Entries Tagged with Hurricane Katrina
September 2nd, 2006
Posted
in
Politics & Causes,
In the News,
Geekery,
Blogging & Other Blogs,
The World,
Featured,
9-11 & Terrorism,
Iraq & Afghanistan,
Hurricane Katrina,
Conspiracy Theories,
Natural Disasters,
Women's Rights,
The Middle East by
n. mallory
First Some Fun
- Thursday Thirteen #3 — Baggage @ Baggage That Goes With Mine wrote thirteen reasons why the internet is better than real life. This is my favorite.
11. On the internet, you can pop into a forum or a blog and tell a person that their beliefs are dumb, they should be breastfeeding, they should never co-sleep, they should divorce their husband, they should shave their legs, and they should stop wearing mom jeans. In real life, people would punch you in the face.
In Memory Of Katrina
More
Tags: Thursday Thirteen, Internet, Hurricane Katrina, FEMA, aid money, Gil H. Jamieson, Daniel A. Craig, Gulf Coast recovery, New Orleans, Islamofascism, George W. Bush, Muslims, women in the media, Support the Troops, defense appropriation bill, Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congress, Pentagon, Lower 9th Ward, National Hurricane Canter, 9/11, Max Mayfield, Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah, terrorism, Ann Jones, Taliban, NATO, Christians, American Dream, Martin Niemoller, Germany, Nazis, Rocky Anderson, Utah, Salt Lake Tribune, patriotism, lie, Walter Jones, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Caddam Hussein, Donald Rumsfeld
5 comments See also in
Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Conspiracy Theories, Natural Disasters, Women's Rights, The Middle East
September 1st, 2006
- Pugly loves that credit theft commercial where the woman voice-over sings “Unbreak My Heart” really badly. He stops whatever he’s doing every single time to watch it.
- I have been avoiding the Katrina anniversary coverage because emotionally I don’t think I could handle it this week.
- I could use a raise.
- I still haven’t found a maid.
- I really need an assistant too. I’ve become really bad at remembering to do things again.
- I just ate an orange. I’m sure it was delicious, but I have no tastebuds.
- No more Puppy Playgroup for Pugly; he turns 6 months today and now he’s too old. We’ll both miss it.
O.K. You’re turn. Add whatever discombobulated thoughts you might have into the comments area. Obviously they don’t have to make sense — they’re discombobulated.
Tags: Pug, the puppy, maid, discombobulated, Hurricane Katrina
August 28th, 2006
- Moral relativity and the “war on terrorism” — Kevin @ Preemptive Karma wrote an excellent post about the double standard of the this administration and the expectations of the Right that expect Rep. Cynthia McKinney to apologize to the police officer she had an altercation with earlier this year but accepts the fact that the U.S. has imprisoned and tortured innocent people in Gitmo and elsewhere without apology or explanation and that is just fine.
Apparently in the twisted world of rightwing freaks slapping someone requires an apology but busting out the teeth of a perfectly innocent Lebanese or torturing an innocent Turk, not to mention their imprisonment, is something that those particular victims ought to just suck it up over, be glad that they eventually regained their freedom and to hell with apologizing to them.
- Republicans: Making the world safe for bigots and racists — Jill @ Brilliant at Breakfast writes about recent incidents in the South where black children have been segregated to the back of the school bus and a church has voted not to accept black members and she wonders what has made this sort of thing acceptable as we approach the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, “leaving tens of thousands of black New Orleans residents stranded or dying, while the President of the United States was yukking it up with 2008 Presidential hopeful John McCain over birthday cake.”
You can trot Condoleeza Rice out there till the cows come home, it doesn’t change the fact that when it comes to black Americans who do not serve the Republican party, as far as that party is concerned, they might as well drown.
- Have Some Foil — chicago dyke @ CorrenteWire has a nice piece up about two whistleblowers, who uncovered secret wiretapping in cell phones around the world. They’ve been murdered, of course. More
Tags: terrorism, Cynthia McKinney, Guantanamo Bay, torture, detainees, rightwingers, Republicans, racism, George W. Bush, Condi Rice, John McCain, Hurricane Katrina, whistleblowers, wiretapping, American Society of Civil Engineers, JonBenet Ramsey, pedophiles, relationships
August 25th, 2006
Posted
in
Politics & Causes,
In the News,
Geekery,
Blogging & Other Blogs,
The World,
Featured,
9-11 & Terrorism,
Iraq & Afghanistan,
Hurricane Katrina,
Natural Disasters,
The Middle East by
n. mallory
- ‘Liquid Bombers’ - The Impossible Bomb — A lot of websites have been linking to this explanation as to why the most recent terror plot from the UK could not have worked and why all of the fearmongering and passenger harrassment by the UK and American governments in the airports is unnecessary. I say, read it for yourself and decide for yourself.
