Posted on 09/09/2005 3:45:14 PM PDT by george76
At the vast port of New Orleans, cargo has lain abandoned for almost two weeks amid the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina, and now, as the trade hub stirs to life again...
New Orleans is perhaps best known for raucous images of jazz and parties. But behind the drinking and dancing, the city was also directing the vital traffic of the U.S. economy, funneling America's agricultural goods out to the world and taking in the raw materials needed by its factories.
But since August 27 the port -- fifth largest in the U.S. by total cargo tonnage -- has been shut. Military and relief ships have taken the place of commercial ones.
As corn, wheat and other grain piles up along the clogged Mississippi River and farmers watch prices fall, shipments of steel from Japan and Russia and rubber from Indonesia and Thailand have been turned away.
Officials plan to resume commercial operations by Wednesday, but say it could take six months for the port to be fully operational. When the port is functioning normally, ten upriver terminals handle 70 percent of business. It is hoped that two of those terminals will be opened next week.
While the port itself was not badly damaged, re-creating the vital infrastructure of roads, bridges and railway around it could take years...
Not only will there be problems getting raw materials, Morici said, but the labor to do the work has to be housed in an area ...
"Rebuilding the port will be a positive for the economy ultimately, because it will be much improved afterwards. But in the near-term the port is going to be down for some while and that's going to be a negative."
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
Good news. Guess the gloom and doom machine is getting a bit nervous. Less deaths then expected, port repairs, waters receeding quicker from NO proper then expected.
Makes ya wonder someyimes, why Democrats
and the other assorted lefties, just don't
go ahead and kill themselves allready.
"Makes ya wonder someyimes, why Democrats
and the other assorted lefties, just don't
go ahead and kill themselves allready."
Yes. A good observation. Mass suicides on their part would truely help this great nation in the long run.
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