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Post by cheesecake on Aug 25, 2005 20:34:00 GMT 1
 Florida residents have been stocking up on food, water and fuel ahead of a hurricane due to arrive Thursday night. Tropical Storm Katrina is expected to reach hurricane strength before it hits the south-east Florida coast. A hurricane warning has been issued for Vero Beach to Florida City and inland Lake Okeechobee, with surrounding areas put on tropical storm alert. Forecasters warned up to 51cm (20in) of rain could fall in parts of Florida as the storm slowly crosses the peninsula. Most areas will see 15 to 30cm (six to 12in) of rain before Katrina reaches the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday. Click here to see Katrina's predicted course The storm could then turn north towards Florida's Panhandle, the US National Hurricane Center said, probably hitting early next week. People go out and fill their tanks to the brim, but they don't leave Florida petrol station attendant Animated guide: Hurricanes A spokesman warned people in coastal communities to beware of storm surge flooding and "large and dangerous battering waves". Motorists were flocking to petrol stations between Fort Lauderdale and Miami on Thursday to stock up on fuel and cigarettes, the Associated Press news agency reports. "People go out and fill their tanks to the brim, but they don't leave. They buckle down," petrol station attendant Chris Bonhorst told the agency. Big waves Florida's Governor Jeb Bush has cancelled a business trip to Peru to return to the state ahead of the storm, which could reach category1 strength with winds of up to 95 mph (153 kph). Katrina, which formed over the Bahamas on Wednesday, was about 70 miles (113 km) east of Fort Lauderdale at 0800 local time (1200 GMT) and was moving slowly west. Parts of the Bahamas have seen heavy showers and powerful waves but no major damage has been reported. The Florida Panhandle has already been battered by Hurricane Dennis and Tropical Storm Cindy this year. The Atlantic hurricane season began on 1 June and continues until 30 November.  |
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Post by germanwunderkind on Aug 26, 2005 18:58:45 GMT 1
damn i really don't wanna live there every year about 3 hurricanes that really suxxx  |
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Post by cheesecake on Aug 26, 2005 22:32:46 GMT 1
damn i really don't wanna live there every year about 3 hurricanes that really suxxx Hurricans are really serious dude!!..people die!!...i get enough storms here, so i'm happy  |
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Post by cheesecake on Sept 2, 2005 21:54:03 GMT 1
Bush vows to step up Katrina aid
President George W Bush in Mobile, Alabama, with officials
President Bush has promised to help rebuild the devastated areas
President George Bush has conceded the initial response to Hurricane Katrina was "not acceptable" but has said every effort is being made to save lives.
Heavily-armed National Guardsmen have begun pouring into New Orleans, where thousands remain stranded without food or water amid rising lawlessness.
A large military convoy carrying aid also rumbled into the city on Friday.
Visiting the region, Mr Bush said order would be restored and New Orleans would emerge from its "darkest days".
"My attitude is, if it's not going exactly right, we're going to make it go exactly right. If there's problems, then we'll address the problems," Mr Bush said.
We were spared the storm's fury but are now having to deal with the refugees and the misery - it's almost unbelievable what's happening
Dan
Jena, Louisiana
Are you affected by Katrina?
"Every life is precious and so we are going to spend a lot of time saving lives, whether it be in New Orleans or on the coast of Mississippi. We have a responsibility to help clean up this mess."
Speaking in Mobile, Alabama, Mr Bush said the $10.5bn (£5.7bn) emergency aid approved by the Senate was "just a small down-payment" on the cost of helping people rebuild.
He went on to visit Biloxi, on the Mississippi coast, where he comforted a woman who wept as she described how she had lost everything.
Map of central New Orleans
Four days after the hurricane struck, the scale of the casualties is still not known.
However one senator from Louisiana, David Vitter, has predicted the death toll could climb above 10,000 in Louisiana alone.
Troops in New Orleans
Thousands of extra troops have begun pouring into New Orleans
Senator Vitter said he did not base his estimate on any official toll.
The head of the New Orleans emergency operations has described the relief effort as a national disgrace.
