FEMA
In addition to turning away trained first responders at gunpoint, FEMA decided to throw out all the band instruments at McDonogh 15 School for the Creative Arts in the French Quarter. Did the school flood? No. Not a drop, but some “mold” was detected on a few of the instruments so out they went. (Cleaning them with bleach would fixed the problem.)........Everyone knows that FEMA knowingly kept thousands of people in trailers contaminated with formaldehyde before they admitted to the problem.
Now it’s been discovered that that just wasn’t enough, so the good folks at FEMA added an extra twist to the trailer scandal.
Used trailers returned to the criminal enterprise (also known as a government agency) were sold to the public. The funds were to be used - 100% of them - to purchase additional emergency housing.
A 2006 Congressional investigation found that the criminal enterprise invested taxpayer dollars in emergency supplies like iPods, beer-making equipment (OK, that could be a legitimate emergency) and designer jackets. Just what every emergency victim needs. Designer duds. Or do you think those ended up in employee closets?
Thanks to Food Music Justice dot com
Monday, March 03, 2008
There WILL be floods.....
Here's an exerpt from an
Op Ed piece that appeared in the New York Times last week about the state of the country's levee system
Last month, a 30-foot section of levee ruptured in Fernley, Nev. While the cause of the breach, which swamped 450 homes and forced dozens of people to evacuate, is unknown, anyone familiar with the drowning of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina will tell you this: Levees fail.
Indeed, there are more than 100 antiquated earthen berms across the country in danger of collapsing. What happened in Nevada is a harbinger of a much larger problem nationwide.
Click here to read the entire piece
Thanks to Food Music Justice dot com
Op Ed piece that appeared in the New York Times last week about the state of the country's levee system
Last month, a 30-foot section of levee ruptured in Fernley, Nev. While the cause of the breach, which swamped 450 homes and forced dozens of people to evacuate, is unknown, anyone familiar with the drowning of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina will tell you this: Levees fail.
Indeed, there are more than 100 antiquated earthen berms across the country in danger of collapsing. What happened in Nevada is a harbinger of a much larger problem nationwide.
Click here to read the entire piece
Thanks to Food Music Justice dot com
A window to the soul of America
From the website Food Music Justice dot com
To me, there is no story more pressing
than New Orleans - what happened there,
and what hasn't happened.
In a way, it's a window on the soul
of America.
On the one hand we see an unspeakably
corrupt administration. On the other hand courage and generosity that restores one's faith in human nature.
New Orleans in spite of being 80% destroyed by the failure of the federal levee system is coming back strong.
Strong enough to host the NBA All-Star game, to stage over thirty large scale parades during Mardi Gras, to operate its schools, hospitals, roads, hotels and restaurants.
The music is back and the incomparable food and culture.
All without the help of the federal government which promised so much and has done so little
- and done so much harm.
Three short videos that tell the story:
1. A short art piece which conveys the pain of losing one's home whether in New Orleans or Bagdhad.
2. A rare and little seen video that captured what it means when a levee fails: "From street to roof in three minutes"
3. A vivid recap of how thoroughly the city and its people were abandoned by the government whose job it was to help.
Click here to see the three videos
Thanks to Ken McCarthy of New York for keeping the word out
To me, there is no story more pressing
than New Orleans - what happened there,
and what hasn't happened.
In a way, it's a window on the soul
of America.
On the one hand we see an unspeakably
corrupt administration. On the other hand courage and generosity that restores one's faith in human nature.
New Orleans in spite of being 80% destroyed by the failure of the federal levee system is coming back strong.
Strong enough to host the NBA All-Star game, to stage over thirty large scale parades during Mardi Gras, to operate its schools, hospitals, roads, hotels and restaurants.
The music is back and the incomparable food and culture.
All without the help of the federal government which promised so much and has done so little
- and done so much harm.
Three short videos that tell the story:
1. A short art piece which conveys the pain of losing one's home whether in New Orleans or Bagdhad.
2. A rare and little seen video that captured what it means when a levee fails: "From street to roof in three minutes"
3. A vivid recap of how thoroughly the city and its people were abandoned by the government whose job it was to help.
Click here to see the three videos
Thanks to Ken McCarthy of New York for keeping the word out
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Thanks, Mr. Riggio
Barnes and Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio announced plans to invest $20 million in Gentilly at a press conference last Tuesday (February 27th).
In an initiative that should place at least 120 families into new houses built with energy-efficient features and elevated to a height that should protect them from future floods. Riggio plans to spend $20 million from his family's charitable foundation on the effort.
Residents who participate in the program will receive a new home at no cost, provided they surrender their flooded, uninhabitable house -- or the vacant lot where it once stood -- to Project Home Again, the nonprofit that Riggio spun out of his foundation. The charity will give each family a mortgage equal to the difference between their new and old homes and then steadily forgive the mortgage over a period of five years, after which the family will own the house outright.
