No, the rapture did not happen; however, the residents in poor neighborhoods in New Orleans were left behind by the more fortunate (with clothes and SUVs) to fend for themselves. Nowhere was anyone asking these people if they could come upstate for safety prior to the once category five hurricane Katrina. Nowhere were these moral high grounders using the conservative airways, megachurches or business to help out anyone but themselves. The people were warned way ahead of time, and they knew that there were those among them who had no transportation, could not afford gouged Greyhound Bus tickets or $1,000+ plane tickets. Let alone afford a gouged hotel room someplace even if they got out. The Star Tribune covers the travesty.
Despite the dire predictions, a group of residents in a poor neighborhood of central New Orleans sat on a porch with no car, no way out and, surprisingly, no fear.
"We're not evacuating," said Julie Paul, 57. "None of us have any place to go. We're counting on the Superdome. That's our lifesaver."
The 70,000-seat Superdome, the home of football's Saints, opened at daybreak Sunday, giving first priority to frail, elderly people on walkers, some with oxygen tanks. They were told to bring enough food, water and medicine to last up to five days.
"They told us not to stay in our houses because it wasn't safe," said Victoria Young, 76, who sat amid plastic bags and a metal walker. "It's not safe anywhere when you're in the shape we're in."
"I was going to the Superdome and then I saw the two-mile line," the 42-year-old musician said. "I figure if I'm going to die, I'm going to die with cold beer and my best buds."
I don't know how any caring individual cannot look at these photos and at least almost have a tear in their eye. In the end, it was the meek among the people, and the Louisiana National Guard who was not in Iraq helping out the meek...
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Monday, August 29, 2005
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