He's a little premature...

[erastes]

Watching the videos of the evacuation of New Orleans makes me really feel for the city and its inhabitants. Thank god some lessons have been learned from Katrina, even if the mopping up has been a disgrace (as was the behaviour of the powers that be when it happened). I hope that everyone is out - although I'm sure some are left behind, e.g. the poor and forgotten - and that the toll is zero this time. It's horribly creepy watching pictures of an empty city - like something out of Hollywood and yet more real and more terrifying than anything Hollywood could produce.

Although, I have to say - with TWO bridges over to the city, wouldn't it have been sensible to open them both? Or at least 1 and a half, not many people coming in, after all.

I don't pray, but my thoughts are with New Orleans today.

On a lighter note - I've done a "Bluffer's Guide to Gay Historicals" over at Lust Bites today. Come over and be silly with me, huh?

Comments

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

I woke up thinking of New Orleans today, wondering if the winds had hit yet..oooh, my patio door just slammed shut as I typed that *wibble* I'm with you on the 'get out of town' thing. I hope ppl managed to get to safety in time.

[dakotaflint.livejournal.com]

And along with the poor and forgotten, we add the too weak and too sick. I only hope that the New Orleans Children's Hospital's decision to stay open this time and not evacuate their weakest and most critical patients proves to be the best decision for all.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes - meant to include them - got to feel not only for them, but the brave staff who stayed too.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

There are also those who won't leave--who are holed up with their guns to protect their possessions against looters. Me, I'd throw the cat-carriers and a few irreplaceable things in the car, snag my sweetie, and head for high ground.

Two bridges... you must have missed the news story. Last time, the little town on the other side of one of the bridges actually set up barricades, with cops, to keep their own town safe despite the fact that people were dying on the other side. I suppose it's mean of me to hope that something unpleasant lands on the roof of the folks who made that decision, isn't it?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No, not mean at all!

I'm just glad that people got the opportunity to take their pets with them this time (although I'm sure SOME people still left theirs there...)

Ah - I must have missed the bridge thing, I just saw a news item with one bridge being jammed and the other bridge empty - I would have driven down the other one, anyway!

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Well.. no, you wouldn't have. They had police cars lined up as a barricade, and shotguns - and a lot of the folks who wanted to leave had been in the heat and wet for days, by then. Even if they'd rushed the bridge, they might not have broken through, and there'd have been a lot more people dead. It was just about the most disgusting thing I've seen in America since the election that gave Karl Rove and Dick Cheney control of the country... and the fact that nobody did anything about it was one of the many reasons we emigrated.