A friend of my mom just returned from helpin in New Orleans

[rpannier]

Bob Windt left Sunday for New Orleans with an 18-foot hovercraft and two other men, to help in the massive rescue effort after Hurricane Katrina. Their hovercraft can carry 1,000 pounds.

These are some of his observations...
1. Stench, guns and confusion
2. The stink of fetid water, feces and dead bodies was heavy in
the air
3. The water there is just absolutely terrible It smells like a
combination of rotting corpses and sewage.
4. We had two police officers on board with their weapons
5. They felt a sense of disorganization among military units.
6. It took quite awhile before we got assigned to anything.
It seems like there are people down there who aren't
communicating very well.
7. On Tuesday they were waiting for a military convoy to pass when
they saw a family of three pushing a shopping cart loaded with
their possessions.
8. He was amazed by all the water. The hovercraft went over areas
where cars were visible in the murk. It didn't look like streets
when I was going over them.

[Lindsay]

1. Thank you for posting this.

It's important for us to hear of the realities on the ground.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. thanks for this report

I think it is important to compile as many of these on the scene reports as possible. This tells me that FEMA is still not in charge of anything.

[mzteris]

3. my mercenary acquaintance

just got back from taking his "men" down there. Ok - they're a "Private Security Firm" but they have DoD clearance as paramilitary or some such.........

He said it was awful - worse than we see on tv.

He said FEMA didn't have a CLUE. That it was complete a total chaos. That the "police/security" THEY had were walking off the job.

Oh yeah, it was 7 people killed on the bridge. They had been firing at contractors.

Evidently there ARE people just "walking around with guns" - half dressed, no shoes, and just "out of it". They don't seem to be the really dangerous ones, it's the "snipers" on the roofs just taking shots at whoever they can see - thank goodness they all seem to be pretty bad shots.