Katrina News of the Safely Removed
By Montag | Related entries in Environment, General Politics, Hurricane Katrina, The WorldThe news out of New Orleans is dismaying. The violence and unrest that seemed to erupt yesterday has escalated overnight. The situation is being described with words like “chaos” and “anarchy.” There were even reports of explosions along the waterfront this morning, cause unknown.
Here are a few links to some “other” Katrina stories.
Forbes.com: EU Members Offer to Release Oil Reserves — European Union members are making offers to provide oil to the United States from their strategic reserves . . . to offset shortages in the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Associated Press (AP): New Orleans Will Have to Dry Itself Out — Virtually everything worth keeping will have to be washed off, decontaminated and dried out. The city’s drinking water distribution system will need to be flushed out and disinfected, a process that could take weeks or even months.
AP: Diddy, Jay-Z, Cage donate to aid relief — Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jay-Z have pledged $1 million to the American Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. . . . The two rappers announced their joint donation Thursday, saying they hoped to inspire others, especially blacks, to give.
AP: Hastert Questions Rebuilding New Orleans — Hastert, in a transcript supplied by the suburban Chicago newspaper, said there was no question that the people of New Orleans would rebuild their city, but noted that federal insurance and other federal aid was involved. “We ought to take a second look at it. But you know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake fissures and they rebuild too. Stubbornness.”
Reuters: New bankruptcy law a problem for Katrina victims — “People who are seriously affected by this hurricane are not going to be able to file bankruptcy by October 17, [when The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act takes effect,]” said Henry Sommer, co-editor of “Collier on Bankruptcy,” a leading reference work. “They have more pressing things in their lives, like survival.”
Reuters: Bush faces new challenge amid flood of bad news — “This is a supreme test of Bush’s leadership at a time when resources are thin and his approval ratings are perilously low,” pollster John Zogby said.
Yes, in light of the horrific news of what is going on right now in the city, these stories almost seem like dispatches from faraway. (This is not, of course, to criticize charitable efforts, or consideration of the aftermath, or hurricane related political debate.)
It seems to me like the busses are not coming often enough for the scale of the evacuation. I would have like to have seen some of our leaders imploring nearby school systems, bus companies, and rental car companies to get as many busses and passenger vans on the road as possible with a promise to figure out a way to compensate them for their services later. But that’s just my view from faraway.
This entry was posted on Friday, September 2nd, 2005 and is filed under Environment, General Politics, Hurricane Katrina, The World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
