FEMA Employees Lynched for Looting in New Orleans Joel Carlin – FKK September 17, 2005 New Orleans- The badly mangled bodies of three FEMA workers were discovered two days ago, hanging from a tree inside the courtyard of a French Quarter apartment. The bodies, found by U.S. Military Police units engaged in searching for survivors, bore crudely written placards that read, “FEMA THIEF-DIE,” “RACIST PIG,” and “FEMA LOOTER BITCH.” The bodies were, in the words of an Army officer, “shockingly mutilated’ and one of the victims had their tongue torn out while another had both hands cut off. They were identified by plastic name tags as: Martine Smallworth, 38, of Clearwater, Florida, LeRoy Dufarge, 45, also of Clearwater, and Janu Radzek, 29, from Coral Gables, Florida. Found with the badly decomposing and mutilated bodies were expensive leather luggage, apparently looted from Saks Fifth Avenue’s New Orleans store and containing very expensive women’s clothing, jewelry, several boxes of Davidoff cigars, three Rolex watches and nearly thousand in small bills. A so-called manifesto was also found, tied to the feet of one of the victims that called for violence against President Bush and the former head of FEMA, Brown. Because of what was termed its “inflammatory nature” of this document, its contents were not released . Apartment house residents claimed that they had “heard and seen nothing” although it appeared that the three had been killed where they were found. There are growing rumors in military and civilian circles here that FEMA personnel have been involved in shipping large amounts of emergency food rations, allegedly for resale, out of the area in official trucks at the height of the recovery efforts.     Storm Donations Found at Official's Home See Expanded Coverage More Stories, Multimedia BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Police found cases of food, clothing and tools intended for hurricane victims at the home of the chief administrative officer for a New Orleans suburb, authorities said Wednesday. Officers searched Cedric Floyd's home because of complaints that city workers were helping themselves to donations for hurricane victims. Floyd, who runs the day-to-day operations in the suburb of Kenner, was in charge of distributing the goods. Police plan to seek a charge of committing an illegal act as a public official against Floyd, and more charges against other city workers are possible, police Capt. Steve Caraway said. The donations filled a large pickup truck four times. "It was an awful lot of stuff," Caraway said. '+' '); } '+' '); } The donated materials must be processed as evidence but eventually will be distributed to victims. "We have lots of families that are begging for these supplies," said Attorney General Charles Foti, whose office assisted in the investigation. Attempts to reach Floyd were unsuccessful at home numbers listed under his name in Kenner. His office number went unanswered after business hours. Philip Ramon, chief of staff to Kenner Mayor Philip Capitano, has said city officials were investigating the alleged pilfering but added that many employees were themselves hurricane victims.

 

 

EXCLUSIVE: UP IN FLAMES

 

   Tons of British aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be BURNED by Americans

From Ryan Parry, US Correspondent in New York

HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.

US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.

Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.

NEEDY: Evacuees from New Orleans

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And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.

One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".

The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.

Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant.

The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been shipped to the US.

But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which impounded the shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.

The aid worker, who would not be named, said: "This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.

"The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned as unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved rations of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq.

"Under Nato, American soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations, yet the starving of the American South will see them go up in smoke because of FDA red tape madness."

PAIN: Child survivor cries

The worker added: "There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock soon - of burned food, of anger and of shame that the world's richest nation couldn't organise a p**s up in a brewery and lets Americans starve while they arrogantly observe petty regulations.

"Everyone is revolted by the chaotic shambles the US is making of this crisis. Guys from Unicef are walking around spitting blood.

"This is utter madness. People have worked their socks off to get food into the region.

"It is perfectly good Nato approved food of the type British servicemen have. Yet the FDA are saying that because there is a meat content and it has come from Britain it must be destroyed.

"If they are trying to argue there is a BSE reason then that is ludicrously out of date. There is more BSE in the States than there ever was in Britain and UK meat has been safe for years."

The Ministry of Defence said: "We understand there was a glitch and these packs have been impounded by the US Department of Agriculture under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.

"The situation is changing all the time and at our last meeting on Friday we were told progress was being made in relation to the release of these packs. The Americans certainly haven't indicated to us that there are any more problems and they haven't asked us to take them back."

Food from Spain and Italy is also being held because it fails to meet US standards and has been judged unfit for human consumption.

And Israeli relief agencies are furious that thousands of gallons of pear juice are to be destroyed because it has been judged unfit.

The FDA said: "We did inspect some MREs (meals ready to eat) on September 13. They are the only MREs we looked at. There were 70 huge pallets of vegetarian MREs.

