Free Republic

Hurricane Ida continues to strengthen as it approaches the Yucatan Peninsula and Gulf of Mexico. The government of Mexico has issued a Hurricane Warning from Playa del Carmen to Cabo Catoche. The late season hurricane is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico later Sunday at a Category 2 storm. Links:Public AdvisoriesDiscussion Updated Every Six Hours FL and East GOM Buoy DataVisible Image SatelliteOther satellite imagesForecast ModelsStormPulse Category Wind Speed Barometric Pressure Storm Surge Damage Potential Tropical Depression < 39 mph < 34 kts     Minimal Tropical Storm 39 - 73 mph 34 - 63 kts     Minimal...

Here's a recipe for jambalaya that's sure to please your family and bring out the Coonie in you! This one has been handed down for a few generations and comes straight from Granny's kitchen in Louisiana and the gulf coast of Mississippi. It don't get no better than this!

Some home builders already struggling in Florida's dismal housing market are facing another headache: The Chinese-made drywall they used is causing unpleasant odors and possibly leading to electric problems in dozens of homes constructed during the housing boom.

My aunt, who used to live in Texas City, moved to Austin this summer. I collected these videos for her and thought some of my fellow Gulf Coast FReepers as well as some of those on NN's ping list might be interested in viewing them.

OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- 08/31/08 -- The Honourable David Emerson, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Peter Gordon MacKay, Minister of National Defence and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, today announced that Canada is providing assistance with the evacuation of those in the path of Hurricane Gustav. At the request of the United States government, a Canadian Forces CC-177 aircraft left Canada earlier today for the southern U.S. Gulf Coast. The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, indicated that he had spoken with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff to offer further assistance. "Canada and the United States...

Today President Bush traveled to Orlando, Florida to speak to the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention. Unlike the whiney messiah who spoke to the VFW yesterday, President Bush didn’t hesitate to thank those have served and defended America in time of war. (Transcript) I know you share with me a deep love for America and an awesome pride in those who defend her. When I meet with our troops, they always inspire me with their sense of duty and honor.They are America's finest citizens. (Applause.) The President also spoke about the situation in Georgia, reinforcing the United States’ solidarity...

Drivers who get safely off Interstate 35E after arriving in Dallas from Austin or San Antonio have a certain look of relief – like they just outran a buffalo stampede. Only on I-35, the stampede is trucks. The white-knuckle experience helps make the case for some kind of reliever road, even a tolled one. Making that same case has been a harder sell for U.S. highways along the Gulf Coast and East Texas. Drivers there can judge their own level of congestion, and they have insisted that their mostly rural corridor doesn't warrant the major undertaking of a parallel turnpike....

There's been a lot of talk about the new Trans-Texas Corridor — the next-generation "super-highway" — and opinions are varying. Now the debate is coming to Lufkin's doorstep. On Monday, the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range and TURF will hold a workshop at Lufkin's Pitser Garrison Civic Center on how to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor 69. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A portion of Texas citizens have voiced their opposition to the TTC-69 in public meetings held by the Texas Department of Transportation, but believing they are not being heard, four cities and their...

Tom Kauffman thought that once a storm blew over people could go home, clean up a few things and return back to normal, everyday life. But two mission trips to Biloxi, Miss., changed his thinking. People are still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. "A storm doesn't just blow over and people don't go back to their homes the next day," said Kauffman, 69, of Manchester Township. "There's a lot of pain and suffering and a lot of waiting. I opened my eyes up." Kauffman plans to return to Biloxi a third...

State Sen. Glen Hegar says he opposes a route that would bring the mammoth Trans Texas Corridor through his district. The Texas Department of Transportation has kicked off a series of public meetings to discuss the project. Meetings are scheduled for Tuesday in Hempstead (6:30 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 22892 Mack Washington St.) and Jan. 29 in Bellville (at the Austin County fairgrounds, also beginning at 6:30 p.m.). No meetings are scheduled in Washington County, which likely wouldn’t be impacted much by the highway project. Much of the discussion in public meetings already held centers on Interstate...

Today, on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President and Mrs. Bush visited Louisiana and Mississippi and met with officials and citizens as they continue to recover from the devastation caused by the storm. This was the president’s fifteenth visit to the Gulf Coast in two years. President Bush: “This is the second anniversary of an event that changed a lot of people's lives ... And Laura and I are honored to be with some of those who endured the storm and have dedicated their lives to rebuilding this part of the world. The first couple arrived in Louisiana...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - There is an above-average chance that a major hurricane will hit the U.S. Gulf Coast this year, marking a possible return to the destructive seasons of 2004 and 2005, leading storm forecasters predicted on Tuesday. Hurricanes in 2005 devastated New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast, and knocked out a swath of the country's offshore oil platforms and coastal refineries, pushing oil prices to then-record highs. In 2004, four strong hurricanes struck Florida, the country's biggest citrus producer. AccuWeather and Colorado State University said Tuesday at a storm conference in Houston the chance that a...

