September 30, 2005
Thousands Expected to Return to New Orleans
"As thousands of residents return to New Orleans today, one month after Hurricane Katrina, they will find a city that is recovering but still short of adequate goods and services," writes New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter Bruce Hamilton in a September 30, 2005 post at NOLA.com.
He said, "For much of what they need, they will have to leave again." Here's more.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 05:54 AM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2005
Hearing Confirms Michael Brown Was Unfit to Lead FEMA
The Boston Herald's editorial staff said in a September 28, 2005 editorial that, "Former FEMA Director Michael Brown forgot the first rule of holes you know, when you're in one, stop digging."
The paper added:
In one of the most whiny performances ever witnessed in Washington and that's saying something Brown went well beyond attempting to defend the performance of his agency, spending a considerable amount of time whining about his treatment in the media.After listening to some of Brown's testimony, I concluded that his personality is not suited to running an agency such as The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He is not authoritative and blames others for his faults. The debacle at the New Orleans Superdome and Morial Convention Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina exposed his weaknesses om plain view of the world..
Here's the Herald editorial.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)
Why Did New Orleans Police Supt. Eddie Compass Resign?
Why did Eddie Compass, the Police Superintendent in New Orleans, USA, "abruptly" resign his post September 26, 2005?
James Varney and Michael Perlstein, staff writers for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, tries to explain why this move by a the man "whose emotional media appearances since Hurricane Katrina made him one of the city's most recognizable figures nationwide."
They said
"The stunning departure of the city's top cop roiled New Orleans leaders, and raised questions of whether Mayor Ray Nagin forced Mr. Compass from his job. Earlier this month, on September 9, Mr. Compass said, "I want to be police chief here as long as I can and as long as Mayor Nagin will have me.Well, it seems that Mr. Nagin, or some of his advisers, no longer wants him. If he did, I feel confident that Mr. Compass would not have resigned. And abruptly at that. Here's the NOLA.Com report.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 07:32 AM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2005
Nearly 6,000 Gulf Coast Doctors Uprooted by Katrina
"Nearly 6,000 doctors along the [U.S.] Gulf Coast were uprooted by Hurricane Katrina in the largest displacement of physicians in U.S. history, university researchers reported Monday," September 26, 2005, according to The Associated Press. Here's more.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 07:43 AM | Comments (0)
Rumors of Many Murders, Rapes in New Orleans Exaggerated
An investigation by the New Orleans Times-Picayune into an alleged high number of murders and rapes at the Super Dome and Morial Convention Center in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has found that "rumors of deaths (were) greatly exaggerated." The publication said authorities found six bodies at the Dome and four at Convention Center. Here's the investigation.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2005
Will Bush's Friends Rake in Billions From Gulf Coast Rebuilding?
During his September 15, 2005 address to the citizens of the United States about rebuilding New Orleans and the rest of the U.S. Gulf Coast destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, U.S. President George W. Bush proposed "the creation of a Gulf Opportunity Zone, encompassing the region of the disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama." He explained: Within this zone, we should provide immediate incentives for job-creating investment, tax relief for small businesses, incentives to companies that create jobs, and loans and loan guarantees for small businesses, including minority-owned enterprises, to get them up and running again. It is entrepreneurship that creates jobs and opportunity; it is entrepreneurship that helps break the cycle of poverty; and we will take the side of entrepreneurs as they lead the economic revival of the Gulf region.
I propose the creation of Worker Recovery Accounts to help those evacuees who need extra help finding work. Under this plan, the federal government would provide accounts of up to $5,000, which these evacuees could draw upon for job training and education to help them get a good job, and for child care expenses during their job search.
And to help lower-income citizens in the hurricane region build new and better lives, I also propose that Congress pass an Urban Homesteading Act. Under this approach, we will identify property in the region owned by the federal government, and provide building sites to low-income citizens free of charge, through a lottery. In return, they would pledge to build on the lot, with either a mortgage or help from a charitable organization like Habitat for Humanity. Home ownership is one of the great strengths of any community, and it must be a central part of our vision for the revival of this region.Although Mr. Bush assured the nation that the region's poor will not be left out of the economic boom that will result from the rebuilding process, my guess is that Mr. Bush and U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney's wealthy friends and election campaign contributors will reap most of the billions we, the taxpayers, will spend to rebuild the Gulf Coast. They benefitted from the Iraq war as if the war was started just for that purpose, and they will benefit here too.
Indeed, so-called minority contractors will get something. But overall, this is a fat cat's game.
