-Caveat Lector- Below is a message I sent to a weather-related list I belong to, I thought the info (if not my soapboxing) may be of interest to the CTRL list members....
-----Original Message----- Regarding Ophelia, I'd like to remind people that some of the worst destruction has occured when hurricanes have been downgraded to "just" tropical storms... The destructive winds may no longer exist, but such storms can contain devastating amounts of precipitation. August 18th was the 50th anniversary of devastating floods that occured here in Connecticut, caused by a one-two punch of 2 tropical storms in one week drenching the state; the second storm, Connie (downgraded from hurricane status) dropped 19 inches of rain in a few hours, causing upstate dams to fail, which then created a domino-effect as the flood waters proceeded down the Naugatuck River... Houses, automobiles, bridges, even railroad cars and huge oil tanks were swept down the river, adding to the destructive force of the flood waters Cadavers from a local cemetary floated amongst the bodies of victims of the flood. But unlike the devastation in the Gulf states, encompassing some 90,000 square miles, the Great Flood of 1955 (as it is known in these parts) only affected a relatively small geographic area, and only lasted a few hours (altho cleanup would take a better part of a year, and actual rebuilding take more than a decade). By late morning the rain had stopped, and by the next day the flood waters had for the most part receded...newsreel footage shows President Eisenhower flying in a helicopter over the affected areas to inspect the damage.the film shows that the flood waters had not receded yet when he did this, which meant that he got himself from DC to Connecticut in less than a day to inspect the damage and meet with state officials to help coordinate federal aid. Troops were in the area by the next day -- one has to ask, if the President of the United States back in 1955 -- before jet aircraft and even before the interstate highway system had been built, before satellite communications, heck even before TV news grew from the 15 minute throw-away wrapped around the weather forecast and sports scores that it was in those days -- if the President back then not only could be informed of a catastrophe but manage to get himself to the site of the catastrophe in less than 24 hours, one really has to ask hard questions about the current administration's cavalier, Nero-fiddling, "let them eat cake" response to the disaster in the Gulf states, particularly in New Orleans. Which brings me to the subject of FEMA. Much is being bantered about regarding FEMA's being absorbed by the Department of Homeland Security, as if that explains why their response to Katrina has been so inept. No, they have been inempt from their inception. Why do I say this? Because I belonged to a peace-and-justice group back in the 1980's, when FEMA was first formed. It was the bright idea of the Reagan Administration which, if you all remember, did a lot of nuclear saber-rattling regarding the Soviet Union. They created FEMA and charged it with coming up with a plan to enable evacuation of all U.S. urban areas to what FEMA deemed "safe" areas as a way to "survive" and all-out nuclear war. The plan assumed at least 3 days warning (were the Soviets going to send us an announcement?), and assumed that everyone had a motor vehicle (assume -- makes an ass of "u" and "me"...). There were 4 or so pages of items each evacuee was supposed to shlep with them -- along with the common-sense items you'd expect like clothes, medications, toiletries, 3 days worth of food and water per family member, were items such as camp stoves, a shovel, a solid wood door, and a chemical toilet. Items we all have lying about the house, or which we'd all be able to get our hands on with 1 or 2 days notice, when hundreds of thousands of other people are also looking for such items. Okay, maybe I'm a good Girl Scout and I decide I'll get myself my solid wood door (the doors in my apartment are all either hollow-core or metal-clad over a foam-type substance, so I'll have to make a specific purchase) and my chemical toilet, and 3 days worth of water and nonperishable foodstuffs, and a goodly supply of toilet tissue and sanitary napkins, and a camp stove with fuel and a tent (also on FEMAs list) and a shovel, and keep it all in my storage area until the day comes that the gov't tells me russkie nukes are going to come in 3 days.... And then, after calling in a renewal for all my prescriptions (as are millions of other people, gee that won't be too long of a wait at Walgreens, will it?) I start packing up my Toyota Echo (or the Plymouth Volare sport coupe I had back in the 80s) with all my clothes, blankets and pillows (items particularly stressed by FEMA, you'll need them in conjunction with that wood door and shovel), batteries, portable radio, flashlights, toiletries and sanitary items, including all that toilet tissue I had the foresite to stock up on, cleaning supplies, utensils (don't forget the can opener), candles, a couple of gallons of gasoline, first aid supplies, hammer, screwdriver, nails and screws (but no knives or other weapons), my prescription meds (but no illegal drugs or liquor).... Now let's see -- just WHERE in my car am I going to put the tent, the shovel, the wooden door, and the chemical toilet? Well, I'm not allowed to take my pet (so millions of dogs and cats and birds and gerbils and hamsters will be left behind to fend for themselves before dying), so maybe I can squeeze in my chemical toilet in the space Rover would have taken... And that is just for me, one person. Imagine a family trying to pack all that stuff, enough for each family member (including enough diapers for any infant in the family) into one car. Ah, but at least we'd all end up in a "safe" area.... The thing is, very few of us would. Only those with cars were factored into the plan. FEMA completely forgot (or chose to ignore) those without a car. They also neglected to actually inspect the buildings they had designated as shelters. Some paper-pushing desk jockies in DC just relied on original blueprints to designate how many evacuees could be contained in a particular building. They used a formula of 10 square feet per person -- that's 5 feet by 2 feet, with no room in between. Each evacuee was assigned a 5 foot by 2 foot space in which to place their body, their clothes and toiletries and food and water and camp stove and gasoline and blankets and pillows and shovel and wooden door and chemical toilet.... Which was bad enough. But come to find out, most of the buildings were decades old. Renovations had been done over the years, and what had been an empty space on the blueprint now