Rita

by ipsiphi - saddened by the stupidity. Thu Sep 22, 2005 19:04

survival rule 2 has been broken. There are an unknown number of people estimated in hundreds of thousands in gridlock on the freeways out of Houston.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4269994.stm
CNN has quoted one evacuee as saying that bumper to bumper traffic has only allowed him to progress 48 miles in 13 hours. Rita is classified as a category 5 hurricane and is moving at 9.3 miles an hour. The storm these people who received the best possible advice from national and federal government are attempting to flee is moving in their direction at twice their speed.

________________________________________

For those of ye in the loop, you now know rule (1) is to stop smoking = Stop smoking.


& think about water 1 litre = 1 kilogram.

remember the golden rule:-

.:. you don't goto heaven in a disaster unless you save lives+

by ipsiphi Thu Sep 22, 2005 19:18

rule (3) "your shelter".

"People can wait out the storm at MECA 1900 Kane"

(((MECA is an old sturdy School Building at 1900 Kane Street, 77007
telephone (713)802-9370
and people can wait out the storm there. Please share this info with people in the streets, or offer rides.)))

MECA is a multi-cultural ethnic centre which specialises in arts activity and is regular meeting point for social assemblies. There are very few sturdy old style european churches in Texas so the "school" is the next best thing. Those of you who read the survival tips will remember about painting "survivors" on the roof.

Now as you know, there are Irish people in Texas. The phone lines are still working. Let people know while they do. There is a confirmed 100 mile tailback on the most popular exit route. You might like to mention that little detail.

Rita has now bypassed Cuba and air services have begun to operate again between Cuba and Spain.

by thinking of yous Thu Sep 22, 2005 23:04

big love and strong hearts to the good people of Southern USA. we is thinking of you and hoping for solid buildings and sensible souls to surround you
xxx

by ipsiphi Thu Sep 22, 2005 23:13

she entered the record books in the last few hours as being the top 5 of such storms on record, but now she's back to a mere 4 and a half. That news will reassure the "new" masses on the freeway in the rush hours out of Texas.

Q: How long will these hours last?
A. consult the "survival tips for Katrina" (sounds like a list of ex-girlfriends) 100 hours are really what you need to be looking at "post strike".

We are (in the solidarity sense) of course still in the time of strong breezes approaching gales, accordingly the us networks are still limiting the congestion and traffic jams to certain routes. "The good citizen obeys".

This time Katrina - shit!" - sorry Rita! :-) [the worst offence any boy /girl can give is to mix up the name] is different. For throughout the hamlets and suburbs, social centres and bunkers of Texas the cheering survivor cries "Old Mother Nature we are wise to you!"

She had a very nasty eye in the last hours, wherever that hits is going to be upset. Its already passed by several key interests of the US/global economy and an awful lot of marine life. Speaking of which it really is quite curious how both fish and birds get out of the way. You don't need satelities to know there's a big storm coming. & afterwards - remember the rats.

This time post Katrina, there are those entrepeneurs who have figured out how to get the gasoline, tobacco and [[[wow the technique]]] federal emergency grant aid debit cards scam together.

Q. What does this mean?
A. many things. most important for the fire side story at the moment are - the looters are going to be more agressive and the cops/army are too.

!!!! no good news?!?!?!?!
Hmmmmmm- there will of course be another chance for Bush to give us a religious type speech at the national prayer day and swing our sympathy.

by ipsiphi Fri Sep 23, 2005 12:52

In the next hours Rita still moving at a little over 9mph will move over more shallow and thus warmer sea, pick up a last bit of power (maybe bringing her back to force 5) and then she hits land.

US Oil production is now at about 67% of normal.
Yet the prices on the global markets are going down, 0.001% by 0.001% really fascinating stuff. Someone, or rather a lot of somebodies are figuring on "consolidating" their market and playing "wait and see" and oddly enough I get the impression they're european somebodies or using european money at least.

