How I Spent My Summer Sabbatical
By Mark Sweetwood
I spent my summer sabbatical, or at least a portion of it, with my wife at Buffalo Wild Wings in Algonquin.
There, we watched the Cubs, enjoyed Bud Lite and fell in love. No, not with each other (we're already there) but with the NTN Network. Eventually, we learned that we could bring our laptops with us and plug into the wireless network for free!
In fact, it is from Buffalo Wild Wings that I write this.
NTN is the maker of those trivia games that you can play with a controller while questions pop up on a television screen. We decided to keep our brains active by showing up a couple of days a week for some vigorous brain exercising - along with beers, Cubs and wireless fun. The wonderful and talented Kelly became our friend and her psychic bartending abilities kept us refreshed. She was powerless with the Cubs situation as were we all.
Our self-made goal of each NTN round of Countdown or Wipe Out! was threefold: 1.) We had to earn the Player's Plus bonus; 2.) We had to score in five figures and 3.) We had to win (not that I am competitive or anything). More often than not, we achieved our goals! We eventually invited my parents and other friends top join us for fun. Most came away agreeing that our lifestyle had become uncontrollably decadent and that they could not keep up with us in trivia.
Fridays were always special because that was the day the crane game is filled at BWW. As most people are aware, I am the Crane Master (as well as Death Trilogy Commissioner). We now have about two dozen critters which need adopting. Call me obsessive, but I cannot pass up a filled crane game.
We've really never been "bar regulars" before and Kelly made me feel a bit like Norm on "Cheers" whenever I came in...
KELLY: What would you say to a glass of beer, Mark?
MARK: Going Down?
KELLY: What's shaking, Mark?
MARK: All 4 cheeks and a couple of chins.
KELLY: Hey Mr. Sweetwood, there's a cold one waiting for you.
MARK: I know, and if she calls, I'm not here.
KELLY: Can I draw you a beer, Mark?
MARK: No, I know what one looks like. Just pour me one.
KELLY: How's a beer sound, Mark?
MARK: I dunno. I usually finish them before they get a word in.
(All dialogue stolen/adapted from www.jokestogo.com which stoled them from "Cheers.")
Summer has given way to the emerging urgencies of the Fall. Our lifestyle is likely to change as employment is likely to rear its intrusive head once again. Kelly will see us less, our Players Plus points will accumulate more slowly and someone else will have to collect the crane bounty.
But we had a marvelous time, while it lasted.
More later!
Mark
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
The Blame Game CAN Begin...
After weeks of dodging post-Katrina accountability by labeling any effort to question the federal government's response as "the blame game," the White House has apparently changed tactics...
"My biggest mistake was not recognizing, by Saturday (before the storm made landfall), that Louisiana was dysfunctional," Former FEMA chief Michael Brown told a Congressional panel Tuesday. "I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade (Louisiana) Governor (Kathleen) Blanco and (New Orleans) Mayor (Ray) Nagin to sit down, get over their differences and work together. I just couldn't pull that off."
What a mope...
OK, I am done ranting about Katrina. It was a sad chapter and showed government at it's very worst. Watch this space this week for all new non-hurricane-related updates!!!!
More later,
Mark
"My biggest mistake was not recognizing, by Saturday (before the storm made landfall), that Louisiana was dysfunctional," Former FEMA chief Michael Brown told a Congressional panel Tuesday. "I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade (Louisiana) Governor (Kathleen) Blanco and (New Orleans) Mayor (Ray) Nagin to sit down, get over their differences and work together. I just couldn't pull that off."
What a mope...
OK, I am done ranting about Katrina. It was a sad chapter and showed government at it's very worst. Watch this space this week for all new non-hurricane-related updates!!!!
More later,
Mark
Thursday, September 15, 2005
This just in...there are POOR people in the South!
President Bush on Thursday night: "As all of us saw on television, there is also some deep, persistent poverty in this region as well."
Uhm, you didn't know that before you watched some TV? I mean, seriously, I knew that and I don't even have a staff to record the TV news on a DVD for me to slide under my door hoping I'll stumble into it without getting too mad...
In a speech in which many lines just seemed to clunk, this may have been the clunkiest. It is as if his staff is trying to make him seem even MORE aloof, which I would argue is a bad idea.
