Subj : Re: Um...no comment? To : alt.tv.farscape From : Chaya Date : Fri Sep 02 2005 19:45:41 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape Nick wrote: > Chaya wrote: > >> Nick wrote: >> >>> John Iwaniszek wrote: >>> >>>> "RR" wrote in >>>> news:a0QRe.210679$0f.188639@tornado.texas.rr.com: >>>> >>>>> John Iwaniszek wrote: >>>>> >>>>>>> In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was >>>>>>> one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush >>>>>>> administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 >>>>>>> percent to pay for the Iraq war. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study >>>>>>> how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic >>>>>>> hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research >>>>>>> not be undertaken. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the >>>>>>> Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the >>>>>>> Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping >>>>>>> stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency >>>>>>> issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans >>>>>>> was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., >>>>>>> including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the >>>>>>> federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried >>>>>>> up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush >>>>>>> administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district >>>>>>> of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters >>>>>>> of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts >>>>>>> at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding >>>>>>> of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of >>>>>>> the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated >>>>>>> adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too >>>>>>> late. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane >>>>>>> published a series on the federal funding problem, and whose >>>>>>> presses are now underwater, reported online: "No one can say >>>>>>> they didn't see it coming ... Now in the wake of one of the >>>>>>> worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the >>>>>>> lack of preparation." >>>>>>> >>>>>>> By Sidney Blumenthal >>>>>>> Salon.com Wednesday 31 August 2005 >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Here's a timeline for the gutting of FEMA, starting, you guessed >>>>>> it, in 2001. >>>>>> >>>>>> http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_ >>>>>> 09/007023.ph p >>>>> >>>>> Is is just me, or - based on the above info - does this smack of >>>>> heaping amounts of bullshit insult to injury?: >>>>> >>>>> http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.fema.brown/index.html >>>>> >>>> >>>> I would say that it's just about par for the course. And I don't >>>> golf. >>> >>> Here is a story that I find most disturbing because it will affect >>> me both personally and long term. >>> http://tinyurl.com/afb5h >>> >>> Overnight Baton Rouge Becomes Largest City in Louisiana >>> >>> By Ann Gerhart >>> Washington Post Staff Writer >>> Thursday, September 1, 2005; 2:36 PM >>> >>> BATON ROUGE, Sept. 1 -- Seventy miles west of New Orleans, the state >>> capital of Baton Rouge and its surrounding parish received its own >>> storm surge overnight: a huge wave of displaced people, dragging >>> their anger, misery and desperation along with them. >>> >>> In a day, this city has become the largest in Louisiana, and grim >>> local officials here predicted it would double in size, to about >>> 800,000, permanently. "The Baton Rouge we live in and grew up in is >>> no longer," said city councilman Mike Walker. "These people are here >>> to stay, perhaps forever." >>> >>> City police chief Jeff Leduff said buses and volunteer drivers >>> Wednesday evening began picking up stranded New Orleans residents >>> from the highways and then "just dropping them off wherever they see >>> a gaggle of lights, any neighborhood, any store." >>> >>> About 3,000 refugees suddenly appeared about midnight on the campus >>> of Louisiana State University, where a shelter already was at >>> capacity. They were turned away. Most of those 3,000 eventually made >>> their way to the emergency rooms of the area's three biggest >>> hospitals, where "they created extreme chaos and disturbance" >>> throughout the night, said Dr. Louis Minsky, medical director for >>> East Baton Rouge parish. >>> >>> There were reports of attempted carjackings at 24-hour gas stations. >>> Authorities decided to impose a 10 p.m. cutoff for gas sales. >>> >>> Sheriff's deputies were dispatched as armed guards for grocery >>> warehouses, and police stepped up around-the-clock controls >>> downtown, where Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Sen. Mary Landrieu >>> (D-La.) and FEMA director Michael Brown are hunkered down. >>> >>> Shortly before noon Thursday, police and SWAT teams with automatic >>> weapons moved to secure several city blocks near the largest >>> shelter, the River Center, which houses about 5,000 refugees. >>> >>> Officials made a decision to allow non-essential workers from the >>> city government building to go home for the day, said Michael Smith, >>> a spokesman for the emergency operations center here, and officers >>> escorted those who left to their cars. >>> >>> "We called for additional sheriffs and city police to secure the >>> area and let those people out," he said. He said rumors of looting >>> and mayhem were unfounded and were spread through local talk radio. >>> Officials here, he said, hope the display of force would show that >>> government here, unlike in New Orleans, was in control. >>> >>> The parish has several Red Cross-run shelters already filled up with >>> at least 10,000 people, and security is an increasing problem in >>> them, as well as a strain on paramedic responders. >>> >>> "Everybody in the River Center," the largest shelter, "has a cell >>> phone, and when they run out of medicine, they just call 911," said >>> a spokesman for the city's emergency services department. >>> >>> With a new month beginning Thursday, hundreds of the newly homeless >>> and poor crowded up the area's food-stamp offices to start >>> applications. >>> >>> In addition, others are coming to town looking for opportunity. >>> "People are showing up with suitcases and suitcases of cash, >>> offering to buy houses and real estate on the spot," said Walker, >>> who is also a real estate broker. >>> >>> On top of all that, 55,000 customers remain without power throughout >>> the parish, the schools remain closed through Tuesday and traffic is >>> jammed and stores are overrun. >>> >>> In a morning briefing at the Emergency Command Center near the >>> airport, nearly two dozen officials from every public agency gave >>> updates and shared information, as they have each day since before >>> Katrina struck. >>> >>> Every change in plans has a ripple effect into every other agency, >>> said Irma Plummer, the chief administrative officer for East Baton >>> Rouge Parrish, in unanticipated ways. "People come here and find >>> they have no money, and all the agencies on this corridor are going >>> to be affected," she told the group. >>> >>> "The domino effect is tremendous. We can't move fast enough to >>> rebuild our infrastructure to respond, so you have to be creative." >> >> >> So, what is your life like right now? Are you going to work? Do you >> feel safe when you leave the house (or, DO you leave the house)? >> > > Not too bad. There are 10 people living at my house right now. > Besides us there is my mother and my sister and her family. > Hopefully, they will have power back early next week. I came back to > work yesterday. I'm ok leaving the house but I am not too crazy about > letting Deb go out with the kids. Rightly so. I wouldn't want to take one step outside if I were in that area (but what do I know? I study crime for a living). We just found out last night that all of our extended family in NO didn't get out in time, and of course we have no way to make contact with them... .