Well for what it is worth, you might want to share this below (something 
you won't see in any news stories either) with those you forwarded this to. 
While New Orleans is mostly poor, anyone who has ever been there knows that 
some of the areas that flooded were not poor but middle class.

I want to also comment on looting. While there are thugs that were indeed 
stealing shit they had no business stealing like plasma screens, others were 
getting supplies, knowing that it would be, and will be a long time before 
they can wash clothes. I'm not justifying it at all, but can relate to it.

On Augues 3rd, 1970, hurricane Celia hit Corpus Christi, Texas with a fury 
similar to Katrina, but without the massive flooding in New Orleans. The 
wind broke the gauge at the airport measuring station when a gust hit 
161mph. Our family lost both homes, several Ramblers and God knows how many 
pets as we lived about one mile from the bay at Port & Leopard streets. We 
were poor like those mentioned in the article below, dad made $156 a week, 
we did not get any fed benefits, mom was too proud for that shit, and so we 
lived, before the hurricane, with no phone. After the hurricane we had no 
electricity as dad's credit would not buy gum.

Regardless, several organizations helped tremendously like Red Cross and 
Salvation Army. We lived on pop tarts and coco crisps for about 5 weeks. No 
one in our area had running water, gas or electricity for a month. Several of 
the kids broke into the Beil's store and looted it, not for fun, but because 
there were can goods, fruits and veggies going bad, and all of us wanted to 
eat, including our families. I was 11 years old.

The response time by the fed government was about what you see with New 
Orleans. It was 203 days before we saw the military, which was stunning in 
itself as Corpus Christi is HOME to the massive Naval Air Station, and just 
30 miles from there is the Kingsville Air Station, and about 50 miles away is 
the Beeville military complex, so you have within 100 miles of each other 
three large staffed bases. But response time was still slow, and the minutes 
turn to hours and the hours turn to days after some shit like this I assure 
you.

We washed our clothes in the sewer storm viaduct near our house. Any rain 
was caught in buckets and barrels for use later. If there was any older 
folks in our neighborhood we checked on them, and made sure they too, got 
some of the 'provisions' us kids had 'borrowed' from the area stores.

Marshall Law was instantly declared, but there was not anyone there to 
enforce it in the early days after hurricane. There was a curfew I recall 
and orders were to shoot on sight any looters. If you look on my website 
under 'galleries' there is a photo of a sign I made which is stuck on what 
was left of our fence warning that 'nothing on this lot is worth your life' 
and we took turns, me included at 11, guarding our property with a 12 gauge 
shotgun.

We later would get a trailer from the state of Texas, about 28,000 of them 
were delivered to that area, with free use for up to a year with purchase 
option afterwards. Yes, I could go on, however, my point if any is this.

If you live on the gulf coast, as I have for 46 years, born and raise and 
been thru at least a dozen hurricanes (and the costliest tropical storm in 
US history in 2001 with Allison, $5.5 billion dollars in damage in Houston) 
but you learn to plan for these things, and if order is given, to evacuate. 
I think the bigger problem with New Orleans was that you had a large 
population that COULDN'T get out once it appeared Katrina actually turned 
north. Remember, if you tracked this storm, it defied all predictions, and 
went southwest to begin with, and for days, all the assholes on weather 
channel, weather men on local stations had it going to Tampa to panhandle of 
FL!!! It never took that fucking "turn" and all the while was on a northwest 
course......right towards Galveston......and finally turned north and well, 
the rest is sadly history.

In Corpus, we never recovered, we got gas back, but no electricity after 
they shut down the one year deal on the trailer, and lived on coleman 
lanterns, and cold water. Not sure anyone has ever washed their hair in cold 
water on a cold day but I used to outside as a teenager didn't want to go to 
high school dirty, my blow dryer was sticking my head in a opened oven for a 
few seconds to help dry it so would not get sick with wet head.

As I write this, Houston has taken in a staggering 110,000 refugees from 
this disaster, and Texas has now over 250,000, that's right a quarter 
million people from this storm. Imagine a city the size of Beaumont, Texas 
suddenly overnight being dropped in your town. So far was have done a great 
fucking job if I do say so myself, wife and I have even volunteered like 
millions of other Texans to try to help these people, regardless of how much 
or how little they made in their 'welfare state'. Think about if something 
similar had happened in Detroit, which is about same ethnic makeup as New 
Orleans, although I believe New Orleans population was more before Katrina. 
Canada, Wisconsin, Ohio would all share the brunt, and then you would have 
some assholes writing about a welfare state instead of trying to help out, 
and too busy pointing fingers to lift a hand.

It's really easy to see how and why Katrina destroyed New Orleans, and they 
have been baiting lady luck for years now, just like Los Angeles and San 
Francisco have talked about 'the big one' one day. I guess when LA is wiped 
off the map and thousands killed someone will sit comfortably in their 
office in New York and write about a welfare state that East LA was!

And so it goes. Anyhow, if anyone can donate to help these people, please 
do, this is not some fucking blog that will go away overnight in our short 
term memory society. Whether you give a $1 or $100 it is all appreciated. 
And don't go buy that bullshit either that certain organizations don't want 
clothes, shoes, ect. If you have stuff like that to spare, please do, there 
are churches and places in your are that will gladly take them, and I can 
tell you from just coming back from the new city in the city, the Astrodome, 
home of about 13,000 people right now, a sock, a puzzle, a toy, stuffed 
animal, anything is appreciated for those who don't have shit. for a list of 
charities, please click on my website below. Ya'll take care, and Hi Jim; 
feel free to forward, hell, my annoying comments should get as much play as 
the other welfare state writer below. Maybe he has never been in a hurricane 
and lost anything, don't know!
Eddie Stakes
(who has been thru a lot of hurricanes)