Monday, September 05, 2005

Speaking of Hurricane Katrina and the rescue efforts, there's a photo in the Los Angeles Times today that shows the government's priorities better than anything I could write. The photo's caption reads: The American flag above the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington flies at half-staff Sunday to mark the death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. 7:09:48 PM    comment () Efforts to save documents stymied. 3:25 p.m., Monday By Greg Thomas Real estate writer Specialists working for the New Orleans Notorial Archives have been stymied... [Times-Picayune] Specialists working for the New Orleans Notorial Archives have been stymied in trying to return downtown to rescue some of the most historic documents in the city’s history, from original land grants to slave sale records and title records. Federal troops have refused to let them through checkpoints into the city. The Notorial Archives hired Munters Corp., a Swedish document salvage firm that freezes and then freeze-dries records to slowly remove moisture from them. But Munters’ refrigerated trucks were turned away by uniformed troops as they tried to enter the city, said Stephen Bruno, custodian of the archives. The trucks were headed to the Civil District Courthouse on Poydras Street, where many of the city’s real estate documents are housed, and to the former Amoco building at 1340 Poydras St., which houses historic documents such as a letter from Jean Lafitte to Washington demanding for his expenditures during the Battle of New Orleans. Eddy Pokluda, head of national sales for Munters in Dallas, said the company tried to get one person in to make an assessment of the damage but was turned away, even though days earlier they had coordinated with New Orleans police to have an escort into the city. 3:37:12 PM    comment () Mayor ready for armed standoff with FEMA. WWLTV.com | News for New Orleans, Louisiana | Local News 3:32 P.M. Ben Morris, Slidell mayor: We are still hampered by some of the most stupid, idiotic regulations by FEMA. They have turned away generators, we've heard that they've gone around seizing equipment from our contractors. If they do so, they'd better be armed because I'll be damned if I'm going to let them deprive our citizens. I'm pissed off, and tired of this horsexxxx." [Antiwar.com Blog] 3:32:50 PM    comment ()

© Copyright 2006 Ken Hagler. Last update: 2/15/2006; 2:06:19 PM.