Archive for the ‘Katrina’ Category
December 10th, 2008 | 
Author: Wow…. this almost makes me like Metallica again:
Hmmmm….. nah. They’re still pricks.
Edit: broken link fixed.
Tags: From CQ Today: Embattled Louisiana Rep. Jefferson Gets Homeland Security Seat
Eight months after stripping Rep. William J. Jefferson of his seat on the Ways and Means Committee, Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to award the lawmaker with a spot on the Homeland Security panel.
The move, confirmed by a top Democratic leadership aide and expected to take place Friday, is aimed at giving Jefferson, D-La., a greater opportunity to help the people in his district, particularly those still recovering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Jefferson, the subject of an ongoing federal bribery probe, surprised fellow lawmakers and political observers Dec. 9 when he won election to a ninth term in a close runoff race.
I’m sorry? Did I read that correctly? A greater opportunity to help the people in his district, particularly those still recovering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Seriously? Surely I can’t be the only one to remember this:
Congressman Used National Guard to Visit Home
Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings — even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops.
Yeah… sounds like a guy who’s really concerned about the welfare of the ‘people in his district’. Sounds to me like he was more concerned with the $90K that was stashed in his freezer.
New Orleans unveils hurricane evacuation plan
Mayor proposes more buses, no Superdome shelter for 2006 storm season
Mayor Ray Nagin unveiled a new evacuation strategy for New Orleans on Tuesday that relies more on buses and trains and eliminates the Superdome and Convention Center as shelters.
Mayor, may I make a few suggestions? First, don’t wait until the buses and roads are flooded (even if you are worried that the hotels will sue you). Second, when Amtrak offers the use of their trains, accept!
“We offered the city the opportunity to take evacuees out of harm’s way,†said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black. “The city declined.â€
NOLA is auctioning off the infamous flooded schoolbuses on eBay.
New Orleans to Sell Flooded Buses on EBay
Starved for cash, the New Orleans school district is taking a long shot and hoping to sell its flooded, unsalvageable school buses on eBay.
Some submerged to their roofs in the black flood waters, the yellow school buses were widely photographed in the days after Hurricane Katrina and have become an icon of the city’s devastated school system.
The fist story linked above (junkyardblog) has a link to the first aution on ebay. I’m a bit amazed that they actually use this photo in the aution to show what bus is being bid on:
And from the auction description:
Exclusive Limited Offer!!! Own A Piece of History!!!
Historic 1993 International Blue Bird Orleans Parish Schools Bus #93-97
This New Orleans Public School Bus is a 1993 International Blue Bird with 147,797 miles. The bus was substantially submerged for at least 10 days following Hurricane Katrina, and would require extensive repair to return to full working condition. Please see the photos below. Only 147,797 Original Owner Miles. Buyer is responsible for shipping/delivery. This bus is sold “as is”. No warranty or guaranty is expressed or implied. Clear title will be provided. Because the Orleans Parish School District is a public entity, your purchase price less salvage value of the bus may qualify as a charitable contribution! Check with your tax advisor.
This is a collector’s dream come true.
We will provide a certificate of authenticity attesting that this bus was at the Orleans Parish Schools Almonaster Bus Barn and was flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina!
Other buses may be available in future auctions.
Undocumented immigrants flock to jobs on Gulf Coast
You know, just when you think Mayor Ray ‘That Frickin Superdome’ Nagen, can’t possibly say anything dumber, he does it.
At a recent seminar about the rebuilding efforts, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin asked the crowd: “How do I ensure that New Orleans is not overrun by Mexican workers?“
emphasis mine
Holy crap! Can you imagine the shitstorm if a white Republican had said this?
ht: Wizbang!
The list below shows the amount of pork Representatives and Senators have committed to cutting as reported by bloggers and blog-readers who have contacted them. The goal is to get every Representative and every Senator to commit to cutting significant pork projects in their district or state. So if your representatives show as ‘NO CUTS COMMITTED’, contact them and ask what they would cut — then report back here and let the world know what they say!
As of this writing, the only member of Congress to comit to any cuts is Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D – San Fransico 8th District).
In fact, other members of Congress become downright angry and belligerent when it is suggested they give up some of their pet project pork. Case in point Rep. Don Young (R-AK) (who’s infamous ‘Bridge to Nowhere‘ pork project has been covered here before).