NASA announced plans on Monday to build a new engine test stand at Stennis Space Center in Hancock County. The announcement represents an estimated $175 million investment in Stennis and serves to support the Constellation Project. That's NASA's plan to return the United States to the Moon and eventually to Mars. The new stand at Stennis will test NASA's J-2X engines, which will be used in the second stage of the Ares I launch vehicle. NASA officials say the new 300-foot-tall open-frame design will allow engineers to simulate conditions at different altitudes. The new stand will be completed in time...

Today the President travelled to the Gulf Coast to see how Hurricane Katrina recovery work is progressing he also visited a charter school in New Orleans. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended a Senate briefing on Iraq and met with Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa at the State Department. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Michael Brown, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is shooting off his mouth again. Last week in New York City, he claimed that Mississippi and Louisiana were treated differently after Hurricane Katrina because of their politics. Unfortunately, Louisiana's Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco, jumped on the suggestion, claiming that Brown had "broken the code of silence about the political conspiracy to hurt the people of Louisiana." Fortunately, Mississippi's Republican governor, Haley Barbour, took the time to consider the source of this conspiracy theory and said Brown's "credibility has been worn pretty thin over the last couple of years...

You'll be happy to hear that Biloxi's gaming business not only has made big strides since Hurricane Katrina devastated the coastline, but also that the restored casinos have expanded what they offer, and new properties are on the way. Before the storm that destroyed tens of thousands of gulf-area homes, Biloxi had nine casinos. Today, seven are back in business, including the glitzy Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, which reopened at the end of August, a year after Katrina hit. After the hurricane, the city changed its laws to allow casinos -- previously confined to floating structures at the water's...

LAUREL, Miss. — Jones County authorities are crediting two inmates with thwarting the escape attempt of a third. Sheriff Larry Dykes said a trusty at the jail, Danny Lamar Odom, 47, bolted Thursday from a work crew toward a field behind the jail. Dykes said Odom had been working in the kitchen and was helping unload food boxes from a delivery truck when the attempted escape occurred. Dykes said two younger trusties, Reginald Ducksworth and Jacob Lambert, also were helping unload the truck. They chased down Odom and brought him back to the jail. "I've never heard of anything like...

The following is the latest information on casinos reopening on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Open Beau Rivage Resort & Casino opened Aug. 29, 2006, the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The resort also plans to open a new golf course in autumn 2006. Beau Rivage has new restaurants, a redesigned and more luxurious casino, and the stores along the promenade will look more like a street with each having their own look inside and out. In addition, all of the guest rooms have been redesigned and have a new look. NEW - Silver Slipper, the Coast's newest casino opened November...

BILOXI, Miss. With drywall, two-by-fours and a patient faith in a sometimes-exasperating God, Burke resident Bart Tucker is trying to raise a small neighborhood from the dead. But in this Gulf Coast City of 50,000, a slender thumb of land smashed by the winds and waters of Hurricane Katrina, nothing comes easy -- least of all miracles. Since arriving in Biloxi with a convoy of supplies and volunteers from his fairfax County church, Lord of Life Lutheran, shortly after Labor Day, Tucker hs spent a total of eight weeks here. He goes home only to raise more money and recruit...

BILOXI, Miss. The Czech ambassador to the United States will travel to the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this week to deliver money for Hurricane Katrina recovery. Petr Kolar, the country's former deputy minister of foreign affairs, will present a check Wednesday for over 111-thousand dollars to the Tapia Public Library in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, which plans to buy books. On Thursday, Kolar plans to present a 100-thousand-dollar check for the revitalization of the Saint Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy in Biloxi. The money will help the charitable facility purchase medical supplies. Media officials with the Czech embassy said the...

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Saturday renewed the nation's commitment to help victims of last year's Gulf Coast hurricanes and thanked U.S. troops fighting abroad. In his Saturday radio address, Bush said Americans are grateful to those who rallied after hurricanes Katrina and Rita to bring food, water and hope to people who lost everything. "We renew our commitment to help those who are still suffering and to rebuild our nation's Gulf Coast," Bush said. This week, the president will attend a NATO summit in Europe and will meet in Jordan with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. On Saturday, he...

