Samedi

An aerial photograph shows flooded area of downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa, June 13, 2008. Interstate I-380 can be seen in the center. Floodwaters inundated about 100 city blocks of Cedar Rapids, Iowa's second-largest city. It has a population of 200,000.
Photo: Ron Mayland/Reuters

Floods swamp Iowa town; Drinking water near gone

"We're just kind of at God's mercy right now, so hopefully people that never prayed before this, it might be a good time to start," Linn County Sheriff Don Zeller said. "We're going to need a lot of prayers and people are going to need a lot of patience and understanding."

Editilla gotta ax~Pastor Hagee?
Can I get a witness?
Om Ah Hum Hri Om Mani Padme Hum
Editilla must thank Gentle'rillas for their support and encouragement in this Ladder's coverage of the flooding upstream. For me attention to rising water whereva remains an ineluctable no'brainer, especially in light of the New Orleans News Ladder's raison d'être...to wit: what is the very last thing one might need in a flood?
I am very gratified as well in the attention and actualization paid to this National Disaster by the Nola blogger community, given many many of the citizens now now running from floodwaters upstream across the heart of our country have themselves been traveling back and forth to New Orleans to help with The Recovery of our City over the past three years. As we all had to run for our own lives, we know what it means.
Editilla also fervently hopes that this points a big middle finger at the US Army Corps of Engineers and their larger national flood control infrastructure management failures.






People were not the only creatures in need of rescue.
Cedar Rapids fire- fighter, Jeremy Wagner, saves a cat from a flooded home. Photo: Scott Olson-Getty Images



~USGS Gauge readings:
-Cedar River at Cedar Rapids, IA
-Des Moines River near Saylorville, IA

Des Moines under mandatory evacuation as levees breach
~The 100-foot-wide breach occurred about 3:45 a.m. in the city's Birdland Park area. It was spotted by people assigned to walk the levy, looking for problems.
"We have a pretty strong gush of water coming through that area," said Des Moines police Sgt. Vince Valdez.
UPDATE~ 2nd levee breached; 'total evacuation' necessary
~Des Moines Fire Capt. Tony Merrill said all emergency workers and city crews have moved out of the area around the Second Avenue breach, headed east, and that some people in the overrun area had to be forcible evacuated.
"We're on Plan B and a half," he said. "That one breach put an entire different spin on the situation." He did not know how many people resisted or whether they faced arrest. "If we can't be there, and we're emergency responders, then the public shouldn't be there either," he said

Water moved quickly after Saturday's levee breach

Des Moines: Corps plans to assess strength of taxed levee system today
Editilla screams~~Little Late There, Sparky! --Welcome to the goddamned party!
Guess this calls for another one of y'alls vaunted "Peer Reviews"?
Can we get a wit'nassss?
This photo shows the levee breach near Kiwanis River- view Nature Island, due west of New York Avenue in Des Moines, on Saturday morning.
Photo~Todd Erzen - The Register

Iowa City racing against time, water~U of I campus sand-bagging:
'This is our last effort'
Volunteers build a sandbag wall in front of the U of I’s Lindquist Center on Friday. By Friday afternoon, 19 university buildings were either taking on water or in danger of flooding.
Photo: Dave Schwarz- Special to the Register

Heroic story of books
In all the statewide stories of heroism, it would be hard to find more passion than in the snaking line going up the steps of the Main Library at the University of Iowa on the banks of the flooding Iowa River. Hand over hand; all man's ideas were handed.
Philosophy and theatre, science and religion.
Books rising from the basement to a higher level.
A student handed to a professor to a fresh-faced child.
This is Iowa City, after all, where thinking and literature are in the very blood, no less important than a homeowner's prized possession or a building's boiler.

500-year flood physically dividing Iowa City

Iowa City: Water filling Old Art Building, Art Building West

Coralville officials focus on Iowa River Landing development
-Iowa River below Coralville damn

Columbus Junction levee faces 'catastrophic failure'

Louisa County battles floodwaters; Louisa sheriff issues stern warning: Stay off Highway 99; Mandatory evacuation order issued in Oakville; Residents have until Monday

WAVCIS ~Wave-Current-Surge
Information System for Coastal Louisiana
Note~ Gentle'rillas can use these interactive sites together to study the flooding in any state: zoom WAVICS sat'view out and "curser" the Map up the Mississippi River to Indiana and Illinois and then zoom'click back down to follow the smaller rivers like the Ohio and the Iowa.
This is active data. I use the USGS maps to get oriented to the states and their flood gauges due to the lack of boundries of the sat'view. I also look up State Maps.

