Archive for the Hurricane Katrina category
October 14th, 2005
Remember back in August when I wrote how my friend made annoying comments implying that the Red Cross was somehow communist or whatever. Mind you this friend is one of those rhetoric spewing Republicans who are always talking about how people should take care of themselves and not live off of government money, etc.
It occurred to me last night that he said this about a week before Hurricane Katrina hit. Of all my friends, he probably lost the least but he was the first to get his grubby hands on the Red Cross money and aid and
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Tags: hypocrisy, Red Cross, Hurricane Katrina
October 10th, 2005
I spoke with El yesterday. She painted a rather grim picture of the apartment she used to share with PW. The images she painted were similar to photographs seen all over the news and net.
The higher parts of her first floor apartment had a watermark 4″ from the ceiling, but most of the apartment was lower than that and was completely under water. Those rooms are in danger of having a sagging ceiling falling in. She rescued PW’s jewelry by breaking through the back of PW’s dresser which the water had wedged somehow and then breaking
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Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans
October 5th, 2005
I spoke with PW last night. Apparently she is flying back to the states the Saturday with the boyfriend who’s now a fiance to try to salvage what’s left of her stuff.
She said that El told her that the water mark was 4 inches from the ceiling, which is not good. Also the ceiling apparantly is dripping and El is afraid it’s going to fall in before they get their stuff. It’s none of my business but I don’t understand why anyone is letting El walk around in the mold and toxins considering she supposedly has a
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Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans
October 4th, 2005
Well, this is a little disturbing. Remember when Bush and his adminstration promised to help rebuild the Gulf Coast, including it’s economy? Remember how “reconstruction” was going to boost the Gulf Coasts local economy?
Companies outside the three states most affected by Hurricane Katrina have received more than 90 percent of the money from prime federal contracts for recovery and reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, according to an analysis of available government data. [“Gulf Firms Losing Contracts (Washington Post)”]
Among the contracts analyzed, 3.8 percent of the money went to companies that listed an Alabama address, 2.8 percent to
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Tags: Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina, economy, Homeland Security, Olympia Snowe
October 2nd, 2005
This just pisses me off. Apparently, natural disasters are only important in Presidential election years. God, this makes the whole fuck-up look less like incompetance and more like a general lack of caring and compassion. It just gets worse and worse, doesn’t it?
Imagine if, in advance of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of trucks had been waiting with water and ice and medicine and other supplies. Imagine if 4,000 National Guardsmen and an equal number of emergency aid workers from around the country had been moved into place, and five million meals had been ready to serve. Imagine if
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Tags: politics, FEMA, Hurricane Katrina, incompetence
October 1st, 2005
I had a long conversation with a friend who’s lived through the Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita disasters and come home to put her life together. She has a different point-of-view than the rest of us who’ve been lapping up the tales told to us by the media. I found it odd because of the two of us, she’s definitely more practical and less likely to suspect conspiracy of any kind.
Her opinion of the New Orleans’ Superintendent’s resignation last week is that he’d been asked to leave as part of a massive government cover-up. She seems to
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Tags: none
September 27th, 2005
As I try to catch up with the day’s events after being locked up with the crazy people I work with from 8am to after 5pm in a little hot room, New Orleans weighs heavily on my mind…
Probably because there’s been quite a few stories in the news about it today.
It’s no surprise to me that main stream media is under attack from misreporting the aftermath of Katrina. Euphoric Reality has an excellent post about it and I’ve already expressed my opinion.
Police Superintendent Eddie Compass of New Orleans resigned after the chaotic aftermath
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Tags: New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, Ray Nagin
September 27th, 2005
Remember that scene in Galaxy Quest where the crew of Protector, while looking for something to power the damaged ship, come across an apparently abandoned mine; only it’s not abandoned as they soon discover. There are these cute innocent-looking little blue-green aliens that look just E.T. precious. Then a poor little injured cute alien arrives and it looks like the others are going to help him get a drink of water.
Suddenly they visciously turn on him in a most cannibalistic manner…
That’s what the reports of Michael Brown’s testimony regarding FEMA’s failures
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Tags: FEMA, Republicans, Michael Brown, Hurricane Katrina
September 25th, 2005
Posted
in
Politics & Causes,
In the News,
Soap Box,
The World,
Featured,
9-11 & Terrorism,
Iraq & Afghanistan,
Hurricane Katrina,
Conspiracy Theories,
Natural Disasters,
Hurricane Rita,
The Middle East by
n. mallory
It suddenly hit me today that Bush was conviently overseeing Hurricane Rita operations (when he diddled about on vaction prior to and during and even after Hurricane Katrina) while protestors where marching past the White House yesterday. The conspiracy theorist in me that thinks that Bush’s advisors who prefer to keep him in rose-colored glasses would rather him see a natural disaster up close than be present for massive numbers of Americans who think he’s doing a terrible job.
Or maybe I’m just being sarcastic…
Maybe.
Tags: George W. Bush, Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Katrina, protestors, Conspiracy Theories
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Politics & Causes, In the News, Soap Box, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Conspiracy Theories, Natural Disasters, Hurricane Rita, The Middle East
September 23rd, 2005
A co-worker pointed out this morning that President Bush is damned-if-he-does-and-damned-if-he-doesn’t in this whole Hurricane Rita thing. Already he’s been making more of a show of interest regarding Rita than he did regarding Katrina.
If his administration and their underlings like FEMA are more on the ball with the Rita recovery, some will say that he learned from his mistakes less than a month ago, but some will say that he’s showing his home state, a state with a Republican Governor, preferential treatment while leaving the state with a Democratic Governor to drown in quicksand…or swampland.
