Friday, January 27, 2006
And the yuppies of New Orleans rejoiced....
At the news of the re-opening of the Whole Foods on Magazine.
Wednesday, February 1st
8:45 a.m.
Free!
Arabella Station invites you to join us for our Grand Re-Opening! We'll have a special king cake ceremony, $1,000 donation to the Second Harvesters Food Bank, live music with Some Like It Hot, and great giveaways, food, people and fun! Join us for a fantastic, joyful time!
Vive la Nouvelle Orleans!
Whole Foods Market - Arabella Station
5600 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115 504.899.9119
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
Wednesday, February 1st
8:45 a.m.
Free!
Arabella Station invites you to join us for our Grand Re-Opening! We'll have a special king cake ceremony, $1,000 donation to the Second Harvesters Food Bank, live music with Some Like It Hot, and great giveaways, food, people and fun! Join us for a fantastic, joyful time!
Vive la Nouvelle Orleans!
Whole Foods Market - Arabella Station
5600 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115 504.899.9119
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Gov't block grants a joke in LA
Simply offering funds to those who did not have flood insurance and did not live in "flood plains" is not going to help us rebuild our city. The homes that flooded here in New Orleans is a direct result of the failure of the seawalls, designed and constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. If the Baker Bill doesn't get resurrected, it will be the wild west out here, with land developers roving town to take adavantage of flooded homeowners with few choices.
Storm-ravaged areas of Louisiana will get $6.2 billion in federal relief funds in a controversial plan that recommends giving the money to a small fraction of homeowners affected by the storm.
Donald Powell, President Bush's coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, suggested that money from the government's funding grant, announced Wednesday, be doled out to roughly 20,000 homeowners who weren't in a flood zone and did not have flood insurance when Hurricane Katrina hit. State officials must draw up plans for disbursing the money and get federal approval.
Louisiana officials had proposed a far more ambitious $30 billion initiative to rebuild ruined areas and said the government's relief effort would exclude at least 140,000 homes.
"It simply will not work," said Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, adding that she won't use the money as the White House recommends. "We are not in the business of choosing between our citizens."
Storm-ravaged areas of Louisiana will get $6.2 billion in federal relief funds in a controversial plan that recommends giving the money to a small fraction of homeowners affected by the storm.
Donald Powell, President Bush's coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, suggested that money from the government's funding grant, announced Wednesday, be doled out to roughly 20,000 homeowners who weren't in a flood zone and did not have flood insurance when Hurricane Katrina hit. State officials must draw up plans for disbursing the money and get federal approval.
Louisiana officials had proposed a far more ambitious $30 billion initiative to rebuild ruined areas and said the government's relief effort would exclude at least 140,000 homes.
"It simply will not work," said Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, adding that she won't use the money as the White House recommends. "We are not in the business of choosing between our citizens."
Evacuees Behaving Badly
OKLAHOMA CITY Three Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans facing murder charges in a fatal shooting in Oklahoma City.Twenty-five-year-old Kendrick Simpson, 20-year-old Jonathan Dalton, and 31-year-old Latango Robertson are charged in Oklahoma County District Court with discharging a firearm with intent to kill.
More here
More here
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Sounds cute, but.....
I don't know if I want to breathe next to these floats, if they have just been left to sit after being soaked in K-Water. Does this mean that microbe filtering masks are appropriate costume for the parade?
NEW ORLEANS The flood waters from Hurricane Katrina wrecked big sections of one Mardi Gras club's parade floats, so the club decided to use the damage for inspiration. The Krewe of Mid City, one of the city's oldest Mardi Gras clubs, is using blue tarps -- like the ones that cover so many damaged roofs -- to cover the bottom five feet of the floats, while the foil tops will take on Katrina themes.
More here
NEW ORLEANS The flood waters from Hurricane Katrina wrecked big sections of one Mardi Gras club's parade floats, so the club decided to use the damage for inspiration. The Krewe of Mid City, one of the city's oldest Mardi Gras clubs, is using blue tarps -- like the ones that cover so many damaged roofs -- to cover the bottom five feet of the floats, while the foil tops will take on Katrina themes.
More here
I'm sure you've seen this already...
Maybe they died from broken hearts?
NEW ORLEANS At least 147 Louisiana residents died in other states after Hurricane Katrina, or just before the storm. Included in those are a baby who lived less than an hour after her birth in Pennsylvania and a 100-year-old New Orleans woman who died in North Carolina.
More here
More here
Evacuees harassed in San Francisco
This is a story about some evacuees living in one of the worst San Francisco neighborhoods. There's some good and interesting video included in the story.