And Mayor Ray Nagin has angrily denounced the level of outside help the city has received. "People are dying here," he said.
Meanwhile airlines have begun providing relief flights, bringing in supplies and flying out with people from New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport at a rate of four an hour.
Most of the flights will take refugees to Texas, which is providing emergency shelter for 75,000 survivors in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.
'Shoot to kill'
A large cloud of acrid, black smoke has been drifting over New Orleans following huge blasts along the Mississippi riverfront, apparently at a chemical plant.
The incident in the already crippled city came after Louisiana's governor said 300 "battle-tested" National Guardsmen were being sent to quell the unrest.
Flood victims walk the street in front of the Convention Center in New Orleans, 1 September
The city of New Orleans will never be the same again
Mayor Ray Nagin
Questions grow over chaos
"They have M-16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will," Kathleen Blanco said.
Washington pledged a further 4,200 guardsmen in coming days and said 3,000 army soldiers may also be sent to the city, where violence has disrupted relief efforts.
The deployment came as thousands were finally taken from the Louisiana Superdome, where up to 20,000 have been corralled amid heat and squalor since Katrina struck.
Heavily-armed soldiers flanked a large convoy of National Guard trucks as it arrived at the nearby convention centre with desperately needed supplies of food and water.
The BBC's Matt Frei, in New Orleans, says conditions in the convention centre, where up to 20,000 people are stranded, are the most wretched he has seen anywhere, including crises in the Third World.
"You've got an entire nursing home evacuated five days ago - people in wheelchairs sitting there and slowly dying," he says.
Lawlessness in New Orleans
In pictures
The situation has been made worse by a lack of trust between the mainly poor, African-American population left behind in New Orleans and the predominately white police force, our correspondent adds.
Up to 60,000 people could still be stranded in the city, the US coastguard says.
Looting has swept the city as people made homeless by the flooding have grown increasingly desperate.
There have also been outbreaks of shootings and carjackings and reports of rapes.
The federal emergency agency was trying to work "under conditions of urban warfare", director Michael Brown said.
The muddy floodwaters are now toxic with fuel, battery acid, rubbish and raw sewage.
According to the White House, about 90,000 sq miles (234,000 sq km) have been affected by the hurricane.
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Post by cheesecake on Sept 23, 2005 17:12:52 GMT 1
Storm overcomes New Orleans levee  Floodwater pours over damaged flood defences in New Orleans Army engineers say water levels are rising faster than expected Water is pouring over a patched-up levee in New Orleans, increasing fears that rains brought by Hurricane Rita could flood the city again. Army engineers have warned that flood defences damaged by Hurricane Katrina can only cope with 15cm (6in) of rain. A stream of water at least nine metres (30ft) wide was reported to be spilling into the low-lying Lower Ninth Ward. The area, still empty of inhabitants, had only just been pumped dry following the flooding after Katrina. A steady downpour has turned dust to mud in New Orleans, as the outer bands of Hurricane Rita brought rain and high winds to Louisiana. A spokesman for the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) confirmed that flood waters were over-topping a levee on the Industrial Canal. He told CNN the water level in that area was rising much faster and higher than expected. Poor weather conditions meant they could not use helicopters in efforts to plug the breach, he said, and would have to rely on boats. The few residents who had returned to the flood-battered city have been ordered to leave as Hurricane Rita advances towards the Gulf Coast. |
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Post by flying on Sept 23, 2005 17:32:05 GMT 1
Well, I hope this "national disaster" won't turn out to be the excuse the World Elite has been waiting for to hand-over the control of the US to agencies such as FEMA and -- with the help of armed troops, UN troops if necessary -- finally remove "we, the people" from the equation alltogether...
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Post by cheesecake on Sept 23, 2005 17:33:57 GMT 1
Well, I hope this "national disaster" won't turn out to be the excuse the World Elite had been waiting for to hand-over the control of the US to agencies such as FEMA and finally remove "we, the people" from the equation alltogether... I hope not too !!!...this relates to team america in some twisted wierd way !! |
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