Katrina Updates Thread

Self | 9/6/2005 | Abigail Adams

[Abigail Adams]

This thread is for Katrina news and updates.

[bwteim]

I don't think they had *him* in mind
;)

Down in some lonesome valley,
Hangin' from a white oak tree

[Cboldt]

Did anybody else hear the statements of the Judiciary Committee yesterday re: the delay of the Roberts hearings? On one network (can't remember which; it was CNN, Fox, or MSNBC - I was flipping back & forth), Arlen Specter said that the hearings would be delayed, and that the FIRST request for the delay came from the MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS!! He then mumbled something about him (the mayor) being head of the "mayors' advisory group" (?)

Only that out of respect for Rhenquist, hearings would be delayed until Monday.

The DEM party and MSM (same thing, I know) are trying to tie SCOTUS appointments to Katrina. They're delusional.

[CajunConservative]

Oh lord when will someone with a backbone tell her to do the state a favor and step down.

[bwteim]

From WWL

Updates as they come in on Katrina

10:53 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Tom Planchet

10:53 P.M. - (AP): As flood waters slowly receded by the inch Tuesday, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin authorized law enforcement officers and the U.S. military to force the evacuation of all residents who refuse to heed orders to leave the dark, dangerous city.

Nagin's emergency declaration released late Tuesday states that those who can be compelled to leave include people who are on private property or just don't wish to flee, unless they have been designated by government officials as helping with the relief effort. The move comes after some citizens informed authorities who had come to deliver them out of New Orleans that they would not leave their homes and property.

While acknowledging that the declaration had been made, police Capt. Marlon Defillo said when contacted late Tuesday that any forced removal of citizens had not yet begun. He said that those who were visiting homes were still reminding people that police may not be able to rescue them if they stay.

"That would be a P.R. nightmare for us," Defillo said of any forced evacuations. "That's an absolute last resort."

Repeated telephone calls to Nagin's spokeswoman, Tami Frazier, were not returned for comment.

[TexKat]

Fox News: President to seek nearly $50 billion more aid.

[Ellesu]

http://www.thedeadpelican.com/rants.htm

Is this kind of scrutiny happening at the state level? Is anyone calling for the heads of Louisiana officials? Better yet, does anyone think it's even necessary for heads to roll? With rare exception, the answer to all three of those questions seems to be "no." If this doesn't, evacuation from Louisiana is recommended, storm or not.

[TexKat]

'John Wayne Dude' Gets Highest Marks, FEMA Boss Gets Lowest, in SurveyUSA Poll of Key Katrina Players; Majority Says Michael Brown Should Be Replaced

VERONA, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 7, 2005--Americans asked to rate the job done by 7 key figures in the Hurricane Katrina story give highest marks to U.S. Army General Russell Honore, the so-called "John Wayne Dude," and give lowest marks to Director of FEMA Michael Brown, according to a just completed SurveyUSA poll of 1,200 Americans nationwide.

SurveyUSA, on behalf of its media clients, asked Americans to rate the central Katrina newsmakers on a 1-to-10 scale, "where 10 means the person has done the best possible job any human in this position could have done, and 1 means the person has done the worst possible job that any human in this position could have done."

Here are the rankings, from highest ranked to lowest:

U.S. Army General Russell Honore                     6.8
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour                   6.4
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin                          5.7
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco                   5.2
President of the United States George W. Bush        4.7
Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff       4.4
Director of FEMA Michael Brown                       4.3

Bush gets a 6.7 from Republicans, a 2.9 from Democrats and 4.5 from Independents. 54% of Democrats give President Bush a score of "1," indicating he has done the worst possible job that any human in his position could have done. 16% of Republicans and 35% of Independents give the president a "1." By contrast, 26% of Republicans give the president a "10," indicating he has done the best possible job any human in his position could have done. 5% of Democrats and 8% of Independents give the President a "10."

"Americans do not feel that the 'buck' stops in Baton Rouge," says Jay H. Leve, Editor of SurveyUSA.

53% of Americans say Michael Brown should be replaced as the Director of FEMA. 40% say Brown should not be replaced.

