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by KYW’s David Madden : Newsradio 1060
The local head of the American Red Cross has responded to complaints that the agency has not provided help within the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans. He says they weren’t allowed.
More than 50,000 people are being housed in 90 Red Cross shelters throughout Louisiana. Many of those shelters are in areas surrounding the Crescent City, but there are none inside.
How come? Local Red Cross CEO Tom Foley offers this explanation:
“The state Department of Homeland Security in Louisiana asked the Red Cross not to go into the city because they want that message to be, ‘You need to leave the city. This isn’t going to be a sheltering spot.’ ”
Foley says it’s frustrating for volunteers not to be able to help. But the way the Red Cross operates, he says, is that evacuees are brought to them by local officials — much like victims of a fire are taken to the Red Cross by a fire department.
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This is freaking madness – insane – criminal!
Martial law¹ my ass – murder of your own people!
Ceasar Nero Watching New Orleans Burn!
¹) Martial Law should read :: Federal State of Emergency.
More to follow below the fold » »
- Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.
- The state Homeland Security Department had requested–and continues to request–that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.
- […]
- The Red Cross shares the nation’s anguish over the worsening situation inside the city. We will continue to work under the direction of the military, state and local authorities and to focus all our efforts on our lifesaving mission of feeding and sheltering.
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
NEW ORLEANS Saturday, September 03, 2005 — As the National Guard delivered food to the New Orleans convention center yesterday, American Red Cross officials said that federal emergency management authorities would not allow them to do the same.
Other relief agencies say the area is so damaged and dangerous that they doubted they could conduct mass feeding there now.
“The Homeland Security Department has requested and continues to request that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans,” said Renita Hosler, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.
“Right now access is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities. We have been at the table every single day [asking for access]. We cannot get into New Orleans against their orders.”
Calls to the Department of Homeland Security and its subagency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), were not returned yesterday.
Update [2005-9-3 7:20:12 by Oui]:
WTF – Citizens of New Orleans spreading the American flags on the roof tops, like saying: “Heh – we are one of the good guys, why don’t you rescue us?
American Flags – The Water Is Rising Pleas
New Orleans residents wait to be rescued from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans made a 'desperate SOS' for help as authorities struggled to stem a descent into anarchy and evacuate survivors of Hurricane Katrina, which is now believed to have killed thousands. AFP/Pool/David J. Phillip
Good news is, the Air Force just annouced that hundreds of men and women serving in Iraq, from the disaster area of the Gulf Coast, will be returning HOME to take care of family and relatives.
… after reading dKos and the other blogs all week and seeing over and over again comments that that FEMA and the NG were no where to be seen from the people on the ground in NO, I was wondering where the Red Cross was in all this. They were never mentioned. It was like they didn’t exist. And, after yesterday’s drama at the convention center, the Brown and Chertoff lies, the Red Cross was still MIA.
So I called the Red Cross and asked them if its true …
I just called the (Federal) Dept. of Homeland security (202-282-8000) and asked them the following question:
“Is it true what the American Red Cross has reported that they have not been allowed into the city of New Orleans by the DHS since Hurricane Katrina because their ‘presence would keep people from evacuating'”?
[…] At this point I lost my temper and went on a little tirade. I said (something like) “because it’s a stupid fucking policy! And people have died because of it. And if Michael Chertoff is responsible, people should be made aware of that. And if you and he think it’s a good policy, you should be willing to stand by it and take responsibility for it!”
[…] I am so pissed right now. If Chertoff really did order this, his head should be served up (Cajun style) on a platter to the mayor of New Orleans.
P.S. When I hung up the phone, the first thing my wife said to me was, “Great. Now you’ll be drafted for sure!”
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The line hit me as I submitted this diary – JOY is far from my mind this whole week!
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an entry about this at the Katrina Chronology in the dKosopedia.
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Shoot at the Red Crescent ambulances, the doctors and evacuate the hospitals.
Fu** – I stated this line in yesterday’s diary – not believing it myself as interpretation of attitude on movements into NOLA.
