Can We Take Care of Ourselves?

I think we can. A business associate sent some friends the following e-mails to keep us appraised of his situation. He gave me permission to post them here:

From: Larry J (full name and e-mail addy removed to protect my friend)
Sent: Wed 9/21/2005 11:40 PM
To: Jaycen Rigger
Subject: Please!!!


Right now

We could sure use some more prayers!!

Thanks

Larry J.

You certainly had them, my friend. I couldn't help thinking about how things were going for them considering the news reports of people driving 25 miles in 8 hours.

From: Larry J (full name and e-mail addy removed to protect my friend)
Sent: Fri 9/23/2005 2:12 PM
To: Jaycen Rigger;
Subject: Update


Well it's 2:00 PM and the sun is shining, blue sky and the wind is starting to blow slightly. If you didn't know you would think it was a nice fall day. The rain has started on Galveston and the tides are up along the beach and some of the roads are starting to flood. We are still 20 hrs. away from landfall. Some real neat stories are happening about how people are helping each other, driving full buses of evacuees directly up the ramps of waiting C130's at Ellington Air Force Base, reversing 150 miles of freeways to outbound only on three major highways, passing out water and gas to motorists 2.7 million leaving in 48hrs. All of this happening with our own resources used or depleted due to our response to Louisiana. Not bad TEXANS.
We have plenty of food and water, generator (sort of) and all we need for a week (I think). Anyone of y'all that know Valerie' know that we have food.

So for now we seem to be a little better off ( I believe because of all of the prayers) The storm has weaked a bit Winds down from 175mph w/ 220 gusts to 125mph w/160 gusts. which means here in Houston we will probably see 75 - 90 mph sustained for about 6 - 8 hrs. beginning at about 4:00 AM. A lot better than Beaumont with 115 mph. for about 16 hrs. Let you all know next week somehow.

Thanks for the Prayers

Larry J.


PS. I have COLD beer and ice for my Scotch , it could be a whole lot worse!!

Then Larry and V. send the following picture:








To that, a coworker added some excellent points:

Things I have noticed while watching media coverage of the recent
hurricanes.

Texas: Productive industrious state run by Republicans.
Louisiana: Government dependent welfare state run by Democrats.

Texas: Residents take responsibility to protect and evacuate themselves.
Louisiana: Residents wait for government to protect and evacuate them.

Texas: Local and state officials take responsibility for protecting their citizens and property.
Louisiana: Local and state officials blame federal government for not protecting their citizens and property.

Texas: Command and control remains in place to preserve order.
Louisiana: Command and control collapses allowing lawlessness.

Texas: Law enforcement officers remain on duty to protect city.
Louisiana: Law enforcement officers desert their posts to protect themselves.

Texas: Local police watch for looting.
Louisiana: Local police participate in looting.

Texas: Law and order remains in control, 8 looters tried it, 8 looters arrested.
Louisiana: Anarchy and lawlessness breaks out, looters take over city, no arrests, criminals with guns have to be shot by federal troops.

Texas: Considerable damage caused by hurricane.
Louisiana: Considerable damage caused by looters.

Texas: Flood barriers hold preventing cities from flooding.
Louisiana: Flood barriers fail due to lack of maintenance allowing city to flood.

Texas: Orderly evacuation away from threatened areas, few remain.
Louisiana: 25,000 fail to evacuate, are relocated to another flooded area.

Texas: Citizens evacuate with personal 3 day supply of food and water.
Louisiana: Citizens fail to evacuate with 3 day supply of food and water, do without it for the next 4 days.

Texas: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees. State officials provide accessible distribution points.
Louisiana: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees. State officials prevent citizens from reaching distribution points and vice versa.

Louisiana: Media focuses on poor blacks in need of assistance, blames Bush.
Texas: Media can't find poor blacks in need of assistance, looking for something else to blame on Bush.

Texas: Coastal cities suffer some infrastructure damage, Mayors tell residents to stay away until ready for repopulation, no interference from federal officials.
Louisiana: New Orleans is destroyed, Mayor asks residents to return home as another hurricane approaches, has to be overruled by federal officials.

Louisiana: Over 400 killed by storm, flooding and crime.
Texas: 24 killed in bus accident on highway during evacuation, no storm related deaths.

Texas: Jailed prisoners are relocated to other detention facilities outside the storm area.
Louisiana: Jailed prisoners are set free to prey on city shops, residents, and homes.

Texas: Local and state officials work with FEMA and Red Cross in recovery operations.
Louisiana: Local and state officials obstruct FEMA and Red Cross from aiding in recovery operations.

Texas: Local and state officials demonstrate leadership in managing disaster areas.
Louisiana: Local and state officials fail to demonstrate leadership, require federal government to manage disaster areas.

Texas: Fuel deliveries can't keep up with demand, some run out of gas on highway, need help from fuel tankers before storm arrives.
Louisiana: Motorists wait till storm hits and electrical power fails. Cars
run out of gas at gas stations that can't pump gas. Gas in underground tanks
mixes with flood waters.

Texas: Mayors move citizens out of danger.
Louisiana: Mayor moves himself and family to Dallas.

Texas: Mayors continue public service announcements and updates on television with Governor's backing and support.
Louisiana: Mayor cusses, governor cries, senator threatens president with violence on television, none of them have a clue what went wrong or who's responsible.

Louisiana: Democratic Senator says FEMA was slow in responding to 911 calls from Louisiana citizens.
Texas: Republican Senator says "when you call 911, the phone doesn't ring in Washington, it rings here at the local responders".

What if state and local elected officials were forced to depend on themselves and their own resources instead of calling for help from the federal government??

Texas cities would be back up and running in a few days.
Louisiana cities would still be under water next month.

Conservatives call for action,
Liberals call for help.