Free Republic

Vice President Kamala Harris (D) faced backlash online Friday afternoon after saying that the Biden administration was prioritizing giving disaster relief to minorities for the sake of “equity” because the administration wants everyone to end up “in an equal place.” Harris made the remarks during a discussion with leftist Priyanka Chopra at the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C. “It is our lowest income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions and impacted by issues that are not of their own making,” Harris claimed. “And so we have to address...

The Hurricane Ida death toll rose to five late on Monday after a 71-year-old man was thought to have been killed by an alligator in Louisiana, while a Mississippi highway collapse killed two people and injured ten others. The alligator attack took place in the man's shed in the town of Slidell in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, according to WWL-TV, citing the man's wife who called the police. The victim's body has not been found. Meanwhile, pictures from the scene of the highway collapse showed two badly damaged vehicles in a large hole which the road had fallen into, with...

LOS ANGELES -- When Hispanic groups across the country ask for donations for victims of Hurricanes Wilma and Stan, they often promise contributors one thing: The governments of Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador will not get their hands on the money. Many Hispanics in the U.S. are afraid corrupt officials in Latin America will skim donations, and they hesitate to contribute, some volunteers say. The two storms that slammed Central America last month brought into sharp focus a trend among U.S.-based development organizations and Hispanic community groups — when disaster strikes, many groups send money directly to community organizations in...

Louisiana engineers were on Wednesday on the brink of turning the lights back on in New Orleans in an imaginative plan to use the emergency generator of an air conditioning plant. Operation Jump Start New Orleans entails jerry-rigging the air-conditioning plant’s huge diesel-powered backup generator to provide enough power to light and air condition several large hospital, administrative and dormitory buildings. Some of the generator’s power will be rerouted to buildings that will be used to house emergency workers, National Guard troops, the US Army Corps of Engineers and federal agencies. A triage medical centre and temporary shelter could also...

This is what happens to an offshore rig during a storm like Hurricane Ivan:

Pictures out of Florida speak for themselves: