"My guess is that it will start at 10,000, but that is only a guess," Vitter said, adding that he was not basing his remarks on any official death toll or body count.
Friend of mine in Louisiana reports that temporary morgue has been set-up in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. Trucks seen and heard arriving with the deceased. CNN reporting U.S government is sending four mobile morgues to the area.
I cannot overemphasis the scope of this tragedy. Please pray and if you have the means, donate money.
Sarah Johnson yells for help outside the Convention Center for the woman she provides in-house care for.--Melissa Phillip/Associated Press
9 comments:
I can't bear those faces! Or those high figures. Its heartbreaking.
A, I wish more had the sensitivity and care that resides in your heart. For many, this is just another news story. Sad, but not something to get in the way of planning for dinner. I have been stunned on two fronts this week. Front #1 is Katrina and the damage--this I can handle. #2 is the lack of reaction to this event--and this is more troubling than the event itself.
I'm not sure I will ever quite be the same and I've yet to figure out if that is a good thing or not.
Trée, this is what we were talking about last week. Some things, although they do not happen to us directly, cut us deep. There are a million stories and more (from this tragedy and so many others) that I truly just cannot bear to think about. I see glimpses of people on the television and their sorrow/fear/etc kind of shoots right to the core, but seldom is a follow-up given of what happened to them thereafter and one is left wondering. Just as I may think of my grandparents one minute and my grocery list the next, so I will think of those people whose stories have become unforgettable and drive myself half-crazy thinking about what happened to them when the cameras stopped rolling.
Crazy or not, I wouldn't want to be any other way.
Hope you are ok!
Autumn xxx
A, I will be fine. I'm just going crazy watching needless suffering so close to me. I could be in New Orleans in 8 hours by car with as much food and water as I could carry. The thought that 5 days later we still have American citizens in a major American city dying for lack of food, water, medicine and general care is just beyond my comprehension.
I've come close to heading down there several times and if I thought my efforts would do more good than harm I would have done so several days ago. I still feel a certain sense of guilt for not ignoring the authorities and just doing everything I could to bring aid to my fellow citizens.
I understand that not everyone can mourn every disaster, otherwise we would all cease to function. I also know many, many stories of great courage, love and compassion by others doing what they can to save lives. And even at this moment we are in a desparate fight to still save lives, which seems to be a lost point on many, esp those that have the most power to do something about it--I'm speaking about my government.
I love my country but this is not one of our shinning moments. Many have died, some nothing could have been done about it, but the others, the ones who were begging for help with signs and calls and flashlights in the night, trapped in their attics, these lives, some which have been lost and others which we will still lose in the days to come haunts me.
Somehow these are the worst of all - when people are waiting for help, they "know" help is available and they wait for it. At what point do they give up, if they do, and what goes through their minds as they realize (sooner or later), it just isn't coming. Imagine losing faith in this world moments before leaving it.
I guess, tragedy of this magnitude brings out either the best or the worst in people.
________
I'm off to bed! Take care, x(Driving over to Holte near Copenhagen tomorrow, where I will be staying for the remainder.)
Just re-read that comment - definitely time for bed! Bit muddled, but I think, you will get the gist of it anyway.
Nighty night.
Thanks A. Drive safe and take care.
3:14 P.M. - St. Bernard Parish officials say that FEMA has not called them yet...five days after the storm.
3:07 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- U.S. Sen. David Vitter said FEMA's efforts to deal with the hurricane have been completely ineffective, and he called the federal government's response a failure.
"I think FEMA has been completely dysfunctional and is completely overwhelmed, and I don't know why. This situation was utterly predictable," said Vitter, R-Metairie. "It seems like there was no coherent plan, which I don't understand because this precise scenario has been predicted for 20 years," he said.
By the way, US Senator David Vitter is a Republican.
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