Closet

2008-11-07T23:02:00.012-05:00

Johnny Cash and Carters -Were You There When They Crucufied My Lord

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmBqIlXUo2A

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Johnny Cash - How Great Thou Art

pics appalachia

2008-10-27T14:03:00.014-05:00

These 6 posts are materials from which to select for post on the damnable mountain killers.

Destroying Mountains - Mountain Removal Mining

2008-10-26T00:51:00.010-04:00

Bingham Canyon mine - Utah - what they've done to the mountain top.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_mining#Strip_mining

excerpts:

Open-pit mining

Main article: Open-pit mining

Open-pit mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow. Although open-pit mining is sometimes mistakenly referred to as "strip mining", the two methods are different .

Mountaintop removal

Main article: Mountaintop removal mining

Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) is a relatively new form of coal mining that involves the mass restructuring of earth in order to reach the coal seam as deep as 1,000 feet below the surface. It is used where a coal seam outcrops all the way around a mountain top. All the rock and soil above the coal seam are removed and the soil placed in adjacent lows such as hollows or ravines. Mountaintop removal replaces previously steep topography with a relatively level surface.

The technique has been used increasingly in recent years in the Appalachian coal fields of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee in the United States. The profound changes in topography and disturbance of pre-existing ecosystems have made mountaintop removal highly controversial.

Advocates of mountaintop removal point out that once the areas are reclaimed as mandated by law, the technique provides premium flat land suitable for many uses in a region where flat land is at a premium. They also maintain that the new growth on reclaimed mountaintop mined areas is better able to support populations of game animals.^[1]

Critics contend that mountaintop removal is a disastrous practice that benefits a small number of corporations at the expense of local communities and the environment. A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency environmental impact statement finds that streams near valley fills from mountaintop removal contain high levels of minerals in the water and decreased aquatic biodiversity.^[2] The statement also estimates that 724 miles of Appalachian streams were buried by valley fills from 1985 to 2001.^[2]

In common with other methods of coal mining, processing the coal mined by mountaintop removal generates waste slurry (also called coal sludge), which is usually stored behind a dam on-site. Many coal slurry impoundments in West Virginia exceed 500 million gallons in volume, and some, including the Brushy Fork impoundment in Raleigh County, exceed 7 billion gallons.^[3] Such impoundments can be hundreds of feet high and be in close proximity to schools or private residences.^[4] The most controversial sludge dam at present sits 400 yards above Marsh Fork Elementary School. The sludge pond is permitted to hold 2.8 billion gallons of toxic sludge, and is 21 times larger than the pond which killed 125 people in the Buffalo Creek Flood.^[5]

Kentucky's Martin County Sludge Spill occurred after midnight on October 11, 2000 when a coal sludge impoundment broke through into an underground mine below, propelling 306 million gallons of sludge down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River. The spill polluted hundreds of miles of waterways, contaminated the water supply for over 27,000 residents, and killed all aquatic life in Coldwater Fork and Wolf Creek.

Blasting at a mountaintop removal mine expels coal dust and fly-rock into the air, which can then disturb or settle onto private property nearby. This dust contains sulfur compounds, which corrodes structures and tombstones and is a health hazard.^[6]

Although MTR sites are usually reclaimed after mining is complete, reclamation has traditionally focused on stabilizing rock and controlling erosion, but not reforesting the area with trees.^[7] Quick-growing, non-native grasses, planted to quickly provide vegetation on a site, compete with tree seedlings, and trees have difficulty establishing root systems in compacted backfill.^[2] Consequently, biodiversity suffers in a region of the United States with numerous endemic species.^[8] Erosion also increases, which can intensify flooding. In the Eastern United States, the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative works to promote the use of trees in mining reclamation.^[9]

Environmental and health issues

The large impact of surface mining on the topography, vegetation, and water resources has made it highly controversial.

Surface mining is subject to state and federal reclamation requirements, but adequacy of the requirements is a constant source of contention. Unless reclaimed, surface mining can leave behind large areas of infertile waste rock (i.e. it generates 75% of industrial waste in Spain).^{[citation needed]}

In the United States, the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 mandates reclamation of surface coal mines. Reclamation for non-coal mines, is regulated by state and local laws, which may vary widely.

Human health

Surface mining creates problems for the human health: gases, dust in suspension, noises and vibrations from the machines and explosions, that can create lung or nervous diseases.^{[citation needed]}

How Great Thou Art - video

2008-10-26T00:38:00.008-04:00

It doesn't matter if you are an agnostic or athiest or a devout true believer. It doesn't matter if you believe all the incredible diversity, beauty and magnificence of our world came about as a series of accidents, was the work of Intelligent Design, or of the Power of the Universe. It doesn't matter; all that matters is that it IS, it exists, and is the most perfect and wonderful home for humanity and life. The song is apt.