Troops deployed in anarchic New Orleans with SHOOT TO KILL orders
NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) Sept. 2, 2005 — New Orleans was primed for all-out combat, as Iraq-tested troops with shoot-to-kill orders moved into the hurricane-devasted city to quell rioters and looters. The deployment of 300 members of the Arkansas National Guard came ahead of a tour of the affected region by President George W. Bush, who vowed “zero tolerance” for the armed gangs terrorising the flooded city.
Who were the gunmen: keeping the NO police inside their stations, turning away the rescue helicopters and aborted evacuating the patients from Charity Hospital?
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don’t know what to say beyond this being pure evil.
I keep coming back to this diary Oui and rereading the Red Cross statement because I still can’t believe this.
I don’t know exactly what to do but I’m glad you found this information and posted it.
It’s so bad I can’t even cuss but to say again it’s evil and I hate using that word because it sounds so georgebushish..he throws the word evil around like candy corn but that’s what this is, it is evil.
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totally disconnected from the human race :: Iraq War – Abu Ghraib torture – Fallujah raze – 100,000+ killed.
This is insanity – save money and muster all energy to oust the idiots from power in Election 2006 and 2008.
… after reading dKos and the other blogs all week and seeing over and over again comments that that FEMA and the NG were no where to be seen from the people on the ground in NO, I was wondering where the Red Cross was in all this. They were never mentioned. It was like they didn’t exist. And, after yesterday’s drama at the convention center, the Brown and Chertoff lies, the Red Cross was still MIA.
So I called the Red Cross and asked them if its true….
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We are supposed to be GIVING CASH MONEY to the Red Cross and people have, by the truckload if the reports are correct, AND THEY HAVE ORDERS NOT TO LET THE RED CROSS IN?!?!?
Do these morans know that the Red Cross — unlike the criminals in the government — actually can walk and chew gum at the same time?!?
Shit when they went to help the people in the Irani earthquake, their presence didn’t CONFUSE people into thinking that they we going to SHELTER there — what in the fucking hell is wrong with these peopel?!?!? I keep asking this, I ben asking ti for years but, this time, I don’t care what the answer is, they should all be tired for negligent homicide.
Here are some local Louisiana charities, posted at New International Times by someone who’s in the Baton Rouge area:
These links won’t do much for the people still in NO, but they will help those who are now refugees in their own land.
I am very reluctant to give money to the Red Cross, as I am to United Way, because of what I perceive as a bad track record of using large amounts for overhead and political maneuvering.
spare that I would be giving it to RC or UW — I am goign to go to the shelter that they have set up here in Austin tomorrow and ask the people what they need/want, if money can buy it, I will find a way to get it to them. And if money can’t buy it, I will find a way to make it happen.
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At Armstrong airport, a field hospital set up by FEMA was overwhelmed with patients. Equipment normally used to move luggage was instead ferrying patients to a treatment center and to planes and buses for evacuation.
Ozro Henderson, a medical team commander with FEMA, said staff was “so overwhelmed, it’s not funny.”
“I do not have the words in my vocabulary to describe what is happening here,” Henderson said. “Catastrophe and disaster don’t explain it.”
One bright spot Thursday was news that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects to complete the sealing off of the 17th Street Canal, in western New Orleans, where a flood-control levee breached, sending floodwater cascading into the downtown area.
Evelyn Turner cries alongside the body of her common-law husband, Xavier Bowie, after he died in New Orleans. Bowie and Turner had decided to ride out Hurricane Katrina when they could not find a way to leave the city. Bowie, who had lung cancer, died when he ran out of oxygen Tuesday afternoon. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
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Officials at the shelter “totally let us down,” he told reporters after arrival at the Astrodome in Houston. The floors were covered with dog and cat waste, and there was nothing to eat or drink, adding: “We were left to starve”.
Mackels said he and other men had to find boats on dry ground, and loot grocery and convenience stores to get food and drink to the hundreds in the high school. “There were people passing out left and right. We had to (loot). I had no choice,” he said.
His wife Veronica added: “Guards at the shelter sat there, and waited for us to die”.
