The hurricane Katrina victims need our help

I wish I could donate $100...I did what I could.

Bella


Bella, donate what you can.

It always angers me that in a crisis time like this, it is the poor and middle class that donates the most to help people in need. Perhaps it's because they know what it's like to live from paycheck to paycheck. They understand the desperation of loss and are the first to help.

I'm retired and $100 is a big deal to me. But I know that if I don't help out, the wealthy won't make up for it---so it's up to me.

BBB

BBB
Just announced that the people stranded in the Louisiana Superdome will be bussed to the old Astrodome in Huston.

Texas govenor just announced that Texas will provide 500 busses to trasport the people to Huston where they will be housed until other arrangements can be made for them.

BBB

Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?
Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?
'Times-Picayune' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues
By Will Bunch
Published: August 30, 2005 9:00 PM ET

PHILADELPHIAEven though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters may still keep rising in New Orleans late on Tuesday. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until it's level with the massive lake.

New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming....Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness.

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:

"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."

The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs.

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:

"That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount. But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said."

The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late.

One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer: a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday.

The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House....In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need."

Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Will Bunch ([email protected]) is senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News. Much of this article also appears on his blog at that newspaper, Attytood.

LA National Guard Wants Equipment to Come Back From Iraq
LA National Guard Wants Equipment to Come Back From Iraq
By Yunji de Nies
August 1, 2005, 9:07 PM CDT

JACKSON BARRACKS -- When members of the Louisiana National Guard left for Iraq in October, they took a lot equipment with them. Dozens of high water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators are now abroad, and in the event of a major natural disaster that, could be a problem.

"The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission," said Lt. Colonel Pete Schneider with the LA National Guard.

Col. Schneider says the state has enough equipment to get by, and if Louisiana were to get hit by a major hurricane, the neighboring states of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida have all agreed to help.

"As Governor Bush did for Ivan, after they were hit so many times, he just maxed all of his resources out, he reached out to Louisiana and we sent 200 national guardsmen to help support in recovery efforts," Col. Schneider said.

Members of the Houma-based 256th Infantry will be returning in October, but it could be much longer before the rest of their equipment comes home.

"You've got combatant commanders over there who need it they say they need it, they don't want to lose what they have, and we certainly understand that it's a matter it's a matter of us educating that combatant commander, we need it back here as well," Col. Schneider said.

And even if commanders in Iraq release the equipment, getting it home takes months.

"It's just the process of identifying which equipment we're bringing home, bringing it down to Kuwait, loading it on ships or aircraft however we're gonna get it back here and then either railing it in or trucking it in, so we're talking a significant amount of time before that equipment is back home," Schneider said.

Louisiana National Guard unit watches Katrina from afar
Louisiana National Guard unit watches Katrina from afar
8/31/05
AP

BAGHDAD, Iraq Members of the Louisiana National Guard's 141st Field Artillery are on duty in Baghdad, far from family and friends suffering through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

Lieutenant Colonel Jordan Jones says he and his fellow soldiers have been following the events on television and trying desperately to get in touch with loved ones back home. Jones says some of the troops "have seen their neighborhoods completely submerged in water."

He adds that it's doubly hard since members of the Guard see it as their duty to serve during times of natural disaster.

A spokeswoman for the unit says some of the soldiers are "having a hard time" handling the helplessness of the situation.

The unit is scheduled to return soon to Louisiana.

BBB, I will never donate to The Red Cross again, my friend. I will do what I can to help those poor people, but I often wonder where the money goes in these charitable organizations.

That's my issue as well, Letty. I don't want my donations to be used for new office furniture for a Red Cross officer. I'm looking into a direct link to churches and neighborhood organizations, that sort of thing. It's difficult to control where and how your donation is spent but...

good idea, eoe.

Letty and eoe
Letty and eoe, I felt the same way when I made large donations to the tsunami victims.

If you find any worthy and trustworthy organizations to donate to, please post them here to guide other A2Kers.

BBB

American Red Cross 800-help now

Operation Blessing 800-436-6348

America's Second Harvest 344-8070

A more complete list of where to donate is at CNN.

The Blame Game
08.31.2005
The Blame Game
By Eric Boehlert

Today's must-read article comes courtesy of E&P, which looks back at previous press warnings about the lack of federal dollars the Bush administration was sending to New Orleans as it scrambled to complete its hurricane protection levee system, which ultimately failed in the wake of Katrina. Why did funds stop flowing to the Big Easy? Simple, Bush's war in Iraq was costing too much money.

There it is, in black and white. But the question is, what will the MSM do with this obvious news angle, particularly when Bush makes his inevitable sympathy tour of the devastated region in coming days.

Here are some of the highlights from E&P:

*"New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars."

*" In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness."

*" On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.""

*"The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history."

*" One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer: a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday."

*"The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House....In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need."

Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."" [Emphasis added.]