USGS~Flood Stage Levels current 'real-time' guage readings

FEMA Coordinating Federal Response to Midwest Storms

Upper Midwest flooding forces evacuations

The Midwest Flood~How to Make Donations To Help Flood Victims

Help Flood Victims - Donate to Hoosier Flood Relief

Flood relief - How to help
~Agencies accepting donations for their efforts to help victims of flooding in southern Wisconsin

Poseidon's Rage

U.S. Senators ask governor for early disaster declaration
~U.S. Senator Dick Durbin says he and fellow Senator Barack Obama have asked Governor Rod Blagojevich to make an early disaster declaration for the West-Central Illinois counties

Deere Says Flood Waters Have Had No Impact on Tractor Production

Flood damage reports from around Indiana

Gays Mills, WI officials ponder relocating town after flooding

Flooding problems persist for Wisconsin, even with no rain

Floods send corn, ethanol soaring~Editilla gotta ax'yaz~Have we traded in one Evil Landlord for another Evil Landlord? It is getting hard to tell the Forking Ice Hole Devils apart.

Flooding from a weather rut of clashing air masses
Hot sticky air hovers on the East Coast. Cool air is parked in the West. And when they repeatedly collide, it storms over an already saturated Iowa. This has been the stuck weather pattern for weeks and it's led to tornadoes, thunderstorms, heavy rain and eventually record flooding. Add to that La Nina in the Pacific Ocean, which some meteorologists think could be a factor. La Nina, which is the cooler side of El Nino, causes changes around the world, including more rain and snow in some of the Midwest. Even though La Nina itself is falling apart, its effects may still be felt in Iowa and Wisconsin.

Iowa Flood...
the “Katrina of the Midwest”
~Talk Radio News Service
Editilla has been waiting for this shoe to drop.
Dig the source and comments--and please do
let'em know we care, eh? Slooowly I turn...
But I would like to know what sort of context we have here now with this latest absolute National Disaster right before our lyin'eyes?

New Orleans on the Prairie
~The Beginning

Flooding leaves 20,000 homeless in Iowa city
~"This is our version of Katrina," Johnson County Emergency Management spokesman Mike Sullivan said. "This is the worst flooding we've ever seen -- much worse than 1993," when much of the Midwest was hit by record flooding.

Boy Scouts Save Iowa
~Toulouse Street~"No one should be surprised that this sort of fuckmookery has crawled out from beneath the rocks where it lives?"

Don't play politics with hurricane victims

DOD report clears Quixotic Corps in faulty pumps case

Corps of Engineers protects NOLA with duct tape, rope, and rusty pipes~Matt McBride

Announcing the New Orleans Rebirth Volunteer Center
~Le Flambeau

Celebrate the Return of the St. Charles Streetcar

Book Review: From Deep Within The Earth: Book One Of The Eternal Vigilance Series By Gabrielle Faust~Leap Inn The Dark

On the menu in New Orleans: Museum for Southern cuisine, SoFAB

Vendredi

'Uncharted territory' as city floods in Iowa~Hospitals in Cedar Rapids evacuated as river continues to rise as downtown was submerged Thursday by the rising Cedar River. Around 100 blocks were under water, forcing some 10,000 people to flee. Photo~Steve Pope / AP
Cedar Rapids struggles to endure historic flood~The Cedar River poured over its banks here Thursday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 homes, causing a railroad bridge to collapse and leaving cars underwater on downtown streets. Those train cars were filled with tons of sand and gravel in the hopes of weighting down the bridge enough to withstand the raging current. Photo~Cliff Jette/The Gazette
REUTERS
Ron Mayland->
House boats from the Ellis Marina on the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids lie jammed and destroyed against the Quaker Oats railroad bridge after breaking free from their moorings in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa



1,200 turnout to help save Cedar Rapids water supply
~USGS Gauge readings:
-Cedar River at Cedar Rapids, IA
-Iowa River below Coralville damn
-Des Moines River near Saylorville, IA



UPDATE
~Iowa State Capital Evacutating

Iowa legislative panel creates flood study panel

Iowa flood evacuations rise, losses seen in billions


Soggy Austin, MN pushes back; more thunderstorms to the north
Joel Luker, left, of the Salvation Army and Dick Hinton waded through floodwaters Thursday with sand bags to shore up the makeshift defenses around the Salvation Army headquarters in Austin, Minn. The race against the rising water turned into a community effort.
Photo~Richard Sennott, Star Tribune

Residents Around Wisconsin Start Flood Cleanup Efforts

Flooding major concern in Nebraska

Stephenson Co. Illinois Flooding

Missouri communities prepare for river crests

Missouri Scout camps prepared for hazardous weather
WAVCIS~Wave-Current-Surge
Information System for Coastal Louisiana
Note~ Gentle'rillas can use these interactive sites together to study the flooding in any state: zoom WAVICS sat'view out and "curser" the Map up the Mississippi River to Indiana and Illinois and then zoom'click back down to follow the smaller rivers like the Ohio and the Iowa.
This is active data. I use the USGS maps to get oriented to the states and their flood gauges due to the lack of boundries of the sat'view. I also look up State Maps.
USGS~Flood Stage Levels current 'real-time' guage readings

Had enough yet, America? Didn't think so...

