Time for a rant
Don't you wish someone would stand up and say, I/We messed up, we weren't prepared, instead of pointing a finger at everybody else? Me, too.
I would have thought after 9/11 and all the agencies that were created afterwards that someone could be a leader and get organized and get quicker results. But it was all so overwhelming.
I listened to a New Orleans evacuee doing a phone interview on CNN Saturday morning. She was able to evacuate to Baton Rouge by car with her adult sons and is staying in a Baymont Inn. She was complaining that nothing was being done for her. Huh? Yes, she is looking for her mother I believe, but she's also looking for handouts and was pissed because she's getting no assistance! Has she not been watching the news? Does she not think there are more needy people STILL down there that don't have the benefit of an automobile, a hotel room and obviously a phone, and probably food and water?? It's people like that that absolutely piss me off beyond belief!! Luckily the CNN guy told her to think, think for herself, think about how she can move herself forward out of this situation. You could tell that was NOT what she wanted to hear.
I've been scanning aerial photos of the devastation in Slidell and Biloxi. My friends in Slidell had tremendous water damage, but not too much structural as far as we can tell from the picture.
I'm hoping that I found a picture of Lizzzygizzzy's house in Biloxi. If that's the one, then it looks pretty much intact, also. But no one's heard anything from her. Loki hasn't contacted anyone either. It's hard enough having friends that are missing...I can't imagine if I had a family member unaccounted for.
We've had a run on gas around here, as I'm sure most of the country has. Yesterday I was able to get 53 cents worth at one station. Amazing, huh? I then found another station that was limiting customers to $10 worth. I got my $10 of gas.
BZ went out this morning at 6:30 and filled up the truck without a limit and without having to wait in line. I did notice though that even though the rumor got started that we'd have no gas and everyone ran out to fill everything they could get their hands on, it still didn't lessen traffic around here! From the looks of some of the cars on the road, I'm thinking there was some serious mechanical tinkerin' going on in some folks' yards to get those running and to a gas station!!
It's been very easy to sit in my air-conditioned home with lights and water and food and criticize what's happening down there. And, yes, I've done my share of ranting and raving and bitchin'. My rants continue to be fueled by the media and by people who expect more than is humanly possible to provide right now. But it's fueled more by the woman I wrote about at the top who, from the sound of it, is providing for herself but still wants a hand-out. Those people are just as bad as the looters, and unfortunately, the hurricane didn't make them that way nor are they even isolated to the striken areas. It's the American way, right?