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I don’t see
what the fuss is all about; his family has been relocated where they have
relatives, to enroll his daughter in school*. He’ll probably live in one of the
hotels along with half of FEMA and the media working there. From what I’ve read
online, the local perception of the mayor is better than the governor, who was “swift
boated” by the Bush-defending pundits. Even the story about 2,000 buses unused
was incorrect, spread by a non-fact checking media**. But her paperwork shows
she acted quickly under the (confusing) circumstances***, and has given up on
FEMA, contracted a private contractor, to handle the dead. I’m doubtful we’ll ever know the true
total, however. According to “Kratrina
bloggers “ who stayed in offices or hotels downtown, several nicer hotels had
food helicoptered to them for their stranded guests and workers, from other
hotels in the region. These were the same people – including some foreign tourists-
brought out ahead of the masses in the Superdome, apparently fearing they might
be robbed or worse. Some of the media, including NBC Brian Williams, stayed in
these hotels while residents were stranded in the Superdome and Convention
Center. Why did it
take the 82dn Airborne to establish communication links between agencies when
we have a technologically advanced private sector? Why hadn’t satellite phones
been issued before, not after? Knight
Ridder has released memos showing that Chertoff was slow to move, Brown may be
his scapegoat, and that’s the second reason Bush finally said “I take
responsibility”. It was
chilling to watch a 5-second loop of video showing looters replayed continually
during a 3 minute report, leaving the impression it was much more widespread
than it may have been in fact. We won’t know the whole story for awhile: just
separating the spin from good information is challenging. There are some scary conspiracy stories
floating through, some of which I’m tracking, not discarding. In Good News/Bad
news, Congressional Quarterly reports that the Democrats are proposing a New
Deal style Cabinet-level agency like the old TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)
to coordinate regional recovery and reconstruction, employing local businesses
and workers, calling on all areas of expertise to redesign infrastructure,
ecology and economy. Key: it would control the funds, not FEMA, already handing
out candy to familiar contractors in more no-bid contracts. NEW Polluted waters drown
environmental efforts Martha Sutula, a senior
scientist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project who has
studied the ecology of Louisiana wetlands, said nutrients in the floodwaters,
such as nitrates and ammonia, would probably cause algae and phytoplankton blooms
in the shallow lake and surrounding estuaries. The blooms can deplete oxygen
and suffocate marine life. "I would imagine that you're going to have a pretty
tremendous dead zone," Sutula said. "This is going to set
them back quite a few years." "We have multiple disasters in Hurricane Katrina," said William
R. Freudenburg, a professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Barbara. "Much of
the disaster was caused by the initial decision of where to put the city's
levees. It was turned into a human disaster by the worst response I have ever
seen by the government. Now we have a disaster on one of the most
environmentally sensitive and valuable wetlands in America." The water pumped into the 630-square-mile lake eventually drains through
two narrow outlets to Lake Borgne and then to the Gulf of Mexico. The sewage
going into the Mississippi River flows into the gulf at the river's mouth,
about 80 miles from downtown. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-stink14sep14,1,7374817.story?coll=la-headlines-nation Years of irreplaceable
medical research may be lost forever at LSU Medical Center, other labs, some classified: “It appears
that no deadly diseases were released from the area’s “hot labs,” where researchers routinely
handle and store some of the world’s most dangerous germs.” All the labs in Katrina’s path
that handle bioweapons defense research involving pathogens such as anthrax
reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that their security
wasn’t compromised, according to CDC spokesman Von Roebuck. “A few reported
minor damage, but there was no issue of escape.” (One research director hastily
bleached live samples to prevent their “escape” in floodwaters. He won’t say
what he was developing…) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9339191/ EARLIER: Lush forests turned
to wasteland: the rush is on
to salvage timber in Katrina’s wake “The Mississippi Forestry
Commission says Katrina caused $2.4 billion of tree damage, more than half
in commercial timber spread across 1.3 million acres. In the worst-hit coastal
counties, almost half the timber may be damaged. The destruction is a serious loss for one of the nation's
poorest states. Forests cover more than 60% of Mississippi's land, and
converting trees into wood and paper products provides jobs and tax revenue.
