Survival In New Orleans

By Michael Barnett, The Interdictor. Posted September 2, 2005.

Editor's note: The following are excerpts from Michael Barnett's blog, The Interdictor, over a period of approximately 24 hours. Writes Barnett, "This journal has become the Survival of New Orleans blog. In less perilous times it was simply a blog for me to talk smack and chat with friends. Now this journal exists to share firsthand experience of the disaster and its aftermath with anyone interested.

Thursday, Sept. 1

12:11am.

New Orleans Police Department Status: The situation for the NOPD is critical. This is firsthand information I have from an NOPD officer we're giving shelter to. Their command and control infrastructure is shot. They have limited to no communication whatsoever. He didn't even know the city was under martial law until we told him! His precinct (5th Precinct) is underwater! UNDERWATER -- every vehicle underwater. They had to commander moving trucks like Ryder and U-Haul to get around. The coroner's office is shut down so bodies are being covered in leaves at best or left where they lie at worst.

They don't even know their own rules of engagement. He says the force is impotent right now. They have no idea what's going on, no coordination, virtually no comms, etc. the National Guard is gonna air drop a radio system for them with 200 radios? They are getting very little direction.

The 3rd District bugged out to Baton Rouge because they flooded out.

His quote: "It's a zoo."

More firsthand information direct from him shortly. He's trying to recover.

I am not trying to be an alarmist, but until we get a military presence of signicance in the city, the roving gangs of thugs own the streets.

12:35am.

More from the police officer. I'm typing as fast as I can while he talks to us. He's only hearing bits and pieces. The people in the city are shooting at the police. They're upset that they're not getting help quickly enough. The firemen keep calling because they're under fire. He doesn't understand why the people are shooting at the rescuers. Here it is five days ago the mayor said get out of town and nobody went and now they're pissed.

The National Guard was at the Hilton, but now the Hilton is evacuated. When they said the CBD was gonna get six feet of water, it seems like everyone evacuated.

He turned the corner onto Canal Street and it looked like a flea market. People breaking into every store, going to the neutral gound (median) and trading and selling everything.

They broke into Winn Dixie Monday night. Do they steal food? No. Cigarettes and liquor. Store was a mess. All the meats were going to waste so the districts went over there to salvage food for officers. Many cops have been eating MREs.

The Iberville Housing Projects got pissed off because the police started to "shop" after they kicked out looters. Then they started shooting at cops. When the cops left, the looters looted everything. There's probably not a grocery left in this city.

Over 30 officers have quit over the last three days. Out of 160 officers in his district maybe 55 or 60 are working. He hasn't seen several since Sunday. HQ is closed, evacuated. No phones to contact them.

2:15am.

It's been a very long day. I'm going to crash for a bit and try to get five hours or so of sleep. I apologize again that I cannot respond to each IM. I am trying. We've got that IRC channel going and I'll try to get in there for a while later in the day.

I am going to debrief the police officer completely in the morning. He was utterly fatigued, thirsty, and wanted to find out what the hell was really going on.

It is a zoo out there though, make no mistake. It's the wild kingdom. It's Lord of the Flies. That doesn't mean there's murder on every street corner. But what it does mean is that the rule of law has collapsed, that there is no order, and that property rights cannot and are not being enforced. Anyone who is on the streets is in immediate danger of being robbed and killed. It's that bad.

8:26 am.

Best night sleep I've had so far. Woke up without back pain for the first time since before this thing started. I've been sleeping on the carpet, and that's a very thin layer covering the hard concrete. It takes about three days to get accustomed to sleeping on concrete -- I know that from my my days of sleeping on asphalt when the army couldn't provide better. I need to perform personal hygiene in a little bit, but I wanted to check in first and let everyone know that Outpost Crystal is still a viable and functioning camp of civilization in the face of the lawless barbarian hordes who threaten at all times to turn what's left of New Orleans into the war of all against all. It's like Mogadishu out there, but we're in a fixed defensive position and prepared.

9:36am.

We have permission from the City and from FEMA to truck in diesel. We have the ability to take on 1300-1500 more gallons of diesel fuel. If you or anyone you know is capable of bringing us fuel, we will pay for it. It would be best if the delivery truck could navigate a parking garage, otherwise the unloading will be hours -- no idea how long it could take.

10:12am.

1. There is a mass exodus for the Mississippi River Bridges (Crescent City Connection) from the CBD. We are not sure what's going on, but we are assuming until we hear differently that people are fleeing the city. So if you're watching the feeds, that's what you're seeing -- throngs of people moving toward the bridges.

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