A succinct summary of the New Orleans situation on Day 6 of the catastrophe.
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...But new problems are beginning to emerge. More than 220,000 hurricane refugees are already in Texas and thousands more are coming. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas said yesterday that local officials were reporting "they are quickly approaching capacity in the number of evacuees they believe they can assist."
Why aren't nearby states like Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas accepting more refugees?
...Mr. Chertoff said the war in Iraq was not hurting the Guard's ability to respond to domestic catastrophe. He said the issue was not numbers, but logistics. "These are citizen soldiers, we have to get them mobilized and deployed," he said.
Painful as it is to understand and accept, time and thousands of people are required to mobilize the resources for a disaster of this magnitude. They and the resources aren't just sitting around ready to move at a moment's notice.
Sending in the active duty military with effective leadership, supplies and communications was the necessary step. Bush should have done this sooner. His remarks yesterday in the Rose Garden, are here. He is desperately trying to make up for the slow initial response of the federal government.
...Superintendent P. Edward Compass III of the Police Department said 200 of the 1,500 officers on his force had walked off the job, citing the perils of fighting armed and menacing refugees, and he reported that two officers had committed suicide.
A terrible statement of the reality faced in New Orleans by an outmanned/outgunned police force with a reputation for corruption and patronage. One thing they did do well historically is keep Mardi Gras revelers under some control. I have mixed emotions about this abandonment of duty. I am probably a very poor judge of their actions sitting in my comfortable home.
Here's what the Times-Picayune has to say about the police actions.
"Throughout the inundated city, what remained of the New Orleans Police Department was transformed into a virtual militia operation, Compass and other commanders said, forcing officers to freelance without radios, supplies or clear orders. Dozens of officers turned in their badges or fled without a word.
Some joined in with looters and marauders, plunging an already jittery situation into moments of complete societal breakdown.
"These events do two things: they show your strengths and they expose your weaknesses. We had both," Compass said.
But according to Compass, the majority of the 1,700-person force held its ground, figuring out ways to save lives and restore order, working to save the city despite, in many cases, becoming victims themselves.
"The bulk of this police department stood intact," Compass said in an interview, tears streaming down his face. "We fought the most unbelievable war imaginable and we survived . . . Some officers lost their houses and they’re still out there. Some officers lost family members and they’re still out there."
Like every other city, state and federal agency, the police department was almost instantly overwhelmed by Hurricane Katrina, Compass said. With the city plunged into a near-total communications blackout, the police radio system was reduced to walkietalkies among small squads.
As much as possible, the squads began organizing themselves at key points around the city, Compass said. The SWAT team tried to quell looting, track down armed gangs and restore order. The vice squad took over the search-and-rescue boat patrols. District patrol officers set up satellite evacuation points as refugees began streaming out of flooded neighborhoods. Compass bounced between the City Hall emergency command post, the law enforcement staging area at Harrah’s Casino and the field.
At one point, there was a rumor that Compass had fled to Baton Rouge. He said the bad information circulated because his car was seen heading to the Capitol, carrying his eight-months-pregnant wife when she went into distress.
"I’ve been rolling on calls, backing people up on the ground, fighting off people with my bare hands," he said.
Police protocol was tossed out the window. The force’s usual show of crisp white and blue uniforms was largely supplanted by t-shirts, jeans, bandanas, hip-waders, shirts with the sleeves torn off. The department’s polished and immaculately groomed spokesman, Capt. Marlon Defillo, armed himself with a pistol in one hand and an semiautomatic shotgun in the other."
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