HumidCity

I do not have the energy to write a new post here on this subject so please go over to Katrina: An UnNatural Disaster and read what I wrote for them. Comments are hugely appreciated, leave them on the actual post not here.

Here is an exceprt to get you started:

A few days ago my wife and I evacuated from New Orleans, piled into a friend’s car with our four cats. Thus began a series of events that simultaneously evoke the horrors of three years ago and put a vicious post-Katrina spin on them. I am going to tell you what this kind of evac is like. Be ready, because it is not pleasant.

First comes the mad packing. What can fit in your car? What can be left behind to make room for neighbors? There is always something to be secured around the house no matter how complete your prep may have been.

The soundtrack to this is the panicky, fearful misinformation coming from our political class. Despite claims by the mayor, Gustav was not the “Mother of All Storms,” a phrase whose use was hardly conducive to anything other than panic. Neither was the storm 900 miles wide; its hurricane-force winds only reached 50 miles from its center (note Katrina stretched 105 miles from its center).

Katrina was more than 50 percent stronger than Gustav. Panic and threats that anyone found on the street would go directly to the state prison at Angola, something I believe is usually against the law, constituted the majority of the official voices on the airwaves. At the time, we had none of the facts handy about this “Mother of All Storms,” just a litany of fear voiced before a backbeat of polemic. I am honestly surprised I did not hear the phrase “run for your lives.”

Read the rest here.

Loki, HumdCity Founder

The following article is from nola.com:

NOPD says old 5th District station burglarized — after TV reporters tour unsecured building

by Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune

Friday June 06, 2008, 6:16 PM

The New Orleans Police Department said Friday afternoon it is investigating a burglary into its storm-damaged station in the 9th Ward — after reporters and officials from the Metropolitan Crime Commission walked into the open building to investigate why the build had not been secured.

The alleged burglary stems from a WWL–TV news report that found the 5th District was left unsecured — one door unlocked and another wide open — with potentially sensitive files and internal documents left in plain view.

The NOPD’s Public Information Office issued a news release “requesting the public’s assistance in locating and identifying the suspect(s) wanted in connection with the burglary” of the station. The release states that Superintendent Warren Riley learned of this today from a television reporter.

Within 30 minutes, the station fired back in an e-mail sent to all of the news release recipients. The station refuted the NOPD’s claims.

[EDIT: The rest of the article can be found on NOLA.com right here. Go read it. -Loki]

This post is dedicated to all of the soulless cretins who denigrated my neighbors and I for moving back to New Orleans. This ones for you!

Most of America has “Katrina Fatigue.” They’re sick of hearing about the minor issues that have displaced half our city. It almost makes me wish I was sadistic enough to revel in this news article, but I’m not and I can’t.

You see the Army Corps of Engineers is not just the source of an overflowing cornucopia of woes for the Crescent City, oh no! Their pernicious incompetence ranges far further than that, at least if you believe….MSNBC:

ST. LOUIS - Across America, earthen flood levees protect big cities and small towns, wealthy suburbs and rich farmland. But the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that oversees levees, lacks an inventory of thousands of them and has no idea of their condition, the corps’ chief levee expert told The Associated Press.

The uncertainty, amid an unusually wet spring that has already caused significant flooding across many states, is creating worry even within the corps.

“We have to get our arms around this issue and understand how many levees there are in the country, who’s watching over them, what populations and properties are behind them,” Eric Halpin, the corps’ special assistant for dam and levee safety, said in an interview last month. “What is the risk posed to the public?”

Critics are troubled that the government doesn’t know the answer.

Its disturbing on a level that New Orleanians are all too familiar with. And it makes me come back to an old mantra of mine I have not voiced in awhile: “We must not let this happen to anyone else.”

If there is a lesson to be learned from the Levee Failure that followed Katrina it is one that has been lost to the members of modern American sound-bite culture. Not everyone, but enough of a percentage that I run across them frequently whenever I travel north and visit anyplace else in the country.
Go read. Especially if you are from somewhere else. Trust me, you do not want to experience what we did in August of 2005.

Really, you don’t.

Once again our local buffoon is “keeping the New Orleans brand out there,” for all of the residents of “Chocolate City.” Just what we needed. It really is quite pathetic to watch him continue to screw up in front of the media. That car crash fascination were you cannot look away even though it makes you sick to your stomach.

