Sarge? What the Hell is happening in Texas?

[Indiana]

I am reading some "SERIOUS" reports of conditions in east Texas...Galvaston "uninhabitable"
FEMA "useless"...Anyone have info of the "on the ground situation."..Indy

[HeySal]

Hearing them here, too, Indy -- don't think anyone with first hand knowledge is in a position to respond yet. Only 37 deaths so far anyway and that is GREAT news. But all the other reports are extremely disheartening. Red Cross - out of supplies. Fema, holding people prisoner and not feeding them. Unprecedented destruction and martial law (some necessary to prevent looting).
That's what is being reported up here in the NE.

[Kay King]

Fema, holding people prisoner and not feeding them.

What absolute BS, Sal. Come on!

Look at this crock on YouTube

YouTube - FEMA Camp Footage (Concentrations Camps...

Do you see any people? Are you assuming that the fences, watchposts, sound systems, etc were constructed in the past few days? Do you see guards with guns? Do you see anything except a film of a possible old military installation located somewhere?

Several of these films are being spread from China - how strange.

The word I had from PERSONALLY TALKING TO SEVERAL people who just came from Texas was that supplies are low but are available and that help was on the ground as soon as the storm passed. They had nothing but praise for FEMA's response and for the other support and rescue agencies there.

Using this catastrophe to promote conspiracy theories and lies by those who have not been there and don't have a clue about what the people and the help agencies are facing absolutely disgusts me. Why are they trying to spread fear instead of volunteering to help so they can SEE for themselves what is going on????

Simple: the reality doesn't match their fear mongering and they know it.

When roads are under water and bridges destroyed and there are huge piles of debris everywhere, it's hard to get ice and other supplies into the worst hit areas. Withholding food? The groceries aren't open and more people ignored the warnings than expected.

There are rescue workers from FEMA, from the National Guard as well as many volunteers living in hard conditions and risking themselves to help those in Texas who were too stubborn to evacuate - some of whom now want to be cared for. How low is it for people to use this to promote their own conspiracy agendas?

Yes, there are restrictions and some can't go home to some areas - because those areas are destroyed and many still under water. There are restrictions on movement in the worst hit areas and curfews, too - because it's necessary. That's the reality in a disaster.

kay

Just a thought: What would those idiots be saying if FEMA, the Guard and the volunteers just went home and let Texans fend for themselves? Is that what they want? Or do they want to just complain and theorize - and never have to do any of the real work themselves?

[myob]

Kay,

Don't tell us the truth. We can't handle the truth. We want lies, conspiracy theories, government crackdowns, murdering fascist criminals in high places, economic collapse, population destruction, martial law, civilian beatings by SWAT, starvation of the masses, and war with Russia ultimately ending in global conflagaration.

Just please don't spoil all the fun with truth. Truth is so .... boring.

[ThomM]

On the news this morning the only real complaints where that they didn't have enough distribution centers set up causing people to wait in line longer then they wanted to.
After Katrina if FEMA and the Govt. was really blowin it we would sure as hell know about it. They're both being watched real close on these hurricanes now.
I remember seeing footage showing Sean Penn bringing his boat to New Orleans to rescue people and others taking things into their own hands to help because FEMA and the feds. blew it.
I'm not seeing that in Texas.

[Kay King]

Don't tell us the truth. We can't handle the truth.

I'm sorry, Paul - I forgot. Won't happen again (for a while).

[HeySal]

Kay - just reporting what I heard. I am not going to dispute what you are saying if you got your info from people who were there. That is what I HAVEN'T gotten - info from people who were there.

What I heard (again, this is what I HEARD and can't verify) is that, as Thom said, people are standing in lines -one report said that they are not allowed to go outside for, I believe one report said 18 hours at a time - what's that all about? I didn't see if that was a witness or what or who reported that so can't verify -- another report said FEMA was being useless. I saw pics, those don't lie, but they were pics of destroyed areas, not people. So I can be pretty sure that at least some places were destroyed. And I heard that there was martial law, curfews, etc - and I was not surprised at that because otherwise there would be looters all over stealing anything that wasn't destroyed. There was no mention of how extreme the martial law is, that is all I heard.
And I am pretty sure that the report that the Red Cross has run out of supplies is true because they've been a pretty busy organization in the last year. Donations are probably more than welcome at this time.