Uhm, you didn't know that before you watched some TV? I mean, seriously, I knew that and I don't even have a staff to record the TV news on a DVD for me to slide under my door hoping I'll stumble into it without getting too mad...
In a speech in which many lines just seemed to clunk, this may have been the clunkiest. It is as if his staff is trying to make him seem even MORE aloof, which I would argue is a bad idea.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
I Got My Response, Part 2
BEFORE Hurricane Katrina hit, BEFORE we knew of the horrible destruction, BEFORE all of the stupidity, I called upon President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Speaker Dennis Hastert and Congressman Don Manzullo to back an effort to order immediate leaves for any soldier who's family back home was victimized.
Nary a politician responded to me, by the way, outside of generic, automatic-generated email responses...
Shortly after the storm, the Bush Administration answered my suggestion, in a manner of speaking, by trundling out a military spokesman to say "no dice!" As I posted Sept. 2: "They're not going to be leaving early as a result of the hurricane," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told The Associated Press."
Just to demonstrate a new level of heartlessness, here is an excerpt from Sunday's Washington Post:
Mississippi guardsmen in Iraq refused leave time
By The Washington Post
September 11, 2005
BAGHDAD - Scores of Mississippi National Guardsmen in Iraq who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina have been refused even 15-day leaves to aid their displaced families, told by commanders there are too few U.S. troops in Iraq to spare them, according to guardsmen.
About 600 members of the Mississippi Guard's 155th Brigade Combat Team, posted south of Baghdad, live in the parts of southern Mississippi and southeast Louisiana hit hardest by Katrina, Maj. Neil F. Murphy Jr., a spokesman with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, said by e-mail Saturday. The brigade is attached to the expeditionary force.
Guard members and relatives said in e-mails or telephone interviews that virtually all of the roughly 300 soldiers of the 155th Brigade's B and C companies had their homes destroyed or severely damaged in the hurricane. Eighty Mississippi Guard members have been granted emergency leave, Murphy said. The rest have been refused leave, told by their brigade command that all other forward operating bases "are tapped out and cannot send troops," one Mississippi Guard member wrote in an e-mail that was shared by a family member.
To say I am disgusted would be an understatement.
More later,
Mark
Nary a politician responded to me, by the way, outside of generic, automatic-generated email responses...
Shortly after the storm, the Bush Administration answered my suggestion, in a manner of speaking, by trundling out a military spokesman to say "no dice!" As I posted Sept. 2: "They're not going to be leaving early as a result of the hurricane," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told The Associated Press."
Just to demonstrate a new level of heartlessness, here is an excerpt from Sunday's Washington Post:
Mississippi guardsmen in Iraq refused leave time
By The Washington Post
September 11, 2005
BAGHDAD - Scores of Mississippi National Guardsmen in Iraq who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina have been refused even 15-day leaves to aid their displaced families, told by commanders there are too few U.S. troops in Iraq to spare them, according to guardsmen.
About 600 members of the Mississippi Guard's 155th Brigade Combat Team, posted south of Baghdad, live in the parts of southern Mississippi and southeast Louisiana hit hardest by Katrina, Maj. Neil F. Murphy Jr., a spokesman with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, said by e-mail Saturday. The brigade is attached to the expeditionary force.
Guard members and relatives said in e-mails or telephone interviews that virtually all of the roughly 300 soldiers of the 155th Brigade's B and C companies had their homes destroyed or severely damaged in the hurricane. Eighty Mississippi Guard members have been granted emergency leave, Murphy said. The rest have been refused leave, told by their brigade command that all other forward operating bases "are tapped out and cannot send troops," one Mississippi Guard member wrote in an e-mail that was shared by a family member.
To say I am disgusted would be an understatement.
More later,
Mark
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Tired of Stupidity
The response to Hurricane Katrina has been marked by unimaginable stupidity. Sadly, that's just about the only thing one could call "unimaginable" in this horrible chapter.
The Adminstration's line is "There'll be a time for blame. Later. When everyone forgets about how stupidly we reacted." As White House spokesman Scott McClellan put it Wednesday: "...I'm just not going to engage in the blame game or finger-pointing that you're trying to get me to engage." In order to protect President Bush's image amidst a flood of criticism, some hysterical conservatives are spinning wild webs of attacks against anyone who would dare question the federal response - even the victims themselves.
