan in place, a guy designated as being "in charge", and instead it seems like Katrina caught everybody by surprise, and all the disaster management manuals got lost in the storm as well.

I'm not surprised those who have arrived to give aid are reluctant to go into the area. Who wants to get shot at, and lose their lives for nothing?

I'm just worried that the "shoot to kill" directive to control the snipers doesn't kill someone who's innocent.

 

[Mama San]

TD,
I agree with just about everything you said except that most
of our well trained Army and/or National Guardsmen are in Iraq
baby setting oil wells and getting shot at and killed or blown up
for their efforts!!
As for shooting an innocent person, if he or she is pointing a gun at
you, there is nothing innocent about them!!
But you are right, as many service men and women as possible should
have been deployed on the Tuesday after Katrina hit or at least have
been at the ready, but they weren't. What did they think a catagory 5
hurricane was going to do??? Blow in about 1/2 a mile and stop??
Stupid, just plain stupid!!
God bless,
Mama san

 

[Hallarian]

Please stop the rumors about Arabs.

It's violent down here and these false rumors about the Arabs endanger our good professional staff from the Middle East and India. There are 50 to 100 patients per professional. If you think it's fun losing highly qaulified humainitarian people to nuts who want to take out their anger on foreigners, you are as bad as they are. Nobody is getting paid to do this. And so far Bush's promises are hot air. Black market gasoline is going right to his pockets.

 

[Jules]

Blame game..

It's violent down here and these false rumors about the Arabs endanger our good professional staff from the Middle East and India. There are 50 to 100 patients per professional. If you think it's fun losing highly qaulified humainitarian people to nuts who want to take out their anger on foreigners, you are as bad as they are. Nobody is getting paid to do this. And so far Bush's promises are hot air. Black market gasoline is going right to his pockets.

Sorry...I will rephrase that....Terrorists. I wouldn't have said it if I hadn't heard it on the news...

Do me a favor and stop using Bush to blame for everything. Hot air and broken promises are a political fact to both sides of the fence...and the black market gas is a bunch of bull. Bushie is a republican so that makes him some aweful person who can't be trusted? I bet when he hears the rumors he thinks "I wish" in a sarcastically joking way. I would if I were in his shoes. I wouldn't want the job of president. No matter what you do you can't crap right...everything is done wrong....can't please everyone ALL the time...just some...some of the time...and not always the same people.

I don't think getting all upset and blaming will help anyone. Doing our part to help will. Could have the government done something different? Better? Probably. Haven't we all done something and then looked in hine-sight and thought, "Boy, it would have been better if I had done it this way instead."

Sorry I had to vent.

Hallarian....the last thing I would want is to see anyone get hurt. I didn't like hearing that you and many others got shot at trying to help. I DID hear also on the news that the Terrorists called the hurricane..."Sargent Katrina."...

One military guy said tonight on the news....(paraphrased), We are asked where have you been? And why did it take so long? He said that you have to remember this disaster is not only a couple of miles long. This is a MAJOR disaster. At least 100,000 people did not heed warnings to LEAVE. he also remarked that the military did not take stupid pills....they know this is major and thousands are in need and the city is a royal mess all-around.

 

[katw_03]

A Lot Of LIP SERVICE!!

Our government should have been better prepared.
And I do blame the administration. We are not the ones
to live through this hellish nightmare. I have spent some
of my time in my hometown today, helping take bottled water
and non-perishable goods for the victims of Katrina.

I find it hard to eat knowing there are starving AMERICANS!!
And the few who are shooting at the helicopters, do not
speak for the majority. My nephew will be going to Louisiana
next week to help restore some order and help. He is in the
National Guard.

And not every American can just up and leave, they live from
paycheck to paycheck. So where was the help there?
What else were they to do?

 

[Hallarian]

Lousiana is Hell on Earth!

I’m sitting here staring at my MRE. Somebody’s yelling at us that we really need to eat while we can before we go back to work. I just want to go back to the patients and do what ever I can. I am so nauseated all the time I can't even put this food in my mouth. I'm not alone.

We finally have some medicne and bags of IV fluid. I think of the people we could have saved if it had come just 12 hours a go.

But all I can think about is Hell. As a little kids my friends and I would talk about heaven and hell. Hell was supposed to be very hot. Everything would look like the red coals in a bon firs and smell like burning.

Well Hell isn’t like that. It’s hot Yes like here in Louisiana, but it stinks like gangrene, pus, sewage, and rotting stuff. It’s hard to breathe. I had a young soldier to treat minutes a go in shell shock. He’d seen a hand in a pile of wreckage but when he pulled on it, it was attached to a rotting arm. He can’t stop shaking and crying. Happens a lot because a lot of these people are not battle ready for hell. But it can be worse than finding a dead person rotting. I have had to hold a person’s hand as they died because I could do so little. Not even enough clean water to wash a wound or a burn. This waht Hell’s like.

One of the ambulances had to fill up on black market gas. The crew had to empty their pockets to come up with $10 bucks a gallon.

After 9/11 we were supposed to be hearing up for disasters. We surrendered some of our liberties so we’d be safe. So much for the speeches
The government watched this storm grow for days. What if it had been a really big bomb terrorists and we had to clean up afterwards. Now we know we’d have just have to watch more people die.

We are in very great danger. Katrina should teach us something. Do you think it will?

The government didn't do their homework. They cut essential money form things like the levys needed to protect these cities. They sent our army engineers to Iraq before they had done their jobs here.

This is hell. Come on down and take a few breaths.

 

[Jules]

I DO think the administration could have done better. I realize the disaster zone is extremely large....EXTREMELY!!! I agree that you would think after 9/11 we could have been better prepared for a major disaster. I think the buck is getting passed all over the place...government, military, pentegon....if they knew it was going to be THAT bad why not send buses to help people leave the city BEFORE disaster strikes. Not all could afford to find transportation out.

It is SO hard to watch the news and not cry. So much suffering. I doubt anything will be learned...remember Hurricane Andrew? Hugo? You would think the government over the MANY years of natural disasters would find a quicker strategy for helping in an emergency. Technology gets better but intervention in crisis doesn't. I don't give a hoot who is in office. Same old..same old....

 

[GlimmerMan]

Hallarian - that was some post. Respect.

 

[Hallarian]

Cleaning up!

Things are quieting down. Several halth care people ar sick and have had to be evacuated including 2 of my Alaskan friends.

Now the main focus is findig and removing the dead to refrigerated trucks. The morgues are broken down or too full.

A really hard thing is shooting pet dogs. Only thing that can be done in many cases except for a too small number rescued by some animal rescue people who have moved in to help. If you own a pet and have not kept up with their shots it's time to think about it. When the system breaks down, abandoned pets start getting sick as they starve.

I'll stick it out a few more days and then go home. Just worn out.

I hope we learn from this. We need to study how the UN's handled Indonesia. Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India. It sure was better than this mess.