Personally I believe there is a Higher Power. Science proves that there is power in the universe beyond our comprehension. I find it hard to believe that such power employs its time meddling in the minutiae of Mankind's lives. Do I believe in Faith and the power of prayer? Yes, I do, although perhaps a bit outside what I was taught in church. Do I believe that Jesus was the Messiah or just a wise teacher who tried to teach people how to live in peace and harmony in a civilized manner? I darn sure don't believe in the distortions of the man and his teachings as preached by the Jesus Freaks and the Fundies. Do I believe in an afterlife? I darn well hope so!

And if there is indeed an afterlife, a Heaven, I will fall on my knees and give thanks for the magnificent home planet we were given, and fall on my face begging forgiveness for the way we humans destroyed it. And furthermore, beg if there is any justice in the universe at all, for the Power to zap the crap out of all the greedy destroyers!!

Johnny Cash - How Great Thou Art

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2008-10-26T00:20:00.004-04:00

http://www.ilovemountains.org/multimedia

Extra vids to choose from - storage

2008-10-25T23:45:00.009-04:00

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Global Warming & The Future of Coal - Making Clean Energy

01:18

03:45 Energy from Coal

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See all 40 videos

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Strip Mining JobThat I Used To Work At In Hazard ,Kentucky

This is the job I used to work at a couple of years back in the hills of Southeastern Kentucky. ... Coal Mining ...

Added:9 months ago

From:KYSmokeFans

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BBC: Dark Matter Mining - Most of Our Universe is Missing

Can scientists identify dark matter by mining deep into the Earth's core? Watch this great clip from BBC science show ... (more)

Added:2 months ago

From:BBCWorldwide

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Mine Truck

Century Mine Trip 2006 ... Mine Truck ...

Added:1 year ago

From:pphillip65

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Strip Mining

Just a Explosion and a song and some equipment working at the coal mining company I work for ... Explosion Coal Music ...

Added:1 year ago

From:deronic4774

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RIPADO D-11

Ripado prMountaintop Removal Movie from iLoveMountains.org

More than 450 mountains have been destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining. Watch this video of mountaintop removal ... (more)

Added:2 years ago

From:AppalachianV...

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Mountain Justice Summer Is On

REGISTER: www.mountainjusticesummer.org/intake.php PAYPAL: DonateToTheMountains@gmail.com MOUNTAIN JUSTICE SUMMER MAY 20 ... REGISTER: www.mountainjusticesummer.org/intake.php PAYPAL: DonateToTheMountains@gmail.com MOUNTAIN JUSTICE SUMMER MAY 20-28 2007 THE MOUNTAINS STRIKE BACK! You are cordially invited to the Mountain Justice Summer 2007 (mountainjusticesummer.org) at the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center (http://www.narrowridge.org/) in Tennessee. Greedy soul-less corporations are blowing up highland watersheds in order to rip coal from the earth. We are the people fighting to stop them, and we need your help! REGISTER: www.mountainjusticesummer.org/intake.php PAYPAL: DonateToTheMountains@gmail.com MOUNTAIN JUSTICE SUMMER MAY 20-28 2007 THE MOUNTAINS STRIKE BACK! You are cordially invited to the Mountain Justice Summer 2007 (mountainjusticesummer.org) at the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center (http://www.narrowridge.org/) in Tennessee. Greedy soul-less corporations are blowing up highland watersheds in order to rip coal from the earth. We are the people fighting to stop them, and we need your help! Mountains and highland watersheds are still being blown apart for short term profit. As the general assemblies of Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia play a game of "its better than it used to be" countless acres of Appalachian forest are being clear-cut, blown apart and dragged off. The mining is WORSE than it has ever been and we need your help to wake everyone up as to this fact. All four states in the MJS network need you to fight strip mining this summer. We need people to do water testing, lobbying, demonstrating, painting, drawing, writing and in general helping us to resist strip mining. WHAT IS THE MJS TRAINING CAMP? The MJS camp is the time that folks from the states fighting get together to train. This year's camps emphasis will be field training. Volunteers will get both field and class room training in water testing, oral history recording, strip mine documentation, map reading, guerilla theatre, Appalachian cultural sensitivity, demonstrations, and other skills that MJS volunteers will using this summer. PLEASE REGISTER TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CAMP! This part MJS III is really serious about. We have to know how much food, space, transport, water we have to provide for in advance of the camp. Goto our website and follow the links to register. Let us know if you're thinking about coming. It's disturbing to find you someone goes into show when they get stung in the field. We really really need to know about allergies, if you're diabetic, etc. The camp is a field camp and though we can accommodate folks on field work we really would prefer to know that yellow jacket stings put you into anaphylactic shock BEFORE you go out on one of the field trips. Please call or email mountainjusticesummer.org prepared to provide two people who will vouch for you we can call. PLEASE COME PREPARED TO CARE FOR YOURSELF The Appalachian counties which have been impoverished by the "benefits" of king coal (and clear cut logging) are as a direct consequence poor. As a result many of the organizations fighting strip mining in the Appalachians are poor. Come prepared to be self sufficient and to camp for a week. The land has fields and is by a lake so you can swim. But in general if you come to help us for a summer please do your own dishes and come prepared. In short, autonomy. WHAT WE NEED: You. Cameras (both still and video), GPS units, CB radios, Tarps, food for an army, Compasses, cars and trucks (see above), gas, gas cards, houses where people can stay, people who live in these states to get involved. If you live near any of the areas where strip mines are active Houses. trailers and barns where people can stay. WHAT NOT TO BRING: Dawgs, no dogs please! Please if there is anyway you can avoid it do not bring your dogs. Drugs. Do not bring or transport drugs to any of our MJS events. Police occasionally set up checkpoints in some coal communities as a harassment tactic. Additionally no one under the influence of anything should be driving where there are coal trucks. The coal drivers have enough speed and drugs in their own systems to more than make up for what you might lack. Drama. Too few people are doing too much work in the campaign to stop the geologic annihilation of one of most ancient mountains and watersheds on Earth. For many organizations fighting strip mining a day of drama can lose a mountaintop. Mutual aid presupposes mutual respect. That's it. Come prepared to have fun and train hard. The camp is a tool we have developed to fight back against the strip mine companies and the damage they are doing to our earth. Give a summer for watersheds! MOUNTAINJUSTICESUMMER.ORG mountainjusticesummer@yahoo.com (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:tbensko

