Lake Charles Police Chief Don Dixon said Friday a curfew of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. has been set throughout the city for the next three days.
The curfew is specifically aimed at preventing looting since an estimated 95 percent of the city has been evacuated.
As of 2:30 p.m. Friday, the city police had made no arrests for looting. There was a report in Westlake of a convenience store being looted. No arrests have been made.
Dixon said anyone who is arrested for looting will be put into the Calcasieu Correctional Center. There are plenty of jail cells since the jail was evacuated.
"We are locking them up. We will throw them some MREs and some water, and say, 'good luck,''' he said.
Dixon said he has nearly 80 officers patrolling the city with the other half on standby at the Grand Casino Coushatta near Kinder. The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Department is also patrolling the city.
"I have half of my force out on the street right now. When we get about 35- to 40-mileper-hour sustained winds which is probably pretty close, I will go Code Red and call them in," Dixon said.
Dixon said that persons who are staying in their homes in Lake Charles should prepare for rising water.
He recommends putting water and food along with an axe or saw in the attic if persons have to head there to escape high water.
"I was in St. Bernard Parish and I don't want to see what I saw there. I'm saying be prepared. Rising water happened so fast there. It's a good idea to put something in attic to sustain you," Dixon said.
The police chief asked that persons who are staying in their homes to put a sign outside above their front doors saying how many persons are inside "so we will know."
Asked how many persons are still remaining in the city, Dixon said, "We went out about two-and-a-half hours ago. We probably saw about 100 people. There were some on bicycles. There were a couple in wheelchairs."
Dixon said some of the people staying behind "were stubborn, some didn't want to leave, some worked yesterday, got a pay check and couldn't cash it, couldn't get gas."
"They have various stories," Dixon said.
Dixon was asked if there is a shelter "of last resort" being set up at the last-minute for those persons who stayed behind.
"There hasn't been one announced yet. That is the mayor's call. It hasn't been discussed. I would say if the water starts rising, get to high ground," Dixon said.
Hector San Miguel
City Editor
Friday, September 23
Curfew aimed at looters
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7 comments:
Where is all the billions of $$$'s coming from? Why rebuild when another desvastating hurricans will come along and undo everything. I think we should help those people but they should be told if you stay and rebuild is's your nickle next time another hurrican comes along. New Orleans should be abanded like Anchorage and rebuild on higher ground. After all the been New Orleans been sinking and the ocean level been rising sooo why rebuild. Why beat a dead horse?
Glenn H. I hope huricane Rita doesn't turn racial so Jessy Jackson wont have anything to yell about; He is single handidly trying to stir up trouble when their is none. I think it must put money in his pocket when causing our country more problems that we dont need. Our government should arrest him cut out his tongue and deport his sorry ass!
Jesse Jackson didn't leave all of those people there for 5 days to die. Jesse Jackson didn't wave a wand and say all poor, black people stay here to die. They were left there. If all of those faces you saw on TV where white men or roofs, in the superdome, on the street dead what would you think?
We should focus on helping one another, not on pointing fingers. A hurricane is a natural disaster that no one can control. People should stop shouting comments about race. They need to get off their behinds and do something that actually helps the situation.
In Katrina I Didn't See Racism, I Saw Brotherhood
>
> by Rabbi Aryeh Spero
> Posted Sep 7, 2005
>
> In New Orleans, beginning Tuesday morning, August 30, I saw men in
> helicopters risking their lives to save stranded flood victims from
> rooftops. The rescuers were White, the stranded Black. I saw Caucasians
> navigating their small, private boats in violent, swirling, toxic
> floodwaters to find fellow citizens trapped in their houses. Those they
> saved were Black.
>
> I saw Brotherhood. New York Congressman Charlie Rangel saw Racism.
>
> Yes, there are Two Americas. One is the real America, where virtually
> every White person I know sends money, food or clothes to those in need
> -- now and in other crises -- regardless of color. This America is
> colorblind.
>
> The other is the America fantasized and manufactured by Charlie Rangel,
> Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who constantly cry "racism!" even in
> situations where it does not exist, even when undeniable images
> illustrate love, compassion and concern. These three men, together with
> today's NAACP, want to continue the notion of Racist America. It is their
> Mantra, their calling card. Their power, money, and continued media
> appearances
> depend on it.
>
> Often, people caught up in accusing others of sin neglect to undergo
> their own personal introspection. They begin to think they alone inhabit
> the moral high ground. It is high time these men peered into their own hearts
> at the dark chamber that causes this unceasing labeling of their fellow
> Americans as "racist." They may find in that chamber their own racism
> -- against Whites.
