Hurricane Katrina

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

Andrew, it is unlikely that any foreign troops, even our friendly neighbors to the north, will ever be allowed to set foot in this country in uniform. Not even if it is simply a humanitarian mission. American law, and the American people would not allow it.

Perhaps the best way Canadians can get involved may be with the Red Cross. They put out a call for 40,000 new volunteers. The Red Cross being an international organization, would be a more likely route for foreign nationals to get involved in the relief effort here in the US.

On a related note, if other NATO members really wanted to help, they could send troops to Iraq to releive US Guard members. I suspect that our friends aren't that interested in helping.

What the heck would have happened if the Soviet Union did invade the U.S? Surely if a battlefield was to be established on U.S soil and the U.S needed help, NATO would have been authorized to send allied reinforcements.

Isn't there any kind of a NATO agreement in the NATO Charter for something like that?

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

Andrew, it is unlikely that any foreign troops, even our friendly neighbors to the north, will ever be allowed to set foot in this country in uniform. Not even if it is simply a humanitarian mission. American law, and the American people would not allow it.

Perhaps the best way Canadians can get involved may be with the Red Cross. They put out a call for 40,000 new volunteers. The Red Cross being an international organization, would be a more likely route for foreign nationals to get involved in the relief effort here in the US.

On a related note, if other NATO members really wanted to help, they could send troops to Iraq to releive US Guard members. I suspect that our friends aren't that interested in helping.

What the heck would have happened if the Soviet Union did invade the U.S? Surely if a battlefield was to be established on U.S soil and the U.S needed help, NATO would have been authorized to send allied reinforcements.

I shudder to think.

Actually there was a movie made from a book about such a scenario, I can't remember the name. At least for the time being we are beyond being invaded by an army. Remember, we still have enough nukes to destroy any country crazy enough to try a land invasion. Terrorists are the bigger problem because it's harder to see them coming.

This is a dufficult situation for the country that usually helps the rest of the world, to be in need of help. The news reports are starting to sound as if the worst is over from the humanitarian angle, and people are getting settled for longer term. Many won't return to New Orleans, and will start over in other states.

General Honore is one organized dude. Imagine if he was called in on day 2. With him and Admiral Allen the mess may get cleaned up a lot sooner than anyone could imagine.

LC, I had heard about the Mexican army, but wasn't aware that their offer had been accepted. I expect that they will be thanked and sent home ASAP.

[Anonymous]

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Train lined up to help food bank send aid south

In Katrina's Wake
Special section has stories about how Mainers are helping victims of Hurrican Katrina.

AUBURN — Two railroad cars loaded with 200,000 pounds of food, water and supplies will pull out from a warehouse Monday, destined for the Gulf Coast to help hurricane victims. Charles "Budd" Large, executive director of the Good Shepherd Food Bank, said a three-day campaign for bottled-water donations last week at the Maine Mall netted enough bottled water to fill six tractor-trailers.

The problem was finding a way to get the water from the food bank's warehouse in Auburn to those in need nearly 1,500 miles away.

But Large got a call from Bob Drake at Safe Handling, a chemical manufacturing and distribution company. Drake wanted to know whether there was some way his company could help with relief from Hurricane Katrina.

"You don't happen to have six tractor-trailers sitting around, do you?" asked Large. "He said 'No, but let me make a call.' "

Drake contacted the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad, which has a spur from its line that leads directly into Safe Handling's warehouse. Together, they worked out a plan to deliver the load by rail.

"I never even considered rails," said Large. "But it's perfect for moving this quantity, this quickly."

The cars will leave Auburn and head to Quebec, then connect with the Canadian National rail system and go to Montreal. They will then go to Chicago and on to Mississippi or Louisiana, whichever is more accessible.

The rail companies will haul the goods at no cost.

"We're proud to help with a good cause like this," said Ed Foley, vice president of sales and marketing for the St. Lawrence and Atlantic.

Besides the bottled water, Good Shepherd will send thousands of pounds of packaged snack foods and cleaning supplies, all priority items.

Once the cars reach their destination, they will be met by trucks from America's Second Harvest, the national food relief organization, and distributed.

The trip will take eight or nine days. Large said that's great, given the urgency.


From the Portland Herald

[morseman]

three Canadian ships and a Canadian coast guard cutter
have buffeted the hurricane off North Carolina and are
to arrive either in New Orleans or Biloxi tonight
(they may be there already) one thousand uniformed
soldiers on board. The U.S. ambassador in Canada
has been praising the assistance of Canadian and Mexico"s
assistance.

[M636C]

Now, I'm watching from a distance here, and I have a bias based on my own experience, but I understand that the US Navy had a large Amphibious ship, an LHA or LHD off shore from shortly after Katrina passed over New Orleans, but that it only docked a week or more after the storm. These ships have a large hospital capability, and their own power and water generation capability, and a large enclosed hangar area that could have provided similar shelter facilities to the convention centre BUT WITH POWER AND WATER. Certainly with a senior Coast Guard officer now in charge, knowledge of these features should not be a problem.

I learnt about these USN ships while preparing specifications for new ships of this type (but smaller) for the Royal Australian Navy. Our own more basic existing Amphibious ships "Kanimbla" and "Manoora" have been so busy acting as command ships in the Persian Gulf or assisting after the Indonesian Tsunami that RAN senior officers are concerned that they have never tested their Amphibious Warfare capability.

These post disaster features are now considered a vital part of these ships, and it seems unfortunate that the civilian FEMA executives did not make more use of these ships earlier.

M636C

[oltmannd]

NS's bridge across Lake Pontchartrain is open.

[Anonymous]

DEQ requests information from railroad companies
(The Environmental Protection Agency issued the following news release on September 11.)

BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality issued an administrative order on Friday requesting information from 17 railway companies that have railcars in the area impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

DEQ is asking the companies to provide:

1. A list of any rail cars that may presently be located in the emergency area.
2. For each rail car listed, any identifying numbers or letters
3. For each rail car listed, its physical type, such as a box, tank or flat bed.
4. For each rail car listed, its contents.
5. For each rail car listed, its location on Aug. 29 and its present location if different.
6. For each rail care listed, any information on its present condition.

DEQ and the Environmental Protection Agency examined satellite imagery and flew over Louisiana's southeastern parishes and have found a number of railcars off the tracks, turned over, underwater and in other forms of disarray. DEQ has previously sent several letters to railway companies in an effort to obtain information on the cars in an effort to speed clean-up efforts and ensure safety for the public and inspectors.

The 17 companies are Burling Northern Railway, CSX Transportation, Grand Trunk Railroad, Kansas City Southern Railway Company, Norfolk Southern Corporation, Union Pacific Railroad Company, Acadiana Railway Company, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi Railroad, Delta Southern Railroad, East Camden and Highland Railroad Company, Gloster Southern Railroad Company, Louisiana and Delta Railroad, Louisiana and North West Railroad Company, New Orleans and Gulf Coast Railway Company, New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, Ouachita Railroad and Timber Rock Railroad.


Monday, September 12, 2005

[Anonymous]

Norfolk Southern Service Alert

Hurricane Katrina Update #5

September 12, 2005

Working closely with connecting rail carriers to assure safe
operations, Norfolk Southern anticipates restoration of some
interchange shipments via New Orleans, La., on Tuesday, September 13.

Repair and service restoration efforts are now focused south of Lake
Pontchartrain including New Orleans and some of the areas most heavily
impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Customers in the New Orleans area are
encouraged to contact our Central Yard Operations Center at (800) 898-
4296 with questions or information regarding current or anticipated
service requirements.

Norfolk Southern has lifted all Hurricane Katrina related embargoes
with the exception of industries located south of Lake Pontchartrain
and the New Orleans area.

------------------
Norfolk Southern Corporation
www.nscorp.com

[Anonymous]

RRB update: Rail workers affected by Hurricane Katrina
(V.M. Speakman Jr., Labor member of the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, issued the following letter on September 2.)

CHICAGO -- Many railroad workers have been laid off because of Hurricane Katrina and need to file applications for unemployment benefits with the Railroad Retirement Board.

Ordinarily, applications for unemployment benefits should be mailed to the claimant’s local RRB office. However, since the RRB’s office in New Orleans is closed due to the hurricane, work performed by this office has been diverted to other RRB offices. Work pertaining to unemployment or sickness benefits has been diverted to the RRB’s office in Fort Worth, Texas. The address and phone number of that office are as follows: 819 Taylor Street, Room 10G02, P.O. Box 17420, 76102-0420, [phone]. However, unemployed railroad workers may contact any field office of the RRB that is close to them for assistance or information. The addresses and phone numbers of the other offices closest to the areas affected by the hurricane are:

Houston, Texas — 1919 Smith, Suite 845, 77002-8051, [phone]

Little Rock, Ark. — 1200 Cherry Brook Drive, Suite 500, 72211-4113, [phone]

Birmingham, Ala. — Medical Forum Building, 950 22nd St. North, Suite 426, 35203-1134, [phone]

Jacksonville, Fla. — 550 Water St., Suite 330, 32202-5177, [phone]

Unemployed railroad workers may want to consider filing their applications for unemployment benefits — or their biweekly claims for those benefits — online. To do so, claimants should go to the RRB’s Web site at www.rrb.gov and click on “MainLine Services” for directions on establishing an RRB Internet Services account. Once they establi***heir online accounts, they will be able to file their applications and claims for unemployment benefits, as well as conduct other business with the RRB, over the Internet.

Regarding claimants in the affected areas who have been receiving railroad unemployment or sickness benefits, those on Direct Deposit should be able to access their funds. However, checks for unemployment and sickness benefits (along with checks for retirement and survivor benefits) cannot presently be delivered by the Postal Service to the affected areas. In order to expedite receipt of payments, the RRB will, upon contact by an individual due payment, request the Treasury Department to reissue these payments to a new address provided by the affected party. The RRB also has information about some temporary locations where checks can be picked up.

The RRB is providing information on its Web site, through its toll-free Help Line number (1-800-808-0772), and through public service announcements regarding actions that can be taken to obtain needed services. In addition, persons can go to the U.S. Postal Service’s Web site (www.usps.com) and click on the Hurricane Katrina Service Updates button to see the latest information on delivery to affected areas.

There are about 9,000 active railroad workers residing in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

[morseman]

Three Canadian warships arrived this am at Pensacola, Fla.
(Two frigates and one destroyer) The coast guard ship will
arrive in a few days. Humanitary aid taken off the ships
in Pensacola and will then be transported wherever needed.
Ships will then be enroute to Gulfport or Biloxi and joined there
with U.S., Mexican, and Dutch ships Because of the shallow
water, they will be anchored 20 miles offshore.
The 100 soldiers, navy & airforce personnel will be involved
in repairing water systems, & getting schools and businesses
reopened, as well as medical work They are restricted
in that they can not bring arms ashore (Makes sense) They are
restricted in how much medical aid they can provide, and they
will not be involved in recovering bodes.

Once again the U.S. Ambassador to Canada is praising
Canada's involvement. These ships were being
loaded with provisions as soon as the hurricane hit.

Still very little info on the American TV about the aid
coming in from other countries.

Perhaps Junctionfan might be able to help on this
forum by adding any further info in this regard.

[morseman]

CORRECTION
just read my posting above any its 1000 uniformed personnel
and not 100. Whew, glad I noticed it.

[Anonymous]

Norfolk Southern to resume New Orleans trains
(Bloomberg News circulated the following article by Rip Watson on September 13.)

