Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Let's Hope It Misses Them
Hurricane season is upon us. Let's hope none hit the Gulf Coast:
Chad Heeter reports from Waveland, a town on the Mississippi coast on the eve of the next hurricane season that the only rebuilding that's gone on since Hurricane Katrina leveled the area is casinos and fast-food outlets. Otherwise, FEMA's idea of rebuilding was to put Mississippians in "travel trailers" -- 100,000 Mississippi residents in 38,000 trailers. The problem with travel trailers is simple: Gusts of 50 miles per hour lasting more than three seconds can damage mobile homes. From March 2003 to April 2005, thirteen storms with winds of at least 58 mph -- the low-end of a severe storm -- blew through Waveland and surrounding communities. Even the FEMA website points out that people in trailers in hurricane season need storm shelters. Only problem, there is just one certified Red Cross shelter in Waveland's county, 20 minutes inland, with a capacity of 250 people. (The current estimated population of the county is over 40,000 people.) That sums up the Bush administration's Iraq-style "reconstruction" at home, here.
You know this is true throughout the Gulf region, not just in this area.

Let's all pray for a quiet hurricane season without as much as a tropical storm hitting anywhere near where Katrina and Rita hit. There are a lot of Gulf Coast residents who are extremely vulnerable given our governments swift recovery efforts from last years storms.
Written at 11:26 AM by Greyhair.
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