Finding the Devil in New Orleans

[barefoot serpent]

Gov. Sebelius also declared Kansas a disaster area...
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/se...w_orleans_sos/

Sebelius also declared Kansas in a state of disaster in anticipation of requests to provide housing for people displaced by the storm. Sebelius said the proclamation was needed to facilitate assistance and to get reimbursed for the effort from the federal government.

[OnyxCougar]

This from a diff website http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/4/105148/3626:

Fri Sep 02 14:36:29 2005 "Red Cross Issues FAQ On Why They Are Not In New Orleans"

Link is http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html I've also archived it locally. The link already disappeared from the Red Cross website, but so far the actual page is still there.

The date is from the HTML code making up the web page. Right-click and Open With Notepad to see it, it's the first line.

I particularly like that part about "...encourage others to come into the city."

This is yet another detail of how much this response stinks. All these things, cut phone lines, the security cordon refusing access to emergency rescuers and providers, it all smells.

edit: From the "You gotta be shittin me...." Department:

Link (Houston Chronicle): http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...siness/3335685

Sept. 1, 2005, 8:30PM

AROUND THE REGION


CONSTRUCTION
Halliburton hired for storm cleanup
The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so.

KBR was assigned the work under a "construction capabilities" contract awarded in 2004 after a competitive bidding process. The company is not involved in the Army Corps of Engineers' effort to repair New Orleans' levees.

From the first link:

Sister travels all over the state of Mississippi and knows all the little towns and people in them, working for a government agency. I finally got through last night and we spoke for hours.

I said- surely they won't rebuild the casinos.

She said- Oh no- this is the urban renewal they have all been wanting. They will rebuild, bigger and better. All those crummy little old businesses- the tire shacks and fast food places- those are gone. But 200-300 feet in from the most beautiful coast in the Gulf has been cleared. The casinos won't be rebuilt on barges this time. They were forced to build them out on the water so they would be "temporary" but that level of temporary is not needed in this economic climate. The Baptists will lose this fight, since they already have degrees at many universities to teach hotel and casino management in the name of economic development.

Only the Beau Rivage (http://www.beaurivage.com/) which was build on shore is still in good shape. She suspects the no zoning, hands under the table level of construction typical of MS did in much built on the coast. Beau Rivage evidently brought in their own inspectors and was having none of that. She did say they are in a noisy flight path to the local air force airfield though.

Her prediction- golf courses will spring up along the coast and the casinos will be slightly more inland. The poorer locals will not be allowed to rebuild because "building permits" will not be issued. Their land will be purchased cut rate, and if you didn't care to sell, it will be condemned for "economic development" as per the Supreme Court.

Tin foil hat? I don't think so. It isn't a plot, just, in the immortal words of Laura Bush, the first wife, "That's just the way it is."

[OnyxCougar]

Broussard.

Heartbreaking.

http://www.wonkette.com/images/WRC_0...5_10.58.46.wmv

[OnyxCougar]

CNN: the difference between what "officials" think is happening and what is actually happening AND BEING PLAYED ON THE NEWS:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/kat...nse/index.html

[OnyxCougar]

How many years and how many lives before we finally get to it:

Bush: U.S. Must Protect Iraq From Terror By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 30, 9:28 PM ET

CORONADO, Calif. - President Bush on Tuesday answered growing anti-war protests with a fresh reason for American troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields that he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.

Bush, standing against a backdrop of the imposing USS Ronald Reagan, the newest aircraft carrier in the Navy's fleet, said terrorists will be denied their goal.

"We will defeat the terrorists," Bush said. "We will build a free Iraq that will fight terrorists instead of giving them aid and sanctuary."

A one-time oilman, Bush has rejected charges that the war in Iraq is a struggle to control the nation's vast oil wealth. While Bush has avoided making links between the war and Iraq's oil reserves, the soaring cost of gasoline has focused attention on global petroleum sources.

Bush said the Iraqi oil industry, already suffering from sabotage and lost revenues, must not fall under the control of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida forces in Iraq led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"If Zarqawi and bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks," Bush said. "They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions. They could recruit more terrorists by claiming a historic victory over the United States and our coalition."

Appearing at the Naval Air Station North Island to commemorate the anniversary of the Allies' World War II victory over Japan, Bush compared his resolve now to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's in the 1940s and said America's mission in Iraq is to turn it into a democratic ally just as the U.S. did with Japan after its 1945 surrender.

But Democrats said Bush's leadership falls far short of Roosevelt's.

There is more at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050831/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

[OnyxCougar]

Tee, an opinion certainly in line with yours:

Watch the Carlyle Group and their Chinese partners (4.00 / 2)

Hutchison-Whampoa.

It's not Halliburton/KBR I'm worried about, it's the Carlyle Group and Hutchison-Whampoa. This company has a subsidiary, Panama Ports Company (PPC). PPC operates the ports of Cristobal and Balboa located at each end of the Panama Canal.

The Carlyle Group's dealings in China should be known by everyone, along with another RW group connected to the Bushies, Newbridge Strategies.

These are the folks you need to watch out for when it comes time to rebuild New Orleans.

I've never heard of this group before you posted about it. Can you dumb it down far enough for my non-political/non-business brain to understand?

[busterb]

Thanks for all the kind words folks. I'm using a friends puter that has Opera? As an OS, never used that before & has more buttons on mouse than I have shit in my yard.
All that PMed me, Sorry, but I don;t feel right about taking the time to reply to each of you. Thanks again.
Damn no Halliburtion trucks here yet?? Someone is going to make a killing on this. They are bring ice from WI.,Conn. and god knows where.
I heard on radio today that FEMA was on the job here. You just need a phone to get help. HELLO! I have no power or phone.

