Four years ago to this day, Red Cross was still unavailable. A communications trailer assisted with FEMA applications and free phone calls. Red Cross never answered. FEMA often was disconnected. The Red Cross website, said that Red Cross was available in New Orleans….
We all know that to be FALSE information. I won’t see Red Cross until after October 1st., 2005.

I was told October 20th, 2005 by a pharmacist while attempting to fill an RX for a “shampoo” in a different state that “Katrina is over.”

If you Twitter, try searching for #KatrinaMemories or #Katrina. There are a few interesting posts from #Katrina worth reading. Or here.

Unlike many who posted to #KatrinaMemories, I don’t blame former President Bush. I blame local, parish and state authorities and Mayor Nagin.

“I became a victim of my own resources.”

Are We At Risk? – a public service of Levees.org

So far back as I can remember in my study of the US Army Corps of Engineers… (which goes back to the year 2002) they have been drastically underfunded for years and years.

I cannot believe that there are those who will continue to make comparisons between Hurricane Katrina and other disasters…. the California ones were the first I had heard of a year or so back. Now?, it’s the flooding along the Red River.

The one thing that is common? Levees and misery.

See also:
Thanks, Katrina

First Draft

People Get Ready

Normal is not snow.
Normal is not below 80*.
Normal is not rain that sprinkles daily.
Normal is not my pillow.
Normal is not underfoot.
Normal is not my yard.
Normal is not my flower bed.
Normal is not my grocery store.
Normal is not mine anymore.
Kiss my a** normal.
Normal is not the National Guard parked outside.
Normal is not the crime rate.
Normal is not living here.
Normal is not at home.
Normal does not live here.
Normal is not my school.
Normal is not my school board.
Normal is not my new friends.
Normal is not my neighbor.
Kiss my a** normal.
Normal is not the formaldehyde level.
Normal is not my shoes.
Normal is not my furniture.
Normal is not my memory.
Normal is not the trees.
Normal is not the bus.
Normal is not the radio stations.
Normal is not the latitude or longitude or wind speed.
Normal is not Katrina.
Normal is not the Road Home.
Kiss my a** normal.
Normal is not my local Government.
Normal is not my Federal Government.
Normal is not my levee.
Normal is not my canal.
Normal is not my city.
Normal is corrupt.
Normal is self rightous.
Normal is proud.
Normal is a sense of humor.
Normal is not laughing.

See: NOCITYBUSINESSLooking back on Obama’s promises

OBAMA’s PROMISE NORMAL?
Please file the following KatrinaFactSheetFinal under the “Clueless Katrina comments’ catagory, too. PDF

Quote or to the effect: “40 % of money didn’t get to where it was supposed to…” NOCITYBUSINESS

That’s what happens when you let FEMA contract out “the help”.

Nonprofits are required to “give 4%” and the rest they can pocket as whatever form of expense they choose. Like paychecks.

That is no country
Amen.

Guard to pull out of New Orleans after 3 1/2 years (AP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090227/ap_on_re_us/katrina_national_guard;_ylt=AgweDIq.LSyvItww6XkbD.rZn414

Douglas Whitmer out as chief of staff at Louisiana’s FEMA office
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/us_rep_anh_joseph_cao_stands_b.html

Michelle Malkin, one of my favorite authors, a mom, AND a blogger, had this to say about Jindal’s speech.

“I’ll take Bobby Jindal’s genuine faith in American entrepreneurship over Barack Obama’s fear-mongering-turned-faux Reaganism any day.”

The NYT, which I abhore, went on to quote someone as saying Jindal’s speech “was a flop.”  The problem here was that Republicans, and all American’s didn’t “go through a hurricane.”  Yes, the hurricane made the headlines, but unless you were directly impacted by the hurricane, you wouldn’t have a clue as to Gov. Jindal’s point.

MSNBC really said, “Oh God?”.  I love MSNBC.  Did they go the way of KIRO 710, too? I’m going to have to question my feelings on KIRO and NBC from now on…

KIRO Talk Radio attempted to make fun of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s speech yesterday evening. That part of the radio show was a success. Here is where KIRO talk radio invited chaos...they discredited Sheriff Harry Lee and they made fun of HURRICANE KATRINA victims and survivors by questioning , “Why did Bobby Jindal bring up Hurricane Katrina, again in his speech? What does Katrina have to do with it?”