This historic waterfront city was on the verge of becoming the great gambling destination of the South. Then came Hurricane Katrina. Now the Gulf Coast is fighting to get back in the game. BILOXI, Miss. -- Olivia Boglin stood in her yard, staring down at a pile of Sheetrock. Just staring in the Mississippi heat, dabbing the sweat off her forehead with a wadded-up tissue. A block away, a guy was riding a bicycle slow, so the front wheel swerved with each crank of the pedals. The heat, the humidity and the noon hour had everything almost at a standstill....

Voters in New Orleans go to the polls Saturday to choose the mayor who will shepherd the city through its slow and uncertain recovery. To give their city its best chance for renewal, old-line New Orleans Democrats should do the unthinkable. They should do what New Yorkers had to do to save their own city in 1993: suppress their natural instincts and vote for the Republican. New Orleans hasn't had a Republican mayor since Reconstruction. But the credible Republican in the seven-person race of top-tier candidates, Rob Couhig, is the only candidate who, during this week's debates, correctly identified New...

For some New Orleanians, the city's unchecked culture of violence is so regular and consistent that dead bodies and homicides must compete with arguably lesser stories for 'top news' status. However, the city's latest crime headlines are attention grabbing even by New Orleans' bloody standards. . . . Man murdered in Central City early ThursdaySecurity guard beaten by McDonough studentCrime puts Marigny residents on edge20-year-old dies in hail of bullets in Mid-City WednesdayWith fewer people murder rate is higher Is killing in self-defense justified? Witnesses say Guardsman acted in self-defenseShooting in Irish Channel leaves man dead19-year-old killed in Algiers TuesdayAlleged...

Comic Relief held its 20th event Saturday night from the Harrah's property in Las Vegas to help raise money and awareness for victims of Hurricane Katrina. That's a noteworthy cause, to be sure, and we in South Mississippi were gratified to hear that more than a year after the storm, people still recognized we need help here. Of course, that was before the pre-event press releases came out, advertising appeared and the show itself was aired simultaneously on HBO and WTBS. The media advances talked about how bad New Orleans was affected. The billboards and at least one full-page ad...

Seemingly before the wind stopped, certainly before power was restored, they began arriving. The initial wave brought the food, the drink, the clothing, the gasoline to get through those first desperate, chaotic days. The second wave brought hammers, saws, shovels, drills, all the tools necessary to begin removing Hurricane Katrina’s afterbirth. As summer turned to fall and fall to winter, they came, wave after wave after wave. From near and far, points domestic and international, some 350,000 volunteers set aside their lives to help us rebuild ours. And still they come. To paraphrase volunteer Elizabeth Ryan, they climb, pound, beat,...

Scotty Hancock spent a week in southern Mississippi, seeing Hurricane Katrina’s destruction firsthand. Monday night at the old Kroger building on Hicks Drive, Hancock, the Floyd County Emergency Management Agency director, shared his photos, videos and personal accounts of the devastation with RomeKares volunteers. His message to them: You’re doing more good than you could possibly know. “I wanted to let these folks see what their time and donations are going toward,” he said. “There is a lot of good going on down there.” While no pictures may truly capture the scene, volunteers got what some called their best portrayal...

BILOXI - While New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin continues to get criticized for his actions and inactions before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway has been a media darling. It seems that Holloway, 63, has made all of the right moves before, during and after the big storm. Despite that fact that many Biloxi neighborhoods were hit just as hard as Waveland and Bay St. Louis, Holloway's keen preparation and a little luck helped him and his city get back into the fight more quickly than most. “I put our success to the people of Biloxi,” Holloway...

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. — Archaeologists believe they have uncovered evidence of an ancient village, possibly dating back to the time of Christ, that once thrived along the shores of this Gulf Coast community. The artifacts were unearthed during recent efforts to rebuild a thoroughfare and major bridge heavily damaged last year by Hurricane Katrina. Marco Giardino, an archaeologist acting as the city's liaison on a dig to preserve the ancient remains, said as many as 400 people may have lived in the village. "That area was very strategic and would have allowed them to travel, fish and hunt," he...

I'm watching Spike Lee's documentary about Hurricane Katrina with my mom. She's finally visiting since the storm hit a year ago. She lives in a FEMA trailer in the now gray-from-destruction yard in front of her broken home in the New Orleans neighborhood of Gentilly, next to the elementary school where she taught, which has remained closed. "When the Levees Broke" is hard to watch. It's hard to take. The anger. The sadness. All over again. What's it like to live in New Orleans now? "I'm sitting there thinking you know what?" a woman named Phyllis tells Lee. "If you...