Mackels said they were eventually put on a bus without knowing where they were going and “none of our family actually knows we’re OK. “Right now, where we live at (in Chalmette) is totally devastated. There’s no going back.”
Coast Guard sailors patrol the street in front of the Convention Center in New Orleans on Friday, Sept. 2, 2005. A huge military presence has arrived in the city, restoring order and bringing with them food and water to feed the thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina. AP Photo/Eric Gay~~~
I read on front page of dKos, how Kos is pleased there might be a bi-partisan investigation of this criminal negligence of a rescue effort.
I just see another white wash. I bet the truth out of this, in a few months, may well be the reality we report on these blogs, and the legacy of the stories of the survivors. And the rest will be lost to the dust bin of history.
I hope I’m wrong. That this is the great change that finally wakes the other 99 % of the country that are not where most of us are/have been. But, I’ve been waiting for the great change for a long time.
I believe the two Senators named to head the investigation are Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (DINO-Connecticut). Contact info for all Senators is here.
Susan is pretty much a party tool, but she might be staring to wise up in the face of this administration’s disastrous track record. Lieberman–enh!
The time to pressure them to find out the truth is now.
Lieberman? Heh. Yup, it’s a whitewash.
Firefighting gear stockpile unused
Responding to a CNN inquiry, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Marc Short said Friday the gear has not been moved because none of the governors in the hurricane-ravaged area has requested it.
A federal official said the department’s Office for Domestic Preparedness reminded the Louisiana and Mississippi governors’ offices about the stockpiles on Wednesday and Thursday, but neither governor had requested it.
Um, that’s BS! Here’s a Recommend dKos diary BREAKING: Louisiana sent letter begging Bush for help on 28th that says otherwise.
Don’t believe it? Download and read the Louisiana Disaster Relief Request PDF yourself.
There are agreed upon disaster plans in effect. If the stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment are not specifically mentioned then they are incompetent. One letter is all you should need to send the set everything in motion that has been previously agreed upon. In a disaster it’s not like you are going to sit around and think of every little detail and try to remember and ask for every specific thing.
Go to FEMA and read the detailed chain of command in any area declared a major disaster area. “President Bush Monday declared major disasters in Louisiana and Mississippi hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina’s wind and rain.”
143. COORDINATING OFFICERS {Sec. 302}
1. Appointment of Federal coordinating officer
Immediately upon his declaration of a major disaster or emergency, the President shall appoint a Federal coordinating officer to operate in the affected area.
2. Functions of Federal coordinating officer
In order to effectuate the purposes of this Act, the Federal coordinating officer, within the affected area, shall–
1. make an initial appraisal of the types of relief most urgently needed;
2. establish such field offices as he deems necessary and as are authorized by the President;
3. coordinate the administration of relief, including activities of the State and local governments, the American National Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Mennonite Disaster Service, and other relief or disaster assistance organizations, which agree to operate under his advice or direction, except that nothing contained in this Act shall limit or in any way affect the responsibilities of the American National Red Cross under the Act of January 5, 1905, as amended (33 Stat. 599) [36 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq.]; and;
4. take such other action, consistent with authority delegated to him by the President, and consistent with the provisions of this Act, as he may deem necessary to assist local citizens and public officials in promptly obtaining assistance to which they are entitled.;
5. State coordinating officer When the President determines assistance under this Act is necessary, he shall request that the Governor of the affected State designate a State coordinating officer for the purpose of coordinating State and local disaster assistance efforts with those of the Federal Government.
5144. EMERGENCY SUPPORT TEAMS {Sec. 303}
The President shall form emergency support teams of Federal personnel to be deployed in an area affected by a major disaster or emergency. Such emergency support teams shall assist the Federal coordinating officer in carrying out his responsibilities pursuant to this Act. Upon request of the President, the head of any Federal agency is directed to detail to temporary duty with the emergency support teams on either a reimbursable or nonreimbursable basis, as is determined necessary by the President, such personnel within the administrative jurisdiction of the head of the Federal agency as the President may need or believe to be useful for carrying out the functions of the emergency support teams, each such detail to be without loss of seniority, pay, or other employee status.