"They were from a foreign nation. We inspected them and then released them for distribution."

 

EXPLOSIVE RESIDUE FOUND ON FAILED LEVEE DEBRIS!

http://www.halturnershow.com/DiversFindExplosiveResidueOnRupturedLevy.html

EXPLOSIVE RESIDUE FOUND ON FAILED LEVEE DEBRIS!

Ruptured New Orleans Levee had help failing By: Hal Turner September 9, 2005 3:36 PM EDT

New Orleans, LA -- Divers inspecting the ruptured levee walls surrounding New Orleans found something that piqued their interest:  Burn marks on underwater debris chunks from the broken levee wall!

One diver, a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, saw the burn  marks and knew immediately what caused them.  He secreted a small  chunk of the cement inside his diving suit and later arranged for it  to be sent to trusted military friends at a The U.S. Army Forensic Laboratory at Fort Gillem, Georgia for testing.

According to well placed sources, a military forensic specialist determined the burn marks on the cement chunks did, in fact, come  from high  explosives.  The source, speaking on condition of  anonymity said "We found traces of boron-enhanced fluoronitramino explosives as well as PBXN-111.  This would indicate at least two separate types of explosive devices."

The levee ruptures in New Orleans did not take place during Hurricane Katrina, but rather a day after the hurricane struck.  Several residents of New Orleans and many Emergency Workers reported hearing what sounded like large, muffled explosions from the area of the levee, but those were initially discounted as gas explosions from homes with leaking gas lines.

If these allegations prove true, the ruptured levee which flooded New Orleans was a deliberate act of mass destruction perpetrated by someone with access to military-grade UNDERWATER high explosives.

 

WARNING

SOME GOOD FACTS

NEW ORLEANS sewers have not been pumped and such contain EXPLOSIVE PRONE chemicals, gasoline, oil as well as toxic contaminated fecal matter and bacteria. Vice Admiral ALLEN from the United States Coast Guard has quite effectively stressed the area is UNSAFE until all pumping is done, all sewer systems are cleaned out and more importantly ALL Electricity and Water is restored. NO ONE CAN DECONTAMINATE CARS, PEOPLE OR ITEMS WITHOUT RUNNING WATER AND YOU RISK INFECTING A NATION WITH EVACUEES RETURNING TO OTHER STATES OR AREAS AFTER GOING INTO THE DANGER ZONES.

As a Professional Florida State Certified Plumbing Contractor CFCO32631 let me tell all of you something that obviously Vice Admiral Allen is full aware of:

1. NO ELECTRICITY SHOULD BE TURNED ON UNTIL ALL RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL CIRCUIT BREAKERS ARE THROWN -OFF- AT MAIN BREAKERS OR FIRES WILL CONSUME MANY STRUCTURES. People who left perhaps had the stoves with items on them and cutting back on electricity could result in BURNING DOWN HOMES which will spread with any wind to other structures. FIRE could ignite gasoline, oil and other substances and SECONDARY EXPLOSIONS RUPTURE SEWER LINES in ways you do not want to know. In Germany a man poured gasoline down a sewer to drive out RATS and ignited the fuel which flashed back causing severe damage and fire to an apartment building. Millions of Gallons of GASOLINE are in those sewers perhaps along with hospital chemicals which will ignite and burn at the slightest distrubance.

2. People will become contaminated RETURNING TO PROPERTY with such E-COLI and other bacteria or mixtures too toxic to even begin to speculate. Such contamination by those who are allowed to enter their homes, salvage items will ENSURE CONTAMINATION IN ALL AREAS THEY VISIT because they cannot RINSE DOWN OR DECONTAMINATE EVEN THEIR OWN CLOTHING before leaving to go somewhere like messengers of death or disease. WAIT MAYOR NAGIN!

3. Rescue/Fire and other officials are NOT prepared to fight large fires which will be caused by even a cigarette thrown into the areas where pockets of GAS or GASOLINE and OIL are gathered. The FIRE LINES DO NOT HAVE THE WATER NOR IS THERE POTABLE WATER TO FIGHT THEM! Weather conditions can bring high winds which will spread any fire to structure after structure and bulldozing homes may not be fast enough to prevent these fire units from containing the fires. THIS IS NOT A CIVIL WAR AND ONE IS BURNING A CITY but it could become a similar scene IF New Orleans Mayor and Governor plus NOPD Chief do not support this wise decision to stop people from coming in until ELECTRICITY, WATER AND SEWAGE problems have been solved.

