Hurricane Ike Storm Track

Hurricane Ike is looking more and more like its going to come into Texas and wreak some havoc. Make sure you do all your prep work.  While the costal areas are not looking forward to this deadly hurricane making landfall, the further inland areas like Austin welcome the rain it will bring as much of Texas has been in a drought.

Image courtesy of http://www.stormpulse.com . Awesome site for the hurricane, with all of the projections etc.

Wetwired Radio Presents: Episode 13, in which our heroes return from a month hiatus! Join Finely as Host and Pylorns as Co-Host as they discuss hurricane Gustav, CNN’s douchebaggery, Sarah Palin, Finley’s 30th birthday, the 29th birthday ‘grab his package’ story, the movie Bottle Shock, and a nifty website that mimzy found called hotchickswithdouchebags.com

Also as talked about in our podcast, here is the link to Redcross donation, always donate to repudable sites.

Comment and let us know what you think!

Listen to this via iTunes or directly below.

UPDATE: Fixed the post to send to iTunes. It should be available now through the podcasting.

 

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Beerslinger has written in, with words from Baton Rouge. Please take a moment to read his thoughts:

Friends,

I wanted to take a few moments to update everyone on Hurricane Gustav, and the aftermath or the storm on Baton Rouge.

First let me tell you that my family and I are all safe and secure. No one that I know was injured or killed in the events of the storm. This is primarily due to the fact that prior to the impact of Gustav, Louisiana staged the single largest mass evacuation in the history of the Unites States. Several million people fled in the face of the storm.

The winds and the rain were at record levels in Baton Rouge, where I live. The gusts were measured in several different places reaching 91 miles per hour. (That is 146 KPH for my metric friends.) The devastation is… well it is amazing. I have never in my life seen anything like it.

You see, Baton Rouge is a green city. It is covered in 100 year old oak trees, and tens of thousands of other thees. It really is a beautiful city to live in. However it is this abundance of trees that has caused us problems. As the storm came through thousands of these trees were knocked down, or simple ripped out of the ground and many of them took out power lines. At one point 3/4 of the state was without electrical power.

I lost two trees in my own yard. One fell in my back yard, and caused no real damage other than the effort I will have to go through to clean it up. The other took out my fence and is currently residing inside my neighbors house. It crushed their roof and wall, and knocked out a few windows.

They are being good sports about the whole thing, knowing it is not my fault, but I still feel pretty bad about it.

For almost 36 hours I was trapped at my house. Six large oak trees, two of which were over 5 feet in diameter, fell across the road leading to my house. This blocked traffic in both directions and kept me inside until the city could clear the roadway. The 6 trees took out a total of 15 telephone polls and their accompanying power lines, so I have no power. And do not expect to for a while.

I do have a generator. It is enough to power my refrigerator, a very small room air conditioner a TV and a couple of fans. I have also run an extension cord to my neighbors house to give them some power. However this thing goes through 5 gallons of gas every 10 hours it operates.

There is nothing more scarce in Baton Rouge right now than gasoline.

I drove outside the affected area yesterday with my truck loaded down with empty jerry cans. I had to drive two hours to North Eastern Louisiana before I was able to find an out of the way truck stop where they had gas, and fairly short lines. I pumped 60 gallons (227.12 liters) filling my truck and jerry cans. This was very expensive, but of course there is no real choice.

After I finished pumping the gas, two men approached me and demanded I give it to them. You see, when supplies are short, and tempers start flaring, ordinary people are willing to do things they would not normally do. We talked for a few seconds about it. I kept the gas because I had a gun, and they had a bat.

I swear that I thought I was going to have to shoot someone.

Last night a woman was arrested for attempted murder of a police officer. She went to a distribution center for emergency supplies, and skipped the line. (The line was managed by the state police and was 7.5 miles long. (that is 12.07km)). When the police officer leaned into her car to tell her that she couldn’t just drive up and get supplies, she had to wait in line, she grabbed him by the collar and sped off. He had to be hospitalized for injuries caused by being dragged by a car.

Now the good news: Never before in the history of this country has such a massive relief effort been mobilized. neighboring stated have sent us 11,000 utility workers to help us get power back on. (Remember that this is not just Baton rouge, but all the parishes south of us as well that are without power) FEMA is taking great pride in showing us the lessons that they learned in Katrina, and is mobilizing supplies faster than they ever have before.

All that being said, looting has started. Now, nobody blames someone that breaks into the store to get milk and diapers for their children. But when you break into the DVD store and steal a couple of car loads of DVDs, this is a crime. Home invasions have already started. Some friends in the police force were telling me that people are breaking into houses to steal cash, valuables, etc.

Power:

The single biggest problem facing Baton Rouge right now is the lack of electrical power. The vast majority of the businesses and people in the city are out of power. This is keeping us from getting the necessary stores open, this is preventing the manufacture of vital supplies such as ice.

The most recent estimate is that it will take 6-8 weeks for the entire city to come back online. Obviously this is not everyone. Some people have already had their power restored. However, I expect that it will be at least a week before most people start seeing power in their area, let alone at their house.

I am taking the time to write this from work, as it is the only place I have access to a computer or to the Internet. However, when I get time to write again, I will.

I hope everyone is well.

Dolly has made landfall around South Padre island. Austin is slated for 3+ inches of rain. And the rain bands are as far stretching as where I am in Louisiana.

WASHINGTON – The Homeland Security Department wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars last year on iPods, dog booties, beer-making equipment and designer jackets, congressional investigators have concluded.

More than 100 laptop computers and a dozen boats also bought by Homeland Security employees are missing, the investigators found.

Poor training, lax oversight and rampant confusion over what employees are allowed to buy with government-issued purchase cards left Homeland Security “vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse,” according to a draft report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative and auditing arm.

The report was to be released Wednesday by a Senate panel that oversees the department.

Senators said more than 10,000 Homeland Security employees carry purchase cards for business-related expenses — with a spending limit that was raised to $250,000 for emergencies after Hurricane Katrina hit last Aug. 29. Aides said the audit covered expenses for a five-month period both before and after Katrina.

But investigators found that employees received scant training on how to use the cards, were given little or lax supervision and were told to follow spending guidelines that differed among the 22 agencies that make up the department.

The department spent $435 million with the purchase cards in the 2005 budget year, compared to $296 million in 2004, Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said Tuesday evening. But he said only a fraction of the expenses were improper, noting that the department has disciplined about 70 employees amid 1.1 million purchases.

“Comparatively, we’re talking about a small number of bad apples,” Knocke said.

Among the expenses that investigators described as abusive or otherwise questionable:

_More than 2,000 sets of dog booties, costing $68,442, that have sat unused in storage since emergency responders decided they were not suited for canines assisting in Gulf Coast recovery efforts.

_Three portable shower units for $71,170 from a contractor who investigators said overcharged the government. Customs and Border Protection agents could have gotten similar showers for nearly a third of the price — and faster.

_12 Apple iPod Nanos and 42 iPod Shuffles, worth $7,000, for Secret Service “training and data storage.” Because the Shuffles cost less than $300, the Secret Service said they were not required to track them to ensure they were used properly.

_37 black Helly Hansen designer rain jackets, costing nearly $2,500, for use in a firing range that the Customs and Border Protection purchaser later acknowledged shuts down when it’s raining.

_Conference and hotel rooms at a golf and tennis resort at St. Simons Island in Georgia, worth $2,395, for training 32 newly hired attorneys when they could have used a nearby federal law enforcement training center.

_A beer brewing kit and ingredients for more than $1,000 for a Coast Guard official to brew alcohol while on duty as a social organizer for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. “The estimated price for a six-pack of USCG beer was $12,” the investigators noted, adding: “Given that the six-pack cost of most beers is far less than $12, it is difficult to demonstrate that the Academy is achieving cost savings by brewing its own beer.”

Investigators also noted that Customs and Border Protection wasted up to $464,586 by buying meals-ready-to-eat over the Internet instead of contracting through the Pentagon, as is standard procedure. And they found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot locate 107 laptops, 22 printers and two GPS units worth $170,000. FEMA also cannot find 12 of 20 boats the agency bought for $208,000.

Knocke, the Homeland Security spokesman, said the department will begin enforcing new spending guidelines in the next several weeks that should eliminate much of the confusion and make sure buys are strictly supervised. Violators could have their cards taken away, be forced to repay expenses and face disciplinary action, he said. “We take very seriously our responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Knocke said.

The senators who ordered the investigation — Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. — described Homeland Security as negligent in preventing the shopaholics among its ranks. The two lead the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Homeland Security “left the door wide open for these abuses,” Collins said.

Added Lieberman: “That is hard to believe.”

FEMA hurricane cards bought jewelry, erotica
Federal audit finds $1 billion in potential fraud

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A $200 bottle of champagne from Hooters and $300 worth of “Girls Gone Wild” videos were among items bought with debit cards handed out by FEMA to help hurricane victims, auditors probing $1 billion in potential waste and fraud have found.

The cards — given to people displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — also bought diamond jewelry and a vacation in the Dominican Republic, according to the Government Accountability Office audit.

The GAO uncovered records showing that $1,000 from a FEMA debit card went to a Houston divorce lawyer; $600 was spent in a strip club and $400 was spent on “adult erotica products,” all of which auditors concluded were “not necessary to satisfy legitimate disaster needs.”

The GAO found that at least $1 billion in disaster relief payments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were improper and potentially fraudulent because the recipients provided incomplete or incorrect information when they registered for assistance.

The GAO said the scope of the problem may be even larger, because it only looked at the validity of registration information and not at other forms of potential fraud.

FEMA acknowledged its shortcomings late Tuesday.

Spokesman Aaron Walker said FEMA has “revamped the registration process” and has a contract with a company that will verify immediately the identity and address of anyone for assistance.

“We are confident in the system we have in place at this point,” Walker said. “We are prepared for the upcoming season.”

The GAO also found that FEMA provided housing assistance to people who were not displaced, including at least 1,000 prison inmates, and also provided rental assistance to people who were simultaneously living in free hotel rooms.

Results of the GAO’s audit will be presented Wednesday to an investigative panel of the House Homeland Security Committee. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The GAO also found that FEMA lost track of 750 debit cards, worth a total of $1.5 million.

After inquiries from the GAO, FEMA recovered about half of that money, which had not been distributed by JPMorgan Chase, the bank hired to run the program. But the agency still cannot account for 381 cards, worth about $760,000 total, which JPMorgan Chase says it distributed, according to the GAO.

GAO investigators estimated that 16 percent of FEMA’s disaster relief payments were made to people who submitted invalid registrations, to the tune of about $1 billion. Because the figures were calculated using a statistical sample, however, the agency said the amount could range from $600 million to as much as $1.4 billion.

Among other problems found with the registrations, according to the GAO study:

# People signed up for assistance using Social Security numbers that didn’t exist or belonged to other people.

# Aid applications contained bogus addresses for damaged property, or gave addresses for damaged property where the applicants did not live when the hurricanes struck. In one case, FEMA paid nearly $2,360 to a man whose allegedly damaged property was in a cemetery.

# Payments were made to people who listed post office boxes as their damaged residences.

# People submitted duplicate registrations, which FEMA did not detect.

# More than 1,000 registrations used the names and Social Security numbers of prison inmates. According to the GAO, in one instance, FEMA paid $20,000 to a Louisiana prisoner who listed a post office box as his damaged property.

As part of its audit, the GAO used an undercover registrant who submitted a vacant lot as a damaged address.

FEMA paid the registrant $6,000 and even made payments after being notified by one its own inspectors, as well as an inspector for the Small Business Administration, that the damaged property could not be found, the GAO investigators found.

The GAO concluded that the potentially fraudulent payments were made because FEMA did not validate registrants’ identities and the locations and ownership of purportedly damaged property.

While conceding that FEMA acted out of the need to provide assistance quickly, GAO investigators said the agency’s own policies required additional verification before continuing payments.

The GAO study also found FEMA improperly provided rental assistance to people who were staying in hotels paid for by FEMA because the agency did not require hotels to collect Social Security numbers and FEMA registration information.

Without that information, FEMA could not verify if people were staying in hotels when they applied for rental assistance.

And because that information doesn’t exist, GAO auditors said they could not determine how many people might have double-dipped — or how much it cost the government.

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

In his Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech the wonderful mayor of New Orleans likened the city to that of a chocolate city. Wow, here’s a quick guess at who won’t be mayor next term.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday apologized for urging residents to rebuild a “chocolate New Orleans” and saying, “You can’t have New Orleans no other way.”

“I’m really sorry that some people took that they way they did, and that was not my intention,” the mayor said. “I say everybody’s welcome.”

Nagin added that he never should have used the term “chocolate.”
Across the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged city, many voiced their displeasure with the mayor’s Monday remarks at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech. One Web site even began peddling T-shirts showing Nagin with a top hat along with the caption “Willy Nagin and the Chocolate Factory.”

Resident Alex Gerhold called Nagin’s remarks “stupid” and “pitiful.”

“He used the wrong dairy product to describe us. We’re more Neapolitan, not chocolate,” Gerhold said. “It doesn’t do the city any kind of justice.”

Aisha Johnson said she didn’t think the mayor’s comments were necessarily inflammatory, just out of line.

“He should have chosen his words more carefully,” she said.

But some residents, like Ann McKendrick, were angered.

“You can’t reunite a city if your comments are going to divide a city,” McKendrick said.

Nagin’s remarks fall into a line of inappropriate statements the mayor has made, said civil rights attorney Tracie Washington. She said she is “done trying to figure out what our mayor is going to say off the cuff on any given day.”

Well, looks like florida is getting some serious hurricane issues at this point.

Hurricane Wilma, with sustained winds of 125 mph, made landfall at 6:30 a.m. EDT today near Cape Romano, Fla. The hurricane, with sustained winds now at 110 mph, continues to rip northeastward over the southern Florida Peninsula. The rather large eye of the storm is expected to churn over the West Palm Beach area into the Atlantic Ocean during the 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. time frame. Winds have gusted over 100 mph in a number of locations across south Florida. A storm spotter on Cudjoe Key reported a gust to 123 mph, and gusts as high as 111 mph have battered greater Miami. Fort Lauderdale recently observed a peak wind of 99 mph. In addition to the damaging winds and heavy rain, a few tornadoes are likely as far north as the Orlando area.

Since Wilma is moving rapidly, rainfall amounts will not be excessive. The rain will be blinding at times, however, and general totals of 4 to 6 inches are expected, with isolated 8- to 12-inch amounts possible.

Alpha, meanwhile, has weakened to a tropical depression after making landfall in the Dominican Republic Sunday morning. It has pushed across Haiti and back over open water, but is not expected to regain tropical storm strength as it heads north over the southeastern Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands. The remains of Alpha will be absorbed by the larger circulation of Hurricane Wilma some time tomorrow.