NORFOLK, Va. -- Norfolk Southern Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. railroad , expects to run its first train through New Orleans today since Hurricane Katrina hit two weeks ago, resuming connections with Western railroads.

The company finished repairs on a 5.6-mile bridge across Lake Pontchartrain east of the city, allowing the service to resume, spokeswoman Susan Terpay said Monday.

Union Pacific Corp. spokesman Mark Davis said the resumption will let Norfolk Southern exchange four daily trains with his company. The move will end detours of the traffic through Memphis, Tenn.

Most U.S. railroads were unable to run trains through New Orleans after the storm because of track and bridge damage caused by Katrina’s 140-mph winds and flooding.

CSX Corp., the No. 3 U.S. railroad, still is blocked from reaching the city.

Norfolk Southern, based in Norfolk, still won’t be able to use its New Orleans freight yard, which is under a foot of water, Terpay said.

The Lake Pontchartrain bridge needed repairs because several miles of track on it were washed away, forcing the railroad to halt shipments as far away as Hattiesburg, Miss., more than 100 miles to the northeast.

Union Pacific, the biggest U.S. railroad, resumed service in New Orleans one week after the storm.

Trains are limited to daylight hours because of a curfew, the Omaha, Neb.-based company said on its Web site.

Norfolk Southern’s stock closed up 54 cents at $36.59 a share in New York Stock Exchange trading Monday.

[Anonymous]

September 13, 2005

Norfolk Southern Restores Rail Service to New Orleans

NORFOLK, VA -- Sixteen days after Hurricane Katrina struck, Norfolk
Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) has completed repairs to its Lake
Pontchartrain Bridge, restoring rail freight service into New Orleans
and reopening important interchange points with western rail carriers.
Norfolk Southern Chairman and CEO David R. Goode said, "The
resumption of rail service following this disaster is a tribute to the
dedication and efforts of Norfolk Southern people. They did the job in
record time - safely and under extremely challenging conditions - in
order to bring rail service back to New Orleans."
Nearly five miles of track were washed from the top of the 5.8-mile
long rail bridge and into the lake. Nine cranes on barges were used to
lift the track out of the water and back onto the bridge. Nine miles of
track running through New Orleans itself required major repairs due to
washouts and other water-related problems.
Since the hurricane struck, Norfolk Southern employees have
inspected some 1,400 miles of railroad track, removed 5,500 downed
trees, installed 11,000 railroad ties and unloaded and surfaced track
on 55,000 tons of ballast to restore bridges and rail lines to service.
While repairs were being completed, freight that regularly traveled
through New Orleans for connection to other carriers was rerouted
through the railroad's other gateways.
"With the reopening of the Lake Pontchartrain Bridge, we are ready
to assist in the transportation of supplies and materials in and out of
the city," said Norfolk Southern President Wick Moorman. "We are
committed to serving New Orleans over the long-term, and our rail line
can serve as a vital link in the recovery process."
Norfolk Southern is assessing the financial impact of the
hurricane on third-quarter results and will report an estimate when it
has been determined.
Norfolk Southern Corporation is one of the nation's premier
transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary
operates approximately 21,300 route miles in 22 states, the District of
Columbia and Ontario, Canada, serving every major container port in the
eastern United States and providing superior connections to western
rail carriers. NS operates the most extensive intermodal network in the
East and is North America's largest rail carrier of automotive parts
and finished vehicles.



For further information contact:
(Media) Bob Fort, 757-629-2710 ([e-mail])
(Investors) Leanne Marilley, 757-629-2861 ([e-mail] )

------------------
Norfolk Southern Corporation
http://www.nscorp.com

[Anonymous]

http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200509130839.asp

September 13, 2005, 8:39 a.m.
Multi-Layered Failures
The government response to Katrina left something to be desired.



"Why can't they drop water on these people?"

I repeatedly shouted that question to my TV as I watched the heart-wrenching news coverage of Hurricane Katrina's attack on New Orleans. Washed from their homes as Lake Pontchartrain poured into the Crescent City through the 17th Street Canal, thousands of evacuees at the Superdome and nearby Convention Center soon ached for as little as a Dixie cup of water. High humidity, searing sunshine, and 90-plus-degree temperatures intensified their thirst. And yet there was not a drop to drink.

Answers to this mystery are gradually surfacing.

"We were ready from literally the time the storm blew through," American Red Cross president Marty Evans told Fox News Channel's Major Garrett last Thursday. "We were ready to go. We just were not given permission to go in."

"The state Homeland Security Department had requested — and continues to request — that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane," a statement on the Red Cross' website explains. "Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city."

"Acess [sic] to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders," the statement also notes.

Salvation Army Major George Hood told FNC's Garrett that his group was ready to help, too. "We were prepared," Hood said. "The intent and the will was definitely there."

The Red Cross's Evans added: "We understood that the thinking was that, if we were to come in, that, one, it would impede the evacuation. They were trying to get everybody out. And, secondly, that it could possibly suggest that it was going to be OK to stay."

So, while the Red Cross and Salvation Army were able and eager to deliver water, food, medicine, and other relief supplies to those suffering at the Superdome and convention center, Louisiana officials rebuffed them, for fear that hydrating and feeding these individuals would chill an already glacial evacuation while encouraging others to get cozy and settle in for the long haul. In short, Louisiana officials starved their citizens out of town.

Amid ample federal fumbling as the Katrina crisis unfolded, this was just one of numerous instances where authorities in Baton Rouge and New Orleans City Hall appear to have neglected their constituents, amplified their pain, and surely cost some their lives.

