PUBLIC MARKS with tag hurricane

The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security blocked a vanguard of Red Cross trucks filled with water, food, blankets and hygiene items from bringing relief to the thousands of hungry and thirsty evacuees stranded in the New Orleans Superdome after Hurricane Katrina struck, according to a Fox News Channel report.

A black conservative leader says don't blame racism or President Bush for what happened to thousands of black people during and after Hurricane Katrina. "The truth is black people died, not because of President Bush or racism, they died because of their unhealthy dependence on the government and the incompetence of Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco."

Pro-life advocates say Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business, continues to exploit victims of Hurricane Katrina. The organization previously said it would provide morning after pills to victims, instead of food or shelter, and is now raising money off of the hurricane for its local abortion centers.

Democrats led by Sen. Hillary Clinton are blaming the Federal Emergency Management Agency for failing to respond adequately to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. But FEMA didn't do much better under much less taxing conditions, when the floods that followed Hurricane Floyd left tens of thousands stranded up and down the Eastern seaboard, wondering what happened to federal rescuers.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says Republicans failed hurricane victims in their time of need, and she is calling for quick action to get displaced people the government assistance that "they are owed." <p><img src="http://www.trommetter.org/smilies/twocents.gif">I'm sorry Nancy, the government doesn't owe those people anything. That mentality is why the federal budget deficit continues to balloon.

The Bush administration is being widely criticized for the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina and the allegedly inadequate protection for "the big one" that residents had long feared would hit New Orleans. But research into more than ten years of reporting on hurricane and flood damage mitigation efforts in and around New Orleans indicates that local and state officials did not use federal money that was available for levee improvements or coastal reinforcement and often did not secure local matching funds that would have generated even more federal funding.

According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, in response to a question of who is to blame for New Orleans' problems after the hurricane: 13 percent said Bush...

Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin failed their constituents.

Upstate residents touched by horrific images of people along the Gulf Coast left destitute by Hurricane Katrina are helping with monetary donations, food and other necessary items.

The Greenville community is offering relief for people left homeless in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The Spinx Company, Inc. commits to operate at a Zero Profit Margin on all gasoline sales and merchandise sales from Monday, August 29, 2005 through Monday, September 12, 2005. The Spinx Company is taking this action to help absorb the dramatic increase in wholesale gasoline prices in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

As New Orleans descended into anarchy in the wake of devastating Hurricane Katrina and its inundating floods, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert delivered his stunning opinion that rebuilding the historic city would be pointless and a waste of money.

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.

The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need." Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."

This natural disaster is bringing together a perfect storm of environmentalist and religious doomsday sayers.

www.ssd.noaa.gov

National Hurricane Center

Get a shirt. Save a Life. Thousands of family pets remain struggling on the streets of New Orleans. This film documents their plight and rescue. You can help us raise funds to care for them and raise awareness for the need for emergency pet preparedness by visiting our website - ifIgotheygo.com - Proceeds of our T-shirts go to nonprofit rescue groups.

Footage of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Collection of Katrina pictures set to music