That’s too much to read. Sort of like “Bin Laden Determined to Attack U.S.” Heavy reading is hard work, I tell you.
By law, the PRESIDENT is in charge of 1) disaster preparedness and mitigation (preparing for disaster and reducing potential harm from disaster including training scenarios, impact studies, etc.), 2) all operations once HE declares a disaster (not local, not state) which he did this past Monday, 3) the Red Cross is NOT limted by the government order and can act on its own.
I realize all that. Guess I forgot the <snark> label.
I get it. Hope the media does. These lies seem to pick up steam pretty damn fast. I’m listening to a Chertoff the Banal give a presser right now and the friggin’ press is actually framing it that way.
I read that FEMA privatized disaster services for NO sometime in the last year or two. They hired a company called IEM-Innovative Emergency Management to take over the task of preparing for a disaster/hurricane if it struck southern Louisiana. So FEMA boondoggles out to some private company disaster relief….so the next question is where is this company right now and why hasn’t anyone else heard of this.
I’ve read so much in the last few days can’t remember exactly where I read that.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this. I got to it via Buzzflash. The Feds turned down offers of help from Chicago. Obama’s quoted here.
Mayor Daley outraged: LINK
Laura Rozen posts a comment this morning from a Dutch TV viewer:
Emphasis added, words are insufficient to express my outrage.
Anyone who didn’t think this would happen needs a reality check badly. Bush and the “relief convoy” arriving at the same time was simply too much of a coincidence.
said the same damn thing on the air yesterday — he siad it in the form of a question to Wolf Blitzer but it was enough to make Wolfie stop in his track for a few seconds.
I expected him to do this very thing, and he disappointed me in only one particular.
I expected him to hand out loaves and fishes.
Hmmm…. Between Oui’s point that the FEMA is preventing the Red Cross from going in, and debraz’s comment showing the statute that bars the govt from controlling the Red Cross… hmmm…
This situation pretty much says that regardless of the law, or of common sense, or compassion, or the attention of the press — the federal govt now has the complete power to dictate how we’ll respond to any crisis.
Well, that was common belief all along. But this is scary. Because the Administration is condemning people to horror and death — not as a matter of triage, not as a matter of limited time or resources, not as a devil’s dilemma…
…but simply as a matter of political choice. As a matter of power. To decide who suffers and dies, not on what we as a govt can do, but as what we wish to have done. As a matter of social engineering. To manipulate the tragedy to achieve their desired outcome.
Are they using Katrina as a test of their power and control?
I think it’s time to say the two words that have been lurking in the backs of everyone’s minds for two or three days now:
Ethnic Cleansing
“In Iraq we unleashed horror and destruction on a country suffering under despotism, and Americans turned a blind eye to the nasty wrong being done in our name. Just the other day, with nearly a thousand dead Iraqis, Americans barely gave it a thought as they sat glued to their televisions in total absorption of Hurricane Katrina. No time to hear what we have caused in Iraq, yet now we wonder why Americans act barbarically. Take a look in the mirror, Americans.
When a nation goes to war on lies and deceptions, when morality is pushed aside for political advantage, when honorable veterans are thrashed by Chickenhawks who never served, when poor Americans are told Iraqis are more important, when education is reduced because more bombs must be bought, when hope is too expensive except for the wealthy, don’t be surprised that morality is scarce. It has come home to roost.
When injustice flies all around, anger is sure to follow. And when anger whirls in a nasty storm, violence erupts. The corporate media was busy stalking the Martha Stewarts of celebrity, the politicians were all at fundraising dinners, and the preachers were busy building ego mega-churches. But the poor were battered by America’s raw, unforgiving capitalism, then soaked and blown around by Katrina, so they took advantage of a nasty situation. They stole goods and got their hands on some guns, and are firing off their anger. It has come home to roost.
lINK: http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=116
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No humanity for the innocent – just collateral damage– the dead need not be counted. The poor and elderly of NOLA have no homes, who will miss them, who will collect their body when they pass away?
