Shots Fired at rescue helicopter! Superdome evacuation suspended

[David]

WTF!? I just woke up and I cannot believe what I am hearing. They are saying on Fox & CNN that the evacuation of the Superdome has been suspended because of gunfire coming from around the Superdome, possibly hitting one of the national guard on the helicopters???

I understand that there is a lot of frustration going on down there but to shoot at a helicopter that is plucking people from the hands of death and dropping them off on dry land at the dome... This really pisses me off... You got some really sorry bastards out there making it worse for everyone.

[jftazzy102]

I understand the frustration, but they are trying to help them...apparently someone doesn't want to leave..

[MoMo]

It made me sick to think about also. I know it has to be frustrating to loose everything and I can't even begin to imagine what that feels like but everyone is doing all they can to help them and as fast as possible. I don't wish jail on anyone but those people need to be locked up.

[adbrick]

Just heard that a national gaurdsmen has been shot. And because of the gunfire, evacuation of the Superdome has been suspended until they can get the situation under control. And I agree with mlk2001 these people need to be locked up.

[mrsdragoness]

What is WRONG with people??? I can understand frustration and fear, but WTF! No wonder this country and its people are looked down upon by other nations as well as our own legal community. We strive to get rid of the treating them like animals concept, but then our citizens ACT like animals and throws that theory right out the window again.

BUT, when those idiots are arrested and put in prison, here we will be, showing nothing but support, understanding and friendship for their families.

[David]

