I know this was diarized (
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/7/12250/73941) below in a great diary, but I felt that several points in this story are important. I encourage everyone of you to read through what the Vancouver USAR team did:
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/usar/
A Day by Day account of what happened from the time they arrived and found
""We are the first and only USAR team so far deployed in this area and are in operations mode now. We have set up a command centre in an elementary school in St. John Parish but are rescuing in St. Bernard."
Remember they came from a foreign nation and over 2500 miles away to help and they got there first. It makes me proud to be Canadian I don't know what it says about the Bush admin.
Perhaps more important in several ways is to realize why Federal authorities should be in control of this type of situation. Simply put when the hurricane hit local people had nothing left to fight it with.
"All their council people and fire and police chiefs are basically just trying to hold the fort down, so to speak, but there's not much of a fort left. Their fire department for instance was 10 fire stations and 125 members. The 10 fire stations were destroyed. They had to commandeer a couple of fire trucks from a local mobile refinery and that's all they've got to operate with and most of the roads are impassable. It's pretty much total devastation everywhere. Communications are tough. But the team itself is doing everything it can to support the locals, and our presence here is very much appreciated by everyone we run into. People have expressed how they can't believe that a Canadian team is here to rally to their needs."
Fuck you Tom Delay
Well just read the Diary and ask why a group that seems to have saved a total of 117 people and done wonders for organization are being asked to leave.....many of them are doctors and all are trained experts in Urban Search and Rescue, exactly what is needed.
We're in the process of demobilization. The team is returning to Vancouver. Today, we worked all day again in St. Bernard Parish. It was quite an emotional day for the team. When I had to let them know that we had to return to Vancouver, they were rescuing another 25 people today for a total of 117 people overall. Emotions started to take over a bit, and the people who've been helping us out here were quite emotional. But everybody's safe, and we're looking forward to coming home. I think everybody should be proud of the job that these people have done here. The team has given about 110 per cent the whole time they've been here. I know I'm proud of my team and I think everybody's looking forward to coming home and seeing their families. We'll look forward to seeing everyone again, and thanks again for your support.
Why are they being sent away?