Hurricane Katrina victims rest as they wait for evacuation at Algier's Point in New Orleans, La.AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
New Orleans Left to the Dead and Dying
NEW ORLEANS AP – 1 minute ago — Thousands more bedraggled refugees were bused and airlifted to salvation, leaving the heart of New Orleans to the dead and dying, the elderly and frail stranded too many days without food, water or medical care.
No one knows how many were killed by Hurricane Katrina’s floods and how many more succumbed waiting to be rescued. But the bodies are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating among the ruined city, crumpled on wheelchairs, abandoned on highways.
And the dying goes on — at the convention center and an airport triage center, where bodies were kept in a refrigerated truck.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco said that she expected the death toll to reach the thousands. And Craig Vanderwagen, rear admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service, said one morgue alone, at a St. Gabriel prison, expected 1,000 to 2,000 bodies.
[…] Nearby, a woman lay dead in a wheelchair on the front steps. A man was covered in a black drape with a dry line of blood running to the gutter, where it had pooled. Another had lain on a chaise lounge for four days, his stocking feet peeking out from under a quilt.
By mid-afternoon, only pockets of stragglers remained in the streets around the convention center, and New Orleans paramedics began carting away the dead.
A once-vibrant city of 480,000 people, overtaken just days ago by floods, looting, rape and arson, was now an empty, sodden tomb. The exact number of dead won’t be known for some time. Survivors were still being plucked from roofs and shattered highways across the city.
“There are people in apartments and hotels that you didn’t know were there,” Army Brig. Gen. Mark Graham said.
The overwhelming majority of those stranded in the post-Katrina chaos were those without the resources to escape — and, overwhelmingly, they were black.
You believe Bush | Cheney will make an effort to make their true failure known to the nation? Due to Health hazard, damaged blocks of NOLA will be razed to the ground :: Nero loves to see Rome burn.
A U.S. Coast Guard vessel heads south on the Mississippi River past a fire on the east side of New Orleans, La. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, firefighters say they will let the fire burn itself out. AP Photo/Eric Gay~~~
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CATASTROPHIC
<click on pic for article>
WASHING-AWAY June 2002
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Water spills over a levee along the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana. US authorities ignored warnings that New Orleans was vulnerable to a hurricane nightmare. AFP/POOL/File/Vincent LaforetVirtually everything that has happened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck was predicted by experts and in computer models, so emergency management specialists wonder why authorities were so unprepared. Computer models developed at Louisiana State University and other institutions made detailed projections of what would happen if water flowed over the levees protecting the city or if they failed. ReutersNOLA – THE BIG ONE
Georges Sept. 1998 — A major hurricane could decimate the region, but flooding from even a moderate storm could kill thousands. It’s just a matter of time.
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“They don’t have a clue what’s going on down there,”
Mayor Ray Nagin told WWL-AM radio Thursday night.
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The governor of Texas worries that his state may not be able to take many more evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Governor Rick Perry says Texas is committed to doing everything it can to help, but wants to be sure it can provide the services needed, including medical care and education. Perry says local officials “are beginning to notify us that they are quickly approaching capacity.” Louisiana and the FEMA. have been alerted.
Texas has taken in over 220,000 evacuees, with more on the way. Nearly 19,000 are in the Houston Astrodome. Over 120,000 are in 97 shelters in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and dozens of smaller cities. Another 100,000 are in hotels and motels, with still more in churches or private homes.
Carnival Cruise Lines has canceled voyages for three of its ships so they can house victims of Hurricane Katrina. The schedules of the Ecstasy, the Sensation, and the Holiday have been cleared for the next six months. Two will dock in Galveston, Texas, and the third in Mobile, Alabama. Together, they can hold about 7,000 passengers.
The request for the cruise ships came from the FEMA. The cost of the charters was not disclosed. Carnival is apologizing to those whose cruise plans have been canceled. The number is believed to be in the tens of thousands. Anyone who re-books will get a one-hundred-dollar-per-person shipboard credit.
