Hey! Here's a good location for Bush's photo op: Jasper, TX

[Rose Siding]

Like NOLA on a smaller scale - not flood-wise, but people are stranded without information and the locals are having trouble getting help...

snip>
Having been pounded by Rita overnight, Jasper on Saturday had no electricity, no water pressure and no working sewage-treatment plant. Gasoline was all gone. The hospital had closed, and hundreds of wind-shredded trees had trapped many of the town's 8,000 residents inside their homes. There were also a thousand or so stranded hurricane evacuees from Houston, Galveston and points south who had tossed up here Friday in futile attempts to outrun Rita. They had been messily housed at three schools, where there were no cots and no lights and the toilets were backing up.
.....
A handful of Texas state troopers arrived here in the late afternoon, but, Hunter said, they did not want to help the city with security at the shelters. He also said power was unlikely to be restored for several weeks because of extensive hurricane damage here and in Beaumont, which supplies electricity for Jasper and was also hit hard by Rita.

As far any other imminent assistance for Jasper, Hunter said 1,500 meals have been promised for Sunday, along with a generator that would allow the water department and sewer system to start up. But he said there was no prospect, yet, of deliveries of fuel.

"The state police are using my fuel," he said.

Hunter said that there is a major military base, Fort Polk, about 60 miles from Jasper and that it could provide military police for security and a generator to bring power to the town. "We're trying to reach them, but bureaucracy holds things up," he said. "While things go through channels, people are suffering."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401619.html

[NYC]

1. I thought the feds were going to help this time.

...Hunter said that there is a major military base, Fort Polk, about 60 miles from Jasper and that it could provide military police for security and a generator to bring power to the town. "We're trying to reach them, but bureaucracy holds things up," he said. "While things go through channels, people are suffering."

I guess I was wrong.

[Rose Siding]

2. I wonder if there are other stories like this- by not providing

a central location within the affected areas, there must have been lots of people who got stranded.

I remember reading about people who called for rides in one area (where they were provided) The officials made a point of telling them they'd need friends or family to help them. It sounded like they were just taking them away, but not necessarily *to* anywhere.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

3. That's disgusting, that they didn't help. n/t

[Horse with no Name]

4. PDittie's dad was going to Jasper

to ride out the storm--anyone know if he has heard from him?
Will keep him in prayers.

[goclark]

5. No - Prayers!

[txindy]

6. Beaumont reported to be in bad shape

Friends say "it looks like bombs went off." No electricity or water with no estimation about when they'll return. Port Arthur is the same, as are surrounding communities.

This was a Category 3 hurricane. The threads complaining about the attention paid to Rita are sickening. People are dead and lives are in shambles. This doesn't look good for Junior, no matter how it is presented. And, frankly, right now that's the least of my concerns. There are 3 MILLION displaced evacuees in Texas, at this moment, people who fled when Rita was a Category 5. Junior's buddy, the Texas gov., messed this up but good. Lousiana got whacked again, too. This was not a little storm, by any means.

Adding: Top pic - Port Arthur. 2nd pic - Lake Charles, LA.

[liveoaktx]

7. No way! That's where James Byrd Jr was dragged to death behind a car

Bush refused to support hate-crime legislation.

http://www.pww.org/past-weeks-2000/Bush%20blasted%20at%20NAACP.htm