Hurricane Katrina Disaster Updates

[Dara]

Per Christiane Amanpour--as of now, none of the many offers of foreign aid has been accepted. She's pointed out that criticism of the slow/lack of response is international. She said we've all seen food drops take place quickly after disasters. Why not here and now?

CNN

 

[concernedperson]

Just saw an interview with Mayor Nagin on CNN. When asked about his priority right now he said that it was getting the firemen and police out of the city. He said they are tramatized and need psychological and physical medical attention right away and the Baton Rouge hospitals were full. He confirmed that there has already been 2 suicides within the police department.

He said he was running into bureaucratic snaffews with FEMA but he indicated he would pay for it himself and worry about the money later.

 

[Casshew]

He said they are tramatized and need psychological and physical medical attention

Tom Cruise will send them vitamins

 

[tipper]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hurricane_katrina[...]
Quote 3 Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Saturday that she expected the death toll to reach the thousands.
more at link...

As usual she's a day late and a dollar short. People have been saying that since last weekend.

 

[SieSie]

Tom Cruise will send them vitamins

:clap: :bang: :banghead:
Good one, Cass!!!

 

[Buzz Mills]

The levees that protected the city from the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain were partially redesigned and rebuilt to withstand a Force 3 hurricane. The ten-year project to build them up to that level was launched in 1965, but is still incomplete after 40 years. The portion of the levee that collapsed, however, was one that had been completed. The city and state governments took a continuing gamble since the 1960s that no stronger storm would happen to strike New Orleans. Eventually, the city was bound to lose; it was only a matter of time. Some critics would like to blame the disaster on the recent reduction of federal funds to the Army Corps of Engineers, but funds have been declining for nearly a decade. According to the Chicago Tribune, “Congress in 1999 authorized the corps to conduct a $12 million study to determine how much it would cost to protect New Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane, but the study isn’t scheduled to get under way until 2006.”
http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=16582

I just can’t fathom why things become so complicated with politics. KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. Instead of taking the $12 million dollars that was authorized to use to STUDY how much it would cost to protect NO from a Cat. 5 hurricane, take that same $12 million to JUST FIX IT. It’s been studied, they’ve known for years that it’s not strong enough to withstand anything more than a Cat. 3. Engineers have stated this. No studying needed – just re-build the levee stronger, build additional levee’s such as the Dutch have done.

Besides which, if this project was authorized in 1999, why wasn’t the study scheduled to get under way until 2006? What’s been the hold-up?

Also – DH just pointed out to me, that since the study hasn’t even started yet, the $12 million dollars should still be there – so get in there and get ‘er done! Screw the study, use that money to help these people re-build some semblance of a life.

SieSie, I heard one estimate to rebuild the levees to withstand a Category 5 Hurricane; that estimate was $30 billion. They need to do a study, because there are many factors that play into the levee system. They starightened the Mississippi River some years ago, and destroyed huge wetlands which were some of the protection for New Orleans. It isn't just a matter of going in and rebuilding the levees.

 

[rollerbladr123]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050904/ap_on_re_us/hurricane_katrina_49New Orleans Begins Grisly Cleanup
Quote 1 NEW ORLEANS - With the last weary refugees rescued from the Superdome and convention center, New Orleans turned its attention Sunday to gathering up and counting the dead across a ghastly landscape awash in perhaps thousands of corpses

Quote 2
No one knows how many people were killed by Hurricane Katrina and how many more succumbed waiting to be rescued. But the bodies are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating in the ruined city, crumpled in wheelchairs, abandoned on highways.

"I think it's evident it's in the thousands," Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said Sunday on CNN, echoing predictions by city and state officials last week about the death toll.

more at link

 

[Nore]

Re Charity Hospital last night on Fox, they were saying evacuations were halted/delayed due to the shootings in the area, and rescue workers could not go in....Sounds like CNN didn't mention that? I have no idea which one's right or wrong at this point. I just hope all will be out by the end of today.

----------------------

Our hospitals in Cleveland are going to recieve rescued ill persons. Plans are for University hosp. Cleveland Clinic and possiblly Metro General.I am so glad the people ar getting the aid they so badly need.I do not know how to post links but I'm sure it will be mentioned on www.cleveland.com The Plain Dealer.

