Katrina: A Year in Photos

Yahoo has some really impressive photos of last year's disaster here.


Are you ready for the next storm or other disaster? I have a "go bag," but not enough water, food and baby stuff. I really need to see about that.

Technorati tags: katrina | hurricane | disaster

The New (Old) Mayor of New Orleans

How?

How is this possible?

How could they vote back in this chucklehead?

Escaped Cons Pose As Frat Boys In Tennessee

From NBC5 News:

During the Katrina crisis, with New Orleans under water and residents fleeing across the nation, two men showed up on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville with student identification from Tulane in New Orleans.

The Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity opened its doors and its heart.

"They had a very credible stories. They presented themselves as true brothers of this fraternity," said Patrick Davis, a member of the Lamda Chi chapter.

However, they were far from fraternity brothers.

Zacharie Arabie, 22, and Steven Ridge, 31, were two enterprising inmates at a Louisiana prison who had escaped using a popsicle stick to pick a cell-door lock.

They wound up in Knoxville, attending fraternity parties, and even dating co-eds.

Isn’t that was special!

Read more

Feliz Viaje

I had a weird dream last night.

I was with my mom and a couple hundred other (black) people in a dusty border town in Mexico. We were all lined up waiting to get onto some tour buses. It was taking too long to load the buses and I started to get tired of waiting, so I wandered off.

I found a low-budget zoo in the middle of the town. A giraffe peered down at me over the gate. There must’ve been no security at this place, because I opened the gate. Instead of the giraffe coming out, a small black kangaroo leaped into my arms. I tried to put the baby kangaroo back in its cage, but it kept jumping out and I couldn’t lock the gate. I was scared that if I left with the gate unable to close, the kangaroo would leap out into the street and get hit by a car.

The kangaroo jumped up into my arms again and I took it back to where the buses were loading. I got there just in time to see the last bus leave. I knew that the buses wouldn’t be back for two or three hours, so I wandered around the town with this kangaroo until I found a concrete playground where some men were playing soccer. The kangaroo and I took a seat on the sidelines and watched the game. The men did not seem surprised that a black woman and a black kangaroo were watching them.

What was up with this dream?

Obviously the whole “black people waiting for buses” thing had something to do with the images I saw from Hurricane Katrina, but a black kangaroo? I guess that had something to do with my dog Beren, who does hop around a lot.

Why Mexico?

Weird.

Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina

From The Guardian:

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Yeah, right!

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“Go” Bag

Because of the recent hurricanes and the ever-present threat of terrorist attacks, I decided I needed to prepare a “go” bag. The idea with a go bag is you stuff a backpack ahead of time with everything you think you’ll need and leave it by the door so you can scoop it up while you’re fleeing for your life.

This is some of what FEMA recommends you need in a disaster kit:

• One gallon of water per person per day


• At least a three-day supply of non-perishable food


• A first aid kit


• Non-prescription drugs


• Mess kits, or paper cups, plates and plastic utensils


• Fire extinguisher


• Compass


• Matches in a waterproof container


• Toilet paper


• Feminine supplies


• Household chlorine bleach


• Sturdy shoes or work boots


• Blankets or sleeping bags

And a whole lot more.

The full list is here.

So if you set aside everything you’ll really need, you’re talking about a couple duffle bags, right? That’s not very convenient unless you can count on some young people with strong backs in your family. And of course, the more people you've got, the more water and food you need to go around.

Still, psychologically, you feel like you’ve got a fighting chance to live if you get some of this stuff together while you still can. Since I’m too lazy to buy all this stuff separately and assemble it, I took the easy way out and bought a pre-made “go” bag from these people.

