Free Republic

In the midst of wild accusations about the California firestorms, news comes out bearing on Katrina, the largest natural disaster in U.S. history, which provided Democrat politicians and the mainstream press (including the NY Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN) with an opportunity to spread distortions and outright lies in order to try to embarrass and destroy a sitting President. Lies were published about the amount of aid that was provided, the timing of the aid and the number of deaths; and also that bias supposedly motivated the distribution of aid.

Two years after Hurricane Charley, some storm victims still haven't escaped a FEMA trailer city. A cloud of white dust rises from the sand road of FEMA's trailer city as a U-Haul van pulls out with a screech of wheels. Down the street, a frustrated mother of five sits in front of a computer in her trailer searching for a housing grant and a way out. In another trailer, a 61-year-old waitress packs up her belongings to move to South Carolina this weekend. As the 2006 hurricane season gets under way, many residents here are still trying to figure out...

As one who suffered through the devastation of Hurricane Charley, I know that, as bad as our situation was, the people on the Gulf Coast have suffered much more due to the flooding that followed Katrina. Every effort ought to be made to alieve their suffering and stabilize their situation as quickly as possible. The American Red Cross and the National Guard saved us in Florida by bringing us ice, bottled water and hot meals every day. Even so, it is over a year later, and very little rebuilding has been done in the areas of Florida that were hardest...

Special Reports Storms of the Century: 1928 Palm Beach/Lake Okeechobee Hurricane 1919 Keys/Corpus Christi Hurricane 1926 Miami Hurricane 1928 Palm Beach/Lake Okeechobee Hurricane 1953 Flint/Worcester Tornadoes 1954 Hurricane Hazel 1955 Hurricane Diane Floods 1957 Hurricane Audrey 1960 Hurricane Donna 1962 Pacific Northwest Big Blow1965 Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak1972 Rapid City Flash Flood 1976 Big Thompson Canyon Flash Flood 1977 Johnstown Flash Flood 1978 New England Blizzard 1985 OH/PA Tornado Outbreak 1989 Hurricane Hugo 1991 Halloween "Perfect" Storm 1996 Blizzard 1999 Hurricane Floyd Floods The 1928 Palm Beach/Lake Okeechobee Hurricane was the country's deadliest since the Galveston hurricane of 1900....

LAKE WALES -- On his way to the first presidential debate in Miami, President Bush will stop in storm-battered Lake Wales today. A White House spokesman said the president will arrive at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa this afternoon and travel by helicopter to Lake Wales. His exact schedule was not released, but reporters and photographers accompanying him were told to be at the base at 1 p.m. for the short flight to Polk County. The St. Petersburg Times said Bush will take a walking tour of orange groves. Polk County's citrus industry has been devastated by the series...

...But none of that impressed me the way Jeb Bush did. Not for standing tall and radiating calm in crisis - you expect a governor to do that - but for a gesture that most Floridians might gloss over or even resent. As he has done with this season's other hurricanes, whenever he had a press briefing at the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, Bush explained himself not only in English but in Spanish. Then, according to his spokesman, Jacob DiPietre, Bush did something many of us never saw. He repeated his message in interviews with Spanish language TV...

Warnings for the next hurricane to hit the United States have already been issued -- for Washington, D.C. Taxpayers should keep an eye on the aftermath. After most disasters, Congress acts like a whirlwind to rush to the aid of victims, as lawmakers should. A few members of Congress are also quick to take advantage of the situation to tack money for their pet projects onto such bills. "Congress simply has no shame," warned Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. "Knowing that this is most likely the last opportunity to bring home the bacon before the election, members...

Back to DC for business, the President met with reporters and then members of Congress in the newly-remodeled Cabinet Room at the White House. He and Governor Bush of Florida assisted hurricane victims. Enjoy your Dose of W @ Sanity Island!

High storm cycle is here to stay BY MARTIN MERZER mmerzer@herald.com Charley, Frances and Ivan. Three major hurricanes. Two assaults on Florida already and possibly a third by next week. Get used to it. This is the new normal. Scientists say we are in a period of enhanced hurricane activity that could last for decades, ending a 24-year period of below-average activity. They also say the law of averages has caught up with Florida, with a change in atmospheric steering currents turning the state into a hurricane magnet. ''People are suddenly alert, suddenly paying attention,'' said Stanley Goldenberg, a meteorologist...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Even as tree limbs were cleared away and power gradually returned across eastern South Carolina after Tropical Storm Gaston, officials waited and watched Monday for Hurricane Frances. While Gaston caused some problems, "it's not the kind of catastrophic damage we see in a major hurricane," Gov. Mark Sanford said. He urged coastal residents to monitor Frances, which has 125 mph winds but is still days away from the Southeast coast. An evacuation would be tremendously difficult, warned Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. "The whole state would be naked," he said. "This will be a challenge...

