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Carolus Rex
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Sweden
Jan 1970
time: 06:37
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Hm... I thought it was standard 'Poly procedure to post information only in threads like this and not the usual OT personal attacks...
Carolus
Last edited by Carolus Rex on 01-09-2005 at 15:23
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SlowwHand
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of The Cooler
Sep 1999
time: 23:37
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WTF is with these coonasses*?
to others the term is a badge of pride, much like the word Chicano is for Mexican Americans. In South Louisiana, for example, one can often see bumper stickers reading \"Warning — Coonass on Board!\" or \"Registered Coonass\" (both of which generally depict a raccoon’s backside).
New Orleans evacuation delayed by shooting, chaos
By Jason Reed
25 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Authorities suspended an evacuation of New Orleans on Thursday after a reported shooting at a U.S. military helicopter and
President George W. Bushurged "zero tolerance" for lawlessness in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Thousands of people died after the storm devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu (news, bio, voting record) said.
In New Orleans, shell-shocked officials tried to regain control of the historic jazz city reduced to ruin by Monday's storm.
The helicopter incident was just part of the chaos that prompted New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to order police to drop rescue operations to fight looting and other crime that gripped the city. A National Guard soldier was shot and wounded on Wednesday in the Superdome arena housing thousands of refugees in increasingly squalid conditions.
An angry Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco told reporters: "We will do what it takes to bring law and order to our area."
"I'm just furious. It's intolerable," she said.
A National Guard official said on Thursday as many as 60,000 people had gathered at the Superdome for evacuation.
Bush condemned the rampant looting after the storm and warned against charging artificially high prices for gasoline.
"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving, or insurance fraud," Bush said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."
As more National Guard and Army troops headed into the region to help with relief efforts, thousands of people waited hours or waded through floodwaters to catch rides out of New Orleans, one of the world's most famous tourist destinations and the birthplace of jazz.
Storm survivors in the Superdome scrambled to get out of the city, clambering onto 300 buses that shipped them 350 miles
west to another stadium, the Astrodome in Houston.
The first refugees began arriving early on Thursday at the Houston stadium, where Red Cross workers set out thousands of cots and "comfort kits" that included toiletries and a meal.
HELICOPTER SHOOTING
But the operation was put on hold when shots were fired at Chinook military helicopters being used to transport the evacuees, a local official said in Texas.
"We were told they are shooting at Chinook helicopters and the operation has been put on hold until daylight," said Gloria Roemer, spokeswoman for Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, who has been involved in the evacuation.
Trash fires near the Superdome and other logistical problems were also delaying the evacuation, Louisiana National Guard Lt. Col. Pete Schneider told CNN.
Elsewhere in New Orleans, gunshots repeatedly rang out and fires flared as looters broke into stores, houses, hospitals and office buildings -- some in search of food, others looking for anything of value.
Similar scenes played out in Mississippi where looters freely ransacked stores in Biloxi and Gulfport, both shattered by the storm that slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast on Monday with 140 mile per hour (225 kph) winds and a 30-foot (9-meter) storm surge.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told NBC's "Today" show that part of the looting problem has been an inability to get enforcement personnel into critical areas. "We will have several thousand National Guard by the weekend and will put a stop to it," he said.
Bush said on Wednesday the storm was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu told reporters in the state capital, Baton Rouge, "We understand there are thousands of dead people."
Nagin, the New Orleans mayor, estimated it would be three to four months before residents could return. A million people fled the New Orleans area before Katrina arrived.
FLOODWATERS DROPPING
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said floodwaters started to drop in New Orleans, which is mostly below sea level and was inundated by water from Lake Pontchartrain after levees broke.
The corps said it would it would open holes in parts of the city's levee system to let water drain out while at the same time attempting to fix several large breaches torn out by Katrina's storm surge.
Officials estimated it could take a month to get the water out.
Some people left homeless in Mississippi and Louisiana were frustrated with relief efforts.
"Many people didn't have the financial means to get out," said Alan LeBreton, 41, an apartment superintendent who lived on Biloxi, Mississippi's seaside road, now in ruins. "That's a crime and people are angry about it."
The Biloxi Sun Herald newspaper said in an editorial emergency supplies "simply are not getting here fast enough" and asked "why hasn't every able-bodied member of the armed forces in South Mississippi been pressed into service?"
The Bush administration declared a public health emergency on Wednesday amid concern about outbreaks of disease and began working with Congress on emergency legislation to assist recovery efforts from the disaster that some officials said rivaled the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The storm was having a national impact as gasoline prices soared. The hurricane cut a swath through a region responsible for about a quarter of the nation's oil and gas output.
The administration said it would release oil from the nation's strategic reserves to offset losses in the Gulf of Mexico, where the storm had shut down production.
The
U.S. Coast Guardreported at least 20 oil rigs or platforms missing in the Gulf of Mexico, either sunk or adrift, while officials estimated 95 percent of regional oil and natural gas production and eight refineries along the coast remained shut down.
Several crude pipelines on the Gulf Coast remained out of service due to power outages, damage and flooding.
(Additional reporting by Paul Simao in Mobile, Alabama and Peter Cooney in Houston and Steve Holland in Washington)
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01-09-2005 12:49
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