I started crying inside. I wish that I had a cell phone handy at the time of the show when they said that they were taking calls and opened a discussion. I was busy at the time and couldn’t. They should be very, very, thankful that I didn’t call.

“As the president made clear this evening, we’re now in a time of challenge. Many of you listening tonight have lost jobs; others have seen your college and your retirement savings dwindle. Many of you are worried about losing your health care and your homes. You’re looking to your elected leaders in Washington for solutions.” –Bobby Jindal

Here is what KIRO didn’t understand. People lost their jobs, their transportation, their homes, their lives, and everything about their lives changed … INSTANTLY during Hurricane Katrina. Many are still fighting insurance companies, even today. Many are still rebuilding. Many cannot rebuild. Many are still not home. Many are still fighting bureaucrats.

When Mt. St. Helens blew, 50 people died. I didn’t hear KIRO making fun of that natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina killed three times that number of people. Some of those were children. No children died when Mt. St. Helens blew.

KIRO Talk Radio discredited Sheriff Harry Lee and laughed about the fact that he has since passed on. “We’re trying to….get….let’s call him.” they said. They actually wanted to call Harry Lee and confirm the conversation that he had had with Jindal during Hurricane Katrina. Then KIRO realized that Harry Lee was dead. KIRO doesn’t understand how well liked and well respected Sheriff Harry Lee was and still is in Louisiana. KIRO Talk Radio screwed up. Maybe if Harry had better health care he would still be here today. Many people in Louisiana didn’t have access to health care prior to Hurricane Katrina as Louisiana was one of those states that was deemed a “healthcare shortage area.” I can’t expect KIRO to understand what that means after Katrina.

“We’re grateful for the support we’ve received from across the nation for our ongoing recovery efforts.” KIRO Talk Radio wasn’t listening. And for those of us who cannot “go home” and are forced to listen to KIRO instead of WWL? It is because people “ignored the bureaucrats” that “There’s a lesson in this experience: The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and the enterprising spirit of our citizens.”

Making fun of Jindals diction, tone, and meter in his speech was okay with me.

Making fun of Bobby Jinda’s RED WHITE AND BLUE TIE, was even okay with me. (Even though I’d like to wrap it around KIRO TALK RADIO’s NECK.) The fact that Bobby Jindal has ALWAYS worn a RED WHITE AND BLUE TIE, escaped KIRO listeners and KIRO Talk Radio.

Making fun of Hurricane Katrina victims and the travesty that REMAINS WITH US DAILY by KIRO TALK RADIO PERSONALITIES asking, “Why did Bobby Jindal bring up Hurricane Katrina, again?” shows complete and total, utter disregard, disrespect, ignorance, and poor taste in broadcast journalism. I can go on and on. I won’t. KIRO Talk Radio, like many other Americans, unfortunately, have no inkling.

The current so called “financial crisis” that America is facing cannot be compared to anything else but Katrina. The banks closed after Katrina. There was no cash to be had, no credit, NOTHING. KIRO couldn’t put up a radio station from scratch, I’d be willing to bet on it.

I’d like to see WWL interview these KIRO Talk Radio folks. I’d like to see KIRO get GRILLED.

I’ll show you mine cowboy, if you show me yours. (I think I already know who won this fight.)

KIRO,? You’re FIRED.

I read slabbed today. I thought to myself that at least those people who owned a home and had insurance had TOOLS to fight BACK with.

Those of us who didn’t have homes and insurance and were renters didn’t have that opportunity to FIGHT BACK against KATRINA.

Another thought from reading Damian Thompson’s Blog today.
Monsignor who suggested Katrina was God’s punishment will not become Bishop of Linz
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2009/02/15/monsignor_who_suggested_katrina_was_gods_punishment_will_not_become_bishop_of_linz

“…The conservative clergyman nominated as a bishop of Linz in Austria has withdrawn his name following the outcry over his view that Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for the immorality of New Orleans…”

Immorality? So everyone is to blame for the problems in New Orleans? So you believe erroneously that EVERYONE AFFECTED by Hurricane Katrina was FROM NEw OrLEAns?