Latter link, reads as follows —
“With the chartering of the cruise ship Holiday to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as part of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts … “
Mmmm … housing for evacuees?
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Heavily armed Drug Enforcement Agents prepare topatrol down Canal Street in the besieged city of
New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
AP Photo/Dave Martin
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The mounting prices of oil, registered during the past two years, have increased the financial surpluses of the Arab oil-producing countries. This, in turn, has boosted the available foreign investments to more than $360 billion.
$$$ buys a lot of freedom – who needs democrazy. Thanks George & Dick – we’ll always be in your … ehh our debt. Sure, let Carlyle – James Baker III – have its share.
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The two main pipelines Colonial and Plantation are pumping full capacity according to State Secr. of Transportation.
I couldn’t understand strategic oil pipelines dependent on electrical power and not self-generating diesel units. Emergency units were placed in pumping stations to get transport back on line. Corporate power!
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The disasters cannot be compared as the situation is quite different. The damage to the Dutch dikes, 115 miles destroyed and an area of 380,000 acres were inundated . Mostly agricultural land with a number of towns, villages and cities with harbors of fishing based communities. The Dutch have lived with storms and dikes for centuries, the storm watch was in place but the storm was no match for the limited dikes.
Similar to the damage done by Katrina hurricane, the authorities were warned for poor funding to have the dikes restored and meet the expected fury of a storm once in fifty years, that would flood the land.
<click on map for animation storm surge North Sea coastline in 1953>The consequences of the storm were desastreus: 1835 persons drowned, and some 20,000 cows, 1,750 horses and 12,000 pigs perished in the waves. Houses, schools, churches and other buildings: 47,300 damaged of which 10,000 irreparable. A length of 115 miles of dikes were destroyed or severely damaged by the power of the storm and waves resulting in flooding of 153,000 hectares (380,000 acres).
A total of 72,000 persons were evacuated, therefore 1 : 40 were killed in the storm, approx. 2,5% of the population.
Sea, tides and sand dunes
A resistance, determination to exist and fight the elements of nature.
but the Dutch created the Netherlands.”
American tourists do feel a bit uncomfortable in their approach to Amsterdam Airport: “Welcome ladies and gentlemen. We’ll shortly be landing at Schiphol Airport, 15 feet below sea level.”
The Dutch do fear the onslaught of rising sea level as predicted by global warming and the melting glaciers. But after the 1953 spring tide storm disaster in their southern province of Zeeland, the Dutch rebuild all their dikes to a higher level and the immense structures to withstand all storms for a thousand years, statistically.
The design of dikes has been unchanged for centuries, and only recently has seen a first failure of a sliding dike, due to … drought! The Dutch design of dikes can also be witnessed in France, Normandy, from centuries ago.
Emblem of Zeeland ProvinceCoastal Guide to the Netherlands
World Atlas
To battle the rising tide – a political lesson from the Dutch: resistance, determination and invest in a plan.
▼ ▼ ▼ HAVE YOU READ MY DIARY YET? ▼ ▼ ▼
Do you think that civil disobedience is warranted, given the pattern of massive mismanagement by the Bush administration?
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Depends on time and circumstances – in moments of personal survival, or survival of a group similar to past week’s chaos in NOLA, most will answer YES! Almost 2/3 of police force gone, infrastructure absent, no running water and electricity, no distribution of food and supplies because of flooding – probably still 100,000+ residents to fend for themselves.
It’s heartwarming to hear the stories of support coming from Houston and all over Texas, where a quarter of a million evacuees are taken care of by local communities and many volunteer organizations. That’s still the true American spirit which the Bush neocon gang have managed to exploit for their war effort in Iraq, and drum beat for a new Iran adventure. The protest movement of Cindy Sheehan should gain hurricane strength when the march on Washington takes place. I do hope organizations for American minorities like NAACP take part, because in the end the poor, disabled and sick persons are paying the price of the neocon spending of America’s fortunes.
