NationStates Jolt Archive

I saw this article from the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/16/AR2005091602167_pf.html

It gives me hope that, at least in this crisis, members of both parties can overlook differences and come together in this tragedy to build New Orleans bigger and better than before.

I must say, I never thought I'd see the day that Donna Brazile, the manager of Al Gore's 2000 campaign, could write such an eloquent and uniting piece. Kudos to her.

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Is this really that boring of a topic?

Yup. We only do topics with contraversy. ;)

Well I could link a picture of what I think of the title... but it's a big picture.

Repubs and Dems United?
Yeah fucking right.

Yeah fucking right.
Could you elucidate a perhaps less profane argument to support your "position"?

Could you elucidate a perhaps less profane argument to support your "position"?

Absolutely.

Repubs and Dems United?

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b383/DrkHelmet/inconceivable.jpg

Yup. We only do topics with contraversy. ;)
Yeah, I probably should have done a poll: Donna Brazile supports Bush - options: 1. She's a traitor 2. She's misguided 3. She's seen the light 4. Other.

Oh, well. Just thought some positive news might provoke some positive discussion.

Absolutely.



http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b383/DrkHelmet/inconceivable.jpg
Good one! And from one of my favorite movies, too. :D

Yeah, I probably should have done a poll: Donna Brazile supports Bush - options: 1. She's a traitor 2. She's misguided 3. She's seen the light 4. Other.

Oh, well. Just thought some positive news might provoke some positive discussion.

Bah! Positive news is boring. Give me some nice, juicy partisanship anyday.

Could you elucidate a perhaps less profane argument to support your "position"?
Yeah right.

Yeah right.
I bow before your rhetorical splendour. ;)

We need a good news after Katrina Thread, jus for good news storys.

By John Ritter, Tom Weir, and Thomas Frank,
USA TODAY Fri Sept 16, 7:43 AM ET.





Far from Hurricane Katrina's ruin on the Gulf Coast, Mitchell and Hazel Rodgers are among the first hurricane victims to settle this week into new RV trailers at Wind Creek State Park, across a lake from million-dollar real estate.


The couple join tens of thousands of Katrina evacuees moving to the next stage of what promises to be a long process of getting back home.


The populations of hundreds of Red Cross shelters are dropping daily as families move to temporary housing, some, like the 500 trailer sites at Wind Creek, more permanent than others.


"This is the type of living my wife and I always wanted. Back to Mother Nature," says Mitchell Rodgers, 54, a disabled shipyard worker whose Gulfport, Miss., trailer-park home tipped over and filled with water. "As soon as I can, I'm going to register to vote. I'm not going back to Mississippi."


Hotels, private homes, churches, cruise ships, gyms and campgrounds will continue to accommodate many of the displaced in coming weeks. An estimated 1 million people fled Katrina.


But disaster officials say they're moving to assemble and make livable up to 300,000 trailers and other temporary housing units in Louisiana and Mississippi as fast as they can find sites and arrange utilities, schooling and other necessities with cities and counties.


Looking for space


The federal government has stopped selling foreclosed homes in 11 states and will make as many as 5,000 available at no charge to Katrina's homeless. Public housing authorities across the country are scrounging for every vacant unit they can find to offer to evacuees who came from public housing in New Orleans and Mississippi. An estimated 5,600 units could be made available within 500 miles of New Orleans.


Many cities - Houston, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia - and counties - Allegheny County, Pa., and Miami-Dade - have offered housing for thousands more.


The number of people in Red Cross shelters had declined from a high of 203,917 in the days after Katrina hit to 61,610 by Wednesday. More than 550 shelters had closed, the Red Cross said.


The Red Cross has paid about $12 million in hotel bills and expects to reimburse a total of $100 million on behalf of an estimated 132,000 Katrina-displaced people who were in hotels in 46 states.


In Baton Rouge, where tens of thousands took refuge because it's just 80 miles northwest of New Orleans, shelter populations have dropped steadily. But the metro area of 450,000 is scrambling to cope with other effects of its newfound - if temporary - status as the state's most populous.


Mayor Melvin Holden is asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $10 billion to build schools, roads and sewers. Highway planners are trying to sort out the swollen region's traffic congestion. FEMA expects to station thousands of mobile homes in Baton Rouge for evacuees.


Mark Bielski has been staying with friends. Although his house in New Orleans' Uptown district remains intact, he's looking for a Baton Rouge teaching job. He says he'll return to New Orleans "as soon as the lights go on."


Others see Baton Rouge as their new home. Since Katrina, 1,100 houses in the area have sold, according to the local Realtors' association. Apartment vacancy rates slid from 8% to nothing.


Evacuees poured into Houston's Astrodome and other shelters, but nobody in Texas' largest city "knows for sure how many people are here or how long they intend to stay," says Frank Michel, a city spokesman. What they know is that 46,000 former Louisiana residents are living in hotels and motels and 16,000 Louisiana children have registered in Houston schools. The city has found more than 8,000 apartments and houses to accommodate 20,000 people.


Making evacuees feel at home


Many places seemed to open their arms, then worry later about consequences. Arkansas, one of the nation's poorest states, took in more than 75,000 evacuees, second only to Texas. That amounted to more than a 2.5% jump in the state's population, but Gov. Mike Huckabee reminded residents of the help they get after frequent ice storms and tornadoes.

"By golly, we're going to be there to take care of them now," he declared. He said midweek that at least a third of the influx had left.

Other evacuees, particularly those stranded in New Orleans after the storm, ended up farther away. Oklahoma, Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, North and South Carolina, Maryland, Ohio, Michigan, and California each sheltered 2,000 to 4,000. Florida and Georgia each took more than 1,300.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson found that evacuees in Philadelphia "have come to realize they might not go back to New Orleans."

"Of the families I talked to, 90% of the families have no desire to go back," Jackson says. "But that's not what I'm hearing from Texas. It's a whole different perspective."

Perspective may depend on circumstances. The new arrivals at Alabama's Wind Creek State Park get trailers 28 to 32 feet long; some would cost $40,000.

Red Cross volunteers "are helping me get baby clothes," says Suzanne Hughes, 18, from Kiln, Miss. She's 81/2 months pregnant and waiting for her fiancé to arrive.

"It's a really good community ... families that have kids, and the kids get attached to the atmosphere here," Hughes says.

Police officers patrol the park. Evacuees undergo background checks because the park could be home to 1,000 children. Evacuees are being hired as park workers. Sporting goods companies are donating fishing gear. South Central Bell is putting in phone banks, Dell is offering laptops. Cisco is providing Internet service.

"It would turn you into a Christian, even if you weren't," says Arthur Walker, 57, known as "Mr. A" when he worked as a palm reader in New Orleans' Jackson Square.

It's nice to hear good news, and there are a lot of good things happening now. The power is coming on in some areas, and the cleanup will begin in earnest soon.

The waters are receding, and the pumps are already a week ahead of schedule.

Here's a recent flood map:

http://www.nola.com/t-p/?/t-p/stories/flood_graphic.html