Back on our side of reality, Houston imc has cheerful calm stories, the international assistance, aid and rescue organisations have already (together with most media) said "get off the fucking freeway". So locals are finding those sturdy stone houses, looking at their old and fragile trees and taking a few photographs of the abandoned malls and lauding the yumminess of red bean stew. [see links with articles in english]
http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/43879.php
http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/43891.php

There are 1,600 national guard in Texas and are already mobilised in 3 teams. 1 is for post-Rita search and rescue, 1 is to loosen up the freeways, they've started bringing gasoline to the cars to get them moving. This time post-Katrina the entrepeneurs aren't yet selling a quality blend of siphoned unleaded/vodka. But there's time yet....
I don't know what the 3rd team of national guard are doing/going to do. The governor of Texas has asked for a full complement of 10,000 national guard by Sunday. This time the "state" wants everyone to know, its not going anywhere.

The network TVs focus on how well the 500 mile gulf coast has been shut down. "There was an eerie siren, like the alarms you hear in movies which sounded up and down for 3 hours and signalled the refinery had been closed". Extra police now patrol the streets of boarded up wooden houses.

Wolfie's coming.
& she's going to huff puff and
blow your house down.

________________________________________

Observe these people, who left & drove 4mph, & ran out of fuel, & now leave their cars to walk 3mph. Will their cars drive themselves? These folks aren't saving lives.

by Ilyan Fri Sep 23, 2005 16:53

It does not look as though those people in the picture are walking away from their cars, - it looks more like they are pushing them to conserve their fuel.

by ipsiphi .:. iosaf ·.· O as if .:. sofia Fri Sep 23, 2005 20:10

Rita is now steadily entering shallow water, and her flood surge has broken three of the levies or dykes of New Orleans, which were neglected by all the previous federal regimes known by their names - Bush junior, Clinton Bush senior. These dykes of course are familiar to us, because as part of the post Katrina rescue package they were repaired.

you just can't get good work done these days.

One thing about moving millions of people about at the same time, is that certain aspects of normal behaviour alter. The reported crime rate drops, and minor transgressions go unseen. Unhappy marriages move into the car, or as the previous commentator observed, happy couples push their earthly posessions in harmony; a true example to us all.

The oldest and weakest of society of course were prioritised this time, and amongst the shuttle buses which transferred the elderly of coastal towns in Texas, only one has so far exploded into flame.
Current reports estimate the dead at 25 though the bus was carrying 45. This means the orderly evacuation for Rita has now topped the "senior citizen death toll" of Katrina, whose elderly victims were negligently left behind in the basement of some horrible care home. & remember Rita's still just over 500km out to sea.

The public airports of both Houston and Louisiana are now closed. So is the space base. No-one is going to do anything about the "houston we have a problem" thing now.

We remember that amongst the first to be orderly evacuated from New Orleans were the foreign national guests of the 4 and 5 star hotels. Their potential effect on public opinion abroad being considered of crucial strategic importance. Of course, that evacuation left a member of the Spanish congress behind, who became that language's most vocifirous VIP critic of the US authorities in the last 3 and half weeks. Deputy Lourdes Muñoz of the Catalan socialists has since appeared on all global spanish tv including US networks and started her own blog.
http://www.telenoticies.com/noticia/arxiu/not190913597.htm
http://www.lourdesmunozsantamaria.blogspot.com/

It is still too early to tell who jumped the queue out of the primary land targets of Rita. Those towns of Beaumont, Port Arthur, Freetown and Orange and not disregarding the popular senior citizen holiday island resort of Galveston are though said to be evacuated, sitting here in generally well regarded map room in Barcelona I can tell you they were only getting out by chartered bus or chartered flights.

Some might ask the futile question "who is going to die?" or "why does God ignore your tax contributions?" followed by "how can God allow this or permit the forces of divine architecture to permit this?" and other general shite. Which I gave up explaining years ago. These silly ideas and notions which the weakest of minds might suspect forgetting what Bush junior in his national cathedral washington sermon described as "the indifferent power of nature". others though will remember that bad weather comes to all countries and types.

It is indifferent. Utterly doesn't give a shit stuff.
In Iraq today the death toll was in two figures.
& Israeli soldiers killed some jihadists. Thats man's indifference & power.

