Approxmiately 50 minutes ago, President Bush announced this morning that a great deal of help for the victims of Hurricane Katrina will be forthcoming and sought to reassure the victims that the Federal Government has plans to release a massive relief effort in short order.
Bush noted that there are still literally thousands more who need to be rescued and the search for the now-considered dead still continues and has become more officially a “recovery” issue than a rescue mission though as noted, there are still thousands that remain stranded on rooftops. Others walk through sewage ridden water with bodies afloat as they try to make their way to higher ground. These are those who have lost everything, many of whom have lost family members. And for those who have not, they are amazingly, grateful that this is “as bad as it was” because as one or more victims noted, “it could have been worse” had they lost family members. Note however that the number of dead and missing continues and will continue to rise.
According to the Washington Post, the government has kicked into “high gear” to meet the demand for basic necessities of food, water and shelter. One station noted last night that diseases such as cholera were not out of the question under the current circumstance.
Looting continues, as some victims further victimize others by taking from local area malls and shops things such as appliances, jewelry and television which boggles the mind as these things will be of little use in a place with no electricity or running water and hardly anywhere to store anything. The Zero Tolerance law that Bush has imposed and the Governor of New Orleans will be difficult to enforce when some footage has shown actual members of the police force not simply patrolling the aisles of a local area Wal-Mart, but also taking for themselves as well items such as shoes and the like. They may be few, but if law enforcement is breaking the law, then the situation becomes one of almost complete anarchy, which at this point, to anyone living in New Orleans the surrounding counties it surely must seem so already.
Sad to say but unsurprisingly, it is the poor who have suffered the most. These are the people in the lower lying areas and poorer parts of town who literally had no way of getting out. No car, no boat, no way of leaving their premises and so have either perished or had to climb up to the attic and take an ax to the roof to break through and sit, helplessly, waiting and relying on the kindness of any stranger or any rescue crew that still has room to take them.
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