This is from the owner of a motel in or around Metairie, I-10 & Clearview, I found it on one of the BB set up to find people.
If you are one of those people who worked and called and prayed to get us out of New Orleans, thank you. Please continue. If you are one of those people who can only criticize and blame the government, the Police, the Hospitals and the citizenry for what has happened, please STOP. It is no one's FAULT that nature blasted through our region. The government did not DELIBERATELY come into this disaster ill-prepared. Hospitals did not REFUSE services because they did not care. PEOPLE DID NOT STAY JUST TO HAVE HURRICANE PARTIES! People stayed because they had no money--no transportation--no place to go. In our case, our employees stayed to help those in need and now they are all in need.
We sent employees to Baton Rouge, Shreveport and beyond with nothing more than what they could carry and with no paychecks or other resources. We gave our 60 year-old night auditor $33 in quarters to help him get a little food when he arrived in Lake Charles. A 23 year-old desk clerk, whose grandmother suffered a massive stroke on hurricane day and who still paddled six of our ill guests to the same hospital after the storm, left town in a $300 car and with three stranded airline passengers. He took them to Baton Rouge Metro Airport and I am certain they gave him whatever they could spare as he left for Shreveport.
It is vicious and cruel and heartless to call people stupid for living in such a place or for making the choice--if even given one--to stay during such hard times. It is unproductive to play "armchair quarterback" and dictate from the comfort of your living room how poorly things are being managed and what they "should have done." It is pure evil to even dare to testify that God punished people for sin by such a horrible tragedy.
In the four miserable days we stayed locked in a wet, dark, hot hotel, we came together as one unified race comprised of Asians, Hispanics, African-Americans, Caucasians and perhaps any combination therein, and we survived. Wouldn't it be great if we could do that on a daily basis?