Man Charged With Stealing Houses

This is the strangest news story I’ve read since Hurricane Katrina.

Man Charged With Stealing Houses
According to the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office, Jesse Bryant, 47, was booked with burglary and criminal trespassing after posting signs in yards of damaged houses reading “I, Jesse Bryant, take possession of this abandoned property.”

Somehow he got the idea that he can legally claim property that he personally deems has been abandoned. He even had the locks changed on one house. What a maroon.

Katrina Coverup By American Society of Civil Engineers

About time:

The professional organization for engineers who build the nation’s roads, dams and bridges has been accused by fellow engineers of covering up catastrophic design flaws while investigating national disasters.

… The panel is expected to issue a report by the end of April and may recommend that the society stop taking money from government agencies for disaster investigations.

The engineering group says it takes the allegations seriously, but it has declined to comment until completion of the panel’s report and an internal ethics review.

[The American Society of Civil Engineers] was accused of suggesting that the power of the storm was as big a problem as the poorly designed levees.

… The society got a $1.1-million grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study the levee failures.

They got a grant to study the failures from… the organization that is responsible for the failures. Anybody see a potential conflict of interest here?

Paul from Wizbang has covered the Katrina levee failures - as he calls it, the Federal Flood - in depth. And here’s the part few people understand, because the media didn’t touch it even after the Corps of Engineers admitted it was their fault:

What I will say next will probably completely throw you. Katrina saved probably over 50,000 lives.

That levee was doomed. If it had failed without notice, the death toll would have been measured in tens of thousands. There would be no evacuation, no preparation, no Feds at all. (such that they were anyway) no Coast Guard in choppers etc. Tens of thousands of people would have been dead in hours and tens of thousands more would have died on 120 degree rooftops waiting for rescue. It would have been unimaginable. - More unimaginable.

“Luckily” -and I groan when I say that- Katrina allowed the city to be evacuated.

I’ve said it for months. Katrina didn’t flood New Orleans. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But what I find just as troubling is the history of this video. It was turned over to Federal authorities just days after the storm. The firemen who took it were told they would be fired if they spoke about it. For months the Corps -who had to have seen the video- claimed the walls were overtopped. For months the firemen listened to the lies and never said a word.

There was no national security reason to hold the video as there might be of a terrorist attack. In fact the video would have helped the scientists studying it determine the cause. Congress had the firemen testify behind closed doors then placed a gag order on them.

I routinely mock conspiracy theorists but I have trouble understanding why this tape was withheld for months. What I also find interesting is that the Corps denied they were to blame until June 1… Just TWO WEEKS before this video was quietly released.

Perhaps, I’m too cynical but it is impossible for me not to notice that if this tape had been released in the weeks after the storm, the media coverage -and the scrutiny of Congress- would have been vastly different.

You may draw a different conclusion but I’ll go to my grave believing that Congress withheld this tape intentionally. It was too damning.

What I don’t understand is where the media is today on this story… The story of their lives is waiting to be told but they just ignore it. If you didn’t read Wizbang, you’d never know the true story of the Great Flood of New Orleans.

Levees.org has a lot more, including this fact sheet which is an excellent summary of the basics.

I, too, routinely mock conspiracy theorists. But then, it’s not a conspiracy theory to note the facts at hand: Congress placed a gag order on witnesses, hid their testimony, and concealed video that would have made it abundantly clear that the federal government was responsible for flooding New Orleans. Doing so allowed the narrative to be shaped in such a way that it prevented a huge public outcry and shifted much of the financial burden of the consequences onto others - primarily home and business owners, and insurance companies*. It’s also not a conspiracy theory to note that the system is badly flawed when the investigator is on the payroll of the investigatee.

The national media isn’t going to give this story the push that it needs because the story complexity to Republican bashing ratio isn’t really high enough to trouble with, and because covering it adequately now reveals the inadequacy of their earlier coverage. All the same, I’m pleased to see that it hasn’t been totally forgotten and that somebody is watching the watchers.

*And before anyone shrieks, “$110 billion not enough for you, you greedy freeloaders?!” here’s a pre-emptive shush:

Actually the $110 billion went to emergency response and administration for three storms, Hurricanes Rita, Wilma and Katrina across five states, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The allocation includes almost $30 billion for FEMA’s response and Department of Defense expenses including the restoration of federal facilities. And almost $20 billion was flood insurance payouts to citizens collecting on their own private insurance claims.

Read the rest of Levee.org’s FAQs to learn why anyone is so stupid as to build below sea level in a bowl (we didn’t) and a whole lot more.