VIDEO: ‘Chief Porker’ Don Young Lashes Out At Critics
No! That money is not there! That money is for transportation! That is not added pork. See, that’s why the whole media – Wall Street Journal, yourself, respectfully, you know, Sam Donaldson – don’t know what the hell you are talking about. This is grandstanding by individuals that don’t know what they’re talking about. I’ll go back to that. It’s ignorance and stupidity.
I have to agree with Rep Young there. It is most definitely ‘ignorance and stupidity‘.
The Truth Laid Bear, the site hosting Porkbusters, also has a list of pork projects per state with links and info on how to add more bacon to the list.
Technorati tag: Hurricane Katrina Porkbusters
In comments on another blog, I predicted something like this would happen.
Disaster relief? Call in the Marines.
Bush suggests lifting the ban on using the military domestically.
As Washington picks through the lessons learned from hurricane Katrina, there is a growing conviction that the only organization with the skills, expertise, and resources needed to respond quickly to a catastrophe of such magnitude is the American military.
President Bush suggested a larger disaster relief role for the armed forces in his national address last week, and Congress has indicated it will take up the issue this autumn. Though the topic has emerged at other troubled times – most recently 9/11 – Congress has always avoided amending Posse Comitatus, the law that has kept active-duty soldiers out of civilian law-enforcement affairs since Reconstruction.
Technorati tag: Hurricane Katrina
edit: Outdated/broken links removed 3-29-07
I believe the media continues to minimize the scope of this disaster by focusing almost exclusively on New Orleans. Large areas of the Gulf Coast where completely destroyed. The pictures below highlight that destruction.
Pictures from the air of Gulfport and Biloxi areas
(inlcuding Pass Christian)
While almost all of the attention has been on New Orleans, the fact is that the hurricane (thankfully) turned and didn’t hit the city directly. While this was fortunate for the 100,000 residents stranded in the city, it didn’t bode well for those in the other cities and towns along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Alabama. They took a direct hit, and it’s important that we don’t forget about them.
These pictures were sent in by a reader who works with the spouse of the photographer, who is in the Air Force Reserve. They were taken very recently, perhaps yesterday. Click each for a larger view. And if I’ve screwed up locations or place names, let me know and I’ll fix it. (I’ve only driven through the area once. On I-10. At night. I’m going totally off of Google Earth, here.)
Technorati tag: Hurricane Katrina
The 20 Most Obnoxious Hurricane Katrina Quotes
(well, 21 now)
Here’s my personal favorite:
“You literally cannot continue to exist unless we blue-staters give you money. The situation is that simple. You have been leeching off of us for years, and now you depend on our charity for your very lives. So if you Jesusmaniac simpletons really want that cash, you will just sit there and SHUT UP and not say ONE D@MN WORD in your defense. BUSH CAUSED THIS DISASTER. YOU CAUSED THIS DISASTER BY VOTING FOR BUSH. You don’t like that message? Then don’t take our money! If I read ONE MORE article in which a science-hating red state pundit attacks progressives, I’m going to take the money I was going to donate to disaster relief and spend it on a nice Thai meal. And I’m going to suggest that all other progressives do likewise. I’m going to say “DROWN AND DIE, YOU ARROGANT HILLBILLY SOUTHERN-FRIED LEECHES!!” — Joseph Cannon from Cannonfire explains his views on disaster relief
I wonder if he’s related to the guy who wouldn’t stop and help the stranded woman and her baby because she had a W sticker on the back of her van?
Runner up:
“You know, some people are stealing and they’re making a big deal out of it. Oh, they’re stealing 20 pair of jeans or they’re stealing television sets. Who cares? They’re not going to go too far with it. Maybe those people are so poor, some of the people who do that they’re so poor they’ve never touched anything in their lives. Let them touch those things for once.” — Celine Dion
Michelle Malkin suggests adding four more including:
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” — George Bush
Amid Katrina Chaos, Congressman Used National Guard to Visit Home
Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings — even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops
according to the source, Jefferson emerged with a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator, which the enlisted men loaded up into the truck.
“I don’t think there is any explanation for an elected official using resources for their own personal use, when those resources should be doing search and rescue, or they should be helping with law enforcement in the city,” said Jerry Hauer, a homeland security expert
The soldiers signaled to helicopters in the air for aid. Military sources say a Coast Guard helicopter pilot saw the signal and flew to Jefferson’s home. The chopper was already carrying four rescued New Orleans residents at the time.