>
> There is only one real America. Beginning Friday morning in Houston,
> thousands of regular citizens poured into the Astrodome offering water,
> food, clean clothes, personal items, baby diapers and toys, love and even
> their homes to the evacuees who had been bused in from New Orleans. Most
> of the givers were White, most of those being helped were Black. But there
> was Jesse Jackson, busy on TV, accusing the country of not putting
> Blacks -- i.e., him -- on some type of Commission he is demanding. Where was
> he
> early in the week? Not sweating with others from around the country who had
> scraped their last dollar to come help. With Jesse, it's always about Jesse.
>
> After decades of hearing accusations from Jesse, Al, Charlie, the NAACP
> and certain elitists about how racist America is, it would have been
> refreshing to hear them for once give thanks to those they for years have
> been maligning. These self-anointed spokesmen for the Black community lead
> only when it comes to foisting guilt and condemnation, and not when it
> comes to acknowledging the good in those they have made a career in
> castigating.
>
> As a Rabbi I have a message I wish to offer to my fellow members of the
> cloth, Reverends Jackson and Sharpton: It is time to do some soul
> searching. Your continued efforts to tear this country apart, even in
> light of the monumental goodness shown by your White brothers, is a sin.
>
> There are no churches in the world like the American churches. And there
> are no better parishioners and members of churches anywhere in the world.
> These churches are saving the day. Their members -- infused by the special
> and singular teachings of our unique American Judeo-Christian understanding
> of the Bible -- are, at this moment, writing an historic chapter in giving,
> initiative, and selflessness. They are opening their homes to strangers.
> They are doing what government is incapable of doing.
>
> America works because of its faith-based institutions. It always has.
> That is what makes it America.
>
> So next time the ACLU tries to diminish and marginalize the churches,
> saying there is no role for religion in American public life, that an
> impenetrable wall must be erected separating the citizens from their faith,
> cry out "Katrina." Next time the ACLU goes to court asking that U.S.
> soldiers not be allowed to say Grace in the Mess Hall and that communities
> be forbidden from setting up a nativity scene, ask yourself: without
> the motivation of Goodness sourced in Faith, would people offer such
> sacrifice? Where else does this Brotherhood come from but the Bible which
> teaches "Thou Shall Love Thy Neighbor as Yourself."
>
> I saw brotherhood on Fox News, where 24/7 reporters used their perch as a
> clearing-house for search-and-rescue missions and communication between
> the stranded and those in position to save. In contrast, the Old-line
> networks continued with their usual foolish, brain-numbing programming.
> Those who always preach "compassion" chose profit over people.
>
> The New York Times has utterly failed America. Its columnists could have
> used their talents and word skills to inspire and unite a nation.
> Columnists such as Frank Rich and Paul Krugman, however, revealed their
> true colors by evading their once-in-a-lifetime chance to help and instead
> chose to divide, condemn, and fuel the fires and poison the waters of
> Louisiana.
> In them, I saw no Brotherhood. The newspaper always preaching "compassion"
> verifies Shakespeare's "They protest too much."
>
> Similar elitists here in the northeast and on the west coast have over
> the years expressed their view of the South as "unsophisticated" and Texans
> as "cowboys." Well, the South has come through, especially Houston and
> other parts of Texas, whereas, as I write this on Labor Day, the limousine
> moralizers are lying on east and west coast beaches thinking they're
> doing their part by reading Times' editorials and calling George Bush
> "racist." How sanctimonious life becomes when proving you are not a racist
> depends not on living in a truly integrated neighborhood, but by simply
> calling
> others racist.
>
> Like so often in history, facts trump platitudes. Reality reigns. Those
> who always preach brotherhood, thus far have acted devoid of it. Those who
> for decades have been accused by elitists of not having compassion are the
> ones living it. They are: the churches, the military, and the sons and
> daughters of the South.
May God watch over you and yours.
I do wish the media would focus more on the positive aspects of individuals' stories (Iraq, Hurricane relief, or lesbian mothers raising well-adjusted children in a loving household). Of course, these positive aspects are rarely seen as "news".
I think if anyone has failed us it is the media which ignores these awesome individuals, combined with the government which allows to many people to forget their personal responsibilities.
Thank you for those words, Rabbi, everyone - it is so nice to hear some people NOT try to tear the government, the workers, our President down with their words; finding things to accuse him of that don't even exist (such as racism). I'm sure it hasn't been easy for all the hard working people, especially the President as he tries so hard to get everything safe and under control when NO ONE can control natural disasters but the Lord. It is hard for me to hear so many people accusing him and cutting him down instead of encouraging him when he has had so many things to cope with in his presedential terms. Many more than most presidents - and yet he has stood strong - both for the people and for God. To those who critisize so severely, I often wonder what THEY would do if they were in charge of running the country and all these disasters hit.
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