~For a long, long time, MR-GO have been the scariest four letters in St. Bernard Parish and parts of New Orleans. For decades, critics of the controversial Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, cut through the marsh and wetlands in the 1960s as a shipping shortcut from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico, blamed it for gobbling up thousands of acres of wetlands and cypress forest. They worried that the loss of that land made the area vulnerable to hurricane storm surges. And that was before Hurricane Katrina battered the MR-GO's levees and swamped St. Bernard Parish, eastern New Orleans and the lower 9th Ward.
'Katrina Resurrection'
~Kat Bergeron
The Moral Ambiguity of Looting
~Donald G. McNeil Jr.
More on Disaster Mythologizing: Natural Disasters, National Diligence: The Chilean Earthquake in Perspective ~Brookings Institute~The mistakes made, while not trivial, need also to be put into perspective. Perfection is wholly unrealistic in any crisis situation of this magnitude and complexity, where thousands of critical decisions and steps need to be taken in a coordinated fashion by many officials in disparate locations and in a very short period of time.
For instance, more serious blunders occurred during the U.S. response to 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Over 1,800 people died and tens of thousands were perilously stranded in their flooded homes, stadiums and convention centers for days. Looting, violence and disorder erupted and lasted nearly a week until 40,000 troops arrived belatedly to restore law and order.
Today the city has only about two-thirds its pre-Katrina population. This serious string of mishaps took place in a country with a generally effective government. Serious mistakes were made regarding the evaluation and maintenance of the old levees, the evacuation of citizens, availability of sufficient stocks of supplies before the hurricane, and in the coordination of rescue and recovery efforts in its aftermath.
Chile's Socialist Rebar
~Naomi Klein~According to Stephens, the radical free-market policies prescribed to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet by Milton Friedman and his infamous "Chicago Boys" are the reason Chile is a prosperous nation with "some of the world's strictest building codes."
There is one rather large problem with this theory: Chile's modern seismic building code, drafted to resist earthquakes, was adopted in 1972. That year is enormously significant because it was one year before Pinochet seized power in a bloody U.S-backed coup. That means that if one person deserves credit for the law, it is not Friedman, or Pinochet, but Salvador Allende, Chile's democratically elected socialist President. (In truth many Chileans deserve credit, since the laws were a response to a history of quakes, and the first law was adopted in the 1930s).
It does seem significant, however, that the law was enacted even in the midst of a crippling economic embargo ("make the economy scream" Richard Nixon famously growled after Allende won the 1970 elections). The code was later updated in the nineties, well after Pinochet and the Chicago Boys were finally out of power and democracy was restored.
Help Provide Missing Haiti Coverage~Plutonian Mac
Haiti and Chile: Singing strength
~Gender Across Borders
~Hat Tweet (H/Twt?;)~Charolette
Katrina-damaged Community Questions Lack of Recovery Money ~WGNO
FEMA reviews funding for Tulane library renovation ~Hullabaloo~FEMA announced Sept. 2 that they would give $16 million to the library. The funds come from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which aids state and local governments after major natural disasters. Through the program, Howard-Tilton has received $78 million since Katrina. The hurricane’s flooding caused eight feet of water to fill the library’s basement level, damaging mechanical equipment and library collections stored there.
~Editilla Lances local Katrina Shorthand Jive~
We'd like to point out that as long as people keep telling the Myth: Natural Disaster Katrina flooded New Orleans, as opposed to the Fact that the Corps of Engineers' Man-Made Disaster flooded the city 8/29/05, then who can blame FEMA for blowing Smoke Up Tulane's Ass over Recovery Funding? Well?
"Louisiana Purchase" was a necessary Medicaid fix, but media say it's "corrupt"
~Media Matters
~Media outlets are listing Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) efforts to insert funding for Louisiana in the Senate health care bill -- dubbed the "Louisiana Purchase" by conservatives -- as an example of Democrats' "corrupt" practices.
But the funds are urgently needed to fix the state's Medicaid problems, which are a result of Hurricane Katrina; moreover, many of the state's Republican lawmakers say the fix is necessary, despite criticizing Landrieu for securing it in the bill.
Mayors Want Federal Disaster Relief Laws Reformed
St. Mary, St. Martin parishes brace for high water
~Richard Burgess
Billboards air Levee District dispute~Nikki BuskyPlaquemines Parish is Ground Zero for "Hurricane Exploration" Oil Contracts.
Bad Science & Data=Corruption in La. & U.S. Government
~Creole Folks~"Sandy Rosenthal, the Head of Levees.Org, has basically become the Erin Brockovich of La. due to her endless fights with the forces of corruption and evil in La. state and Washington D.C."
More on Levees~Quinta Scott
Monsanto completes $200M New Orleans expansion
GO Zone housing tax-credit extension endorsed by U.S. Senate~Bruce Alpert
Strip mall that won taxpayer money faces code problems
~Karen Gadbos, The Lens
Orleans school employees fired after Katrina win victory in court ~WWL
Bros’ lawsuit claims Who Dat? ~Bill Lodge
Who Dat suing NFL Properties? And the New Orleans Saints? And the state of Louisiana? Who Dat? Who Dat? Inc. filed suit in federal district court in Baton Rouge, alleging that the defendants wrongly damaged the firm’s right to profit in the weeks leading to the Saints’ Super Bowl championship last month.
Ann Marie Vandenweghe speaks out. So the Times Picayune wants some answers and the truth. What an ugly truth it is ~slabbed
Mitch Landrieu and Ray Nagin weigh in on investigations of New Orleans police
~Frank Donze
Coming up in Gambit: Stuck on the Causeway overpass with you edition
'Sailing' to lead locals against Rachel~Abram Himelstein
At this year's New Orleans Home and Garden Show, a more modern take on green building
~Molly Reid
Preserving the Louisiana heritage strawberry
~Katie van Syckle
Tennessee Williams Literary Festival~Bunny Gumbo's Blog
La. officials to seek business at Austin film, music festival
~Gary Perilloux
Can You Name 5 Female Artists? ~NOLAFemmes
VIP Ladies and Kids Second Line Parade Sunday 12-4pm
~Red Cotton, Gambit
Thanks to our friend debheybud at LCN TV
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