4. RAIN IS YOUR NEXT ENEMY as the weather will turn worse and heavy rains will move more gasoline into pockets like sewers making SLUDGE AND SEWAGE REMOVAL PLUS DUMPING of same in nearby treatment plants in other states CRITICAL to recovery efforts. Tankers, Barges and every VACTOR TRUCK can help get these explosive chemicals, gas and other matter out of the sewer lines.

5. EVERY AMERICAN is waiting to see when it is fully safe to come back into the communities and each time buildings which were flooded have the electricity TURNED back on or the GAS service restored without SHUTTING OFF INLET MAINS TO BUILDINGS OR HOMES makes for a more explosive situation and Vice Admiral Allen IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT TO MAKE THE AREA SAFE BEFORE ALLOWING THE MAYOR TO START PARTIES IN ONE QUARTER OF THE CITY AND LET PEOPLE RETURN.

6. Federal Assistance and Experts are on the ground TESTING the water standing, testing the homes contaminated for level of contamination and NO FRESH WATER has been restored to allow washing down contaminated materials into those CLOGGED SEWER LINES or STORM DRAINAGE SYSTEMS. WHY BURN NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY OR THREATEN RESPONDERS AND WORKERS BOTH CIVILIAN AND MILITARY?

7. It will take WEEKS to get the sewers and storm drains clear and washed out so they can be safe. It will also take WEEKS to restore power to sections critical then those sections where individual homes have to get attention to each and every METER TO CUT OFF POWER before turning on ZONES to get that electricity to a needed building will take many days working 24/7 with trained mililtary and civilian crews. More pumps can be brought on line if rain comes at 6 inches per hour over the entire area.

8. Teams will have to start HOUSE TO HOUSE searches for survivors or they body count will climb. Hopefully those teams will have speakers and PA systems from CB Radio's to get instructions and coordinate efforts then MARKING THE ROOF AREAS as cleared will become necessary. Upside down spray paint works wonders on a roof and regular paint cans work well on property sides!

9. RESCUE OF SURVIVORS IS IN EMERGENCY STAGE AS THE RESCUE OF AN OLD AMERICAN TODAY IS PROOF PEOPLE MAY BE TRAPPED IN OTHER HOMES! NIGHT VISION GOGGLES CAN FIND PEOPLE 24/7 INSIDE THESE HOMES AND SPEAKERS WILL KEEP THE RESCUE PERSONNEL FROM GETTING ATTACKED. NOW THE HELICOPTER CAN PULL OUT THOSE DYING WHO SURVIVED.

10. THE LEVEE ENTIRE RUN MUST BE REINFORCED WITH DEBRIS FROM THE DAMAGED BUILDINGS LAYING IN THOSE 20-30 FOOT WIDE AREAS BEHIND THAT FLIMSY LEVEE CONSTRUCTION.

WELL DONE VICE ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN. YOU HAVE ONE HECK OF A CREW AND PLAN. HOPE THE AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS, R.E.A.C.T. AND CB USERS JOIN LOANING THEIR EQUIPMENT TO THOSE FROM OUT OF TOWN.

MAYOR, GOVERNOR, MR. PRESIDENT AND FEMA DIRECTOR: PLEASE SUPPORT VICE ADMIRAL ALLEN IN THIS SAFETY MEASURE AS THE ENTIRE AREA AND THOSE INSIDE IT WHO ARE TRYING TO HELP ARE IN DANGER!

 

Subject:   Sausage
Sausage - Looted Or Not - Puts Elderly Church Leader In Prison

  By Kevin McGill and John Solomon
  Associated Press
  9-16-5

          Merlene Maten undoubtedly stands out in the prison where she
has been held since Hurricane Katrina. The 73-year-old church deaconess, never
before in trouble with the law, now sleeps among hardened criminals. Her bail
is a stiff ,000. Her offense? Police say the grandmother from New Orleans
took .50 in goods from a looted deli the day after Katrina struck.

          Family and eyewitnesses have a different story. They say Maten is an
innocent woman who had gone to her car to get some sausage to eat but was
wrongly handcuffed by tired, frustrated officers who couldn't catch younger
looters at a nearby store. Not even the deli owner wants her charged.

          "There were people looting, but she wasn't one of them. Instead of
chasing after people who were running, they grabbed the old lady was who
walking," said Elois Short, Maten's daughter, who works in traffic enforcement
for neighboring New Orleans police.

          Short has enlisted the help of the AARP, the senior citizens lobby,
the Federal Emergency Management Agency legal assistance office, made up of
volunteer lawyers, and a private attorney to get her mother freed. But the task
has been complicated.