Witness Rush Limbaugh: "New Orleans has been run by liberal Democrat governments, people, for as long as I can remember, and there's an entitlement mentality there. You are never going to have a thriving city relying on handouts, or on welfare payments, whatever you want to call them. It's just not going to happen."
Yikes. And that was No. 2 to the stupidest thing said this week. Enter the First Mother, Barbara Bush, who told a radio interviewer Monday after touring Houston's Astrodome: "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
Yeah, well, here in the uhm, "No White House Spin Zone," with apologies to O'Reilly, I did want to explode one bid of stupidity: All the talk about the "unimaginable" destruction of a Category 4 or 5 direct hit on New Orleans.
Or, as President Bush told Diane Sawyer on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Sept. 1: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
Ah, er, uhm, Mr. President, ah, you might want to go here:
Times-Picayune 2002 Series
The New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper warned repeatedly about the dire consequences of a direct strike by a major hurricane. In June 2002, they published a special series, "Washing Away," which is prescient. This part is most interesting:
"A stronger storm on a slightly different course - such as the path (Hurricane) Georges (in 1998) was on just 16 hours before landfall - could have realized emergency officials' worst-case scenario: hundreds of billions of gallons of lake water pouring over the levees into an area averaging 5 feet below sea level with no natural means of drainage. That would turn the city and the east bank of Jefferson Parish into a lake as much as 30 feet deep, fouled with chemicals and waste from ruined septic systems, businesses and homes. Such a flood could trap hundreds of thousands of people in buildings and in vehicles."
Spooky, eh? Not to be out-done, the fine folks at National Geographic did an outstanding feature in 2004 called "Gone With the Water." You can read it here:
Gone With the Water
You might want to focus on this part:
"The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it."
Maybe, Mr. President, what you meant to say was that no one in your Administration anticipated the breach while you all were on vacation a couple of weeks ago...
From Time Magazine: "The White House is 'very, very slow sometimes,' says a former Administration official. Besides, members of the A team were on vacation: chief of staff Andy Card was in Maine; Dick Cheney was in Wyoming; even Condoleezza Rice was out of town, shoe-shopping in Manhattan. Many of Bush's best p.r. minds, including media adviser Mark McKinnon, were in Greece at the wedding of White House communications director Nicolle Devenish. Had they been around, perhaps Bush would not have been accompanied only by his dog Barney when he returned from vacation in Crawford."
Well, so much for those August-long vacations! What with terrorists attacking or hurricanes attacking...it's always something! It would seem being President is pretty much a full-time job. Leave the extended summer vacations to the out-of-work newspaper guys of the world...
Or at least READ something every now and then! At least, then, you wouldn't sound so, well, stupid.
Speaking of stupid, just for fun, here's a video of CNN weatherman Chad Myers flipping out on camera as Katrina approached the Gulf Coast:
Myers Flips Out
Yikes!
More later,
Mark
P.S. Don't forget to give: Red Cross Donation
The Adminstration's line is "There'll be a time for blame. Later. When everyone forgets about how stupidly we reacted." As White House spokesman Scott McClellan put it Wednesday: "...I'm just not going to engage in the blame game or finger-pointing that you're trying to get me to engage." In order to protect President Bush's image amidst a flood of criticism, some hysterical conservatives are spinning wild webs of attacks against anyone who would dare question the federal response - even the victims themselves.
Witness Rush Limbaugh: "New Orleans has been run by liberal Democrat governments, people, for as long as I can remember, and there's an entitlement mentality there. You are never going to have a thriving city relying on handouts, or on welfare payments, whatever you want to call them. It's just not going to happen."
Yikes. And that was No. 2 to the stupidest thing said this week. Enter the First Mother, Barbara Bush, who told a radio interviewer Monday after touring Houston's Astrodome: "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
Yeah, well, here in the uhm, "No White House Spin Zone," with apologies to O'Reilly, I did want to explode one bid of stupidity: All the talk about the "unimaginable" destruction of a Category 4 or 5 direct hit on New Orleans.