I can use the compute at library to check my yahoo mail. So I'll let Bruce have the address. Contact him if you feel like dropping me a line. BB

[Undertoad]

Lt. Commander Sean Kelly of the Bataan checks in at Kevin Drum:

USNORTHCOM was prepositioned for response to the hurricane, but as per the National Response Plan, we support the lead federal agency in disaster relief — in this case, FEMA. The simple description of the process is the state requests federal assistance from FEMA which in turn may request assistance from the military upon approval by the president or Secretary of Defense. Having worked the hurricanes from last year as well as Dennis this year, we knew that FEMA would make requests of the military — primarily in the areas of transportation, communications, logistics, and medicine. Thus we began staging such assets and waited for the storm to hit.

The biggest hurdles to responding to the storm were the storm itself — couldn't begin really helping until it passed — and damage assessment — figuring out which roads were passable, where communications and power were out, etc. Military helos began damage assessment and SAR on Tuesday. Thus we had permission to operate as soon as it was possible. We even brought in night SAR helos to continue the mission on Tuesday night.

The President and Secretary of Defense did authorize us to act right away and are not to blame on this end. Yes, we have to wait for authorization, but it was given in a timely manner.

[Happy Monkey]

Anyone who missed the Daily Show should catch one of the repeats.

[Kitsune]

The BBC has a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4216508.stm">really good rundown of the failures before and after Katrina</a>. It actually isn't dripping with politics, either. Amazing.

[tw]

Originally Posted by tw

xoxoxoBruce also provided this link to a Scientific American article of October 2001:
Drowning New Orleans

The SciAm article added one additional fact. A storm surge is reduced about one foot for every mile of marshland.

I was curious who would grab the numbers as if your life depended on it. Numbers being how one so easily identifies manager who are lying - inventing fiction to justify their mistakes - ie Michael Brown. Not providing numbers is how Rush Limbaugh types promote their half truth lies.

I realized after posting this that the number was one foot every four miles; not one foot every one mile. However I stalled, waiting to see if anyone would catch on to this, a glaring error. Well, its been a few days now. No one noticed what is really an essential fact - numbers that put that Scientific American article into perspective. I would have expected UT, who is currently on a tirade about factual accuracy (having been caught stating conclusions without underlying facts) would have caught this glaring error immediately.

There is a big difference between one mile and four miles when using marshlands to protect people. I am disappointed that no one caught this error; the numbers being that important to perspective and seeing through 'myths for a political agenda'.

Originally Posted by tw

I was curious who would grab the numbers as if your life depended on it. Numbers being how one so easily identifies manager who are lying - inventing fiction to justify their mistakes - ie Michael Brown. Not providing numbers is how Rush Limbaugh types promote their half truth lies.

I realized after posting this that the number was one foot every four miles; not one foot every one mile. However I stalled, waiting to see if anyone would catch on to this, a glaring error. Well, its been a few days now. No one noticed what is really an essential fact - numbers that put that Scientific American article into perspective. I would have expected UT, who is currently on a tirade about factual accuracy (having been caught stating conclusions without underlying facts) would have caught this glaring error immediately.

There is a big difference between one mile and four miles when using marshlands to protect people. I am disappointed that no one caught this error; the numbers being that important to perspective and seeing through 'myths for a political agenda'.

Hey, tw, what was so obvious about it? Its not like that's general knowledge or something. I have a degree in biology/ecology and it went right past me (course lots of things do these days ).

You have to take the time to click on the link and read thru that article to catch it, and its not like everyone here has all the time to do that. Even me, Ms. Too Much Time On Her Hands, didn't check out that article until you brought it up again, so I don't see what the big deal is about everyone missing that statistic.

It IS a pretty good article, though. Glad I finally got around to reading it.

[Hobbs]

Originally Posted by marichiko

You have to take the time to click on the link and read thru that article to catch it,...

Not to mention most of TWs posts just give me a headache. By the time I slug through the info he's posted, I'm exhausted.

[tw]

Originally Posted by marichiko

Hey, tw, what was so obvious about it?

One idea to future protection of New Orleans is to restore marshes where homes are clearly too far below sea level. Whereas four miles of marsh (given the erroneous numbers) would provide significant additional protection; the actual numbers suggest significantly less protection of New Orleans from a Lake Pontchartrain storm surge.

However to protect New Orleans from the south, corrected numbers mean marshes must stretch for 40 to 80 miles - not just 10 plus. Based upon the xoxoxoBruce citation, that protection is therefore quickly disappearing; might require even more levees. Things that WE pay for.

Other problems should be addressed up front and now. For example, $multi-million homes should not exist on, for example, Dauphin Island. That wonderful beachfront and necessary protection for the mainland should be, for example, a state park. Not beachfront property that WE end up paying to replace the beach every four years. Now is time for free market economics and proper risk analysis to be applied to reconstruction. There is little reason for residences to be located so close to the water in towns such as Biloxi and Waveland. Time to put buildings most essential to human life in locations not so exposed - such as half mile from the water.

These are arbitrary suggestions or speculative proposals based upon numbers in articles from UT and xoxoxoBruce to demonstrate how our leaders should be thinking. Not that we will have any influence since rebuilding Trent Lott's porch apparently is more important. Numbers to reduce or eliminate damage from the next Camile are traditionally trumped by more critical political agendas such as Trent Lott's porch.

[Undertoad]

Interesting items this morning:

Talking Pts Memo's timeline of the disaster. TPM will update it with many more events as submitted by readers.

The Red Cross had food and supplies ready early for the Superdome, but was blocked by the LA Nat'l Guard