In New Orleans, no shelter for those who stay

[tammywammy]

In New Orleans, no shelter for those who stay

By BECKY BOHRER
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Police with bullhorns plan to go street to street this weekend with a tough message about getting out ahead of Hurricane Gustav: This time there will be no shelter of last resort. The doors to the Superdome will be locked. Those who stay will be on their own.

New forecasts Friday made it increasingly clear that New Orleans will get some kind of hit - direct or indirect - by early next week. That raised the likelihood people would have to flee, and the city suggested a full-scale evacuation call could come as soon as Sunday.

Those among New Orleans' estimated 310,000 to 340,000 residents who ignore orders to leave accept "all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones," the city's emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed, has warned.

-snip-

This time, the city has taken steps to ensure no one has an excuse not to leave. The state has a $7 million contract to provide 700 buses to evacuate the elderly, the sick and anyone around the region without transportation.

-snip-

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GUSTAV_EVACUATION?SITE=AP

[gateley]

1. Where are all these busses going to evacuate them TO? nt

[tammywammy]

4. Shelters in Northern Louisiana

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080830/ap_on_re_us/gustav_gulf_coast

As part of the evacuation plan New Orleans developed after Hurricane Katrina, residents who had no other way to get out of the city waited on a line that snaked for more than a mile through the parking lot of the city's Union Passenger Terminal. From there, they were to board motor coaches bound for shelters in north Louisiana.

[EFerrari]

7. FEMA briefing also said Memphis and TX. n/t

[glowing]

2. yeah, they don't want the reporters in town to record the floating bodies left behind.

[DJ13]

3. No gas to leave, no shelter to stay in

Aint that a predicament.

[MercutioATC]

9. See, that's why they're running buses....

...so the people with no money for gas and no place to stay can get out of the big below-sea-level BOWL they live in.

[readmoreoften]

11. The many Mexican immigrants who came north to rebuild New Orleans can't board.

ICE agents are standing by and they will be arrested, separated from their families, and put into detention facilities. Or at least that's what they expect to happen, since that is what happens in Texas where even little children are put in the Hutto prison facility, separated from their parents, and only let outside for an hour of daylight.

The idea of being separated from family and friends and imprisoned might be more frightening than the 10% chance that the storm will stay at Cat. 3 or above and they'll be unfortunate enough to die.

[MercutioATC]

12. Mexican immigrants are free to board...those in this country ILLEGALLY may not be.

...and I don't really think ICE will be checking IDs anyway...

[readmoreoften]

20. Well you really showed your hand.

I simply laid out the reality of the Mexican immigrants in New Orleans--yes, 'undocumented workers', 'illegals', 'NAFTA-starved refugees', 'worthless brown subhumans' or whatever you want to call them--and noted that they will not be boarding the buses. The AP has interviewed and quoted them, and they expect ICE will be there. I'll trust them to know their own situation better than you.

But hey, if little ILLEGAL brown bodies holding stuffed animals are floating face down in the water, no crocodile tears okay?

Note: people's undocumented, unregistered dogs are allowed the buses free of charge.

[MercutioATC]

21. They've designed a way of getting people out of harm's way and you're complaining

that illegal immigrants don't feel comfortable availing themselves of it?

Gee, if they weren't here, illegally, in the first place...


How would YOU propose they deal with it?

[readmoreoften]

23. How about announcing to the communities that they will not be incarcerated or separated from their

kids? How about working with the various pro-immigrant organizations to find them safe shelter? Just basic human courtesy.

I'm sure there'll be a lot of people who skipped out on parking tickets and failed to pay child support. Criminals the whole lot of them. Those people won't be afraid to board because they'll be pretty certain that no one will be there to arrest them. And even if there were, they could use their brother who moved to Oklahoma's name and say they lost their ID. Mestizo families who don't fluently speak English will not be able to pass.

Another thing that could be done is to recognize that not all people can leave and to keep a damn shelter open for them.

[kestrel91316]

5. What happens to those who can't gas their cars up and run out before

they can get to safety or leave? Just curious.

I would recommend they gently break into businesses on Decatur St. and hole up there. It won't flood and they had little damage from Katrina - I know, i asked a business owner when I was there in July.

[Muttocracy]

6. I sure hope that's enough buses and they actually get people TO the buses. nt

[freespirit5]

8. Another Bush disaster is in the making

Think he can get it right this time?

I don't.

[stillcool]

10. His getting it right is the problem...

I'm sure he'll do everything he can to save the oil rigs.

[dkofos]

13. Let's hope they remember three years ago. If they think FEMA has improved since Brownie

left they are in for a rude awakening.
If they are able to awaken this time.

[Barack_America]

14. Apparently many of the illegal immigrants who moved to rebuild NO after Katrina...

...are refusing to get on the buses, fearful of their undocumented status.

So they're staying in a city that will have no shelter for them.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

17. Yes, that's sad....

....but why would they check their documentation for evacuation? That is just shitty. If illegal immigration bugs them more than loss of human life, they need to put themselves out of our misery.
Duckie

[Barack_America]

18. People evacuating via city/state services are having to "register"...

Exactly why they're insisting on this, I don't know.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

19. Probably to make sure that any sex offenders and violent criminals...

...don't end up sleeping next to families.
Duckie

[Suich]

24. I think you need to register if you want a ride

back to where you were picked up.

[readmoreoften]

22. If having the government separates you from your kids and losing your source of income

bothers you more than facing the less than 50% chance a hurricane will hit then "they" need to put themselves out of "our" misery? Really? It'll make me miserable to see Mexican people floating face down in water, not to see them survive a hurricane.

(And you do know that it's in large part NAFTA that has put these people in "our" misery in the first place. That's why there is unprecedented immigration now as opposed to before the 1990s.)

[Selatius]

25. There's always been illegal immigration into the US since before NAFTA

Every time you have an employer unscrupulous enough to hire undocumented immigrants to cut down on labor costs, you basically have illegal immigration follow soon thereafter. In 1954, Eisenhower went as far as launching a massive dragnet operation in the Southwest to round up and deport undocumented immigrants. About 130,000 were deported, and the INS claims another million left ahead of the dragnet to avoid arrest.

The problem is exploitation. NAFTA is just a symptom.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

26. I was talking about the people not letting them evacuate...

...not the Mexicans.
Duckie

[annabanana]

15. (psst. . . where's blackwater?). . . . . . .n/t

[YellowRubberDuckie]

16. If you stay during a hurricane when there is free transportation and shelter...

...you deserve what you get, especially after having gone through this once before.
Duckie