I saw a person interviewed that had fled Galveston to go to Austin and she was pretty freaked out getting hit even after evacuating to the mainland. I felt very sorry for her.

So -- all in all, what I was giving is a report on what I have seen and heard from here -- didn't mean to make judgement on what was fact or fiction and wouldn't want to until things calm down. We won't know the full scale of the events, good or bad, for a bit of time yet, I don't think. So my question is the same as Indy's - what is going on down there?

As far as people refusing to evacuate - I fully agree with you, and the cop or whatever he was on TV saying that if you want our help you will follow OUR rules. If they were told to evac and didn't listen, I fully agree with that. So whoever is putting up "conspiracies" might be whoever refused to listen to evac warnings in the first place and doesn't like what the rules turned out to be - whatever those may be.

[Kay King]

The only martial law I heard of was to avoid looting (tons of that in N.O. after Katrina) and the standard "at dark" curfews often imposed in disaster areas. One of the best comments I heard came out of LA before Gustav - telling the public that anyone caught looting would be taken directly to the general population of the State Penitentiary and remain there until courts were operating after the storm...."do not pass go"...

There are also complaints now about "they are keeping us from returning to our homes". Yes, they are. In Galveston, homes are gone. Workers are searching for survivors and victims - and the area is full of debris and dangerous. There are no stores, the water may be polluted - sometimes you really can't go home again, at least for a while.

The problem seems to be that some people think once a hurricane has passed, everything should be back to normal without delay. Though Ike was a category 2, the sheer size of the storm caused damage far above what would be expected for the category.

From a Salvation Army article (the group was serving 1500 free meals a day near Galveston)...

“What stores are open have huge lines and are only taking cash,” says area resident Manuel Ferez, while waiting for his serving of chicken and dumplings from a Salvation Army canteen. “How can you get cash when the banks are closed and the ATMs don’t work? And there’s a gas shortage. We can’t drive around all day looking for places that are open.”

Poor me, whine, whine, whine. For a week before that storm hit, every newspaper and news media in the area listed "what to do to prepare" again and again.

First three things on the list (after the main one - which was "HEED mandatory evacuations for your area")

1. Have cash on hand - credit cards and bank cards won't work when there is no power

2. Top off your gas tank and keep it filled as gas may be in short supply

3. Have a stock of food and necessities that will last for at least 3-5 days and refill any necessary prescriptions to ensure a 2 week supply

And yet, there are still those with "but I can't use my bank card, the banks are closed". Well, duh - that's what happens in a disaster area.

There were also complaints from people standing in long lines waiting to be served free meals by volunteers who were working as hard and fast as they could. And others waiting in line for ice trucks to get through the mess.

That's part of living through a disaster - and there are always a few spoiled, rotten brats in the group who just hate to be inconvenienced. They are a small percentage - but complain loudly.

(sorry, there I go truth telling again)

My son came into town tonight from Southern Ohio - they had remnants of Ike go through there a day or two ago. Power is out in thousands of homes (including his own) and they had straight wind gusts of up to 75 mph reported there. Ike was a beast.

kay

[HeySal]

(sorry, there I go truth telling again)

LOL - yeah, Kay...what's up with that?

I am listening to what you say because you've been through this before, and I distinctly remember a report I did which listed having CASH was one of the most important disaster preparedness items. I'm sure that the authorities would have included that warning.

I don't completely doubt that there are "authorities" not conducting themselves properly, however. They got pretty carried away in the Mid-west during those floods last year - and during Katrina. There will be reports of those cases, just never know how extensive. Katrina it was beatings and disarmings - Mid west cops were caught looting homes that owners weren't being allowed back to. There's always some corrupt idiots out there to make everyone look like scum.

I am just marveling at how much damage there was and how few lives were lost. Something was going correctly or there would have been a much higher death toll. Whether it was government and agency planning or just people becoming more aware of the actual need to prepare or what -- something went very right during this storm.