Added

Look What They've Done

Maria's Back Yard. An outing with Maria Gunnoe in Bob White, West Virginia, provides a snapshot of the Mountaintop ... (more)

Added:11 months ago

From:PatchWorkFilms

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Video from Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards

Video produced by residents of Wise County, Virginia, who are suffering from the devastating impacts of mountaintop ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:AppalachianV...

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Mountaintop Removal Video (intro)

This is a 2-minute abbreviated version of a mountaintop removal video featured on ilovemountains.org. The video features ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:AppalachianV...

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Hal Turner Shows New AMERO Currency

New currency being secretly minted at Denver Mint, to replace US Dollar, Canadian Dollar and Mexican Peso. ... AMERO Hal ...

Added:3 weeks ago

From:HalTurnerShow2

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Coal-to-Liquids conference, protest in West Virginia

This video includes footage from an Aug. 15, 2007, conference on coal-to-liquids technology. The conference was at Glade ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:WVPublicBroa...

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McRoberts Residents Speak Out

McRoberts, KY, residents speak out about mountaintop removal coal mining. This video was produced by Appalshop and was ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:AppalachianV...

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Monongah 1907 Mine Disaster

This short clip is from Davitt McAteer's 1985 25-minutes video - Monongah 1907. The entire video, rich with detail about ... (more)

Added:9 months ago

From:markdcatlin

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Big Coal

collateral looks into the horror that is mountain top removal. Large coal industries are destroying the environment ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:collateralnews

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Mountain Top Mining

They're ripping the tops off mountains in West Virginia coal country to feed our insatiable appetite for power. It's ... (more)

Added:8 months ago

From:redison59

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UMD video 1 2006

Aerial video of Jeb Mtn. Coal Mines and Mountain Top Removal. ... Aerial Coal Mines Crimes criminal damn illegal ...

Added:2 years ago

From:c41e3

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Moving Mountains- Part 1

This short film captures some of the issues involved with Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in the Appalachian Mountains ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:Virginia4t

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Kathy Mattea speaks out against Mtn-top Removal Coal Mining

July 10th, 2007 - Charleston, WV On the steps of the State Capitol during a driving thunderstorm... West Virginia native ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:AppalachianV...

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Coal Mining Mine Explosion Safety Film for Miners (1926)

This silent film from 1926 lists 12 safety rules for coal miners and shows examples of these rules being followed in ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:QualityInfor...

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West Virginia Coal Miner

West Virginia Coal Miners represent a unique heritage. They have endured tough times and tougher conditions to put food ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:samplesbenjamin

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CSX Coal Train at Mifflin, Logan County West Virginia

The Mid afternoon train is at mifflin, in logan county, west virginia. It is headed to the mountain laural coal mines ...

