Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Hurricane Katrina Spares New Orleans the Worst

New Orleans was spared the worst, BUT is heavily flooded- submerging entire neighborhoods, dozens have been killed, more are trapped & the Superdome had holes torn in the roof, rain poured in, & people there are getting cranky. This great LA Times article gets how stark the differences are for the rich who could fly 1st class to Dallas and the poor who had to strap their belongings on their backs and hope to get into a shelter. Read NOLA for best coverage of N.O. news. Wetlands like those below N.O. are crucial to breaking the power of hurricanes before they can reach inland with the heaviest winds. You'd think that Bush would be all for helping preserve this valuable barrier protecting his "red" states, but as this N.O. Times- Picayune article points out, late last wk, Gov.Kathleen Blanco's staff received a note from Bush's schedulers saying he would not be able to respond to Blanco's demand that he allow her to accompany him on an aerial tour of LA's fragile coastal wetlands. Ironic, huh? Gov Blanco just told Larry King that she is shorthanded in the Nat'l Guard dept and that LA could certainly use some of the Nat'l Guard water equipment to save the trapped people in their submerged homes... but almost all of the water equipment/ Guardsmen are in Iraq. So, she is calling upon the FL, AL & TX Nat'l Guard to help them out. Hmm, I hear that there is a TX Air Nat'l Guardsman who needs to make up quite a few flying hrs... In case someone tries to say that Bush's war has not caused a Guardsmen shortage, please watch these raw news feeds to make up your own mind. I couldn't edit this if I tried, and all reports are that the Coast Guard is saving trapped people, but there are no Guardsmen to be had in these news reports. Watch these news feeds... the devastation is incredible.
Posted by Tina :: 12:55 AM :: 3 Comments:

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