- Homeland insecurity 2.0 — Pam @ Pam’s House Blend wrote one of the best reports of what travelling immediately after the latest terrorist plot scare was like that I’ve read.
Again, the PA came on, this time it was for another flight — on Continental — that was boarding. This announcer, I’m not kidding you, went on for about 2-3 minutes warning people about taking on liquids and gels (”liquid” chapstick is a no-no, solid is OK), no coffee or soda will make it on board. Random checks at the gate would be performed. If they find contraband on you, you will be asked to give it up. If you don’t give it up, you’ll not be able to board, he boomed, and you would have to go on a later flight. “Not later today,” he warned, “maybe not even this week…maybe not for a couple of weeks.” OK, at this point, people are laughing, including the two of us. This is ludicrous.
Our flight is finally called and we board. The plane is about to close up and a couple of late arrivals get on. This time we have a woman taking her sweet time, coming down the aisle with a steaming hot cup of Cinnabon coffee, which she proceeds to balance on an armrest as she casually loads her bag in the overhead bin, blocking the aisle as a couple of people wait behind her.
Clearly, my friends, US Airways has let on the Cinnabomber.
More
Tags: liquid bombers, airport security, Continental, U.S. Airways, crime rate, terrorism, morning-after pill, women soldiers, American soldiers, pharmacists, JonBenet Ramsey, Abeer al-Janabi, Jessica Lynch, Jim Bensman, Army Corps of Engineers, FBI, Duarris Perez, Guantanamo Bay, Gitmo, Cuba, Homeland Security, Bosnia, Algeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hurricane Katrina, pink food coloring, food industry
1 comments See also in
Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Natural Disasters, The Middle East
August 10th, 2006
- Photographer for ‘Times-Pic’ Arrested As He Begs Cops to Kill Him — @ Editor&Publisher
NEW YORK A photographer for the Times-Picayune of New Orleans who has undergone severe personal trauma since Hurricana Katrina hit was arrested Tuesday after trying to get police to shoot him to death. Police said he claimed he was depressed after he found out he didn’t have enough insurance money to rebuild his Katrina-damaged home.
They said he was seeking “suicide-by-cop,” but police who found him tasered him instead.
- Formaldehyde in FEMA travel trailers making people sick — Michael Hampton @ Homeland Stupidity
Some travel trailers issued to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year by the Federal Emergency Management Agency are emitting potentially dangerous levels of formaldehyde, an industrial chemical used in their manufacture which some residents say is making them sick.
In Mississippi alone, FEMA has received 46 complaints from people who say they have been affected by symptoms of formaldehyde exposure, including eye, nose, and throat irritation, nausea and breathing difficulties. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, formaldehyde has been found to cause cancer in rats and may cause cancer in humans.
- What was that about Republican successes? — Pam Spalding @ Pandagon
R. Neal at Facing South points to matters that we cannot let Republicans try to walk away from as they attempt to talk about this administration and this Congress’s “accomplishments.”
How feeble and tragic is this — nearly a year after Katrina, the situation with temporary housing is still a flipping mess.
It has been 11 months since Hurricane Katrina hit and Janice Tambrella still does not have a home. She doesn’t even have a trailer of her own.
Tambrella is currently jammed in with 10 other relatives in a single trailer delivered to a luckier relative. Sleeping on the floor, living out of cars surrounded by overgrown grass and storm-felled trees, she sighs, “I need a place to stay.”
Nearly 1,200 St. Bernard Parish families are still waiting to get into trailers that sit locked on their home sites but need utilities or other services; another 400 families waiting for trailers have none at all, FEMA said.
