Florida

[Annie]

I'm just wondering if I missed some stories, has there been an outpouring of offers from other countries to help Americans in their 'time of need?' Seems to me that a couple million were sent to Europe with the floods, courtesy of Americans donations and US foreign aid. Have I missed the offers?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto...n_re_us/hurricane_jeanne_florida_29&printer=1

Jeanne Hammers Florida, Kills at Least 3

31 minutes ago

By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer

STUART, Fla. - Hurricane Jeanne blasted ashore in Florida with drenching rains and 120 mph wind, tearing off rooftops, hurling debris through the air and sending huge waves crashing into buildings Sunday as it hit the same area battered by Frances three weeks ago. At least three people died.

At least 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power as Jeanne sliced across the central part of the state and weakened into a tropical storm. A Category 3 storm when it slammed into the east coast, Jeanne was the fourth hurricane to pummel Florida in a single season, something that has not happened since 1886 when Texas was the target.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (news - web sites) has responded with the largest deployment in its history, eclipsing response for the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, Calif., and the 2001 terrorist attacks, FEMA Director Michael Brown said Sunday.

"You're going to have some areas that have been hit once, twice and sometimes maybe three times and just as you think you're making headway on debris removal, for example, you've got to go back in," Brown said. "That's very frustrating I know for those who live in those communities."

Debris left from the other storms became airborne as Jeanne made landfall shortly before midnight near the southern tip of Hutchinson Island near Stuart, about 35 miles north of West Palm Beach — the same area ravaged by Frances.

National Hurricane Center (news - web sites) Director Max Mayfield said it was the "first time ever that we know of" that two landfalls that close in place and time. All three other hurricanes — Charley, Frances and Ivan — have hit within the last six weeks.

At the Ocean Breeze trailer park in Jensen Beach, roofs of mobile homes were peeled back like the lids of sardine cans. Computer printers, hair dryers and propane canisters littered the road. Metal sidings clanged in the wind.

Rain whipped sideways in sheets, sections of road were washed out by pounding waves and at least a foot of water rushed through some streets in Vero Beach.

"The last three weeks have been horrific and just when we start to turn the corner, this happens," said Joe Stawara, owner-manager of Fairlane Harbor Mobile Home Estates, where half of the 232 trailers were damaged.

The 400-mile diameter storm then swirled north into central Florida, an area saturated by rain from previous hurricanes that caused billions of dollars in damage and killed at least 70 people.

One person was electrocuted in Miami early Sunday after touching a downed power line. Two people apparently drowned when the SUV they were driving plunged into a lake northwest of Fort Lauderdale during the storm.

In St. Lucie County north of West Palm Beach, police rescued five families when the hurricane's eye passed over late Saturday, including a wheelchair-bound couple in their 90s whose mobile home collapsed around them, emergency operations spokeswoman Linette Trabulsy said.

Bridges from the mainland to Hutchinson Island were flooded and impassable early Sunday. On the barrier island, water rushed through the bottom floor of Atlantis condominiums, where John Lumberson and son Josh rode out the storm. The parking lot was buried in 5 feet of sand and water, and sand rose to kitchen cabinets inside first floor condos.

"It sounded like the whole building was coming down," said Josh Lumberson. "You could hear every metal screw coming out of the walls."

By Sunday afternoon, Jeanne had weakened to a tropical storm, but its 400-mile diameter covered most of the central part of the Florida Peninsula, including Tampa and Orlando. It was expected to stay inland over Georgia and the Carolinas through Tuesday.

Rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches were expected in the storm's path, and flooding could be a major concern because previous hurricanes had saturated the ground and filled canals, rivers and lakes.

A main scenic road that parallels Lake Monroe had a foot of water in some parts that flowed through the street like a slow-moving creek. Waves of about 3 feet were breaking along and over the seawall that keeps the lake's water from the town of Sanford's historic downtown area.

At least 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power Sunday, including much of Palm Beach County. Even before Jeanne hit, some 80,000 people had no electricity in the panhandle following Ivan, and officials feared many could be without power for three weeks or more.

Two million people had been urged to evacuate. State officials said more than 59,000, many with homes already damaged by Frances, stayed at shelters.

"Before I left home, I prayed over my house and I told God it was in his hands," said Ada Dent, who went to a shelter in West Palm Beach with her 2-year-old grandson.

In Stuart, parts of the waterproof roof covering at Martin Memorial Medical Center blew off, said administrative nursing supervisor Sharon Andre. One person was rescued after part of a condominium roof collapsed.

