I am a police officer in New Orleans and this is the first time in two weeks that I have had the chance to get online and read. I have been working 12 hour shifts for the past 14 days (includint 3 24 hours shifts) and have accumulated 102 hours overtime ontop of my regular 80 hours of work for 2 weeks.

I will tell you all this...... DO NOT BELIEVE 99.9% OF WHAT YOU HEAR ON TV! Yes, it is VERY bad down here and this will take YEARS to recover from but most of what you all are hearing on national news is a load of *********

I can tell you this....it took FEMA WAY TOO LONG to get here....they knew this was coming yet ittook them damn near a week to get here. It took the Red Cross WAY TOO LONG to get here.....once again almost a week.

In regards to the violence here....yea there have been a few incidents but they are isolated and have been dealt with.

As for the conditions here in the city, yea its real bad....worse than anything you could possibly imagine. The smell is horrid....so bad that it now turns my stomach (know what a sceptic tank smells like on a hot summer day? well multiply that times 1000). But everyday it gets a little better. Food and water are no longer a problem and thanks to the military and the roughly 5000 police officers from damn near every state in the US, the crime problems are down drastically.

As for my experience when this storm hit....I spent three days in a shelter with my fellow officers with no food, no water and no bathrooms waiting to be evacuated.

As for my family....everyone is accounted for however out of my wife's family and my family, only 4 of us have houses left. Most of my wife's families houses are still underwater in New Orleans and my mother's house had 2 feet of water in it.

I will leave you with this....for those of you that have never experienced this before, I can truely say that I NEVER want to re-live this again.

Thanks for all the support and aid we are getting here...those of us on the front lines cannot appreciate it more.

The police need to get more involved in that area. The gangs are just taking the city by siege.

It seems that no one out there truly gives a sh*t about what's going on down south and in new orleans besides the mayor and the people having to wade through the water. There are god-d*mned DEAD bodies floating in the f*cking streets and people just sit there shaking their heads at the images on the telivision, sending their useless condolences and sympathies from the comfortable warmth of their dry, safe livingrooms. Stop sending your condolences and do something to help save damn lives already. The president refused foreign aid when New Orleans needed it the most, damnit! He didn;t send in the God-d*mned national guard until it was way too late. Meanwhile, the governer isn't doing nearly enough to help. This disaster is most definitely the worst in US history, with death tolls reaching far and beyond that of 9/11. And the president "rushes to action" flying above the disaster area to simply look upon the dying people below form the luxurious comfort of the Air Force 1! People simply send their condolences? Bullsh*t. Condolences and sympathies aren't worth two sh*ts to those poeple dragging their dead husbands bodies behind them in the streets. They aren't saving the lives of any of those people buried in disease prone waters up to their necks in their attics. It's not doing anything to help get those people stranded on rooftops without their loved ones, without food and water, with nothing but the clothes on their backs to any sort of safety. DO SOMETHING PLEASE! Half of my freaking FAMILY is down there in Alabama and in Georgia. My grandmother sits there losing her mind worrying about my cousins and aunts and uncles. Half of my family is probably DEAD down there and noone is doing **** about it! Makes me God-damned sick. I have bags full of clothing and supplies and I'm trying to make deals with people to get the crap down there. I'm trying to get more and more young people involved because whether Bush likes it or not we have a ddamned voice and we WILL have a say in what goes on around here. We have GOT to do something. My family has way too much to just sit here and do nothing while people drown to death down there. While orphaned kids starve to death down there. If the president and the governer wont do anything about it (or at least they're not doing enough!) then WE HAVE to do something! Anything at all. Send clothes. Send food. Send help!

