SO UPSET with myself Passport in New Orleans

[Cajun Cruiser]

I am not here to defend public officials but I would like to say that I am from Louisiana and it is easy to sit back afterwards and say that this should have been done and that should have been done but I was on the state emergency committee for awhile and I can say that you can NEVER plan, be fully prepared and expect things to run like clock work for a disaster of this magnitude. They planned for this same event for over 40 years but planning and living it is two different things. It is impossible to evacuate over a million people is less than 72 hours. Lets face it, the almighty dollar rules. The airline industry canceled all flights out of New Orleans on Sat. evening (Katrina hit on Monday) to save their aircraft while leaving alot of people stranded. Many people I have talked to in the shelter that I am working in choose to stay. I had family members who choose to stay (bad choice). Many people who stayed did so to take care of people who were physically unable to leave because they were in critical condition and some of these people who lost there lives in doing so. "If these people had officials that cared" is an unfair statement. It should be if all of use had officials that cared, because I can assure you that the federal goverment did not send every possible resource to aid in the evacuation. And even if they would have, there was not enough time and we would still be faced with the same thing that we are faced with today.

I am also guilty of sitting here saying they should have done this or that. Enough said, you will not hear my two cents anymore. I pray for everyone in this country because we have all been affected by this and I pray that no one ever has to see if their state officials have a better plan.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If these people had officials that cared, they would have gotten them out of the way of a hurricane, a few days before by any means necessary, but they didn't. I am not responsible for that.


If my tone upset people, don't read it. If you aren't going to read the whole thing, don't say anything until you read the whole thing. I was joking at the end. Yes, it was upsetting, but it was a vent.[/QUOTE]

 

[MariettaC]

mylilnikita, from someone who has a relative that lives in New Orleans, don't worry about some peoples responses. Tragedies happen everyday to someone and sometimes our problems may pale to those tragedies but it doesn't mean we are uncaring or less feeling if we talk about our own problems. This is supposed to be a forum to discuss things not to belitte and name call. I hope everything works out for you.

Same here - hope everything works out for you.

 

[RichNKatHolly]

Hey! I think we are on your cruise. I am going to order DDs passport next week. You will have to find out what to do about not getting her original birth certificate back though.

I re-read the OP a few times and I don't see any whining, just a stating of facts.

We are getting a passport next week and I had no idea that they went through New Orleans. Now I know I have to ask the post office whether I will have everything in time. Otherwise, I too will have to get another birth certificate before our cruise.

Thanks for posting the helpful info and sorry you have taken a little flack for it.

See you on the Wonder!!

 

[logan1_2000]

Yeah, like many, I read the title of this thread, and had a reaction. So I read. Okay, OP has admitted several aspects of her post, given the context, and some have agreed, some have not. I'm just curious and involved enough (or avoiding more pressing projects) to jump in.

OP, you could use a DCL cruise for sure. And you are a mass (I said "mass", not "mess", so please keep the flamethrowers set on "lightly toast") of emotions and frayed nerves and concerns. And you have given the background why that is so.

I'll bet many of us have "stuff" in our lives--all the more reason to appreciate the peace and happiness delivered by Disney Cruises or Disney on land. I' typed in, then deleted our own tree through the house disasters, the third in 29 months just this week, and leaving out my mother survivng at sloan kettering but my mother in law gone in the same 6-7 mos. as OP mentioned. I'm just chiming in to say any of us able to post on this board are better off than those on TV, don't get too self absorbed or too critical of others, and I'll toss this in about the passport agency in NOLA, located in the office building section of the canal place complex (the one with the Wyndham and the movie theater--yes, I've been there, and i'd been to the previous location 15 years ago when the agency was on Loyola street, up near the dome and the train station)--see, I lived in NOLA, went to law school there, am president of the alumni club from that school,so the footage is personal to me, but I digress...

the passport agency just might have been the most efficient public sector office in New Orleans. You could walk in, submit your application w/ head shot and check, on a wednesday and on friday your passport would be in your mailbox. or at least if you lived in town. took a few days more in transit from ATL if you used regular mail, but still fast. and yep, its just as off-line now as the university's computers, which have made communications this week a challenge.

Let's all take a deep breath, appreciate what we have, share what we have via some relief donations, and look forward to a DCL cruise.

 

[mylilnikita]

Cajun Cruiser: I stand corrected it wasn't just the officials, it was the government as well. If we can move thousands of troops to go save other countries from their disasters, we can find a way to move our citizens out of harms way, look at 9/11 and the people who walked out of the city. I agree about the it is about the almighty dollar and now they have to shell out more because they didn't get these people out. Unfortunately, lives had to be lost as a cost of it. There needs to be a uniform hurricane plan for all states, not just leave it to the individual state and I hope and pray that something good will come out of this tragedy and the government and city officials will get their act together before the next one hits.


P.S just so I don't get people upset, I didn't mean for the people of New Orleans could have just walked out, just that there are resources that could have been used, i.e. cargo planes, etc. and it would have been possible to evacuate in just a few days,because people in NYC on 9/11 who had no cars, used the ferries and walked to evacuate the city.

 

[Cindi0511]

Cajun Cruiser: I stand corrected it wasn't just the officials, it was the government as well. If we can move thousands of troops to go save other countries from their disasters, we can find a way to move our citizens out of harms way, look at 9/11 and the people who walked out of the city. I agree about the it is about the almighty dollar and now they have to shell out more because they didn't get these people out. Unfortunately, lives had to be lost as a cost of it. There needs to be a uniform hurricane plan for all states, not just leave it to the individual state and I hope and pray that something good will come out of this tragedy and the government and city officials will get their act together before the next one hits.

You know, I'm not sure we can blame the officials of local, state or national government, either. I do wish they would just buckle down and work together and quit wasting time throwing blame all over. What's done is done. Hindsight is always 20/20 or better.

But what amazes me is how little seems to have been learned from previous hurricanes, including the major ones from LAST YEAR. But there were MANDATORY evacuations listed, and there were a BUNCH of people who could have left and didn't, for a multitude of reasons, some of which have been listed here. The government cannot FORCE us to leave, and we cannot totally blame them for the consequences of singular responses.

OP, have fun planning your trip and have a ball on it. Go, and forget, for the short time you are on your cruise, EVERYTHING bad that has happened, both to you and to others. That's what vacations are for.

 

[Cindi0511]

There is a good article on MSNBC by a Rabbi Gellman from which the following exerpt is taken. I would encourage all to read it; he seems very grounded amidst his personal feelings of grief.

"In Katrina’s aftermath these triage decisions are being made every hour of every day, and they will continue to be made until the satisfied needs intersect with the increasing resources. In the early hours, much was made about the warehousing of thousands of people in the convention center and the Superdome. As awful as those conditions were and are, and as deeply tearful was their plight, this was precisely the right triage decision. The people in those centers were miserable, but in the Superdome at least, there was water and shelter from the blazing sun. The people there would vomit and suffer but they would live. They needed help but they did not need help immediately. They were in the second triage group. The people in the third group had to be helped immediately. These were the people clinging to rooftops in the broiling sun with no water and no shelter or wandering trancelike through the deadly toxic swamp of the engorged streets. They would die within hours if all the limited resources were not sent to rescue them. That was done. It seemed cruel to those suffering on the ground, and to those of us watching triage work on TV, but it was a moral choice to save the suffering and dying before tending to the suffering but not yet dead."

 

[Regina]

Since this is going in another direction, it's being closed.

If you wish to discuss the hurricane, there's a new board devoted to this topic.

Thank you.