48% of Americans say Michael Chertoff should be replaced as the Director of Homeland Security. 42% say he should not be.

Complete poll results here: http://www.surveyusa.com/breaking.aspx

Interviews for this survey were conducted 9/6/05. Results have a margin of sampling error of 2.9%.

About SurveyUSA: SurveyUSA of Verona, N.J. is the nation's largest independent public opinion pollster, with 50 TV stations under long-term exclusive contract. Millions of Americans see the results of SurveyUSA research every night on their local TV news. SurveyUSA poll results can be seen on WABC-TV, KABC-TV, WBBM-TV, WCAU-TV, WBZ-TV, WUSA-TV, KPIX-TV, KXAS-TV, WXIA-TV, WDIV-TV, KPRC-TV, KING-TV, WFLA-TV, KPNX-TV, WKYC-TV, WFOR-TV, KUSA-TV, KXTV-TV, WKMG-TV, KSDK-TV, WMAR-TV, KATU-TV, WXIN-TV, KGTV-TV, WBTV-TV, WTVD-TV, WCPO-TV, KSL-TV, WOAI-TV, WZZM-TV, WPTV-TV, KFOR-TV, WGRZ-TV, WFMY-TV, WLNE-TV, WHAS-TV, KVBC-TV, WTLV-TV, WNEP-TV, KEYE-TV, WRGB-TV, KTHV-TV, WBIR-TV, KJRH-TV, WKRG-TV, KWCH-TV, WSLS-TV, WHO-TV, WCSH-TV, WYTV-TV, WCSC-TV, WLTX-TV. These TV stations are owned by the nation's largest and most-respected media companies, including: ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, Gannett, Scripps-Howard, Belo, Post-Newsweek, Tribune, McGraw-Hill, Clear Channel, Media-General, Fisher Broadcasting, Freedom, Hubbard Broadcasting, and Jefferson-Pilot. SurveyUSA(R) is Proud to Be America's Pollster(R).

[TexKat]

Was President Bush Forced to Use the Insurrection Act?

By Barbara Stock (09/07/05)

Hurricanes do not sneak up on people. Unlike tornadoes, hurricanes don’t just reach down out of the dark storm clouds to wreak havoc on humanity. Hurricanes are tracked, named, have warning flags dedicated to them, and all coastal cities have long-standing plans for dealing with them. Nearly everyone in the world knew Katrina was going to hit Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and yet, so many have died in New Orleans. Why?

Hurricane Katrina struck the tip of southern Florida as a category 1 hurricane and made a beeline for the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. For three days Katrina churned her way across the Gulf, growing in size and strength until she was a monster storm. With sustained winds of over 175 mph, Katrina bore down on the city of New Orleans. Literally, at the last possible moment, Katrina was pushed, ever-so-slightly, by dry air from the Midwest, off to the East and dropped from a category 5 to a high category 4 with sustained winds of 160 mph. Katrina was still a killer storm by anyone’s description. For three long days, the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans watched Katrina bear down on their state and city respectively but took very little action to protect their citizens other than to state the obvious: “Leave town.” No assistance was offered to the poor or elderly.

Aerial views of New Orleans have shown pictures of hundreds of buses, left parked and unused. Why didn’t the mayor of New Orleans activate those buses to move the people out of the city who wanted to leave but had no way out? Why was this golden opportunity to save lives left parked, only to be lost to the flood waters? This from the Louisiana disaster plan, pg. 13, paragraph 5, dated 01/00: “The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...” Why was the city’s own disaster plan for using those buses to evacuate people not implemented? Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin had three days to evacuate the poor and elderly from New Orleans but they did not. Why? More

[Ellesu]

Traffic is a nightmare in BR, an absolute mess. The city never has gotten its act together to build a loop and now what used to take 1 hour now takes 3 hours. Mayor Kip Holden will have a press conference at 10 AM today. I'm sure he is going to announce how much money he expects from the feds for BR.

[bwteim]

This is good news. It is a testimony on how we should respect these working animals.

This is one of the many mules working in the French Quarter

From http://www.ils.unc.edu/no/french.html#mule

"Mules played a big part in the westward colonization of America..."

