NedKelly

What else would you expect from a citizen of the ultimate nanny state?

Vash the Stampede

There's no excuse for this sort of whingig. Good grief, it's embarrassing to see Aussies acting like a bunch of poms.

The Australian government can hardly be blamed for the delay, since - despite repeated requests - American authorities had prevented Australian consular staff from any contact with Australians until this morning.

Australia was, in fact, the first country to gain consular access:

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Source.

Hels

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4214122.stm


I guess its not JUST the Aussies.....

Wol

There are at least two things here: one is the sheer scale of the thing, and the other is the social situation.

New Orleans has been a disaster waiting to happen on both counts, as has been pointed out to the authorities for years.

Like Holland and some other places it's below sea level, but I can't think of anywhere else in the same league that sits right in the middle of a major Category 3-5 belt. Once the water gets in - quite apart from the destruction caused by the wind - you have an almost impossible problem. With no infrastructure you can't just let gravity take it away, and until you get the water out you have no infrastructure. No electricity. No water (!) No transport. Etc.

Then you have the unfortunate fact that we all live, in the "civilised" world, just a few days from the breakdown of society. In a world where half the community seem perversely proud of not being able to wire a plug we all rely on the "system" to deliver food, water, transport and - critically - law and order. And New Orleans has to be one of the worst places in the Western world to be when the latter breaks down. Two of my colleauges were mugged there, on the same day but independently, in the eighties: one was in the Hilton lobby at the time. There's a huge minority just waiting to leap in and loot, rape etc.

The Federal and State governments have a gigantic task; they probably have been slow to comprehend the magnitude of what they have to do or even whether it's actually worth doing (rebuilding, that is - what happens the next time?) Tough though it might appear, their priorities probably don't lie with a few hundred aliens who don't have much physical link with the city and who ignored the evac instructions anyway.

I just saw red when I saw several of them whingeing that Mr Howard hadn't sent a helicopter for them.

You've been through a traumatic time - but for Christ's sake grow up and get back in the real world!

A dogs life

We all get wierd advice from our parents. It sounds wierd until....

One bit of advice I always got from my Mum was always buy a house on high land, preferably on a slope.

She would have killed me if I'd bought a house in New Orleans

NickyC

Totally agree with you - I had exactly the same reaction.

Read somewhere yesterday that a couple of them were thinking of sueing American airlines (or whoever) because they allowed them to board a flight to a New Orleans!

Whatever happened to personal responsibility? If they're old enough to travel, they're old enough to read the news.

andrew63

I heard the Howard govt. has pledged $10m to the US to help!
Is that right?

Andrew

renth

I feel really sorry for the people who have had to put up with the hurricane and its aftermath but FFS - America begging the world for cash, purleeze! They seem to have enough of it to bomb the crap out of the Middle East.

What will Bush do next? declare war on bad weather, and the people that harbour bad weather - Melbourne had better watch out!

jad n rich

Howards been on a one way track mission to keep the USA sweet for a few years now. Australias a vast piece of unprotected land with a tiny population against millions of asian neighbours we reguarly upset, Howard himself keeps saying we are a target for terrorism. Big potential for Natural disaster too.

So who we gonna call if the shit hits the fan, Mr bush and the stars and stripe banner, call the 10M insurance money

ozzieeagle

I never saw this report unfortunatly.... But I'm going to criticise the Americans massively.

I think all the above posters would have applauded the rescue efforts of the russians sailiors stuck in the submarine of the east of Russia recently, By the british who had the capacity to do so.

Lets take a scenario and imagine this event had happened slightly further south, Say in Honduras or El-Salvador, After 5 days of inactivity, where people are getting raped and murdered in the supposedly safe haven of a football stadium due to lack of disaster planning because of the Financial restrictions in those respective countries. Australa having the capacity to fly in Helicopters from Chile say, where I think there is an Australian presence Arranges by Mobile phone or some other means of communication, Flys in Said Helicopters and saves Australians from Rampant desperate lawless latinos. I would Imagine a lot of the western world would be applauding this, seeing as in that same Scenerio there would probably be room for other commonwealth citizens and even Americans.

After 3 days in this current Event Australia probably would have had the capacity to rescue it's citizens from this Current situation, but would have been stopped doing so by political protocol.

Back To what would have happened if say, Townsville or Cairns or even Brisbane would have got knocked by the a massive Cyclone. "Wake up people,...."
The Australian Government Would not repeat would not have been counting the cost of said operation before launching it. That is a 100 pct certain Fact.

Points to Cyclone tracy Dec 25th, Aussies most northerly city gets destroyed unexpectedly 100,000 people rescued within 4 days, The cost Counted AFTERWARDS...

The ramifications of this event are going to become more and more apparent as time goes on. It has shown up the americans in a very disgusting light. Especially as they were warned by their own military engineers 6 years ago that a Cyclone hitting New Orleans Sea Defences would not hold..... But that goes against the great god of americans MONEY.

Sad thing is in any other country the aftermath of this event would have probably bought down the government. It wont happen in America eh The Bush Admin probably even added that into their Calculations.


More people died here than 9/11, the aftermath is little short of a political statement on the Americans.

snowbunny

The American government, please. How loud do some of us have to scream to let you know that we never wanted Bush to be president in 2000, that we have fought his plans for war and for cutting social services, and as individuals, have been the first to pitch in and offer help out of our own pockets?

The victims DO need help. To not offer relief is adding insult to injury -- they pay again for having a corrupt, diabolical government who are only after oil and currying favour with the rich. They've been pillaged once by the hurricane and the second time by the rest of the world turning their backs and saying "***** all Americans" due to the *government's* idiotic policies.

Again I say that many of these folks would gladly take refuge in Australia -- will you take them in? They have no love lost for Bush & Sons.

ozzieeagle

Just learned on the 2PM bulletin by 3AW, that Australia did have the capacity to rescue it's own Citizens in a Foreign Nation, Kim Beasely is now asking questions as to why The Australian forces in America were prevented from doing so.



Could be that America Really is Broke eh ?

jad n rich

I havent looked into exactly the klms affected in the USA or how many people involved, (bring back Megalania) but its seems the area is totally huge, vast, and massive compared to Darwin and Darwins population of just 45,000 people 30 years ago. Evacuating Darwin would have been easy compared to that. So perhaps the failure of the operation is due to the sheer size of the disaster

Which brings me back to australia, cities here now have millions of people not 45,000, take bris in summer any main route out of the city becomes chogged with just one car overheating or one accident, imagine if 3 million had to evacuate at once. We'd be stuffed too. Same scenario for Victoria or Sydney and NSW if Terrorism or Bushfires of the past magnitude hit.

Anyway the USA should be OK now, on the early news the opening headline
was AUSSIE EXPERTS sent to advise USA, I wish all 3!!!! of them good luck

snowbunny

No, I honestly believe two things: the government didn't want to show the world just how bad things had gotten; and that rescuing only the Aussies might have been unsafe. All that the people would have seen is that white foreigners were being rescued, but they weren't, and they might have rioted. Hotel Rwanda part II.

ozzieeagle

My rescue figure for Darwin 1974, is 100,000 people moved. Pro Rata on size of country capacity etc, that would have been a similar drain on Resources.


Snowbunny, You are probably right, re the white Foreigners, What is probably more pertinant it seems that the Aussies typically were keen to get in there and help all, Days ago.




There is one hell of a politcal storm coming.