[Racing Rice]

What kills me is the fact that all of these people are bitching about not getting help yet, you have these fvcking idiots shooting at people trying to help. No wonder no one wants to help! They just need Martial Law and let the NG do their thing..

This was a post on offtopic.com.

This is from a friend of mine that went down there as part of medical-evacuation team. You should read carefully what he said...he was there....

Quote:
I just back back from 36hrs of medical transports in downtown New Orleans. It's pretty much like the news says it is, TOTAL devestation downtown. Surprisingly, our transport team (nurse, doc, 2 pilots, mechanic, and myself) was given full access of every LZ that we went to. That gave us a lot of access to people that knew what was going on EVERYWHERE. Every medical LZ was secured by swat, in house security and or MP's carrying AR's, shotguns, AND sidearms, fully dressed in riot gear in some HUMID ASS, HOT weather. Huey's, blackhawks, seadragons, and those twin rotor MONSTER Chinooks filled the air. At the second hospital we airlifted, our mechanic (helping lift pts.),my nurse, and I were left on the parking deck (the LZ) with ONE guy, with a ONE .45 and 4 blackhawks hovering above us. We were the last ones to leave and were waiting for my helicopter to come back to get us. We gave up our seats to put 3 more people on our heli. Those blackhawk guys are my hero's. The third hospital (Tulane) was a ZOO. 300+pts., and family were occupying the upper levels of the parking deck (hospital was empty). They had 5-6 heli's landing every 5-10min. Again, the upper deck was inhabited by transport personel and a variety of armed guards with a variety of weapons. Blackhawks were buzzing the air above us and all around. We were constantly warned to stay away from the sides as there were reports of people trying to snipe the roofs. I got lots of pics from this area. Canal street is, well a CANAL. The 4th hospital we airlifted was across the river in the "ghetto". When we landed, there were 6 guards ,armed to the teeth, in the streets surrounding the aircraft that were there. I thought it was strange that they weren't just standing there, but were actively looking around. Once we shut down, 8 more appeared out of nowhere and made a circle around the LZ. Come to find out, the police station, just 2 blocks down the road, was torched by rioters. This happened just hours before we landed. These are some crazy mofo's out there. We airlifted the pt's to the Joint national guard base just north west of N.O. There are a BUNCH of PISSED OFF SOMEBITCHES there, and about 500+ more pissed off somebitches rolled out of C130's while I was there. I was told that 1000's more were on the way. I asked if they had fired on anyone yet, and they said "not yet, but getting ready to". We had one marine came up to us and asked if we could take him to the SuperDome. This guy was dressed in full riot gear, 2 sidearms, shotgun on his back and AR in hand. He also had 3 rows of ammo across his chest and stomach. This guy was LOADED FOR BEAR and eager to get huntin. He begged for us to just let him off in the streets somewhere so that he could "get to work". We GRACEFULLY declined and said we weren't going ANYWHERE near the superdome. In case you hadn't heard. A National Guard member was shot at the superdome yesterday morning. I found out from one of the security commanders that 3-4 swat teams were let loose in the Super Dome shortly after that. I never found out what became of it though. I was damn happy to get the hell out of there, but also very happy that I got to play a major roll in getting the people to safety and getting them the MUCH needed medical care that they required.

I also got to see the other side of the story. Medical and security personel that have worked tirelessly for DAYS with little to no sleep, little to no electricity, and cold or dried food. These are the same people that shared their food and water with me. Hugged my neck and called ME their hero, for helping them out. If you ask me, they are the hero's of this ordeal. They haven't lost their since of humor either. Several of the hospitals that I went to had off duty staff roaming the halls with paper cups of wine and mixed drinks. After all, it is Norleans aint it. It was a very humbling experience. Virtually EVERYONE in N.O. has lost EVERYTHING they own and are jobless. Most of the hospitals will probably be shut down for a minimum of 2-3 months. It will take a couple months after that to get them back up and running. A lot of that depends on how bad they are looted. I know that N.O. Childrens just locked the doors when the last child left. There is literally MILLIONS of dollars of equipment that was left where it was taken off the pts. These people can only hope that some of it is still in working order, or even there, when they get back. They don't expect it though.

The wildest story I heard was from a woman in Baton Rouge. She and her husband were on vacation in N.O. when Katrina hit. They had to wade through the water when it was at it's peak, to get out. During the trek out of the city, they waded through water that was sometimes chest high. Along the way they dodged dead bodies in the water, BULL SHARKS swiming up and down the streets (2-4ft long), snakes and alligators. She said that they would rather take their chances with these predators than head for high ground and have to deal with the armed thugs that were killing and raping people at will. This was all downtown N.O. They made it to B.R. 3 days later.

Sorry if some of this doesn't make sence. I've had 4hrs sleep in the last 48 and am too tired and jacked to sleep right now.


As many times as we've heard stuff like this out of people that have been there, I think we need to give the people that are there trying to help a little more credit and get off of them for taking too long....