Superdome Evacuation Halted After Shots Fired
Thursday, September 01, 2005

NEW ORLEANS — The evacuation of the New Orleans Superdome was suspended Thursday after gunshots were fired at a military helicopter as thousands of National Guard troops poured into the Big Easy to boost security in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
The first of nearly 25,000 refugees being sheltered at the New Orleans Superdome began to arrive in Houston, Texas, Thursday. But that process ground to a halt after shots were fired at the helicopter over the Superdome before daybreak, according to an ambulance official overseeing the operation.
"We have suspended operations until they gain control of the Superdome," said Richard Zeuschlag, head of Acadian Ambulance, which was handling the evacuation of sick and injured people from the Superdome.
He said the National Guard told him that it was sending 100 military police officers to gain control. "That's not enough," Zeuschlag said. "We need a thousand."
He also said that during the night, when a medical evacuation helicopter tried to land at a hospital in the outlying town of Kenner, the pilot reported that 100 people were on the landing pad, and some of them had guns.
"He was frightened and would not land," Zeuschlag said.
He said medics were calling him and crying for help because they were so scared of people with guns at the Superdome.
The military, which was overseeing the removal of the able-bodied by buses, continued the ground evacuation without interruption, said National Guard Lt. Col. Pete Schneider. But Schneider said fires set outside the Superdome were making it difficult for buses to get close enough to pick people up.
The 10,000 new National Guard troops deployed to the regions brought the number of troops dedicated to the effort to more than 28,000, in what may be the largest military response to a natural disaster.
Meanwhile, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and stop thieves who were becoming increasingly hostile.
"They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas — hotels, hospitals, and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said Wednesday.
"The truth is, a terrible tragedy like this brings out the best in most people, brings out the worst in some people," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on NBC's "Today" show. "We're trying to deal with looters as ruthlessly as we can get our hands on them."
President Bush will tour the hurricane devastated Gulf Coast region on Friday and has asked his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Clinton to lead a private fund-raising campaign to help victims recover, the White House said Thursday.
Bush will survey the Alabama and Mississippi coast by helicopter, then go on to New Orleans. He also will tour some locations on the ground.
"The president has wanted to visit the area as soon as possible," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "We didn't go sooner because we didn't want to be disruptive of efforts on the ground."
Bush on Thursday warned that looters, price gougers, insurance fraudsters, those taking advantage of charity and others will face the maximum consequences for their actions.
There will be "zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this," Bush said in a live interview at the White House with ABC's "Good Morning America." "I've made that clear to our attorney general."
The Equivalent of Armageddon
Evacuees who had taken refuge in the Superdome were waiting hours to get onto buses that were taking them 350 miles away to the Houston Astrodome, which can hold 27,000 people. Conditions in the Superdome had become horrendous: There was no air conditioning, the toilets were backed up, and the stench was so bad that medical workers wore masks as they walked around.
While they recognize it's not a permanent fix, the governors of Louisiana and Texas worked out a plan to get refugees to Texas where they can have clean clothes, food, showers and ways to communicate with family.
"Unfortunately there are no great ideas at this particular point in time. You have to do what you have to do," Texas Gov. Rick Perry told FOX News Thursday morning. "As America comes together on this, this is the only appropriate and right thing to do."
Perry said there will be a "substantial" number of additional shelters that will be made available with beds, showers and other items provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other organizations.
"We're going to be very flexible with these individuals," Perry said. "We're going to find a place for these people to stay until they make arrangements."
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said his state has welcomed many evacuees and is preparing for more in what he calls "Operation Care."
"We're now working on ways to deal with helping them long-term — everything from educating their kids" to helping with prescriptions, communicating with families, accessing bank accounts, finding long-term housing and employments, Huckabee told FOX News. He also hailed the leaders of the states hite hardest by Katrina.
"They're doing an outstanding job in ... trying to lead their states in the equivalent of Armageddon — it is apocalyptic in nature," he said.
Lt. Kevin Cowan of the state Office of Emergency Preparedness noted that since thousands of people had been rescued from roofs and attics, it could be assumed that there were lots of others who were not saved.
"You have a limited number of resources, for an unknown number of evacuees. It's already been several days. You've had reports there are casualties. You all can do the math," he said.
Violence Escalates
Nagin has called for a total evacuation, saying that New Orleans will not be functional for two or three months and that people would not be allowed back into their homes for at least a month or two. Nagin estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people remained, and said that 14,000 to 15,000 a day could be evacuated in ensuing convoys.
Asked how many people died in the hurricane, Naglin said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands." The death toll has already reached at least 110 in Mississippi. State officials said Nagin's guess of thousands dead seemed plausible.
That would make Katrina the worst natural disaster in the United States since at least the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, which have blamed for anywhere from about 500 to 6,000 deaths. Katrina would also be the nation's deadliest hurricane since 1900, when a storm in Galveston, Texas, killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people.
"I would not be surprise if this is the worst disaster this country has seen," Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., told FOX News.
Tempers were also starting to flare amid the chaos.
Police said a man in Hattiesburg, Miss., fatally shot his sister in the head over a bag of ice. Dozens of carjackings were reported, including a nursing home bus and a truck carrying medical supplies for a hospital. Some police officers said they had been shot at.
Tenet HealthCare Corp. asked authorities late Wednesday to help evacuate a fully functioning hospital in Gretna, La., after a supply truck carrying food, water and medical supplies was held up at gunpoint.
"There are physical threats to safety from roving bands of armed individuals with weapons who are threatening the safety of the hospital," said spokesman Steven Campanini.
Looters used garbage cans and inflatable mattresses to float away with food, clothes, TV sets - even guns. Outside one pharmacy, thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break through the glass. The driver of a nursing-home bus surrendered the vehicle to thugs after being threatened.
Water Finally Stops Rising
The water that has been gushing into New Orleans after several levees broke appeared to have finally stopped rising. The water apparently has finally reached a level higher than that of Lake Pontchartrain. The Army Corps of Engineers will try to pump water out of the city; they're hoping the water will seep out of the city at about a half-an-inch per hour.
City officials have estimated that it could take weeks to pump out the city and even more time to get the city's power back on and water systems functioning again.
The floodwaters streamed into the city's streets from two levee breaks near Lake Pontchartrain (search) a day after New Orleans thought it had escaped catastrophic damage from Katrina. The floodwaters covered 80 percent of the city, in some areas 20 feet deep, in a reddish-brown soup of sewage, gasoline and garbage.
The Army Corps of Engineers said it planned to use heavy-duty Chinook helicopters to drop 15,000-pound bags of sand and stone into a 500-foot gap in the failed floodwall.
But the agency said it was having trouble getting the sandbags and dozens of 15-foot highway barriers to the site because the city's waterways were blocked by loose barges, boats and large debris.
In Mississippi, ambulances roamed through the passable streets of devastated places such as Biloxi, Gulfport, Waveland and Bay St. Louis, in some cases speeding past corpses in hopes of saving people trapped in flooded and crumbled buildings.
On the flooded streets of New Orleans, dozens of fishermen from up to 200 miles away floated in on caravans of boats to pull residents out.
One of those rescued was 40-year-old Kevin Montgomery, who spent three days shuttling between the attic of a one-story home and a canopy he built on the roof. Every once in a while, Mongtomery would see a body float by. But he cannot swim and had to fight the urge to wade in and tie them down.
"It was terrible," he said. "All I could do was pass them by and hope that God takes care of the rest of that."
The federal government dispatched helicopters, warships and elite SEAL water-rescue teams in one of the biggest relief operations in U.S. history, aimed at plucking residents from rooftops in the last of the "golden 72 hours" rescuers say is crucial to saving lives.
As fires burned from broken natural-gas mains, the skies above the city buzzed with National Guard and Coast Guard helicopters frantically dropping baskets to roofs where victims had been stranded since the storm roared in with a 145-mph fury Monday. Atop one apartment building, two children held up a giant sign scrawled with the words: "Help us!"
Hundreds of people wandered up and down shattered Interstate 10 — the only major freeway leading into New Orleans from the east — pushing shopping carts, laundry racks, anything they could find to carry their belongings.
Several telethons were announced to help hurricane victims. One will air on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC at 8 p.m. Friday, with performances including Wynton Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr. Another is scheduled for Sept. 10 on MTV, VH1 and CMT and will include Green Day, Ludacris and Alicia Keys.
Jerry Lewis' annual Labor Day fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association also will include celebrity appeals for help.
Although the Bush administration decided to release crude oil from the federal petroleum reserves after Katrina knocked out 95 percent of the Gulf of Mexico's output, gasoline prices surged above $3 a gallon in many parts of the country.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[GC]

Similar to when the UN or US goes to help and is fired at. This could turn very bad tonight.