contained airconditioning units or boilers or offices, etc. In one case, a hospital that was told that it could house a couple of hundred evacuees in its cellar because the original blueprints showed open space, had had modifications done AS IT WAS BEING BUILT. When it first opened (back in the late 1940s), that open space on the original blueprint was now the site of the hospital's heating equipment. The hospital director told us that not only had FEMA never visited the hospital to see the actual layout for themselves, they had never even written the hospital about it. The first he had heard of his hospital being designated as a shelter for evacuees was when local anti-nuke groups had contacted him when they had gotten their hands on the FEMA plan. The hospital director called and wrote letters to FEMA protesting the plan, explaining that while the hospital could maybe handle a handful of evacuees, they just didn't have the physical space to house hundreds of them FEMA ignored him. Never answered his letters. Never returned his calls. We ourselves met with regional FEMA directors, and went thru what was jeeringy called their "Duck and Cover" plan point-by-point, showing how untenable the majority of the plan really was. But they'd never admit anything was wrong; couldn't even concede that there were areas they needed to work on to improve. And when really cornered, to a man their final response was: "Well, this program still needs to be funded because even if it doesn't work for an all-out nuclear war, it is still a valuable plan for natural disasters like hurricanes...." But the thing is, we'd respond, it isn't going to work for those cases, either. Because the plan didn't address what to do with the poor living in urban areas who relied solely on public transit and didn't own a vehicle. It didn't address what to do with patients in hospitals and nursing homes. It didn't address what to do with prisoners in jails, other than designating prison guards as "critical workers" who'd have to stay behind as others evacuated. (BTW, "food service workers" were also designated as "critical workers", so that other "critical workers" could be fed, which meant that a minimum-wage burger flipper at McDonald's was expected to stay behind in a "hot" area while their family evacuated to a "safe" area). FEMA officials would hem and haw and scratch their heads and scratch their noses and scratch their asses when pressed on the point of evacuating the poor, the elderly, the infirm.... "Well, they'll probably be put on buses..." But FEMA didn't know WHERE the buses would come from, nor whom would drive the buses, nor if there would be enough buses to evacuate everyone in one trip or would the buses have to come back and if so, would the drivers really risk their lives as zero-hour rapidly approached to really make more than one trip? FEMA didn't have an answer as to how hundreds of thousands of people were supposed to carry all their clothes plus toiletries plus 3-days-worth of food and water (FEMA pointedly stated that food and water was NOT going to be provided by them at the designated shelters) plus cleaning supplies plus a tent plus a shovel plus a wooden door plus a chemical toilet, onto a bus. Not only had they NOT bothered to plan for this aspect of evacuation, it became very obvious that they were NEVER going to plan it. To them, the "Duck and Cover" plan was fine just as it was. No one was going to admit any part of it was wrong. No one was going to concede that it at least needed to be tweaked. No one was going to admit that the FEMA position was that the poor, the elderly, the infirm, were expendable. Things would be tough enough for the survivors afterwards, was FEMA's position, without the additional burden of caring for the poor, the elderly, the infirm... They have had 20 years to work on the problem of evacuating those that don't have the ability (physically or economically) to drive themselves out, or don't have the money to afford a train or bus ticket... Twenty years, thru Republican and Democratic administrations. Thru years where billions of dollars were thrown at them, and they were an autonomous agency. But as the events in New Orleans starkly illustrate, they've never developed a plan to address the evacuation of those who can't get out via their own means. It was a flaw pointed out to FEMA time and time again 20 years ago. The fact that back then they not only neglected to develop such a plan but deliberately brushed it aside, indicates that they really didn't care about the welfare of people on welfare or surviving on Medicare and/or Social Security...the message we got from FEMA back then, and is shown by their nonresponse to Katrina, is that that segment of the population is expendable, and not worth trying to save. Not only do some butts need to be kicked, but heads need to roll, and more than one person indicted for at least criminally negligent homicide (if not genocide). We all need to let our represantatives and senators know our outrage at how this disaster and subsequent relief efforts have been bungled. It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican, anyone with a brain and with a heart should be incensed at what happened in New Orleans, and sickened that actual relief efforts are continuing to be hampered (if not outright stopped) by bureaucracy and politicing. Call your governor and local state reps. Let them know your feelings (and also find out what plans THEY have for any sort of disaster in your state)... Call your senators and your representatives in Congress. Let them know you are outraged, and demand that an INDEPENDENT investigation be commenced. Call the White House. Flood their switchboard with calls complaining about their ineptitude in this crisis, and demand that they stop the photo ops and start doing something meaningful. June P.S. -- okay, I know most of you as you read this asked yourself "What's the deal with that solid wooden door?" Well, according to FEMA, we were all supposed to take that shovel we had shlepped along in our evacuation, dig ourselves a hole at least 3 feet deep and as long as we were tall and as wide as we were wide (FEMA had no answer as to what we were supposed to do if it was winter and the ground was frozen solid), line the hole with blankets and pillows (so we'd be comfortable), and then place the wooden door over ourselves, preferably with additional blankets and pillows on top... This would protect us from the initial nuclear blast and the ensuing fallout, FEMA assured us. And no, I am not making this up. This was just one of many bright ideas billions of dollars of funding brought about.... :( www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ <A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