          Maten has been moved from a parish jail to a state prison an hour
away. And the judge who set ,000 bail by phone -- 100 times the maximum
fine under state law for minor thefts -- has not returned a week's worth of
calls, her lawyer said.

          "She has slipped through the cracks and the wheels of justice have
stopped turning for Mrs. Maten," attorney Daniel Beckett Becnel III said.

          The family has not been able to visit her during her two weeks of
confinement and was allowed to talk to her by phone for only a few minutes. The
state prison declined to let The Associated Press interview Maten by phone,
demanding a written request.

          Becnel, family members and witnesses said police snared Maten, a
diabetic, in the parking lot of a hotel where she had fled the floodwaters that
swamped her New Orleans home. She had paid for her room with a credit card and
dutifully followed authorities' instructions to pack extra food, they said.

          She was retrieving a piece of sausage from the cooler in her car and
planned to grill it so she and her frail 80-year-old husband, Alfred, could
eat, according to her defenders. The parking lot was almost a block from the
looted store, they said.

          "That woman was never, never in that store," said Naisha Williams, 23,
a New Orleans bank security guard who said she witnessed the episode and is
distantly related to Maten. "If they want to take it to court, I'm willing to
get on the stand and tell them the police is wrong. She is totally innocent."

          Police Capt. Steve Carraway said Wednesday that Maten was arrested in
the checkout area of a small store next to police headquarters.

          The arrest report is short and assigns the value of goods Maten is
alleged to have taken at .50. The items are not identified.

          "When officers arrived, the arrestee was observed leaving the scene
with items from the store. The store window doors were observed smashed out,
where entry to the store was made," police reported.

          Williams, one of the witnesses, said Maten was physically unable to
get inside the store -- even if she had wanted to.

          "She is not capable of even looting it the way the store was at the
time. You had to jump over a counter, and she is a diabetic and weak-muscled
and wouldn't be able to get herself over it. And she couldn't afford to step on
broken glass," Williams said.

          Williams said she tried to explain that to police but was brushed off.

          "They didn't want to hear it. They put handcuffs on her. They just
said we were emotional. It was basically, `Just shut up,"' she said.

          Maten's husband was left abandoned at the hotel, until family members
picked him up. He is too upset to be interviewed, the family said.

          Christine Bishop, the owner of the Check In Check Out deli, said that
she was angry that looters had damaged her store, but that she would not want
anyone charged with a crime if the person had simply tried to get food to
survive. "Especially not a 70-year-old woman," Bishop said.

          Short, Maten's daughter, did not witness the incident. She said her
mother has led a law-abiding life. She is a deaconess at the Resurrection
Mission Baptist Church and won an award for her decades of service at a
hospital, Short said.

          "Why would someone loot when they had a car with a refrigerator and
had paid with a credit card at the hotel? The circumstances defy the theory of
looting," said Becnel, Maten's lawyer.

          Robin Peak, a legal analyst from AARP who assisted Maten's family,
declined to discuss the case. She wrote colleagues an e-mail earlier this week
about the elderly woman's plight. It was titled, "50K: The Price of Freedom in
New Orleans."

 

FEMA CITY IN FLORIDA

Saturday, September 17, 2005
Subject: A washingtonpost.com article

  FEMA's City of Anxiety in Florida

  By Marc Kaufman

   PUNTA GORDA, Fla. -- "Someone killed my dog," sputtered Royaltee Forman,
still livid two weeks later.

  "They just threw him out the window and hung him with his own leash," he
said, convinced that someone broke into his home while he was out. "I mean,
what kind of place has this become?"

  Forman's place is FEMA City, a dusty, baking, treeless collection of
almost
500 trailers that was set up by the federal emergency agency last fall to
house more than 1,500 people made homeless by Hurricane Charley, one of the
most destructive storms in recent Florida history. The free shelter was
welcomed by thankful survivors back then; almost a year later, most are
still there -- angry, frustrated, depressed and increasingly desperate.

  "FEMA City is now a socioeconomic time bomb just waiting to blow up," said
Bob Hebert, director of recovery for Charlotte County, where most FEMA City
residents used to live. "You throw together all these very different people
under already tremendous stress, and bad things will happen. And this is
the
really difficult part: In our county, there's no other place for many of
them to go."

  As government efforts move forward to relocate and house some of the 1
million people displaced by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast --
including plans to collect as many as 300,000 trailers and mobile homes for
them -- officials here say their experience offers some harsh and sobering
lessons about the difficulties ahead.

