Meanwhile, back in NOLA --pix->>>

[Stephanie]

George Bush held a "Homeland Security Council" photo-op this morning.

Meanwhile, back in New Orleans, Louisiana >>>



http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050919/ids_photos_ts/r2758110338.jpg

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Reuters - Mon Sep 19,10:50 AM ET
A view of the destroyed ninth area of New Orleans, September 18, 2005. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050919/ids_photos_ts/r3095633445.jpg
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AFP - Mon Sep 19, 9:01 AM ET
Emile Buisson and Cindy Lindhein search his devastated childhood home in the New Orleans suburb of Arabi.(AFP/Menahem Kahana)

http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050919/photos_sc_afp/050919125543728bbdya_photo0
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Reuters - Sun Sep 18,10:35 PM ET
A worker wearing a protective suit sprays down the inside of the Convention Center where Hurricane Katrina evacuees were originally housed, in New Orleans, Louisiana, September 18, 2005. Federal and local authorities clashed on Sunday over whether New Orleans was ready for residents to return, putting in doubt efforts to quickly resettle the devastated city. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050919/ids_photos_ts/r817712995.jpg
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AP - Sun Sep 18, 7:10 PM ET
Ronald Small, 73, talks with his wife Phyllis as he attempts to crawl through the window of his home in the Lakeview area of New Orleans Sunday Sept. 18, 2005. Small was unable to open the front door that was shut by the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina and had to enter through the window. (AP Photo/Ric Francis)

http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050918/480/lawh11009182310
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AFP - Mon Sep 19, 4:01 AM ET
Ronald Williams who lives in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans reacts after checking his house. Williams said he wouldn't dare to go into his house, because of the smell and the mud in the basement. Life couldn't be more different for residents of the Algiers neighbourhood of New Orleans and those in the city's downtrodden ninth ward, separated only by a bend in the Mississippi River(AFP/Omar Torres)

http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050919/photos_ts_afp/0509190731482ygevlio_photo3
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Reuters - Sun Sep 18, 6:29 PM ET
A view of the destroyed ninth area of New Orleans, September 18, 2005. The death toll from Hurricane Katrina climbed to 883 on Sunday after Louisiana officials raised the number of confirmed fatalities in that state to 646, up from 579 at the last count on Friday. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050918/ids_photos_ts/r1732286237.jpg
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Reuters - Sun Sep 18, 6:06 PM ET
Marine salvage workers inspect a giant container ship that was washed into houses in the residential Ninth District, after a levy was breached approximately 100 yards away, in New Orleans September 18, 2005. Federal and local authorities clashed on Sunday over whether New Orleans was ready for residents to return, putting in doubt efforts to quickly resettle the devastated city. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, head of the federal recovery efforts in New Orleans, said the city lacked most basic services -- such as drinkable water, sewage and electricity. Its protective levees remained vulnerable, and the city lacked a plan to respond to any new emergency. REUTERS/J.P. Moczulski

http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050918/ids_photos_wl/r478248494.jpg
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Reuters - Sun Sep 18, 3:33 PM ET
Contractors remove human remains discovered in a home, in a black body bag, in New Orleans Parish in New Orleans, September 18, 2005. The death toll from Hurricane Katrina climbed to 883 on Sunday after Louisiana officials raised the number of confirmed fatalities in that state to 646, up from 579 at the last count on Friday. REUTERS/J.P. Moczulski

http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050918/ids_photos_wl/r298536774.jpg
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US soldiers of the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division patrol the streets of the Uptown neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina's relief supremo urged New Orleans to hold back on plans to let tens of thousands of evacuees return home, warning the storm-wrecked city remained unsafe.(AFP/File/Menahem Kahana)

http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050918/photos_pl_afp/050918191055_tauils9n_photo4
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AFP/Getty Images/File - Sun Sep 18, 4:06 PM ET
Water lines are seen on a religous statue and the wall of a church in the Lakefront District, 16 September 2005 of New Orleans, Louisiana. The crisis unleashed in the United States by Hurricane Katrina enters its fourth week on Monday, with the world's most powerful country wrestling with the escalating social, political and fiscal costs of the disaster.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Justin Sullivan)

http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050918/photos_wl_afp/0509181923061rpdbn6a_photo2
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[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Thanks for the images....

The destruction is absolutely devastating.

[Gruenemann]

2. Hanh????

"Ronald Williams who lives in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans reacts after checking his house. Williams said he wouldn't dare to go into his house, because of the smell and the mud in the basement."

A BASEMENT in New Orleans? WTF????

Crawl space maybe?

[jobycom]

7. I wondered that, too.

Looking at the picture, the house seems to be built up on walls, like an above ground basement. Maybe that's what he means. We had some wealthy friends in New Orleans who claimed they had a basement, but it was just an above ground room with no windows. I think it that rather than build the house on piers, they put in full walls, like for a basement, but the walls were above ground.

Just a guess.

[LibertyLou]

3. The Body Removal Cover-Up Pic is Interesting

Using blue tarps to hide the removal of bodies which are already encased in body bags...


Must keep that official body count down to protect the ever-declining admin poll numbers, IMCO...

[Stephanie]

5. I know. I wonder how much we are paying for the extra contractors...

to hold the blue tarps to hide the bodies from the press?

[Missy M]

4. Somehow seeing 'All the Kings Men" sitting around a table listening...

to their leader and trying to decipher what he is saying, followed by the pictures of the devastation in NO, is enough to make you want to tear out your hair. Maybe too many cooks are spoiling the broth, as the saying goes. No wonder things were in such turmoil regarding Katrina with so many different people involved. Can you imagine how many of them it takes to screw in a light bulb.

[jobycom]

6. That looks like more than "rising water" damage in the 9th ward.

This is an amateur opinion, but the massive destruction in two of those pictures don't look like what is usually called "rising waters" flood damage. It looks more like rushing water damage, or wind damage.

Anyone an expert on this? Could the water have rushed through the breach in the Industrial Seaway Canal with enough force to do this? Or is this from the water topping the levee? Or could it be wind damage from before the levee breach? Or am I completely wrong, and this is just the result of these houses being flooded for so long?

I've seen a lot of houses in Mississippi hit by "rising waters" and a lot hit by the storm surge, and the former usually leaves the house intact (though sometimes it floats the house a ways). But I know a lot of the 9th ward was underwater for days. Whose an expert on this around here?

[stevedeshazer]

8. Looks like the Ruling Class has what it needs...

Liberty and Justice for All. :grr: