This guy was there and tells the real story
 

Here is a link to a guy's photos and captions of his story of how it went down for him. The things the media aren't telling you.

Great story, nearly 200 pictures of the French Q and downtown NO.


http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=r9nmta5.b147fdut&U y=hbb8p1&Ux=1

OMG I recognize most of this, the daquiri bar, that place where those guys were getting the pizza, the strip bar, Royal Street, good ol O'Brians etc.. Thanks for this link.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate that link...very well photographed and written.

Thank you.

I find it interesting that the writer/photographer was able to leave the city relatively easily once he decided to do so.

Re: This guy was there and tells the real story
 

Great link, thanks.

By the way, what in the guy's story is the media not telling us?

Here's my summary of what he's saying: the city prepared for a hurricane by boarding up etc, even a white guy who was prepared and pretty "with it" (the guy who posted the photos) did not obey the mandatory evacuation order, initially the damage was significant but people thought they'd dodged the bullet, then the flooding started, looting began with food then some went to greed, police/fire/Guard tried to control things, the author ended up going to the Convention Center, people there were told buses were coming but they never came, conditions kept deteriorating, the author and his friends resorted to breaking into cars but couldn't get out of town that way, fortunately someone had told him where some trucks would be left and he managed to get out of town.

This seems pretty much like what I'm getting from the media.

CNN had a 5 minute story this morn on a woman who's living in relative comfort in the "Warehouse" district. Her building suffered no damage...at all. Not even minimal flooding. In any case she just about condemned the mayor for his lack of planning, explaining that infinitely more thought has gone into planning a new sports arena. She's also extremely upset that she'll likely be forced out of her home.

Solidad O'brian (sp) agreed with the Atlanta anchor that this person places a burden on some other system, the dwelling will need to be monitored for security and resources that are needed for others will be expended on her.

My impression is that the mayor wants to show absolute control to save face for a neglected recovery plan. IMO, it's unnecessary and misguided.

Here's another story from a couple of people attending a convention when Katrina hit, plus some corrobaration:

It's long, sorry.
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By day 4 our hotels had run out of fuel and water. Sanitation was dangerously abysmal. As the desperation and despair increased, street crime as well as water levels began to rise. The hotels turned us out and locked their doors, telling us that the “officials” told us to report to the convention center to wait for more buses. As we entered the center of the city, we finally encountered the National Guard.

The Guards told us we would not be allowed into the Superdome as the city’s primary shelter had been descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole. The guards further told us that the city’s only other shelter, the Convention Center, was also descending into chaos and squalor and that the police were not allowing anyone else in. Quite naturally, we asked, “If we can’t go to the only two shelters in the city, what was our alternative?” The guards told us that that was our problem, and no they did not have extra water to give to us. This would be the start of our numerous encounters with callous and hostile “law enforcement”.

We walked to the police command center at Harrah’s on Canal Street and were told the same thing, that we were on our own, and no they did not have water to give us. We now numbered several hundred. We held a mass meeting to decide a course of action. We agreed to camp outside the police command post. We would be plainly visible to the media and would constitute a highly visible embarrassment to the city officials. The police told us that we could not stay. Regardless, we began to settle in and set up camp. In short order, the police commander came across the street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans Bridge where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the city. The crowed cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and explained to the commander that there had been lots of misinformation and wrong information and was he sure that there were buses waiting for us. The commander turned to the crowd and stated emphatically, “I swear to you that the buses are there.”

We organized ourselves and the 200 of us set off for the bridge with great excitement and hope. As we marched pasted the convention center, many locals saw our determined and optimistic group and asked where we were headed. We told them about the great news. Families immediately grabbed their few belongings and quickly our numbers doubled and then doubled again. Babies in strollers now joined us, people using crutches, elderly clasping walkers and others people in wheelchairs. We marched the 2-3 miles to the freeway and up the steep incline to the Bridge. It now began to pour down rain, but it did not dampen our enthusiasm.

As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander’s assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn’t cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the six-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their city. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans.

ur small group retreated back down Highway 90 to seek shelter from the rain under an overpass. We debated our options and in the end decided to build an encampment in the middle of the Ponchartrain Expressway on the center divide, between the O’Keefe and Tchoupitoulas exits. We reasoned we would be visible to everyone; we would have some security, being on an elevated freeway; and we could wait and watch for the arrival of the yet-to-be-seen buses.

All day long, we saw other families, individuals and groups make the same trip up the incline in an attempt to cross the bridge, only to be turned away. Some chased away with gunfire, others simply told no, others to be verbally berated and humiliated. Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the city on foot. Meanwhile, the only two city shelters sank further into squalor and disrepair. The only way across the bridge was by vehicle. We saw workers stealing trucks, buses, moving vans, semi-trucks and any car that could be hotwired. All were packed with people trying to escape the misery New Orleans had become.

The authors, Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, were attending a paramedics’ conference in New Orleans, staying in the French Quarter, when the hurricane hit.