  Most troubling, they said, is that while the badly damaged town of Punta
Gorda is beginning to rebuild and even substantially upgrade one year after
the storm, many of the area's most vulnerable people are being left badly
behind.

  The hurricane began that slide, destroying hundreds of modest homes and
apartments along both sides of the Peace River as it enters Charlotte
Harbor, and almost all of Punta Gorda's public housing. Then as the
apartments were slowly restored -- a process made more costly and
time-consuming because of a shortage of contractors and workers --
landlords
found that they could substantially increase their rents in the very tight
market.

  As a result, the low-income working people most likely to have been
displaced by the hurricane are now most likely to be displaced by the
recovery, too.

  The unhappy consequence is that FEMA City's population has barely
declined -- its trailers are occupied by 1,500 check-out clerks, nurse's
aides, aluminum siding hangers, landscapers and more than a few people too
old, too sick or too upset to work. A not-insignificant number of illegal
immigrants and ex-convicts live there as well.

  To the county's surprise, Hebert said, finding solutions to their
ever-increasing problems is now the biggest and most frustrating part of
the
entire hurricane recovery effort.

  "Having lived through the last year here, this is my advice to New Orleans
and the other Gulf Coast towns: Don't make big camps with thousands of
people, because it doesn't work," Hebert said. "It takes a bad situation
and, for many people, actually makes it worse."

  Hebert was referring to the growing family problems, vandalism and
criminal
activity at the site, but even more to the deadline looming over FEMA City.
By regulation, federal emergency shelter only lasts 18 months after a
disaster is declared, and in Charlotte County the emergency period will end
on Feb. 13. By then, everyone is supposed to be out of the trailers.

  The deadline can sometimes be extended, but FEMA City site manager Roger
Larson said no extensions are currently planned in Florida. In fact, more
than 50 trailers have been taken out of FEMA City since Katrina hit, all
headed to Mississippi and Louisiana. The prospect of forced evictions is on
everyone's minds.

  "Personally, I think there will be riots here if they try to evict
people,"
said Tiffanie Weygart, a high school junior who was  spending time last
week
with some friends on the otherwise-deserted main street of FEMA City, her
family's home for most of this year. "We've got old people, we've got a lot
of new babies. Where are they supposed to go?"

  FEMA City is about 10 miles from Punta Gorda, its rows of white trailers
covering 64 acres between the county jail and Interstate 75. The trailers
are rent-free, but evacuees must pay for utilities.

  The contrast to Punta Gorda, a damaged but pretty waterfront town with
many
historic homes, is extreme. About 100 miles south of Tampa Bay, Punta Gorda
is the only incorporated city in Charlotte County (population 140,000). It
was a sleepy place by South Florida standards until Charley came in and
performed its version of urban renewal.

  "You almost hate to say this because of the difficulties so many people
have had, but Charley tore down some buildings that needed to come down and
cleared areas for much higher kinds of uses," said  City Manager Howard
Kunik.

  An old, damaged Holiday Inn on the town's waterfront, for instance, has
been demolished and will be replaced with an million condominium-hotel
complex, and other upscale projects are moving forward. Many residents are
excited by the changes, but others -- especially the poor and some in
Punta's Gorda's long-standing African American neighborhood -- worry  they
will be permanently priced out of their old home town.

  Those fears were stoked last month when the city made clear that it plans
to tear down a public housing complex on the waterfront to make way for
much
higher-income people.

  "That land was just too valuable to have poor people on it," said
community
leader Isaac Thomas. He said that the local government is trying to help
him
and other black leaders save some of the modest but historic homes in the
African-American East End, but that "it's a really uphill fight."

  This uneven recovery started on a far more promising note. The Federal
Emergency Management Agency got generally high marks for its response to
Hurricane Charley -- and three other Florida hurricanes last fall -- and
that included the quick construction of the trailer city.

  Tons of gravel, sand and crushed shells were trucked in to build up a
low-lying meadow, and electrical and sewer lines were quickly laid.
Officials say that last Christmas season, many homes were cheerfully
lighted, and a sense of relief and thanks prevailed.

  Today, that cheer is gone. That gritty soil makes the south Florida sun
even hotter, and few people venture outside except to go to their cars.
There are no trees, no shrubs, and only two small playgrounds for several
hundred children.

  Teenagers have been especially hard-hit -- drug use, vandalism, break-ins
and fights are widespread. Young people regularly call FEMA City a prison.

  The troubles got so bad in the spring that the entire camp was fenced in,
a
county police substation was set up, and armed security guards were
stationed at the one point where residents were allowed to enter and exit.
Even with that, the number of calls to the county sheriff's office was at
an
all-time high last month -- 257 calls that resulted in 78 police reports,
many of them involving domestic violence, fights, juvenile delinquency and
vandalism. In January, there were just 154 calls and 40 official actions.