[bendiggs]

I have an office and several friends and co-workers in the Houston area and they are all fine for the most part. a few folks have had significant property damage, but there is no sign of shortages or a lack of response from what they have told me.

[gareth]

Sarge is out loot'n, rap'n and baby napp'n

Leave the guy alone.

[HeySal]

Well that is one way to get volunteers who are able to work all night.

[HeySal]

Thanks Allen - that's the most comprehensive word I have seen yet.

[Kay King]

"I didn't think this would really happen, you know," she said, inhaling deeply. "I thought it was just going to be like Rita, just a little bit of damage, everything will go back to normal. I never thought I would come back and it would look like this."

That's a good quote - no one ever expects everything to be gone! It's one reason that disarming the public after such a disaster makes sense.

Many people do not act rationally when faced with the loss of everything they owned. Depression, anger, fear - are common, not rare. I'll never forgot a scene I witnessed at a local Red Cross tent where people were to sign up for assistance. A local man I knew slightly went absolutely ballistic when told he needed to go to the main staging area a couple miles away to pick up free supplies. I knew him as a quiet, soft spoken man with a quick smile - he was a different person and totally out of control emotionally. You don't want those people carrying guns.

As for "protecting property" - there's nothing left to protect for many of them yet they will "defend" their pile of rubble to the end. For some who have never faced serious hardship, the mind and reality don't meet for a while.

After Katrina, there was quite a bit of looting, lawlessness, and violence on both sides in New Orleans. It's not the safest city without a big flood. In any city with a high homeless rate, and a large percentage of people below the poverty line, disasters may be seen as opportunity. Sad comment on human nature but I expect it's always been that way.

Allen - great post - lots of good info there.

kay

[Kay King]

If normal, law-abiding citizens discover you have a stockpile of food and water and you are not able to defend it, you may find yourself being attacked by 'just the nicest guy I ever knew'...

That's selfish, scarcity thinking. What I saw was that those with stockpiles freely shared what they had. When you are in the midst of a major catastrophe, defending "stuff" is stupid. A group working together will be stronger than individuals looking out only for themselves and most people figure that out quickly when they need to.

If you want to justify an opinion, you can always come up with an "imagine" scenario. "What if there a hurricane and 2 days later there is a war". Well, you're probably screwed.

kay

[Patrician]

It sounds like this time the relief efforts are way better than for Katrina. It sounds like authorities Fed, State and Local are doing the best they can.

In Katrina all levels of government were derelict in their duties - and it seems like all levels learned from that horrible nightmare.

As for guns, one of my best friends, who had a harrowing experience in Katrina, was one who stood up for 6 days in one of the lines without almost any food or water. (forget if it was the football stadium but I think it was another one)

One of the most traumatizing parts of the nightmare for her, was about marauding bands of demons who were raping little children during the night (she could hear them screaming).

What fun to not have to cower in fear for your own life and to be able to get up and blow their fricking heads off.

Finally they put them on airplanes and no one would tell them where they were being taken or anything. They took them to Arkansas to an airforce base.

What followed for many was homeless shelters. She was so blessed and was rescued straight off the airplane by some sweet little old rich white ladies and treated like an African queen, totally put together with everything over the next few months.

Being she was older, FEMA paid her rent for a year in a pretty decent apartment. The ladies held programs at their church and got her furniture, clothes, and even a car.

She died the following year, and those ladies were still at her side every day (she was in the hospital off and on for probably 6-8 weeks). They never missed a day. It was like they were angels.

Guns and Angels, RIP Jill.

[Iain Ainsworth]

I came across this video of some of the devastation.

My prayers are with all suffering.

News Video On Demand | KHOU.com | News for Houston, Texas

[CWreports]

Here's some up to date info on Bolivar & Galveston Island for those that are interested..

LINK


Carol

[ThomM]

Originally Posted by CWreports

Here's some up to date info on Bolivar & Galveston Island for those that are interested..

LINK


Carol

That's pretty much what I saw on the news, Carol.
Only difference was they where showing before and after images.
That really made it sink in when you see those pic's like the ones on that page (your link) and then see the same with hundreds of houses instead of a big vacant lot.