Cave News

How do you describe a disaster

It is really difficult to find words to describe what the victims of this disaster are going through.

Damage scene in New Orleans

Flood in New Orleans

Damage in New Orleans

photos from CNN online

More photos here.

Public health emergency along the Gulf Coast

This is one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. In the aftermath, experts are predicting that continued flooding could turn the affected areas into a breeding ground for a variety of serious health problems.

Federal officials have declared a public health emergency for the storm damaged Gulf Coast.

One of the serious potential health problems is intestinal diseases from contaminated drinking water and sewage overflow.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is "very dangerous."

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt says his agency is concerned about potential disease outbreaks. He's urging residents of the storm area to boil water, follow food safety guidelines, and be aware of possible carbon monoxide poisoning from generators.

The Federal Department of Transportation is working to restore highways, airports, and seaports.

Link here and here.

Crisis in the city of New Orleans

New Orleans is sinking deeper into crisis as floodwaters continue to rise and uncontrolled looting is escalating.

Marshal Law has been declared but there are not enough people to stop the anarchy.

Disasters bring out the best and the worst in people. Some are heroes -- working tirelessly to help save people stranded in attics and rooftops and all the while not knowing the status of their own families. Others have become lawless looters.

There is real danger in the floodwaters, which contain raw sewage, dead bodies, snakes and other reptiles.

With hundreds, if not thousands, of people still stranded in flooded homes, attics and rooftops across the city, rescue boats were bypassing the dead to reach the living, Mayor C. Ray Nagin said.

"It's like being in a Third World country," said Mitch Handrich, a registered nurse manager at Charity Hospital, where nurses were ventilating patients by hand after the power and then the backup generator failed.

Some 300 patients had yet to be evacuated, but the babies in intensive care had been flown out.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco said that everyone still in the city must leave.

There are about 23,000 huddled in the Superdome and other rescue centers. They hope to have them evacuated within two days. The Superdome has no electricity, water or sewer facilities.

Link here.

America Online - breaking up is hard to do

A few years ago I signed up for America Online. When I tried to cancel, they said I needed to write a letter stating my request. Would they accept an email? Nope.

One of their selling points is their email and instant messaging services. So why was I required to send my cancel request by snail mail?

Anyway, after three months my AOL account was finally cancelled. It tool another month to get my Visa charges reversed. The Visa was a debit card or it may have taken much longer.

There was a New York Times article Monday about a man who could not get his brothers’ AOL account cancelled. His brother dad been dead for three years.

He was able to cancel his brothers' credit card, gas, insurance - everything except his AOL account.

Last week the office of the New York attorney general announced that it had reached a settlement with America Online/Time Warner.

As a result, AOL is required to "remove obstacles consumers face when seeking to switch or cancel service."

Breaking up with AOL in the future should not be as difficult.

AOL admitted to no wrongdoing in the matter. Link here.

The deadly pass out game

A recent 20/20 program on ABC told of a child who died playing the latest deadly teen craze - the pass out game.

They choke themselves until they nearly pass out. This gives them a high. They claim to feel a sudden euphoric feeling as they pass out.

In some cases friends will choke a member of the group until they pass out. If the person who faints does not regain consciousness on his own, the others will shake them to help oxygen return to the brain.

One 13-year-old boy said it makes your body tingle. Starving the brain of blood can cause permanent damage - or death. What a price to pay for a “tingle.”

After the 20/20 article called this dangerous phenomenon to the attention of the public, there will be many parents who may wonder if that was the cause of the recent death of their child. Link here.

Mississippi Burning drowning

"It was like our tsunami," Vincent Creel, a spokesman for the Mississippi Gulf Coast city of Biloxi, said on Tuesday.

When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the U.S. Gulf Coast on Monday, it sent a 30-foot (9-meter) storm surge into Biloxi.

Many people were probably trapped in their homes by the ferocious wall of water.

The dead will number in the 100’s. Police said around 30 people died in one Biloxi apartment complex alone when the storm surge brought it crashing down.