Security and Help at Home
Security and Help at Home
By Dal LaMagna, written in collaboration with Jennifer Hicks
08.30.2005

Close to 5 million people live in the devastated coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. About 26 million people live in Iraq.

We've got more than 118,000 National Guardsmen and women on active duty either in Iraq or supporting war efforts there, which clearly makes the number of people available for our own disaster-relief services smaller.

We've got about 4,300 National Guard currently supporting the cleanup efforts from Hurricane Katrina, now believed to be even more catastrophic in human and economic terms than Hurricane Andrew.

Where is the perspective?

New Orleans, a city in OUR country is 80 percent underwater. People will be without power for as long as a month. Thousands will be homeless for even longer.

These are OUR people - people whose taxes help support the staggering costs of the war in Iraq - people who now should be able to count on us and our government for the assistance they so desparately need.

Yet on Saturday, General Schoomaker, the Army's top general, said he "is making plans to keep the current number of soldiers in Iraq -- well over 100,000 -- for four more years."

What are we doing?

We have two million people without power. We have fellow countrymen and women whose lives have been as upturned as those in Banda Ache after the Tsunami.

We need help here. We need a government that remembers it is supposed to be "for the people."

In the meantime, we, as individuals can remember and can help.

American Red Cross 800-help now

Operation Blessing 800-436-6348

America's Second Harvest 344-8070

A more complete list of where to donate is at CNN.

Has anyone found a shelter to take in hurricane pet victims?
Has anyone found any information about a shelter to take in hurricane pet victims? I hope someone, someplace is going to be able to help save pets and reunited them with their families.

That would be a worthy cause to donate to.

BBB

Glad the president is finally on it
Glad the president is finally on it
by kos
Wed Aug 31st, 2005
He's finally decided to show up to work.

President Bush announced Tuesday that he would cut short his extended summer vacation and fly to Washington to begin work on Wednesday with a task force that will coordinate the work of 14 federal agencies involved in the relief effort.

It only took him what, four days? Well, in all fairness, he was busy playing guitar and trying to kill social security. You know, things that are important to Bush. And since Al Qaida and Saddam had nothing to do with the disaster on the gulf coast...

As for those who still claim Louisiana and Mississippi have enough national guard troops:

Pentagon officials asserted that deployment of thousands of National Guard members from the gulf states to Iraq and Afghanistan had not affected relief efforts. But on Tuesday the two hardest-hit states, Louisiana and Mississippi, which each have more than 3,000 National Guard troops in Iraq, requested military specialists and equipment from other states, ranging from military police and engineers to helicopters and five-ton, high-wheeled trucks that can traverse the flood waters.

I honestly don't think Bush and his cronies (and their apologists) understand the magnitude of the disaster. Otherwise, they'd be acting far different. Perhaps with some much needed urgency.

It's often said that tragedy brings out the greatness of average men.

Looks to me like they're helping themselves.

The following is a list of places where one could donate. I took it from my own home page. I won't provide links here, but they shouldn't be hard to access, I wouldn't think.

I can't/won't vouch for any of the listed agencies, but suspect there's something here for everyone.

If not, there must be others.


American Red Cross
Providing disaster services and relief.

America's Second Harvest
Providing food to victims.

Catholic Charities USA
Providing relief and recovery assistance.

Charity Hospital in New Orleans
Providing medical care to residents of Louisiana.

Church World Service
Developing long-term recovery plans to assist with recovery.

Convoy of Hope
Providing disaster relief and building supply lines

Episcopal Relief & Development
Mobilizing to support residents affected by this disaster.

Heart of Florida United Way
Assisting with hurricane recovery efforts in Florida.

Hearts with Hands
Activating response teams to assist in the Gulf Coast and locally.

Humane Society of the U.S.
Rescuing animals and assisting their caregivers in the disaster areas.

Lutheran Disaster Response
Providing emergency relief and recovery supplies.

Mennonite Disaster Service
Providing relief to victims.

New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity
Assisting victims of hurricane Katrina

Noah's Wish
Helping to keep animals alive in face of the storm devastation.

Operation Blessing
Transporting food, water, cleaning kits, and other emergency supplies.

PETsMART Charities
Providing relief for the animals impacted by hurricanes.

Salvation Army
Local, regional, and national disaster relief programs.

Samaritan's Purse
Helping victims of natural disasters.

United Methodist Committee on Relief
Providing relief to victims.

United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area
Helping victims of hurricanes locally.

United Way of Miami-Dade
Helping victims of hurricanes locally.

Joeblow
Joeblow, thanks for the list.

I'm weeping for the people, but I'm still very distressed about all the pets and their well-being.

BBB

BBB
FEMA just announced it is no longer doing rescue operations in New Orleans due to violence making it not safe for FEMA staff to continue.
Are those thousands of people going to die because we don't have enough armed troops to control the situation and make it safe for people to be rescued?

BBB

Lots of people did steal necessities...but then there are THOSE people....nothing like taking advantage...