Or, as President Bush told Diane Sawyer on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Sept. 1: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
Ah, er, uhm, Mr. President, ah, you might want to go here:
Times-Picayune 2002 Series
The New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper warned repeatedly about the dire consequences of a direct strike by a major hurricane. In June 2002, they published a special series, "Washing Away," which is prescient. This part is most interesting:
"A stronger storm on a slightly different course - such as the path (Hurricane) Georges (in 1998) was on just 16 hours before landfall - could have realized emergency officials' worst-case scenario: hundreds of billions of gallons of lake water pouring over the levees into an area averaging 5 feet below sea level with no natural means of drainage. That would turn the city and the east bank of Jefferson Parish into a lake as much as 30 feet deep, fouled with chemicals and waste from ruined septic systems, businesses and homes. Such a flood could trap hundreds of thousands of people in buildings and in vehicles."
Spooky, eh? Not to be out-done, the fine folks at National Geographic did an outstanding feature in 2004 called "Gone With the Water." You can read it here:
Gone With the Water
You might want to focus on this part:
"The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it."
Maybe, Mr. President, what you meant to say was that no one in your Administration anticipated the breach while you all were on vacation a couple of weeks ago...
From Time Magazine: "The White House is 'very, very slow sometimes,' says a former Administration official. Besides, members of the A team were on vacation: chief of staff Andy Card was in Maine; Dick Cheney was in Wyoming; even Condoleezza Rice was out of town, shoe-shopping in Manhattan. Many of Bush's best p.r. minds, including media adviser Mark McKinnon, were in Greece at the wedding of White House communications director Nicolle Devenish. Had they been around, perhaps Bush would not have been accompanied only by his dog Barney when he returned from vacation in Crawford."
Well, so much for those August-long vacations! What with terrorists attacking or hurricanes attacking...it's always something! It would seem being President is pretty much a full-time job. Leave the extended summer vacations to the out-of-work newspaper guys of the world...
Or at least READ something every now and then! At least, then, you wouldn't sound so, well, stupid.
Speaking of stupid, just for fun, here's a video of CNN weatherman Chad Myers flipping out on camera as Katrina approached the Gulf Coast:
Myers Flips Out
Yikes!
More later,
Mark
P.S. Don't forget to give: Red Cross Donation
Friday, September 02, 2005
How slow were they...?
From David Letterman's Thursday night monologue as he did his Carsonesque critique of the previous night's "horrible" audience:
"I thought it was the Bush Administration... because they were so slow to respond..."
"I thought it was the Bush Administration... because they were so slow to respond..."
Well, I Got My Response....
...and it is pathetic (what a surprise, given the Bush Administration's overall pathetic response to the disaster left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina). From the Northwest Herald's Associated Press report this morning:
National Guardsmen to stay in Iraq despite storm
The ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq – National Guard troops from Louisiana and other Gulf states will not be pulled out of Iraq ahead of schedule despite the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. command said Thursday.
Some units are due to leave next month anyway after a year in Iraq, but the process could take weeks to complete.
"They're not going to be leaving early as a result of the hurricane," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told The Associated Press. He said the military had set up help lines for servicemen from the Southern states hardest-hit by the hurricane trying to contact family members.
Still, pressure appeared to be building for the hastened withdrawal of some troops from Iraq, allowing them to return to their flood-ravaged home states.
Brig. Gen. John P. Basilica, commander of the Louisiana National Guard's 256th Enhanced Separate Brigade, asked his division commanders in Baghdad to hasten the Louisiana-based brigade's departure, said Lt. Col. Jordan Jones, battalion commander of the New Orleans-based 141st Field Artillery Battalion, which is part of the brigade.
"We were on schedule to leave anyway and he was trying to expedite that," Jones said. The 256th could start leaving Iraq in about a week, if the departure was granted, and begin arriving in Louisiana a few days later.
The request came as 10,000 National Guard troops from across the United States began pouring into Louisiana and Mississippi to shore up security, rescue and relief operations. The new units brought the number of troops dedicated to the effort to more than 18,000, in what may be the largest military response to a natural disaster.
In Doha, Qatar, a spokesman for the U.S. regional command said there would be no large-scale shifting of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan to help with disaster relief.
But Lt. Col. Trey Cate said military officials were exploring ways to bring individual soldiers home to take care of their families who may have special needs after the devastating storm.
It could be tough to get service members to some especially hard-hit areas because of flooding or mandatory evacuations.
"There are lots of different options of getting soldiers back there," Cate said. "We're going to do our best to take care of the troops and their families."
