Rant Mode ON
Rumors are very often lies. I saw an interview today with an NOPD officer who was in the Superdome for the duration. He said they had officers and troops roaming the place continually, even sleeping with one eye open, when they slept at all, and they kept the criminal activity pretty well in check. He is ordinarily in charge of rape crisis reports in New Orleans and he said the rumors about murders, rapes and whatever going on in the Superdome were wrong. He was aware of two attempted rapes and the offenders were soon arrested and detained away from the rest of the population. Yeah, he could have been lying to cover his ass, but I think I read people pretty well and the man seemed sincere, truthful, and justifiably a little annoyed that wild stories were circulating when he and his comrades had worked damned hard to make sure none of that shit happened. Not only that, but he was rather proud of the 25,000 or so citizens who were in horrible circumstances but managed to behave.

There are apparently true horror stories being relayed about the Convention Center in New Orleans, but as far as I know that was not a designated shelter like the Superdome. So, assumptions were made, erroneous assumptions. People went there on their own and had to wait for help that was very slow in coming, leaving them without police support and so on. Maybe FEMA etc should have realized people would go there, but I don't think that oversight is justification for condemning the agencies. It's something they need to look at in future, ie, not only where they tell people to go, but likely locations where people may take refuge. Seems to me that most of the people who ended up at the Convention Center are the ones who slip through the cracks even under ordinary circumstances. This event just took that to a new level. Even so, if 20,000 or 15,000 or even 10,000 people ended up at the Convention Center and they can only find a few really gruesome stories, that's a pretty impressive percentage, especially without official support.

It's rather aggravating to me that people seem to be ignoring the fact that about 350,000, more than 75% of folks in New Orleans, followed the evacuation order. There's an estimated 100,000 who couldn't or wouldn't. The good does outweigh the bad, 3 to 1. Also, the media doesn't seem to have time to report the progress being made in Mississippi and Alabama. But hey, it's not as dramatic. Bad news makes news.

I saw a program on Arkansas Educational Television, Arkansans KARE (Katrina Assistance and Relief Effort). They interviewed some of the evacuees and two men in particular, a couple of middle aged black men, expressed their thanks for Arkansans' support and relocation opportunities. They were asked if they wanted to go back to New Orleans. They said no, that honestly they had not lived well there, and knew that this day would eventually come, but in the 40 or so years of their lives, they just never could afford to get out. They plan to be citizens of Arkansas now, pulling their own weight, not wanting to burden anyone. They plan to build a small business, apparently lawncare, because they said a fellow had already helped them by offering the loan of a truck, trailer, and needed equipment until they could afford their own.

These fellows are not the only ones who plan to leave the disaster zone for good.
The Australian "Evacuees vow not to return to broken city"

Truly, the majority of those who have been hit the hardest are, yes, black, and yes, poor. This disaster isn't how anyone would've wanted to help them out, but it WILL help them... out of a hazard zone, out of generations of poverty, and hopefully out of some remaining racial stigmas. Yes, dammit, I believe they will be better off.

Oh, and I caught Paula Zahn on CNN trying to get reporters and other interviewees to say things were and are dramatically nasty, how authories failed, how citizens were being criminal, how cops plan to go in and run people out of New Orleans at gun point.... She was surely unsatisfied. She had to keep re-spinning her spiel (Yeah, but isn't it so that... Not really... But aren't there reports of... Not so many....). The reporters just kept telling her, No, it's just not that way. The police, troops, and other helpers are trying to do their jobs. The citizens are trying to make the best of a bad situation. Sorry, Paula, hate to disappoint you and all the other media ghouls who seem unable to recognize that humans, especially Americans, are basically good, and even better in a crisis.

Incidentally, NOPD officials insisted today, compassionately, that they would use absolute minimal force necessary to remove the remaining citizens from New Orleans. Why must they leave, you say? I finally heard why. We already know the water is toxic, but the toxins are getting more concentrated and more deadly as the water is being pumped out or evaporating. Plus, the chemicals they will have to use for cleaning up the toxins are, in many cases, also poisonous until they've done their job, ie, the initial combination may be even more toxic. The water and the air may be deadly to anyone not properly outfitted. In addition, all repairs to infrastructure will be unnecessarily slowed if the crews have to be concerned with the welfare of stragglers. (Not to mention the waste of manpower if they had to make sure the stubborn continued to get clean water and food delivered.) There's a massive amount of debris that has to be removed and workers must pick through it now for survivors and bodies. The bulldozers sure won't be able to do it. While gas and electricity are being repaired or demolished, all those firefighters from NYC and other places as well as locals are going to be plenty busy. They should not have to risk their lives to save stupid people.

Assumptions are just as bad as rumors. People assume we should have been able to handle this because we have handled other hurricanes, other floods, other natural and unnatural disasters. That is bullshit. We have never had to deal with anything on this scale. We're talking about 450,000 people in New Orleans alone. We're talking about 90,000 square miles of damage from Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf coast. 90,000 square freakin miles. That's an area about the size of New England. It's not going to be repaired in weeks, or even months, if ever. The population is not going to be able to move back in and carry on, not for months, if ever. And why would they want to? So they can continue to duck and cover every year when this could happen again?

Rant Mode... I think I'll just leave it idling for a bit.