Bad news travels downriver fast
HANNIBAL, Mo. — Here along the banks of the Mississippi River, people are braced for the worst flooding in 15 years as severe storms and major floods batter states farther north.

Communities along the river work to secure water supplies

Midwest floods expose aging, weak protection~Years of neglect of dams, levees put many folks at risk

Corn surges to record for 6th day as Midwest rains flood more crops; crude up slightly

After the storm in Burma
Landing in Rangoon in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the Human Rights Center's Eric Stover witnessed the impacts firsthand — and now warns of a 'second wave'

The Sisters Told State Farm — What did State Farm Do? ~slabbed

Louisiana House Committee Passes Bill That Would Shift Hospital Funds From New Orleans to Other Regions

Elevation grants set to start flowing

Legislative pay is session hot potato

The pay raise that will try Louisiana's soul
~Your Right Hand Thief

How dysfunctional can things get?~Thanks Katrina
Editilla gotta tol'yaz~I tapped a general link address here, so that everyone might fang down through this blogger's posts to get to the lede. Why? Because JudyB has refined the standard of "Scuzzbucket" to the gimpth degree and included class pictures and emails of the perps.
As she is too much of a Lady with Manners to call them Fuckmooks, Gentle'rillas know, yer oh'so humble Editilla gatz noooo gumption fo'da assssumption.
You Geaux Mz. JudyB! You Editillero!

Lottery? Crap Shoot? Just Shoot Me?~Liptrap's Lament - The Line

On the one hand, I count myself very lucky to have gotten the little guy into a good school.
On the other hand, any parent who has a smidgen of empathy for what other families are going through knows that things could be otherwise.

David Simon pays tribute to 'Wire' fan Ashley Morris
~Shawn Malayter of DePaul’s media relations office said that Simon got in touch with the university after hearing of Morris’ passing, and expressed a desire to speak at the ceremony. Simon had reluctantly turned down the offer to speak when it was originally made several months ago, because he was supposed to be in London editing his new miniseries, “Generation Kill,” which debuts on HBO July 13. But he felt compelled to honor Morris’ memory and their friendship, even though the two men had never met in person.

“So I never got to know him. And that is my loss. And on some weird level, I owe him a trip to Chicago and a morning spent in a funny hat and gown.”
-David Simon

Bluegreen Corporation Enters New Orleans Vacation Ownership Market

Audubon Insectarium Opens in New Orleans
Editilla jus'axin~What is the Audubon Institute doing getting involved in the parentage of the NO City Council...what? OH'D'OH! Incects...Got it. Cool!

Driving me out of my mind
~New Orleans Daily Photo

Weekly Photo Challenge: Tawdry
~Bigezbear
~I Just Want To Be A Tugboat Captain

New Orleans Cooking School - Gumbo, Jambalaya,
Bread Pudding and Pralines
~Menu In Progress

A New Orleans Vieux-To-Do
Celebrating Tomatoes, Seafood
and Zydeco
~Schedule Here ~WWOZ to broadcast live from the French Quarters!

Crab-Stuffed Creole Tomatoes
1 tbs Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Salt or to taste
1/8 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Dried Tarragon
1/4 c Mayonnaise
1/2 ts Fresh Lemon Juice
5 -7 Fresh Louisiana Crab Meat
5 - 6 steamed Asparagus Cut into 1/2-inch Pieces
2 Hard-boiled Eggs, chopped
1/2 c Cooked Peas
8 lg Creole Tomatoes
Washed Lettuce and Parsley for garnish.
In a mixing bowl, toss together the crab meat, asparagus, eggs, peas, olive oil, salt, pepper, tarragon, mayonnaise, and lemon juice. Blend lightly, then refrigerate to chill.
Cut a thin slice from the top of each tomato and hollow out the center, leaving a firm shell to hold the salad filling. You can save the tomato pulp for another recipe. Sprinkle the insides of the tomatoes with a dash of salt, and turn them upside down on paper towels to drain. Refrigerate the tomatoes until serving time. When you’re ready for the salad, simply fill each tomato shell with about a half cup of the crab mixture. Set each tomato on a few lettuce leaves and add a sprig of fresh parsley.

