Quote:
But there were complaints that some refugees, hauled out of the city in desperate condition, were being refused safe haven in some places, including some that said they already were filled beyond capacity with storm victims. New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas blasted the city of Baton Rouge and other Louisiana communities for what he called a callous refusal to take in refugees from his devastated city.
"They don’t want them," Thomas said, after bursting into the press room at the Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge. "They have put out the word all over the state: ’Those bad New Orleans people. You don’t want them.’ "
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My oldest daughter is currently living in a tent city in Baton Rouge. She is one of 1,000s of EMTs and paramedics that have come from other states to help. I talk to her daily. The stories that you hear in the press do not reflect what she tells me nightly. Baton Rouge
is packed as full as it can get. Between volunteers and victims the cities population has more than doubled. She tells me stories of extraordinary generosity and hospitality from the local residents, opening up their private homes to both volunteers and victims for laundry, showers, and food. My daughter has evacuated people from shelters and nursing homes. She gives shots, hands out meds, and takes blood pressure at the shelters. While I have no doubt that the racism and elitism that is described in the article exists, it is not what my daughter sees on a daily basis.
Baton Rouge is half the size of New Orleans, it simply cannot absorb the entire population and that of it's surroundings. There are one hell of a lot of people down there, busting their asses to do what is right for these victims. I hope the media eventually catches up with them.