Project Katrina

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has a tough job trying to rebuild a city without a lot of support from the Federal government. But I’ve always wondered if his actions behind closed doors with the Feds might not have added to the problem in some ways.  Well if this interview is any indication that might well be the case. During a live TV interview he told two reporters that he wanted to have “a good one-on-one” with their boss in the parking lot because of an article related to his work schedule (or lack thereof).

Nagin also complained about the “vile, angry people” who comment on blogs. Asked if he’s worried about his safety, the mayor said:  “If somebody approach me wrong, I’m going to cold cock them. That’s the bottom line. You can come with that foolishness if you want, but you’ll see a side of Ray Nagin that you haven’t seen.” Not really what the citizens of New Orleans needs at this moment in time.

WML-TV has the transcript and video.

Tally up yet another victory for the insurance industry and their lobby. What is important to note is that the lawsuit argued that their policies were vague about what constituted a flood, therefore their claims should be awarded. But alas that was not the way the court saw it. Many folks have not had their claims granted cause the insurance companies said the damage was caused by a flood, and not wind, which would have been covered. Now others are being told that the vague wording of the contract should benefit the billions dollar insurance companies and not the taxpaying policy holders.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear lawsuits brought by Hurricane Katrina victims against private insurance companies, but a similar case at the state level will go before Louisiana’s highest court next week.

The federal high court turned down appeals filed by Xavier University and 68 other individuals and businesses who claimed their hazard insurance policies should have covered flooding caused by the failure of manmade levees after the storm.

The university and other plaintiffs went to the Supreme Court after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last summer overturned a lower court judge’s conclusion that because most of the policies’ flood exceptions were vague, they should be interpreted to favor policyholders. 

Reading my news feeds each day it is clear there isn’t a lot of good news coming out of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). And I can find none as it relates to FEMA, Katrina, and trailers. Now this from the Associated Press:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency misspent millions of dollars it received from selling used travel trailers, government investigators have found.

Instead of buying more trailers—as allowed under the law—FEMA used more than $13 million toward fully loaded sport utility vehicles, travel expenses and purchase card accounts, according to a draft report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general obtained by The Associated Press. The report is to be released Friday.

During its three-month review last summer, the inspector general found that FEMA used some of the proceeds from trailer sales for tree-removal services, agency decals and banners and global positioning systems. FEMA spokesman James McIntyre said the agency discovered these problems on its own and has taken steps to fix them.

After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA purchased 200,000 travel trailers and mobile homes. When displaced hurricane victims leave these housing units, FEMA may sell the units to the general public. The law states that FEMA must use proceeds from these sales to buy more trailers or return the money to the U.S. Treasury.

Well that is an easy question, used as a headline in a Newsday op-ed. I don’t even know where to start with the cluster fuck that is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as it relates to the formaldehyde tainted trailers they gave Katrina victims.

First they were late in getting them to residents. They overpaid. Thousands still sit unused and now damaged at an airport in Arkansas. People then complained that the trailers were making them sick. FEMA said no that can’t be the case. While they were saying there were zero health concerns, they were sending emails to their employees telling them the formaldehyde levels were so high they should NOT EVEN ENTER them. I have come to believe these folks are so incompetent they don’t even know it.

For the residents of Louisiana bad news just seems to pile on top of bad news. Of course Hurricane Katrina and Rita in recent times cause enormous problems, but now it appears that glacial ice from as far back as 750,000 years ago is one factor in New Orleans sinking at a rate of 0.17 inches a year. A comprehensive plan needs to be put in place yesterday to deal with all the issues (most interrelated) that is causing this problem to continue to occur.

Sediments deposited into the Mississippi River Delta thousands of years ago when North America’s glaciers retreated are contributing to the ongoing sinking of Louisiana’s coastline, finds new research by NASA and scientists at Louisiana State University.

The weight of these sediments is causing a large section of Earth’s crust to sag at a rate of 0.04 to 0.3 inches a year, the study determined.

The sediments pose a particular challenge for New Orleans, causing it to sink irreversibly at a rate of about 0.17 inches a year, according to data from a network of global positioning system stations and a model of sediment data collected from the northern Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi Delta.

“When the effect of this sinking near New Orleans is combined with a potential 0.9 centimeter (0.35 inch) annual sea level rise that could result should ice sheet melting accelerate as projected by many climate models, it is possible New Orleans could see a relative sea level rise of roughly one meter (3.3 feet) in the next 90 years,” warned co-author Ron Blom of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Terrible news coming out of Baton Rouge:

A 23-year-old woman killed two fellow students in a classroom at a vocational college Friday, then killed herself, police said. The women apparently were shot in their seats in the second-floor classroom at Louisiana Technical College, Baton Rouge Sgt. Don Kelly said. About 20 people were in the room at the time, he said.

Imagine this, elected officials are worried FEMA won’t be able to deliver help and support to tornado victims in a timely manner:

Even before the federal reinforcements arrived, a Democratic senator was warning the Federal Emergency Management Agency to do better than past disasters, including, of course, Hurricane Katrina.

“I have talked to FEMA Director David Paulison and made it clear that I will not tolerate a slow reaction time,” Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas said in a short statement. “FEMA must not use bureaucratic excuses to avoid helping Arkansans.”

NBC News reported that his statement echoed the concern of other local and state officials in the tornado-afflicted states, which included one still reeling from Katrina: Mississippi.

Today Bush visited the tornado-battered South and offered this promise to residents:

I don’t want people to think something is going to happen that’s not going to happen. And therefore when we say something is going to happen to help them get their feet back on the ground, it will happen.

Just for anyone breathing a sigh of relief knowing that now Bush has said help is on the way, keep in mind what he said in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.

Twister-Battered Region Has New Worries

At first, rescuers thought it was a doll. Then it moved. In a grassy pasture strewn with toys, splintered lumber and bricks tossed by the tornado’s widespread wrath, 11-month old Kyson Stowell was lying face down in the mud, 150 yards from where his home once stood.

“It looked like a baby doll,” said David Harmon, a firefighter who had already combed the field once looking for survivors. Then he checked for a pulse. “He was laying there motionless … and he took a breath of air and started crying.”

The field had already been combed once for survivors, and finding anyone alive seemed improbable. Hours after the storm, there was devastation everywhere: The body of the boy’s mother was found in the same field, houses were wiped to concrete slabs and a brick post office was blown to bits. But except for a few
scrapes, Kyson was fine.

Well this didn’t take very long now did it:

The nation’s largest insurance company has settled its dispute with Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood over his criminal investigation of the insurer’s Hurricane Katrina claims handling practices, a federal judge said Thursday.

State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. agreed to withdraw a lawsuit that accused Hood of violating a January 2007 agreement to end his probe of allegations that the company fraudulently denied claims after the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.

U.S. District Judge David Bramlette announced the deal in court Thursday but offered no details. Neither side would discuss the terms, but the deal apparently ends Hood’s new criminal investigation of State Farm with a
different focus than the earlier probe.