However, if FEMA and Bush’s
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Tags: George W. Bush, Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Katrina, FEMA
September 23rd, 2005
A lot of finger-pointing has been going on in the aftermath of Katrina. Certainly a lot of fingers were pointed at Democrat Governor Blanco by Republicans claiming she and New Orleans city Mayor Ray Naggin are to blame for poor planning and not evacuating the city soon enough. They’ve been blamed for not commandeering city and school buses (though the drivers had abandoned ship) to evacuate the poor without transportation.
The tale from Republican-run Texas regarding Rita doesn’t sound much more organized and successful.
“I done called for a shelter, I done called for help. There ain’t none. No one
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Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, New Orleans, Kathleen Blanco, Ray Nagin
September 22nd, 2005
Yesterday, Big Dog wrote an excellent post about how illegal immigrants displaced by Katrina are afraid to seek help for fear of deportation. Some organizations believe that they should be given “protected human status” because they’ve already lost so much thanks to Katrina.
Illegal immigrants are…well…illegal. They’re committing a crime and I agree that they shouldn’t be awarded for committing the crime. All that does is make committing the crime more appealing to people who haven’t yet, but were thinking about it — which I know may sound heartless. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be given
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Tags: immigration, Hurricane Katrina
September 22nd, 2005
I spoke with El last night. If you think Louisiana and the Gulf Coast looks chaotic from the comfort of your living room, you’re under-estimating the chaos. She has become extremely frustrated with both Red Cross and FEMA — though interestingly, she recognizes that Red Cross is made up of volunteers and FEMA is not and therefore holds more bitterness for FEMA.
With Red Cross, it just seems like not everyone knows what’s going on. For one thing, she’s supposed to contact her local Red Cross center (not shelter) for help, but the center for her area is
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Tags: FEMA, Gulf Coast, Red Cross, New Orleans, Kathleen Blanco
September 22nd, 2005
I must say that I’ve always liked David Vitter and was really disappointed when Blanco beat him out of the governorship. I was glad to see him elected to the Senate last fall and if I were still living in Louisiana, I’d be proud and grateful for the statements he made last Tuesday at a Senate subcommittee (Disaster Prevention and Prediction) hearing on the prediction of Hurricane Katrina and the work of the National Hurricane Center.
“Mr. Chairman, at your June 26th hearing on hurricane prediction, I gave an opening statement describing a ‘worst case scenario’ – the hypothetical
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Tags: David Vitter, Hurricane Katrina, Senate
September 22nd, 2005
An article in Michigan’s The Gloucester Daily Times today tells more about FEMA’s confusing ice issues. The article breaks down the costs indicating that in the end, the government will pay more than $4 for each of the thousands of five-pound bags of ice that would have cost us $1.50 each at the gas station or convenience store; plus, it will cost close to $1 billion in trucking for the $2 million worth of ice.
The initial problem was that too much ice was ordered by FEMA for areas that had been evacuated. As a result, some truckers
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Tags: FEMA, incompetence
September 21st, 2005
Well, it seems that despite the devastation wrought less than a month ago by Hurricane Katrina, people who have returned to the New Orleans area are in no hurry to re-evacuate. After only two busloads evacuated on Tuesday, only one of the nearly 500 residents on the east bank of the Mississippi showed up today to take advantage of the bus transportation arranged by the city, despite a mandatory evacuation. Warnings that any storm surge could easily topple the precariously repaired levees and refill the city with water the Army Corps of Engineers has been dilligently attempting to
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Tags: Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Katrina
September 21st, 2005
Last night on the Fox network’s local news affiliate, there was quite a bit of reporting on the fact that $4 million of ice meant for Hurricane Katrina-affected areas is now in Portland, ME, after days and even weeks of being hauled about the country from Indianapolis to the South to New England. After paying drivers $800 a day for this bizarre trek, FEMA has rented refrigerated warehouses in Portland, Chicago and other cities to store the ice until November 30th, the last day of hurricane season. Local reporters were unable to learn what the cost of storing
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Tags: Hurricane Katrina, FEMA
September 20th, 2005
I saw that Bush attended a pow-wow in the Gulf regarding Hurricane Rita and it’s potential threat to New Orleans and the rest of the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast. If only he’d made such a show in the week and days prior to Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast less than a month ago, he might have avoided a lot of criticism in the last three weeks.
Hopefully this is a sign that we’re learning from our mistakes…
On the other hand, as much as I like Mayor Nagin and think he’s a good thing for New Orleans, I don’t agree
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Tags: George W. Bush, Hurricane Rita, Ray Nagin, Gulf Coast
September 20th, 2005
Well, it looks like probably in the next month or two, PW will be coming to stay for a few months. She thinks she’s burned her bridges with El’s family plus El’s sister and three nephews are due to move in once they can reclaim the house in Jefferson Parish. PW & El’s apartment will not be livable any time soon, but once Orleans Parish opens, PW and El’s entorage will have to go to the apartment to salvage what they can.
Once that’s done, while Associated Grocer’s is finding employment for displaced Associated Grocer’s customer’s employees and she’s
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Tags: Hurricane Katrina, dysfunctional drama, friendship
September 20th, 2005
Food meant for Katrina Victims donated by the UK, Spain, Italy, and Isreal is being held by the U.S. government because it’s been deamed unfit for human consumption. Never mind that the food donated by the UK is the same UN-approved rations fed to British troops in Iraq. If the red-tape isn’t worked out, all the food could be sent to be incenerated. [“Up in Flames”]
Makes you wonder who friggin’ is making these decisions, doesn’t it?
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, relief, U.N., politics