Katrina Recovery Makes Strange Bedfellows

As a conservative Christian, I seldom find areas of agreement with Richard at Metroblogging New Orleans; we’re probably as politically and culturally opposite as two people can be. But on one issue, I absolutely could not agree more:

Yes, we all hope that New Orleans will gradually become better than it was before the storm. (In certain ways, I think it already is.) Will it be perfect? Will it be utopia? I’m probably the wrong person to ask. To me, perfection has to exist in a bubble, and given the fact that everything is interconnected these days–informationally, electronically, meteorologically, and so on–that’s pretty much impossible. But New Orleans will continue to be a hub, there will be people living here, there will be Mardi Gras, there will be crime, there will be inequality, and there will be an ease of life unknown in most of America.

Also, I don’t think I’m the only one with these opinions. They’re pretty well documented elsewhere. Very few people–except some of the hippies who moved here after the storm and don’t know when to give it a rest–are still griping about storm-related stuff. Anyone who’s still here has to have made peace with it in some way.

I should add that by focusing only on the devastation and sadness that Katrina brought, in 60 minutes Chris Rose and Anthony Bourdain erased two and a half years of progress. The homes that have been rebuilt, the families and businesses that have returned, all the little triumphs that many of us have had, most of which came thanks to personal chutzpah and savings accounts–it’s like none of that mattered. Which is offensive and condescending and reprehensible, to say the least.

Yes. And thank you for saying it.

Caring Enough to Complain

Seth Grodin commented on a problem at the Apple store and customers that care:

Obviously, not everyone complains all the time. Perhaps it’s just a few a day. But the people who complain, care. And it’s the customers that care that actually have a huge impact on your business.

If no one cares, you’ve got trouble. Goal one is getting people to care. Goal two: listening to them.

A restaurant opened up recently nearby - one of those poorly decorated neighborhood joints that often has tasty, inexpensive food. You can look at it and just know that mom and pop probably dumped their savings into it to get the doors open, and with the profit margin on restaurants, they’re living on a razor’s edge.  The first time I went in with a friend, the manager or owner was chewing out an employee in the middle of the dining room. For our second visit we sent my daughter to pick up po boys for dinner, and they were rude to her. Finally, I dialed them on speaker so my daughter could place a pickup order, and the person who answered evidently didn’t feel the connection was adequate - although I use that speakerphone all the time for business, and we could hear her perfectly. Within five seconds of answering the phone, she said, “I don’t have time for this,” and hung up on us.

I thought about it for an hour or so, then called again. The same woman answered the phone. I said that I was very interested in seeing them succeed, and I hoped she’d take what I was about to say accordingly. I told her that they were getting a reputation for abrupt, curt, and rude staff, and that was not going to enhance her business. She cut me off with “I’m sorry you feel that way, but we do try to accommodate everyone who comes in here.”

I said, “Uh huh. Well, then, good luck, and have a nice day.” I had no intentions of going back, because based on that conversation, there was no reason to think anything would change.  But yesterday we ended up trying one more time.  The manager-or-owner was courteous and helpful, and so was the rest of the staff.

Maybe something else entirely happened to account for the change of attitude. But I’m glad I made the call, because it may have made the difference - and even if it hadn’t, it felt good to try.  Since Hurricane Katrina, in what was already a city with a small-town feel, a lot of us are actively rooting for every local business.  We want them all to succeed, especially the mom-and-pops where people have gambled on staying and investing in the New Orleans metro area.  There’s a much greater sense of personal investment in others, and even where that doesn’t pay off, it’s a nice feeling.

“Stuck on Stupid” General Retires

General Honore, who famously called out a reporter for being “stuck on stupid” is retiring. He was a real hero to many of us in the New Orleans metro area after Katrina. We weren’t just grateful for the convoys of supplies he brought in, but for his no-nonsense attitude when it sometimes seemed like everything was falling apart. After weeks of wielding chainsaws, doing grueling cleanup work, and seeing the media daily play up every bad thing while ignoring the good, watching the General smack down this reporter was a refreshing break. The only thing that could have improved that moment would have been if he’d been addressing Shep Smith or Geraldo.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVBY_SqzJtI[/youtube]

The gruff, cigar-chomping general who led federal troops into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is convinced America hasn’t learned its lesson from the storm.

As Lt. Gen. Russel Honore gets ready to retire from the Army and hand over his command on Friday, he says he wants to spend the rest of his life creating a “culture of preparedness” to prevent another post-disaster disaster.

“There’s an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They’re not,” the 60-year-old general said at his office at Fort Gillem, just outside Atlanta. “What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard.”

During his 37-year Army career, Honore commanded troops in South Korea and prepared soldiers to fight in Iraq. After Katrina, the native of Lakeland, in Pointe Coupee Parish, led the vast relief convoy that rolled into New Orleans during its darkest hour. The 22,000-member force was one of the largest federal deployments in the South since the end of the Civil War.

With a green beret cocked to one side, a crisp, take-charge attitude and biting one-liners — “Don’t get stuck on stupid!” he snapped at reporters — he impressed politicians and ordinary folks alike.

