posted September 08, 2005 10:21 AM              

http://www.emsnetwork.org/artman/publish/article_18337.shtml

posted September 08, 2005 02:16 PM              

About the article: What those people endured at the hands of those who should have known better...is not only horrible to think about but also frightening in terms of what COULD happen during a nationwide catastrophe. I shudder to think of such a possibility!!!!

I'm glad they got the word out via the internet, anyway....THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET!

posted September 08, 2005 03:02 PM              

NARRATOR: Scientists have now found evidence that a colossal wave will one day devastate the coast of America. It will be far bigger than any normal tidal waves, or tsunami. It is what scientists call a mega-tsunami.

PROF. BILL McGUIRE (Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre, UCL): It’s almost inconceivable how much damage this event will cause and yet the general public knows absolutely nothing about it.

DR. GEORGE PLAFKER (US Geological Survey): These forces have almost unlimited power to cause utter destruction and there’s nothing that we can do to stop them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/mega_tsunami_transcript.shtml

posted September 09, 2005 08:51 PM              

quote:

---

We decided we had to save ourselves. So we pooled our money and came up with $25,000 to have ten buses come and take us out of the city. Those who didn’t have the requisite $45 each were subsidized by those who did have extra money.

We waited for 48 hours for the buses, spending the last 12 hours standing outside, sharing the limited water, food and clothes we had. We created a priority boarding area for the sick, elderly and newborn babies. We waited late into the night for the “imminent” arrival of the buses. The buses never arrived. We later learned that the minute they arrived at the city limits, they were commandeered by the military.

---

posted September 09, 2005 09:21 PM              

AG.....all I gotta say about Brown being removed is....AMEN!....he's not fired tho...and that needs to be done!

posted September 09, 2005 09:45 PM              

WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - With U.S. President George W. Bush under intense fire for the response to Hurricane Katrina, questions emerged on Friday about the qualifications of those leading the relief effort.

Many of those at the top of the U.S. agency charged with managing disaster relief had no emergency oversight experience but did have political ties to Bush, The Washington Post reported.

In addition, Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, had less experience in disaster relief than described in his official agency biography and cited during his confirmation hearing, Time magazine reported. It quoted a local official as saying a prior job in Edmond, Oklahoma, was "more like an intern" than a manager.

Democrats this week demanded Brown be fired and some Republicans have complained as well about delays and missteps in responding to Katrina's devastating assault on New Orleans and the U.S. Gulf Coast last week.

The White House, asked if Bush retained confidence in Brown, gave a general statement of support for all those involved in relief efforts.

"I think what we've said is that we appreciate the work of all those who have been working round-the-clock to help respond to what is one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "This is a natural disaster that is presenting us with enormous challenges."

The Washington Post reported that five of eight top FEMA officials had come to their jobs with virtually no experience in handling disasters. The agency's top three leaders, including Brown, had ties to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign or the White House team that lays the groundwork for presidential trips.

Brown's biography on the agency Web site said he had once served as an "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight," but Time quoted an official in Edmond as saying the job was actually "assistant to the city manager," with little responsibility.

"The assistant is more like an intern," city spokeswoman Claudia Deakins told the magazine. "Department heads did not report to him."

In response to the report on Time's Web site, FEMA issued a statement that took issue with elements related to an unofficial biography, and described his job in Edmond as "assistant to the city manager."

Time also reported that Brown's profile on the legal Web site Findlaw.com, which is usually based on information provided by lawyers or their offices, said he was an "outstanding political science professor" at Central State University, now the University of Central Oklahoma.

The school took issue with that assertion.

"(Brown) wasn't a professor here, he was only a student here," school spokesman Charles Johnson told Time.

FEMA responded by saying: "Time's misleading online report on Undersecretary Mike Brown's background is based on online information Mr. Brown has never seen. ... It's disappointing this magazine relied on unconfirmed information."

posted September 10, 2005 09:01 PM              

quote:

---

By day 4 our hotels had run out of fuel and water. Sanitation was dangerously abysmal. As the desperation and despair increased, street crime as well as water levels began to rise. The hotels turned us out and locked their doors, telling us that the "officials" told us to report to the convention center to wait for more buses. As we entered the center of the City, we finally encountered the National Guard. The Guards told us we would not be allowed into the Superdome as the City's primary shelter had descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole. The guards further told us that the City's only other shelter, the Convention Center, was also descending into chaos and squalor and that the police were not allowing anyone else in. Quite naturally, we asked, "If we can't go to the only 2 shelters in the City, what was our alternative?" The guards told us that that was our problem, and no they did not have extra water to give to us. This would be the start of our numerous encounters with callous and hostile "law enforcement".

We walked to the police command center at Harrah's on Canal Street and were told the same thing, that we were on our own

---

posted September 12, 2005 07:44 PM              

The two paramedics mentioned in the article will be on shortly....

If anybody is seeing this now...turn it on...