This is what I got in my bag:
Storage

1. 1 - Adult Size Backpack - (Durable and High Quality! #1 Emergency Backpack Available)

Warmth and Weather Protection

1. 2 - Large Emergency Space® Blanket


2. 2 - Emergency Rain/Wind Poncho Adult Size


3. 2 - Hand or Abdomen Warmers

Light and Heat

1. 1 - 12 hr. Instant Green Light Stick


2. 1 - 12 hr. Instant Yellow Light Stick


3. 1 - Survival Candle 36 hours


4. 1 - Box of Waterproof Matches


5. 1 - Flashlight (Solar, crank and battery - never out of power)

News and Communication

1. 1 - Radio (Solar, crank and battery - never out of power)


2. 1 - Whistle / Compass

First-Aid

1. 1 - 54 Piece First Aid Kit


2. 1 - Large Ace Bandage


3. 1 - Large Cold Compress

Water, Water Purification and Air Filtration

1. 1 - Bottle Germicidal Tablets – 50 Tablets


2. 3 - Purified Drinking Water Squeeze Boxes


3. 5 - Dust Masks

Food Items

1. 1 - 2400 Calorie Food Ration Bar


2. 1 - Government Issue Survival Candy

Hygiene Items

1. 12 - Wet Wipe Packets


2. 2 - Tooth Brushes with Toothpaste


3. 1 - Pack of Tissue Paper

Miscellaneous

1. 1 - 13-Function Swiss Army Style Pocket Knife

Not bad, huh?

Next I’m going to buy a case of MREs and keep some in the car, some in the house and some in the “go” bag.

But you know what’s going to happen, right?

When the shit hits the fan, I’ll be caught in an elevator in midtown and all of this preparation will go for naught.

Oh, well.

The President's Speech

The president spoke from New Orleans tonight. This is the fourth time he's been there since he belatedly got interested in the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

So, George promised everything to the audience:

• New Orleans will be rebuilt.


• Evacuees will be given first dibs on rebuilding jobs.


• Evacuees in shelters will be offered job training.


• People moving back to New Orleans will be encouraged to buy homes instead of rent. Low cost mortgages will be provided.

And so on. Everyone will have food, clothes, shelter, medical attention and a job.

This is great stuff. These are the most liberal plans ever to escape from his mouth. But where is the money going to come from? We're talking a price tag of $200 billion. He doesn't dare raise taxes, so what programs will get cut?

Katrina Affects ABC's "Invasion"

From SyFy Portal:

Hurricane Katrina's devastation of countless lives across the southeastern United States has caused ABC to rethink the opening scenes in its new SF show, "Invasion," according to TV Guide.

The series premiere starts out with a hurricane running amok through the Florida Everglades.

After pulling promotional ads featuring the stormy start, ABC is in the process of evaluating just what changes should be made to that episode in light of Katrina's impact on the national consciousness.

Read more

Dr. Arrested For Telling Cheney to Fuck Himself

ROFL!

Some doctor who was pissed at the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina got himself in trouble.

As he stood about 10 feet away from Cheney and his friend and some camera operators from CNN and other media filmed the scene, Marble suddenly yelled, "Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney! Go fuck yourself, you asshole!"

Hey, at least Marble was polite. After all, he referred to Cheney as "Mr. Cheney."

Read more:

Things to Come

I predict the following things will happen in the months to come as a result of the Hurricane Katrina Disaster:

• We will find out that a scary number of felons, sex offenders and mental patients escaped into the general population in the chaos of the storm and their records have been destroyed.
• Some children who are not orphans will be declared as such because they can’t be identified.
• Someone will claim a baby that is not theirs and the birth parents will have to get a DNA test done to get their child back.
• Some evacuees will assault people then declare themselves “not guilty” because of post traumatic stress disorder caused by the hurricane.
• The true body count will never be known.
• Lawsuits will be filed against Mayor Nagin, Governor Blanco and FEMA on behalf of those murdered, assaulted, or denied medical attention in the Superdome and the Convention Center, and those who will be “forcibly” removed from their homes.
• Someone will organize a pop album featuring a dozen or so well-known artists and proclaim that the proceeds will go towards the relief effort. Rappers, many of whom are from the South, will drop the ball and fail to do the same thing.
• Displaced teens put into new schools will have violent encounters with “indigenous” students.
• Public sympathy will gradually turn against the evacuees in as little as three months if they fail to find jobs and move out of the shelters.

