New Orleans now secure - city attorney (wants businesses open in 7 days?)

[UpInArms]

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-09-09T163241Z_01_N09357862_RTRIDST_0_KATRINA-RECOVERY.XML

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 9 (Reuters) - New Orleans is fully secure and officials hope to restore power to the city's central business district within seven days, city attorney Sherry Landry said on Friday.

"The city is now fully secured. The city is now fully secured," Landry said at a news conference.

<snip>

She said while there was power in the central business district on Friday, it was not able to support all buildings.

"It is our goal to restore power to the CBD (central business district) and clear all streets of debris and glass withing the next seven days. After that we will establish a process for businesses to return to the city," Landry said.

...more at link...

Huh? Not letting people in, but opening businesses in 7 days? How's that supposed to work?

[knowbody0]

1. there are lots of customers

who have lots of cash, they are just not from NO

[SoCalDem]

2. So..all the 'businessmen' will be each other's customers?

:shrug:
the 'responders' don't seem to me to be in a very festive 'let's go shopping' mood

[KyndCulture]

3. I'm so damn confused...

so they take people out in shackles and cuffs at gunpoint to open businesses in 7 days...


OMG I just wanna fucking scream today.

[longship]

4. Business is open, but no people there.

What the fuck is wrong with these people?

Who in the Sam Hell is going to work in those businesses? Are they going to commute from the fucking Astrodome? Oh, that's right, those people can't commute because they are locked in. Anyway, they don't want to leave because they have it so damned good there (Babs).

Who in the Sam Hell is going to patronize those businesses? Maybe FEMA will be bussing in customers.

Or, just maybe the whole thing is a sham, a public relations ploy. Ahhh! That's the truth behind it.

[ugarte]

5. Only tourists allowed??...nt

[bloom]

6. It does sound like - the city is open for rich people...

"The mostly African-American neighborhoods of New Orleans are largely underwater, and the people who lived there have scattered across the country. But in many of the predominantly white and more affluent areas, streets are dry and passable. Gracious homes are mostly intact and powered by generators. Wednesday, officials reiterated that all residents must leave New Orleans, but it's still unclear how far they will go to enforce the order.

The green expanse of Audubon Park, in the city's Uptown area, has doubled in recent days as a heliport for the city's rich -- and a terminus for the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the homes there safe and habitable. Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening. By Wednesday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05251/567892.stm

--

At the same time poor people are having their guns stripped and are getting hauled out whether they like it or not.

[pushycat]

7. CBD area open for what?

Restoring power is easy compared to disinfecting the entire city of all the toxic waste. Who would come there for business until they know they won't get e coli or that cholera-like disease? Where would business get clean water or what kind of sanitation would they have?

We should be hearing about a PLAN, an orderly design for the return of civilization, one that is SAFE and CLEAN for people to return to. Remember how NY residents were told the air was OK to breathe right after 911?

[kestrel91316]

17. If all the surfaces are dry, people would have to rub their hands

all over things like walls, floors, streets, etc and then stick their dirty hands in their mouths to get sick. Even then it would be unlikely. Handwashing with soap and water really does go a LONG WAY toward preventing the spread of infectious diseases, silly. Bacteria spread by water are not going to survive on dry surfaces exposed to the air.

(have a degree in microbiology)

[Robert Oak]

8. something very bizarre

why force people out from areas untouched, "french quarter and garden district" yet they are literally opening businesses?

[0rganism]

9. ghost-town economics

Who knows, could be a tourist boom waiting to happen...

[Javaman]

10. wonderful, now if they can only get their employees back....

since most of them were sent all over the nation.

Funny how they evac everyone out yet, the businesses will be open soon.

screw the people, make the money!

colossal failure*.

[The Stranger]

11. Get things going again before this Criminal Administration occupies it.

[neuvocat]

12. Let's see...6 months to bail out...

and another hurricane out there on the loose...yeah, 7 days is plenty of time.

:sarcasm:

[TX-RAT]

13. City attorney? now thats funny.

[Eugene]

14. Probably "essential" businesses like banks,

corporate HQ's, data centers, etc. will open first
in a limited or disaster recovery mode.
It sounds like the first step of a gradual
recovery plan.

[Tesibria]

15. Wait - a phrase got missed here ...

"It is our goal to restore power to the CBD (central business district) and clear all streets of debris and glass within the next seven days. After that we will establish a process for businesses to return to the city," Landry said.

I.e., AFTER the next seven days, NOLA will establish a PROCESS for businesses to return to the city ...

[Zynx]

16. They don't want all the businesss to leave

[dsc]

18. It doesn't say businesses will open in 7 days

but that process to open them will be established in 7 days. The process might take weeks to actually impliment.

[bushisanidiot]

19. "Businesses"? what are they going to sell? E-Coli cocktails?

or are they talking about mortuary businesses?