Mgr. Gerhard Wagner, you need to come to Louisiana. The Holy Father should make you serve in Louisiana and do your penance.

*AND DO YOUR PENANCE*

The story from the AP two days ago:
Austria: `Katrina’ pastor giving up promotion

2 days ago

VIENNA (AP) — A radio station says an Austrian pastor who suggested that God punished New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina because of the city’s sins is giving up the auxiliary bishop post the pope promoted him to.

The national broadcaster ORF said Sunday the Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner made the decision because of the controversy surrounding Pope Benedict XVI’s promotion of him in Linz, Austria’s second largest city.

The promotion of the conservative pastor sparked an outcry among Catholics who warned it could prompt people to leave the church.

ORF quotes the 54-year-old Wagner as saying: “Regarding the fierce criticism, I am praying and after consulting the diocesan bishop I have decided to ask the Holy Father in Rome to take back my promotion as auxiliary bishop.”

The New York Times ran this opinion article on page A 34 recently. Not that page A 34 made headlines in the way that Hurricane Katrina did just a few short years ago. It galls me to this day that big shot newspapers like the NYT can have opinions about Katrina without having to experience it first hand. And they don’t even know where to begin pointing the finger, either.

Editorial
Some Sense, at Last, About Katrina
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/opinion/12thu2.html?emc=eta1

Published: February 11, 2009

The Obama administration seems to have learned the lessons of the Bush team’s disastrous bungling of the resettling of Hurricane Katrina’s tens of thousands of refugees. Under former President Bush, the task of resettling those whose homes were destroyed by the storm and floods in 2005 was initially given to the Federal Emergency Management Agency instead of to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has a long history of housing poor and displaced people through its voucher program.

That grave mistake led to a plan that turned many survivors into wanderers who moved from place to place, cut off from jobs and schools. Washington will need to be more helpful if New Orleans and the Gulf region in general are to recover, not just from the storm, but from the damage wrought by federal mismanagement. Now plans to build affordable-housing developments have run afoul of the credit crisis. Without those developments, low- and moderate-income workers will be forced to pull up stakes and go elsewhere.

That message seems to be hitting home at President Obama’s HUD. For starters, the department’s new secretary, Shaun Donovan, has overturned a potentially disastrous decision that would have ended badly needed temporary rental assistance to about 31,000 households at the end of this month. The last thing the Gulf region needs at this point is more homelessness.

The point of the new policy is to keep low-income families on temporary assistance until they can complete the complicated process of qualifying for a permanent Section 8 housing voucher, which allows them to seek homes in the private real estate market. The hope is that many people being housed under the temporary program would be able to use the vouchers to remain in their homes. This would be especially helpful since rents in the city have skyrocketed since the storm.

The Bush administration wanted the vouchers primarily limited to the elderly and disabled. But Mr. Donovan has wisely expanded them to include all low-income people who are eligible under federal guidelines. This will require more money from Congress. But the expense would be well worth it if it prevents a new wave of homelessness and sustains the Gulf restoration project through turbulent economic times.

More Articles in Opinion » A version of this article appeared in print on February 12, 2009, on page A34 of the New York edition.

The NYT did not publish that FEMA subcontracted agencies to contact Katrina Victims. It galls me that no one realizes what these subcontracted agencies did with the FEDERAL MONIES they were given by FEMA to HELP Katrina victims. The agencies, of course, did not contact victims in anything that would be considered “timely”. Victims were then required to “fill out the necessary paperwork” to see if they “qualify” for assistance. What? After everything that I have been through already, you people want ME to fill out MORE paperwork so that YOU CAN DETERMINE, whether or NOT I deserve YOUR ASSISTANCE? So these subcontracted agencies go on with their non-profit status collecting the FEDERAL MONIES for their so called “JOBS” thereby sucking and blowing just like Katrina with FEDERAL FERVE.

Today started out bad and just got worse…. and worst.  It’s quite possible that I should’ve stayed in bed today… and not gotten  up to read bloggers at all!