Home > FEMA stops a rescue convoy of 500 boats

FEMA stops a rescue convoy of 500 boats

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 3 September 2005
9 comments

Edito Governments Catastrophes USA

by Clark Warner

This is beyond my comprehension and after spending two frustrating days trying to just get someone to let us help we’ve FINALLY been told we can conduct "renegade" boat rescues via the just concluded press conference that Gov. Blanco just held.

Why is this JUST NOW being allowed? Well let’s start from the very beginning.

On Wednesday morning a group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette in the early morning and headed to New Orleans with a police escort from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department. The flotillia of trucks pulling boats stretched over FIVE miles. This citizen rescue group was organized by La. State Senator, Nick Gautreaux from Vermilion Parish. The group was comprised of experienced boaters, licensed fishermen and hunters, people who have spent their entire adult life and teenage years on the waterways of Louisiana.

The State Police waved the flotillia of trucks/boats through the barricades in LaPlace and we sped into New Orleans via I-10 until past the airport and near the Clearview exit. At that time we were stopped by agents of the FEMA controlled La. Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries. A young DWF agent strolled through the boats and told approximately half of the citizens that their boats were too large because the water had dropped during the night and that they should turn around and go home.

They were pulling a large (24ft) shallow draft aluminum boat that can safely carry 12 passengers and had ramp access which would allow the elderly and infirm to have easier access to the boat. They then politely informed the DWF agent that the local and national media had consistently reported that the water level had risen during the night which contradicted his statement to them that the water was dropping and no boat over 16ft. in length would be allowed to participate in rescue operations.

They then specifically asked the DWF agent that they (and other citizens in the flotillia) be allowed to go to the hospitals and help evacuate the sick and the doctors and nurses stranded there. They offered to bring these people back to Lafayette, in our own vehicles, in order to ensure that they received proper and prompt medical care.

The DWF agent did not want to hear this and ordered them home — ALL FIVE HUNDRED BOATS. They complied with the DWF agent’s orders, turned around and headed back to Lafayette along with half of the flotillia. However, two friends were pulling a smaller 15ft alumaweld with a 25 hp. The DWF agents let them through to proceed to the rescue operation launch site.

They were allowed to drive to the launch site where the FEMA controlled La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries were launching their rescue operations (via boat). They reported to me that there were over 200 DWF agents just standing around and doing nothing. They were kept there for approximately 3 hours. During that time they observed a large number of DWF agents doing absolutely nothing. Why? Because FEMA would n ot let them HELP! After three hours had passed they were told that they were not needed and should go home. They complied with the DWF’s orders and turned around and went home to Lafayette.

Watching CNN later that night, there was a telephone interview with a Nurse trapped in Charity Hospital in New Orleans. She said that there were over 1,000 people trapped inside of the hospital and that the doctors and nurses had zero medical supplies, no diesel to run the generators and that only three people had been rescued from the hospital since the Hurricane hit!

I can’t come up with one logical reason why the DWF sent this large group of 500 boats/1000 men home when we surely could have rescued most, if not all, of the people trapped in Charity Hospital. Further, we had the means to immediately transport these people to hospitals in Southwest Louisiana.

On Tuesday afternoon, August 30, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee asked for all citizens with boats to come to the aid of Jefferson Parish. A short time later Dwight Landreneau, the head of the La. Depart. of Wildlife and Fisheries, got on television and remarked that his agency had things under control and citizen help was not needed. Apparently, Sheriff Lee did not agree with that assessment and had one of his deputies provide the Lafayette flotillia with an escort into Jefferson Parish.

Sheriff Lee and Senator Gautreaux - 1000 of Louisiana’s citizens responded to the public’s pleas for help. They were prevented from helping by Dwight Landreneau’s agency, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries which had been taken over by FEMA. When I learned that Charity Hospital has not been evacuated and that no one has been there to attempt a rescue, I became angry.

It was because of this that my friend and I have been trying launch boats both yesterday and today but to no avail. It looks like FINALLY the Governor has just said SCREW FEMA, get those boats in the water and help save my citizens.

So I think we’ll be in the water tomorrow to help but for now I’m immensely frustrated.

If there is anyone on the CCN that is in the Baton Rouge area we are meeting today at the LA State Dem Party HQ at 2pm CST to game out tomorrow.

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/357

Forum posts

  • You are dealing with the Federal Government. They have special interests, political interests.. that come first, over the needs of the people. These interests involve big business, oil companies, and friends of George Bush and other Administration officials. Of course, FEMA officials, do not want private citizens to rescue survivors, that would embarass them politically.

    Our neighborhood in California has experience with Federal Agencies who do deals with Boeing and allow radioactive materials to leak out to our neighborhoods. Many have died, but there
    is no accountability. Innocent people in our neighborhood have died and developed cancer, as a result of nuclear testing and a nuclear meltdown which occurred in the 1950’s. Boeing and the Dept. of Energy and the Dept of Defense, have the money to give to Universities like UCLA , to slant the studies their way, so that local citizens continue to live in a toxic and radioactive environment. There are many other toxic, and environmentally unsafe areas in our country,, where the safety of American citizens is a very low priority.