But for the true demonstration of indifferent majestic power of nature we need look no further than today's serious incidents in Rumania where flooding has now killed more than Rita's evacuation or Grenada in Spain where a fire is threatening a tourist resort and some 2000 hectares. All these resulting from the global negligence shown to the natural environment by western governments and corporations of world trade for as long as any of us care to remember. But this wouldn't be the best cyber nodal interface between american and european readers without a nutter link. explaining how its all an Xfiles weather war -
http://www.enterprisemission.com/weblog/weblog.htm

This 23/9 as every "23/ix" is the feast day of the patroness of Barcelona, Maria de la Merce who managed to survive into modern times as the name on the first party after the "back-to-work-shock". In bygone ages people thought she controlled the weather. That was before chaos theory. We now know its all about butterflies. Its a lovely weekend generally the masses do what they do, and there's even t-shirts. http://www.bcn.es/merce/ It effects everyones' mood and brings out the cynical in me. We work more hours than any state in the EU and are getting paid exactly the same if not less than 5 years ago, and we're supposed to be so happy if we get more holidays (unpaid if you're precarious)

Some days ago a US college student contacted the indymedia ireland list and asked what we were doing for victims of Katrina. The answer was sent and listed all the wonderful, practical and expensive things the states of the EU and European council did and offered to do for the victims of Katrina. Dollar for Euro we did more in the first crucial days than they did for themselves. We're still looking at the value of oil and gas, even though its a holiday. the USA has lost 2.2million barrels of production because of Rita. They shut down Ecuador over a fraction of that. Did you notice them restart Ecuador?How much do they do for Ecuador? Since my last comment the global money "you can eat gold" bunch have got nervous. Wall street closes on "apprehension". If you are reading this in Ireland or the EU appreciate that you are probably closer to me than Rita is to any american's home you ever known. To ridiculise Ahern's now forgotten sea island g8 posturing - "we are closer to Boston than Berlin" yes we are - why yes

we are
closer to Berlin,
and Rumania
and Grenada
and the Mercé of Barcelona

than an emergency camp bed in Beaumont.
__________________________________

Wolfie hath come
you were expecting that all along.
who built your house?

by ipsi Sat Sep 24, 2005 00:09

The evacuation orders have been officially made & carried through. The land fall prediction covers both US states of Texas & Louisiana.

If you live there you may now morally & ethically "provision".

the survival tips
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=71800

Note: the satellites have picked up micro-cyclonic activity in relation to the storm system indicative of multiple tornado activity observe the geography,
keep dry and warm.

Blessed be!

by - Sat Sep 24, 2005 00:32

Prisoners were abandoned to floodwaters whilst prison officers deserted the Jail Building, Leaving Inmates Locked in Cells :
Human Rights Watch (22/9/05)
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/09/22/usdom11773.htm

right now:-

..Levee gone in new Orleans on the industrial canal.

...Flast flood st bernard parish

...Flash flood south east Louisiana and mississippi.
.
..Tornados expected Louisiana and south mississippi and Texas.

21/9/05 Food not bombs .:. waveland mississippi.

by mp3 houston Sat Sep 24, 2005 01:00

"we have the team we have to help right now we're not accepting any extra families, 150 people expected, we're not going to over-extend ourselves... georgia brown is being opened...I don't know their eligibilty...each family 2 to 3 days of water food and bedding."

listen at link :

by ribbid ribbid Sat Sep 24, 2005 01:10

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4276242.stm
Coz they just talk about american hurricanes, and aren't scientific and don't include global data on all extreme or phenomonal climatic incidents. They have totally disregarded european and african weather data from their ribbiding report, perhaps because Mr Blair told them last time, "youze BBC are being anti-american". quite right.

get in your car and drive to disney.
you'll be there the day after tomorrow.

by ABC TV NEWS : ribbid holy ribbid i am jesus again Sat Sep 24, 2005 01:32

The former governor of Texas, George W. Bush wa due today to visit the Texan city of San Antonio but cancelled and went directly to Colorado Springs, Colorado instead, where he is to spend tongiht at the U.S. Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the cancellation came after FEMA decided to reposition search-and-rescue teams from San Antonio closer to the storm zone. "We didn't want to slow up that decision in any way. The president made the decision to go straight to Colorado," McClellan said, while not ruling out a trip to Texas later in the weekend after the storm hits. Mr bush has already visited the gulf states 5 times since the indifferent power of nature hit the newstands. At the U.S. Northern Command, Bush planned on Saturday to check up on coordination between federal, state and local authorities. The Northern Command was created in 2002 to head the military's land, sea and air defense of the United States. "It's an important relationship, and I need to understand how it works better," said Bush, who last week proposed the federal government and U.S. military have broader responsibility to respond to domestic crises like hurricanes. Confusion over lines of authority delayed the response to Hurricane Katrina, which hit August 29 and killed more than 1,000 people.