 

[Mabel]

Tom Cruise will send them vitamins

 

[rollerbladr123]

SieSie, I heard one estimate to rebuild the levees to withstand a Category 5 Hurricane; that estimate was $30 billion. They need to do a study, because there are many factors that play into the levee system. They starightened the Mississippi River some years ago, and destroyed huge wetlands which were some of the protection for New Orleans. It isn't just a matter of going in and rebuilding the levees.

Buzz here is a good article on how washington failed to fund the levee projects inspite of warnings

http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20050904/ts_latimes/despitewarningswashingtonfailedtofundleveeprojects

Quote 1 WASHINGTON — For years, Washington had been warned that doom lurked just beyond the levees. And for years, the White House and Congress had dickered over how much money to put into shoring up century-old dikes and carrying out newer flood control projects to protect the city of New Orleans. As recently as three months ago, the alarms were sounding — and being brushed aside. In late May, the New Orleans district of the Army Corps of Engineers formally notified Washington that hurricane storm surges could knock out two of the big pumping stations that must operate night and day even under normal conditions to keep the city dry

more at link....

 

[rollerbladr123]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050904/ts_nm/katrina_dc_1New Orleans collects dead as officials dodge blame

Quote 1 NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans began the gruesome task of collecting its thousands of dead on Sunday as the Bush administration tried to save face after its botched rescue plans left the city at the mercy of Hurricane Katrina.
Except for rescue workers and scattered groups of people, streets in the once-vibrant capital of jazz and good times were all but abandoned after a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring Texas and other states.

Battered and sickened survivors made no attempt to disguise their anger: "We have been abandoned by our own country, " Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans, told NBC's Meet the Press....

,,,,,Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld toured a medical facility at New Orleans' international airport on Sunday. He spoke and shook hands with military and rescue officials but walked right by a dozen refugees lying on stretchers just feet away from him, most of them extremely sick or handicapped.

more at link....

 

[concernedperson]

Police shot 8 people carrying guns on the bridge at the Mississippi River....5-6 are dead. From PD chief Riley.

 

[Cypros]

,,,,,Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld toured a medical facility at New Orleans' international airport on Sunday. He spoke and shook hands with military and rescue officials but walked right by a dozen refugees lying on stretchers just feet away from him, most of them extremely sick or handicapped.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

I just cannot stand that man!!!

 

[DEPUTYDAWG]

----------------------

Our hospitals in Cleveland are going to recieve rescued ill persons. Plans are for University hosp. Cleveland Clinic and possiblly Metro General.I am so glad the people ar getting the aid they so badly need.I do not know how to post links but I'm sure it will be mentioned on www.cleveland.com The Plain Dealer.

Yay! It still is amazing to me that hospitalized folks are being transported so far away - just shows the enormity of this disaster.

Blessings to Ohio as well!

 

[mysteriew]

Police shot 8 people carrying guns on the bridge at the Mississippi River....5-6 are dead. From PD chief Riley.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie..._HK1?SITE=GAGAI&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Police shot eight people carrying guns on a New Orleans bridge Sunday, killing five or six, a deputy chief said. A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were contractors on their way to repair a canal.

The contractors were walking across a bridge on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to fix the 17th Street Canal, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Corps.

 

[concernedperson]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie..._HK1?SITE=GAGAI&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Police shot eight people carrying guns on a New Orleans bridge Sunday, killing five or six, a deputy chief said. A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were contractors on their way to repair a canal.

The contractors were walking across a bridge on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to fix the 17th Street Canal, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Corps.

OK, now I am screaming with pain. This is a horror of all horrors...we have lost everything that resembles humanity. I think I can do better than whomever is in charge. And now my child is entering the war zone to help and I will have to worry about that for several days. So, helping isn't what it what its cracked up to be. Crap! And double crap!

 

[DEPUTYDAWG]

Wait, CNN maybe got it wrong...hang on....

 

[Ntegrity]

CNN reports the people who were shot were shooting at the Army Corps of Engineers employees. They were thugs.

 

[DEPUTYDAWG]

CNN reports the people who were shot were shooting at the Army Corps of Engineers employees. They were thugs.

Truly, thank God!

 

[concernedperson]

CNN reports the people who were shot were shooting at the Army Corps of Engineers employees. They were thugs.

Oh good, you just saved 5 years of my life. Thank you so much.....