Now THIS really pisses me off!!

To all the DUers who are victims of Katrina - I AM SORRY. I am ashamed to be an American. I am ashamed to live in the wealthiest, most powerful country on Earth and watch our government totally ignore you.

I admit I have laughed at all the funny pictures - of dubya strumming that guitar and that fishing picture especially. But they are no longer funny to me. NOTHING about Katrina is funny anymore.

Damnit I want to get into my car RIGHT NOW and drive down to the Gulf Coast and do something to help. How can I sit here and make Christmas plans when Katrina victims have no homes to put trees in?

This article is what sent me over the edge. It is about space age blankets that are being sent to the Gulf Coast for Katrina victims. BLANKETS!!! No trailers or even tents, no we aren't giving them shelters. But never fear, they are getting blankets. Now they can sleep on the ground and stay dry.

How do our 'leaders' sleep at night? This is just so shameful I can barely stand it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051204/ap_on_hi_te/disaster_blankets

feeling very angry and frustrated by the current situation. My most positive reaction is that maybe similar feelings--widespread in this country--will produce a shocking 2006 election result and allow us to prosecute the thugs that are responsible.

their purpose is to keep people warm until they can be relocated, this for some hours maybe a day. But the purpose isn't to replace a home by a blanket. I don't think that there are any people in NOLA that have "only a blanket" today to be warm at night. But it's probably the case in Pakistan.

Doing something for Xmas is another story and I imagine that plenty of support is on its way. Probably through charity since social engineering is not the US strong side.

What is the govt doing to help the Katrina victims get their homes rebuilt?

And yes, there are plenty of people in NO and MS who are homeless now. If you don't realize that, you haven't been paying attention.

I think that the blankets purpose is different. I'd like to know how many homeless are shelterless, which is a different situation. What I meant how many are they, without any shelter, compared to the initial situation.

Of course nobody should be homeless, less without any kind of at least temporary decent shelter.

A lightweight, non-woven blanket engineered by a South Carolina company is keeping disaster victims dry and warm from the Gulf Coast to the mountains of Pakistan to the tsunami-ravaged areas of Southeast Asia.

if you read further : "The company was working on that blanket about the time of last year's massive tsunami, and thousands were shipped to Southeast Asia and again to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. The new coverings were distributed to people evacuated to the Astrodome in Houston."

I agree that there are plenty of homeless (in the sense that they lost their property) in the struck region, but I haven't seen any reports of a massive amount wandering in the night wrapped in an emergency blanket and without at least temporary shelter and access to food and water. I did a quick check on the Internet and found a report from Indymedia (which cannot be accused of being biased by governmental media) showing a picture of poverty and dismay, but not of people WITHOUT shelter (even if it may happen in some cases). If I am wrong about that, I'll apologize.

http://neworleans.indymedia.org/

It doesn't mean of course that they shouldn't be provided with a more permanent and decent shelter or replacement homes...

It was a woman from NO who had written the saddest letter all about the people in NO who still had no homes. Their insurance companies haven't helped them yet, FEMA hasn't helped them yet. She said it has been 3 months and no one from her insurance company has contacted her family. She and her husband have been spending their own money to try to start rehabbing their home themselves. She talked about friends who have committed suicide because they just couldn't take the stress anymore. She works for the police dept and she talked about the people she sees every day who are in absolute despair. And yes, she talked about people all over NO who have no homes.

Today, there were at least two threads right here on DU of pictures of damage to the Gulf Coast and it was obvious that the region is far from habitable.

So yes, I do believe there are thousands of homeless on the Gulf Coast.

There are thousands of folks living in tents down here or in the skeletal remains of their homes with tarp roofs and plastic walls, cooking on coleman stoves and having to put up with the cold and the elements.

There are thousand of folks WAITING for trailers so that they can have adequate shelter and heat and a place to cook and a bathroom.

And just wait until they kick folks out of the hotels after the first of the year.

Why are you arguing with the OP? What is your point? Instead of arguing about this, volunteer to help and come help. That way you can find out what it is like here. If you are lucky, you might get one of those blankets to use when you are staying in a tent. The needs are still great here.

Damn it, why do you speak as if you know what you are talking about when in fact you don't?

Check out the images jobycom posted in this thread. He took the images over thanksgiving weekend.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x4397219

The ruin and the destruction still exist and people are still in need of blankets and coats and shoes and a decent place to live in. A FEMA trailer would be great, if they would ever deliver them.

(((hugs)))

Let me know if you see these blankets arrive in MS.

Can you believe this crap?? BLANKETS?

I swear, I do not understand why this Katrina recovery disaster is not enough to impeach dubya. I have always hated him. Now I can't even express how deeply I despise him.

Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian and Clermont Harbor, those towns were practically wiped off the face of the earth.

If I hear of them being distributed, I will let you know.

Go to this thread where there is a discussion about what action can be taken. Write your congress critters, let them know you care and they should care.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5491061

There is also this group
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=360

I understand the scale of the destruction. I didn't have the picture of greater amounts of people not sheltered at all. With the media coverage I can access here in Europe, it's not shown that way. The US pictures in US MSM media don't show it either.

I read the report as technical report about a piece of equipment. That's why I didn't correlate to an ACTUAL need of that kind of blankets.

Here what my country has done for NOLA, besides the emergency help :

Noting that 25 French companies and their U.S. subsidiaries donated nearly $20 million in cash, goods and services to Katrina relief efforts, the minister said cultural efforts organized by the French government will include:
.......

-- A series of concerts in France to raise money for Louisiana musicians left homeless or jobless after Katrina. New Orleans musicians will take part in the concerts and play club dates in Paris. A benefit concert to take place Monday at the Palais des Congres in Paris will feature Louisiana musician Zachary Richard. Organizers hope to raise at least $130,000. The French government also will underwrite three-month residencies in Paris and other cities for many local musicians.

-- About $700,000 to help reopen some of the dozens of Louisiana schools that offered French-language curriculums. "We will be reliable partners in helping schools get back on their feet," Donnedieu de Vabres said through a translator.

-- Help in rebuilding homes in Treme, a neighborhood where he said many musicians and artists lived.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/neworleans/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1131174244142250.xml

http://www.info-france-usa.org/news/statmnts/2005/receptionbrochure.pdf

obviously there is more to be done

The sooner we all realize that, the better.

80 miles of the Mississippi Gulf Coast was devasated by Katrina and remains in ruins.

Louisiana was not the only region that was harmed. Check out the 2nd link in my sig line for some photos, go to http://www.wlox.com and http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/ to see images of the destruction along the MS Gulf Coast.

but the point is that I hadn't any knowledge over there STILL was a direct SHELTER need for those populations. I imagined people sheltered by the Red Cross or others but without homes.

In that case it's obvious that only providing blankets is a disgrace, when the country could provide far better.

It's only a misunderstanding that I probably share(d) with plenty of other people.

Help from the Federal Government? Forget about it. The one things these hurricanes prove is that if the worst happens, you are on your own. You better have good survival skills and some camping gear because that is all you are going to have for months, even years afterwords.

In the meantime, Bush & CO are doing everything they can to either ignore the problem or to continue to punish the people of the Gulf Coast for not being grateful enough. New Orleans, one of America's greatest cities is for all intensive purposes is dead and the Feds won't even lift a finger to get the city back on its feet again.

Merh, seriously, what can I, or any other Du'er, do? How can I help? I'm going to bed, nighttime meds have kicked in, but I'm serious...what can I, or any of us, do to help? I can send all the hugs and prayers in the world...but I want to DO something! Please, tell me what I can do.

they support and fund the reconstruction efforts. At that one thread, there is a speech by Congressman Gene Taylor that will inspire you.

Also post 11 has the link to the Hurricane Survivor Group (well, they have it titled as victim group, but I am no victim). THere are all sorts of things being discussed there.

Thanks for caring and wanting to help. :hi:

I'm going to the link, and see what it suggests. I still can't believe that America is abandoning it's own citizens so cruelly.

We just need to keep the Katrina, Rita & Wilma survivors on the front page.

thanks again :hug:

The fact that the election was stolen.

With John Kerry in the White House, the people in the Gulf region would BE getting some help. The occupation of Iraq would be winding down, the Pakistani's would be better off, and the whole friggin world would be a better place.

The damage the idiot who lives in the WH has done to this country makes me ill.

:mad:

I agree with you, though, I will continue displaying my "art." Being from New Orleans and a lifetime resident, it is my one release from these horrors...

I just don't want to give the impression that I find any of this disaster entertaining. I honestly feel guilty about laughing at some of those pictures of dubya fishing and strumming. I should have been fuming instead of laughing.

And yes, I rated that story. I also got in on the 'discussion', though I hate to call it that. Those Yahoo boards are more like slug fests. Great stress reliever, though. :)

:hug:

PM me. My brother's going on a volunteer public health assignment there in 2 weeks & I could relay you some info.

I have to stay here and work. But I sure wish I could go down there.

blanket and walla a tent... :cry: