15th September, 2008
Nearly 2,000 Hurricane Victims Rescued
This is crazy, man! I have my own peeps I need to see about. I don't think anyone could have expected this level of damage.
As teams persisted in the biggest search and rescue operation in Texas history, a new phase of the disaster wrought by Hurricane Ike was only beginning while thousands of people faced long stays in crowded shelters because their homes were damaged or destroyed.
The death toll from Ike rose to 28, but many of those were far to the north of the Gulf Coast as the storm slogged across the nation's midsection, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction.
Glass-strewn Houston was placed under a weeklong curfew, and millions of people in the storm's path remained in the dark.Rescuers said they had saved nearly 2,000 people from waterlogged streets and splintered houses by Sunday afternoon. Many had ignored evacuation orders and tried to ride out the storm. Now they were boarding buses for indefinite stays at shelters in San Antonio and Austin.
"I have nowhere to go," said Ldyyan Jonjocque, 61, waiting for a bus while holding the leashes of her four Australian shepherd dogs. She said she had to leave two dogs behind in her home. She wept as she told of officers rescuing her in a dump truck.
In hard-hit towns like Orange, Bridge City and Galveston, authorities continued their door-to-door search well into the night, hoping to reach an untold number of people still in their homes, many without power or supplies.
Many of those who did make it to safety boarded buses without knowing where they were going or when they could return to what might remain of their homes. Shelters across Texas scurried to find enough cots, and some evacuees arrived with little cash and no idea of what the coming days held.
Even for those who still have a home to go to, Ike's 110 mph winds and battering waves left thousands in coastal areas without electricity, gas and basic communications — and officials estimated it may not be restored for a month.
"We want our citizens to stay where they are," said a weary Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas. "Do not come back to Galveston. You cannot live here at this time."
Michael Geml has braved other storms in his bayfront neighborhood in Galveston, where he's lived for 25 years, though none quite like Ike. The 51-year-old stayed in the third-story Jacuzzi of a neighbor's house, directly on the bay, with family pets as waves crashed across the landscape. But amid the havoc, Geml asked anyone who would listen — even his rescuers — for an odd commodity: cat litter for his spooked feline.
"I'll never stay again," Geml said. "I don't care what the weatherman says — a Category 1, a Category 2. I thought I was going to die."
Kathi and Paul Norton huddled inside their house in Crystal Beach until it collapsed and was swept away. Their flag pole kept the house from collapsing on top of them, buying them a few seconds to escape, holding onto the staircase.
"You never know what a hurricane is like until you ride it on a staircase," said Kathi Norton, 47.
As she spoke outside the giant, warehouse-like shelter on a former Air Force base in San Antonio, busloads of new evacuees were arriving, bumper to bumper.
The hurricane also battered the heart of the U.S. oil industry as Ike destroyed at least 10 production platforms, officials said. Details about the size and production capacity of the destroyed platforms were not immediately available, but the damage was to only a fraction of the 3,800 platforms in the Gulf.
It was too soon to know how seriously it would affect oil and gas prices. You can read more about the devastation left by Ike on AOL.
Posted at 10:11 am | Comment (0)
8th September, 2008
Hot Pockets sponors Hurricane Ike
As media coverage of Hurricane Ike intensifies, the National Weather Association of America (NWAA) has announced that Hot Pockets has sponsored the ferocious storm as it moves off Cuba and takes direct aim at Florida. Newscasters and forecasters will now have to refer to the storm as Hot Pockets Ultimate Hurricane Ike.
"The new Hot Pockets Ultimate sandwich means ultimate size and ultimate flavor," said CNN's Wolf Blitzer while reporting on the hurricane this morning. "Over 50% BIGGER than regular 4.5oz HOT POCKETS® brand sandwiches and stuffed with delicious meats and cheeses, all wrapped in a crispy, cheesy crust. And speaking of ultimate, let's track on our weather map where Hot Pockets Ultimate Hurricane Ike is right now."
The decision by the NWAA to allow sponsorship of hurricanes has already opened the floodgates to other corporate opportunities. Quizno's is in negotiations with California emergency officials to sponsor the next significant earthquake in the Los Angeles area.
Tags: hollywood, hurricane, photos, rap, stylePosted at 2:19 am | Comment (0)
5th September, 2008
Sean Penn throws people into New Orleans water to rescue them
Sean Penn is in a New Orleans jail tonight, accused of throwing several people into a flooded channel in order to rescue them later while cameras were rolling. Three years ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Penn took it upon himself to take a boat to New Orleans to help victims stranded by the floods. But this time around, most of the city was evacuated for Hurricane Gustav. "Mr. Penn was upset that he went all the way down there, and there was no one to rescue," says a local police officer. "He apparently was able to find several homeless men. He took them to a flooded channel and then proceeded to throw them into the water in order to perform a rescue operation."
Witnesses say that after Penn threw the homeless men into the water, he started screaming at his crew to start rolling their cameras. Two of the homeless nearly drowned. Penn was incarcerated by an officer who witnessed the incident. As this photo shows, Penn was also caught throwing a cup of water on one of the drowning men.
"I just hope they take that damn boat away from him for good," says one of the homeless men.
Tags: hollywood, hurricane, jail, photos, sean penn, stylePosted at 11:34 am | Comment (0)