Katrina & Rita - 1 year later - Appeal for help from a resident near Ground Zero... Let's see what the power of Freep can do to motivate the United States Government and it's legislators and beauracrats for 2 small Parishes (counties) in the United States of America compared what it can do for a hostile country roughly twice the size of Idaho (Iraq)

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil surged to a record high near $76 on Thursday on renewed worries over supply from major exporter Nigeria and as conflict between Israel and Hizbollah in Lebanon heightened international tensions. Prices also rose as the Iran nuclear row appeared to be heading to the U.N. Security Council, North Korea walked out of talks with South Korea and crude inventories in top oil consumer the United States fell more than expected. "Geopolitical risk is out of control," said Tony Nunan, a risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp. "There's a pipeline attack in Nigeria, Israel is taking a strong...

SINGAPORE - Crude oil prices retreated Monday as traders took profits following recent gains and amid easing worries about Iran's nuclear dispute after the country's top nuclear negotiator expressed optimism that the standoff can be resolved peacefully. Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell 37 cents to $73.72 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drop came after oil prices had climbed for most of the last two weeks, reaching an intraday record of $75.78 a barrel on Friday before settling back at $74.09. The Brent crude contract for August fell 27 cents to...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil fell almost 1 percent to below $70 a barrel on Tuesday, pausing to watch the season's first Atlantic storm as it weakened along a route that will take it well clear of U.S. energy installations. Iran's reluctance to give up its atomic program, unrelenting violence in Iraq and strong demand signals from China all lent the market support, keeping prices up 15 percent this year and within sight of their record high of $75.35. U.S. light sweet crude for July fell 69 cents to $69.67 a barrel by 0746 GMT, extending Monday's $1.27 slump. London Brent...

MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS 442 of 442 precincts reporting Candidate Number of votes Percentage of votes Mitch Landrieu (D) 54,131 48% Ray Nagin (D) 59,460 52%

HOUSTON -- Counties that were saddled with chaos and traffic-choked highways before Hurricane Rita are defying an order from Gov. Rick Perry to empower one person to make evacuation decisions during a disaster. Instead, a group of elected Gulf Coast leaders adopted a different plan Tuesday that puts the authority in the hands of a 15-person committee _ even though the ultimate power to evacuate still rests with individual counties.

WASHINGTON - A full recovery in New Orleans could take 25 years as homeowners, businesses and tourists are coaxed back to the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration's Gulf Coast recovery coordinator said Thursday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Don Powell said that much of the city's rebirth will hinge on factors he said were "out of our control," including restoring housing, ensuring safety and encouraging robust investment by the private sector. "We kind of want it to happen overnight, or I do, but it's going to take some time," Powell said. "This could be five...

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (Army News Service, March 20, 2006) –- With some help from the Army, hundreds of thousands of residents along a stretch of the Mississippi Gulf Coast have begun a painful climb toward getting life back to the way it was before the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina. The Army Corps of Engineers has been removing debris from the Gulf Coast since the hurricane in August ripped tens of thousands of trees from their roots and everything from cars to shrimp boats rested where homes once stood. Across a four-state region, hurricanes Katrina and Rita left more than 87,000...

If thought Hurricane Katrina could destroy the city of New Orleans or the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 did to Galveston. There was another strong hurricane that hit Texas in 1886. This hurricane hit the town of Indianola, which is located on the Gulf Coast. It was a thriving port town, second to Galveston. Indianola was established in 1846 in Calhoun County. It was hit by a hurricane on September 15, 1875, which claimed hundreds of lives. However, it quickly rebuilt, but on a smaller scale. Sometimes in early August, a cluster of thunderstorms moved off the coast of Africa...

NEW ORLEANS — It was the epicenter of disaster, and now it’s a tourist attraction. The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans is still the site of unsalvageable wrecks — homes completely unanchored from their foundations, upside-down and rusted-out pickup trucks, spray-painted symbols denoting the number of dead that rescue workers found inside. But the area is on the rise — and perhaps the best indication that it’s a much different time from August 2005 is the crowds of disaster tourists, out-of-towners in four-wheel-drive trucks and chartered buses surveying for themselves the damage they had seen on television. Disaster tourism...