Power Companies Warning from Florida It's been a week here in Florida since Hurricane Charley. My workplace got electric power back Wednesday by a crew from Georgia Power. My new job at a small business employer is getting tax relief, so I got paid for the days I couldn't work. No lost wages is pretty cool. My home power was restored a day later by a power company from somewhere while I was at work. Power companies from more than eight states have poured into hurricane ravaged Florida according to a local newspaper. I have seen power workers from Georgia,...

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- It isn't among the first questions you ask after a disaster bulldozes your life; it comes after, ''Are my loved ones safe?'' ''How bad is the damage?'' and ''Is help on the way?'' But it might be the most difficult to answer: Why? Why, one asks, did this catastrophe happen to me? Hurricane Charley didn't have to stomp on Charlotte County like a celestial boot, prying off roofs, uprooting trees, smashing windows and gouging out homes as if with a cosmic trowel -- but it did. What, one asks, did I do to deserve having my...

PUNTA RASSA, Florida (CNN) -- Florida authorities reopened Sanibel Island early Wednesday, for the first time since August 12, when it was evacuated in advance of Hurricane Charley. Inspectors on the 12-mile barrier island declared 46 properties "seriously damaged" and "unsafe" and another 78 "damaged" with "questionable" safety. But Mayor Marty Harrity said he didn't think any property on the island was "completely destroyed." "There's some pretty heavy damage on the beach front," Harrity said, "but over the years we've had some pretty stringent building codes, and I think we really weathered this thing." "A little over a hundred hours...

Maybe national emergencies shouldn't be political events, but they are. So after Hurricane Charley ripped through Florida this past weekend, President Bush understood the political imperative: Get down there. With thousands left homeless and a million people without electricity, the president needed to walk amid the wreckage and stand with the people most affected. For those questioning his political motives in responding so quickly, Mr. Bush said simply: "If I didn't come, they would've said we should have been here more rapidly." If 90% of success in life is just showing up, in politics often it's the whole ball of...

Hurricane Victims File for Unemployment 3 minutes ago By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. - Still smarting over the loss of their homes, Hurricane Charley's victims turned out by the hundreds in 90-degree heat Tuesday to cope with the storm's latest blow to their lives — the mass shutdown of businesses that has left them without jobs. "Charley laid me off," said Rose Vito, a 57-year-old telemarketing assistant in red-plaid pajamas, lined up outside the Employ Florida mobile benefits station in Port Charlotte's Harold Avenue Recreational Center parking lot. "Without phones and computers, they can't function."...

Double-linked: click above or below: Florida after Hurricane Charley This article has links to fairly high-resolution JPEGs of Punta Gorda and Charlotte Harbor. However, these are not the highest-resolution that IKONOS is capable of delivering.

Disaster Relief Update August 16, 2004 Disaster Relief Update Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God? (2 Cor. 1:3-4, NIV). Hurricane Seventy-one disaster relief units/teams have been activated from 11 state Baptist conventions (Fla., Ga., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Ala., Miss., La., VBMB, SBCV, Tex.) and NAMB as of 2 p.m. Monday, August 16, with more to come as additional sites...

PUNTA GORDA - After the hurricane ended, the looting began.Among the first targets, officials said, was the Charlotte Harbor Fire Department. Firefighters arrived early Saturday to find that their computers had been swiped in the night. Charlotte County Sheriff's Office spokesman Robert Carpenter said his office is getting regular reports of looting from residents of the area's many storm-wrecked neighborhoods. Carpenter said his officers are responding when able, but that they are saddled with more pressing demands, such as caring for survivors. "No question about it," he said. "We are behind on these types of calls." The fear of...

Notice the lead story on this web site..."Charley hits South Carolina..."Then, a death toll update and a list of the damage caused by Charley.After a few video links, we see "Latest Headlines"....the third story down is about John Kerry's campaign providing "relief". The story about President Bush's visit to Florida?? Not seen.But there is no bias in the South Florida media, right???

Here's a ground zero report from the Hurricane . . . from my observations as one who lives in the area that was hit. Charley made a direct hit on Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte Florida. These two cities sit at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor, and are separated by bridges that cross the Peace river which flows into the Gulf. Neither city had been hit or threatened by a Hurricane in more than 75 years. Hurricane Charley which was expected to hit Tampa, 120 miles north, unexpectantly veered into Charlotte Harbor, and followed the Peace River inland. When Charley...