I’ll check back in with this list once a month until January and discuss which of these predictions have come true.

Hurricane Katrina's Wall of Shame

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (Democrat)
Told people to evacuate New Orleans, but provided no means for the 250,000 people without transportation to do so. Sent people to shelters that had inadequate food, water and sanitation to support them. Nagin made broadcasts on the radio during and after the storm, but he didn't have the balls to show his face at the Superdome or the New Orleans Convention Center where people were living in slave ship conditions. Contrast him with Rudolph Giuliani who was on the scene during 911. He didn't actually do anything, but if your constituents don't see your face during a crisis, don't be surprised when anarchy ensues.

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (Democrat)
Mobilized the National Guard too late. Slow to ask the federal government for supplies and troops from other states. Too scared to visit the squalid refugee centers. Even lame Governor Pataki of New York made sure to get his ass to Ground Zero quick in the aftermath of 911.

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Head Michael Brown (Republican)
Claims to not have known until Thursday that thousands of people were at the Convention Center, despite the fact that the media showed people arriving there as early as Tuesday and reported that no one was in charge. Brown turned away trucks of water sent by WalMart. When Al Gore arranged a chartered flight to rescue approximately 100 elderly patients from a New Orleans hospital, FEMA threw up roadblocks that delayed the process until Saturday, endagering their lives even further.

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff (Republican)
Finally arrived in Louisiana on Sunday. Apparently didn't know he was supposed to be in charge. Continued to insist all week that evacuations were taking place in an orderly fashion and that food and water were on the way while people were dying of thirst and diabetics were going into comas. At a press conference today he praised his staff for doing a "fantastic job." He says that 10,000 people were rescued in the last two days, but his own agency's press release says the number is only 4,500.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (Republican)
Was spotted in New York late last week enjoying her vacation, buying $1,000 worth of designer shoes in a midtown store and catching a performance of Spamalot on Broadway while elderly people and babies were dying of dehydration and living in their own filth in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, her home state.

United States President George W. Bush (Republican)
Placed an emphasis in every press conference on the specific number of soldiers he was sending to the affected area, and how they had orders to shoot to kill desperate people who were getting food and water for their families by any means necessary, as opposed to talking about how many doctors were being sent, how much medicine was being sent, how many civil engineers were being sent, etc. Chose to make scheduled stops in Arizona and California to pump up support for the war in Iraq for most of the week. Finally got his ass to the affected areas on Friday for a sanitized photo-op with two clean, calm light-skinned girls from a suburban neighborhood in an attempt to dispel the appearance of a racial aspect to this tragedy.

Michael Moore to George W. Bush

A letter to Dubya from Michael Moore re: Hurricane Katrina.

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

Read more.

Our Tsunami

Where do I begin with this one?

I don't understand this. What went wrong here?

Watching the events of the past few days unfold has been bizarre. By the time Hurricane Katrina touched down on Monday, people had been warned to evacuate for 3-4 days already. Yet thousands of people are supposedly dead, just like in any Third World natural disaster. They're saying this disaster is second only to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in devastation as far as America goes.

But concerning this death toll, why is it so high when there was so much warning? I can understand the people who got stuck in their cars. The roads were clogged and they were inching along too slow to escape the storm. But why were so many people trapped in their homes? Not all of these people were procrastinators. It looks like most of the people who got trapped had no transportation. The evacuation plan apparently consisted of telling people to go to shelters or flee to another state, but if they had no car, too bad. There weren't buses or vans canvassing communities in an organized fashion to evacuate people who didn't have the means to reach a shelter. They were just assed out.

Price gouging on gas has begun. I filled up last week and was appalled when the total came to $50 even for about 17 gallons. And the price then was $2.97. Now it's over $3.50 up here. Some bastard down in Atlanta is already selling gas at $6 a gallon for premium.

As for the asses who fired on the military helicopters that are trying to rescue people... WHY???

But the best thing I heard today was that Germany and some other countries are sending us monetary aid and supplies to deal with this crisis.

GERMANY!

The worm has turned for the USA.