9/14/2004 Washington Post - here's about the call for NO & Bush's cuts

[zbdent]

I found this via the Congressional Record online, from Landrieu's statements of 9/15/2004

Awaiting Ivan in the Big Uneasy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20277-2004Sep14.html

<snip>

If a strong Category 4 storm such as Ivan made a direct hit, he warned, 50,000 people could drown, and this city of Mardi Gras and jazz could cease to exist.

<snip>

New Orleans is often described as a disaster waiting to happen -- it is mostly below sea level, practically surrounded by water, artificially kept dry by pumps and levees, rapidly losing its natural storm protection. But rarely have its leaders sounded so afraid that the wait could be over soon.

<snip>

Most scientists, engineers and emergency managers agree that if Ivan does spare southern Louisiana this time, The One is destined to arrive someday.

<snip>

Louisiana's politicians, environmentalists and business leaders have been pushing for a $14 billion coastal restoration project to try to bring back those lost marshes and islands -- in order to help protect New Orleans as well as an oil and gas industry that handles nearly a third of the nation's supply.

The Bush administration forced the state to scale down its request to $1.2 billion last year, and a Senate committee authorized $375 million. But Mark Davis, executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, believes that even if Ivan bypasses the region, its scary approach could help galvanize support for a more comprehensive fix.

"We're running out of tomorrows," Davis said. "God willing, if there's still a southern Louisiana next week, I'm not talking about the politics of the possible anymore. It's now a question of which side are you on: Do you support the obliteration of a region, or do you want to try to save it?"

<snip>

The local officials said they could not order a mandatory evacuation in a city as poor as New Orleans, in which more than 100,000 residents have no cars, but they urged people to find some way to escape.

<snip>

[Mass]

1. Can we send that to Bush

I did remember exactly that from last year, which is why I was so surprised nothing had been done since.

[flpoljunkie]

2. How could 100,000 people without cars evacuate New Orleans?Teleportation?

[montana500]

3. amazing article.

thx

[flpoljunkie]

4. "Red Cross refuses to set up emergency storm shelters in New Orleans?"

By evening, the city's few escape routes were spectacularly clogged, and authorities acknowledged that hundreds of thousands of residents would not get out in time. The stranded will not be able to turn to the Red Cross, because New Orleans is the only city in which the relief agency refuses to set up emergency storm shelters, to ensure the safety of its own staff. Even if a 30-foot-high wall of water crashes through the French Quarter -- Maestri's worst-case scenario -- stranded residents will be on their own.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20277-2004Sep14.html

_________________

And we are asked by everyone to send money to this organization. Do people know this about the Red Cross? I find it extraordinary.

Tweety just reported that as of yesteday the Red Cross had received $72 million dollars in donations.

[babylonsister]

5. Recommend; the proof of potential for destruction

has been out there for a long time and a lot of people chose to ignore it. But look who's paying for the not-so-short-sightedness...

[wli]

6. Of course rethugs support the obliteration of a dem region. n/t