Some of the young female evacuees were also referred to as "hurricane whores," according to one police sergeant, and endured physical attacks.
Full story here
Some of the young female evacuees were also referred to as "hurricane whores," according to one police sergeant, and endured physical attacks.
Full story here
Monday, January 23, 2006
911 is a joke in chocolate town
UPDATE - 7:31 AM 1/25 - The report that was on television mentioned that the problems with the 911 system were due to the fact that calls were being made on cellphones. While there were neighbors calling on cellphones, there were others using cordless phones on landlines, others dialing the non-emergency police number, so that doesn't make any sense at all. I do believe we need to know that if we call 911 on a cellphone, should we not expect to get through? What about the parts of town that BellSouth has not restored landline service to, and that doesn't expect to get service for months? Are they without emergency services?
UPDATE - This was written on a few hours of sleep and a few hours of standing around outside, so it's probably a little raw. Regardless, the lack of 911 response is the real issue here. If our house had been on fire, 10 minutes could have saved lives.
There was a massive traffic accident on our street last night, enough to wake us up and all of our neighbors on the block. A truck (turns out to be stolen) totalled two other vehilcles, and did a little damage to two other cars (one of them our civic) on our block. The driver and passenger ran away, through some of our neighbors' yards.
Anyway, none of that has to do with the title of my post here. After hearing the crash and looking out of our window to see the cars scattered about, we ran downstairs with cellphones and cordless phones to check things out. We first tried to call 911 at 3:11 AM. It rang. Then again at 3:13 AM. Just ringing, no answer. I ask my wife to call 411 to see if information can connect us to the fire department, and I give the non-emergency number to another neighbor to have them try that line. Just ringing, no answer on the non-emergency line, and the 411 operator tells my wife that that they have been having the same problem getting through to emergency services in New Orleans. Other neighbors get the district direct line to try that number. I have been holding on to the cellphone as it rings over and over, and finally a police operator picks up, and we are able to report the accident (around 3:20 AM.) The police showed up at 3:46 AM, and were wonderful once they arrived. Multiple units showed up, patrolled the neighborhood looking for the now missing driver and passenger, and took reports from us and prepared the paperwork for us to file insurance claims.
All things considered, this wasn't a huge deal, nobody was hurt (that we know of), and we'll all go on with our lives, just on short sleep for today. But to know that it took us almost 10 minutes to get a call answered by 911, with several people dialing, is a huge, huge concern. I've been trying to find other information about the emergency system in New Orleans Post-Katrina, and haven't been able to find anything just yet. This is pretty serious though. If somebody had been breaking in to our house, we wouldn't have had 10 minutes. If somebody had been having a herat attack, we wouldn't have had 10 minutes. No answer.
UPDATE - This was written on a few hours of sleep and a few hours of standing around outside, so it's probably a little raw. Regardless, the lack of 911 response is the real issue here. If our house had been on fire, 10 minutes could have saved lives.
There was a massive traffic accident on our street last night, enough to wake us up and all of our neighbors on the block. A truck (turns out to be stolen) totalled two other vehilcles, and did a little damage to two other cars (one of them our civic) on our block. The driver and passenger ran away, through some of our neighbors' yards.
Anyway, none of that has to do with the title of my post here. After hearing the crash and looking out of our window to see the cars scattered about, we ran downstairs with cellphones and cordless phones to check things out. We first tried to call 911 at 3:11 AM. It rang. Then again at 3:13 AM. Just ringing, no answer. I ask my wife to call 411 to see if information can connect us to the fire department, and I give the non-emergency number to another neighbor to have them try that line. Just ringing, no answer on the non-emergency line, and the 411 operator tells my wife that that they have been having the same problem getting through to emergency services in New Orleans. Other neighbors get the district direct line to try that number. I have been holding on to the cellphone as it rings over and over, and finally a police operator picks up, and we are able to report the accident (around 3:20 AM.) The police showed up at 3:46 AM, and were wonderful once they arrived. Multiple units showed up, patrolled the neighborhood looking for the now missing driver and passenger, and took reports from us and prepared the paperwork for us to file insurance claims.
All things considered, this wasn't a huge deal, nobody was hurt (that we know of), and we'll all go on with our lives, just on short sleep for today. But to know that it took us almost 10 minutes to get a call answered by 911, with several people dialing, is a huge, huge concern. I've been trying to find other information about the emergency system in New Orleans Post-Katrina, and haven't been able to find anything just yet. This is pretty serious though. If somebody had been breaking in to our house, we wouldn't have had 10 minutes. If somebody had been having a herat attack, we wouldn't have had 10 minutes. No answer.