  Some of the vandalism has proven costly. Even after the expanded police
deployment, FEMA officials said they had to spend almost ,000 recently
to
cover switches on the street lights because young people were so frequently
turning them off.

  FEMA site manager Larson acknowledged the problems, but he said they
should
not overshadow the successes.

  Providing shelter for so many people is a mammoth and expensive
undertaking, he said, and many families have used the time to save  money to
pay the three-months' rent usually required upfront by landlords. In the
past two weeks, he added, FEMA City has experienced its first population
decline since opening in November.

"We know the rental market is very tough out there, but we expect our
tenants to make at least three calls a month about new housing, and some
are
succeeding," he said.   But many  are not.
FEMA reports that one year after the four Florida
storms, it is still providing 7,640 mobile homes or trailers for displaced
people, 1,056 of them in Charlotte County. Both statewide and in Charlotte,
that means almost half of the people who needed temporary FEMA shelter
after
the storms still rely on it.

  Melissa Frey, who posts grocery prices at a local Winn-Dixie market, is
one
of them, and she watched with dread from her FEMA City doorway last week as
another mobile home was hauled away. She said she has been looking for an
apartment for herself and her 2-year-old daughter, with no luck. The stress
of the hurricane and the aftermath led to a split with her husband and the
loss of his income, and so she barely has enough money to cover expenses
without paying rent.

  "This is no way to live, and I just wish I could move out," she said. She
lives a stone's throw from the main security post, but she still regularly
finds her tires flattened by nails that she blames on vandals. "But I'm
really worried about what's coming in February, and so are many other
people
here."

  Others are angry.

  "Basically, Charlotte County would be happy to see us all go," said
Forman,
the resident whose dog was strangled. "They think they don't need us, and
they really don't want us." Adding to his embitterment, the police ruled
that the dog had thrown itself out the window, a conclusion his neighbors
greeted with disbelief.

  With the constant troubles at FEMA City and the increased tensions
throughout the county caused by its housing crisis, Charlotte County
Sheriff's Office spokesman Bob Carpenter said his department has had a real
education since Charley. It's hard-won knowledge, he said, that they will
share with Hancock County, Miss., one of the hardest-hit areas of the Gulf
Coast.

  "We're sending some officers over there," he said. "We know what's going
to
happen, while they don't have a clue."


 

 

FEMALE SURVIVORS IN NEW ORLEANS URGED TO SHOW THEIR BREASTS

     Female survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were urged by government rescuers to flash their breasts in order to receive help in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

That according to English tourists who are now just returning to the United Kingdom, relating their horror stories to British media.

Ged Scott, 36, of Liverpool, was on his annual vacation at New Orleans' Ramada Hotel with his wife Sandra, 37, and their 7-year-old son, Ronan.

"I could not describe how bad the authorities were, taking photographs of us as we are standing on the roof waving for help, for their own personal photo albums, little snapshot photographs," Scott told BBC News.

Scott said there was a group of girls standing on the lobby's roof, calling out to passing rescuers for help.

"[The authorities] said to them, 'Well, show us what you've got' doing signs for them to lift their T-shirts up. The girls said no, and [the rescuers] said 'well fine,' and motored off down the road in their motorboat. That's the sort of help we had from the authorities," he said.

New Orleans is noted for women flashing their breasts in public, especially during the annual Mardi Gras festival.

Scott called the relief operation "horrendous," noting police officers had taken "souvenir" photographs of stranded people begging for help.

"The only information we got from anybody in authority was if a policeman came past and we shouted to them out of the windows. The only information we ever got off them was negative, 'Do not go here. Do not go there'. There was no, 'Are you OK? Are you safe? Have you got water?' Most of the time they would ignore us."

Scott recounted that at night, police completely vanished, leaving stranded hotel guests and staff to defend themselves.

"You would hear shots ringing out during the night and that was one of the most worrying things, because we had no security," Scott said. "We patrolled the halls and checked the doors throughout the night in the hotel but if someone had wanted to come in, there was not much we could have done about it."

Scott waded through waist-deep water to barricade the hotel's doors.

"It was like wading through an open sewer," he said. "It reeked to high heaven and made you want to vomit. Outside I could see bodies floating in the water."

He says looters actually tried to sell the Ramada's guests stolen cell phones, radios and clothing.

The guests were finally rescued by Louisiana game wardens, who entered the hotel with rifles and fixed bayonets.

