Guess that explains why fuel just shot up 25%.

Our fuel is going up because our wonderful :? leader is going to send some of our fuel to the States, which is fine, but there are concerns now that we will have a shortage. We have no refineries here, so it could get interesting in the coming weeks.

I meant help as in physical help, instead of money or goods. They could use all the man/woman power they could get down there.

I heard on the news that some troops from Iraq are coming back, and that Canada is sending some of their ships, helicopters (why I don't know, they are older than God), and I think about 3,000 troops, but don't quote me on that. I have been know to be wrong several times in my life I know there are a lot of people who would love to go down and help, me for example, but it is just not possible at this time. All most of us can do is send money, and our prayers.

good read...touching story...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...ck=1&cset=true

One thing to realize is that there is very little choice about rebuilding. A large portion of the city was untouched by flooding, although it was badly damaged by wind and rain.
That portion of the city WILL be rebuilt(and some of it will need very little rebuilding), and from there it is a forgone conclusion that the rest of the city must be rebuilt in order to support the serviceable sections. In addition, NO is simply the only place in the Gulf for port facilities of that type, and if you have a port, you have to have workers nearby.
You are looking at a disaster that will leave several hundred thousand people out of work for years already. If busisnesses are forced to build new facilities elsewhere, instead of rebuilding existing facilities, it will extend that period by several more years.


There is also the fact that the surrounding states simply cannot absorb the number of people moving out of NO. The jobs aren't there, the housing isn't there, the infrastructure isn't there, and building these would take longer than repairing what IS there in New Orleans.

One of the major issues facing the immediate recovery effort is that under the current administration, the Coast Guard and Army Corp of Engineers have both suffered tremendous cuts in budget and manpower. The Coast Guard has only about half the number of helicopters it did ten years ago, and of those, a great many are in less than stellar condition because of lack of funds for maintenance.
The A.C.o.E., which is the entity responsible for building and maintaining the levees in NO and along the Mississippi River, along with many dams, reservoirs, and other things, also suffered huge budget cutbacks under the Bush tax cuts. They simply don't have the resources and manpower to properly maintain the thousands of milles of levees in America anymore.


One of the other problems (and race and income do figure here), is that the poorest sections of NO also happen to be the lowest-lying, and therefore the people living there are the least able to pick up stakes and evacuate. They are less likely to have a vehicle that can carry them to the high ground, less likely to trust authorities that try to evacuate them ahead of time, and have more reason to fear looting while they are gone.

And for those few who, in their ignorance,(I don't think anyone on this site falls into this particular category) have asked "Why would you build a city below sea level anyway?", the answer is that they DIDN'T. New Orleans is actually above sea-level. The problem is that they originally built on a piece of land between the MS River and lake Ponchertrain(sp?). This land is almost entirely composed of silt laid down by the MS, and over the years it has settled, so that NO is now in a depression between river and lake.
It isn't the Gulf of Mexico, but the lake, that has broken the levees and flooded the city.

Well, it is pretty possible for me to head down there. Between towing experience, machinery experience, and having a commerical license.......I'd be willing to bet I'd get tossed right into a rig or something and start hauling Demo.

I've been thinking hard about it...And it would also get the helping hand thing out of my system until another disaster.

answer:

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Steve, drop it. You have other issues to deal with.

Before heading down....be aware of things like this - where even the pros are being turned back.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...0050905NYHM101