| Honore Advises New Orleans
Residents to Leave, But Refuses to
Use Force
Date:
Friday, September 09, 2005
By: Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com
The mandatory evacuation of 10,000 New Orleans residents still stranded in their hurricane-battered homes -- many of them wading in contaminated floodwaters -- has become an unprecedented political mess: Many black residents are opting to tough it out rather than leave town as police try to coax the most stubborn holdouts through the front doors of their waterlogged houses.
"This is an interesting dilemma in the political process," Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing perhaps the largest search and rescue effort in U.S. history, told BlackAmericaWeb.com Thursday.
"The mayor has issued a mandatory evacuation, but as the water recedes, there are people who want to remain in their homes, and there are people in floodwaters who do not want to leave their homes," Honore, commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, said in an interview from New Orleans.
"We advise them of potential dangers to their health, and we continue to provide them with food and water," said Honore, adding that U.S. troops have rescued more than 60,000 residents over the past few days. "Our mission is to save lives."
New Orleans officials and residents are still trying to cope with one of America's worst natural catastrophe and the largest displacement of Americans --mostly black -- since the Civil War. More than 160,000 homes in Louisiana were destroyed and about 190,000 public school students were displaced by the storm. The death toll, which may already be more than 1,000, is mounting. The city has 25,000 body bags on standby.
Although Mayor Ray Nagin has issued a mandatory evacuation order for New Orleans, the U.S. military is solely conducting a search and rescue mission. "We will not play a role in forced evacuations," Honore said, leaving that task to local law enforcement.
Some residents are even questioning the legality of being forced from their homes and wondering if through eminent domain, they will lose their properties when the city is rebuilt.
Further complicating the situation, Honore said, is that only the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, can order police to remove residents by force, a potentially confrontational situation police officials say they would like to avoid.
"We're not going to be forceful ... or disrespectful," New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass told CNN Thursday. "We're doing this with sensitivity."
In a interview with BlackAmericaWeb.com Thursday, Honore, who had just finished a meeting with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, said he understands the frustration of black residents whose lives are in chaos as scores of families are separated, many still unable to locate their loved ones. He echoed sentiments that the hurricane and the storm's aftermath have exposed critical economic disparities facing America's black and poor citizens.
"Growing up poor," Honore said, "I have an appreciation for what these people are going through."
"Who is affected more when it's cold? Poor people," he said. "Who is affected more when it's hot? Poor people. Who is affected more when it's wet? Poor people. Who is most affected when the economy is bad? Poor people. Poor people are the most fragile."
The general added that when he heard black residents in New Orleans were walking out of stores with food, water, milk, diapers and, in some cases, medicine, he didn't consider their actions illegal.
"They went into stores to get food to stay alive," he said. "Looting isn't the right word. I call it survival."
Nagin, meanwhile, is telling residents their city is now a seriously dangerous place to live. The high waters that flooded New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina are now polluted with feces, e-coli, gasoline and chemicals and the mayor warned that drinking water may not be available for years.
In a plea to those who might be listening to portable radios, Nagin warned that the fetid floodwater could carry disease and that natural gas was leaking all over town.
"This is not a safe environment," Nagin said. "I understand the spirit that's basically, 'I don't want to abandon my city.' It's okay. Leave for a little while. Let us get you to a better place. Let us clean the city up."
Nagin, a harsh critic of the Bush administration's response to the storm, maintained in recent interviews that he appreciated Honore's leadership.
"He came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing, and people started moving," Nagin told a radio station. "I give the president some credit on this. He sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done."
The general, also known as the "Ragin' Cajun," was seen on CNN carrying out his humanitarian relief mission. "Put those [expletive] weapons down!" he yelled to troops rolling in on trucks. He repeatedly told soldiers, and sometimes the local police, to put their guns down, reminding them they were "not in Iraq."
As he walked around New Orleans Thursday, Honore noted there is still no infrastructure, no running water, no social facilities, no power, no telephone service.
"In some cases, we had to chop down trees to get through," Honore told BlackAmericaWeb.com . "Technology has been set back 80 years.”
Honore, a native of Lakeland, Louisiana, said black residents he's encountered have expressed "jubilation" at the sight of soldiers with food and water, but also "frustration" because many wonder why it took so long for troops to arrive.
On Capitol Hill Thursday, congressional leaders and President George W. Bush called for hearings and investigations to determine what went wrong and why so many people may have died needlessly because the federal response to the crisis was too slow and disorganized.
Democrats are lining up to criticize Bush, calling the federal response to the hurricane "an utter failure."
"The Bush White House has attempted to whip up a political sandstorm over the inadequate and delayed response to Hurricane Katrina in an effort to obscure the view of FEMA's collosal failure," Josh Earnest, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement.
For his part, Honore said he's heard the drumbeat of criticism but insists that his mission is to set politics aside and rescue as many residents as possible, offer them support, nourishment and medical assistance.
Honore likened the 250-mile-wide hurricane to a formidable military "enemy" that simultaneously took out all communication, paralyzed transportation, poisoned the water supply, flooded neighborhoods and wiped out the city's infrastructure.
And despite the critics, Honore said, more than 40,000 U.S. troops are now mobilized in New Orleans and soldiers are walking block by block saving lives.
"We're not stuck on stupid," the tough-talking, three-star general told BlackAmericaWeb.com . "We know what we're doing."
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