Latest update from N.O. per Ft Worth Tx Task Force

[FirefightnRick]

I just got off the phone with one of our officers. Fort Worth has 9 members of the Texas Task Force and Texas Swift Water Rescue teams in N.O. They spent better part of the day in and around the French Quarter helping folks and doing searches in collapses and flooded areas. He said it's getting worst by the hour. The police are refusing to respond to certain areas that are the worst as night sets in due to the violence and said they now are having to await the National Guard. Apparantly the idea of allowing people to take what they need has backfired because people are starting to steal from each other or are fighting over what is left. He said this is creating small skirmishes of riots that are starting to breakout, forcing emergency crew members to back off from getting to those who need the most help due to the violence. He said it's very bad, wide spread bad. Also mentioned that most of those who didn't want to leave at first now want to but can't because of a lack of access routes and gas.

I'll post more if I hear from them tomorrow.

Rick

[Crip*TeamKATT]

The finally working pump has stopped and in 12 to 15 hours the water level in the city will be the same level as the lake.

The level of the lake is 3 feet ABOVE sealevel. The eniter east bank will look like a lake.

If those people on their rooftops have not be rescused by that time they very well not be anyone left to rescue.

[CMJ]

Thanks Rick...

[NT80]

The finally working pump has stopped and in 12 to 15 hours the water level in the city will be the same level as the lake.

The level of the lake is 3 feet ABOVE sealevel. The eniter east bank will look like a lake.

If those people on their rooftops have not be rescused by that time they very well not be anyone left to rescue.

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Yes, the news reports that in 24 hours that the water level in Downtown N.O. could be 12 feet.

[CMJ]

Got this report from another relief worker.

here's what i saw...it aint for the squeamish

left BR about midnight along with three trucks full of supplies (food/water/generators/etc) from the hyatt in houston, along with a state police escort

got into the city about 1:30am

the city is pitch black...you can barely see past your headlights

it is dead silent except for gunshots and cries for help

we wrer escorted in by LEO in full combat armor...down the okeefe off ramp, up girod and down loyola to the hyatt loading dock. there are groups of people wandering thru the floodwater, children and babies in tow. state police kept everyone at a distance, firearms on shoulders

we unloaded the trucks by hand with the troopers on perimeter...those guys were making me very very nervous...you could tell they did not want to be there

there are refugees on highyway overpasses, rooftops, anywhere there is a speck of dry land. i have never felt so isolated in all my life...to think that i spent 12 years working & living at that same intersection is incomprehensible at this point

anyway i picked the elderly mother of a friend, and got the F out just as the sun was coming up

couple of things of note...

-there is no way to communicate in the city...all the phones are out, cell towers down, radio antennas down...it is back to the stone age except for police and military

-the standing water in that area is a cesspool of trash, broken glass, fire ants, etc, etc...use your imagination

-the people there trying to keep some semblance of civilization intact are bravery incarnate...remember that better than half of the rescues so far since the storm have been carried out by the LA dept of wildlife & fisheries...the "fish cops" some like to deride...

-on the way back to BR, there was an unbroken convoy down I-10 & US 90 of boats, supply trucks, EMS vehicles, power trucks, military equipment, personnel carriers, and fule tankers. i cried like a baby watching that...you really get it that help is on the way

-if god forbid you have/know someone trapped in the city, for god's sake go get them or find someone who can

new orleans is unliveable guys...please keep these people in your prayers, and if/when a relief opportunity appears, please help. state and local agencies are overwhelmed, and outside aid will be the only way to even begin to try to get it under control

re: boats they have enough...they are out of dry land to stage them

one more thing...and i really mean this from the heart

please don't judge our city over the scenes of lawlessness being replayed ad naseum on CNN, etc

half of new orleans lived hand to mouth before this happened...you just didnt see it on TV or on bourbon street...it's like tearing the walls out of an abandoned building, the rats were always there, and now they are exposed and unimpeded by any semblance of order

consider as well the total destruction of parts of eastern st tammany, st bernard, plaquemines, and the miss gulf coast, and you just have to shake your head and forget that "before katrina" ever happened

[MootPoint]

I just can't believe some of the looters though I know it's not representative of everyone in the city. I just saw video footage of a group of people pushing a brand new PIANO (with lots of other stuff loaded on top of it) down the street. What in the world are you going to do with a brand new PIANO in the middle of all that destruction?!

Edited August 31, 2005 by MootPoint

[PlummMeanGreen]

I just can't believe some of the looters though I know it's not representative of everyone in the city.  I just saw video footage of a group of people pushing a brand new PIANO (with lots of other stuff loaded on top of it) down the street.  What in the world are you going to do with a brand new PIANO in the middle of all that destruction?!  

