09-04-2005, 04:45 AM
Quote:News
The Riverwalk may be on fire (shopping mall at the river at end of CBD/Quarter). Everytime we talk to the police, we hear about sniper fire at the fire scenes. I cannot confirm that there is any. This is all hearsay, but it's coming from the police. The police we talk to, while consistent about claiming there is sniper fire, are conflicted about whether it's police sniper fire trying to take out arsonists or criminal sniper fire trying to take out police and fire rescue teams. Again, this is rumor for now, but we're hearing a lot of this rumor.
Now this is something that requires tact, and I do not have much experience with reporting, but I think the world needs to know how overwhelmed the police are out here: I have reports from 3 different police sources that 2 police officers have committed suicide. Out of respect for their families, I will not name them or go into detail. Truly tragic how bad things are. I sincerely hope I did the right thing in reporting this.
The 3 guys you just saw on webcam are Jeff and Hank of Data Protection Services (one of our customers who swore to their customers that they would not go down because of this storm), and Doctor Tom, an anesthesiologist. These three men heroically found a way to deliver us fuel and supplies into this disaster zone. I say heroically, because the amount of effort it took them to coordinate a way to get a container and fuel and a route in to the city in the face of persistent danger on the streets was absolutely off the charts. Their customers need to know the lengths that these men went to in order to get the job done. I listened to their accounts and I was absolutely impressed by the initiative and resourcefulness of these guys. Their story will be forthcoming on my blog sometime in the coming weeks when this is all over. For now, I want to thank these men in front of the whole world for the service they just performed.
Quote:The city is starting to feel more secure now. Much larger military and Homeland Security presence and many fewer civilians left. Of course with this added security comes additional dangers like hyper-suspicious, armed authorities. If you watch the cam or walk the streets, you see that almost every civilian is approached, evaluated for threat potential, then either patted down or left alone. The disconcerting thing is that these authorities always have their guns at the ready and look like they're enjoying intimidating the people. Two of us have already had guns aimed at us by police -- Brian by the Federal Cops guarding the Boggs Federal building while we were waiting for the resupply, and me when we were delivering the router to City Hall.
Don't get me wrong, some guys are more professional than others. You can tell the ones who took the job because they wanted to bullies and who took the job to protect and serve. That's one thing a catastrophic situation does -- it sifts people's true personalities out.
Nevertheless, aside from the arson, I think that generally it's much safer today than yesterday.
Ok, now I've got some down time so I'll try to answer your IMs and hit the IRC chat.
Jays (or anyone), wanna hang out in Manhattan next weekend and have a few beers? PM me...