Got this email, What they MSM aren't reporting.

[ChowChowChow]

This email will make you weep. Of course the MSM are not reporting ANY of this news...This is a first hand account of a meeting.....May Bush ROT!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Hi everyone! Well, **** went to a town meeting in Baton Rouge to find out the state of our town. The news, as we expected, was not good. It seems as though my street was the worst effected area. Lucky us! Let's not even mention the water damage and the wind damage, now our big problem is the oil spill. There is some type of toxin called Benzine or something like it that has contaminated all of the houses on my block all the way down to***** parent's house (about 15 blocks away.) We may never be able to physically see or step into our house or onto our property ever again. They are saying that until the EPA tests the toxins which could take 4 months we are not allowed back in. They are also telling us that we may never be able to go back in and that our houses may have to be bulldozed and the land cannot be rebuilt on for 20 years. IF we are able to go back to look, it would only be for a look. We are not allowed to try to salvage anything because it is all so badly contaminated. Lovely, eh? Our town has been declared an official disaster area (I've always wanted to be on the cover of PEOPLE magazine!!!).

On a happy note, we were able to get out with both cars and all of our valuables that would fit into the two cars. Tony has found a house for us way away from any levees, flood zones, and the river. Yeah! What's sad is that my house wasn't even 5 years old and it was on the highest ground in all of St. Bernard. The officials at the meeting said the storm surge was so high that it went over the levees and filled up St. Bernard within 15 minutes. Our Senator and parish president and all of the government officials were crying as they were telling us this information. Yet they are still urging us all to come back and rebuild. But wait, it gets better....for those people able to rebuild (we are not one of them) they cannot even begin the process of rebuilding until.....NEXT JULY!!! Yes, isn't that wonderful. So, this is the storm that wiped my little town off the map. Good riddance!!

We are all doing okay. This news was inevitable. I think Tony's parents are finally out of La-La land and are beginning to realize that it's time to move on. I think hearing these awful realities at the meeting help to facilitate the closure process. However, I don't think any of us will ever really have closure until we can see our houses one last time.

I, for one, am ready to move on. I do not want to go back to St. Bernard unless I can have my old house back and my beautiful little neighborhood back. I know that will never be so we are ready to start a new life elsewhere. Wish me luck and please keep my family in your prayers.

[maddezmom]

1. here's a link in LBN

St. Bernard Parish residents crowd Capitol for town meeting
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL091205stbern.4fc1...
06:37 PM CDT on Monday, September 12, 2005

Associated Press

Thousands of St. Bernard Parish residents who journeyed to the state Capitol, desperate for information about their homes, received only grim news Monday: Every part of the parish was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. Some homes were coated with oil from a nearby refinery. And one official estimated no one would live in the parish until at least summertime.
<snip>
For homes that may have been repairable after the waters receded, an oil spill at Murphy Oil in Meraux may have made them uninhabitable, officials warned.
<snip>
Bodies of the dead still were being collected Monday. Sheriff Jack Stephens said the parish death toll stood at 56 but officials knew of at least 10 more locations where they needed to recover bodies. He said the highest risk areas, where water covered the roofs of houses, hadn't been searched yet.

Boasso said 30,000 homes were completely lost and he's heard estimates that it would take at least four months to clean up the parish that is home to 68,000 residents.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1775390

[Watchmaker]

2. Is the following credible?

There are certainly lots of reports that can be found of specific body counts much higher than the official counts. I suppose these could all be mistaken or exaggerated. Read them for yourself and decide.
http://www.amipatriotic.com/node/1037
Broussard: I know what the body count is so far, but I won't horrify the nation

http://www.moberlymonitor.com/articles/2005/09/06/news/news1.txt
Davis said Gator has been busy rescuing as many people as he can; when she spoke to him last, he had taken over 50 people into his home to give them food and shelter. He has pulled almost that many dead bodies out of the water and taken them to I-90, where he told Davis there were about 800 corpses lined up along the road for rescue workers to retrieve.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7000069092
But those numbers are considered low by law enforcement and medical rescue squads. One law enforcement officer estimates it is more likely to be between 600 and 800 Bay St.Louis alone. The residents are “in for a shock,” he tells the Washington Post.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1473894/posts?page=2690

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/12575557.htm
With the search-team's tales of horrendous findings and the official death toll not matching up, rumors in this disconnected part of the world seem to be spiraling out of control.