The family is back safe in England, but Scott says he worries about the psychological impact on his young son.

"He was fantastic but he has been exposed to things no 7-year-old should ever see, and it is bound to come out in the future.

 

NEWS UPDATE  9/6/2005

 

CNN anounced today that the government is turning over to the Katrina victims over million dollars worth of confiscated KNOCK OFF items like things to wear, etc.

 

 

 

CNN.com - U.S receives aid offers from around the world

Africa

a.. Nigeria has pledged $1 million to hurricane disaster relief, government officials told CNN. "Nigeria will be happy to pledge $1 million to the hurricane disaster fund in the spirit of brotherhood," Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.

Asia

a.. China offered million in aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina. If needed, the Chinese government also is prepared to send rescue workers, including medical experts, officials said.


a.. Japan has offered to provide ,000 to the American Red Cross, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. Japan also will provide up to ,000 in emergency supplies such as tents, blankets and power generators if it receives requests, the ministry said.


a.. India is making a million donation to the American Red Cross, Ronen Sen, Indian ambassador to the United States, said Saturday. In addition, Sen said India was willing to donate essential medicines to the relief effort.


a.. The Singapore armed forces, responding to requests by the Texas Army National Guard, has sent three Chinook helicopters to Fort Polk, Louisiana, to help in relief efforts.


a.. South Korea awaits a U.S. response after pledging aid, a government official said.


a.. Afghanistan pledged ,000 to help provide aid to the hurricane victims, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.


a.. Sri Lanka will donate ,000 to the American Red Cross.


a.. Taiwan has pledged more than million to the relief effort.

Americas

a.. Canada has offered to help in any way it can, and its navy is preparing a ship full of emergency disaster relief supplies to be sent when a request comes.


a.. Cuban President Fidel Castro offered to fly 1,100 doctors to Houston, Texas, with 26 tons of medicine to treat disaster victims.


a.. Mexico has offered $1 million and is sending 15 truckloads of water, food and medical supplies via Texas. The Mexican navy has offered to send two ships, two helicopters and 15 amphibious vehicles.


a.. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the United States, offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers to the disaster area.

Australia

a.. Australia is giving million, most of it to the American Red Cross, according to the Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

Europe

a.. France has offered mobile help from rescue teams in the French Antilles in the Caribbean, including a civil defense detachment of 35 people, tents, camp beds, generators, motor pumps, water treatment units and emergency kits, two CASA cargo aircraft, a ship (Batral Francis Garnier) and the frigate Ventose with its Panther helicopter, and a hurricane disaster unit. France also has offered assistance from the French mainland, including several aircraft. In addition, the NGO Telecoms Sans Frontieres, which specializes in restoring phone lines and Internet service in disasters, is ready to send a team of experts and equipment. Veolia Environment, which has facilities in Louisiana, has offered to make its local water management resources available.


a.. Germany has offered a range of assistance, including medical and transportation services, water treatment capabilities and aid in searching for victims and supplies. Germany also has said it is ready and willing to "dip into its own emergency oil reserves" to release some 2 million barrels a day for 30 days.


a.. Italy has offered to send aid and evacuation specialists immediately, Italy's civil protection unit said. Authorities have prepared two military transport planes to fly amphibious vessels, pumps, generators, tents and personnel to New Orleans, Louisiana, and other areas. They were awaiting word from U.S. officials, the unit said.


a.. The Netherlands will provide teams for inspecting dikes and for identifying victims if there is a formal request from the United States. It also will send a frigate from Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles to New Orleans shortly to provide emergency assistance, the Dutch government said.


a.. Russia has offered to help with rescue efforts but is awaiting a reply from Washington.


a.. Spain expects to receive a formal request to release gasoline stocks to the United States and is prepared to grant it, an Industry Ministry spokesman said.


a.. Sweden's Rescue Authority said it was on standby to supply water purifying equipment, health care supplies and emergency shelters if needed.


a.. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said his country stands ready to help the United States in whatever way it can.

Middle East

a.. Qatar has offered the United States million to assist in the humanitarian crisis triggered by Hurricane Katrina.


a.. Saudi Refining, a Houston-based subsidiary of state oil firm Saudi Aramco, will donate million to the American Red Cross to support relief efforts for hurricane victims.


a.. Iran has offered to send humanitarian aid to hurricane victims, Reuters reported. "We are prepared to send our contributions to the people through the Red Crescent," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told Reuters.   NEWS UPDATES   Listening to Your Neighbors Die:

"I heard her die," Williams said. "She cried for two nights, 'Help. Someone help me please!' Then the last time I heard her call it turned into a gurgle. That was her last cry.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10194.htm

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Must See Video

"Go *uck Yourself, Mr. Cheney!"