A rescue diver descended from the helicopter, but the congressman decided against going up in the helicopter, sources say. The pilot sent the diver down again, but Jefferson again declined to go up the helicopter.
After spending approximately 45 minutes with Jefferson, the helicopter went on to rescue three additional New Orleans residents before it ran low on fuel and was forced to end its mission.
The Steady Buildup to a City’s Chaos
in fact, while the last regularly scheduled train out of town had left a few hours earlier, Amtrak had decided to run a “dead-head” train that evening to move equipment out of the city. It was headed for high ground in Macomb, Miss., and it had room for several hundred passengers. “We offered the city the opportunity to take evacuees out of harm’s way,” said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black. “The city declined.”
So the ghost train left New Orleans at 8:30 p.m., with no passengers on board.
Technorati tag: Hurricane Katrina
The Fox News Channel’s Major Garrett was just on my show extending the story he had just reported on Brit Hume’s show: The Red Cross is confirming to Garrett that it had prepositioned water, food, blankets and hygiene products for delivery to the Superdome and the Convention Center in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, but were blocked from delivering those supplies by orders of the Louisiana state government, which did not want to attract people to the Superdome and/or Convention Center.
(emphasis mine)
But please remember, no matter what, it’s all Bush’s fault.
Freedom Outdoors is the blog of an Israeli SAR team member who is currently trying to get a GSM cellular system (as well as himself and other team members) delivered to the US to assist in the Katrina recovery.
The prospect of a C-130 flying from here has opened a new window of opportunity. A group of leaders of various civilian and military medical groups left today for the US to plan an Israeli aid mission. It will most likely be field hospitals and body identification. Israel gained quite the reputation for this in Thailand earlier this year. My SAR team commander said that we have not been put on standby, but I think that if given the opportunity of a C-130 heading there anyway, many of us will pick up and go. I’ll know more in a day or two.
updated 9-8
One has to wonder if USA Today even bothers to read its own stories. The headline I just clicked on the usatoday.com website:
U.S. has yet to accept global aid
This headline leads you to believe that the U.S. has not accepted a single penny or item of International support.
Actual story title once you click on the link:
Nations still waiting for U.S. to accept offers of Katrina aid
And finally, actual quotes from the article itself:
The United States has accepted offers of nearly $1 billion in assistance from some 95 countries
However, some countries said they had received detailed requests for help from U.S. authorities and started shipping supplies.
European Commission spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich said “the coordination effort is going much, much better because aid is now leaving and aid is arriving.”
The British government said it started sending some 500,000 military ration packs with food Monday, and it was working closely with U.S. authorities in the recovery effort.
Germany will send forensic experts to help identify Katrina victims at the request of the U.S. government, spokesman Thomas Steg said.
A separate group of 90 technicians departed earlier Wednesday from the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in western Germany with 15 large-capacity pumps to help clear floodwaters from residential areas, he said.
Russia will send an estimated $760,000 worth of humanitarian aid in three planes scheduled to begin leaving Moscow as early as Wednesday for Arkansas, said Sergei Vlasov, spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry. That aid includes 121 tents, 4,000 blankets and 10,000 food packages, he said.
But just ignore all that. Just remember: U.S. has yet to accept global aid. Or perhaps they’re just counting on the fact that many people who read newspapers rarely read beyond the headline.
Update:
Screen capture for the doubters
FEMA locks Mac users from hurricane relief
Mac and Linux-using hurricane survivors are unable to use Federal disaster relief claim form services online.
This is because the much-criticized US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has created a service that only works with Windows and Internet Explorer 6.
This acts to the frustration of survivors lucky enough to be able to access a Mac or Linux computer, and to the reported consternation of disaster relief teams on the ground.
“Workers on the ground have told Ars Technica that they would prefer to avoid setting up Windows XP workstations because they take longer to setup, and even longer to properly patch and configure for use,” the report states.
“The issue isn’t only security”, the report continues. “Windows XP hardware requirements, while not impressive by today’s standards, rule out using some donated hardware as well. Furthermore, legitimate copies of Windows also cost money, and relief workers are trying to stretch their dollars as far as they can go,” it reports.
