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Are You Kidding Me?

ArchPundit September 1, 2005 1 Comment

From the BBC. I’ve stayed away from any of this until this just blew my mind:

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result much of New Orleans is flooded and now we’re having to deal with it and will,” he said.

From the Boston Globe’s August 29th Edition (written before the hurricane hit)

For years, forecasters have warned of the nightmare scenario a big storm could bring to New Orleans, a bowl-shaped city as much as 10 feet below sea level in spots and dependent on a network of levees, canals and pumps to keep dry. It’s built between the half-mile-wide Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, half the size of the state of Rhode Island.

Estimates have been made of tens of thousands of deaths from flooding that could turn New Orleans into a 30-foot-deep toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, and waste from ruined septic systems.

Actually everyone was predicting this as a very real possibility and problem and doing it for years. With Katrina it was specifically feared. In fact, the expectation was that a direct hit would lead to far faster flooding and probably more levee breaches than we’ve seen including the Mississippi River levees.

This is a ‘better’ situation than was predicted.

I’m so absolutely baffled by this bullshit I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

The Barge Industry and The Harvest

ArchPundit September 1, 2005 1 Comment

Butler Miller’s, a friend in Saint Louis, family business is a barge company–Miller Barge. He graciously provided some initial thoughts on what the impact of Katrina will be on the barge industry–which is not trivial to the coming harvest.

Hurricane Katrina will have effects, immediate and longer lasting, on the shipping industryin the New Orleans area. ?For right now, with the amount of sunken equipment in the shipping channels, it is not clear when ships will be
allowed into New Orleans harbor. ?New Orleans is the major terminus of
grain export in this country, and without ships coming in, no goods can
be delivered for barges to receive, and, with harvest upon us, grain
elevators will quickly reach their storage capacity and loaded the
barges may be sitting for a while, sucking up time that the barges could
have been delivering goods to other areas.. ?

Getting reliable information about marine equipment is still difficult
because a lot the industry workers have their homes and lives to tend
to. ?I have to rely on news footage, thinking ‘that barge could be ours
floating through that neighborhood’ because I just don’t know where all
of the equipment is. ?Initial estimates have at least fifty barges sunk,
with many, see above, unaccounted for. ?

Looking a little longer range, it is not clear what infrastructure may
have been destroyed by Katrina. ?Other ports like Lake Charles, LA,
Galveston, TX and Houston are understandably looking to ‘help’ in this
turbulent time. ?While the city of New Orleans itself, I believe, is
changed forever, I do believe that New Orleans as a port can comeback.
Remember, it was Lake Ponchartain that broke the levees not the Mighty
Miss, as the Mississippi River is sometimes called. ?

As a quick update: Transportation rates are going up, both due to fuel price increases and the tragedy in New Orleans with some in the industry for 30 years saying it’s the highest ever. This is depressing grain prices, which hurts farmers already reeling from a horrible year to due to drought.

New Ad

ArchPundit September 1, 2005 1 Comment

The Liberal Blogging Network is joining together with an coordinated effort to raise money for the Red Cross–I’ll be featuring the ad at the right for the next 2 weeks at least. Please consider giving–if it’ll help, I believe I can track money from my site, and I could set a goal. Tell me if you think that’s a good idea or not in comments. Or just give at the Red Cross site. Just give really.

Kermit Ruffins at Rockford’s On the Waterfront Festival

ArchPundit September 1, 2005 3 Comments

First, help by donating to the Red Cross, then celebrate New Orleans musical history by seeing Kermit Ruffins on Saturday.

Obviously check and see if Kermit is actually going to make it, though the with all of the stages–something will be worth it.

UPDATE: For those that have been there, I haven’t been able to get Tipitinas or Le Bon Temps Roule out of my mind. Strangely, Mark Brown mentions Tipitina’s in his column. Perhaps odder, both are probably in relatively good condition given their location in Uptown.

UM-Saint Louis to Admit Displaced Students

ArchPundit August 31, 2005 1 Comment

From the Univerity

We want to alert you that from now through September 16 we will admit and enroll qualified students who have been displaced by colleges that have closed as a result of Hurricane Katrina. UMSL will waive its application and late registration fees, work to place students in classes that will transfer to their home college and possibly provide some scholarship aid to students in need. Students should call admissions at 516-5451 for more information. Most of the students are undergraduates from universities like Tulane, Loyola, and other universities in Louisiana and Mississippi who are from this area. There are also a few graduate students. Some may come here for a semester or two, but others may want to fully transfer here and graduate from UMSL. Some of this depends on what happens in Louisiana and Mississippi, of course.

No Blogging for A While

ArchPundit August 31, 2005 2 Comments

I’m stunned by the news in New Orleans and frankly, I think what I’ve heard on the national news is downplaying the tragedy not understanding the sheer enormity of what is happening. This isn’t a storm story with anecdotal stories of bad things happening, but an unfolding disaster still in New Orleans. Either tonight or tomorrow I’ll be back to local news–which has several fascinating stories going on….

As for the looting fetish on the tv news–given the city is continuing to be submerged, who the hell cares? A city in a developed nation is being wiped out. Wiped out.

If you want to worry about violence, think about the problems in refugee camps and temporary housing for all of these people for the next 3-4 months the Mayor of New Orleans has suggested is the period before people can come back (and that doesn’t include rebuilding housing).

It’s Getting Worse

ArchPundit August 30, 2005 1 Comment

I swore I wouldn’t post on this, but just minutes ago, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (who is doing an amazing job) announced that the 17th Street Levee that breached earlier in the day was unable to be plugged and the water in the area around it will now rise rapidly again 9 feet or 3 feet above ground water–the vast majority of the city is below sea level and only very few areas are above 4 feet of sea level.

There is very little you can do, but what you can do, is found in one place.

It seems likely that there are still thousands left in the city.

Whole Lotta Discussion About Claire, Local Consultants and Tod Martin

ArchPundit August 30, 2005 1 Comment

Over at Kos.

I’m not sure that was a DC pundit, but the larger point in an important one about how to run large races. The argument is fleshed out for better and worse in the comments. I’ll leave you to read mine for my points.

And, of course, Congrats to Tod and Claire–It’s a very good hire. I don’t know his position yet, but I’m sure he’ll do a great job.

Even George Ryan Would Blush

ArchPundit August 30, 2005 3 Comments

Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher pardoned, well, everyone, but himself. Kentucky had a similar incident when former Governor Patton issued some cronies a pardon as he was about to leave office concerning official misconduct.

Dipnuts is Going to Protest Sweden on Labor Day

ArchPundit August 29, 2005 1 Comment

Fred Phelps further demonstrates his worldliness by claiming he’s going to picket the King of Sweden in Stockholm on Labor Day (link offensive). Of course, in Sweden that’d just be September 5 because they celebrate May Day.

Now those who have followed Dipnuts and family know he can’t afford to get to Stockholm so this is bogus, but if you are going to claim you are going to do it, have some clue about the stated nation’s holidays.

Dirtbag also shows us his pictures from the protests in East Peoria and Zion.