Federal agents contend that a Pennsylvania man tried to work with al Qaeda in a plot to blow up the Alaska pipeline, another pipeline in Pennsylvania and a refinery in New Jersey, according to a published report. Michael Curtis Reynolds, 47, has not officially been charged with terrorism, but a prosecutor at a hearing said that Reynolds tried to "provide material aid to al Qaeda" and that the case "involves a federal offense of terrorism," The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in its Sunday editions. CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports that a tip from Shannen Rossmiller - a judge from Conrad,...

Looks like it may have happened last night, but just showed up within the last hour or so on this site. New Madrid Fault I beleive.

BILOXI, MISS. — Jim Ullery drove along Highway 90 in this coastal community earlier this month, somberly taking in the devastation from Hurricane Katrina with other volunteers from Aiken. Then he stopped the car. “I know that church,” he said. Five years earlier Ullery and his wife, Sandra, had visited friends in nearby Gulfport, spending five days at the Methodist church’s adjacent retreat center. Virtually nothing was left of the church, battered by winds and water last fall. Little more than the shell remained ... along with a cross on the glass front and another on a back wall. “Some...

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Allstate, the largest publicly traded homeowners and auto insurer in the U.S., said it plans to scale back its exposure to the Gulf Coast homeowner's market following the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita this summer. Speaking at the company's third quarter earnings conference call with analysts earlier Thursday, Chief Executive Edward Liddy said Allstate would continue to provide assistance to those affected by the deadly hurricanes but would curb its exposure, a company spokeswoman confirmed. Liddy didn't provide an estimate of how much the company would scale back in the region. The news came as...

Oct. 29 rally in Baton Rouge to demand a ‘new direction’ for U.S. Gulf Coast union leaders hailed an action campaign launched by the AFL-CIO Sept. 30 to defend workers’ wages and rebuild their hurricane-torn states while turning the nation in a new direction that puts “people before profits.” Julie Cherry, assistant to Louis Reine, secretary-treasurer of the Louisiana AFL-CIO, said the labor movement will stage a rally on the Capitol steps in Baton Rouge on Oct. 29 to press the campaign’s demands, outlined in a statement, “America Needs a New Direction: Good Jobs, Stronger Communities and a Just Economy.”...

The casinos don't need this," said William F. Shughart II, an economist at the University of Mississippi . "If they are [eligible], that would be a complete waste of money." In fact, the casino industry is trying to appeal to governments by saying it will provide jobs and tax revenue, said Alberto Lopez, director of strategic communication at Harrah's Entertainment Inc., which lost two major casinos on the Mississippi coast. "We're actually scratching our heads. We can't ever remember an instance of being offered a tax credit -- ever." The indiscriminate nature of the president's proposal is likely to sharpen...

A prominent Republican congressman has sent a letter to President Bush protesting plans to extend tax breaks to gambling casinos as part of the Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (Va.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, wrote in part: "I do not have the words to express the depth of my disappointment in learning ... that your administration is planning to provide the gambling industry in the Gulf region with special tax breaks. "According to Bill Crawford, deputy director of the Mississippi Development Authority, the casinos there have not needed any enticement to invest in the...

PENSACOLA, Fla. - As the Gulf Coast reels from two catastrophic storms in a month, and the Carolinas and Florida deal with damage and debris from hurricanes this year and last, even some supporters of coastal development are starting to ask a previously unthinkable question: is it time to consider retreat from the coast? Yes, said Howard Marlowe, president of Marlowe & Company, a lobbying firm that represents counties and local governments, often in seeking support for coastal infrastructure, like roads, sewers and beach replenishment. "I think we need to be asking that and discussing that, and the federal government...

LAS CHEPAS, MEXICO – Mario Pérez, muscular and 16 years old, is a budding carpenter. Next to him is Samuel Sánchez, 32, an experienced roofer. Fed up with earning $4 a day in Mexico, they recently arrived at this tiny town on the Mexican-New Mexican border to start the two-day walk to the US. They talked about where they would go. "Probably Texas," said Mr. Sánchez. "What about New Orleans?" suggested Mr. Pérez In the wake of hurricane Katrina, recent moves by the US government may help would-be migrants like Sánchez and Pérez decide where to go. And decisions in...

People have always known the risks of living on the Gulf Coast. New Orleans has now had four severe category 4 hurricanes since 1915 (1915, 1947, in 1969 a category 5 narrowly missed, and 2005 Katrina). That's a category 4 or bigger storm every 22.5 years. This is hardly a once in 200- or 300-year event. Hurricanes for the Gulf Coast region are predictable, frequent and are going to happen again. Knowing this, what should the federal government do in response to the hurricanes? If the federal government takes $200 billion out of the American economy to finance Gulf Coast...