BTW, 10,000 FEMA trailers are rotting away in the Arkansas mud (your wallet is $1 billion lighter for that travesty), and even worse, Dear Leader’s government has unused, undeployed trailers sitting right there in Louisiana.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, politics, Times-Picayune, FEMA, Republicans
July 19th, 2006
It’s very, very difficult to be the kind of paranoid truth-seeker I am and actually know something really, really big and not tell anyone for almost a year. The most I did was say “I know something I’m not supposed to know and I can’t say what it is.”
The truth is that I promised a very good friend when he told me not to print it here on this website or any website, for that matter, until it was a matter of public record. In fact, I still know more facts than have been in the news so I won’t spill those. Heck, I’m not even going to say, who told me or why, but I will say that days after the incident I knew about it; it’s been killing me not to say anything all of this time.
Attorney General Charles Foti Jr.’s allegations Tuesday that Dr. Anna Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry were principals in the second-degree murder of four unidentified patients raised Hurricane Katrina’s legacy of misery still higher.
Foti ordered the arrest of Pou, Budo and Landry on Monday and said he would turn the case over to Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan for prosecution. In the meantime, Rick Simmons, Pou’s attorney, said the allegations are false. “There is no motivation, and there is no homicide,” he said.
In a supporting affidavit and later at a news conference, Foti did not speculate about how his investigators came to believe that Pou, Budo and Landry allegedly decided it was necessary to end the lives of four patients ranging in age from 61 to 90. The patients were identified by their initials: H.A., R.S., I.W. and E.E.
Foti’s affidavit said witnesses began to hear of a decision to administer lethal doses of medicine to some patients on the morning of Sept. 1 as the evacuation of other patients and staff from Memorial was being discussed.
The affidavit said one witness saw Pou and two nurses moving among patients on the hospital’s seventh floor. Foti said they injected four patients, including one man, E.E., who was conscious and alert.
“Dr. Pou said she was going to tell patient E.E. that she was going to give him something to help with his dizziness,” said a witness identified as K.J., director of physical medicine for LifeCare Hospitals. LifeCare is another hospital chain that leased space on Memorial’s seventh floor to run an acute-care unit.
[…]
“I can’t even imagine what they must have gone through trying to do what was best for their patients,” Magnus said. “But we draw that bright line we don’t want doctors and nurses to cross. They had an obligation to patients to do everything possible to relieve their suffering — but to intentionally euthanize, if that’s in fact what took place, crosses that bright line.”
Moreover, there is another complication, ethicists said: consent.
“What if all those patients didn’t want that?” Magnus said. “I doubt they knew just what each of those patients wanted, what each of their surrogates wanted. I doubt they talked to each of the surrogates.
“If it’s that they decided to intentionally euthanize patients . . . the lack of consent makes it worse, even under those horrible circumstances.” [“Ethicists: Any deliberate killing crosses the line” (The Times-Picayune)]
Remember, this could have been your mother, your grandmother, your family member and someone else made a decision for him or her to end his or her life before his or her time. In the case of these particular four patients, they were not terminal; they were not begging to die.
Tags: murder, euthanasia, Hurricane Katrina, Memorial Hospital, Times-Picayune
May 2nd, 2006
Maybe the reason that Americans think we’re so superior is because we don’t take time to realize we’re not actually alone and that there are actually whole other countries and cultures beyond our borders. Then again, we aren’t all that good with figuring out what’s in our own borders, are we? I recall my mother telling me that some friends of hers were on one of those game shows like The Price Is Right and it took them a year to get their prizes shipped to them because they lived in New Mexico and the show wouldn’t ship outside of the country — kid you not.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — After more than three years of combat and nearly 2,400 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 still cannot find Iraq on a map, a study released Tuesday showed.
The study found that less than six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 33 percent could not point out Louisiana on a U.S. map.
The National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study paints a dismal picture of the geographic knowledge of the most recent graduates of the U.S. education system.
“Taken together, these results suggest that young people in the United States … are unprepared for an increasingly global future,” said the study’s final report.
“Far too many lack even the most basic skills for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships among people and places that provide critical context for world events.” [“Study: Geography Greek to most young Americans (CNN.com)]
Tags: Iraq, education, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Gulf Coast, National Geographics, CNN
April 18th, 2006
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Secretary of State Al Ater wants to know why the federal government agreed to pay for New York City’s municipal elections after Sept. 11, 2001, but refuses to pay for New Orleans’ elections after Hurricane Katrina.
