----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alberto Monteiro" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 10:58 PM
Subject: Re: The Doom That Came To N'Warlins - II


> Are you _aware_ of the dimensions of the disaster? tv.br is showing
> hordes of homeless people, images that we usually associate with
> War in Africa, Flood in India or Earthquake in China.

The population of New Orleans was about half a million.  I'm not sure how
many of these houses were not flooded, but it is reasonable to assume that
half a million gives a rough number of the people who cannot or should not
live in their houses/apartments as a result of Katrina.  Most of these
people have found alternate housing outside of the flooded area by
Monday/Tuesday.  Most of these are with family, friends, or are staying in
motels that they drove to.

Clearly, not everyone could make it out.  The folks that couldn't are the
ones we are seeing on the news.  From what I can tell, there were about 20k
at the Superdome and about 10k-15k at the Civics Center...plus a number of
others scattered across the city.  The numbers rescuded from rooftops,
etc., was about 3k, I think.  It might be as big as 5k.

The number who are still in New Orleans, but not at either of these
locations is not known.  I do know that folks are still going to the
Superdome to get busses out of New Orleans as of this morning...which has
kept that number constant.  I'd guess that there would be about 10k-20k
still left in the city, who were not included in the numbers at the
Superdome or the Civics Center.  For the most part, that's still a guess.


> And they hinted that the press is not allowed to get into the disaster
> area...

That is true only in the most limited sense.  Reporters were allowed free
reign throughout the city.  Indeed, CNN informed the head of FEMA about the
thousands at the Civics Center during an interview.  The sniping did limit
their movements, they were not going in areas where they thought they stood
a good chance of being shot; but that wasn't a matter of governmental
policy.

As far as I know, they were not allowed on the floor of the Superdome, but
were allowed to go inside and photograph it from the seats....I saw that.

I saw nothing inside the Civics Center, but I'm not sure if reporters were
not allowed, or were just afraid to go in.  I heard a report that it was
being controlled by bands of armed thugs.  I do know that 100 police
officers retreated from there when fired upon.  They were unwilling to
return fire for fear of hitting the innocent.

Dan M.

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