Navy Cmdr. Jeff Breslau, a U.S. 5th Fleet spokesman in Bahrain, said no U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf would be redirected to disaster relief in the Gulf of Mexico, but individual sailors with family emergencies could be granted home leave.
The Air Force also said it was considering releasing troops from the affected areas.
"U.S. Central Command Air Forces is currently reviewing our ability to send airmen affected by Hurricane Katrina home early from deployment," said Capt. David Small, spokesman for U.S. Central Command Air Forces in Qatar.
Katrina struck as about 3,700 soldiers from the 256th were in the middle of preparations to return to their base in Lafayette, La., after spending nearly a year in combat in Iraq.
Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, spokesman for the U.S. military command in Baghdad, said the 256th is expected to leave Iraq by November – if their deployment is not extended. Boylan said the Army was providing the Louisiana Guardsmen extra Internet and phone lines to contact family and friends affected by the hurricane.
Moving troops and equipment out of Iraq is a process that can take weeks. Most units enter and leave Iraq through Kuwait. Equipment earmarked for incoming units must be cleaned and repaired.
The 256th includes the 141st Field Artillery Battalion, based at Camp Liberty, Saddam Hussein's palace complex near Baghdad International Airport. The 400-member unit has suffered one killed and several wounded during its tour in Iraq.
Lt. Taysha Deaton, a spokeswoman for the unit, said most of the soldiers had been glued to television sets watching scenes of their neighborhoods trying to cope with wind damage and flooding.
National Guardsmen to stay in Iraq despite storm
The ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq – National Guard troops from Louisiana and other Gulf states will not be pulled out of Iraq ahead of schedule despite the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. command said Thursday.
Some units are due to leave next month anyway after a year in Iraq, but the process could take weeks to complete.
"They're not going to be leaving early as a result of the hurricane," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told The Associated Press. He said the military had set up help lines for servicemen from the Southern states hardest-hit by the hurricane trying to contact family members.
Still, pressure appeared to be building for the hastened withdrawal of some troops from Iraq, allowing them to return to their flood-ravaged home states.
Brig. Gen. John P. Basilica, commander of the Louisiana National Guard's 256th Enhanced Separate Brigade, asked his division commanders in Baghdad to hasten the Louisiana-based brigade's departure, said Lt. Col. Jordan Jones, battalion commander of the New Orleans-based 141st Field Artillery Battalion, which is part of the brigade.
"We were on schedule to leave anyway and he was trying to expedite that," Jones said. The 256th could start leaving Iraq in about a week, if the departure was granted, and begin arriving in Louisiana a few days later.
The request came as 10,000 National Guard troops from across the United States began pouring into Louisiana and Mississippi to shore up security, rescue and relief operations. The new units brought the number of troops dedicated to the effort to more than 18,000, in what may be the largest military response to a natural disaster.
In Doha, Qatar, a spokesman for the U.S. regional command said there would be no large-scale shifting of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan to help with disaster relief.
But Lt. Col. Trey Cate said military officials were exploring ways to bring individual soldiers home to take care of their families who may have special needs after the devastating storm.
It could be tough to get service members to some especially hard-hit areas because of flooding or mandatory evacuations.
"There are lots of different options of getting soldiers back there," Cate said. "We're going to do our best to take care of the troops and their families."
Navy Cmdr. Jeff Breslau, a U.S. 5th Fleet spokesman in Bahrain, said no U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf would be redirected to disaster relief in the Gulf of Mexico, but individual sailors with family emergencies could be granted home leave.
The Air Force also said it was considering releasing troops from the affected areas.
"U.S. Central Command Air Forces is currently reviewing our ability to send airmen affected by Hurricane Katrina home early from deployment," said Capt. David Small, spokesman for U.S. Central Command Air Forces in Qatar.
Katrina struck as about 3,700 soldiers from the 256th were in the middle of preparations to return to their base in Lafayette, La., after spending nearly a year in combat in Iraq.
Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, spokesman for the U.S. military command in Baghdad, said the 256th is expected to leave Iraq by November – if their deployment is not extended. Boylan said the Army was providing the Louisiana Guardsmen extra Internet and phone lines to contact family and friends affected by the hurricane.
