[centralnewyorki]

Originally Posted by Marlee

The people in New orlenes could have left (they had several days notice). I can say for myself not matter what, had I known what was comming I would have walked with all my babies in tow just to try and get out to somewhere safe. Many of these people stayed, even with warnings and waited for someone else to come and get them...

however to say it was only the governments problem is ridiculous...

...President Bush did not cause these people to act like this, they did it. Not everyone, but a few have obviously slowed down the many. Stop placing blame on an administration, I am sure no matter who was in office the situation would have been similar. This was not about politcs, it was mother nature and her fury.

I couldn't disagree with you more.

You mentioned that you would have walked away from N.O. with your family with a few days notice of a hurricane. You should be quite thankful you are able to- many of the people left behind in N.O. weren't as fortunate. There were thousands of elderly people or people with disabilities that weren't able to. Where was the goverment with busses to help these people evacuate? I have a great aunt who is 91- a real spit-fire- if she were in N.O. she would be dead at this point because she can't drive and needs a cane to walk. What else could she do but stay in her home? No one was shooting at people trying to help other evacuate before the flooding. The people of New Orleans would not be experiencing what they are if it were just for Katrina. I love Bill Clinton, but he and George H.W. and our good-for-nothing current president all took money out of the budget to strengthen the levees (as they all knew it could only uphold a category 3 hurricane) and placed it elsewhere. Bush put the money toward building a bridge to a remote island in Alaska. The hurricane was powerful- but the winds and rain were more than survivable- look at many of the houses- they're damaged, but still standing.

It is the government's problem. As I mentioned earlier, it was a known fact that the levees needed to be strengthened and for more than a decade, the money to repair it was shifted elsewhere. It wasn't the people of N.O. that voted to have the money go elsewhere- they had no say. It is also the government's responsibility to help and serve its people. To leave them stranded with no food, no water, and insufficient law-enforcement is dispicable.

IMO, yes, the president did cause these people to act this way. If you put that large a number of people together, scare the hell out of them, give them no information on the conditions, provide them with no food or water, then that is going to happen. It's the animalistic instinct in people coming out. No one can imagine the conditions these people were forced to live in for days. We are a civilized country with leading technology and somehow nothing could get to these people for days? The NASA space shuttle got to the moon in about the time our goverment got the needed supplies to New Orleans- isn't that a problem??

Not to mention that Bush said he didn't realize the hurricane would be as bad as it was. I've said this before, but I knew on Sunday that they were predicting a category 5 hurricane to hit New Orleans. That IS bad. Another member here said he was golfing when the hurricane was on land. He is the leader of our country, and he took his sweet time getting back to work for these poor suffering people down there. Two days it took him to get back to Washington- how many more people would have survived if they had food or water sooner? I'm sorry, but I can't think of another human being I know who as president would have let thousands starve while vacationing. He should be ashamed as the president, a fellow American, and as a human being.