"In World War II, 14,000 mules were used since they were able to travel through thick jungle and rugged mountains that were impossible for vehicles, and even horses, to cross."

From http://equisearch.com/breeds/m_r/muleprofile062401/

"World War I was the last major conflict which the United States Army used horses and mules in significant numbers. The Remount Service was enlarged to meet the increased demands of the Artillery, the Cavalry and other units. Around 571,000 horses and mules processed through the Remount system of which more than 68,000 were killed in that war." From http://www.qmfound.com/remount.htm

Meanwhile, in 2005, in the French Quarter, mules and horses were basically left to fend for themselves until the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, the Louisiana Horse Council and others stepped in.

[ladyjane]

Reminds me of my ex-husband.

Reminds me of all 5 of mine.

(just kidding)

[Cboldt]

"That would be a P.R. nightmare for us," Defillo said of any forced evacuations. "That's an absolute last resort."

Pretty much sums up the attitude of the mayor and the governor. This is all about PR.

I'm sure you know that neither Nagin or Blanco can command Honore's troops or active-duty military. I despise the lazy writing of reporters. Blanco and Nagin have National Guard troops at their command, but neither has the authority to direct the U.S. Military to perform police functions.

There is one circumstance wehre the U.S. Military might undertake a forced evacuation - declare a state of anarchy or insurrection and ASK the president to commit troops to quell it. Even then, the first resort would be National Guard units, not active-duty military. But in taht circumstance, the troops would not be under Blanco or Nagin's control.

[TexKat]

No easy task Gulf Coast regaining electricity

By Tuesday morning, Entergy had restored power to 631,000 of 1.1 million customers who lost service after Katrina and its power demand load was at 77 percent of normal, Leo Denault, Entergy's chief financial officer, said during a conference call with analysts.

Mississippi Power Co., which lost electric service to all of its 195,000 customers during Katrina, said power had been restored to more than half by Tuesday and the rest would have power back by Sunday. Alabama Power Co. said service had been restored to 99 percent of customers affected by the hurricane.

More

[ladyjane]

Oprah . . .said that the Fed Gov needs to apologize to the flood victims

Before or after they get their handouts?

[Ellesu]

Hurricane the mule

[spectre]

Gen Honore is one heck of a leader. Besides that, I love dat cajun accent!

sw

[ladyjane]

Considering that most home insurance policies pay for fire but not for flood, could some of these fires have been started intentionally?

Careful. I raised this possibility the first day the fires started and was roundly criticized. These victims -er- refugees -uh- whatever, they can do no wrong.

[TexKat]

Mass. suspends plans for refugees

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

BOSTON — Massachusetts suspended plans to house some 2,500 Hurricane Katrina refugees on Cape Cod last night after federal officials told the governor and the leaders of other states that many of the survivors want to remain closer to home.

"Many evacuees prefer to remain in the region as they resolve issues concerning the status of property, employment and the safety of loved ones," said an urgent announcement to the states by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The notice did not explain how long the states should remain on standby, but Gov. Mitt Romney pledged to remain ready if Massachusetts is needed to help with the relief effort.

Earlier in the day, state lawmakers and Romney quickly rushed a bill through that would allocate $25 million, to provide housing, food, clothing and medical treatment for the evacuees for about 60 days.

State officials expected that many of the evacuees, who were to be sheltered for several weeks at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, may ultimately decide to remain in Massachusetts.

But Romney said the long-term goal is to help the displaced families to become self-sufficient in the community as quickly as possible.

State Rep. Daniel E. Bosley, D-North Adams, said one critical issue will be putting the children of evacuee families back into school.

He said his wife's cousin lives in Mississippi north of the Gulf Coast area, and the local school system was shut down for two weeks so that it could integrate students from the coastal area damaged by the hurricane.

"We need to put the kids into school and we need to find the parents jobs. We need to think longer term, not just short term solutions," Bosley said. "We'll have to take on these challenges one at a time."

[TexKat]

Yes, he is spectre. I am still relishing his stfu (my words) statements from this past weekend.

[LA Woman3]

Was this story in the Advocate? I'm guessing not....