Entergy re-entering New Orleans with Nat'l Guard

[Career Prole]

NEW YORK, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Utility operator Entergy Corp. will re-enter New Orleans on Sunday with National Guard escorts to begin assessing damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent floods, the company said.

The company also confirmed that it had partially restored electricity to the crucial Louisiana Offshore Oil Port late on Friday, letting LOOP operate at 75 percent capacity. The company said it would install a generator at a second facility, bringing it back on by late next week and restoring the LOOP to full capacity.

In a statement late Saturday night, the company said its crews would return to the city first-thing on Sunday morning, though it said for security reasons it could not say precisely where the crews would be working.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04617094.htm

If the greedy bastards can stomach walking on floating corpses to get to their goddamned oil, that's one thing...
...but to tie up much-needed National Guard resources to "protect" them from whatever paranoid fantasies they're entertaining is unconscionable!
Who allocated National Guard resources to "protect" Entergy?!
Who?! And why, for God's sake?!
:grr: :grr: :grr:

[mcscajun]

1. Remember, the Entergy workers are just that...workers.

They're not the Greedy Bastards. The greedy bastards won't set foot in N.O. until everything is neat and tidy again.

Nothing wrong with working stiffs having some protection while they restore vital services.

[Career Prole]

3. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port doesn't strike me as vital...

...although I'm sure oilmen and stockbrokers would widely disagree with me on that.
The rescue operation is still ongoing, and IMO the NG can better serve humanity toward that end than by riding shotgun for guys turning the oil flow back on.
I know they're only workers, MsCajun, but they didn't decide to do this on their own.
Someone ordered them in, and someone else ordered the National Guard to pull guys away from the rescue effort to protect the oil workers.
Those "someones" are the greedy bastards I was referring to.

It took nearly a week to get the Guard in and two days later they're being diverted to oil flow? That's crap!

"The company also confirmed that it had partially restored electricity to the crucial Louisiana Offshore Oil Port late on Friday, letting LOOP operate at 75 percent capacity. The company said it would install a generator at a second facility, bringing it back on by late next week and restoring the LOOP to full capacity."

[stepnw1f]

2. Guilty Conscience=Paranoid Fantasies

I guess these folks do have the ability to empathize the people's hatred towards them.

[applegrove]

4. Did Hydro Quebec get turned back too? You know Hydro Quebec -

those electricity generating and distributing people who maintain lines in a network that spans an area 6 times the size of Louisiana? The half of Quebec that Hydro Quebec runs a network of wires throughout is 594 856 Square miles big. Louisiana is 51 843 square miles.

If I don't see Hydro workers used before contractors I will scream? Cause I'm sure their time is a freebie at this point...and free to the U.S.A is more cost effective than hiring private contractors. So there is no justification if they are stopped like all the other donations of time & expertise.

[sandnsea]

5. Where's the oil in New Orleans?

That's where they'll be working, obviously. Sorry guys, it's no secret.

[wli]

6. busy cutting phone, power and water lines?

Maybe they want the NG there to gun down NOLA cops defending phone, power, and water lines.

[magellan]

7. It's safe enough for utility workers w/NG escorts but not rescuers???

See this thread, "Would-be rescuers cool their heels":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1756013

The 83 members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Urban Search and Rescue team from Orange County, Calif., have been told to stay downtown at the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion.

The reason for the extended holdover? Team members were told that conditions were too chaotic in New Orleans, which has been plagued by violence and reports of gunfire aimed at rescuers, and the National Guard needed more time to restore order. In addition, problems getting supplies to the rescue crews already there, as well as victims, had not been worked out.

So electricity is more important than people. WTF IS THIS INSANITY?!?!?!?