OK. We have helicopters and boats...HELP THEM ALREADY!

[YellowRubberDuckie]

Why are there still LARGE groups of people trapped? Is it the reason I think?
Duckie

[SocratesInSpirit]

1. Exactly!

I've heard a lot of talk about how rescuers are having difficulty evacuating people because they're surrounded by water...and I'm thinking, well, how about using boats, then? :shrug:

[YellowRubberDuckie]

2. There has to be a few Air boats around...

You can hit land with those and keep going. hello! They use those in the swamp all the time. There was plenty of warning with this storm. Why weren't these people taken by the National Guard BEFORE The storm. I'm going to make it a race issue, because all I'm seeing are large groups of african americans on TV.
Duckie

[bliss_eternal]

9. African Americans are still seen as expendable in this country...

Sorry--it's just the way it still is--particularly with this Administration. Clinton never would tolerate it, shrub encourages it...

:mad:

Sorry that your suspicions have to be true in this case...

[DS1]

If the Marines had a local reserve base

They'd be IDEAL for this sort of rescue, in fact we trained for typhoon rescue ops when I was stationed in Hawaii, and sometimes we were actually sent down to where our amphibious tanks were and rode out the remainder of the storm INSIDE them WAITING for the call to drive over to Honolulu and get people out of the floods.

Floods never came, but we were ready.

Oh, Clinton was President.

[Spinzonner]

3. Well, they actually have to be at the places they're needed

and there have to be support personnel, and parts and equipment, and fuel, ...

And then there has to be supporting systems for all those people and a way of continuing to provide the needed logistics.

It's why logistics are essential to an army but largely unheralded when all the attention is focused on the front-liners.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

4. Are you saying it's not there?

I'm saying the idiot in washington just doesn't give a flying fuck.
Duckie

[Misunderestimator]

5. I suppose it's difficult with varying depths of water...

but I agree that they should have SOME means of getting more people in there. There should be hundreds of helicopters. Where are they?

[Redstone]

6. LCACs, anyone? Aren't they based in Florida?

Redstone

[Misunderestimator]

7. I had to look that up, what a good idea.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/lcac.htm

[Redstone]

8. It's what the damned expensive things are built for,

to deliver materiel and personnel over water and land and any combination of the two.

So where are they? And why arfent' they on the way to New Orleans to earn someof theri expensive keep? You can load a WHOLE LOT of food and water on one of them, and evacuate a WHOLE LOT of people on the way out.

Goddammit, now I'd getting angry again. Is there one person in that whoel fucking ridiculous dunderheaded "homeland security" crowd who has one functional brain cell?

I weep for what was once my country.

Redstone

[LynzM]

10. Absurd. Totally, fucking, absurd.

:hug: You ok tonight? I think that's more typos than I've ever seen from you...

[Redstone]

11. Just weary of the bad news, and the undignified panic here at DU

with the gas prices, like expensive gasoline is the end of the world. See here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=3944511&mesg_id=3944886

Thanks for asking. Bit of a pain spike too, but that's not a big deal in the grand sceme of things, is it?

But I do appreciate that you asked. I'm going to bed soon; do me a favor and send me a PM to let me know how the house hunt and all that is going for you guys, please.

And give that little sweetheart a hug from Uncle Redstone.

Redstone.