A Tribute to my Orisha
~American Zombie

Ingrid Lucia & The Flying Neutrinos

Friday Cheers Gets Dirty...
NOLA's dirtiest brass visits the Old Dominion

Daddy Would Be So Proud ~Toulouse Street

Jeudi

Storm systems are seen over the central United States in this satellite image taken June 12th ~Reuters - NOAA

4 dead, 40 hurt as tornado slams into Iowa Boy Scout camp

Scouts in Tornado Help Save Lives

Iowa Flood - News Updates from Cedar Falls

Iowa City empowers mayor to order evacuations
~USGS Gage Readings:
Iowa River below Coralville damn

Update: Riverside properties 'at high risk' in Des Moines
~USGS Guage Readings:
Des Moines River near Saylorville, IA


Members of the National Guard, in almost waist-deep floodwater, sandbag a sewage pumping station as water from the Cedar River continues to rise Wednesday June 11, 2008 in Vinton, Iowa. Flood waters have inundated the electric plant in Vinton and the entire city is now without power. Officials are preparing for the Cedar River to crest at record levels all across the state. AP Photo/Steve Pope

Flood prep continues in Davenport

To give you a visual....
~Stay Young Stay Foolish

Indiana flooding spreads as crest moves downstream

Overtopped levee in Daviess Co. forces evacuation~A high-tech aircraft used to photograph illegal drug operations will cruise across Indiana skies today to survey the damage caused by the recent floods.

Dozens of Illinois Homes Flooded; Weather Pressures Corn Prices

Midwest flooding could push prices of food higher

Flood-threatened Midwest could get more rain

Heavy rains cause flooding across SE Minnesota

Missouri River flooding

Flooding to close 9 locks on Mississippi River~Locks locations here

Mississippi River towns continue to ready for flood

WAVCIS~Wave-Current-Surge
Information System for Coastal Louisiana
Note~ Gentle'rillas can use these interactive sites together to study the flooding in any state: zoom WAVICS sat'view out and "curser" the Map up the Mississippi River to Indiana and Illinois and then zoom'click back down to follow the smaller rivers like the Ohio and the Iowa.
This is active data. I use the USGS maps to get oriented to the states and their flood gauges due to the lack of boundries of the sat'view. I also look up State Maps.
USGS~Flood Stage Levels current 'real-time' guage readings


Village didn't participate in national flood insurance program

FEMA gives away Katrina donations

MS: FEMA’s Rebuilding Cheif Visits Coast
~Gulf South Free Press
Editilla jus'axin~Somebody gonna hand this good O'Boy O'Dell a Big'O Pie--In His Face'O? Hmmm?
Creme O'Terra?

McCain Evoking Frozen Comfort Food~We Could Be Famous

Eating Crow~Polly Jackson~Acrylic on canvas,
30 x 42"~painted 2nd week of Federal Flood 2005
Editilla gotta tol'yaz~Gentle'rillas know that at times like these, words just don't always get it.
Sometimes we need Fine Artists to Get It!
The Ladder Thanks this Artist for sending us their work.

Bobby Jindal: Worse Than Katrina?~firedoglake

New Orleans mayor,
Ray Nagin-aka: "Baby'Head, Egg'Head, Butt'Head, Dew'Ball, Chocolate Don, Candy Man, Bakin, Beavous, Stupido, Sparky, Scat4brain, Ludicrux...Punk" -eats out on taxpayers' dime

Nagin administration undertips New Orleans servers
~Your Right Hand Thief

Post-Katrina housing Web site flooded by foreclosure crowd

Port of New Orleans discusses sale of Industrial Canal land

State of Louisiana Launches Rebuilding Registry through the Road Home
~Militant Moderate Musings

La. Senate OKs school vouchers for New Orleans

Liprap's Lament - The Line

Mitzvah to Mississippi
~Pioneer Press

New Orleans Creamed Spinach
~Oakmont Farmers Market

Penn faculty contributes to New Orleans reconstruction effort

Day 29 - Hunger strike suspended after huge political gains

Best Drinks In New Orleans
~Chowhound
Editilla gotta Milk Punch~This is really funny because that lede showed up today in one of my search engines, as now news, but the initial post was actually from July 17th of 2007...errrrah, meaning that nearly a year later Nolaholics are still leaving recommendations in the Comments Box! Ya'gotta love'em!
That is definitely why I love Chowhound.

Thank you, Bigezbear...You Photollero!

Oh, ick~Chasing Ray
Editilla icks, ticks and flicks Oh'My~Meghan McCain, daughter of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, is trying her hand at being a children's author?

New Orleans native and author Karen Essex makes her mark on historical fiction

Green Zone New Orleans [Antenna Gallery]

Friends of New Orleans and Swampland.com Join Together!

