Would have bought one but had already donated the same sum to a Vet for Peace who stopped by our chapter (Ch. 54) on his way to Covington where some of his family lived — all I know is that it is outside NOLA and a lot of refugees had come in. Our chapter basically sent what was in our bank account plus whatever else we could scrape together for his planned soup kitchen. He was going to cross the country anyway to go to the great antiwar, anti-BushCheney march in DC, but this was more urgent.

As for DU I remember people reporting in here before, during, and after. I know you’re still here. Please check in.

-as was the general posting from those monitoring the horror at the SuperDome, on the bridges, and those witnessing the dead on sidewalks, in the water- sadly falling prey to alligators, the abuse by police, and the general horror that seemed never to end.

The internet was not as ubiquitous as today, and social media was nonexistent, but blogs/forum posts were a frequent source of real-time info. But, it was the first disaster of that size that allowed for those outside to have some information from those impacted in real time--and without filters from media, police, or officials.

I do remember one woman CNN reporter standing in that devastation and stink and crying out from the heart, “Where is the help? “

board an evacuation bus with his mother on one of the bridges and being told he had to leave his little dog (a white Samoyed/Eskimo/Spitz? mix), named Snowball, behind. There was no animal rescue at that time, and I am fairly sure Snowball perished along with so many desperate humans. I can still hear the wails and see the tears on that little boy's face. That one really hit me hard...

…dogs were pacing back and forth across porches…

So sad. Yes, I was here then.

I just looked Swamp Rat up and it says that they were a member since 2004, but their last post was in 1999.

but he had joined only a year or so before. He had awesome posts.

or something to that effect way before the media caught on to how serious the situation was. His post really made me in CA tune in and unfortunately , he was right.

Some really funny political artworks using grotesque photoshop filters for the republicans, so that they ended up with green, lumpy skin and other enhancements. Swamp Rat would have had an absolute ball with trump.

It seems from the other replies that no one has heard from him in a long time.

I know we were posting during Katrina and posters from the area were packing and/or making plans. Swamp Rat was. He left. I was reading those posts and really worried. I later went to the area post devastation with an animal rescue group. Communication was terrible. No cell towers or wifi That technology was in its infancy still.

There was a kind Duer (user name bvar) who returned to NOLA sooner than my son was able to, and after a few private messages, he went to my son's address and messaged me photographs of the damage to my son's home ( a rental, he was a college senior at the time) so we could have an idea of what we faced. The water damage and subsequent mold made the place and all the belongings inside a total loss. He was able to return to NOLA in January for his final semester at Loyola.

I think he was around for a while after. Didn't he do some really interesting gardening?

with nothing. he abandoned what he had. I think he let his dogs go loose b4 he left if I remember correctly. I think he and his dad left?
shortly after that I don't know. never saw his posts again. maybe he changed his posting name? I wish I knew how he was doing.
I would like to know what happened to swamp rat. DU history posts don't go back that far I don't think. I tried to figure out what happened to him.

It was a terrible tragedy. A week or so after Katrina had gone, my psych NP niece went to Baton Rouge to work in the Find Family Call Center. She spent a harrowing two weeks there reuniting Katrina victims.

She never got out of Baton Rouge, but one of her colleagues did and shared photos of destruction in New Orleans. I'll never forget the devastation.

As to Swamp Rat, I have no idea what happened to him.

There were also looters who stole diapers and bottled water: those were *Black* residents.

Christ on a trailer hitch that pair of characterizations infuriated me.

White people were reported to have "found" food while Black people were reported to be "looters."

The racism and brutality was horrible. I remember all those people stuck in the Superdome with nothing to drink, no water.

There are a number of images I'll never forget.

I wish I knew what happened to him.

Our experience pales in comparison to others.

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Will never forget when the doctor shouted out. Go Fuck yourself Mr Cheney and the white people ‘helping themselves to required stuff but the blacks looting’ according to media hacks and vested interests.
Katrina and its aftermath will go to the grave with me.
And yes where is Swamp rat?

Corrected - it was Go fuck yourself My Cheney😀

I always really liked Swamp Rat.

Recommended.

I remember, "Helluva job, Brownie" and the horror of some of the discoveries after the hurricane had passed. Traumatic time.

hell I never go anywhere else
🫤



✌🏻

Robert Segal was interviewing Brownie. The reporter on the ground was at a location and Robert was talking to him. There were people there. Brownie argued that there was no body there. Robert who was always unflappable was trying to get him to understand that the reporter on the ground was with people. As soon as I got home I called Ted Strickland's office and told them what had transpired. Then called Oxfam who I always donated to. They said they didn't respond to emergencies in the USA because usually the response is excellent. I told them to listen to the NPR news cast. They responded. The response from Bush jr administration was criminal.

