Disaster Beyond Belief

I just got off the phone with my brother in Baton Rouge. He was finally able to get through on his cell phone at midnight. Currently, he is staying at a co-worker's house because the power is still not on at his house.

The conditions are still chaotic in Baton Rouge. The population of the city has essentially more than doubled. Many traffic lights are out. The streets are congested with cars. The crime was rising until the police forced the refugees to congregate in centralized locations in the city. National Gaurd troops are definitely needed in Baton Rouge. I-10 east, towards Slidel is apparently destroyed and the Lake Pontchatrain causeway is closed so all refugees must come through Baton Rouge en route to other cities such as Houston, Jackson, or Memphis.

But Baton Rouge is pretty tame compared to New Orleans itself. These people are, in many respects, refugees because they will be unable to return to their homes for many months, if then. I saw a figure on TV today that said 12% of New Orleans residents were below the poverty level. Let's face it, most people that were left in the city were people who did not have the money or transportation to get out. The poor, sick, and elderly.

Also, these people are refugees because they are leaving a war-zone. The crime in New Orleans is unbelievable. The looting is out of control, and my brother said there were reports of boat-jackings, where the pilot is shot and their boat taken over. A girl from NO staying with my brother had her boyfriend make it out of the city today. Apparently, he was staying in a hotel downtown to ride out the hurricane, but now they are fearing for their lives because of crime. He was hassled on the street by the few police officers left for just walking on the street. This guy was able to get out by helping another random guy on the street fix his car that got flooded underwater. They had to sneak their way out into the street and were able to drive across the hwy 90 bridge south over the mississippi and then on to Baton Rouge.

My brother said that his friend's boyfriend was able to take a shower at his house. They threw away his shoes because they stank up the whole house and smelled of really bad sewage. And this was from just walking around the streets of New Orleans. I can't imagine how bad the conditions must be in the Superdome where there are no flushing toilets for 20,000+ people to use.

At any rate, a lot of these poorer refugees that have made it out of the city do not realize that they cannot go back for months. A semi-permanent housing situation must be established soon.

Tomorrow, my brother's friend and her boyfriend are going to drive to Rodchester NY and they vowed to never come back to New Orleans.

I think that many people will never go back, even if their schools, homes, and businesses could be rebuilt within a reasonable time frame. We cannot comprehend the vastness of this situation yet, but I would predict that years from now, New Orleans will definitely be just a shell of it's former self.


But for now, I pray for troops to come and for law and order to be established so the evacuation of the remaining refugees can continue.