At least two shelters were damaged — part of an elementary school's roof flew off in Melbourne, and a roof leaked in Fort Pierce. No one was injured, and the evacuees were taken to other shelters.

At 2 p.m. EDT Sunday, Jeanne was centered about 20 miles southeast of Brooksville, Fla. It was moving northwest near 10 mph and was forecast to move over northern Florida Sunday night and early Monday.

Earlier, Jeanne tore across the Bahamas, leaving some neighborhoods submerged under 6 feet of water. No deaths or serious injuries were reported there, but the storm was earlier blamed for more than 1,500 deaths in floods in Haiti.

Jeanne followed Charley, which struck Aug. 13 and devastated southwest Florida; Frances, which struck Labor Day weekend; and Ivan, which blasted the western Panhandle when it made landfall in nearby Alabama on Sept. 16.

LaTrease Haliburton reluctantly checked into a West Palm Beach shelter with her 6-year-old daughter, who has had nightmares since Frances caved in the bathroom ceiling in her family's apartment.

"I want to make sure my daughter isn't as scared this time," Haliburton said.

Kind of reminds me of this:

http://www.geocities.com/defendtheusa/page3.html

Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:

"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the
most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out
of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States. When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.

When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes.
Nobody helped.

The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars! into
discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing
about the decadent, warmongering Americans.

I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes?

Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You
talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles.

You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon not once, but several times - and safely home again. You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.

When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through
age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad
and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose.
Both are still broke.

I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other
people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced
to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even
during the San Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned
tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."

Stand proud, America!

 

[NATO AIR]

bravo mr. sinclair

 

[Annie]

No pun intended. Update:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto...p_on_re_us/hurricane_jeanne_florida&printer=1

Latest Hurricane Kills Six in Florida

7 minutes ago

By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer

HUTCHINSON ISLAND, Fla. - Jeanne, Florida's fourth hurricane in six weeks, piled on destruction in already ravaged areas Sunday, slicing across the state with howling wind that rocketed debris from earlier storms and torrents of rain that turned streets into rivers.

At least six people died in the storm, which was a cruel rerun for many still trying to recover from earlier hurricanes. Jeanne came ashore in the same area hit three weeks ago by Hurricane Frances and was headed for the Panhandle, where 70,000 homes and businesses remained without power because of Hurricane Ivan 10 days earlier.

The storm peeled the roofs off buildings, toppled light poles, destroyed a deserted community center in Jensen Beach and flooded some bridges from the mainland to the Atlantic coast's barrier islands. More than 1.1 million homes and businesses were without power.

"The last three weeks have been horrific," said Joe Stawara, owner of a Vero Beach mobile home park where about half the 232 trailers were damaged. "And just when we start to turn the corner, this happens."

Until this weekend, no state had suffered a four-hurricane pounding in one season since Texas in 1886. And the hurricane season still has two months to go.

Rain blew sideways in wind that reached 120 mph when Hurricane Jeanne's eye hit land late Saturday night; by 8 p.m. EDT Sunday it had weakened to a tropical storm with sustained wind near 55 mph.

At least a foot of water rushed through some streets in Vero Beach, where a mattress floated through one neighborhood.

President Bush (news - web sites) declared a major disaster area in Florida. The hurricanes have prompted the largest relief effort in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (news - web sites)'s history, eclipsing responses for the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, Calif., and the 2001 terrorist attacks, director Michael Brown said.

"You're going to have some areas that have been hit once, twice and sometimes maybe three times," Brown said. "That's very frustrating, I know, for those who live in those communities."

Frances was larger, while Charley and Ivan were more powerful. But Jeanne was bad enough, once again sending the Sunshine State into a state of emergency.

Gov. Jeb Bush sought to reassure weary Floridians. "This will become a memory," he said. "This does come to an end, and when it does we can probably use the term 'normal' again."

Seawater submerged the bottom floor of condominiums on Hutchinson Island, where Josh Lumberson rode out the storm. The parking lot was under 5 feet of sand and water, and sand rose to the kitchen cabinets inside first-floor condos. The ocean, once 75 yards away, lapped at the foundation.

"It sounded like the whole building was coming down," Lumberson said. "You could hear every metal screw coming out of the walls."

As the wind subsided, the clang of metal siding could still be heard on the barrier island.

Jeanne made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane with winds of up to 120 mph just before midnight Saturday at Hutchinson Island, 35 miles north of West Palm Beach. Frances struck in almost the same spot.