Vice President Dick Cheney, in Gulfport, Mississippi on a tour of the Katrina hurricane zone, was told to "go *uck yourself, Mr. Cheney" twice on live television

Click here to watch
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10196.htm

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Warnings were loud and clear - but still city drowned

This is a must read report

By Giles Whittell

IF THERE is a smoking gun in the Gulf Coast wreckage, it is the hurricane warning issued by the New Orleans office of the US National Weather Service soon after 10am on August 28, the eve of Katrina’s arrival.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10193.htm

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Katrina + Oil = Profits for Our Kings

By John Perkins

It is time, my fellow Americans, to listen to the words of our Founding Fathers. Profiteering without representation must go. The destruction of our world, for the short-term benefit of a new type of royalty, is unacceptable.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10180.htm

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The Siege of New Orleans

By Mike Whitney

The orders are clear: "Empty the city, Cut off communications between the citizenry, and Protect private property." The result is a massive ethnic cleansing operation that will displace tens of thousands of poor, black residents and pave the way for Halliburton and other major Bush contributors to rebuild the city at taxpayer expense. This is the clearest illustration of class-based warfare we have seen to date, but we expect more will follow.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10182.htm

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FEMA Packed With Presidents Pals

Campaign pros get top jobs

By Kenneth R. Bazinet

The three top jobs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Bush went to political cronies with no apparent experience coping with catastrophes.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10183.htm

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UN Report : Parts Of America Are As Poor As Third World

By Paul Vallely

Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global Inequality. It reveals that the infant mortality rate has been rising in the US for the past five years - and is now the same as Malaysia. America's black children are twice as likely as whites to die before their first birthday.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10186.htm

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More than 100 died in a warehouse, waiting for rescue:

A Louisiana congressman says more than 100 people died at a warehouse along a New Orleans dock. Congressman Charlie Melancon (muh-LAWN'-suhn) says they died as they waited for rescuers to take them to safety.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10189.htm

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In Nursing Home, a Fight Lost to Rising Waters:

St. Bernard Parish officials say that 32 of the home's roughly 60 residents died on Aug. 29, more than a week ago.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10188.htm

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Four People Die of Water-Borne Illness After Katrin:

Four people died of a water-borne illness they contracted from dirty water following Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said
http://snipurl.com/hjas

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Canadians beat U.S. Army to New Orleans suburb:

A Canadian search-and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiana state senator said on Wednesday.
http://snipurl.com/hjau

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FEMA Blocking Relief Efforts - An Amazing List  -

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid - FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10195.htm

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Two Bush 2000 Florida recount aides were rewarded with top FEMA posts:

Reversing an eight-year crusade to rid the now-embattled Federal Emegency Management Agency of political patronage, a newly elected George W. Bush in 2001 named two key players in his Florida recount fight to important FEMA posts.
http://snipurl.com/hjaw

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FEMA Announces Debit Cards, Aid for Hurricane Victims :

FEMA officials announced that families in the greatest need of federal assistance are eligible for debit cards worth as much as ,000.
http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0905/258316.html

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National Guard Recruiting The Homless and Hungry

“Doling out food to the hungry crowds overflowing Houston’s Astrodome, the National Guard has engaged in ad hoc recruiting in recent days
http://www.operationflashlight.com/?p=22

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White House says Barbara Bush was making a `personal observation':

Barbara Bush was making "a personal observation" when she said poor people at a relocation center in Houston were faring better than before Hurricane Katrina struck, President Bush's spokesman said Wednesday.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10184.htm

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"They'll Just Spend It On Crack" - Listening To Right Wing Radio:

The New Orleans "welfare riff-raff" have "hit the jackpot" and are going to get new houses and cars and "we" will all have to pay for "their" windfall. Now "they" are going to be bringing their "crime" to decent cities.
http://snipurl.com/hjb0

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Cost to US economy could be ten times greater than 9/11 :

Hurricane Katrina will be by far the costliest disaster in United States history, requiring -300 billion for relief, clean-up and reconstruction spending by the federal government, and causing the short-term loss of some 400,000 jobs.
http://snipurl.com/hjb3

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George Bush’s ‘Moral Truth’:

Civilized societies protect the weak and vulnerable. When help did come to those stranded in New Orleans, the sick and the elderly were the last to get out.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10191.htm

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Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA:

The firefighters, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers. They have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number:
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197