A devotee of New Orleans music, Riggio said no flood could wipe out the music, food, culture and "genius" that New Orleans has bequeathed the rest of the country.
Project Home Again will construct single-family homes on 50-foot lots in three sizes: two bedrooms/two baths; three bedrooms/two baths; and four bedrooms/two baths. The homes, which will be offered at no cost to eligible families.
PHA is intended to be a zero overhead operation, with all $20 million going directly to building homes. Eligible applicants must have lived in Gentilly two years prior to the storm and own a home (or former home site) in Gentilly that is uninhabitable due to Hurricane Katrina. They must be willing to swap their old uninhabitable home or site for a new home, and have a family consisting of two to eight individuals. Here are the eligibility requirements
In an initiative that should place at least 120 families into new houses built with energy-efficient features and elevated to a height that should protect them from future floods. Riggio plans to spend $20 million from his family's charitable foundation on the effort.
Residents who participate in the program will receive a new home at no cost, provided they surrender their flooded, uninhabitable house -- or the vacant lot where it once stood -- to Project Home Again, the nonprofit that Riggio spun out of his foundation. The charity will give each family a mortgage equal to the difference between their new and old homes and then steadily forgive the mortgage over a period of five years, after which the family will own the house outright.
A devotee of New Orleans music, Riggio said no flood could wipe out the music, food, culture and "genius" that New Orleans has bequeathed the rest of the country.
Project Home Again will construct single-family homes on 50-foot lots in three sizes: two bedrooms/two baths; three bedrooms/two baths; and four bedrooms/two baths. The homes, which will be offered at no cost to eligible families.
PHA is intended to be a zero overhead operation, with all $20 million going directly to building homes. Eligible applicants must have lived in Gentilly two years prior to the storm and own a home (or former home site) in Gentilly that is uninhabitable due to Hurricane Katrina. They must be willing to swap their old uninhabitable home or site for a new home, and have a family consisting of two to eight individuals. Here are the eligibility requirements
Bringing Nature Back
From the Sunherald dot com:
Live Oaks are being planted along the Gulf Coast.
It will take many years before their replacements reach the grandeur of the originals, but the new Live oaks being planted will be spread along the Coast from Gulfport to Pearlington.
Volunteers planted five Live oaks at the Humane Society of South Mississippi on U.S. 49 in Gulfport.
Other planting sites were Clower-Thornton Nature Park
Turkey Creek in Gulfport,
Railroad Park in Long Beach
War Memorial Park in Pass Christian,
as well as sites in Pearlington, Bay St. Louis, Waveland, Lakeshore and Henderson Point.
Three Live oaks are being planted at the foot of the Bay St. Louis Bridge.
Live Oaks are being planted along the Gulf Coast.
It will take many years before their replacements reach the grandeur of the originals, but the new Live oaks being planted will be spread along the Coast from Gulfport to Pearlington.
Volunteers planted five Live oaks at the Humane Society of South Mississippi on U.S. 49 in Gulfport.
Other planting sites were Clower-Thornton Nature Park
Turkey Creek in Gulfport,
Railroad Park in Long Beach
War Memorial Park in Pass Christian,
as well as sites in Pearlington, Bay St. Louis, Waveland, Lakeshore and Henderson Point.
Three Live oaks are being planted at the foot of the Bay St. Louis Bridge.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Scuzzbucket of the Week
James E. Delancey of Gulfport, MIssissippi. A waste of oxygen, this drunk apparently passed out on Hwy 190 in Covington.
Here's the story:
Deputy Kerry Snaples, 22, of Ponchatoula, died at about 4:20 a.m. Sunday when his motorcycle struck a pickup that was stopped in the westbound lane of U.S. 190 near Covington High School. The Sheriff's Office did not release the deputy's identity Sunday because of difficulty contacting his family.
....the impact knocked the truck into a side ditch. The truck's tail lights were not on, and he says its dark gold and gray paint would have been difficult to see on the dark highway.
Covington Police, who are investigating the case, booked the driver of the pickup, James E. Delancey Jr., 37, of Gulfport, Miss., with vehicular homicide, DWI and driving with a suspended license.
Delancey's blood alcohol level was "several times" the legal limit and he admitted to taking prescription opiates before driving, Covington Police spokesman Lt. Jack West said Sunday.
Condolences to Officer Snaples' family.
Here's the story:
Deputy Kerry Snaples, 22, of Ponchatoula, died at about 4:20 a.m. Sunday when his motorcycle struck a pickup that was stopped in the westbound lane of U.S. 190 near Covington High School. The Sheriff's Office did not release the deputy's identity Sunday because of difficulty contacting his family.
....the impact knocked the truck into a side ditch. The truck's tail lights were not on, and he says its dark gold and gray paint would have been difficult to see on the dark highway.