Early on, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco should have requested federal troops to quell or at least deter the chaos in New Orleans as flood damage took its toll, looters stole electronic gear and luxury items as well as groceries, and rifle-wielding sociopaths fired on rescue boats and medical helicopters. Not until Thursday, September 1 did Blanco say, "I've actually asked for uniformed troops of any sort," either National Guard or active-duty GIs. The White House apparently hesitated, as federal troops are prohibited from conducting domestic policing under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.

"At a meeting on Air Force One outside Baton Rouge," the next day, "Mr. Bush offered her [Blanco] the full force of every federal relief agency including the military, he claims," the Times of London reports. "Fearful of losing control of the relief effort and of being blamed later for doing so, she asked for another 24 hours to think about it."

Blanco "needed 24 hours to decide," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told reporters, as he said President Bush outlined the situation to him after Blanco resisted Bush's offer to federalize the state National Guard. Blanco rejected Bush's offer the next day.

Blanco's leisurely decision making exacerbated much that shocked the eyes of the world for the last two weeks.


You Need Leadership, Man
While state-level intransigence kept New Orleans' evacuees parched, famished, and menaced for days, City Hall's incompetence left them marooned. New Orleans Port Police director Cynthia Swain "ordered all harbor officers to abandon their posts and flee to higher ground" as the city flooded on Tuesday August 30, NBC's Lisa Myers reported September 8.

"I sent them to high ground because I did not want them to become victims of rising floodwater," Swain explained. Of course, the citizens of New Orleans were not crazy about becoming victims of rising floodwater, either. That is why their taxes financed these boats in the first place. "There were no harbor police rescue boats in the water for rescues for four days," Myers concluded.

"I need 500 buses, man," Mayor Nagin bellowed the evening of September 1 on local radio station WWL-AM. "We ain't talking about — you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here. I'm like, 'You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans.'"

While Nagin awaited the relative comfort of Greyhound motor coaches, he could have filled at least 80 percent of his expressed transit needs simply by employing buses already in his control.

At least 146 municipal mass-transit buses, plus 255 school buses, could have been deployed to whisk car-less evacuees to Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Houston, or any number of places more appealing than the Superdome. Assuming a fairly comfortable 50 people each, these buses alone could have evacuated 20,050 New Orleanians per trip.




But rather than speed toward safety, these buses languished in parking lots where they now are waterlogged. Fuel and oil seep out of their submerged engines, deepening the city's monumental clean-up challenge.

"Sure, there was [sic] lots of buses out there," Nagin explained Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. "But guess what? You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans. We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available."

Nagin and company should have planned for this Category 4 (not 5) contingency. School and mass-transit drivers could have been assigned to start their buses, bring their own families, collect evacuees, and then leave town. Or, the city could have improvised. Among local citizens and tourists eager to escape, volunteers could have been recruited to drive buses. Almost any idea would have trumped drowning 401 buses in a lake. Wags have nicknamed this the Mayor Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool.

None of this should have surprised Nagin, assuming he happened to read the "City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan." Among its instructions:

Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans. ...The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. ...Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedure as needed. ...Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation.

Page 13 of the January 2000 "Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Evacuation and Sheltering Plan" also chose buses as latter-day arks for the poor and immobile of New Orleans.


The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.

So, even as undertakers gather those who Katrina extinguished, why spend time documenting where state and local officials failed the embattled people of New Orleans?


Federal Mismanagement
This is no whitewash of the federal contribution to this catastrophe. President Bush can blame no one but himself for appointing Michael Brown to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The former equestrian-competition executive was a college roommate of Bush pal Joe Allbaugh, his predecessor at FEMA, who he served as deputy for two years. That seems his most obvious qualification for this critical job, from which he resigned on Monday.

FEMA's tragicomic highlight reel includes flying evacuees to Charleston, West Virginia rather than Charleston, South Carolina. Between August 28 and September 8, FEMA shuttled an experienced medical assessment team from Alabama to Biloxi, then Dallas, and Galveston. "We joined the team to help people who need it, and we're not helping anybody," Tim Ward complained to NBC News before FEMA jetted him and his colleagues to Houston. Far less itinerant is a mobile communications unit that a German concern is prepared to fly into the disaster zone. FEMA, they complain, has yet to return any of the hundreds of calls they have left.

Publicly detached at first — despite declaring an emergency the Saturday before Katrina hit and pressuring Governor Blanco for a mandatory evacuation that Sunday morning — Bush seems increasingly hands-on and should stay so. He also should ditch his boundless loyalty to loyal but hapless underlings. Having fired essentially no one after September 11 (i.e. former CIA Director George Tenet) Bush should dismiss those who fell on their fannies when this calamity hit. FEMA's Brown is thought to have jumped; as for others, Bush should not be afraid to push.


Racial Repulsiveness
That said, it is vital for Americans to understand that many fannies hit the floor — from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to Washington — both Republicans and Democrats. This fact unravels the corrosive narrative that the American Left has woven furiously since the moment Katrina exited Orleans Parish for points north. From their perspective, this whole mess is Bush's fault, and his misdeeds were fueled by anti-black bigotry.

Consider just a few of vicious statements:

"George Bush doesn't care about black people," rapper Kanye West declared September 2 on an NBC concert and telethon for hurricane relief.

Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean told the National Baptist Convention in Miami on September 7, "We have to come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age, and economics played a significant role in who survived and who did not." He added, "The question, 40 and 50 years after Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, is: How could this still be happening in America?" Dean spoke as if New Orleans succumbed to Hurricane Jim Crow.

Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights alluded to Plessy v. Ferguson, the notorious 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the "separate-but-equal" rationale for Southern segregation. Said Ratner, "The legacy of that thought is what we saw at the Superdome."

"There's a historical indifference to the pain of poor people and black people," the Rev. Jesse Jackson fumed as the Big Easy sank beneath the waves. He visited the New Orleans Convention Center and announced: "This looks like the hull of a slave ship." One wonders, had Katrina smashed into Boston, forcing thousands of white evacuees into Faneuil Hall, would Jackson have sauntered in and said: "This looks like the Irish Potato Famine?"