FEMA recently turned down Louisiana’s request for the extra $3-4 million it will take to hold the April 22 New Orleans municipal elections, rescheduled in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
But the agency shelled out $7.9 million after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks delayed New York City’s elections.
Ater said it’s a double standard.
“After the election, I’m going to dedicate my life to this,” Ater said. “I’m going to become very obsessive-compulsive about it.”
Orleans Parish doesn’t have the money to pay even the normal elections cost of $400,000 for the city. FEMA said the additional elections costs are outside the agency’s authority and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has not responded to a request to meet with the secretaries of state of Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama.
FEMA spokesman Manuel Broussard of Baton Rouge said he would look into the issue, but the agency did not respond. [“FEMA won’t pay for New Orleans Election” (Nola.com)]
Let’s not forget that more than 50% of Katrina victims are still displaced as well and while displaced Iraqis outside of Iraq were provided poling stations, displaced Katrina victims in places like Houston, Memphis and Atlanta with large concentrations of New Orleans minorities will not have the same courtesy.
Tags: vote, FEMA, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans
April 18th, 2006
The incompentance is just never ending. Thank God, for Houston’s Mayor Bill White!
A New Orleans house flattened but for a concrete staircase on a crumbling facade was among many storm-ravaged structures that federal officials deemed fit for occupancy by Katrina victims now living in Houston, Mayor Bill White said Friday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has notified about 8,900 heads of households in Houston, representing more than 20,000 Katrina evacuees, that they will be ineligible for the cash assistance intended to replace a massive city voucher program that has paid their rent.
A common reason was that the evacuees’ former homes were now habitable.
A team from Houston’s Hurricane Housing Task Force, however, conducted a spot check of 43 New Orleans homes deemed “habitable” by FEMA and found 70 percent unfit for occupancy, White said Friday after a briefing by the team.
“Some of our worst fears were realized,” White said. “Many of these notices were simply in error. The vast majority of the structures we inspected were not habitable by any standard.”
The Houston team found 13 homes habitable and 30 uninhabitable, White said.
The city released photographs showing apartments and houses, including the one with little standing but the stairway, in severe disrepair. One apartment building, surrounded by a chain link fence, had been condemned, White said.
Read the rest…
Tags: FEMA, Hurricane Katrina, Houston, New Orleans, Bill White
April 4th, 2006
“This is enormously frustrating to me,” said Sen. David Vitter, R-La. “I’ve been telling them since last November that they’ve sought way too little money for essential levee work.”[“L.A. Wants More Levee Money — And Quick (NOLA.com)]
Last week the Army Corps of Engineers announced new estimates of an additional $6 billion would be needed to raise and repair the levees to protect the New Orleans area from a major hurricane. According to this article in the Times-Picayune, while the east bank of Orleans Parish has financing for levees that would meet the necessary certification by 2010, $3 billion in improvements are still needed to bring Algiers, eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward, West Jefferson, and most of Jefferson Parish’s east bank, St. Charles Parish, Belle Chasse and Lower Coast Algiers to the appropriate protection levels; plus $3 billion more would be needed for Plaquemines Parish alone.
President Bush’s Gulf Coast recovery coordinator, Donald Powell, told reporters that the administration will decide in the next two weeks whether to request the additional money — nearly three times what the administration said was needed just a month ago.
But at a closed-door meeting in the Capitol late Thursday, Louisiana lawmakers said they told Powell that they want a commitment by Tuesday, the day the Senate Appropriations Committee is to take up an emergency hurricane spending bill.
A new request from the president is critical to the release of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s long-awaited flood-elevation maps, which will give residents and businesses an indication about whether to rebuild in the region. Property behind the upgraded levees could see relatively minor changes in elevation requirements, subject primarily to more typical flooding. Those areas without improved levees would have to build substantially higher to account for flooding and storm surge. [“L.A. Wants More Levee Money — And Quick (NOLA.com)]
However, Bush and gang is making no promises. In fact, a supplemental spending bill for hurricane recovery has already passed the House and it doesn’t include the costs of the new estimates.
Now, the administration is saying that to protect against a “100-year flood,” up to $6 billion more could be needed.
According to an analysis by the corps, that figure could be cut dramatically if the state is willing to make an excruciating choice: Leave some portions of southeast Louisiana without full protection against a hurricane with a 1 percent chance of hitting the area during any hurricane season.