Covington Police, who are investigating the case, booked the driver of the pickup, James E. Delancey Jr., 37, of Gulfport, Miss., with vehicular homicide, DWI and driving with a suspended license.
Delancey's blood alcohol level was "several times" the legal limit and he admitted to taking prescription opiates before driving, Covington Police spokesman Lt. Jack West said Sunday.
Condolences to Officer Snaples' family.
Katrina continues to affect lives
Katrina continues to affect lives; media needs to acknowledge this
From an editorial from a Tennessee paper last week, an excerpt:
Now there's no use in beating a dead horse. But then again, you can't really ignore the elephant in the room either. Animal clichés aside, lack of media coverage of the Katrina aftermath is hurting recovery, because no one really knows how bad it is or how to help.
We, as mass media consumers, never got answers to the questions posed in news coverage. The matter was simply washed away.
The irony of this is we, as an editorial board of a newspaper, are complaining about lack of media coverage. Then again, it should be noted that we try to do the best we can, but just simply cannot afford the high-tech and in-depth coverage. But you, the reader, probably already knew that.
St. Bernard Project
St. Bernard Parish
At a Massachusettes news site, I ran across this
article entitled New Orleans still needs our help
~ In mid January, along with a group from the Boston College Alumni Association, I went to New Orleans as a volunteer to help in the reconstruction of homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
What we saw and experienced was far beyond our comprehension. I had expected to find small areas of unfinished homes in need of repairs. Instead, we found that the storm’s devastation is still very much in evidence today. We saw scores of people living in tents under a highway overpass. There were neighborhoods where most of the residents had not returned. There were sites where homes once stood and the only evidence left is the slab of concrete marking its location. In the community where we worked, only 20 to 25 percent of the residents have returned thus far.
Some interesting facts about this area are:
· More than 75 percent of the homes were owner occupied;
· In 2004, the unemployment rate hovered near 4 percent while the median income was $36,000;
· Families were working hard — as tradesmen, in the refinery industry and as fisherman;
· The Parish had a large community of retirees — nearly 50 percent of the population, many of whom owned their own homes and lived on fixed incomes;
· 200 people lost their lives in the St. Bernard Parish;
· 100 percent of the homes were officially “uninhabitable”;
The organization we worked with is located in the St. Bernard Parish an area outside of New Orleans encompassing a number of communities. We worked on homes in the town of Chalmette which is next to New Orleans’ Ninth Ward and is arguably one of the hardest hit communities. In the evenings after work, we had the opportunity to have dinner with different people in the community from church groups and education leaders to businessmen, doctors and people who had lost their homes. The stories were gut-wrenching as people described their challenges, their fight for survival and in many instances, personal losses. The amazing thing is, with all their losses, enduring complete financial ruin and having lost everything, not one person that we met ever asked for money or any type of donation.
But universally they asked for one thing. That we go back home and tell their story and that we not forget them. Their plight is no longer front page news and there are times we may not remember their challenge.
This is where the St. Bernard Project comes in. The seeds of the St. Bernard Project were planted in March 2006 by four volunteers who went to St. Bernard Parish to do relief work. After working with people to help them rebuild their homes for a month, they decided to establish the St. Bernard Project. This is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide people with the resources necessary to rebuild their homes. They undertook reconstruction of their first home in August of 2006. Since that time, they have completed over 90 homes and today have nearly 30 more under various stages of construction. They provide construction materials, tools and volunteers to complete their projects. A FEMA trailer cost approximately $70,000. Because all the materials are acquired with donations and all the labor is completed by volunteers and the actual homeowners, the cost for this organization to reconstruct a gutted home is approximately $10,000.00 and takes about eight weeks.
Where do such incredibly dedicated and giving people come from? There are two co-founders of the St. Bernard Project.
Liz McCartney: Liz worked for a community-based nonprofit organization in Washington, DC for the past four years. Prior to that, she taught ESL and middle school for over five years. Liz is a graduate of Boston Collegeand recently received a Master's in Curriculum and Instruction from George Washington University.
Zack Rosenberg: Zack has been a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C. for the past three years. Prior to his defense work, he founded Linking Communities for Educational Success (LINK). Before law school he was the development director of Families Forward, a low-income housing and job training program in Washington, D.C. Zack grew up in Belmont and graduated from Belmont High School in 1991 where Zack’s mom still lives.
Michael DelRose works with RE/MAX First Realty of Watertown.
St. Bernard Project Accomplishments
(Updated 12/05/07)
Total Projects 115
Complete home rebuilds 100!