Editor's note: This article is cross-posted at The National Political Observer.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 04:23 AM | Comments (0)
Bush's September 15 Speech on Rebuilding the U.S. Gulf Coast
U.S. President George W. Bush offered great ideas in his September 15, 2005 speech to the American people from News Orleans, Louisiana, USA. As I listened to him offer ideas for rebuilding the U.S. Gulf Coast and New Orleans, the city that has become a symbol of shame and embarrassment for him because he didn't do anything significant to help the people evacuate and get food and water until four days after Hurricane Katrina passed, I found myself saying: You should have done this from New Orleans the day after the Hurricane, Mr. President. If you had, you wouldn't be wasting your time tonight trying to score political points with the American people, who've been rightly critical of you for your slow response to calls for help to evacuate helpless Americans from the Super Dome and the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, as flood waters, criminals and other dangers raged around them.
I doubt Hip Hop Superstar Kanye West would have said you didn't care about black people if you had initially stopped in New Orleans instead of flying over the city as people suffered on the ground. You would have come off as compassionate and willing to help Americans as much as you say you are helping Iraqis.
But that's in the immediate past but not forgotten. It's stored away until the next election. The question now is: Will you keep the promises outlined in your speech and not let New Orleans' poor get shafted again as billions of dollars pour into the city for your laudable rebuilding efforts? Here's a White House transcript of the speech.
Editor's note: This item is cross-posted at The Opinion Gazette and The National Political Observer.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 03:40 AM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2005
Bush: New Orleans Needs to Control Recovery
James Varney and Bruce Nolan, staff writers for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which has not missed an issue since the Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States causing extensive loss of life and proproperty, reported September 13, 2005, that: President [George W.] Bush got his boots on the ground of New Orleans on Monday, touring some still waterlogged areas in the 7th Ward and Mid-City before conducting an ad-hoc press conference under the elevated Interstate 10 at Cleveland and South Claiborne avenues.
Flanked by Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco, Bush said the federal government is prepared to offer whatever assistance Louisiana's leaders require but that the design and implementation of the Hurricane Katrina recovery plan would be led locally.
"This great city has ample talent and ample genius to set the strategy, to set the vision," Bush said at Cleveland and South Claiborne avenues, a spot that until late last week was still under water and where the smell of the septic glop now coating much of New Orleans was noticeable.
"My attitude is this," he said. "The people of New Orleans can design the vision. They can lay out what New Orleans ought to look like in the future, and the federal government can help."
The Time-Picayune said, "Bush deflected criticism of both the federal government's response to Katrina, which has been widely excoriated for its dawdling pace, and notions that the strain the ongoing war in Iraq has put on the armed forces somehow made them inadequate to handle the nation's worst natural disaster.
"In addition," the paper said, "he said the view that race played a role in Katrina's destructive path or its aftermath was faulty."The storm didn't discriminate, and neither will the recovery effort," he said."
Posted by Munir Umrani at 07:15 AM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2005
Louisiana Officials Say They Rescued 250,000 Before US Army Arrived
New Orleans Times-Picayune reporters Jan Moller and Robert Travis Scott of the Capital Bureau reported in the paper's September 8, 2005 newsblog that, As it became clear last week that the devastation [in Louisiana, USA} from Hurricane Katrina required far more help than state and local authorities could provide, Governor Kathleen Blanco and other state officials began pleading for more help from the federal government. But substantial active-duty U.S. Army deployments didn't arrive until a week after the storm, a fact that might turn out to be one of the enduring controversies about the state and national response to one of the deadliest and most costly events in American history.
The Times-Picayune noted that, Earlier this week, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who commands Joint Task Force Katrina, said search-and-rescue is the top priority for the 7,000 active-duty forces ordered to Louisiana by President Bush on Saturday [September 3, 2005].
"Yet the vast majority of the rescue effort was conducted by state and local authorities, volunteers with flat-bottomed boats that could access the narrow streets where flood victims were stranded on roofs and attics, and by the Louisiana National Guard," the publication added.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 07:23 AM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2005
Nagin: Leave New Orleans or be Forced Out
New Orleans Mayor Clarence Ray Nagin on September 7, 2005 "ordered all remaining New Orleans residents out of the city to escape sporadic fires and the growing threat of disease from standing water contaminated by toxic chemicals and rotting corpses," according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune and other media outlets.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 07:28 AM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2005
How Bush Handled Katrina Aftermath is Big News in Europe
Canadian Journalist Doug Saunders contends in a September 6, 2005 article in The Globe and Mail of Toronto that, "If you want to find out how far the ripples from hurricane Katrina extend, look far beyond Louisiana and Mississippi and into the central precincts of Berlin, where the storm has now reached the high-water mark of German politics."