For those of you who have been enjoying an existence underneath a very large stone somewhere I am referring to Clarence R. Nagin’s latest flash of paranoia and incompetence as evinced in a TV interview with Eric Paulson and Sallie Anne Roberts. Go ahead, watch the video, it is only a few minutes long, I’ll wait. (Transcript and video here)

Aryan websites and hate blogs, eh Sugar Ray? I’m a pretty solid data miner when I need to be and my good buddy Google and I are having some trouble unearthing them. Even after over an hour. Seems I’m not alone there, I have the undead for company:

Nagin claims that the picture the TP published of him pointing a gun at Cheif Riley has been picked up by racist blogs and websites. Where are they? Which sites is he talking about? I’ve been looking for about 2 hours on Google and I haven’t found a single one. Can anybody point one out?

A message to Nagin:

Here’s an idea…shut the fuck up and answer the multitude of FOIA requests which have been submitted to your office over the past 3 years from activists like Matt McBride and Karen Gadbois. Or better yet, from reporters like Gordon Russell and Lee Zurik. Or even better yet, how about providing the PUBLIC INFORMATION Inspector General Cerasoli has requested and not received from your office. He’s been forced to file subpoenas to obtain the information and you are legally challenging his right to do that….what are you hiding? -American Zombie 2/21/08

Hardly surprising that the Raylien has little taste for bloggers. In a city where the main newspaper seems obsessed with a kneel and pucker stance where he is concerned we have been actively scrutinizing his actions as well as his words. Unfortunately many of our number are weary of it due to the fish-in-a-barrel easiness of the endeavour.

Mayor C Ray Nagin aka the walking id lost it on WWL-TV’s morning news today. LINK. The Mayor whined about the Picayune picture story and painted a dark picture of powerful people conspiring against him. Of course, the TP has essentially fellated him for 6 years and is now very reluctantly taking a *slightly* closer look at his record. How dare they? Nagin ranted about the video of the gun picture as showing how careful he was being when it’s ambiguous at best. The video can be seen at WDSU.com and I’ve watched it several times and it’s subject to multiple interpretations.

Nagin claims that “aryan hate groups” are targeting him without, of course, providing any support for his fulminations. His weirdest claim is that an upcoming story on WWL about his SCHEDULE is a violation of his privacy and his family’s safety. This is, of course, nutty: he’s a PUBLIC OFFICIAL and the people have a right to know what tomfoolery their Mayor is up to. If Nagin is truly “busting his butt,” he should be thrilled to have people know how busy he is. This reeks of a desperate pre-emptive strike to make it look like THE MAN is out to get poor Clarence Ray. -Adrastos 02/21/08

What part of the phrase “public servant” is it that these clowns never seem to grok? Frank Zappa called the political class “jumed up used car salesmen in bad suits,” and abjured people to remind these idiots who they work for. Ray’s behavour makes him come off more like the homeless wino who used to be a jumped up used car salesman in a bad suit. Lucky for us, huh? Helps keep the brand out there, cher.

You’’ve got to see this interview with Ray Nagin on WWL. He is so full of shit. He believes that when the media publishes stories and photos of his idiotic behavior, it puts him and his family in danger. Ray, as far as I know, no one wants to harm you. You are the one who is talking about “cold cocking” people. We are all just impatiently waiting until you leave office. We know that we are stuck with you for the duration, and you don’t give a damn what we think. -Dangerblond 02/21/08

Threats of violence, “cold cocking” people, and old fashioned one on ones? The whole city would be way better off if you’d try that on some of the punk kids with guns who make life so cheap in our city?

The mayor has stated on television his intent of taking it outside with a member of the press and hitting someone if approached. Who should feel threatened now? -Maitri 02/21/08

Ray, I cannot wait to be rid of you. May you become lost in the bowels of the bureaucracy, doomed to an eternity of red tape and fruitless insurance paperwork, just as you have helped doom your fellow New Orleanians during your idiotic tenure.

Loki

Founder, HumidCity

Now that we are done with the fireworks I would like to steer you towards a lovely laundry list of incompetence and abuses, the drowing of New Orleans being only one, that make it neccessary to demand new leadership for our beloved country. The Yankee Doodler is to be praised for their cogent presentation of the facts (via Suspect Device)

The Yankee Doodler: US: Declaration 2006

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for we the people to reject our representative leaders, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that we declare the causes that impel us to our discontent.

Since a long train of abuses by our public servants has evinced a design to reduce us under a growing despotism, it is our right, it is our duty, to throw off, peacefully and civilly, such representation, and to choose new guards for our future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the people of the United States these last six years, and such is now the necessity that impels us to demand new leadership.