Thousands of Americans have toiled and even died to heal this country's racial wounds. Turning Katrina from an epic story of widespread government ineptness into an indictment of anti-black genocide perpetrated by the president of the United States is beyond pernicious.

The wild-eyed theory that Bush hates blacks so deeply that he would engineer their wholesale starvation, dehydration, and asphyxiation pries the scabs off these still-healing wounds and grinds fresh pepper into them. Either such explosive nonsense is a warm pile of lies, or Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FEMA's departed Michael Brown, Democratic Governor Blanco, and Democratic Mayor Nagin (who is black) share Bush's anti-black animus and helped him harm and kill black Americans on live, international television.

This is best-described scatalogically. But to keep it polite, the race hustlers who are exploiting this tragedy are beyond contempt. They are polluting the public square with nitroglycerine. Their twisted view of a bigoted America is belied by the 18,000 mainly black New Orleanians rescued by the Coast Guard, the $762 million in Katrina-related donations Americans of all colors have offered so far to our disadvantaged countrymen, along with free housing, schooling, and more. Thousands of volunteers, many with white faces, raced to comfort the tempest-tossed, many with blacks faces.

"When those Coast Guard choppers, many of who were first on the scene, were pulling people off roofs, they didn't check the color of a person's skin," President Bu***old reporters Monday after surveying flood-damaged neighborhoods in New Orleans. "They wanted to save lives." Bush added: "The storm didn't discriminate, and neither did the recovery effort...The rescue efforts were comprehensive, and the recovery will be comprehensive." Some 71,000 federal personnel are now on the ground returning the Gulf Coast to normal.

Let us concur that many public officials from the New Orleans City Hall to the Oval Office, overwhelmed by America's biggest natural disaster ever, performed far below expectations, but without malice. Let us marginalize the wretched racial arsonists before they burn anything else to the ground. And let us magnify the heroism and generosity that already are helping Hurricane Katrina's survivors reassemble their shattered lives.

— Deroy Murdock is a New York-based columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a senior fellow with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Arlington, Va.

[SALfan]

Nightcrawler - Thanks for posting the long article. It is the best listing I've seen of the incompetence at all levels of government in the Katrina response.

[Anonymous]

I agree, that pretty well sums it up, so for Hillary or the other political vampires can save us all our tax dollars and use that article as the report, but we know that won't happen. The slant is all wrong, you see some Democrats are named and that won't do, or be allowed to happen.

[Big_Boy_4005]

I think the one thing that everyone seems to be missing here is that officials at all levels, from the mayor on up, did not want civilians in the city. After the levees broke everyone not involved in the rescue or rebuilding effort had to leave, for their own safety. They didn't want to provide relief in place, they wanted to move people to the relief, which is what they did.

The dilema came when some people, whose homes were intact, decided to stay. There was a lot of tough talk, but no real action to force them out, so long as they had food and water. Now it sounds like utilities are being restored to some sections of the city, and some people are being allowed back in.

As for dropping water, I saw two different episodes of it, and was unimpressed. In the first, bottled water was being dropped into the flood waters by a rescue helicoptor, and stranded people were gathering it up. Of course the outsides of the bottles had just come in contact with the contaminated water. YUCK!!!

The second situarion involved a helicoptor dumping water on a structure fire. The problem was the force of the water hitting the building was destroying the building faster than the fire itself. The only advantage of fighting fire this way was to keep it from spreading to other buildings.

In my opinion, all of Washington is responsible. They are all busier listening to lobbyists, and worrying about being reelected, than they are about the people they were sent to represent. I hope this wakes the American people up, and next election we bite them in the butt. Until our elected officials have the courage to invoke some kind of campaign finance reform, crap like this is going to be a way of life.

A plague on both of their houses.

[Anonymous]

KCSR resumes some traffic via New Orleans, lifts Waynesboro embargo

Wednesday, the embargoes for Waynesboro, MS and traffic interchanged at New Orleans, LA via NS or CN were lifted by the Kansas City Southern Railway.

Embargoes remain for Gulfport and Delisle, MS and all other New Orleans proper or traffic interchanged with other carriers at New Orleans. The existing embargoes will remain until customers or interchanging railroads are ready to handle rail traffic. - KCSR Service Advisory

[espeefoamer]

It was announced today,that people would be allowed back into parts of NO beginning Sunday.

[Anonymous]

Katrina service metric slip, Smith Barney/Citigroup says

The U.S. Class Is are slowly beginning to improve their service metrics, which eroded after Hurricane Katrina. However, the roads’ metrics have hardly been bulletin board material all year long and their year-to-date average train speeds continue to lag behind 2004’s pace, according to Smith Barney/Citigroup's latest ground transportation research report.

During 2005’s first 36 weeks ending Sept. 9, average velocity stood at 23.3 mph for Kansas City Southern, down 11.5 percent; 23.6 mph for BNSF Railway Co., down 6.0 percent; 22.0 mph for Norfolk Southern Corp., down 4.2 percent; 19.4 mph for CSX Transportation, down 3.8 percent; and 21.3 mph for Union Pacific Railroad, down 1.7 percent compared with 2004’s first 36 weeks.

“Norfolk Southern’s average train speed increased 3.1 percent versus last week as post-Katrina operating metrics show some signs of improvement,” said Smith Barney/Citigroup Managing Director and Progressive Railroading columnist Scott Flower in the report. “At CSX, train speed improved 1.5 percent, marking the third-straight weekly improvement, [but] average speed remains down 4.3 percent over the last four weeks.”

In Canada, Canadian National Railway Co.’s year-to-date average train speed rose 4.5 percent to 25.4 mph and Canadian Pacific Railway’s speed dropped 0.5 percent to and 24.5 mph compared with 2004’s first 36 weeks.

