1. Bill Doran found a new job??? 2. good for the mayor of NOLA. i still think he's nuts, but he's smart to call if off...he should have called it off earlier...with or without Rita.
i do...nagin knows what the rest of us know...if the economy doesn't get on its feet quick. if commerce doesn't start very quickly...then he's stuck as the mayor of a MUCH smaller town than if it does get started soon. he's trying to force it. but as one of the business owners in the article said.."business? there aren't any customers!"
Mayor halts return to New Orleans ____________ Pretty lucky that storm is coming now instead of a couple of weeks when he would have to try and evac a couple hundred thousand people again. Nagin is a joke ~ there must be some political reason he wants everyone back so soon.
http://drudgereport.com/flash8.htm 60 MINS: NATURAL DISASTER EXPERT TO NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTS: PULL OUT BEFORE THE COASTLINE PASSES A natural disaster expert says it’s time New Orleans residents faced the fact that their city will be below sea level in 90 years. Prof. Tim Kusky advocates a gradual pull-out from the city, whose slow, steady slide into the sea was sped up enormously by Hurricane Katrina. Kusky speaks to Scott Pelley for a 60 MINUTES report to be broadcast Sunday, Nov. 20 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. “New Orleans is going to be 15 to 18 feet below sea level, sitting off the coast of North America surrounded by a 50 to 100-foot-tall levee system to protect the city,” says Kusky, a professor in the Earth Sciences Department at St. Louis University. He estimates this will happen in 90 years. “That’s the projection, because we are losing land on the Mississippi Delta at a rate of 25 to 30 square miles per year. That’s two acres per hour that are sinking below sea level,” he tells Pelley. As the city assesses damage and plans to rebuild, Kusky believes there’s a better plan. “We should be thinking about a gradual pullout of New Orleans and starting to rebuild people’s homes, businesses and industry in places that can last more than 80 years,” he says. Instead, the law will allow residents to rebuild if their homes lie at the 100-year flood level, much of which was inundated by Katrina’s waters and would be put underwater again should levees fail. Many residents and business owners are reluctant to rebuild until the levees are repaired, a task that should be completed by next summer. But the repaired levees will only be able to withstand a category three hurricane; Katrina was a category four when it made landfall. Authorities estimate it would take many billions of dollars and between five and 10 years to create a new levee system able to withstand a category-five storm, which Katrina reached while at sea. With only half the former population expected to come back to the city, is it too much of a commitment for taxpayers? Is it practical? One resident thinks it’s a matter of pride. “The country has to decide whether it really is what we tell the world what we are,” says New Orleans city employee Greg Meffert, whose job is to assess damage there. “Because if we are that powerful…that focused…that committed to all of our citizens, then there is no decision to make. Of course you rebuild it,” says Meffert. For older people, the rebuilding makes some sense, admits Kusky, but for the succeeding generations, it does not. “They have to deal with the sinking land. This catastrophe that we’ve seen with Katrina is going to be repeated over and over and over again,” he tells Pelley.
http://drudgereport.com/flash5.htm MAG: New Orleans, It's Worse Than You Think $62.3 Billion in Federal Hurricane Relief Funds Mostly Unspent - More Than $37.5 Billion Still Sitting in FEMA's Account, Waiting For a Purpose, TIME Reports Federal Emergency Management Agency 'Awash in Money,' As Agency Announces End of Emergency Housing Program Dec. 1 Only 60,000 People Staying Overnight These Days in New Orleans Still Finding Bodies in New Orleans -- 30 in Past Month Sun Nov 20 2005 09:01:52 ET New York - They're still finding bodies 13 weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit-30 in the past month-raising the death toll to 1,053 in Louisiana, TIME's Cathy Booth-Thomas reports from New Orleans. The looters are still working too, brazenly taking their haul in daylight. But at night darkness falls, and it's quiet. “It's spooky out there. There's no life,” says cardiologist Pat Breaux, who lives near Pontchartrain with only a handful of neighbors. The destruction, says Breaux, head of the Orleans Parish Medical Society, depresses people. Suicides are up citywide, he say, although no one has a handle on the exact number. Murders, on the other hand, have dropped to almost none. Delays and squabbles in the recovery efforts mean that Congress's $62.3 billion largesse has mostly gone unspent. More than half-$37.5 billion-is sitting in FEMA's account, waiting for a purpose. Under fire for being slow to respond, the Bush Administration had rushed two emergency supplemental bills to Congress with little thought about how the money would be spent and how fast. Now FEMA is “awash in money,” says a Democratic appropriations aide. Of the nearly $25 billion assigned to projects, checks totaling only about $6.2 billion have been cashed. As a result, a third supplemental-funding bill sent to Congress suggests taking back $2.3 billion in aid. Mayor Ray Nagin attempted to shore up support for the city's recovery before Congress last week, but he came home with little new. The comment of a G.O.P. aide was typical: “We want to see them helping themselves before they ask us for help,” TIME reports.