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Sounds improbable, but there’s corroboration in the story of three Duke University students who cobbled together enough fake ID to pass for journalists, then made two trips ferrying survivors to LSU and Baton Rouge. They got a look at the situation in the Superdome, and the arbitrariness of the situation:

“We found it absolutely incredible that the authorities had no way to get there for four or five days, that they didn’t go in and help these people, and we made it in a two-wheel-drive Hyundai,” said Hans Buder, who made the trip with his roommate Byrd and another student, David Hankla. …

“Anyone who knows that area, if you had a bus, it would take you no more than 20 minutes to drive in with a bus and get these people out,” Buder said. “They sat there for four or five days with no food, no water, babies getting raped in the bathrooms, there were murders, nobody was doing anything for these people. And we just drove right in, really disgraceful. I don’t want to get too fired up with the rhetoric, but some blame needs to be placed somewhere.”

Doesn't sound that easy. He broke into multiple cars and tried to steal them (or do we say "borrow" because he's an educated white guy) but was not successful. Fortunately a friend had told him where some trucks were parked and had left a key behind. Lucky.

And based on Tech's post, cars could leave, not people on foot.

Third photo is the balcony where I spent most of the night during the last Mardi Gras.

Sad to see the photos as they progress (or digress) and see the movement of time and water...

Joe A

From the post by tech

"As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander’s assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn’t cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the six-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their city. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans."

Seems pretty obvious [but see my edit below] that race was a factor in the New Orleans response. Anyone think a group of 200 white people trying to escape from the city would have been turned back at gunpoint?

Edit: I need to soften what I just said. I mean that race was a factor in the incident that the guy wrote about. And maybe in some other incidents during the most chaotic periods. I do not believe, still, that race has been a factor in the organized part of the relief effort.

Re: Re: This guy was there and tells the real story
 

By the way, what in the guy's story is the media not telling us?

It is the detail that he is going to to discribe what we went through. One guys story without some dumba$$ reporter putting his/her spin on it. Thats what I mean.:rolleyes:

Are you just trying to stir up crap for fun?

Any of us that have been involved in an event of any kind that attracted media attention will attest to how they work. Whether you beleive the media leans left or right does not really matter; that is not the issue once you have had the opportunity to deal with them. They sensationalize, missrepresent, and distort the facts. They are there to sell copy, airtime, their own careers, or what have you. It really is a shame that even at times like this they cannot put all of that asside and simply report the actual events.

WOW...and he never got to see the worst flooding. So there was plenty of help arriving...just not to the Superdome where 20k or so people were left to fend for themselves. The looting started 2 days after the storm when the power remained off. How Sad.

Re: Re: Re: This guy was there and tells the real story
 

I see. I thought you were implying that the guy's photos and narrative showed us some part of the situation that the media has been hiding from us. Sorry if I misinterpreted what you meant, but that is what people often mean when they say "see what the media isn't telling you".

The looting started Monday night.

It could have stopped Monday night too if only the cops shot the first bastards they saw with stolen Nikes, T.V.'s, stereos, and other non-essential items.

Hold on a minute Jeff. It ain't just the looted stores that were the problem. My aunts house was stripped, as was the entire neighborhood. It survived the hurricane, but not the looters. They took everything. Down to her underwear! Pots, pans, anything and everything of any value.

But, I do agree they should have been shot.

- Skip

This story smells like it's a lie. Consider:

Of these 200 people, none of them bothered to get the name of the police commander who lied about the buses? The writer is not willing to state the name of this commander?

If the Gretna sheriff's officers were actually "firing their weapons" over the heads of this crowd and others who were trying to cross the bridge on foot, why is it the case that no media source has bothered to capture this on video???

Do you know what sort of ratings such footage would bring to a primetime news broadcast? Would a reporter like Geraldo not try to get video of this?

Who are the supposed authors of this story, "Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky"? If they were visiting a paramedic's conference in New Orleans, they must be home by now. What are their addresses? Has any reporter tracked them down to get their story first hand? What about the rest of this crowd that was fired upon? Has any of them been interviewed?

Where was this story first published/posted?

I'll need a lot more verifiable details before I'll believe that the story is true.

Quick searching produces:

"Bradshaw and Slonsky are paramedics from California that were attending the EMS conference in New Orleans. Larry Bradshaw is the chief shop steward, Paramedic Chapter, SEIU Local 790; and Lorrie Beth Slonsky is steward, Paramedic Chapter, SEIU Local 790.[California]"

I found previous references to Bradshaw confirming who he is, in some EMS-oriented websites. E.g. http://www.jems.com/jems/exclus03/f0101b.html

And there was in fact a paramedics' conference in New Orleans at that time.

So I suspect the authors do in fact exist, are in fact EMTs, and were in fact in New Orleans. Whether they are truthful or lying, I guess you have to judge. You could do some further research and report back to us.

BTW, in searching I ran across this website http://www.emsnetwork.org/ which has all sorts of interesting first-hand accounts by EMTs in New Orleans.