Attention all those heading down to D.C. for the Moveon.org protest. Do me a favor and take a couple copies of this picture with you:
You know, I was going to ignore this. Everyone has seen ‘the’ picture by now and its been beat to death. But after hearing Sean mouth of to the British press that he was ‘pulling drowning people out of the water‘ for nine hours, I have to say something.
Sean, you self-important hollywood boob, if you want to help, fine! Thats great. Write a check and then stay the hell out of the way. The last thing the emergency personal need to deal with is a bunch of morons in a boat. You’re complaining about them not letting everyone with a boat into that water? Ever think they might have enough to worry about without having a couple of mental giants go into the water without a WORKING MOTOR or even PLUGGING THE DRAIN HOLE leaving them close to needing rescuing themselves? All for a photo-op?
Jackass.
(more photos at Getty Images)
I must say, it was awfully nice of those people to wait to start ‘drowning’ until you got there. At least you had your personal photographer with you. I’m sure all the photos of all the drowing people you saved are on their way?
Oh, and you’ll notice that Sean is the only one on the boat wearing a bullet proof vest. I guess his ‘crew’ just aren’t important enough for such safety measures.
Faith Hill: same goes for you. Take your photo-op and stick it.
Harry Connick Jr.: Jury’s still out on you. At least you have actual connections to the city. I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
side note: The last paragraph of the story linked above:
“At one point, there were a load of girls on the roof of the hotel saying ‘Can you help us?’ and the policemen said ‘Show us what you’ve got’ and made signs for them to lift their T-shirts. When the girls refused, they said ‘Fine’ and motored off down the road in their boat.”
Sadly, this sounds close enough to New Orleans to be true.
Kids of Katrina School Supplies drive is just what it sounds like.
I will be collecting school supplies from my fellow employees and my neighbors to send to Houston and Baton Rouge. Shipping will be supplied by uship.com.
I have people on the ground in both Houston and Baton Rouge who will accept the delivery and get them to the schools where they are needed the most.
For those who would like to donate towards the purchase of these supplies, please use the PayPal button below. If you would like a specific item/items purchased, please send me an email and let me know, I’d be happy to do that.
If anyone else in Baton Rouge or Houston wants to help, please email me.
School Supplies Drive is a GO!!!
Another shool supplies drive: Project Backpack
I’ve noticed that these site, a quite a few others, are collection donations via PayPal. If you’re looking to donate cash, I’d suggest you avoid using PayPal if at all possible.
Paypal Freezes SomethingAwful.com’s Katrina Donations Account
Well, after breaking the $20,000 donation mark, Paypal decided to shut down the donation account. No warning, no customer support, no chance to fix anything. Why? Here’s their reason!
Technorati tag: Hurricane Katrina
Google has placed a Katrina button on its site that appears when viewing areas affected buy the storm/flood. You can select the ‘Satellite’ button then the ‘Katrina’ button to get before an after views of specific areas. Not all area hit have the updates but being able to scan what’s there and see the devestation is mind boggling.
This link will take you to a Google Maps display of downtown New Orleans. Click the red Katrina button to see the effects of the flooding. And yes, thats the now infamous school bus storage yard near the center of the photo.
Technorati tag: Hurricane Katrina
Countries Pledge Hurricane Aid to U.S.
In an accelerating drive, more than 50 countries have pledged money or other assistance to help Americans recover from Hurricane Katrina.
Cuba and Venezuela have offered to help despite differences with Washington. Oil giant Saudi Arabia and small countries like Sri Lanka and Dominica are among the nations making pledges.
None has been turned down, Rice said at a news conference, disputing a report from Moscow that a Russian offer had been rejected. However, she said some offers were being taken up immediately and others “somewhat later,” depending on the needs on the ground.
By Friday, offers had been received from Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Georgia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates.
It looks like the absolute enormity of this disaster is starting to sink in. Earlier in the week I posted an entry about how major web companies were slow to post links for disaster donations. Other countries were also quiet for days after the storm. You got the sense that everyone thought ‘it’s just another hurricane’. Now just about all the web comanies companies mentioned have links in place and the offers of aid from other countries are pouring in. Even though the news media hasn’t helped the perception much with their almost complete focus on two locations in New Orleans, people are realizing just what has happened.
Technorati tag: Hurricane Katrina
