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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Hope from the server room 
| | The Digging Out Channel points to The Interdictor, the formerly casual Live Journal that is now the most important technology blog (or blog, period) covering what's happening in New Orleans. To repeat what I said over there, |
| | If you're a techie, a concerned citizen or somebody's who just too tired of watching human manequins try to make sense of the new American Haiti on cable TV, Michael's is one of the most riveting and informative sources of information -- and heroism as well -- on the Web right now. |
Prophesies
| | The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level‹more than eight feet below in places‹so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it. |
| | Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States. |
| | When did this calamity happen? It hasn't — yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great. |
| | The article spreads blame all over the place, but the common cause is an utter lack of what when I was growing up we called conservation, a value that was then also tied without irony to conservatism, a movement that has since moored itself to short term economic growth at all costs, political paranoia, military adventurism and a narrow understanding of markets as arenas where large companies fight over political and economic spoils, and human values (such as paying living wages to employees) are punished. |
| | This event will change the country as much as 9/11 did, and perhaps even more so. After Katrina, we will again begin investing in real homeland security, real infrastructure, real caring for the civilizing natures of vital cities and family farms, of small towns and real communities, and government bodies that care more about their people than the high-dollar sources of election funding. |
| | This event won't have ripple effects. The consequences will be tidal: on transportation, on agriculture, on lumber and other supplies, on retailing, on churches and on citizens across the country who will need to take on the burden of caring for refugees and helping others start new lives. |
| | Katrina also force us to face a subject even Demoncrats have stopped talking about, although it lurks beneath everything: class. When the dead are counted, most of them will have been poor. Count on it. |
| | This thing is a huge reset button on politics as usual. Along with everything else. |
Postal logic
| | Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. |
| | Ah, but substitute and for or and you'll have this: news that the United States Postal service won't be delivering in places where delivery is impossible, or accepting mail for those places. That alst link comes from DMNews, for direct marketers (who are, of course, directly effected). If you drill down in the USPS site, to About USPS & News to Postal News, you'll encounter a linkproof message about what can't be accepted or delivered by the Postal Service. This will change, of course. Not sure if the current message will disappear. In any case, there's no obvious way of linking to it. There is a link in that text to Service Updates. Today's tells refugees and others in damaged areas where they can pick up checks. Postal service suspension information is there too. If you think you can link to any in the list of News Releases, you're SOL, since the links to each of those (choice of PDF and TEXT) are script activators that bring up linkproof windows. Useful, perhaps, but not very. |
And how one helps us grow to the other
| | My latest Suitwatch is out. Warning: I have a some kind words about President Bush's speech yesterday (for which I have already received plenty of rebuke, thank you). But that speech is beside the points I make in the essay, which are about dependence and independence. |
Outside stories
| | Sheila Lennon is doing a bang-up job following many stories, especially coming out of the newspaper community. Here are permalinks to each day, so far. This morning she brings news that 'Fats' Domino is missing, along with Irma Thomas, and that Allen Toussaint is among the Astrodome refugees headed for Houston. |
| | So how about Dr. John, the Marsalis Family... For more, here's LOOKA's blog, with a Fox report that says the Neville family evacuated to Memphis, but that their homes are destroyed. |
| | Dave: I think we have to get ready to welcome the refugees into our homes, to absorb the population of New Orleans and the surrounding area into the rest of the country. It's clear that's where we're headed. Hey, how about to some of those military bases we're closing, or have already closed? Where is there government housing, plus some existing infrastructure that can be leveraged? |
Katrina dies
| | AT 11 PM EDT...03Z...THE REMNANTS OF KATRINA HAVE BEEN ABSORBED INTO A FRONTAL BOUNDARY IN SOUTHEASTERN CANADA AND A CIRCULATION IS NO LONGER DISCERNABLE. |
There are responses to this message:About the Interdictor, adamsj, 9/2/05; 2:16:40 PM Re: Wednesday, August 31, 2005, Bob Meade, 9/2/05; 11:38:41 AM Re: Wednesday, August 31, 2005, Bruce Fryer, 9/2/05; 1:43:23 AM Re: Wednesday, August 31, 2005, Greg, 9/1/05; 10:56:37 PM
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