About 98 percent of the New Orleans area population could be protected at a cost of $3 billion, but that would leave out increased protection for the 14,725 residents of Plaquemines Parish, according to the analysis.
[…]
“If you say you aren’t going to protect lower Plaquemines, what’s next? Lower Terrebonne? Lower Lafourche? And then what, the middle parts?” asked a visibly angry Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., as she walked out of the meeting with Powell and Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, commander of the corps. “Seven months after Katrina, they still don’t realize they have a bill to pay. They don’t want to pay it.”
Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, who represents Plaquemines Parish, said that basing decisions on population overlooks the economic significance of the parishes that dip into the Gulf of Mexico.
“This is about people, the nation’s energy production and fisheries,” Melancon said. “People don’t seem to realize the importance of south Louisiana.”[“L.A. Wants More Levee Money — And Quick (NOLA.com)]
So, it’s all about the numbers today. Nevermind the photo-ops and the promises and the mistakes. Nevermind the hundreds of nameless dead or the thousands of displaced and homeless. Imagine if this was your home; imagine if this was where your family had lived for a hundred years; imagine if everything you knew and everything everyone you ever knew wasn’t worth protecting or rebuilding or even considering by the government you pay your taxes to.
Don’t think it can’t be you. You need to stand up for New Orleans and Plaquemines and Louisiana now before you’re sitting on the doorstep of a closed FEMA shelter wondering where your tax dollars went when that tornado/earthquake/forest fire/ice storm/flood/etc. destroyed your neighborhood too.
Contact your Senator.
Contact your House Representative.
Hat tip to First Draft.
Further reading: “Levee Repair Costs Triple” - Washington Post
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, David Vitter, New Orleans, Plaquenines, Louisiana, FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers, Times-Picayune, George W. Bush
March 14th, 2006
Just a reminder that the New Orleans Library still needs books.
If you think you live too far away to collect books and mail them, let me just point out that I’ve collected several large piles of books thanks to generous souls in my writing group and at work and in a test mailing last week, I discovered that mailing books at the media rate through the post office is really quiet cheap. When I think that someone else could be making good use of those books rather than having them collecting dust on my overcrowded bookshelves, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Plus, my mother has concocted a rather smart plan. She’s collected some books from her friends in New Mexico on her own thanks to an email she forwarded from me. A friend of theirs in the process of moving from New Orleans to Las Vegas is making back and forth trips between the cities and on his next stop back toward New Orleans, she’ll pass on the books to be dropped off at the New Orleans Public Library from the citizens of Silver City, New Mexico. Of course, you do kind of have to know someone who’s going that way for the plan to work.
As always, if you live in the Portland, ME, area and can’t afford to mail books but would like to donate, contact me via the contact link in the sidebar and we’ll work out an arrangement.
The library is also accepting monetary donations.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Public Library, relief
March 11th, 2006
You never really get the full picture until someone shows you a real picture. Here’s 13 pictures of the apartment PW and El lived in near the 17th Street Canal. These were taken six to eight weeks after the hurricane, if I remember correctly, which was the first they could get into the area.
More
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, photo
March 9th, 2006
Well, I must admit that I had to pick my jaw up off the ground earlier when I learned that House Republicans had not only listened to their constituents but grown back bones. It would seem that despite threats by President Bush, who has yet to veto anything since he took office, to actually veto anything from Congress blocking the UAE ports deal, yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee went right on anhead and blocked the deal by voting 62-2 for an amendement to a $68 billion emergency supplemental funding bill for military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan — tricky that. (After all, he wouldn’t want to veto spending for his war and come off having to say something stupid like “I was for the war before I was against it…” :p ) Oh, and the bill also includes about $19 billion in disaster assistance for the Gulf Coast for Katrina and right now really isn’t the time to be vetoing that either.
Anyway, the messure still has to go before the whole House next week, but it’s expected to pass by a wide bi-partisan veto-proof margin.
Source: “Senator: UAE firm to transfer port operations to U.S. ‘entity’” (CNN.com)
Tags: UAE, House of Representatives, George W. Bush, Hurricane Katrina, Port Deal, politics, Republicans
March 5th, 2006
New books will be used to replace those that were damaged; used books will be distributed to families in need or sold for library fundraising. Please send books to:
Rica A. Trigs, Public Relations
New Orleans Public Library
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70112
If you tell the post office that they are for the library in New Orleans, they will give you the library rate which is slightly less than the book rate.
