I went to Biloxi for disaster relief the morning after Katrina blew through. Our Huntsville, AL convoy consisted of 2 box-trucks and 3 food trucks from the Salvation Army, 2 large charter buses ferrying close to 100 people from the Salvation Army, several local churches, some Red Cross volunteers and some unaffiliated volunteers who just heard about our muster and showed up. I was driving one of the food trucks, my wife was on one of the buses. We were in Biloxi for two weeks working our butts off, so the limited radio that was being broadcast in the area was hardly ever heard by me anyway, and I don't think many of the others with our group either.
We had close to four metric tons of food and water in the box-trucks. There were thousands of people just kind of mulling around when we got to our bivouac location, which was on the edge of the South part of town nearest to the bay. The scenes were unimaginable, but the state of MS was already there (day after the storm) and distributing water and food as best they could. The people were frightened, suffering from exposure, hungry and just kind of "shell-shocked," but they were calm and orderly. None of our trucks got "rushed" and they never seemed like they were "on the edge" or anything. What little radio we heard while there, was all local, having implemented their local disaster response plans, so I don't remember hearing a single report coming from, or about, NOLA.
When we got home two weeks later, I slept for almost a full day, and both of us just kind of "unplugged" for the next day or two. Didn't even turn on a computer, and only saw a couple of brief reports about NOLA. It wasn't until I started going back to the couple of forums I frequented at the time that I started really understanding what went on in NOLA.
Hard to believe that it took almost nine years to put Nagin away. The "wheels of justice" do indeed grind slowly I guess. I haven't followed the case, so I'm not sure how much, if any of his criminal case, stemmed from the Katrina aftermath, or was it just general corruption within his administration? Glad they were able to convict him in any case. Wish there was reason to think that NOLA will become a better city because of it, but it's one of the #1 examples of the welfare state in action, and I seriously doubt his conviction means squat to reversing that societal ill. Still, I guess it's "progress" that he was convicted. Congrats to the jurors. It couldn't have been an easy trial to go through.
Blues