Moving troops and equipment out of Iraq is a process that can take weeks. Most units enter and leave Iraq through Kuwait. Equipment earmarked for incoming units must be cleaned and repaired.
The 256th includes the 141st Field Artillery Battalion, based at Camp Liberty, Saddam Hussein's palace complex near Baghdad International Airport. The 400-member unit has suffered one killed and several wounded during its tour in Iraq.
Lt. Taysha Deaton, a spokeswoman for the unit, said most of the soldiers had been glued to television sets watching scenes of their neighborhoods trying to cope with wind damage and flooding.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
No Reply At All
On Sunday night, with what was then a Category 5 hurricane bearing down on Louisiana and Mississippi, I sent the following letter to President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Speaker of the House U.S. Rep Dennis Hastert and U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo. Five days later, much like the federal response to the disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina, I have had no response. I think this is an important consideration but I am doubtful that our government has its priorities in line, yet.
Here is my note - and the accompanying very prescient AP article:
I am sure many ideas and plans have been considered by the White House in the past 48 hours. Here is one more that you may NOT have considered but deserves immediate consideration:
Is the president prepared on Tuesday to sign an executive order granting immediate - perhaps even permanent - leave to any U.S. soldier abroad with families victimized by Hurricane Katrina?
It would be bad enough to be serving in Iraq with the normal anxieties about life back home. But it would seem cruel to keep someone there when his or her family might well need them to face the extraordinary circumstances.
Please give this your immediate attention,
Mark M. Sweetwood
1019 Boxwood Dr.
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
(815) 477-2198
(815) 276-7271
Here is the article which prompted my idea and my concern:
Hurricane Could Leave 1 Million Homeless
By MATT CRENSON, AP National Writer
When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.
Experts have warned for years that the levees and pumps that usually keep New Orleans dry have no chance against a direct hit by a Category 5 storm.
That's exactly what Katrina was as it churned toward the city. With top winds of 165 mph and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28 feet above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people homeless.
"All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario," Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.
The center's latest computer simulations indicate that by Tuesday, vast swaths of New Orleans could be under water up to 30 feet deep. In the French Quarter, the water could reach 20 feet, easily submerging the district's iconic cast-iron balconies and bars.
Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city's houses will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless.
"We're talking about in essence having ? in the continental United States ? having a refugee camp of a million people," van Heerden said.
Aside from Hurricane Andrew, which struck Miami in 1992, forecasters have no experience with Category 5 hurricanes hitting densely populated areas.
"Hurricanes rarely sustain such extreme winds for much time. However we see no obvious large-scale effects to cause a substantial weakening the system and it is expected that the hurricane will be of Category 4 or 5 intensity when it reaches the coast," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Richard Pasch said.
As they raced to put meteorological instruments in Katrina's path Sunday, wind engineers had little idea what their equipment would record.
"We haven't seen something this big since we started the program," said Kurt Gurley, a University of Florida engineering professor. He works for the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program, which is in its seventh year of making detailed measurements of hurricane wind conditions using a set of mobile weather stations.
Experts have warned about New Orleans' vulnerability for years, chiefly because Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of coastal wetlands in the past seven decades. The vast patchwork of swamps and bayous south of the city serves as a buffer, partially absorbing the surge of water that a hurricane pushes ashore.
Experts have also warned that the ring of high levees around New Orleans, designed to protect the city from floodwaters coming down the Mississippi, will only make things worse in a powerful hurricane. Katrina is expected to push a 28-foot storm surge against the levees. Even if they hold, water will pour over their tops and begin filling the city as if it were a sinking canoe.
After the storm passes, the water will have nowhere to go.
In a few days, van Heerden predicts, emergency management officials are going to be wondering how to handle a giant stagnant pond contaminated with building debris, coffins, sewage and other hazardous materials.
"We're talking about an incredible environmental disaster," van Heerden said.
He puts much of the blame for New Orleans' dire situation on the very levee system that is designed to protect southern Louisiana from Mississippi River floods.
Before the levees were built, the river would top its banks during floods and wash through a maze of bayous and swamps, dropping fine-grained silt that nourished plants and kept the land just above sea level.
The levees "have literally starved our wetlands to death" by directing all of that precious silt out into the Gulf of Mexico, van Heerden said.
It has been 40 years since New Orleans faced a hurricane even comparable to Katrina. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy, a Category 3 storm, submerged some parts of the city to a depth of seven feet.