Once inland, Jeanne's 400-mile diameter system trudged across the state, passing northeast of Tampa. It then headed toward the Panhandle, which was still recovering from Ivan.

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center (news - web sites) in Miami, described the similar paths of Jeanne and Frances as perhaps unprecedented.

The toll from the latest storm extended as far north as Daytona Beach, where the famous beach was ravaged by erosion, and south to Miami, where one person was electrocuted after touching a downed power line.

Two people died when the sport utility vehicle they were driving plunged into a lake beside the Sawgrass Expressway south of Boca Raton. In Clay County southwest of Jacksonville, a 15-year-old boy died after being pinned by a falling tree Sunday.

In Brevard County, a man was found dead in a ditch in Palm Bay in what police called an apparent drowning. In nearby Micco, a 60-year-old man was found dead after a hurricane party at a home. He was found lying in water after the house had flooded; police said the death may be alcohol-related or the man may have drowned.

Jeanne's predecessors killed at least 70 people in Florida and caused billions of dollars in damage.

In St. Lucie County north of West Palm Beach, police rescued five families when the hurricane's eye passed over late Saturday, including a wheelchair-bound couple in their 90s whose mobile home collapsed around them, emergency operations spokeswoman Linette Trabulsy said.

In Rockledge, the Indian River overflowed its banks, lifting docks off their moorings carrying them into roads and yards.

Single-engine planes flipped over at Palm Beach International Airport. At Cape Canaveral, the third hurricane to hit NASA (news - web sites)'s spaceport in just over a month blew out more panels and left more gaping holes in the massive shuttle assembly building.

More than 3,000 National Guard troops were deployed to aid relief efforts.

But some residents acknowledged it could have been worse. Peirce Braun assessed the mess from the front yard of his bungalow.

"It's really not that bad," he said. "The worst thing in Florida is to be without the AC."

Among the areas left without power were much of Palm Beach County, population 1.1 million, and — for the second time in three weeks — all of Vero Beach.

With Jeanne dumping heavy rain, there was fear of flooding in the days to come from swollen rivers in east and central Florida, already saturated by two previous hurricanes.

In Sanford, a city near Orlando surrounded by lakes and rivers, a foot of water flowed down a scenic road that parallels Lake Monroe, and three-foot waves broke over the seawall that separates the lake from the historic downtown area.

State officials said 59,000 people, many with homes already damaged by Frances, rode out Jeanne in shelters.

At least one family will remember Jeanne fondly. An Indiantown woman gave birth at her home during the hurricane with help from 911 operators who offered instructions. The woman and her newborn son were doing well after being transferred by fire rescue personnel to a hospital.

By 8 p.m. EDT, Tropical Storm Jeanne was centered about 30 miles southwest of Gainesville, and was moving north-northwest near 13 mph. It was forecast to weaken into a tropical depression sometime Monday.

Earlier, Jeanne tore across the Bahamas, leaving some neighborhoods under 6 feet of water. The storm caused flooding in Haiti that killed more than 1,500 people.

Jeanne followed Charley, which struck Aug. 13 and devastated southwest Florida; Frances, which struck Labor Day weekend; and Ivan, which ravaged the western Panhandle when it made landfall in Alabama on Sept. 16.

Before Jeanne, FEMA had received more than 600,000 requests for aid from hurricane victims in Florida and throughout the eastern United States and disbursed about $360 million, Brown said. FEMA already has delivered millions of gallons of water, bags of ice and ready-to-eat meals to storm victims.

 

[onedomino]

The idea of getting help from outside the US is so alien it never occurs to me. Regardless of the event, I cannot remember ever reading about outside help being offered, much less accepted. Yet in almost every instance of trouble for others, America offers help and provides assistance. When the bad earthquakes hit our enemy Iran recently, American planes were soon on the spot providing relief. We flew search teams, doctors, and medical supplies to the affected area. Strange, but during the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles, I do not remember any Iranian relief planes landing at LAX. After the horror of Beslan, an American plane soon arrived loaded with "burn beds" to help the local authorities. American government money was transferred to Beslan to help purchase needed supplies. It seems like the world expects America to fix things when hard times arrive, but America is expected to take care of itself. Noted; and it so happens we can take care of ourselves. Self-reliance is part of the American character and we do not expect or look for help from others; not even after 911.

A different question about the hurricanes in Florida: do you think that the difficulties caused by the storms will affect the psychology or participation of the electorate in such a way as to alter the 2 November outcome?