You can also click here to contribute to the New Orleans Public Library Foundation Rebuilding Campaign.
UPDATE: If you live in the Portland, ME area and have books to donate but cannot afford shipping, please contact me and we’ll work something out. Thanks!
More
Tags: New Orleans, Public Library, Hurricane Katrina, relief
March 2nd, 2006
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million,” [Rep. Bennie Thompson] said. “Six months after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the homes and livelihoods of millions along the Gulf Coast, the truth about what the president knew and when he knew it has come to light.”[“Democrats Want Independent Katrina Probe” (Yahoo!News)]
The blogsphere is all-a-buzz with the news of the video aquired by Associated Press, which you can view at Crooks and Liars, that reveals that Bush was well-briefed on the potential devestation of Hurricane Katrina, including the kind of flooding that actually occurred because of those breached levees — exactly as Michael Brown claimed in his recent testimony to Congress.
I’ve said before that I’m a fan of Republican and former Bush-employee Louisiana Senator David Vitter. I particularly like what he had to say in response — that the video “makes it perfectly clear once again that this disaster was not out of the blue or unforeseeable. It was not only predictable, it was actually predicted. That’s what made the failures in response — at the local, state and federal level — all the more outrageous.” [“Democrats Want Independent Katrina Probe” (Yahoo!News)]
I’m sure that the right-winger loyalists who simply refuse to believe that President Bush could do wrong will find some flimsy excuse, but then I’ve maintained all along that it’s easier to deny the truth than accept you’ve put your faith in the wrong person. Anyway, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid charges this is another sign that Bush administration officials have “systematically misled the American people.”
More
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Associated Press, Crooks & Liars, David Vitter, George W. Bush, politics
March 2nd, 2006
My mother sent me these photos. I believe she took some of them during her trip there late last fall. As they are of places I am intimately familiar with, I thought I’d share them.
This is the House I grew up in. It’s located near Boulard in New Orleans East. Note the damage to the shutters and the water line on the garage door. You can’t tell from the picture but the tree that was in the backyard is gone and the fence between the house and the property behind is gone too. I did expect it to be worse from my mom’s description. She did say no one was living in it.
More
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, photo
March 1st, 2006
Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch has put together a document analyzing how much progress the city of New Orleans with the promised State and Federal help has made since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. Known as The Mardi Gras Index and released yesterday, February 28th, it looks at over 235 indicators in 11 categories. The statistical outlook suggests that President Bush’s promise that the country “would do what it takes” to make New Orleans whole again has been forgotten a mere six months later and that very little progress has been made.
Here are just some of the statistics from the report:
Total number of people in Gulf Region acutely impacted by Hurricane Katrina: 700,000
Percent of those displaced by Katrina who were from New Orleans: 50
Percent of residents living in Katrina-damaged areas of New Orleans who were Black: 75
Percent who were poor: 29
Percent who were unemployed: 10
Percent who were renters: 53
Estimated loss of New Orleans’ black population if people are unable to return to flood-damaged neighborhoods: 80
Esitmated loss of New Orlean’ white population in such a case: 50
Percent of Ner Orleans streetcars lost in Katrina: 45
Percent of New Orleans buses lost: 53
Number of public transit riders per week in New Orleans pre-KatrinaL 124,000
Number of public transit riders per week in New Orleans of late January 2006: 11,709
Percent of the 470,000 Louisiana homes damaged by Katrina that were in New Orleans: 92
Number of the 434,216 homes in the seven-parish New Orleans Metropolitan Statistical Area rendered uninhabitable by the storm: 207,000
Esitmated residential replacement costs for Orleans Parish alone: $22 million
Estimated number of New Orleans residents evicted from their homes in November 2005 after Gov. Blanco’s two-month moratorium on legal proceedings ended: 10,000
Number of FEMA trailer homes requested by New Orleans residents: 21,000
Estimated number of those homes installed as of early February 2006: 3,000
Number of FEMA trailer homes sitting empty in Hope, Arkansas because the agency rules forbid their placement in flood plains: 11,000
Number of Louisiana’s 64 parishes that have granted FEMA unconditional permission to site trailers: 8
Percent of the approving parishes that lie in flood-prone areas: 100
Percent of New Orleans workforce displaced by Katrina: 50
