Everywhere with Helicopter

Cue Ride of the Valkyries or something.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Tuesday that four helicopters will begin attacking a marsh fire in eastern New Orleans today by dropping baskets of water on the smoldering acreage. Landrieu said another five helicopters are expected to join the firefight on Wednesday.

The UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters are equipped with Bambi buckets and will start dropping water at a site about 500 yards from the main fire, according to the mayor and the National Guard.

The chopper attack is a reversal from what we've been hearing since late Sunday when people in the city first started to notice the smoke.

The decision to dump water from the air came less than 24 hours after Landrieu and his top aides insisted that such a response wouldn't extinguish the fire any more quickly than simply letting it burn itself out, an eventuality officials predicted would take no longer than three days.

Fire Superintendent Charles Parent during a Monday afternoon news conference said, "After consulting with our partners on the state and federal level, we feel that a water drop would probably be ineffective at this time because of the large size of the fire."

But criticism of the official response has mounted, particularly when it comes to Landrieu, who is slated to host a long-planned community meeting this evening in eastern New Orleans.

The criticism began mounting today when "Disaster consultant" Ray Nagin sent out a tweet.



And since, as we all have learned, irrelevant people snarking on Twitter is never ever something we should blow off or take lightly*, things quickly spiraled out of control. People began sharing playlists, taking photographs, joking about nutria, until finally when the first fake "Marsh Fire" twitter account appeared, it was time to take action.

Unsurprisingly, the call to action came in the form of a tweet from Jackie Clarkson.



Holy fucking shit! Jackie Clarkson, the same Jackie Clarkson who declared war on barges during the spring flooding of the Mississippi River, is once again ready to mobilize.

So to re-cap, today will be remembered as the day that Jackie Clarkson ordered a helicopter assault on a marsh fire because Ray Nagin tweeted that she should. I know I'm inspired. I wonder if they'll call the Copter Man.


*Nugget, bitches! You know who you are