Dazed and Confused

Sat Sep 10, 2005 | 1:22 PM
Location: C Street
Size: Way Overhead; Choppy
Wind: NNE @ 15-30 mph
High Tide: 12:43 PM / Low Tide: 7:00 PM
Water Temp: 80 (F)
Notes:
Lunchtime Update: Really big out there. Probably the biggest it has been in the last 6 months or so. Sets are way overhead but the drift and current are crazy. South facing beaches are the best bet during this swell. Be careful out there. I would recommend that all surfers that haven't been surfing at least 3-5 years don't even risk going out to get beat up. You will most likely hurt yourself or someone else in surf like this..

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So, the idea is to go to the most likely place for a hurricane during the most probably time. That would be the Outer banks or OBX in the middle of September.

Being from the Great Lakes (and being somewhat wave starved), it sounded good to be.
So, I may meet Ophelia, head on.

I probably won't venture into hurricane surf.....I wish I'd planned things differently. :(

So let's see. The mayor of a large city does NOT prepare for a major hurricane, despite the fact that the city is below sea level.

Despite the fact that there was a mandatory evacuation order, city and school busses sit un-used in flooded parking lots. Thousands could have been saved.

Madatory evacuation in ANY hurricane means that police call and knock on all doors, and list next of kin for those unwilling to evacuate. Yet, we are to believe that ALL of the evacuaees were UNABLE to leave. The truth is that many were UNWILLING to leave and now we find out that over 10,000 may now be FORCED to leave at the barrel of a gun.

The mayor orders those who remained into a crowded auditorium and tells the victims to "pack three days of food" and treat the evacuation as a "camping trip".

In the meantime, the federal government offers to send in troops, but cannot do so without the permission of the state governor. So the governor decides that she needs "24 hours" to think about it, while thousands die.

FEMA, which could have been sent in right away, had the governor approved, needs 48 hours to send in workers because of UNION rules.

Red Cross workers, who had ice and clean fresh water, are turned away because state workers tell them that they might hamper rescue procedures.

In disasters outside of USA borders, army troops can be sent in immediately. But in the USA, only the governor can send in the National Guard, and those efforts must be coordinated by the state and localities.

So we are to believe that this mess is ALL George Bush's fault? Hate George Bush?
What an excellent target!

No, it is EVERYONE'S FAULT. It is the bureaucratic system and the bumbing that is at fault. Racism? What a load of CRAP.

Short of Julius Ceasar or Martin Luther King, Jr., NOBODY could have worked within those constraints and done any better.

Mexican Troops Cross into U.S. for Hurricane Relief
LAST UPDATE: 9/8/2005 12:44:54 PM
By ABE LEVY

Associated Press Writer

LAREDO, Texas (AP) -- A Mexican army convoy crossed into the United States on Thursday to bring aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

About 45 vehicles carrying 200 or so people were bound for San Antonio, carrying treatment plants, mobile kitchens and supplies to feed the displaced Louisiana victims. It is the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846.

The first green tractor-trailers, with Mexican flags attached to the tops of their cabs, crossed the international bridge at Laredo at about 8:15 a.m.

The convoy will be escorted by the U.S. Army and the Texas Department of Public Safety. It was scheduled to leave after the leader of the convoy, Gen. Francisco Ortiz Valadez, greeted the head of the U.S. Army unit in charge of the escort, Brig. Gen. F. Joseph Prasek.

The convoy includes two mobile kitchens that can feed 7,000 people a day, three flatbed trucks carrying mobile water treatment plants and 15 trailers of bottled water, blankets and applesauce. It also includes military engineers, doctors and nurses.

An estimated 97,000 hurricane refugees were staying in major Red Cross shelters in Texas since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. Thousands more were in smaller shelters, hotels or private housing, including about 5,000 in San Antonio.

The Mexican government was already planning another 12-vehicle aid convoy for this week. It has sent a Mexican navy ship heading toward the Mississippi coast with rescue vehicles and helicopters.

Mexico has sent disaster relief aid missions to other Latin American nations, but not to the United States.

In 1846, Mexican troops briefly advanced just north of the Rio Grande in Texas, which had then recently joined the United States. Mexico, however, did not then recognize the Rio Grande as the U.S. border.

The two countries quickly became mired in the Mexican-American War, which led to the loss of half of Mexico's territory in 1848.