Blue Crescent Age~AnimaMundi

Battle of the Bands (or Dr. White Reconsidered)~Toulouse Street

Mercredi

Coralville reservoir dam.
Iowa City~Reservoir goes over Coralville spillway~Flood waters went over the spillway at the Coralville Reservoir about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night.
As the water goes over, the uncontrolled waters from the reservoir will reach the Burlington Street bridge in Iowa City about three hours later.
~USGS Gage Readings:
Iowa River below Coralville damn
~Excellent Flood Map Mash'ups here.

Corps loses Coralville Lake control
Water pours over the emergency spillway Tuesday, June 10, 2008 near Iowa City.
According to the Quixotic Corps of Engineers the water officially topped the spillway at 8:30 p.m.
Photo: Brian Ray/The Gazette

~UPDATE -- 5:40 PM~The Iowa River Power Dam Pedestrian Bridge, connecting Iowa City and Coralville and a popular flooding sightseeing spot, is closed now. That is among the latest news as the Iowa City-Coralville area goes through the long wait -- which could be a week at least now -- before water hits a record level on the Iowa River and produces a 500-year flood.
This article's link is continuously updated.

Editilla gotta cry~Everyone please get out their prayer cards and get on the horn to da'sweet Goddess, Mother of Mary or whoever the Hell we can call from the Valley of the Shadow of Death and send them to Iowa right now...and Indiana, and Illinois, and Wisconsin, and Ohio, and Missouri.
Tad-ya-ta: Om Bhai-sha-jye Bhai-sha-jye Maha Bhai-sha-jye Ra-ja Sa-mud-ga-te Sva-ha
~Om Ah Hum Hri Om Mani Padme Hum

Des Moines ~Water now flowing from Saylorville spillway
~USGS Guage Readings:
Des Moines River near Saylorville, IA
About 566 million gallons of water are pouring out of the reservoir each hour now into the Des Moines River. That number is expected to jump to more than a billion gallons of water per hour as the flood gate is lowered.

UPDATE~Saylorville surge seen producing more water, less damage downtown~Water had flown completely over the emergency spillway at Saylorville Dam and over the road by 4 a.m Wednesday. Photo: Eric Rowley/The Register
UPDATE~Downtown Des Moines residents should be ready to go~the situation is worse than was announced at the press conference this morning, official says. There was water in the street on both the east and west sides of the river downtown as manholes begin to lift off the street. The Saylorville Lake reservoir also is expected to peak a bit higher than before at 891.26 feet. The top of the spillway is 884 feet.

WAVCIS~Wave-Current-Surge
Information System for Coastal Louisiana
Note~ Gentle'rillas can use these interactive sites together fo'da sights: zoom WAVICS sat'view out and "curser" the Map up the Mississippi River to Indiana and Illinois and then zoom'click back down to follow the smaller rivers like the Ohio and the Iowa.
This is active data. I use the USGS maps to get oriented to the states and their flood gauges due to the lack of boundries of the sat'view. I also look up State Maps.
USGS~Flood Stage Levels current 'real-time' guage readings

Wisconsin checks other dams for flood damage
This photo courtesy Joseph Leute, shows an aerial of flooding in Lake Delton, Wisc. on Monday June 9, 2008. A Corps of Engineers-built embankment forming the side of the man-made Lake Delton failed pouring water out into the nearby Wisconsin River.
The 245-acre X 5 foot deep lake emptied, sweeping away three homes and tearing apart two others.

An aerial view shows homes flooded near Lawrenceville, Ill., after a Corps of Engineers-built levee break along the Wabash River Tuesday, June 10, 2008, in eastern Illinois near the Indiana border. (AP Photo/Mark Carlson)

This aerial photo from video released by Brent Perrott, Lawrence Co. Emergency Management Agency, shows a Corps of Engineers-built levee break along the Embarras River near the Indiana line in southern Illinois Tuesday, June 10, 2008.
Officials say levee breaks in the area are forcing some evacuations, and the flooded area so far is mostly farmland and prairie.
(AP Photo/courtesy Brent Perrott, Lawrence Co. Emergency Management Agency)

Viola, Wisconsin is seen mostly underwater Monday June 9, 2008.
A Corps of Engineers-built earthen dam along a man-made lake gave way Monday, unleashing a powerful current that ripped several homes off their foundations and down the Wisconsin River.
(AP Photo/Wisconsin State Journal, Steve Apps)