Yes you just read that, the official death toll is at 1000. Remember a week ago when it was less than 300? Ah yes. Maybe you're old and cynical and can remember when we got upset about "1000 deaths in iraq".

ah sure - who's counting?

by ipsi Sat Sep 24, 2005 03:24

(((live analysis from the barcelona map room)))

OK, I'm not the Fox weather man Joe Bastardi,
http://wwwa.accuweather.com/news-bio.asp?webcaster=bastardi
whose predictions so far are out 30mph out on top gusts. as Fox news has admitted - "this is the real mc koy", the only people left are "hardy", "sturdy" or "media". I do hope the indymedia crew don't look like Geraldo.

But I can tell you - Rita has crossed the shelf line, and her eye is now looking at less than 100 foot of water after squeezing between Claypile Bank and Trinity Shoal the shallowest points on the Texan seaboard. She's more than capable of scraping that seabed, and right now her cyclonic winds are throwing that water at the USA. Though most of them don't give a shit. They're programmed for an early age to ignore disasters.

the coastal towns of :- Freeport, Texas city, Galveston, Port Bolivar, Baytown, Nederland, Sainbe Rass, Port Neches, Pasedena, Sulpher and Orange are now getting it. & they're going to go on getting it for the next 72 hours.

if you've got a special relationship with God, nows the time to ask him/her to favour Texas and not let Rita sit it out till financial markets open on monday.

If you do that, you're not being just on a global scale or scientific on past evidence basis. Texan hurricanes sit a while once they hit land. Its because of all that hot air in Arkansa.

Anyway, leave the science. The hotels, houses and hospitals in the above named towns with the exceptions of Tecas city and Sulpher are confirmed evacuated. There are also no police or local government in evidence - it is safe to presume they're not about.

bread is gone as of yesterday

Americans called the quality food on these shelves "chips" we call them "crisps", good for you in emergencies, but bulky and impractical. Still they'll keep the kids cool & fat on the freeway.

by ipsi Sat Sep 24, 2005 04:29

cellphone (american word for mobile) reception is very patchy. The well funded have now switched to satellite phones.

local radio stations are beginning to fail, this is due to normal power transfer stations shorting, and not the winds. Compare with the Bulgarian floods of the last month over 500 such transformers shorted.

the last official position for Rita was :-
at 8 PM CDT Position 28.7º N. 93.0º W. vector
NW speed 11 mph. max. sustained wind 120 Mph
min central pressure 931 millibars.

The swiss based international red cross has warned that the $853 million donated from individuals & corporations for Katrina is less than half what's needed. Rita will require even more. They estimate their needs for Katrina stands at 2 billion$. We recall of course that the walton family (owners of wallmart) foundation set the bar for corporate donations by giving 17million$ to Katrina's victims.

the USA has an opportunity in november to recognise the Kyoto protocols and join the rest of the developed world in limiting emissions, the US accounts for the largest share of such emissions which are linked by scientists and the voting public with bag bad wolf weather.

_______________________________________
* Don't waste your water or food. its serious now and the scout camp preperation high ought be over. You need to bring all your accounted for neighbours into shelter in the next 2 hours, and you're going to be on your own for a while.

* if you're not using your batteries put them in your "water proof container".

* if you didn't go from Houston you're better off, but remember there are loads of refugees who are getting assistance and they didn't get far. If you're in Houston watch out for any last minute arrivals from Nassau bay.

*stay warm & dry.

by ipsi Sun Sep 25, 2005 14:29

Due to Rita's trajectory, the hundreds of thousands who fled seem to have suffered more than those who stayed trying to find the safest place they could.

the Houston IMC stayed online throughout, and has stories & photos from both those who fled and those who stayed.

Please Note that is "Nota Bene"
The US government & Bush regime in particular are responsible for Rita, in that they took "leadership" of FEMA after Katrina to "get it right". & in so doing, they evacuated nearly 2 million people, who now think "Rita was only category 3, they sent me on the freeway for nothing. I'll ignore them next time".

They will never achieve such a large scale evacuation again. That is what happens when you've leaders who aren't leaders.

http://houston.indymedia.org/
(they're ok)
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/
(they're still getting flooded by what is now officially designated "tropical depression Rita")