Estimated number of jobs lost in New Orleans due to Katrina: 150,000
Number of New Orleans city employees laid off after Katrina: 3,000
Number of active unemployment claims in New Orleans at the end of January 2006: 13,046
Maximum amount of Louisian’s weekly unemployment payments: $258
Percent of New Orleans job market accounted for by small businesses (50 employees or less): 40
Percent of New Orleans small businesses destroyed by katrina: 60
Number of hospitals in Orleans Parish before 2005 hurricanes: 22
Number of hospitals open now: 7
Esitmated million cubic yards of debris created by the 2005 storms: 50
Millions of cubic yards that have been removed to date: 6
Out of 200 samples taken in Orleans Parish, percent that exceeded the Louisiana state cleanup level for pollution in residential neighborhoods: 37
Number of locations in residential neighborhoods of Mid-City, Gentilly, Lakeview, and New Orleans East where arsenic levels are more than 100 times higher than the EPA soil safety guideline: 7
Number of spills of oil, natural gas and other chemicals off the New Orleans coast: 423
Value of contracts federal agencies have awarded to private companies after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: $9.4 billion
Amount given out by FEMA alone in the month after Katrina hit: $1.5 billion
Percent of those that had little or no competition: 80
Number of Orleans Parish prisoners who have not seen an attorney, some since before Katrina hit: 4,500
Number of Wrongful imprisonment petitions filed by one legal team on behalf of thousands of New Orleans prisoners, many of whom have been held for over 6 months without seeing a lawyer or, in some cases without ever having charges filed against them: 2,100
Number of prisoners who have been released as a result of those petitions: 1,000
Number of New Orleans public defenders before Katrina: 42
Number as of February 2006: 6
Hat tip to Pam.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans
February 14th, 2006
One of the most frustrating things I’ve heard and read a lot recently is the complaint that Katrina Evacuees are mooching off the system when they should just get on with their lives and get jobs.
People like to point out that there are a lot of jobs in New Orleans right now. Why just about every business has a sign out that they are hiring. Anyone who claims they can’t find work must be moochers.
Meanwhile, people who are working in the city are getting kicked out of their hotels because FEMA won’t pay anymore. FEMA is handing out rent vouchers so folks can move into more “permanent” temporary housing. These are people who had places to live before Katrina. Some of them have houses they are trying to repair or rebuild. Part of the problem is that there is very little rental housing actually available in the city because of the devestation of that same hurricane. Those apartments and such that managed to survive in tact or have been repaired are already rented or are rental rates higher than what FEMA is handing out.
If these people are working why can’t they afford to pay their own rent? I imagine because they are also trying to recover from the financial and material devestation heaped on them as a result of this tragedy. I imagine that it’s difficult to work, buy food, pay bills, pay rent, pay a mortgage for a house too damaged to live in, pay for repairs your insurance company is refusing to reimburse you for, and repurchase your wardrobe, your necessities, and your life.
And what about those trailers FEMA promised? I have a friend who finally was told last month she could have one if she could find a place for it. Since she was living on rental property before the hurricane, she doesn’t have a place for it unfortunately, and FEMA has said she can’t put it on her parent’s property because there’s not enough space on the lot. Hundreds of empty trailers are sitting on large parcels of land all across the country and FEMA is paying rent to the owners of that land, while Katrina victims go homeless.
But what about those that are being kicked out of those hotels again? Those that have jobs in the city but no where to live? Some of them are planning on staying in their cars while others are going to the nearest shelter — in Shreveport 5 hours away. Some are having to return to their original evacuation locations like Houston, Memphis and Atlanta. So that’s more people who are being exiled from the city, more empty jobs…
And what about those countless vacant jobs? Most of the jobs that are advertising are minimum wage or manual labor. What about those New Orleans residents with degrees and experience in other things? Would you expect a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant to find work at McDonald’s or Target just so they could stay in the city or would you expect them to find work elsewhere?
And from there, we have a circle. Those who would work those available jobs can not afford the cost of what little housing there is and those that would be able to afford the cost if they had the jobs they are educated and experienced at are unable to find work in the current market.