Since then, the Big Easy has had nothing but near misses. In 1998, Hurricane Georges headed straight for New Orleans, then swerved at the last minute to strike Mississippi and Alabama. Hurricane Lili blew herself out at the mouth of the Mississippi in 2002. And last year's Hurricane Ivan obligingly curved to the east as it came ashore, barely grazing a grateful city.
Here is my note - and the accompanying very prescient AP article:
I am sure many ideas and plans have been considered by the White House in the past 48 hours. Here is one more that you may NOT have considered but deserves immediate consideration:
Is the president prepared on Tuesday to sign an executive order granting immediate - perhaps even permanent - leave to any U.S. soldier abroad with families victimized by Hurricane Katrina?
It would be bad enough to be serving in Iraq with the normal anxieties about life back home. But it would seem cruel to keep someone there when his or her family might well need them to face the extraordinary circumstances.
Please give this your immediate attention,
Mark M. Sweetwood
1019 Boxwood Dr.
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
(815) 477-2198
(815) 276-7271
Here is the article which prompted my idea and my concern:
Hurricane Could Leave 1 Million Homeless
By MATT CRENSON, AP National Writer
When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.
Experts have warned for years that the levees and pumps that usually keep New Orleans dry have no chance against a direct hit by a Category 5 storm.
That's exactly what Katrina was as it churned toward the city. With top winds of 165 mph and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28 feet above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people homeless.
"All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario," Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.
The center's latest computer simulations indicate that by Tuesday, vast swaths of New Orleans could be under water up to 30 feet deep. In the French Quarter, the water could reach 20 feet, easily submerging the district's iconic cast-iron balconies and bars.
Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city's houses will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless.
"We're talking about in essence having ? in the continental United States ? having a refugee camp of a million people," van Heerden said.
Aside from Hurricane Andrew, which struck Miami in 1992, forecasters have no experience with Category 5 hurricanes hitting densely populated areas.
"Hurricanes rarely sustain such extreme winds for much time. However we see no obvious large-scale effects to cause a substantial weakening the system and it is expected that the hurricane will be of Category 4 or 5 intensity when it reaches the coast," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Richard Pasch said.
As they raced to put meteorological instruments in Katrina's path Sunday, wind engineers had little idea what their equipment would record.
"We haven't seen something this big since we started the program," said Kurt Gurley, a University of Florida engineering professor. He works for the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program, which is in its seventh year of making detailed measurements of hurricane wind conditions using a set of mobile weather stations.
Experts have warned about New Orleans' vulnerability for years, chiefly because Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of coastal wetlands in the past seven decades. The vast patchwork of swamps and bayous south of the city serves as a buffer, partially absorbing the surge of water that a hurricane pushes ashore.
Experts have also warned that the ring of high levees around New Orleans, designed to protect the city from floodwaters coming down the Mississippi, will only make things worse in a powerful hurricane. Katrina is expected to push a 28-foot storm surge against the levees. Even if they hold, water will pour over their tops and begin filling the city as if it were a sinking canoe.
After the storm passes, the water will have nowhere to go.
In a few days, van Heerden predicts, emergency management officials are going to be wondering how to handle a giant stagnant pond contaminated with building debris, coffins, sewage and other hazardous materials.
"We're talking about an incredible environmental disaster," van Heerden said.
He puts much of the blame for New Orleans' dire situation on the very levee system that is designed to protect southern Louisiana from Mississippi River floods.
Before the levees were built, the river would top its banks during floods and wash through a maze of bayous and swamps, dropping fine-grained silt that nourished plants and kept the land just above sea level.
The levees "have literally starved our wetlands to death" by directing all of that precious silt out into the Gulf of Mexico, van Heerden said.
It has been 40 years since New Orleans faced a hurricane even comparable to Katrina. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy, a Category 3 storm, submerged some parts of the city to a depth of seven feet.
Since then, the Big Easy has had nothing but near misses. In 1998, Hurricane Georges headed straight for New Orleans, then swerved at the last minute to strike Mississippi and Alabama. Hurricane Lili blew herself out at the mouth of the Mississippi in 2002. And last year's Hurricane Ivan obligingly curved to the east as it came ashore, barely grazing a grateful city.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