The dangers are great in the storm-damaged towns along the Gulf Coast. Raw sewage and other contaminates in the floodwaters along with animals both dead and alive including rodents, snakes and other reptiles.

These people need our prayers. One word of caution about donating money to the disaster relief -- beware of those contacting you for donations.

Disasters bring out the best and the worst in people. That includes bogus requests for money. Reputable relief organizations will not contact you for donations.

Donate, but we need to be sure the money is going to help the people in the storm damaged areas. Link here.

Storm gone but New Orleans devastation lingers

Residents of New Orleans are paying the price for living in a city that is mostly below-sea-level.

Under normal conditions the city is protected from flooding by a network of pumps, canals and levees. Today many of the pumps were not working and there were large breeches in the levees.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the devastation is “greater than our worst fears. It's just totally overwhelming”.

“I talked with paramedics that are on the scene and the devastation is so great that they won't quit counting (bodies) for a while," said Mark Williams, operations supervisor for American Medicial Response, which operated ambulances along the Mississippi coast.

Crews were by-passing the dead to reach storm survivors Tuesday afternoon. Mid-day reports said 80% of New Orleans was flooded to one degree or another.

Some climbed into their attics to avoid the high water. A few were able to get out by breaking holes in the roof and will be evacuated by helicopter. Others will not be that fortunate.

Those who remain in New Orleans are facing unbelievable hardship. Imagine being without food, water, safe shelter, gasoline and even the most basic health services.

The water flowing through the city is contaminated with dead bodies and, in some places, raw sewage. And all this without fire or police protection.

Other cities have also been devastated. Gulfport was in the eye of the storm. Biloxi is another Mississippi city that was also devastated. Link here and here.

They may repossess his wooden-leg

A man in Des Moines Iowa walked out of a prosthetics store without paying for his specially designed prosthetic leg.

The bill was in the amount of $17,000. They let him take the leg for a couple of hours for testing to see if ti was a proper fit. He never returned.

The prosthetics supply store waited for five days before reporting the theft to Police. Employees thought the man would return.

The store has a cell phone number and an address but no one answers his phone or doorbell.

If they find him, will they repossess his leg? Link here.

1950's slang expressions

Another look back to the 1950’s

Slang expressions from the 1950's - many are still in use today:

actor - show-off
big daddy - older person
blast - good time
bread - money
cat - hip person
cloud 9 - really happy
Clyde - term of address for any normal male
cookin’ - doing very well
cool it - relax
cranked - excited
cream - badly damage
cut out - leave
dig - understand
dolly - real cute young girl
don’t have a cow - don’t get excited
flat out - fast as you can
flat-top - men’s hairstyle (flat on top crewcut)
flick - movie
fracture - to amuse
frosted - angry
going ape - getting really excited
hang out - do very little
heat - police
hip - cool, in the know
horn - telephone
kick - a fun thing, or a good thing
knuckle sandwich - fist in the face
kookie - nuts (in a nice way)
made in the shade - guaranteed success
make the scene - to attend
nerd - dorky person with brains
no sweat - no problem
odd ball - someone a little out of sync
on the stick - smart, prepared
pad - home
party pooper - no fun at all
rattle your cage - get you upset
shot down - failed
sing - tattle or inform on someone
split - leave
stacked - female with well proportioned figure
stack up - wreck a vehicle
threads - clothes
tight - close friends
total - completely destroy
unreal - exceptional

Music legend Pat Boone shreds Cindy peaceniks

Music legend Pat Boone is describing the message of Cindy Sheehan and other anti-war activists. Boone says their rhetoric is making the U.S. more vulnerable to future terrorist attacks.

This lady and the groups that have been demonstrating in front of the president's ranch in Crawford and following him around are the very same people that were the dropout, turn-on, anti-war peace activists back [in the Vietnam War era].

They still have this crazy notion that by just being peaceful and maybe toking up or something like that – it's like an ostrich with its head in the sand – maybe the danger and the bad guys will go away and leave you alone, which is not gonna happen.

Link to the Pat Boone comments here.