    It is well known by any student who studies Geology 101 in any University, most will be learning about the hazards in New Orleans, and the geological and environmental issues with the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River and the surrounding lakes and bayous. At my school, we studied a prototype of this situation, and were expected to write reports on our findings.

    I believe that this Administration does not care about Environmental issues, much less any poor people who may be adversely affected. They did not believe it was important to protect the City of New Orleans from the flooding that has been predicted for years by Geological Scientists. You could compare this to Mount St. Helens, a Volcanoe that erupted in Washington State. Both of these issues have been studied extensively, even though Mt. St. Helens was not located in a large city, like New Orleans. Scientists warned that the Volcano could erupt and it did, Scientists also warned that New Orleans could be flooded, and it is....

    What does FEMA stand for, and what are our tax dollars paying for? I would like to know.

    The current Administrators of FEMA should be fired. Their performance has been incompetent, and embarrassing to our Nation, Their comments are ludicrous. They claim this is "a surprise" and no one could have predicted that New Orleans would be flooded and that 100’s or 1000’s of innocent people would perish. They claim they were "overwhelmed" and that looters, State, County or Local officials prevented them from doing the job, that taxpayers have paid billions of dollars for them to perform.

    As Geoge Bush stated on T.V., "Brownie, you’re doing one heck of a job."

    Art

  • The Republicans lost the Presidential Election of 2008 in August of 2005.

  • BEFORE CONTINUING YOUR LEFTIST "BUSH " BASHING PROPOGANDA,

    CHECK OUT WHY GOV. BLANCO AND THE SCREEMING , CURSING MAYOR

    OF NEW ORLEANS WERE REDUCED TO HAND WRINGING, WITHERING, INEPT

    POLITICIONS..........YOUR VENUE SEEMS TO BE ONE SIDED ,BECAUSE YOU INDICATE

    MY COMMENTS WILL NOT BE VIEWED.........ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE A LIST

    OF ARTICLES THAT ARE OFFENSIVE..........CARACTURE DEFAMATORY,ABUSIVE AND...

    REPUGNET

    • "..CURSING MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS WERE REDUCED TO HAND WRINGING".

      Hand wringing. Interesting...and withering too, eh. Hmm, yes I think you are right.
      You could say that the nasty, democrat, infirm and childeren were right there with the mayor...
      withering.

      By the way, unless you want to look "inept", you might want to undo the >>CAPS LOCK<< button over there on the left side of your keyboard.

    • and learn to spell

    • CAP LOCKS,WRONG SPELLING, I do believe you got my message.........

  • I read the same letter to the editor in the Lake Charles American Press and the author made it clear that it was a Louisiana official who stopped and turned about one-half the boats away. Your headline is misleading. It implies the federal government agency FEMA made this bad decision.

    Andy Meyers
    Sugar Land, Texas 77478

  • Yeah... I also worked with boat crews out of Lafayette, and everything got just as messed up. I don’t think we were part of your group, because I don’t recognize this senator’s name that you’re throwing around. Things WERE pretty hectic, though. Just as crazy as it was for you: We were turned around in Chalmette with 90 boats. We spent most of our time sitting on the side of the road, being dragged from one BS staging area to the next, to no avail. I watched FEMA screaming at LWF and the State troopers at a blockade, all arguing over who was in charge, oblivious to the fact that people were dying, we were trying to prevent it, and they were in the way. No communication. No coordination. No command. Everybody wanted to be the big shot and have the authority to say no, but none of those sorry bastids wanted to be burdened with the potential liabilities that come with saying, "yes, get in there, screw the red tape, screw the risks, there are people dying, and we can prevent it." I will forever be scarred by this. I just don’t understand what we did to make them hate us so much. I’m from New Orleans, and I want to know, what did we do to deserve this? To be so abandoned? Why wouldn’t the authorities move the hell out of the way and let us take care of our own people when we came with boats? It was so simple.... water in, people out... water in , people out. Why wouldn’t they let us do it? Is it just cheaper for the government to let everybody die than to help relocate us? Is it simply red tape and ego? Or is it something more sinister? Oil? I know we were being called off of search and rescue at one point and told to go to the refinery in Chalmette. Were there people trapped in there? Or did they just want to use us as a personal ferry service to get everything up and running at full capacity? Anyone out there have an answer for me? I’ve lost everything, and I still came to the table to give my all to my neighbors. I deserve an answer.

    • Now that Bush is exposed for lying about Katrina and after Chertoff’s statement of Feb 13th blaming the volunteers (!!!) for the failed rescue (www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=5414) it is all the more important for those who were actually prevented from helping to speak out!

      The Bush Crimes Commission (www.bushcommission.org) has documented evidence of Bush regime crimes against humanity in 5 areas: wars of aggression, detention and torture, destruction of the global environment, sabotage of global health programs, and abandonment of and repression against the people of New Orleans.

      They are still taking testimony from witnesses to these crimes.

      Please contact me, Sandy Jones: sandy4newworld@yahoo.com, to coordinate more investigation and exposure of this.