Hurricane Katrina has frozen New Orleans to a standstill. At first, it was suspected Katrina was an accident but it became clear later that this is a terror act.
Planet Earth has been identified as the mastermind of the dastardly attack. Words have it that al-Qaeda is working with the planet. Through satellite imaging, CIA has been able to prove that al-Qaeda is supplying planet Earth with the lost Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. However, skeptical foreign officials at the United Nations have expressed doubt. Fox News insists that these foreign officials know nothing.
An unidentified White House official informs the __earthinc that President Bush will be seeking the Senate’s blessing to declare war against the planet within the next 24 hours. Furthermore, unnamed source from the Pentagon hints that the name of the operation is Operation Earthling Freedom.
Across the Atlantic and the Pacific, Tony Blair and John Howard have expressed their willingness to join up and rid the world of planet Earth. Several others like Fiji, Malawi, Latvia and Maldives have promised supports.
p/s – Louisanans would probably want to thank President Bush for the New Orleans flooding.
New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.
Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security — coming at the same time as federal tax cuts — was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.
With increasing global temperature mean, some predicts there will be more monster hurricanes on the way. Well, actually, most climate models predict the same thing. So, is the ever increasing storms strength caused by climate change? I don’t know but last year was bad. This year is worse. Next year?
Pity the insurance industry. Estimated loss tops USD25 billion. Incidently, Jeremy Leggett in his book The Carbon War says climate change will affect the insurance industry
