My relatives in La Porte are confused about why they are blacked out.

[readmoreoften]

Members of my partner's family--former soft-right-leaning white gun-toting Texan apoliticals with a son who graduated from Annapolis who are now Obama supporters--called her today very confused. They are desperately trying to get food for people standing in foodlines in the towns along the bay. People are hungry and those whose houses are less damaged are caring for the sick and the hungry. Where's the press? Why isn't anyone helping? She's confused.

I'm not. I'm not confused at all. I am sad though.

[HillbillyBob]

1. Short answer (not to be snarky)

REPUBLICAN RULE. Remember all those folks left out in the weather after Katrina?
That was not a fluke. I have even heard that FEMA will not even send
ice to the survivors.

[readmoreoften]

2. No, they're not responsible for that anymore.

According to the forums at KHOU, they're commandeering private property left in areas of Bolivar Island and using it for their own purposes because they can just claim it was destroyed by the storm and they are looting as well. (By they and their I mean FEMA) Of course there are some fantastic people there, I'm sure, lovely individuals. But as a whole, as a force under executive control it's a different story. A man in Chambers county reported that rescuers are coming into town immediately asking 'where the restaurant with the free food is' to people surviving off MREs.

Madness.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. What is it that they say about Republicans?

Republicans are people who think that government is ineffective, then get in office and prove it?

[elehhhhna]

3. No sign of FEMA or the Red Cross, either, although

the RC IS running ads asking for disaster relief donations.

Salvation Army's delivering hot meals, though.

[chill_wind]

4. I just a read a more detailed account

of the man who was a survivor (but his female friend was swept away (TV interview). He said the search teams were ransacking all the surviving structures (storage sheds etc) for any equipment at all that they could seize and use. He was trying to repair a truck in the aftermath to get it running and they said they could also seize that for their use under their understanding of Bush's orders. He convinced them it couldn't be repaired (he eventually did get it running.)

[MadrasT]

6. I'd love to read that, if you can find it & send a link...

:hi:

[chill_wind]

7. Here it is (AP story):

Man stricken with loss when rescue never came
By ALLEN G. BREED AP National Writer © 2008 The Associated Press

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6004065.html


This was one of the passages about the search teams....

During the next two days, he and others found refuge in wrecked homes, a school and even a Baptist church. They subsisted on whatever they found lying around: boiled shrimp from a freezer, uncooked hot dogs, leftover pizza and cashews.

Anderson lost two vehicles in the storm, but he thought he could get an old pickup running.

"We had to take the starter off and get all the seashells and sand and everything out of it, and basically rebuild it the best we could," he said. Fortunately, one holdout had a battery charger and another had a generator to power it.

As he worked on the truck, he said he watched as search teams broke into storage sheds and "hot-wired" whatever equipment they could find. He said a man came up to him and threatened to commandeer the truck.

"They said they had the authority from President Bush to do what they want to do, to take anything they needed to get the job done," he said. "I didn't think it was supposed to be like this."

[avaistheone1]

8. This does not sound like an organized properly equipped rescue or relief effort to say the least.

[readmoreoften]

9. It's not supposed to be. It's a combination between a takeover and an exercise.

I have not heard one kind word from anyone helping with food or any evacuees in regards to this rescue team.

[dgibby]

10. I love the smell of Blackwater in the morning. nt

[chill_wind]

11. I was just thinking about them (and NOLA) today...

and was wondering when the first confirmed reports of them may again surface...

[MadrasT]

12. Thanks!

Wow. The comments readers left on that article are mind-numbing...

HoustonTexican wrote:
His excuse is that he waited until it was too late? Nonsense! They were told when to get out- it was well known that the surge was beginning- didn't want to leave stuff behind? It's just STUFF. And there are funds to assist self employed in recovering their losses. This guy is just an idiot. Trying to blame the "gubmit" for his stupidity..
Jerk!
9/16/2008 7:27:50 AM

GunnerM134 wrote:
Sorry Bub... No sympathy here, you had fair warning TO GET OUT!!!!
What part of mandatory evacuation did you not understand? Too mant sylables....
9/16/2008 8:20:10 AM


HoustonTexican wrote:
I'm sorry about this woman being swept away- that is tragic.
But- Anderson, you frigging twit, what were you doing there in the first place? You were told to evacuate, you chose to stay (as she did.) Warnings were quite blunt- Ike is a killer- if you try to ride it out, you'll probably die. That's what everyone was told.
Quit your whining. Your got out alive, you're OK. But you should never have been there in the first place.
Chronicle? Why did you even print this cry baby's whiny rant?
9/16/2008 7:23:56 AM

EatMoreHummus wrote:
"this was an out-of-the-ordinary storm." No, it was just a strong category 2 hurricane, and you're on a BARRIER island.
9/18/2008 8:14:55 AM

I'm speechless. Could they *be* any more callous?

[annabanana]

13. next time around they will be the crappy crud under the edge of

a toilet bowl in the bathroom of the "last gas for 100 miles" gas station...

[chill_wind]

14. Nope, and they have made it a full-time occupation.

These-- "our fellow Americans"- are infesting every comment section of every news article on the internet that allows that feature.
Like filthy flies.

[tnlefty]

15. K & R

I'm not confused either, just very, very, very sad. :hug:

Oh, I'm angry, too.

[chill_wind]

16. More news: It looks like the media (WABC) finally got onto Bolivar Peninsula

video:

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=weather&id=6398156

story:

By N.J. Burkett

BOLIVAR PENINSULA, TEXAS (WABC) -- How could anyone have survived?

That was the question rescuers asked themselves when they returned to the Bolivar Peninsula. As we rolled through the silent streets under a brilliant blue Texas sky, I was asking myself the same question. Galveston was wrecked, I thought, but Bolivar was wiped-out.

We'd heard the stories--that hundreds of residents ignored the evacuation orders, tried to leave at the last minute, but were forced to revert to Plan A as the storm cut-off their escape. Twelve hundred people lived here, but at least one-third of the population chose to ride out the hurricane. Authorities are desperately trying to account for everyone, but they can't. Search and rescue teams made plans to scan the shoreline with thermal imaging devices and walk twenty-seven miles of beaches. What was once a thriving Gulf Coast tourist destination had become a destination for cadaver dogs.

GO TO BOLIVAR. GET THERE ANY WAY YOU CAN. That was the email message from WABC-TV Assignment Manager, Kim Dillon, in New York. It was 8:30AM and I saw this one coming. "I'm already on my way," I wrote back. And I was--hurtling down I-45 towards Galveston in the rented Chevy Trailblazer with our photographer on this trip, John Carrozelli.

(...)

Fisherman Pat Murphy was unable to escape the hurricane, but managed to survive. I found him aboard his damaged trawler, Proud Mary. "Well, some people got lucky," I said. "And a lot of people didn't," he replied, sadly. He told me how a friend, who had weathered the storm with him, watched his own wife get swept away.

"I don't know how many others died," he said. "But it's more than they're letting-on."

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=weather&id=6398156

Wayne Dolcefino finally got access as well:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=weather/hurricane&id=6393943




"Missing and Presumed Dead"

http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/19/missing-and-presumed-dead/