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This whole thing sounds like the movie "Escape From New York" X's 100.

These people left in New Orleans are hot, mosquito-bit, hungry, scared and have no idea if they will make it to tomorrow. Ths is an American nightmare that should not be allowed to happen much longer with more help (and security) on the way. Amazing how materialism continues in the shadows of death with MP's story of the piano being stolen. Simply amazing...

Thanks for your report on this, Rick.

Edited August 31, 2005 by PlummMeanGreen

[FirefightnRick]

We just got a call from one of our guys' wives. She said there is only one spot they can get to where they can get a cell phone line out so she only talks to him once per day. Said they are sleeping on the floors, eating MRE's. Said it's 100 times worse than what is seen on TV. The cop that took the direct hit in the head was down directly in front of where they were located. Yesterday they were assigned to help search the 9th Ward. Everyone everywhere is hostile towards any government assistance so their time spent in each place is always shorter than needed. He said he had no idea what he was getting into and is very worried. They have no idea when they are going to be evacuated to come home. When activated the Texas USAR teams are usually in the field for minimum of two weeks.

Rick

[MeanGreen61]

The NO mayor is screaming his head off and blaming others, but local officials miserably failed their citizens.

First responders are LOCAL (fire, police, emergency services, etc). KNOWING there were 100,000 residents without transportations and KNOWING that Katrina was headed straight for NO, where was the evacuation/emergency plan ?

Every (responsible) city has a worst case senario disaster response plan. I'm sure Rick can verify that for FW and Emmitt for Dallas. How can police, fire and emergency services respond properly when there is no leadership and no planning for direction ?

The mayor and all his city hall cronies should be held accountable.

[H-towngreen]

MG61 that is very true. NO knew for several days that there was a cat. 5 coming for them they should have been able to get out more people than they did.

[MeanGreen61]

MG61 that is very true.  NO knew for several days that there was a cat. 5 coming for them they should have been able to get out more people than they did.

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1. Local

2. State (state requests federal)

3. Federal

Going a step further, the governor could have called up, mobilized and positioned assets beforehand in anticipation of local responders being over-whelmed quickly. The governor's response was horribly weak and granted the federal government did not step in quickly enough.

[UNOPrivatr]

1. Local

2. State (state requests federal)

3. Federal

Going a step further, the governor could have called up, mobilized and positioned assets beforehand  in anticipation of local responders being over-whelmed quickly. The governor's response was horribly weak and granted the federal government did not step in quickly enough.

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You want to know where the Louisiana National Guard is? The Middle East. We've got TONS of local guardsmen stationed in Afghanistan right now. Gov Blanco IMMEDIATELY called all her resources (as limited as they were) to action before the storm hit. Mayor Nagin was a freakin rock for days leading up to and even after the storm hit. He was assured he'd get the resources he needed to ASSIST in the efforts. Instead, DAYS went by with very little help. The depleted police force couldn't possibly be expected to maintain order in the situation that followed the storm. Our food and water supply ran out much quicker than expected. It shouldn't have been out of the question to expect HELP from the federal government as soon as it was needed. In my community (Chalmette for anyone who knows the area) our entire community is completely underwater. There has been NO HELP AT ALL to the people down there as of two days ago. My local elected officials are rowing boats themselves up and down "streets" finding people to rescue. They desperately need help from their country and last I heard they still weren't getting it.

You probably heard Nagin's radio spot yesterday. What you haven't heard on national TV were his calm statements day after day since Sunday. He was assured he'd have the HELP he needed and finally he snapped. He's not in Baton Rouge somewhere doing all this by telephone. He's down there walking through water watching people die. We hear it's hard to get troops and supplies into the affected areas yet we see ten reporters from every network walking the streets. How did they get in? How did I get out?

I was in New Orleans myself until Tuesday. I am extremely blessed to have had the means to get out of town (and take four stranded tourists with me) before the water rose to levels you're seeing now. I've been touched by the relief efforts I've seen everywhere along my journey. I've also been annoyed by people talking about things they know nothing about. The national tv coverage has been absolutely disgusting to me. People are hungry, thirsty, and dying for a ride out of town. In the meantime, reporters are sticking cameras and microphones in their faces then driving away to eat and drink and stay healthy.

By the way...I'm currently "residing" in Arlington due to my mom's work obligations. It looks like I'll be here for a while. Thanks for everything going on in the Metroplex to help. I look forward to contributing to your community while I'm here.

Edited September 3, 2005 by UNOPrivatr

[mad dog]

Yep... lots of National Guard and Army Reserve overseas. Who's left to help out?