Editilla truly humbly asks...
HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH YET, AMERICA?
The Quixotic Corps' Malfeasant Engineering
is obviously NOT merely a New Orleans problem--as we have been telling the nation over the past 3 years.
Please do not allow the Corps public relations spokespeople to spin these catastrophic levee failures as simply the result of Mother Nature, as they tried to do in yesterday's Wired Magazine and New Orleans' own Gambit weekly.
(Duly dusted by yer ever arrant, vigilant Editilla)
The Corps employs highly paid Public Relations firms, like the ASCE, to place these articles in media across the country. Flood control failures do not happen over night, but take decades of hard myopia, dedicated corruption and damn'near Sisyphean mismanagement to fuck up this badly across the entire country!
The Corps of Engineers knows their levees will fail. Hence, they have deployed an army of public relations spokes'hos to do the advance work, set-up the Marks.
The Corps structures across the entire country were built by the same people who built our levees in New Orleans, and the same people who stuffed newspaper in those levees to repair them after their historic failure in August of 2005. The same people whose levee "repairs" are leaking all over our city now.
Is it not high time to replace these criminally insane incompetent bastards?
Please demand the 8/29 Commission!

Source Asks "What is the Real Water Policy of the United States?"~Georianne Nienaber
~This journalist Gets It! Take that, Axman!
Editilla ssschin'schillas~Oh! Blessed Fortuna!
As Gentle'rillas are well aware from climbing this Ladder, Goddess takes care of Fools and Arrant Troubadours. But, such a nod as this is more than even poor Ignacius could have hoped on the long road'ho, the back hand path to écrasez l'infâme!
Now it's started, the game is a'foot...
(and in my mouf!:)...T'anks Grrrrrrl! Purple Prose?
I prefer to think of these Tilla'Rants as more like bloody graffiti in the spirit of NOLA Rising on the face of the Gray Ghost of the Great Nothing.
That'jus me'doh'in though, Whoa SHIIINOLA!

The Great Unknown Known ~Citizen K
Editilla O'rillappreciates-
T'anks K, fo'da hat tip here. But really, you lay far too nicely on my deep fondness and affection fo'da Don'Punky Rummy Rumesfield.
Gentle'rillas may well figure how I just love the man like a chigger! We go way back, Punky'n'Editilla.
Why I remember the first time I spotted His Hinnyess That Dashin Ass'Assin when he tried to brake-line at the gates of Hell. Oh yeah...Rummy was going to get there first with front row tickets for The Dark Lord --and just screw everybody else who'd been waiting in there for ever...or at least since 8/29/05
...but, Who In Hell Is Counting Time ???
His point is well taken though: the failure of the Corps-built levee system and subsequent Federal flooding of New Orleans ain't just about New Orleans and the bridge failure in Minnesota ain't just about a bunch of betrayed Lutherans...and the failure of all infrastructure across the country ain't just about the gullibility of the American Tax'Payer. All of this has one thing in common. Would Gentle'rillas care to venture a guess? Wanna'go where yer Editilla fears not to tread?

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
Bob Dylan

Welcome To The Ground War
~Chip Collins

Katrina Meets Kucinich
~David Swanson

Article of Impeachment--Katrina
~First Draft
~Editilla just can't get enough of this real'food. Thanks Scout Prime! Hell, I could easily fill this Ladder with nothing but posts on this valiant and courageous legislation, but unfortunately the entire heart of the country is flooding right this very minute due to the failure of Corps of Engineering structures in at least 3 states. But then again...that is the point, eh?

FEMA: Buttheads, Bureaucrats or Just Plain Ol’ Beavis?~slabbed

"I had a group of Russians approach me two years ago through David Vitter" ~Also, TPM "discovers" Jindal's exorcism essay
~Your Right Hand Thief

and I’m not even Catholic
~Kiss My Gumbo

Chris Rose: In the dead of summer, New Orleans parties on

Avocado Mayonnaise
~Serious Eats
No, Avocado Mayonnaise is not the name of a whole'food new age punk rock band--though it sounds like almost as much fun, eh? And if that don't git'tcha then scoot over to their Ice Cream section.
New Yorkers...FORKIN-A!

CDS / Honickman First Book Prize Competition
~New Orleans Photo Alliance

Repair is the Dream of the Broken Thing~Nick Jaina

The Blues Legacy: ‘Lost & Found’ Series~Black Grooves
Link works now with my apologies to the Grooves. D'OH!

Local musicians launch free music education program

OZ Weather Alert~It is now time to mover your cars to the Neutral Ground~Only in New Orleans...Jeez Louie!

Mardi

Scientists Think Like a Hurricane to Beat the Next Katrina~Wired loses mind, goes e pablum unum

There were some surprising revelations in the course of the task force's investigation … some of which helped explain why Katrina had taken so many people by surprise. For one, Link's team found that the existing elevation maps of New Orleans were way off and would have to be totally redrawn. "We found things two feet below where people though they were," Link said. Obviously that made the city more vulnerable to flooding.
Also, in tightening up and rewriting the old mathematical models, the task force gained a clearer understanding of the limitations of modern science. "There's a lot we just don't know," Resio told Wired.com. But, as former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once said, there are "unknown unknowns," which are bad, and there are "known unknowns," which are somewhat better. Finally the hurricane task force knew the basic outline of what it didn't know.