It's playing heavily all over Europe. Here's more.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 07:32 AM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2005
Muslim Nations Offer Aid to Help Katrina Victims
"Middle East friends and foes alike of the U.S. came forth over the weekend offering their condolences and humanitarian aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast region," The Daily Star of Lebanon noted September 5, 2005. Here's more.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)
NATO Sends Aid to U.S. to Help Hurricane Victims
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center (EADRCC) is coordinating responses to the United States' September 4, 2005 request for food supplies from Allies and NATO's partners," NATO has announced.
This was followed by a request that asked for "medical and logistical supplies," among other things, to help the people of the U.S. Gulf coast left homeless and destitute by Hurricane Katrina
Posted by Munir Umrani at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)
Blair Apologizes to Britons Caught Up in Katrina
British Prime Minister Tony Blair "apologized today to Britons caught up in Hurricane Katrina who have complained at being "abandoned" by the Foreign Office," reports The Guardian and other publications.
"However," The Guardian reported, " the prime minister also defended British diplomats, insisting that some had been working "round the clock" and had only managed to enter New Orleans itself overnight."
"Mr Blair spoke after the first British survivors began arriving home yesterday with horror stories about the New Orleans Superdome stadium, the city's main emergency shelter," the paper said. Here's more.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 08:25 AM | Comments (0)
Did New Orleans Disaster Expose City's Racial Fault Line?
"The white people got out [of New Orleans]" wrote New York Times correspondent Jason DeParle. "Most of them, anyway. If television and newspaper images can be deemed a statistical sample, mostly black people were left behind - poor black people, growing more hungry, sick and frightened by the hour as faraway officials counseled patience and warned that rescues."
Traditionally, African-Americans have always been counseled to have patience when it comes to racist practices that favors whites.
For more see, "Disaster exposes city's racial fault line."
Posted by Munir Umrani at 08:14 AM | Comments (0)
Criticism Forces Bush to Return to the U.S. Gulf Coast
After President George W. Bush nominated Federal appeals court judge John G. Roberts, Jr. on September 5, 2005 to replace the late William Rehnquist as the 17th chief justice of the United States, he immediately left for a second tour of the Gulf Coast of the U.S., to inspect the hurricane relief work taking place there.
This time he will visit Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Poplarville, Mississippi, according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Bush should have responded to the crisis wrought by Hurricane Katrina with the same speed he gave to finding a replacement for Rehnquist. He responded in a manner that made a difference only after receiving widespread criticism from both opponents and supporters. I wonder if his second visit is a political decision?
Posted by Munir Umrani at 08:03 AM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2005
'What Happened in New Orleans Far Worse Than Admitted So Far'
The Sunday Observer of London told its readers September 4, 2005 that: Those trapped inside the two main shelters [in New Orleans], the Superdome and the Convention Centre, paint a picture of a city that was subsumed beneath waves of violence, rape and death and accuse the police and National Guard of standing by, ignoring their pleas for help.
The claims are rejected by the federal and state authorities, who instead suggest the looting and lawlessness which followed the extensive flooding of the city was the result of a series of isolated incidents perpetrated by a few. "But it is clear from talking to survivors that what happened in New Orleans last week was far more extensive, bloody and terrifying than the authorities have admitted so far," the publication said.
For more see, "They're not giving us what we need to survive."
Posted by Munir Umrani at 08:27 PM | Comments (0)
Darryl Pinckney: 'We Are on Our Own' in New Orleans
Darryl Pinckney, author of a novel, "High Cotton" and a number of other works, told readers of The Guardian of London on September 3, 2005, that: In the US, white people are able to conceive of black people who are better than they are or worse than they are, superior or inferior, but they seem to have a hard time imagining black people who are just like them.
He said, "Officials in the affected areas are already beginning to have their say about the inadequacy of the measures the federal and state governments had in place to cope with the catastrophe, but maybe one of the reasons the rest of the country sat around and didn't seem able to take hold right away was their fear of the black people left behind."
For more see, "We are on our own.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)
Bush's Belated Gulf Coast Visit Fails to Appease Critics
The Independent Online of London said, U.S. President George W. Bush's "belated visit [to the Gulf Coast of the United States on September 2, 2005, to inspect damage from Hurricane Katrina and offer leadership] fails to appease his critics as [the] estimated death toll tops 10,000." Here's more.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)