[ipEAGLE]

I saw on the news last night that Louisanna has 7,000 national guard not in Iraq.... Mississippi has around 3,000 not active, and Alabama has around 1,500. There is not a shortage of troops.

[FirefightnRick]

The troops were notified, but that does nothing when they are not mobilized to the closest location. Louisiana Govt dropped the ball on this one.

Rick

[UNOPrivatr]

The troops were notified, but that does nothing when they are not mobilized to the closest location.  Louisiana Govt dropped the ball on this one.

Rick

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Yeah...you're right. What would I know?

[GreenBat]

UNOPrivatr

My heart goes out to you and the others hit by Katrina's destruction.

I have a friend, whose cousins had to sneak out of New Orleans Friday because they locked down the Super Dome. They hitch hiked to Bossier City and called my friend's brother, who lives in Shreveport, to come get them. He drove them to the Metroplex. Two hours after their arrival they were still eating. They had received no food or water since Tuesday in the Super Dome. They told of rapes and murder and having to move a dead body just to move to an aisle so they could get outside.

I believe that all of the branches of government (Local, State & National) all dropped the ball. None of this was fair, but that is in the past. We need to go on with humanitarian relief from here on out.

You and all of the other survivors & victims of the hurricane have been in my prayers since before Katrina did her damage.

God Bless you & your family.

God Bless the Golf Coast.

God Bless America.

[mini_green_cooper]

We just got a call from one of our guys' wives.  She said there is only one spot they can get to where they can get a cell phone line out so she only talks to him once per day.  Said they are sleeping on the floors, eating MRE's.  Said it's 100 times worse than what is seen on TV.  The cop that took the direct hit in the head was down directly in front of where they were located.  Yesterday they were assigned to help search the 9th Ward.  Everyone everywhere is hostile towards any government assistance so their time spent in each place is always shorter than needed.  He said he had no idea what he was getting into and is very worried.  They have no idea when they are going to be evacuated to come home.  When activated the Texas USAR teams are usually in the field for minimum of two weeks.

Rick

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thx for the info. i just don't understand what the point is to the violence and what they hope to accomplish. this is just beyond words. i cannot even begin to imagine what he must really be like there right now. and the problems in the hospitals, with the rescue efforts, the evan plans (or lack thereof), etc, etc. this is going to have consequences for some time to come and things we can't even begin to think about. hope you keep us updated.

[FirefightnRick]

As of right now, the Texas branch of the Urban Search and Rescue service, who was activated and sent in by FEMA, has been on the ground in New Orleans since Monday Sept 29th. The USAR teams are completely self sufficient. They travel with their own equipment, food and supplies and usually account for about 25 to 100 members and up. Due to their small numbers they are able to respond and mobilize quickly. In this instance, they were put on notice on friday Sept 26th and at ground zero of their target immediatly after winds died down to 55 mph on monday. But assembling and mobilizing a 7,000 to 25,000 man army takes time. I'm surprised they got in when they did on Thursday. When the REAL finger pointing starts up I'm interested in hearing from the LSU professor, can't remember his name, who is claiming he has warned N.O. officials for years that this could happen only to have it fall on deaf ears. So far I have only seen interviews of FEMA officials from Florida who have said they have presented numerous computer models over the years to LA officials on what could happen should a Category 5 hurricane's hit N.O.

Rick

Edited September 5, 2005 by FirefightnRick

[FirefightnRick]

You want to know where the Louisiana National Guard is? The Middle East. We've got TONS of local guardsmen stationed in Afghanistan right now. Gov Blanco IMMEDIATELY called all her resources (as limited as they were) to action before the storm hit. Mayor Nagin was a freakin rock for days leading up to and even after the storm hit. He was assured he'd get the resources he needed to ASSIST in the efforts. Instead, DAYS went by with very little help.

Louisiana currently has 9,000+ guardsmen of which 2,300(not tons) are currently deployed to Iraq. Of the 6,000 who remain, few specialize in helicopter transport that of which has been the most needed with rescue and evacuations.

As 61 mentioned, here is the chain of command for those who protect the citizens of New Orleans(as well as other cities such as Fort Worth).

1. The Mayor.

2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee of the Governor who reports to the Governor.

3. The Governor.

4. The Head of Homeland Security.

5. The President.

What did each do?

1. The mayor with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). The he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.

2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for political appointees)

3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.

4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be ready when the Governor called for them.

5. The President, urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance, should the Governor decide to use it.

Rick

Edited September 5, 2005 by FirefightnRick

[FirefightnRick]

We recieved this email today.

Rick

The following is an update as of 7:30 p.m., Sunday September 4.

There were no injuries to task force members today.

