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Catastrophes

  • Officials: Death Toll Lower Than Expected
    11 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    But how do we know if they’re telling us the truth?
    by Jennifer Monroe
    NEW ORLEANS, LA — (OfficialWire) — 09/11/05 — According to retired Col. Terry J. Ebbert, who oversees police and emergency operations as New Orleans’s chief of homeland security, "The numbers [of dead] so far are relatively minor as compared with the dire predictions of 10,000."
    "There’s some encouragement in what we found in the initial sweeps," he said.
    The first organized effort to search the city for its dead (…)

  • Police Trapped Thousands in New Orleans
    11 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    3 comments

    As the situation grew steadily worse in New Orleans last week, you might have wondered why people didn’t just leave on foot. The Louisiana Superdome is less than two miles from a bridge that leads over the Mississippi River out of the city.
    The answer: Any crowd that tried to do so was met by suburban police, some of whom fired guns to disperse the group and seized their water.
    Around 500 people stuck in downtown New Orleans after the storm banded together for self-preservation, making (…)

  • Overkill: Feared Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans
    11 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    3 comments

    NEW ORLEANS — Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq, are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries say they have been "deputized" by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms. They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the (…)

  • To: The 95 countries that helped Katrina victims!
    11 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    To: The 95 countries that helped Katrina victims!
    On behalf of myself and the American people we humbly thank you all for your generous support during these trying times of disaster relief for all of the victims that
    were directly and indirectly affected by the Katrina Hurricane. We also humbly thank you as well as others who are helping to save our dear friends, the animals that are always forgotten in time of distress but yet are always our true friends. We are keenly aware as are (…)

  • With the poor gone, developers are planning to gentrify New Orleans
    10 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    8 comments

    by Naomi Klein
    On September 4, six days after Katrina hit, I saw the first glimmer of hope. "The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night, scattering across this country to become homeless in countless other cities while federal relief funds are funnelled into rebuilding casinos, hotels, chemical plants. We will not stand idly by while this disaster is used as an opportunity to replace our homes with newly built mansions and condos in a gentrified New Orleans."
    The (…)

  • German Plane With Katrina Aid Turned Back
    10 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    7 comments

    BERLIN - A German military plane carrying 15 tons of military rations for survivors of Hurricane Katrina was sent back by U.S. authorities, officials said Saturday.
    The plane was turned away Thursday because it did not have the required authorization, a German government spokesman said.
    The spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, declined to comment on a report in the German news magazine Der Spiegel that U.S. authorities refused the delivery on the grounds that the NATO (…)

  • NOLA VIDEO: "Alligators eating people, babies floating, women raped"..a story of survival and escape
    10 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    10 comments

    See Video: http://tinyurl.com/a9gr8
    How We Survived the Flood
    By CHARMAINE NEVILLE
    Charmaine Neville is a member of the third generation of New Orleans’s legendary Neville musical family. She fronts the Charmaine Neville Band.
    This is a transcript of an interview Charmaine Neville, of New Orleans’s legendary Neville family, gave to New Orleans media outlets on Monday, September 5. I was in my house when everything first started. When the hurricane came, it blew all the left side of (…)

  • Summary: Bush Administration Negligence in New Orleans
    10 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    (I’ve compiled, in one place, evidence from mainstream news sources and credible witnesses showing how bad the federal government’s response to the New Orleans disaster really is. This article will be updated daily to include the latest developments.
    I focus solely on the response to the flooding, which is separate and apart from the fact that the flood would not have occurred in the first place if the administration hadn’t slashed funding for levee repairs in order to fund its adventure (…)

  • FEMA, missing bodies, insurance fraud?
    10 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    It looks like FEMA is flying out people to far away places (like Utah) and burning bodies in a flagrant attempt to depopulate the city for developers and deny insurance claims for survivors. It appears that they’ve done it before... during Hurricane Charley last year in Brother Jeb’s Florida. SEE:
    September 9, 2005 — "Dallas meeting plans reconstruction of New Orleans without poor African Americans." http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
    September 5, 2005 — FEMA has contacted a crematorium (…)

  • FEMA Chief Brown Paid Millions to Fla. Residents Unaffected by ‘04 Hurricane to Help Bush Win Majori
    10 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    FEMA Chief Brown Paid Millions to Fla. Residents Unaffected by ‘04 Hurricane to Help Bush Win Majority of Votes There
    By Jason Leopold
    Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances and three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush win a majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign, (…)