A Florida EMA official, brought in to handle media in Hancock, told the Sun Herald the county would not release "any more numbers" until the coroners complete their collecting process.

Several armed guards stand near the front gate of the old Alcan Cable site in Bay St. Louis, where five, 53-foot, refrigerated tractor-trailers sit behind a chain-linked fence.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1480391/posts?q=1&&page=101#114

a dear friend (who is a doc in Biloxi/Gulf Port)finally called me to let me know that he was alive, said that they had found (I believe it was this morning)a shelter about 1/4 from the beach that housed 800. All 800 were found to have drown. Sad, Sad, Sad. I was relieved to hear his voice, but feel bad for what he has seen. He happened to be in the ER when the hurricane hit. All at the hospital were saved,PTL. He did, however, loose his home and all earthly possessions. He said the AFB is obliterated.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476540/posts?q=1&&page=51#70
The death toll in Miss is in the thousands. I have now spoken to at-least 4 people who have worked down there during recovery.If you did the math between the 4 of them you would be over 1,500 alone as far as tagging bodies is concerned.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1473894/posts?page=2690#2674
My wife works part-time for an answering company. One of their clients is a funeral home up here in Upstate New York has a couple of its employees down in Biloxi as volunteers. Anyways, one of the employees called in from Biloxi - via the answering service - to let their employer know of their status. She said that they were "processing 300+ bodies per day" in Biloxi alone...

[ovidsen]

6. Not credible.

The freeper reports are old. One is dated 9/4 (9 days ago). It's kind of difficult to hide the existence of hundreds of bodies stacked up along interstates or inside medical buildings, and ultimately, why bother, since they can't be hidden forever.

One death from Katrina is one too many, and an accurate count is one way to measure the toll of this disaster and the (lack of) government response. But it's counterproductive to spread old, unsubstantiated rumors about imaginary fatalities.

[Flubadubya]

3. Benzene is a horrible carcinogen...

It can cause bladder cancer and a host of others. The town really is ruined if that is the principal contaminant. :cry:

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Oh that truly sucks

but let's build more refineries around where people live, instead of legalizing hemp and implementing the New Apollo Project.

[patrice]

8. Hemp is good food.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. And good biofuel

cloth and paper.

Why would a christian want to prohibit the use of one of the gods greatest gifts?

[patrice]

14. More of "God's" love for his creations.

It's also a nitrogen binder in soil - fertilizer.

[patrice]

15. Why should Canada make all of the money on it??

[leveymg]

5. Was in Meraux - North Bank of Mississippi River in St Bernard Parish

along Rt. 46 - between Chalmette and Myrtle Grove.

Wonder if that was the same discharge we saw a week and a a half ago ago in some overhead photos? There were ominous murmurs about that.

[all.of.me]

7. reminiscent of love canal

[KharmaTrain]

9. Future Flood Plain

I hope this family is able to find out where that leak occured and is compenstated by those people for the value of their property prior to 8/29/05.

That said, her home is in St. Bernard...an area that was mostly flood plain until recent years when it became that quaint little suburbia this person writes about.

If NOLA is to prevent this type of disaster from happening again, the need to build up the wetlands and restore the flood plains in the area is critical. Sorry these folks didn't realize they lived at the business end of the Misssissippi.

I'm suspecting the corporate media won't go near this story unless people are found dead or some strange illness erupts.

[cdsilv]

11. ...Benzene is basically just gasoline....

... I'm not sure of the octane, but we used to use it in the process of making nylon. (I used to work for a nylon manufacturer...)

And yes, gasoline is a carcinogen (read the stickers about breathing gas fumes on the pumps next time you fill up..)

[KharmaTrain]

12. I Saw A Lot Of Crude In That Area

I had read of several refinery breaks...most in that area...and that the flood waters were loaded with oil and other chemcials. Surely benzene is in there, but who knows what else could have seeped into the eco-system and to what extent.

Sadly, the EPA...which is worthless...will come in and do a whitewash of this situation.

[northzax]

13. sad, but is anyone really suprised?

Louisiana has spent 30 years attracting the highest polluting industries with the gift of basically non-existant environmental regulations. It is the state with the highest levels of industrial pollution in the US. It already had one of the highest environmetnal toxicity rates. Now all those dirty factories (they don't call it Tosxic Alley for nothing) are leaking into the groundwater all over the flooded area. This is why NoLa is dead, not the water but the toxins in the water. Basically the southern third of Louisiana is a Superfund site.