The government keeps talking about how they need to bring the city back to life, but with no housing and no support, how do they expect people to return and stay?
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, politics, FEMA
October 18th, 2005
Gosh, it seems like ages but less than a month ago articles started appearing in the paper and news-related websites about how the U.S. had received tons of food donations (MREs) from other countries for Hurricane Katrina but they ended up in Little Rock awaiting possible incineration because of laws prohibiting certain foods from outside the country.
Now another article has appeared indicating that the State Department asked its embassies to ask countries worldwide for donations when there was a need for 500k readily packaged meals for hurricane victims. Get that? We asked them to give us food and then we shipped it off to Arkansas to sit in a warehouse for over a month because we have a ban on UK beef products for example. Mind you, I wonder if when we were asking for donations, did we specify to say, Britain, who was among the first to come to our aid, that there were certain things we didn’t want from them? It’s kind of rude, don’t you think? Reminds me of the bum asking for money for food who turns his nose up at the sandwhich your brought him. Or the bride who returns the wedding present you bought off her registry.
O.K. So what are we doing with all of that uneaten food? Why, we’re looking for a less picky country to donate them to.
The State Department said it did not want to appear ungrateful for the British donation and that it was working hard to pass on the meals to another country in need.
“We obviously want to find needy populations and get them these supplies as soon as possible, because if you need them, you need them now. So we’re eager to resolve this soon,” said Ereli, adding he did not know what the expiration dates were on the food packages. [“U.S. rejects Katrina meals, offers them to others”]
So, it’s not good enough for Americans in need, but it’s good enough for another country’s needy. If I were Britain, I’d be a little insulted and miffed.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, MREs
October 18th, 2005
I spoke with PW last night. She’s currently in New Orleans preparing what’s left of her personal possessions for the trip to England. She said that she has about six changes of clothes at this point and from her descriptions, it sounds like everything she rescued can fit into four suitcases, carefully packed to not be more than 50lbs each.
She said that New Orleans is very much a cash-based economy at the moment. There aren’t a lot of working phone lines for those credit card machines. Plus, she also verified that most stores as well as post offices and government offices are only open a few hours a day. Apparently it’s a big deal that the Wal-Mart is now open until 8pm.
Not that it really matters since she’s going ahead and moving to England, but she received a letter from her employer telling her that everyone had been laid off since none of the 5 stores are currently in a condition to open.
However, she verified that everyone seems to be hiring. (One friend even emailed me that Burger King has signing bonuses of $2K to $6K if you sign on for a year.)
She had a run in with the Jefferson Parrish Police Monday. She had bought her truck the week before Hurricane Katrina hit, so it still only has a temporary licence tag, which has expired. She talked to the DMV last week and they told her that the paperwork had been caught in the flooding and it had been sent elsewhere to be sorted, etc. They told her that she should call back this week and that if she got pulled over, she should explain this to the police and have them call the DMV.
A police officer pulled her over on Monday, hauled her out of the truck, made her put her hands on the hood and everything and refused to call the DMV. He told her that she couldn’t drive the truck with the expired temp tag, ripped up the tag, and fortunately left. She drove over to the auto dealership where she bought the truck and they fortunately gave her a new temp tag.
Since she’s leaving in less than 2 weeks anyway, she’ll probably just sell the truck back to the dealership. The license probably still won’t be there.
Really, it’s quite ridiculous that the police officer wasn’t just a tad more understanding. She had paperwork in the vehicle to back up her story. Of course, with other stories I’m hearing, she’s lucky she’s not on a chain gang somewhere.
My friend who told me about Burger King also verified that the stories about the “prisoner camps” and chain gangs is quite true. He basically said that you shouldn’t go into New Orleans alone and you shouldn’t go in after dark at all.
Oh, and PW said that Metairie and the area of New Orleans she’d been to have a horrible stench. People are using the neutral grounds (that’s a median for the rest of you) as trash dumps. There’s garbage everywhere and with no mosquito control spraying regularly, it’s gotten nasty even in the areas that didn’t flood.
They still haven’t been able to find the landlord who’s business and home phones ring unanswered and who has not been to the building at all — when most landlords are actively trying to get tenants to move their stuff out so bulldozing and reconstruction can begin quickly. PW thinks he might be one of the bodies.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans