Subj : Re: Um...no comment? To : alt.tv.farscape From : Nick Date : Fri Sep 02 2005 20:09:27 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape Chaya wrote: > 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... What part of town did they live in? .