Excluding CN and UP, all the Class Is continue to operate more cars on line compared with the same 2004 period. Through 36 weeks, KCS’ cars on line increased 9.1 percent to 27,588 units; NS’, 5.5 percent to 193,264 units; BNSF’s, 3.6 percent to 207,246 units; and CSXT’s, 0.4 percent to 234,198 units. CN’s and UP’s cars on line decreased 1.5 percent to 110,571 units and 1.1 percent to 319,670 units, respectively.

Meanwhile, CN, UP and CPR are leading the pack in average terminal dwell times. Through 36 weeks, CN’s system-wide average of 13.3 hours dropped 7.7 percent, UP's average of 28.4 hours decreased 6.4 percent and CPR’s average of 29.6 hours fell 0.1 percent compared with 2004’s first 36 weeks. CSXT’s average terminal dwell time rose 5.4 percent each to 29.9 hours, NS’ average increased 5.2 percent to 23.4 hours and BNSF’s average went up 0.9 percent to 10.0 hours. KCS didn’t submit current data.

“Although Hurricane Katrina may continue to have a residual impact on the rail carriers’ operations in the weeks ahead, we think that their operational performance will show gradual improvement, building on the week’s modest progress,” said Flower.

From Progressive Railroading

[Anonymous]

CSX updates storm impact on Gulf Coast
(CSX issued the following news release on September 15.)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- CSX Corporation said today it is continuing to effectively provide rail service to its customers through the previously announced rerouting of traffic around storm-affected areas of the Gulf Coast.

"The flexibility of our network has enabled us to respond quickly to the needs of our customers whose freight normally travels across the affected area," said Tony Ingram, executive vice president and chief operating officer. "Service to local customers will also be restored as repairs are made in phases over an estimated six-month period. The rerouted trains will be brought back to the original lines when all major repairs are completed."

The company's limits for insurance coverage exceed the expenses anticipated from the storm, which are currently estimated to be $250 million. These estimated expenses include the capital costs of rebuilding the rail infrastructure, losses from business interruption, and other costs associated with the storm damage. As previously announced, CSX has a $25 million self- insured retention.

The company currently estimates third-quarter losses associated with business interruption and other costs will negatively impact operating income by around $25 million. While management expects losses above the retention will be covered, certain insurance recoveries related to business interruption losses will not be recognized in the company's operating results until cash is received over the next several months.

The company continues to assess the operating and financial impacts of Hurricane Katrina and will outline these in more detail in its third-quarter earnings announcement in late October.

CSX Corporation, based in Jacksonville, Fla., owns companies providing rail, intermodal and rail-to-truck transload services that are among the nation's leading transportation companies, connecting more than 70 river, ocean and lake ports, as well as more than 230 short line railroads. Its principal operating company, CSX Transportation Inc., operates the largest railroad in the eastern United States with a 22,000-mile rail network linking commercial markets in 23 states, the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces. CSX Intermodal is a stand-alone integrated intermodal company, serving customers with its own truck and terminal operations plus a dedicated domestic container fleet. More information about CSX Corporation and its subsidiaries is available at the company's web site, http://www.csx.com .

[Anonymous]

Norfolk Southern Service Alert

Update: New Orleans

September 16, 2005

Norfolk Southern restored freight service for interchange shipments
with BNSF, CN, KCS, and UP, via New Orleans, La., on Tuesday, September
13, 2005.

Repair and service restoration efforts are now focused at returning
Norfolk Southern’s Oliver Yard and other facilities at New Orleans to
service. Efforts also continue to repair track and gain access into
Chalmette via the Florida Avenue Bridge.

Customers in the New Orleans area are encouraged to contact our Central
Yard Operations Center at [phone] with questions or information
regarding current or anticipated service requirements.

Norfolk Southern has lifted all Hurricane Katrina related embargoes
with the exception of industries located south of Lake Pontchartrain
and the New Orleans area.

------------------
Norfolk Southern Corporation
www.nscorp.com

[Anonymous]

9/16/2005 Storm Fallout
Katrina costly for CSX, potential revenue stream for RailAmerica road

It’s going to cost CSX Corp. big bucks to recover from Hurricane Katrina — as in $250 million big. The company estimates expenses to total that amount after adding up the capital costs to rebuild rail infrastructure, losses from business interruption and other storm-related expenditures. CSX’s insurance coverage limits of $25 million won’t make much of a dent in the expenses.

CSX officials estimate third-quarter losses associated with business interruptions and other costs will reduce quarterly operating income by about $25 million. Certain insurance recoveries related to business interruption losses will not be included in quarterly results until the company receives cash during the next several months.

Service-wise, CSX Transportation continues to re-route traffic around storm-affected Gulf Coast areas.

“Service to local customers will be restored as repairs are made in phases over an estimated six-month period,” said CSXT Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tony Ingram in a prepared statement. “The re-routed trains will be brought back to the original lines when all major repairs are completed.”

Meanwhile, RailAmerica Inc.’s Alabama Gulf Coast Railway expects to spend $200,000 on track clean up and lose about $100,000 in revenue because of the storm. But the region’s rebuilding process will increase demand for lumber, roofing materials and aggregate moves, RailAmerica officials believe. In addition, freight previously moving south from the Midwest via barge might be diverted to rail.

