Ripple Effect: Eyewitness, Baton Rouge

I'm sitting cozy up in the Great Plains watching and hurting.  Being this far away has helped me appreciate how the boulder was dropped on New Orleans, but the ripples are forming tsunami type waves soon to hit.  There will be no section of these United States that will NOT be touched.

Upon receiving this email, I had to start this awareness drumbeat.  I have purposely removed identifying marks from it. You'll have to just guess why I did that.

This is from a college kid.  22 years old.  He's with compatriots with the same training and skillset.

Now focus on the ripple - this is Baton Rouge.  Once filled up to overflowing with humanity, where will it go next?  

See the extended entry for the "censored" email, and to pre-empt the question.  This message was received in the past 24 hours.

...yes I am still alive.  
I have been doing rescue operations for the past few days and I am just getting a chance to check my personal email.  I have been working around the clock, getting a few hours of sleep when I can.

THIS IS PURE HELL.  The refugees are coming in by the thousands.  They have nothing but the clothes on their back.  We keep shoving people into shelters, making them sleep on concrete floors with no padding.  The blankets and few cots we have go only to the critically ill.  We are short on food, water, medicine, and fuel.  At most locations, we are not even dealing with the dead bodies anymore, just pushing them out the way to reach those still alive.

Riots have broken out at many locations, even here in Baton Rouge.  It is no longer safe to go to any store here in BR.  Most of BR is under lockdown.  Martial law is in effect for most areas.  People are desperate.

I sat and listened to a man tell me that he was trying to find a gun so that he could rob a bank as soon as possibile.  He felt that if law officials killed him, it would be worth it since he was trying to provide for his family mambers that were still alive.  

Hostages are being taken in some locations here in Baton Rouge.  Law no longer exists in New Orleans.

The news media is only getting half the story.  I have seen a lot over the past few days, and I can tell you what is really going on.  There is chaos at most shelters because we do not have the supplies we need.  

People are willing to kill over a blanket and a warm meal.   Our detachment has turned into a command center run by cadets. Think of [Field Training] times one thousand in terms of intensity.  Civilian volunteers are coming to us because they are tired of the Red Cross people in the field not knowing what to do.  

We at least have the skills to lead people, something the other agenices lack horribily.  I am making life or death decisions, I am soaking in sweat, my muscles hurt, and I have others' blood on me.  I am taking a break now before 50,000 more refugees get here.

I don't know how many more will come tomorrow.  I am not sure when school will start again.  I am not sure if I even care.  My house in XXXXX survived, but many of my friends no longer have a home.  Many no longer even have a hometown, it simply does not exist anymore.  LSU is filled with students' families.  I am not even sure who else is living in my on-campus apartment right now.

I will try to send out another email later.  Right now, saving people and keeping them alive is all I really care about.  I don't know what else to say.  This is a nightmare.

My God, where do we go from here?
Cross posted at: ePluribusMedia.com

•  We need to get these stories out there

  All these real stories must be collected and posted in one location.

  by iconoclastic cat on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 02:46:39 PM PDT

•  Thanks Kfred!

  This diary is definitely worth recommending!

  These are the other stories that are also important.

  by Cho on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 02:52:57 PM PDT

•  The eye witness

  reports have been so important with this disaster.  Thanks and recommended!

  by standingup on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 02:56:21 PM PDT

•  Firsthand accounts

  of unrest in Jackson, MS; Houston, TX; Lafayette, LA; Hourma, LA; popping up various places online as well.

  Keep an eye on the streaming media feeds and newspapers out of those markets, they are more likely to report trouble on the ground than the national media.

  Also watch grassroots sources as I believe there is an effort at a media blackout to squelch panic.

  OTOH it could all be rumor as rumor control is one of the challenges in a situation like this. I'm more likely to believe rumor when it is obvious that those in charge are lying out of their asses.

  by ces on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 02:57:26 PM PDT

•  This is just the beginning.

  Just wait until these gas shortages start driving up food prices. We'll be seeing riots everywhere. We gutted the railroad system and have become almost totally reliant on trucks for food distribution.

  This hurricane will have done more damage than any terrorist could have ever hoped to do.

  by Arken on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 02:57:37 PM PDT

  •  Where to send the corn and soybeans

    Or HOW?  Your point about the railroads is very valid.  Midwest farmers have depended on the  Mississippi to get their crops out.  We're just coming up on harvest of corn and soybeans, much less sugarbeets.

    So, how do they get there?  At what cost?

    You not only have transport problems, you have the price of gas impacting the farmers, you have the cost of fertilizers and equipment rising also.

    Where will the supply chain go?

    by kfred on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 03:23:43 PM PDT

•  I've been wondering about that

  for a few days now. I can't give much credence to an unverifiable post, but I'll admit I've wondered if, with all of the focus on NO and a few miles of coastline, that the inland areas have been overlooked. Maybe they didn't have a surge, and aren't floundering in standing water. Maybe they still have some access to the basic necessities...but these areas must have large numbers in the aggregate, and it sounds (hard to judge) like it will take quite awhile for total infrastructure to return, ie electricity, etc. So what happens in the meantime?

  Hearing that 2 million MREs or whatever are on their way to the Gulf states sounds good, until you ask yourself "but how many people are these for?" Are these meals for 100,000, or a million, or what? Because 2,000,000 sounds like a lot, until you do some basic math. Moreover, how are people with no income and little savings going to keep going from one week to another? How long can these people stay in hotels at $40 bucks a night?

  I have no idea about the answers to these questions, or even if they're valid questions...but we'll find out soon enough.

  by Zach in Phoenix on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 02:59:37 PM PDT

  •  Zach - Keep listening with the critical ear

    I appreciate the "unverified post".  I just cannot give up the details of the kid's identity nor my daughter's.  I'm hoping that you will take it as the truth though, as it is.

    Start thinking about the number of displaced people - not just from New Orleans, but Mississippi and Alabama.  Floridians were already maxed out.  Try this exercise.  take a map and plot a city 100 miles out from New Orleans and plunk 50,000 people at a shot there, and another 50,000 100 miles away from there and so on and so on.  The number I've heard is about 1M displaced people.

    That's quite a ripple effect, isn't it.  Think of the impact of 50K people on services, job market, schools, etc. etc.

    by kfred on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 03:12:28 PM PDT

•  Where we go next?

  Orange Armbands... in the streets.

  by ogre on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 03:09:30 PM PDT

•  Riots Redux

  A little while ago, a bunch of kids from the neighborhood came to my front door with a question. "Is this the worst you have ever seen it?" They were clearly scared by the images on TV and in the constant chatter of the adults, alternately complaining of the gas shortages and the horrors in  the Gulf.  I answered them that I had indeed seen riots in the streets with cities burning uncontrollably for I remember the Watts riots and the busing riots at my own school in Charlotte. And then I told them of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, reminding them that each generation goes through some awful times but that we recover.  That life is hard but we somehow manage to pull though. Please do not forget that the children are scared.  Do what you can to remind them of the things they can count on: a strong parent, a capable and caring neighbor, the resiliency of the human race. Hold them and reassure them.  And while you are at it, will somebody hold and reassure me too?

  by DEFuning on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 03:23:56 PM PDT

  •  Consider yourself hugged

    DeFuning - great answer.

    Yes, hugs, prayers, occasional backing off of the media to take a deep breath.

    This is going to go for much longer than just this week.

    We're now in a marathon.

    by kfred on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 03:37:32 PM PDT