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Hey lookie....here's 7000 MORE National Guard...
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National Guard arrives to take control of lawless Louisiana
Last Updated Fri, 02 Sep 2005 20:27:28 EDT
CBC News
Four days after Hurricane Katrina struck, a convoy of U.S. National Guard troops arrived Friday with food, water and weapons. Their mission: to retake the streets and bring relief to the suffering.
National Guard troops try to bring order to the Superdome evacuation in New Orleans (CP Photo)
"The cavalry is and will continue to arrive," said Lt.-Gen. Steven Blum of the National Guard.
A total of 7,000 troops are expected to arrive Friday.
At the New Orleans Convention Center, some of the thousands of hurricane victims applauded and screamed, "Thank you, Jesus!" as hundreds of soldiers arrived in the increasingly desperate and lawless city.
There was also anger and profane catcalls.
"Hell no, I'm not glad to see them. They should have been here days ago. I ain't glad to see 'em. I'll be glad when 100 buses show up," Michael Levy, 46, told the Associated Press. His words were echoed by those around him yelling, "Hell, yeah! Hell yeah!"
"We've been sleeping on the . . . ground like rats," Levy said. "I say burn this whole . . . city down."
The soldiers' arrival came amid criticism from the mayor and others, who said the U.S. government had bungled the relief effort and let people die in the streets for lack of food, water or medicine.
Thursday night, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lashed out at federal officials, telling New Orleans radio station WWL "they don't have a clue what's going on down here." Nagin said he was "pissed" at the lack of help.
"We authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq, lickety split. After 9/11 we gave the president unprecedented powers, lickety split to help New York and other places," he said. "You mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through ... that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need," said Nagin.
The military said its first priority was delivering food and water, after which it would start moving people out of the state -- something that could take days.
"As fast as we can, we'll move them out," said army Lt.-Gen. Russel Honore. "Worse things have happened to America," he added. "We're going to overcome this, too. It's not our fault. The storm came and flooded the city."
President Bush Friday pledged a prolonged effort to help New Orleans cope with Hurricane Katrina's horrific aftermath and vowed the city would recover its former grandeur, as he was urged to take swift action to aid its desperate residents.
Facing scathing criticism of the government's slow response to one of country's worst natural disasters, Bush said during a tour of ravaged areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that the recovery would require attention "for a long period of time."
He was blunt in his appraisal of the relief effort in the four days since the storm struck on Monday, saying, "The results are not acceptable."
At the convention centre, New Orleans police Supt. Eddie Compass rode down the street on the running board of a box truck and announced through a bullhorn: "We got 30,000 people out of the Superdome and we're going to take care of you."
"We've got food and water on the way. We've got medical attention on the way. We're going to get you out of here safely. We're going to get all of you," he said.
On Thursday, at the convention centre, corpses lay abandoned outside the building, and many hurricane victims complained bitterly that they had been forsaken by the U.S. government.
Leroy Fouchea, 42, waited in the sweltering heat for an hour to get his ration -- his first proper food since Monday -- and immediately handed it over to a sickly friend.
A military helicopter drops food and water for Hurricane Katrina survivors near the New Orleans Convention Center (CP Photo)
He then offered to show reporters the dead bodies of a man in a wheelchair, a young man who he said he dragged inside just hours earlier, and the limp forms of two infants, one just four months old, the other six months old.
"They died right here, in America, waiting for food," Fouchea said as he walked toward Hall D, where the bodies were put to get them out of the searing heat.
He said people were let die and left without food simply because they were poor and that the evacuation effort earlier concentrated on the French Quarter of the city. "Because that's where the money is," he spat.
A National Guardsman refused entry. "It doesn't need to be seen, it's a make-shift morgue in there," he told a Reuters photographer. "We're not letting anyone in there anymore. If you want to take pictures of dead bodies, go to Iraq."
And at the Superdome, fights and fires broke out and storm victims battled for seats on the buses taking them to the Houston Astrodome.
Blum of the National Guard said 7,000 National Guardsmen arriving in Louisiana on Friday would be dedicated to restoring order in New Orleans. He said half of them had just returned from assignments overseas and are "highly proficient in the use of lethal force." He pledged to "put down" the violence "in a quick and efficient manner."
Earlier Friday, an explosion at a warehouse rocked a wide area of New Orleans before daybreak. A second large fire erupted in an old retail building in a dry section of Canal Street downtown.
While floodwaters in New Orleans appeared to stabilize, efforts continued to plug three breaches in the levees that protect New Orleans.
Helicopters dropped sandbags into the breach and pilings were being pounded into the mouth of the canal Thursday to close its connection to the lake.
Lt.-Gen. Carl Strock, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, said engineers are developing a plan to create new breaches in the levees so that a combination of pumping and the effects of gravity will drain the water out of the city. Removing the floodwaters will take weeks, he said.
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>>Source<<
I know I'm quoting a socialst left-leaning source but shhhhhhh..... 
___________________
"...End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path...one that we all must take.
The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass...and then you see it...
...white shores...and beyond...the far green country under a swift sunrise."
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Anti-Purple Alliance.