TX-TF1 US&R Team (80 members):

Texas Task Force 1 US&R team continued clearing homes and apaprtment buildings in the same downtown New Orleans area in which they worked yesterday. There were more than 100 rescues, while many more individuals were given the opportunity to leave their homes, but chose not to at this time. The total rescued by the 7 task forces and 8 swiftwater teams numbers in the thousands. The last report recieved yesterday said that, since Tuesday, well over 4,000 people had been rescued by these combined task forces.

TX-TF1 swiftwater Strike Team (41 members):

The swiftwater team rescued approximately 300 people today. They were surrounded by several members of foriegn media outlets throughtout the day. These media members happend upon the swiftwater team and followed them for part of the day.

PEP POD

A third type of emergency assistance has been deployed by TEEX to Louisiana. Six member of the Pre-positioned Equipment Program Package On Demand (or PEP POD) are en route to Louisiana at this time. They will perform a much needed resupply mission for emergency first responders. This program is separate and apart from the TX-TF1 team currently on scene.

We still, at this time have been given no specific information on a deactivation dat and time. However, we have been told that details on a demobilization date and time could be forthcoming as soon as tomorrow.

Here's a link to some pictures.

http://usar.tamu.edu/

Edited September 5, 2005 by FirefightnRick

[Baby Arm!]

Here's what I want to know, If you are going to use the Superdome as a shelter, than why don't you plan and make the necessary prepreation to use it as a shelter. You can count on a loss of power during a huricane. Why wasn't there a UPS (uninterupted power supply) built for the place. Batteries and Generators with enough diesel fuel for a week. Why wasn't that put into place BEFORE the hurricane?

It's also a good bet you going to lose plumbing, The dome is big enough you could fit a couple hundred portable chemical toilets in there somewhere. Put them somewhere out of the way, line the corridors under the stadium, anything is better than the out of order and overflowing toilets they had.

And another thing. With a category 5 hurricane bearing down on the city and you are telling everyone to go to the dome, Why dont you have enough food and water stocked for a least a week?

[mini_green_cooper]

The troops were notified, but that does nothing when they are not mobilized to the closest location.  Louisiana Govt dropped the ball on this one.

Rick

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i belive there are many factors that went into making this one of the worst disasters we've seen and it's difficult to point to one person or branch of gov't. we need to focus on rescue, recovery and re-building right now. hopefully, in the end there will be better contingency plans and more competent people all along the way.

[Arkstfan]

I don't think any level of government comes out of this looking good.

Remember that part of the mayor's problem has been a lack of first responders. It has been reported that 1/3rd to 1/2 of the NOPD has "disappeared". It has been alleged that many of them tossed their uniforms and just left. I'm sure that a number of them will be the morgue when they start collecting bodies having died in the line.

The evac plan was a cluster. New Orleans has hundreds of ruined school busses that could have been saved had they been loaded with those without transportation and taken further inland. Sure it wouldn't have been a huge dent if say 500 busses each with 40 people had left the city but that would have been 20,000 people not down in the mess. Those busses would be a resource today instead of insurance salvage.

According to a CNN report the Federal government wanted to take over the evac on Friday before landfall and the state rejected the offer. According to the source (in the Louisiana government) the discussion from the state's side was more about who was going to be blamed for what was coming rather than the merits of the idea.

There were complaints about the efforts to plug the levees but the helos were being diverted to rescues instead of concentrating on stopping the flooding.

A huge failure in troop deployment wasn't the numbers so much as the focus. The 10,000 first on scene probably should have been used to secure landing zones at the hospitals so evac there could have been finished instead of leaving them all but cut-off.

Unless there is a declaration of insurection regular US soldiers cannot be used for law enforcement (that's why we send the guard rather than regular soliders or reserves in time of disaster, they cannot arrest looters, rapists, etc but the guard can). An insurrection declaration was warranted as soon as the guard came under fire.

[Arkstfan]

Here's what I want to know,  If you are going to use the Superdome as a shelter,  than why don't you plan and make the necessary prepreation to use it as a shelter.    You can count on a  loss of power during a huricane.  Why wasn't there a UPS (uninterupted power supply) built for the place.  Batteries and Generators with enough diesel fuel for a week.  Why wasn't that put into place BEFORE the hurricane?

It's also a good bet you going to lose plumbing,  The dome is big enough you could fit a couple hundred portable chemical toilets in there somewhere.  Put them somewhere out of the way,  line the corridors under the stadium,  anything is better than the out of order and overflowing toilets they had.

And another thing.  With a category 5 hurricane bearing down on the city and you are telling everyone to go to the dome,  Why dont you have enough food and water stocked for a least a week?

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The Superdome had a three day supply of fuel for generators.