Blogging from New Orleans

3 Comments / Internet, News

Not me — I’m blogging from the Denver airport, on my way from Boston to California. Why someone who lives in Chicago would be flying from Boston to California is too complicated to explain.

Despite the weak coffee here, I’m sure I’m in much more comfortable surroundings than Lindsay Beyerstein from Majikthise, Bob Brigham from Swing State Project (and now Operation Flashlight), and Kyle Shank from Americablog. (It’s not perfectly clear who all is going along, so there may be others for all I know.) They have made the trip down to New Orleans, both to report what they see and to help out where possible. (For example, working to extend the Voting Rights Act to prevent evacuees from become involuntarily disenfranchised.)

The reports are chilling. Lindsay:

The Convention Center was truly horrifying: A sea of filthy orange-upolstered institutional chairs. Blocks and blocks of chairs set out on the sidewalk. Mountains of trash. Abandoned supplies rotting in the sun — cases of muffins, an entire crate of coffee creamers upended, dirty needles, unopened bottles of sparkling cider that looked like champagne, rhinestone earings still in their packages, a tiny Spiderman flip-flop, water bottles full of urine, strollers, several barbeques… The 82nd Airborne was on the scene in their red berets. Black Hawk helicopters were taking off and landing across the parking lot. It’s really something to see a Black Hawk skimming the horizon of a devastated American city.

Kyle:

Unreal.

That’s the only word I can think of to describe what I’ve experienced today. The moment you step in it’s as if you’ve entered another reality. Helicopters dart overhead and pound a rhythm into the horrific scene. The stench of death and suffering overwhelm the senses. It’s a smell that doesn’t make sense until you’ve seen the filth the victims had to cope with. Try to think about all the worst possible scents combined; I guarantee it’s worse. Chairs, clothing, and drinks remain in the same position as if those people just vanished into the air you’re breathing in. Your mind goes numb during that brief inhale and you can only try to imagine what these abandoned citizens went through. Being in New Orleans is like soaking yourself in unthinkable despair.

And Bob:

We are in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans. At the National Guard checkpoint, they are under orders to turn away all media. All of the reporters are turning they’re TV trucks around.

Things are so bad, Bush is now censoring all reporting from NOLA. The First Amendment sank with the city.

Fortunately they managed to make it in, with the 82nd airborne. Keep checking back at each blog as updates appear.

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3 Comments

3 thoughts on “Blogging from New Orleans”

  1. Arun

    Via atrios – the story that people evacuating by foot out of New Orleans were turned back by armed men with dogs apparently is true.

    http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/2748

    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.

    Going to the source of the quote above, it continues:
    http://www.livejournal.com/users/sfsocialists/3687.html

    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.

  2. Arun

    I read this and weep. I can’t believe it is true. I don’t dare track this to the source, so here is where I read it:

    http://pratie.blogspot.com/2005/09/welcome-to-krakow-fema-oklahoma.html

    Excerpt: Some folks have gone with gifts of supplies to a church youth-camp turned into evacuee shelter.

    He then points to the vegetables and fruit. “You’ll have to take that back as well. It looks like you’ve got about 10 apples there. I’m about to bring in 40 men. What would we do then?”

    My mother, in her sweet, soft voice says, “Quarter them?”

    “No ma’am. FEMA said no… It could cause a riot. You don’t understand the type of people that are about to come here….”

  3. Arun

    He then precedes to tell us that some churches had already enquired into whether they could send a van or bus on Sundays to pick up any occupants of their cabins who might be interested in attending church. FEMA will not allow this. The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and “a sum of money” and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months.

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