The media still is stuck on stupid, which is why most of the country thinks the real problem was a natural disaster instead of the Corps of Engineers.

Other notable Katrina humor: the dog walker, the Chocolateville song, and the blue roof Christmas village ranked right up there, as did the guy with the big dog, ugly woman, shotgun and claw hammer.

Added: Michelle Malkin takes note of the General’s retirement (and very kindly linked to PH.)  She writes, “I wish we had more like him in Washington.”  From your lips to God’s ear. 

No, we’re not a war zone. And yet…

I heard a story on local talk radio that intrigued me because it involved New Orleans, which is my home and my other favorite place to live - Maine. I spent about half my childhood in Maine and even went to high school there for a year. A club in a high school in Maine wanted to send some students down to New Orleans to volunteer. A school board member objected, calling New Orleans a war zone. Many NOLA bloggers are up in arms about it, and a New Orleanian responded with a letter to the editor in a Maine newspaper:

New Orleans resident speaks out - Maine Coast NOW - A Courier Publications Information Source
Greetings: Through a colleague, I was led to an article by Stephen Betts in The Courier-Gazette, where he reported on the Rockland school board meeting last Thursday night. In this meeting, board member Jennifer Daniels referred to the city of New Orleans as a war zone.

I find it hard that an educated person, especially one serving in an administrative role for educational institutions, could make such an ignorant statement.

New Orleans was hit extremely hard by the failure of the federally designed, constructed, and maintained levees. We have lost much of our population, much of our tax base, much of our infrastructure.

We still have our spirit.

We still have our indomitable will, our pride and our culture.

I raise my three children in New Orleans because I honestly believe it is the best place to raise children. They will be exposed to brass bands, amazing music, hundreds of years of culture, the best food in the world, Mardi Gras Indians, and a racially diverse populace.

We are not, as Ms. Daniels referred to us, a “war zone”.

All those things are undeniably true. And yet… as NOLA blogger C.B. Forgotston poignantly reminds us on an all too regular basis, there have been over 200 murders this year. One of those murders was a relative of L’s. Another memorable murder occurred several blocks from my house.

It’s also true that I travel around the city and don’t worry too much about it. And yet… I was on my way out to take some photos for a client a few hours ago. When I told my husband where I was going, he insisted I bring my gun, and gave me several anecdotes why. And I did.

No, not a war zone. But not safe, either.

Praying Away A Hurricane

Can Jamaica pray away Hurricane Dean?

The official forecast and nearly all of the computer models have put Jamaica in the bulls-eye for several days now. But hurricanes have a funny way of taking 11th-hour wobbles that spare the island a direct hit. Witness the remarkable turn Hurricane Ivan took in 2004, as it headed directly for the island with 145 mph winds. Ivan took a sudden turn 35 miles from the island, traced out an exact outline of the island’s coast 35 miles offshore, then resumed its previous track. In the Jamaica Observer, Custos of Kingston, Reverend Carmen Stewart, contends that it was not the first time that prayers had influenced the turn of events when disaster faced Jamaica. “It has happened time and time again,” Reverend Stewart says. “I know people have been praying and I don’t see any other reason why it (the hurricane) would make such a drastic turn…. God hears prayer.”

God does hear prayer. But he doesn’t always answer in the way we would want. Our church was demolished after Hurricane Katrina - we had about ten feet of flood waters. And quite a few people in our congregation lost homes, businesses, and have had all sorts of things to deal with because of the hurricane. Everyone has been affected to some degree.  But it has also provided huge ministry opportunities for us to serve the community and lives are being changed.  Right after Katrina, signs with this verse were planted all over the city.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11

I don’t have all the answers in life, but I know that no matter what I’ve gone through, He has never let me down.  I would go through it all again to be where I am right now.  I’m blessed.

Dr. Anna Pou Will Not Be Charged In Katrina Deaths

From the New Orleans City Business:

NEW ORLEANS — An Orleans Parish grand jury Tuesday refused to indict Dr. Anna Pou, the cancer surgeon accused of murdering four seriously ill patients after Hurricane Katrina.

Pou and two nurses were arrested last summer after Attorney General Charles Foti Jr.’s investigation concluded they killed four people with a “lethal cocktail” at Memorial Medical Center during the chaotic conditions after the August 2005 storm.

And from a WWL email update:

A grand jury has decided there is not enough evidence to pursue homicide charges against Dr. Anna Pou in the Memorial Medical Center case.

The panel today returned a no true bill.

District Attorney Eddie Jordan told WWL first news, “Justice has been served.”

Prosecutors earlier said that they were not seeking indictments against nurses Cheri Landry and Lori Budo.

It’s about time. This will unfortunately continue to hang over Dr. Pou’s head, but her lawsuit against Foti will help alleviate that as more information comes out that her prosecution was motivated by his desire to be re-elected.

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