To combat public ignorance and complacency, Resio's team includes "risk communicators" -- basically, PR reps for hurricanes. Ironically, the high-tech storm models and sophisticated maps that the risk communicators rely on might actually undermine their work, according to one academic who has studied storms.
Courtesy Army Corps of Engineers,
building a better mouse trap for America's future...mice?

Editilla blows a 50amp fuse,
slams brain in a car door~
Wired? Donald Rumesfield? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Katrina took so many people by surprise?
What the HELL is a Risk Communicator!?!
Come on Goddamn'it! Katrina surprised No One!
70 million'bazzillion'googol people knew that Katrina was coming. Who the hell are they talking about?
What no one knew was that those levees would fail --despite Katrina passing the city a severely weakened storm. What surprised everyone, except the Quixotic Corps of Engineers, is that they had built the levees incorrectly from the begining. They knew the levees were substandard because they built them that way.
Who in Hell does not know this?
They admitted such in Federal Court.
OH! Forking IceHole Don Rummy. You have fallen to quoting Don Rumesfield. Judas Priest! Just shoot me.
Hold On! I'm comin Elizabeth!
How do they time these articles?
What is the Corps Spin'trix setting up, hmmm?
What the hell is going on?
Flooding and the Failure of Corps of Engineers structures across the country: THAT is what is going on.
Their works are falling apart before our own lyin'eyes.
But, Wired? Who'da t'ought? I can sorta see Wired going for all the huge tech gadgetry, but what's the frequency, Ken? This is worse than finding out that Shania Twain is a Marc X Android Replicant. She is, ya'know.
I was a'tad surprised to find such Corps Ass Buff in the Gambit (tilla'd below) but to find such clop'cycled horse shit from a mag like Wired is what has really clogged my bowl. Has da'woild...truly gone to Mall in a hand'basket?
Yer oh'so humble Editilla has already left Wired 3 comments but we'd really love a hand here.
If you don't agree then fine, but how can anyone miss a bucket full of screaming monkeys...
--let alone 4 leaks in front of their brand new
17th Street Canal Levee "Repair"?
If Gentle'rillas do agree then...
Please Do let'em know we care!

Perhaps the Wired should hire David Winkler-Schmit form Gambit Weekly to do their pos'spin pieces about Acceptable Risks. This article today has more seepage than the 17th Street Canal Levee Repair Leaks! I don't mind going over and over and over an issue but this is ridiculous pablum that I have already waded through in recent posts, and so, to address such formulaic testimonial as journalism would be akin to sticking my tongue in a light socket again!
Where do they get these guys and why?
As ill, I am getting tired of people like Today's Spokes'ho, one Lt. Col. Murray Starkel, deputy commander of the Corps' New Orleans District, not showing up here,
but are able with near'mystical lobbitry to somehow get their name in the Gambit as The Word. I keep up pretty closely with the Corps and he is the 7th spokesperson in the past two weeks that they have shoveled onto the media. Like so many blind hunting dogs, this pack of spin'lackeys are Pretty and Loud--but they got no eyes! Or engineering licenses?
Gentle'rillas shall read this puff'duff article and ask, where is the Contradicting Engineering Report to the ASCE/IPET CORPS ASSBUFF?
Where is Levees.org or any mention of an 8/29 Commission?

Flash floods inundate Wis. town for 2nd time~Huff Post








In Wisconsin, an embankment (Corps-built dam) forming the side of the man-made Lake Delton
(upper left of sat-photo) failed, and the water poured out into the nearby Wisconsin River. The 245-acre lake nearly emptied, washing out part of a highway, sweeping away three homes and tearing apart two others. (Portage, WI-down stream center'right)
"It's horrible. There's no way we could stop it," said Thomas Diehl, a Lake Delton village trustee. "The breach is between 300 and 400 feet wide. The volume (of water) was just so great there wasn't anything anyone could do."
UPDATE on Lake Delton disappearing.

