September 2005 – Page 4

More Katrina Incompetence

December 17, 2019September 8, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

On August 27th, President Bush declared a State of Emergency in Louisiana due to the then-incoming Hurricane Katrina. Sounds like a good thing, and possibly one of the few things done right in this whole mess, right? Well…not quite. The declaration spelled out which Louisiana parishes were covered by the State of Emergency (emphasis mine):

The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.

As Chris Floyd first noticed, none of the coastal parishes were included in this list. All the inland, landlocked parishes were mentioned, but the coastal parishes in the most immediate danger from Katrina? Conspicuously absent. Bob Harris created this map highlighting the mentioned parishes:

So good to know we’ve got the best and the brightest doing everything in their power to keep the people of America safe from any harm.

Olbermann blasts Bush

December 17, 2019September 7, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

Well, not so much Bush specifically, as the entire botched crisis management in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It’s an astoundingly good editorial sequence — could it be that the media’s finally been jostled awake from its all-to-complacent willingness to give a pass to everything the current administration does?

Here’s the video clip. It’s an embedded .wmv file, unfortunately, but the transcript follows.

White Foragers Report Threat Of Black Looters

December 17, 2019September 7, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

From The Onion:

NEW ORLEANS—Throughout the Gulf Coast, Caucasian suburbanites attempting to gather food and drink in the shattered wreckage of shopping districts have reported seeing African Americans “looting snacks and beer from damaged businesses.” “I was in the abandoned Wal-Mart gathering an air mattress so I could float out the potato chips, beef jerky, and Budweiser I’d managed to find,” said white survivor Lars Wrightson, who had carefully selected foodstuffs whose salt and alcohol content provide protection against contamination. “Then I look up, and I see a whole family of [African-Americans] going straight for the booze. Hell, you could see they had already looted a fortune in diapers.” Radio stations still in operation are advising store owners and white people in the affected areas to locate firearms in sporting-goods stores in order to protect themselves against marauding blacks looting gun shops.

They’re somewhat on-again/off-again, but when the Onion is on, they’re dead on.

A little ray of sunshine

December 17, 2019September 7, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

While it’s never a happy thing to see one of Seattle’s many homeless inhabitants laboring to push a shopping cart filled to overflowing with what few items they’ve been able to claim for themselves up one of our many hills, I have to admit it’s hard not to grin when they’ve got a big smile on their face, they’re happily engaging in conversation with a passerby who helps keep the cart from rolling away — and the cart they’ve chosen is one of the “keep the kids entertained” models designed to look like a bright red and yellow plastic car.

Pity I didn’t have my camera on me, I’d have gladly traded him a few dollars for a shot or two. Perhaps I’ll run across him some other time.

Safety: 10 best/worst places to live in the US

December 17, 2019September 6, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

MSNBC crunched some numbers to come up with lists of the ten safest and most dangerous places to live in the US in terms of weather and natural disasters.

The ten safest:

Honolulu, Hawaii
Boise City, Idaho
Santa Fe, N.M.
Yakima, Wash.
Spokane, Wash.
Richland-Kennewick-Pasco, Wash.
Medford-Ashland, Ore.
Corvallis, Ore.
Salem, Ore.
Las Cruces, N.M.

And the ten most risky:

Monroe, La.
Dallas, Tex.
Jackson, Miss.
Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.
West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Fla.
Kansas City, Mo.
Elkhart-Goshen, Ind.
Tulsa, Okla.
Memphis, Tenn.
Shreveport-Bossier City, La.

The Pacific Northwest seems to be a pretty good bet, all told, with six locations on the list, three in WA and three in OR…seven, if you count ID as part of the PNW. Amusingly, though, one of the WA locations is the Tri-Cities area, home to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation — but as the Seattle PI points out, these are lists looking at natural disasters.

(via the Seattle PI Buzzworthy blog)

CascadiaCon

December 17, 2019September 5, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

For the past few months, there’s been two different events on my radar for the Labor Day weekend that I was interested in: Bumbershoot and CascadiaCon. Some time ago, I’d decided to forego CascadiaCon in favor of Bumbershoot, but then over the past week I got a bit ticked at the Bumbershoot people over their “no cameras” foolishness, and ended up deciding that I didn’t want to head that way, either. So this weekend was looking to be pretty low-key.

Thursday evening Prairie and I went out for dinner with some friends from the Vogue (something that’s becoming a weekly event), and found out that Erin had been asked to showcase some of her clothing in a fashion show at CascadiaCon. Over the course of the conversation, I ended up getting asked to photograph the show, and Prairie was asked to be one of Erin’s models!

So, Saturday evening, Prairie and I headed down to the SeaTac Hilton, picked up CascadiaCon attendee badges at the registration desk, and found our way up to the designated “green room”. Prairie was soon buried in hair, makeup, and clothing, so I wandered back and forth between the green room and the conference room where the show was going to be.

The show itself was much fun — three designers showcasing four clothing lines (Imp of Satan, Fetishwear, Winter Couture, and Notorious Curves) in a late-night, 18+ only Fetish for Fantasy Fashion Show, hosted by Betty Rage of Glitzkrieg Burlesque and Cherry Baum (aka Mickey, who I know from the Vogue).

There are, of course, lots of pictures in a Flickr photoset. While my photos aren’t nearly “professional” quality (after all, there’s only so far you can push a little point-and-shoot, no matter how many dials and buttons they stick on it), I did the best I could. Here’s a few sample shots…

First Steps

December 17, 2019September 5, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

As of approximately 10:15 this morning, I’ve officially applied for admission to North Seattle Community College, intending to start in January with the Winter 2006 quarter.

I suppose 15 years after graduating High School was a long enough wait.

“Fu-Gee-La” by Fugees from the album Ruffhouse Records Greatest Hits (1996, 4:19).

The New Apartment

December 17, 2019September 2, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

Finally — pictures of the new apartment!

Each of the following shots has notes added if you click through to the Flickr page, pointing out some of the bits and pieces you see in the rooms.

And now…tour time!

Sometimes predictions come true

December 17, 2019September 1, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

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.

— National Geographic, Gone With the Water, October 2004

A freakishly prescient look at what could happen if a major storm hit the New Orelans area. Well worth reading to understand just what happened, why…and some of the reasons it’s so bad right now.

I’ve been absolutely awestruck at the news reports coming out of the Gulf Coast over the past few days. I’m really not sure what to say other than that — the whole thing is just mind-numbing.

(article via Doc Searls)