I just dusted off my bicycle and air pump. I am thankful that I live less than 5 miles from work and there is a 10 foot wide bike path between my house and work. I am going to use this alternate method of transportation if gas prices soar above $3.00/gal

I'm in Alabama right now, and I've been without power since the day before the hurricane.(of course i have power now)and it was really, really terrible. They are saying now that the school board may not be able to return the children to school because of Gas for buses/ power in the schools / and damage done to schools... It could be December for those of us that are here and safe now before we return to campus... on the other hand the children in New Orleans will be taking there lessons in the Astrodome and the Superdome. Send your prayers to them because they will need it most of all. One of my best friends were killed in this Hurricane and he had his Mom-dad-sisters(2)- brother (10 years old) and himself
The only survivor is the 10 year old, and now he is by himself currently safe in the Astrodome...
Alot of terrible things have happened in the past few days, and I hope i'm speaking for everyone when I say I hope this never happens again...

Thank you to everyone who is helping with the clean up and donating. ^-^

I grew up in New Orleans and most of my friends and family still live(d) there. My sister is making her way to Iowa because she is unable to return to her house. My niece is in Mississippi with two small children and no electricity. My nephew swam from his flooded home to the French Quarter and then hitched a ride to Baton Rouge to be with his wife and daughter.

I am devastated and in shock over this - and I'm safe, dry and at work right now.

i have a friend in new orleans i just hope she is ok
i wish i could donate to the ppl there but saddly i am just a kid with no money

I have seen the effects of Hurricane Katrina. It looks alot like Hurricane Andrew possibly even worse then Andrew. The cities of Belioux (the one in Mississippi), Mobile AL, and New Orleans is great. Mobile is completely flooded if you have not seen those pictures. We all know about the levees broken in New Orleans and how the Big Easy is 80% flooded. In Mississippi I saw footage of a casino ontop of a house not in pieces but as a whole. I lived through Hugo until the eye of the hurricane (yes, I realize I was only 6 months old but I was still there) when it hit South Carolina. People do not realize how lucky they are for the places they live in because hurricanes are a deadly force to the south and east. The midwest has tornados not as sever as a hurricane persay but damaging and fatal. The west has had problems with raging fires and floods. In America alone in the past 20 years there has been a chronical of natural events that took the lives of many. The people who bash us do not realize that we extend our condolences out to people all over the world who are effected by natural and unnatural disasters. My school during the Tsunami ran a fund drive for Tsunami victoms and the other various areas that were effected by the Tsunamis. I am sure we are going to run a fund for Katrina victoms and raise the same amount if not more money. It is sad to have all these people so crudely misinformed about what has happened on what Alla has posted on past tragedies because they are new here. If they would only walk a mile in another person's shoes and see what it is to experience a minor degree of this storm or any other one.

My personal experience from H.K.: My g.f moved down to Alabama the Friday before it happened literally there for 2 days. I had my TV on as I was going to bed and was flipping chanel to chanel and come across CNN and see Hurricane Katrina approaching Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The first thing that came to mind was omg my g/f. So the next day at school all I was thinking about was is she ok? Is she alive? Get home and see she is online and she says she is safe and I started to cry because when you have someone you love so much so close to a deadly storm you only think of them. The next day her school got canceled because the weather got worse rain, wind, and all that stuff. I was just still so happy that she was safe and that her family was ok.

I am almost outraged by reading some of these posts. I don't understand how some people can be so insensitive to the people going through this disaster right now. Yes there have been many disasters in the world recently, many have lost their lives. However, please do not belittle this catastrophe and all the people who have lost their lives because of this.

If you don't have anything encouraging to say, please just keep it to yourself.

Also, if you are of the praying type, please take a moment and say a quick prayer for everyone affected by this.

I'm currently stationed in VA Beach, but I grew up in New Orleans and have family there. Luckily, yesterday I got in touch with my sister and her boyfriend and found out that they are ok. They are coming up here to evacuate. They live on the westbank (which didn't get much flooding), which I am truly grateful for. Unfortunately on the east bank, majority of the city is under water due to the levee break, and it's only get worse as we speak. Here is a link to the local New Orleans news site, which also has a great blog with people from the area.
www.nola.com
I would also like to thank personally anyone stepping up and donating to help the city get through this disaster. /salute

Why does something that someone is doing to help others have to be turned into **** fest?

It just goes to show that no matter what happens someone has to complain.

People are in need, a disaster is a disaster.

If you are not going to be helpful on this topic then don't post. The last thing that is needed is more hurt....