Much of the land is owned by individuals in parcels of 100 acres or so. Now the race is on to salvage as much as possible because a timber
ailment known as blue-stain fungus, which thrives in the South's hot, humid
climate, attacks downed trees. Timber with the fungus loses market value and
eventually becomes worthless. In Mississippi, so much timber is down that local
forestry experts expect much of it to go to waste because there won't be enough
loggers or mills to harvest it. The
glut of fallen timber will benefit mill owners at the timber ranchers' expense,
depressing the raw materials' price. At the retail level, he says, the effect
is "almost reverse. Huge demand for lumber and plywood will drive up
(retail) prices." Two market leaders, Georgia-Pacific, a big mill company,
and Home Depot, the retailer, both have pledged publicly to temporarily freeze
lumber prices in the gulf at pre-storm levels. The devastation to the forests
will make a lasting dent on local ranchers, loggers and millworkers. “We can
rebuild a mill pretty quickly. But you can't quickly rebuild a forest," Grimm
says. Pine trees planted now will take 30 years or more to mature. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/2005-09-13-katrina-timber_x.htm Love-canal type waste dump
underwater in downtown NO Overlooked in many news reports
about the unfolding storm disaster in the southern United States, especially in
the City of New Orleans, in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, is a
potentially dramatic pollution issue related to a toxic landfill that sits
under the flood waters right in the city's downtown, according to map overlays
of the flooded area. The situation could exacerbate the already dire threat to
human health and the environment from the flood waters. The Agriculture Street
Landfill (ASL) is situated on a 95-acre site in New Orleans, Orleans Parish,
Louisiana. The ASL is a federally registered
Superfund site, and is on the National Priorities List of highly contaminated
sites requiring cleanup and containment. A few years ago the site,
which sits underneath and beside houses and a school, was fenced and covered
with clean soil. However, three feet or more of flood waters could potentially
cause the landfill's toxic contents – the result of decades of municipal and
industrial waste dumping – to leach out. The ASL can be thought of a sort of
Love Canal for New Orleans -– and now it sits under water. The ASL site is three miles south of
Lake Pontchartrain and about 2.5 north-northeast of the city's central business
district (roughly halfway between the old French Quarter and the shore of Lake
Pontchartrain). Disturbingly, the
site is also very close to the Industrial Canal Levee, a section of which
collapsed and allowed flood waters to pour in, almost directly in the direction
of the ASL site. http://www.solidwastemag.com/article.asp?id=47051&issue=09012005 Mountains of debris may remain
for years: estimates are it may take 5 years to dispose. FEMA models
indicate that Mississippi will have 35 million to 50 million cubic yards of
debris. Stacked in a football
field, the debris would tower two and one-half to three and one-half miles
high. It's so urgent to get rid of the teetering piles
of rotting rubbish that the state won't be able to hold the usual public
comment period for neighbors to voice their concerns about having a landfill
nearby.. So the state is trying to find existing "vegetative landfills,"
which accept yard waste and don't require liners, that can be upgraded to
handle building and structural debris… The state has also set up a timber task
force to look for ways to recover fallen timber for use in factories with
boilers. Biloxi Sun Herald http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/special_packages/hurricane_katrina/12605026.htm “Undersea Economy”
crippled by Katrina: The damage to the Gulf Coast's
$700 million fishing industry came at the peak of Mississippi's shrimping
season and at the beginning of the oyster season. Katrina, which did so
much damage to the land, also has poisoned the Gulf fishing industry by the
debris that used to comprise people's lives, by corpses and by industrial
chemicals and an estimated 50 million cubic yards of solid waste. Imported shrimp and other
commercial seafood will make up for the local losses (shrimp is the nation's
favorite seafood). On Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department declared a fishery
failure in the Gulf. Affected fishermen from Texas to Pensacola and the Florida
Keys are eligible for federal money. It will be available to assess the impact,
restore the fisheries, prevent future failure and for direct assistance to
fishermen. Biloxi Sun Herald
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/special_packages/hurricane_katrina/12620089.htm NO Moves to Dallas http://mediamatters.org/items/200509140006 2000 buses needed,
not 2000 buses available, unused http://mediamatters.org/items/200509120005 Congressional Report
PDF (see page 5 re: Aug. 27th request by Blanco). Letter also at
Gov. Blanco website http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976 |
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