But I do remember sitting in a doctor's waiting room right after with several strangers, and us gasping in near unison at some of the pictures being shown on the waiting room's tv.

but was primarily a lurker in those days. This was a great place to be during those dark days. (And so many other dark days…)

We were just coming off the Cindy Sheehan summer in Crawford. Kind of intense in its own way. Seems like a couple of lifetimes ago now.

I was there, **since then a few strokes for me** so I will add their names as I remember them. Dancing Bear was one, I wish I knew what happened to him. Ann was with me but I forgot her DU name and several others.

.....if you are talking about early posters from the KC/Lawrence area. Also evilbastard and comerperro are a couple others I remember.

(This is Mrs. Hatrack, posting on Hatrack's account, remembering the old days when we thought it couldn't get any worse than W......)

EDIT: I just realized you were talking about who was at Camp Crawford. I still think the Ann you are referring to was proud2Blib. The others were other posters from the KC/Lawrence area who got together once, including Ann, and who sometimes posted in the Missouri and Kansas forums.

and picked up quite a few students from NOLA
who were evacuees.

And yes, it really was very intense.

In Bay St Louis never want to do that again. Managed to sell the property moved to Virginia.

Katrina in my daughter's house in 2nd St just above the bridge to Pass Christian. Horrible. Had to move back to Houston, and found DU in early 2006. In a news remembrance yesterday it was all about New Orleans and they even downgraded it to Cat 3. Hell no, The Bay was flattened, wind stripped and flooded.

As we used to say, Mississippi got Katrina, NOLA had a civil engineering disaster.

house carefully in wind still blowing electrical lines and tin roofing. No one else was out yet. All I could say was Amen! Phenomenal event.

He had a lot going on as far as I could tell plus the craziness of the storm. I have thought of him a million times.

Working at a TV station at the time.

Strange to hear the news of the impending landing after emerging from the protest site, which had news people but no news.

I couldn't believe that we were treating Americans that way. Little did I know that it would become the standard for Republicans.

he was the 1st to call it, iirc, and took some shit for it.
i was also here.

I was still "new," so I'm sure I didn't post, but I read EVERYTHING.

I don't remember much about Katrina posting here. I think I was mostly here for EarlG's Top Ten Conservative Idiots at that time.

We had several DUers from NOLA, including nola.

I think of Swamp Rat often, and wonder where he is.
I hope he's out there somewhere, living life and is perfectly okay.

The devastation of New Orleans, of her people, will always remain with me. Images are seared into my brain, things that no one ever wishes to see, but the reality was in front of our faces.

Shrub saying, "heck of a job, Brownie."

His 'beautiful mind' wife, "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

GOP. When you want the very worst.

Bush the lesser era....

This is my second account. My original account was tied to a work email, I lost access to after a layoff.... =/

And yes, we've had some very intense times on DU. Our current..... situation... is another one of those times (IMO).

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it was dreadful

I worked 12 hour night shifts in a NASA-type room, with HUGE screens - I specifically remember thinking, "Duyba says he can bring peace to the Middle East but he can't get a little girl off a bridge in New Orleans???"

I think of him and other absent DUers often.

But if you ever get the chance - go to the Katrina museum in NOLA.

I told my kids to remember the trip because a lot of the places we were visiting wouldn't survive the next big hurricane.

Didn't know it would happen so soon.



The motel we'd stayed at had it's entire roof torn off and we saw on the national news what was left of the building including a gaping hole where the room we had stayed in had been, and much worse for many other places we'd visited.

I think I wrote about that here on DU but it seemed sort of trivial compared to what the people who lived there had just suffered.

Mostly in The Lounge

...we were living in NOLA. It was still a mess. It was the first time I ever met any DU'ers. My husband and I donated furniture to one member. And I got to meet Mrs.Grumpy. She was in Houston, which also suffered.

We had been to NOLA the year before and we wanted to live there. When the opportunity presented itself, we went. The city was slowly coming back, but many places never came back and the crime was horrible.