Current rebuild projects 33
Total Volunteers 4260
Americorps Volunteers 147
States Represented by Volunteers 52 (with DC and Puerto Rico)
Countries Represented by Volunteers 12
Here's a video of St. Bernard created a year after Katrina:
At a Massachusettes news site, I ran across this
article entitled New Orleans still needs our help
~ In mid January, along with a group from the Boston College Alumni Association, I went to New Orleans as a volunteer to help in the reconstruction of homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
What we saw and experienced was far beyond our comprehension. I had expected to find small areas of unfinished homes in need of repairs. Instead, we found that the storm’s devastation is still very much in evidence today. We saw scores of people living in tents under a highway overpass. There were neighborhoods where most of the residents had not returned. There were sites where homes once stood and the only evidence left is the slab of concrete marking its location. In the community where we worked, only 20 to 25 percent of the residents have returned thus far.
Some interesting facts about this area are:
· More than 75 percent of the homes were owner occupied;
· In 2004, the unemployment rate hovered near 4 percent while the median income was $36,000;
· Families were working hard — as tradesmen, in the refinery industry and as fisherman;
· The Parish had a large community of retirees — nearly 50 percent of the population, many of whom owned their own homes and lived on fixed incomes;
· 200 people lost their lives in the St. Bernard Parish;
· 100 percent of the homes were officially “uninhabitable”;
The organization we worked with is located in the St. Bernard Parish an area outside of New Orleans encompassing a number of communities. We worked on homes in the town of Chalmette which is next to New Orleans’ Ninth Ward and is arguably one of the hardest hit communities. In the evenings after work, we had the opportunity to have dinner with different people in the community from church groups and education leaders to businessmen, doctors and people who had lost their homes. The stories were gut-wrenching as people described their challenges, their fight for survival and in many instances, personal losses. The amazing thing is, with all their losses, enduring complete financial ruin and having lost everything, not one person that we met ever asked for money or any type of donation.
But universally they asked for one thing. That we go back home and tell their story and that we not forget them. Their plight is no longer front page news and there are times we may not remember their challenge.
This is where the St. Bernard Project comes in. The seeds of the St. Bernard Project were planted in March 2006 by four volunteers who went to St. Bernard Parish to do relief work. After working with people to help them rebuild their homes for a month, they decided to establish the St. Bernard Project. This is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide people with the resources necessary to rebuild their homes. They undertook reconstruction of their first home in August of 2006. Since that time, they have completed over 90 homes and today have nearly 30 more under various stages of construction. They provide construction materials, tools and volunteers to complete their projects. A FEMA trailer cost approximately $70,000. Because all the materials are acquired with donations and all the labor is completed by volunteers and the actual homeowners, the cost for this organization to reconstruct a gutted home is approximately $10,000.00 and takes about eight weeks.
Where do such incredibly dedicated and giving people come from? There are two co-founders of the St. Bernard Project.
Liz McCartney: Liz worked for a community-based nonprofit organization in Washington, DC for the past four years. Prior to that, she taught ESL and middle school for over five years. Liz is a graduate of Boston Collegeand recently received a Master's in Curriculum and Instruction from George Washington University.
Zack Rosenberg: Zack has been a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C. for the past three years. Prior to his defense work, he founded Linking Communities for Educational Success (LINK). Before law school he was the development director of Families Forward, a low-income housing and job training program in Washington, D.C. Zack grew up in Belmont and graduated from Belmont High School in 1991 where Zack’s mom still lives.
Michael DelRose works with RE/MAX First Realty of Watertown.
St. Bernard Project Accomplishments
(Updated 12/05/07)
Total Projects 115
Complete home rebuilds 100!
Current rebuild projects 33
Total Volunteers 4260
Americorps Volunteers 147
States Represented by Volunteers 52 (with DC and Puerto Rico)
Countries Represented by Volunteers 12
Here's a video of St. Bernard created a year after Katrina:
Friday, February 22, 2008
the deterioration of Nagin
Here's a link to the WWL TV video that shows Nagin losing his "composure" when discussing the local press abusing his personal safety.
He's truely losing it.
The Chicory has more
Ashley's reactions to Ray-Ray's on air mental meltaway is great, as usual
American Zombie: what racist websites?
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Normalcy slowly returning
picture from wikimedia dot org
Prytania Waterline tells a great story of a night time car a the Streetcar in NOLA.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Thanks, NBA
Many thanks to all the people who volunteered this past weekend in the day of service related to the NBA Allstar Game.
Looks like the whole weekend was a huge success
People from around the country travelled to NOLA and a lot of them "get it"
After nearly three years, the headlines about New Orleans contain GOOD news. The city showed the rest of the world that it is an awesome host . As one of the articles said "you can't buy this kind of publicity".
Looks like the whole weekend was a huge success
People from around the country travelled to NOLA and a lot of them "get it"
After nearly three years, the headlines about New Orleans contain GOOD news. The city showed the rest of the world that it is an awesome host . As one of the articles said "you can't buy this kind of publicity".
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