WAVICS~Wave-Current-Surge
Information System for Coastal Louisiana
Note~ Gentle'rillas can use these interactive sites together fo'da sights: zoom WAVICS sat'view out and "curser" the Map up the Mississippi River to Indiana and Illinois and then zoom'click back down to follow the smaller rivers like the Ohio and the Iowa.
This is active data. I use the USGS maps to get oriented to the states and their flood gages due to the lack of boundries of the sat'view. I also look up State Maps.
USGS~Flood Stage Levels current 'real-time' guage readings

Iowa Flood study never done, Corps said not funded~and pay no attention to your failing flood control structures the Corps has already built.
Editilla has a message for Iowa:
If the Corps' mouth moves---bag it!
This is not about PAST/FUTURE FUNDING!
This is not about the Corps building a better mouse trap to lure us back home so they can flood us again.
This is about already built, already tax-payer funded, flood control structures that are failing before our very eyes--like the LEAKING new repair job they did on our own breach in the 17th Street Canal Levee and unfortunately like the Lake Delton dam yesterday in Wisconsin, posted above. And it would be criminally foolish to da'gimpth degree to assume that the Quixotic Corps built only New Orleans levees substandard --while their equally designed and built flood control structures seem to be failing in Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, California, Alabama, Florida...ETC. This is about the Corps levees failing all over the country. This is about convening the 8/29 Commission.

Updated forecast: Waters could go over tomorrow morning
It now appears that the Coralville Reservoir could go over the spillway about mid-morning tomorrow. The latest forecast from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows that sometime between 8 and 10 a.m. tomorrow, the water level at the reservoir will go above 712 feet above sea level, which will start to send water over the dam. More than 1 million sandbags have been placed around the county. Volunteers are now needed most at James St. in Coralville, the Idyllwild subdivision off of Foster Road and Dubuque Street in Iowa City and at Normandy Drive in Iowa City.
~Gage Readings: Iowa River below Coralville damn~Excellent Flood Map Mash'ups here.


Floodwaters exceed the banks of the Iowa River along Dubuque Street in Iowa City Tuesday June 10, 2008. Mayflower residence hall can be seen at the lower right and Interstate 80 is at the top of the photo.
Photo: Ron Mayland
~More photos here.



Key events surrounding the flood of 1993

Flooding To Force Closing Of Mississippi River

Shutting down Mississippi River could cause big economic ripple effect

U.S. Midwest cleans up after flooding as East Coast swelters

Levee Of Lies~Citizen K
"That levee of lies couldn't hold back the truth."~Sonny Landreth,
from "Blue Tarp Blues"

Flood waters rise around the businesses at the Pilot Truck stop, Saturday, June 7, 2008 in Indianapolis. Severe storms flooded central Indiana with as much as 10 inches of rain Saturday and spawned tornadoes that ripped up roofs and flipped tractor-trailers in Wisconsin and the Chicago suburbs. (AP / The Indianapolis Star, Matt Kryger) Story here

Big picture: Storms rip through Central Indiana

McCSAME: When The Levees Broke~Phawker
~McCain Voted Twice Against Establishing A Commission To Study The Response To Hurricane Katrina. McCain voted twice against establishing a Congressional commission to examine Federal, State, and local response to devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. Gulf Region; and making immediate corrective measures to improve future responses.
2006 Senate Vote #6, 2/2/2006-2005 Senate Vote #229, 9/14/2005 McPoster Hat Tip-CenLamar

Web Applications and New Orleans, Congress, and Genocide
Excellent video presentation of conference with our own Alan Gutierrez (#09) on GSI Mapping Platforms for grass'roots citizens' data recording, organization and presentation. Power to da'People Right On, Alex!

Video: Live at An Event Apart New Orleans, Eric Meyer on Generated Content

"I got an idea of something we can do with a gun"
~Your Right Hand Thief

Kucinich Moves to Impeach Bush~Existentialist Cowboy

Taylor blasts FEMA~'Buttheads,' he says of no-ice plan

New Orleans Mayor,
Ray "Baby'Head" Nagin, loses
2 more rats from sinking ship

Students found New Orleans mission a rewarding one

Call to Photographers: "Elemental/Environmental: SPACE" at New Orleans Photo Alliance

Kalamu ya Salaam

Press Street, Rebuilding Together Call for Submissions for Book on New Orleans Recovery

Lil Wayne's New Album And Upcoming Film Focus On His Hometown, New Orleans
~For now, Lil Wayne doesn't have aspirations to be a full-time actor, but he definitely was happy to score a role in the new film "Hurricane Season." The movie centers on a New Orleans high school basketball team called the Patriots in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

John Ellis: Wide Angle ~all about Jazz

Jazz Saxophonist Kidd Stays In the Picture

Jazz Festival Brings Music and Memories to Toledo Waterfront
~For the eighth year in a row, the Art Tatum Jazz Heritage Festival will bring the sound and feel of New Orleans jazz to the streets and waterfront of downtown Toledo. Musicians ranging from local jazz orchestras to national headliners like the Ellis Marsallis Quartet will perform for packed audiences of up to 10,000 people at Promenade Park during the three-day festival organized by The Toledo Jazz Society.