On other acts of civil disobedience, I would use the Netherlands as reference from the seventies and eighties to change government policies on abortion, housing, worker’s democracy, gay rights and military spending. Some of the civil disobedience did force political policy change, but a heavy price was paid which few even realize today. Dutch society lacks acceptance of authority, youth take wealth for granted and assumes they have an automatic right for more, leading to a culture of petty theft and no accountability. Dutch parliament does not function, but is ruled by the insanity of the day, what the MP’s read in the morning newspaper they like to receive answers from cabinet ministers by the following day.
I would hope American society would choose for a Marshall plan to comfort and aid the helpless, homeless, the sick in their own society as Katrina has laid bare for the world to see this past horrific week – a complete failure of US central government and leadership. The full chain of command failed at local, state and federal government. Society can believe they are on the right track of small government and savings with low expenses – taxation – but when disaster strikes, there is no emergency structure in place of an administration and National Guard forces to cope with the needs of the people. A shameful revelation to the world, American government too ignorant to see the depth of the misery and too stupid not to accept the help offered immediately by the International community.
The disconnect of US administration has been illustrated profoundly – they do not want to be part of the world community – but the world still see the American people as part of their community and express their love and concern of the suffering from within.
Eternal Hope, as your nickname proclaims, the human spirit is alive – in spite of the neocon agenda of death and destruction.
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I totally agree. We should resurrect the old Works Progress Administration that FDR created to put millions of people back to work. I’ll take Holland’s leadership over the current chimp in charge any day, but the best-case scenario is getting Democrats back in power and put together a plan like what you describe.
It could happen sooner than you think. If Democrats regain power in 2007 in the House and Senate, they can impeach and remove both Bush and Cheney at once. The third person in power would be none other than House Speaker Nancy Pelsoi.
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Once again, look at a small, highly populated country like the Netherlands, with striking similarities to the problems New Orleans is confronted with in the Mississippi delta :: a balance between living – economy – nature.
The Dutch build an open Storm Surge Barrier and reclaim land from large lakes and the North Sea. The Dutch have also created one of Europe’s largest wild bird refuge regions. This in addition to existing natural beauty of the coastline, dunes and landscape.
To perform well in Europe’s economy, Rotterdam harbor and the oil refineries outperform any other region within the Netherlands and are a natural asset for the motor of the economy. The link by Rhine river to Germany’s large Industrial Region of the Rhur is essential. The new infrastructure is in place and often after great political battles inside the country.
<click on pic for more …>
Oostvaardersplassen
Nevertheless, the Dutch can be proud of their heritage, although they are never seen to be satisfied. The gas reserves of Slochteren are of course a huge importance to the Dutch budget and export balance.
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After a catastrophic 1953 flood,the Dutch built an elaborate
flood-control system. ABC News
The flood led to dramatic changes. The Netherlands spent $8 billion over 30 years fortifying the coastline with a sophisticated system of dikes, dams and levees.
Dutch law now requires that coastal defenses protect against the worst storm imaginable.
Ted Sluiter, a spokesman for Waterland Neeltje Jans, a recreational park and information center set up at the base of a major dam, said the hydraulic sea wall that is considered the crown jewel of the system would protect the country against all but a biblical flood. The dam is constructed in a way that protects the region’s wetlands, environmental-sensitive areas that serve as natural storm buffers.
“Without those, Holland will just disappear,” Sluiter said. “So, it has to be a Dutch discipline, hydraulic engineering.”
The hydraulic sea wall is 130 feet high and nearly six miles long. It’s basically a giant steel curtain that can be opened or closed, depending on the water level. One dam alone took more than a decade to build.
Down the North Sea coast, there’s a giant door that can seal off shipping lanes in an emergency. Each arm is as long as the Eiffel Tower and twice as heavy. A computer is programmed to close the door as soon as the water rises 6 feet.
The Dutch system is at least 50 times stronger than the coastal defenses surrounding New Orleans. “To the Dutch standards, New Orleans was not very well-protected,” said Huib de Vriend, director of Delta Hydraulics, a company that puts together the heavy machinery involved in some of the flood-control projects.
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