I'll never forget the first anniversary of Katrina. I was walking in Jackson Square and it was overcast and starting to rain. People were sullen, rightfully so. A huge peel of thunder rang out and 5yo (or so) screamed, started to cry and said, "Momma, momma! We have to go!" Broke my heart. He was so scared.

There have been several members who were from there. Many no longer post here anymore.

We lived on our boat at the time when it came through the Keys.
I believe I remember chipping in a collection for a family , to pay for hotel room.

But I don't recall much except Bush in his flyover to fundraiser in Arizona. Total ass.

…I was just so sure this meant the country was maturing past middle school snottiness. To me he was a miracle — in origins we shared the same small and unique state in the middle of the Pacific, just for starters.

Also, I thought BushCheney was the bottom of the barrel. Silly me — I thought the same of Nixon — and Reagan — and the rest of the GOP, and then we got Trump and I learned there is no bottom.

We’re two countries — one that believes White people forage for necessities after a disaster, but Black people loot for water and baby formula, plus the rich deserve everything they’ve got and everything the poor have as well — and the other country that believes we are all human beings deserving of a hand up and also life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Sorry if I got so dark there.

Bush said that buses were on their way to the convention center. So people walked from the Superdome to the convention center. There were no buses. There's water all over the place, but couldn't Bush have had a helicopter fly over to check to see if buses could make it to the location before he made that statement?

All those survivors stuck there, in the heat...with limited food and water etc. Apparently on Sept 5th, the Superdome was finally emptied. (I just saw a documentary)

Dub ya gave us that trauma, too.

Maybe because both Iraq and the Katrina fiasco felt like deliberate crimes carried out by the BushII regime, while 9/11 felt like something that outside bad guys did (though in retrospect I understand that it was at least a product of his incompetence).

Also, 9/11 was a single event that lasted a few hours, while Iraq and Katrina were horrors that just kept going on and on.

Also, I wasn't on DU for 9/11. I wasn't a member yet when we were invading Iraq, but was a lurker.

I went down with the Red Cross to Biloxi for a week or two, then drove a motor home down to Houston which I donated to a nice couple who had lost everything. Then I stayed in Houston and helped the Red Cross there for a couple weeks. Then I basically moved to Biloxi for two years to run a volunteer camp. I posted a few photographic essays that were so popular I had to upgrade my hosting site and they were used in several college courses. All now lost to the old DU journals, alas!

I met quite a few DUers while down there, who either lived there or came down to work. I remember there was a veteran march across the country protesting the war and urging those resources to rebuild the coast. I also remember reaching out to Swamp Rat to see if they wanted to meet up, but they declined. 😞

And horrified by Bush doing nothing while people died.

I can't remember that one, only what I changed it to in the first username amnesty.
Anyway, I can't remember either if I posted much, but I was in grad school and my husband (at the time) had his brother and sister in law living down near Biloxi. It was a very tense and worrying time for them and us.

He had left New Orleans and was in a motel (I forget where) and I had even sent him some things. Not longer after he disappeared from not just DU but never heard back from him.

I have often wondered what happened to him and hoped for sign of life. Had hoped he just decided to go off DU and was living somewhere having a good life. I don’t want to think about the possibility something bad happened. Am hoping only good came to him.

Swamp Rat’s art was great. Graywarrior’s taped duck a close second. DU Panic Rooms during election night was third. Kephra’s daily news is fourth. My favorite DU memories. I May Ned to make a top 10 list.

I really enjoyed his clever artwork, too. *sigh*

Obvs a different persona.

I remember the debates about the school busses and the evacuation orders.

It was a very intense time and it only got worse in the following days.

I remember Swampy! "Where y'at?"

Last edited Mon Sep 1, 2025, 06:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Link to tweet

It was horrific. I had an elderly family member caught up in the devastation there then and it was mentally unbearable.

Swamp Rat went off to college and I lost track of him very shortly thereafter. He was bright, talented and driven. I believe in my heart he's ok. He's out there somewhere being the best version of himself.

I was LoneStarDem back then. I had to change my login for no bad reasons here. My old account is still in good standing I just lost it due to password stuff and life events.

Not under this name and half a dozen removed. I remember back in the day, I was kind of disgusted by their images... Too much neon and "Toxic-Avenger-Grade" amateur photoshop... But fuck me if I wouldn't give a shitton to have them back. I remember when Bush was the worst we could imagine... Not saying that Dubya is the messiah, but he's a damn sight less destructive than Trump. Even with the whole Katrina mismanagement.

Fuck me, never thought I'd be pining for the early 2000s.