[melbo]

As I stated in a previous thread...these people that are shooting at the relief workers are putting everyones lives in jeopardy here...every minute counts and if they need to take some serious means to get these efforts back underway then that is what they need to do, if it means taking one life to save the lives of so many others, then that is what they will have to do.

[MiaBellaAngela]

This is sick!

[one_luv]

There has to be more behind this that we don't know. This is like Somolia. Why? Why? Why?

[David]

Originally Posted by one_luv

There has to be more behind this that we don't know. This is like Somalia. Why? Why? Why?

More behind this like what? Somalia?? A tactical / military operation?
So, I guess these guys are war-lords that have been raping and pillaging for some time and the U.S. National Guard, Coast Guard and others have decided to invade their "hood"? Like any good war lord (see dictator), they don't want their people to escape so they start capping on the rescue helicopter invading their airspace and kidnapping their people?
Hrm.. I wonder how many rounds they sent up at Air Force One when it passed over.

Unlike in Somalia, these helicopter are unarmed, but the mission is the same... To save people.. It sure would be nice if this mission could be modified tomorrow morning and we would have some Apache gun-ships providing cover support for all the people trying to rescue the real victims here and to snuff out the trash that no other Louisiana Mayor (also people of "color") wants in their city or parish.

Please do explain your Somalia comment... Maybe I am missing what your point might have been. I'm definitely interested after this post and another in this forum.

David

[redphoenixx]

I simply cannot understand how someone could shoot the people coming to rescue them! Fine, be angry, it is understandable, but LET THE RESCUERS IN!

I'm in Wisconsin and my brother (Army Ntl Guard) just found out he has to go down to help out for at least 2 weeks. I'm happy that Wisconsin is helping but I wish the IDIOTS WOULD STOP SHOOTING!

[Jillian]

Originally Posted by one_luv

There has to be more behind this that we don't know. This is like Somolia. Why? Why? Why?

What are you talking about? Come on now what could be behind this than someone is just plain ignorant and is jepordaizing other ppl lives .. What do you think the military is doing there by the Superdome they are there to terrorize anyone .. They are there to help rescue ppl who werent able to make it out in time or couldnt make it out. Why must everything have to have such motives behind it.. I am sure the person with the gun motive was something we may never know and maybe he was stuck in a twisted sense of a world .. He/she may have just lost a family member you dont know.. Either way it wasnt right of them to shoot anyone who is basically their lifeline..

[jdcjmc1]

Originally Posted by one_luv

There has to be more behind this that we don't know. This is like Somolia. Why? Why? Why?

I know you are not serious. Funny how everything comes down to a race issue Get serious if this was a race issue why are so many people down there helping them and all races are there sending me money. Why are the being shot at when all helpers are trying to do is save their lives and their families lies. I hope all the little ignorant people who are stealing shit they should not be stealing all go to prison. If they are stealing clothes, shoes , medicine, dipaers thats one thing. To steal just to steal makes them look even dumber and that goes for blacks, whites, mexicans. Heartless bastards

[one_luv]

Regarding the Somalia remark, I was talking about the relief effort, not the military attack. I remember humanitarians going in there with food and support to help with the suffering, and armed thugs stealing the food and blankets from children, and killing the aid workers. I guess some might identify Somalia with the Black hawks, but that wasn’t what I was referring to.

I never took this all down to a race issue, but I mentioned a race and class issue. Just as much relevance to class and poverty level than anything. This is not a theory that I devoloped on my own, just one that I echoed.

But it is times like these that proves we are all one color when it comes to helping out our neighbors. Disaster and death strikes regardless of skin color. I don't think this is the place to discuss racial politics, so my mistake in even bringing it up and throwing into the mix. We're all upset and worried over the disaster, and many of us know people who are down there.

If it came across that I was sactioning or condoning shooting the helicopters, my sincere apologies. This is not right, it's horror. Also, my apologies if my opinions were not expressed clearly. This is a difficult time for a lot of us, and I would rather spend it being supportive of the people who need help than creating discourse on this forum.

[Doc's Sis]

Thanks for the apology, one luv. That was needed considering all the things you've posted which only got lots of folks upset. We are all in this together and it never has been a race issue or any such thing.

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

I hope this link works for you. Is a site by AP that is updated as new items come in and will help you keep track of what's happening down there. Lots more happening, of course, that isn't on there and as time goes on we'll hear more and more stories - some sad, some with good endings, some inspirational, some totally terrible...