From Progressive Railroading

[Anonymous]

Repairing rails in the Gulf Coast
> U.S. COUNTING ON NICHOLASVILLE FIRM FOR RAILROAD REPAIR
> By Jim Warren
> HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
>
> NEW ORLEANS - Along the economically crucial rail corridor east of
> here, trees and shattered houses still sit in the middle of the
> railroad tracks, all courtesy of Hurricane Katrina.
>
> Near Port Bienville, Miss., Katrina left another calling card: 10
> shrimp boats, swept up by the storm surge and deposited almost on top
> of the rails. The stranded boats -- one containing 100,000 pounds of
> shrimp, rotting in the Gulf Coast heat -- make it impossible for
> trains to pass, blocking shipments in and out of an adjacent plastics
> plant.
>
> Elsewhere along the corridor, boxcars and locomotives lie in woods
> and bayous, tossed aside like toys. In some places, the rails
> themselves are gone. In others, entire railroad bridges have
> disappeared, leaving behind only their concrete supports, rising
> above the muddy water like the fossils of lost dinosaurs.
>
> The worst damage is between New Orleans and Pascagoula, Miss., and
> cleaning it up figures to be a huge task. One of the principal
> players will be Nicholasville businessman Rick Corman, whose R.J.
> Corman Railroad Group last week won a major contract to repair and
> rebuild roughly 40 miles of CSX Transportation Inc. track between New
> Orleans and Bay St. Louis on the Mississippi coast, roughly halfway
> to Pascagoula. Corman has 90 days to reopen the line.
>
> The sheer magnitude of that task is daunting, with mile upon mile of
> track that must be rebuilt -- or hauled out of the mud and put back
> in the roadbed. But working conditions will be just as tough. In many
> places, repair crews will be toiling in marshes and swamps where
> snakes and alligators abound, and where any piece of heavy equipment
> that ventures off the roadbed risks sinking into the muck.
>
> "It's going to be the biggest project we've ever taken on by far,"
> Corman said Friday. "It's a major challenge for the company, but our
> people have the expertise to handle it."
>
> When will the work start? "Five minutes ago," Corman said.
>
> Corman, who toured the area last week and has flown over the
> hurricane zone numerous times this month, called the hurricane damage
> "unbelievable."
>
> "What's really amazing is that it goes on and on for 50 miles or
> more," he said. "After you leave Biloxi, Miss., and start west, the
> farther you go, the worse it gets. There are places here that have
> been absolutely annihilated."
>
> Corman train derailment expert Gary Miller has worked many disasters
> before. But he says he's staggered by Katrina's devastation and the
> work ahead.
>
> "I've been doing this for 38 years, and I've never seen anything like
> it," Miller said last week.
>
> Tiffany Nease, a Corman safety coordinator who was working with
> repair crews at CSX's Gentilly Yards in New Orleans on Thursday, said
> workers are coping with safety issues that go far beyond their usual
> concerns.
>
> "Someone killed a cottonmouth moccasin here in the yard this morning,
> and they saw gators up near Biloxi last week," Nease said.
>
> The human carnage of Hurricane Katrina, particularly the flooding of
> New Orleans, has dominated national news for three weeks. Though many
> neighborhoods in the Crescent City remained flooded last week,
> conditions were improving, and some residents are being allowed back
> into the city this weekend.
>
> Railroads have received less coverage, but they also suffered heavily
> when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.
>
> Six of the nation's seven biggest railroads converge in the New
> Orleans area: CSX and the Norfolk Southern from the east; the Union
> Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads from the west; and
> the Kansas City Southern and Canadian National railways from the
> north. Several smaller railroads also operate in the area.
>
> Many of those lines were damaged by Katrina. Norfolk Southern's huge
> bridge across Lake Pontchartrain, for example, was heavily damaged.
> But that bridge and most of the damaged tracks were back in service
> late last week. However, the CSX line between New Orleans and
> Pascagoula remains out of action. It hugs the Gulf Coast for about
> 100 miles and bore the brunt of Katrina's fury when the storm came
> ashore.
>
> CSX is rerouting traffic through Memphis, Birmingham and East St.
> Louis, Ill., according to company spokesman Gary Sease. But while
> cargo is getting through, alternative routing means delays and higher
> costs, which is why CSX wants to get the line reopened as quickly as
> possible, Sease said.
>
> Corman said his company's job will involve restoring many miles of
> damaged track and rebuilding five railroad bridges that were knocked
> down by the storm. That means placing cranes on barges so they can
> lift bridge sections out of the water and put them back in place, he
> said. Crews will start from the west shore of St. Louis Bay and work
> their way west toward New Orleans, he said.
>
> R.J. Corman Railroad Group has had about 150 employees doing railroad
> repairs in the Gulf Coast area since shortly after the hurricane.
> Corman crews helped repair damaged Norfolk Southern lines near New
> Orleans and, over Labor Day weekend, reopened a section of CSX track
> near Pascagoula so that an oil refinery there could get back in
> operation. But Corman said he'll need to bring in more manpower, and
> should have nearly 300 people on the job within the next few weeks,
> some from Kentucky and some from elsewhere around the country.
>
> Last week, the company sent a 3-mile convoy of vehicles and more than
> 100 workers into the Gentilly Yards at New Orleans, which were
> flooded in the wake of Katrina. Most of the water is gone, but it
> left behind tangles of overturned rail cars and shipping containers,
> plus whole sections of undermined track. Corman officials said crews
> will live on site in trailers and motor homes for up to three weeks
> while they complete repairs.
>
> Hundreds of rail cars that were flooded will have to be inspected. If
> the cars' wheel hubs were underwater, federal regulations require
> that wheel bearings and other parts be replaced before the cars can
> go back into operation, said Noel Rush, president of R.J. Corman
> Derailment Services, a part of the Corman Group.
>
> Crews are using bulldozers with side-mounted booms to pick up
> overturned cars and locomotives and put them back on the tracks. It's
> tricky, but routine work for Corman's derailment crews. But getting
> those 10 shrimp boats off the tracks at Port Bienville, Miss., could
> be a different matter.
>
> The U.S. Coast Guard halted removal of the boats last week, fearing
> diesel fuel in the boats' tanks might cause an environmental hazard.
> R.J. Corman workers plan to try again, once the fuel is pumped out.
>
> "I've never tried to move a shrimp boat in my life," said Gary
> Miller, Corman's most experienced derailment worker. "As far as I
> know, this the first time I've ever even seen one."
>

[Junctionfan]

Will the government or insurance help pay for losses of the shortlines? Anybody here anything concerning this?

