They are not letting the Red Cross into New Orleans.
"Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city."
I highly doubt at this point that people are remaining in New Orleans by choice. The idea that they have to remain there without food or drinkable water while the slow, slow evacuation takes place is disgusting. Especially since the evacuation from the Superdome has stopped for a few days.
This whole situation disgusts me. The callow indifference to human suffering and death if those human happen to be poor. Also from the Yahoo artice above:
"At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses pulled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the Superdome since last Sunday."How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?" exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.
The 700 had been trapped in the hotel, near the Superdome, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome. The Hyatt was severely damaged by the storm. Every pane of glass on the riverside wall was blown out.
Mayor Ray Nagin has used the hotel as a base since it sits across the street from city hall, and there were reports the hotel was cleared with priority to make room for police, firefighters and other officials."
The Bush administration has been downright criminal in their disregard, as have the adminstrations apologists at Faux News. They laugh and joke about it and blame the victims for "choosing to stay". Let's hope that people remember this come November 2006.