Well, we know know that Ray got it. I am very interested in your views on this. It is a day that will be remembered in history and I think its important to get peole’s opinions and thoughts while they are fresh, for posterity if nothing else.  I have just set up a discussion thread on our LiveJournal prescence for this very thing.
Join the Discussion: Humid City on LJ

This excerpt from Dangerblond’s site really gets it across. A long but brilliant Dear John letter from that aging southern belle, New Orleans, to her troubled mayor. If you get something out of the excerpt go read the whole thing on her page. Highly advised for before hitting the polls.

dangerblond.org » the blond truth: i still love you, ray

Ray, you made me look like a fool. In front of, well, everybody. Every lousy cab driver in America thinks I got exactly what I deserved for not having enough sense to keep my levees up. Now Douglas Brinkley has told the entire world what hotel you were in while Katrina was in town. I may never live this down, Ray, and you getting drunk and babbling about god and the chocolate city did not help matters. You know, you can leave here. You can get another job and leave all this behind you. But I have to stay here and face people, I don’t have a choice.

The Nagin Timeline, a catalog of errors. Advised reading for all voters. (You ARE voting aren’t you? It’s important) Thanks to Humid Haney for the link.

Here are some examples of the people FEMA has “helped.”

http://www.latalk.org/forum/showthread.php?t=71 http://www.latalk.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34

I was aggravated when FEMA denied us any assistance, but we are young, tough and resourceful. We also know that we have a home to return to and that there will be work for those willing and able. These folks and many like them have lost everything, and are too old or unhealthy to start over.

Tootie Montana is spinning in his grave…..

Like any agency I am sure that there are huge numbers of wonderful, compassionate, competent people working for FEMA. It is, however, the man in charge who holds responsibility (hence the size of his paycheck). And by the way, when Brown faced Senate confirmation hearings in 2002 as FEMA’s deputy director, there was wide bipartisan support, and the then-Democratic controlled Senate approved Brown on a voice vote. This is NOT about party lines. This is about making Public Servants serve the public.

From the Current House of Representatives Hearing of Michael Brown:

“I’m happy you left,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. “Because that kind of, you know, look in the lights like a deer tells me that you weren’t capable to do the job.”

“You get an F-minus in my book,” said Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss.

At several points, Brown turned red in the face and slapped the table in front of him.

“So I guess you want me to be the superhero, to step in there and take everyone out of New Orleans,” Brown said.

“What I wanted you to do is do your job and coordinate,” Shays retorted.

FEMA Official Says Agency Heads Ignored Warnings http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4849706

FEMA: “First Responders Urged Not To Respond”- Notice this is from FEMA’s own website!
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470

FEMA won’t accept Amtrak’s help in evacuations
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/84aa35cc-1da8-11da-b40b-00000e..

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/105538/7048

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec..

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec..

FEMA won’t let Red Cross deliver food
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15147862&BRD=…

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/171718/0826

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509..

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050902dale..

FEMA turns away generators
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

FEMA Criticised for Cruise Ship Deal (MSNBC)
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9507503/

Someone in my circle made contact with a connection within FEMA. Okay, here is an excerpt from that anonymous FEMA employee’s email response. It proves once agin that what can easily be seen as malice can iften be explained by the incompetence inherent in beauracracy:

“Your friend may have some accurate information but I
doubt it is as he says. The people working for FEMA
are poorly trained and none of the folks he/she is
dealing with are full time employees. All these
people are called up and sent to do whatever job they
are assigned. Instructions are sketchy at best. They
are doing, for the most part, what they have been
told.

If the situation actually exists as it has been
described, remember - the government always responds
to political pressure. You friend should call his/her
senator and congressman/woman. These elected
representatives will be the best bet to righting
bureaucratic problems. Additionally asking for a
supervisior and for statements in writing of all
communication is essential. Also as I understand it,
no individual assistance claim is without the process
of appeal. Always appeal anything that is given to
you as decided. And all decisions must be rendered in
writing. Bureaucracy can only be fought with paper
and persistance. And of course, good manners and
refusing to take no for an answer are essential.

Have mercy on the FEMAites. Actually your friend
could be dealing with contractors(probably eventaully
part of Bectel or Halliburton) and they are even more
poorly trained. It is sad but our government is not
able to actually help people unless they fight for it.
Even in horrible situations like these - think
student loans.

Without more information I can only offer these
general statements. FEMA isn’t trying to screw anyone
but people will be royally screwed I’m sure. Its a
national shame laid firmly at the feet of the
Republicans.”

I am trying to relay this info to Cheryl (my friend driven to tears by her experinces with FEMA), the one whose plight led me to get out the heads up post earlier. If anyone (Moontwister?) can get ahold of her, please relay this. Myself, I am simply beat and am calling it a night.