[Anonymous]

GREENVILLE

Man charged in theft of relief supply truck

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a Greenville man accused of stealing a rental truck that contained supplies headed to hurricane victims in Louisiana.

Ricky Benson, 49, was arrested Sept. 8, police said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad Lamar, in Oxford, said federal officials will prosecute the case.

Lamar said Benson has been charged with the unlawful theft of goods from an interstate shipment "because this truck involved a shipment of aid/relief to victims of the hurricane."

Two women from suburbs of Chicago were driving the truck to Louisiana. Police said the vehicle was stolen from a Best Western motel in Greenville. The women were not identified. The truck contained generators, food, water, clothing and cash collected in the Chicago area meant for storm victims, said Lt. Dondi Gibbs, head of the criminal investigations division for the Greenville Police Department.

Lamar said Benson waived his right to a preliminary hearing during a recent appearance before U.S. Magistrate Eugene Bogen in Greenville. Lamar said Benson was denied bond and bound over to the federal grand jury. Benson was in the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service. Gibbs said the truck was released to the women last week and they continued on to Louisiana.

[edblysard]

As a side note,
We offered, and they took us up on it!
Five of the 80 T&E folks from the New Orleans Public Belt are now "new" employees of the PTRA...
They started today, and were as professional a bunch of railroaders as you could ask for.
They were not looking for a hand out, just a hand up on a job...

Three of them have lost everything....one lived in an apartment, and didn’t lose anything, and one of them owns a home, which was spared the flooding, but suffered wind damage.
His wife and children are still living there, in Louisiana, but there is no railroad work available...so they will do a weeks worth of familiarity training, and mark up on our extra board.

We are also looking at placing a few of them at the Galveston Dock railroad, and our super has called the Texas City Railroad to see if they can take any of them.

We may not be a Class1 railroad, but our superintendent is one classy guy...

Ed

[Anonymous]

Ed -

Restores your faith. A bunch of us spent a day last week loading up two trucks heading to MS and LA with donated relief supplies collected from families in our school district, it isn't enough, but it is what we could do. Wish we could find homes and jobs for folks too. People here in the northeast are trying. I understand that locally there are 15 families willing to "adopt a family" and all of the area colleges are taking students from Tulane and LSU.

LC

[Anonymous]

KATRINA UPDATE: Railroads still recovering

by Sean Kilcarr, senior editor

Sep 19, 2005 9:46 AM


The major railroads serving the Gulf Coast states continue to repair
the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and restore service to the
region.




Jacksonville, FL-based CSX Corp. said its continuing to re-route
traffic around storm-affected areas and expects repair estimates to
top $250 million, including the capital costs of rebuilding the rail
infrastructure, losses from business interruption, and other costs
associated with the storm damage. CSX said it currently estimates
third-quarter losses associated with business interruption and other
costs would negatively impact operating income by around $25 million.



Yet Tony Ingram, CSXs executive vp & COO, remains upbeat about the
railroads ability to cope with the long-term damage to its systems
caused by Katrina. The flexibility of our network has enabled us to
respond quickly to the needs of our customers whose freight normally
travels across the affected area, he said. Service to local
customers will also be restored as repairs are made in phases over an
estimated six-month period. The rerouted trains will be brought back
to the original lines when all major repairs are completed.


Omaha, NE-based rail giant Union Pacific added that local service to
UP customers on its line between Livonia, LA, and Avondale, LA, is up
and running but that it is still detouring 14 trains that normally
use the New Orleans gateway. Memphis, TN, is primarily being used for
detours to eastern carriers, with St. Louis, MO as the secondary
gateway.


Norfolk, VA-based Norfolk Southern Corp. operated its first westbound
train from New Orleans Sept. 13 and then gave it to UP at Avondale as
UP is interchanging four trains a day with the NS, two west and two
east, to help beef up rail service. Because of the damage to NS
buildings in New Orleans, UP is also providing temporary office
space, communication equipment and crew lodging in Avondale.


UP added that its moved 135 trailers loaded with bottled water now
being distributed by truck to Katrina victims and response workers,
along with several special fuel trains delivered to eastern
railroads. It is also coordinating all relief material movements
through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including the
movement and staging of 20 refrigerated box cars UP donated to
support the relief effort.

[edblysard]

With the possibility of tropical storm Rita becoming a hurricane today, and with it heading into the Gulf of Mexico, FEMA announced last night the re-evacuation of the evacuees housed at the Astrodome and GR Brown Convention center.
Starting today, they will begin bussing the dome folks to Ellington Field, where they will be flown to a camp in Arkansas, or anywhere in the continental US for free.

If Rita becomes a cat 4 or stronger, and if Houston suffers a direct hit, the flood plain extends from Galveston Island inland to west of IH10 and the outskirts of Houston, which is 45 miles inland.
A storm surge like that which hit New Orleans might manage to food that area for a day or two...
Houston is recalling all it power company crews from Louisiana, and has published evacuation routes inland.

Galveston Island and Galveston County have already issues a voluntary evacuation request, beginning today 09/20/05 at 1400 hours (2:00pm.)

Residents of the Gulf plains are urged NOT to come to Houston, but to continue further inland to Bryan/College Station, Brenham, Huntsville, as Houston itself may issue an evacuation order as early as Wednesday, and currently the availability of motel and hotels rooms here is almost zero.

Roughly anywhere east of Houston, there are no rooms to be had, and in the city proper, no motel reports any reasonable amount of space left.
If you evac, remember, we no longer have space for any more people, so head for the hill country!
Ed