No evidence backs up reports of rescue helicopters being fired upon (N.O.)

[RSchewe]

Posted on Sun, Oct. 02, 2005

No evidence backs up reports of rescue helicopters being fired upon

By Miriam Hill and Nicholas Spangler

Knight Ridder Newspapers

NEW ORLEANS - Among the rumors that spread as quickly as floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina, reports that gunmen were taking potshots at rescue helicopters stood out for their senselessness.

On Sept. 1, as patients sweltered in hospitals without power and thousands of people remained stranded on rooftops and in attics, crucial rescue efforts were delayed as word of such attacks spread.

But more than a month later, representatives from the Air Force, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security and Louisiana Air National Guard say they have yet to confirm a single incident of gunfire at helicopters.

Likewise, members of several rescue crews who were told to halt operations say there is no evidence they were under fire.

To be sure, the streets of New Orleans posed real dangers in the days following Katrina. Many rescue workers said they heard gunfire; one doctor reports that shots came close enough to Charity Hospital that he heard the bullets hit.

But so many rumors were swirling that the facts still haven't been sorted out. A picture is emerging of heroic but harried rescue workers from dozens of organizations forced to make snap decisions with only slender threads of information and no reliable communications.

The storm created so much confusion that government officials cannot even agree on whether they ever issued an order to halt flights or other rescue efforts.

Sometimes the mere rumor that they had was enough.

more...


http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12801034.htm

[applegrove]

1. Now - I never was under the impression the pilot actually saw the

bullets fly by. Just that there was unknown lawlessness aloud the cycle till it got to the point everyone was afraid.

The police station - now there were people who were being fired on.

[Historic NY]

2. Charmaine Neville story & video mentions firing to get attention

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?schema=&vnu_content_id=1001057076

<snip>
"When we realized they weren't going to pick us up, we had to leave," she told The Advocate. "So we just started walking, in water, with dead bodies, and fish this big, and alligators, filth, trash. The smell was horrible."

On the video tape she gets more specific: There must have been hundreds of bodies in the water. Some of them were babies. The alligators were chomping on bodies. Gangs and looters descended. Old ladies and children were raped, herself included. Others were murdered.

Some of her neighbors committed suicide, she said: "Because nobody was coming to help them, they were killing themselves. Some people that just went crazy." Helicopters would pass over and "we would do the SOS on our flashlights" but they never stopped. Thousands were still trapped in their homes -- old, young, pregnant, children. Some men fired guns as choppers approached, but they "weren't trying to hit the helicopters. They figured maybe they weren't seeing us. Maybe if they heard this gunfire, they would stop, but that didn't help us."

On the video she continues, "I want people to understand is that if we had not been left down there like the animals that they were treating us like, all of those things wouldn't have happened."
<snip>

video -

http://www.wafb.com/Global/SearchResults.asp?qu=charmaine+neville&x=14&y=13

[Toots]

3. and no reliable communications.

Government's biggest failure.....

[Kagemusha]

4. Just for the record...

How the hell would actual potshots have been substantiated, short of a helicopter actually being struck by a bullet?

I'm NOT arguing that there were potshots. However, I simply don't understand how a potshot would be verified. "No evidence"... well why would that be shocking? Was anyone going to waste precious time and effort looking for a bullet? No, at most all that could exist would be eyewitness accounts which can be easily discounted as mistakes. The authorities say "we have yet to confirm a single incident" and the media hears "there were no incidents it was all rumor" and the two are simply not the same thing whatsoever.

[yellowcanine]

5. Evidence? We don't need no stinkin' evidence. We know how "those people"

act.

[zbdent]

6. On DU, not long after the story surfaced, I raised the following points

1. The helicopter was not hit by any gunfire

2. The noise inside a helicopter is LOUD (loud enough that the occupants constantly have to wear headphones to hear the radios) - how did the occupants "hear" the gunshots?

3. No report was made that the pilots of the helicopters SAW the flash from a gunshot, nor did they see anyone pointing a weapon AT THEM

So, how did the helicopters know that they were fired upon?

Boy, I wish that I could see a speeding bullet - that sure would help a lot of soldiers in the field - being able to see a bullet coming toward you would give you the chance to dodge it . . . (reply #1 inferred that someone thought the pilots saw the bullets flying by - but no reports of any sighting . . .)