Added:1 year ago

From:johnpc24

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West Virginia No. 1, Penn State No. 6 On Party Schools List

To the disappointment of school administrators -- and the pride of some students -- West Virginia University is No. 1 on ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:wtaetv

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Coal Mine St. Charles, VA

Photo Trip to St. Charles, VA coal mine !express# !metadata#!version#v1.0.r291!/version#!format#1.001!/format#!totalTime ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:njc10011

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Appalachian Voices Mountaintop Removal

Explore mountaintop removal coal mining in the Appalachian Mountains of the US. Take a geographical trip to the ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:EarthOutreach

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October Sky Festival - DanTraveling Travel Coalwood, West Virginia

October Sky Festival This weekend More Details Here http://www.coalwoodwestvirginia.com/october_sky_festival.htm Listen ... (more)

Added:1 year ago

From:dmccoig

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Mountain Top Removal- Kayford Mountain, West Virginia

Big Coal is destroying the hardwood forest and topsoil that covers the coal they covet, 750 feet deep on Kayford Mountain ... (more)

Added:11 months ago

From:tektonivideo

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Thunder on the Mountain, MountainTop removal

Video shots of Mountain top Removal. Bob Dylan's Thunder on the Mountain. ... Dominion Power Pollution St. Paul Wise ...

Added:9 months ago

From:MountainLorax

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Coal mine

Big Coal Bed Mining Explosion ... Mining coal explosion ...

Added:1 year ago

From:quex69

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in the air tonight Crandall Coal Mine

Dedicated to the men who lost their lives in the collapse of Crandall Coal Mine in Utah. ... Phil Collins air tonight ...

Added:1 year ago

From:I12SaveTheWo...

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Mountaintop Removal in Kentucky

The Destruction of the Appalachian Mountains due to Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining ... Mountaintop Removal Coal mining ...

Added:9 months ago

From:mountainjustice

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Lackawanna Coal Mine tour

A visit to the Lackawanna Coal Mine tour at McDade Park in Scranton, PA on May 17th, 2008. The tour was the first of ... (more)

Added:5 months ago

From:snapolson

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West Virginia, My Home by Grassahol

Central Ohio bluegrass band, Grassahol performs Hazel Dickens' song, West Virginia. Performed on the radio show D28+5 on ... (more)

Added:10 months ago

From:q1com

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Under Ground Coal Mine - contineous Miner

http://coalgeology.com Check out the under ground coal mine in West Virginia, Pocahontas 3 seam. The seam is a thick and ... (more)

Added:10 months ago

From:bankans

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Coal Mining part 4of4

A brief description of coal mining in the 1970's ... coal mining mine pit shaft shafts cutter shearer loader ventilation ...

Added:11 months ago

From:millimhoho

Added

The Diamond Mines [A Week in West Africa - 6 of 9]

In one life-changing week in Liberia and Sierra Leone International Rescue Committee donors Jennifer and Peter Buffett ... (more)

Added:8 months ago

From:theirc

Mountain Removal Mining

2008-10-25T22:24:00.020-04:00

Mining in the Old West

Open Pit or Mountain Removal Mining is an easier and more economical method to extract coal, minerals and ores from the earth instead of burrowing mine shafts to reach the deposits. Mining companies thus make greater profits, and profits are the name of the greed game.

In Mountain Removal Mining, the companies literally decapitate the mountains such as these beautiful, scenic mountains below. To hell with the destroyed mountain and with future generations of inhabitants. The mountains can never regain their height, splendor, and in many instances, their vegetation. Majestic trees and wildlife are sacrificed due to the destruction and the poisoning of the earth.

Click on all photos for enlargements (except book cover):

Waste is dumped into or spilled into the valleys and streams, poisoning the waters with the pollutants, killing all aquatic life and rendering the waters unfit for humans. Exquisite streams like the one below are ruined for generations if not forever.

Photos of Mountain Removal Mines and devastated mountain tops. Another evil perpetrated upon this fragile earth in the name of profits and greed.

Videos: Strip Mining Coal in Nova Scotia. Bauxite Mining in Jamaica. It doesn't matter where on earth this desecration occurs, it is just as destructive and evil.

Bauxite Mining in Jamaica

They Stayed - They Died/update;live in tents

2008-10-04T21:37:00.010-04:00

Ike's missing

400 still missing two weeks later

Database: Search people not seen since Hurricane Ike

Search for people not seen since the storm

Search advances on Bolivar

Hundreds still missing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081004/ap_on_re_us/ike_lives_lost

News Video

Rebuilding Galveston's economy after Ike

AFP

» All news video

AP Photo: Donna Hanson pauses to look at an item recovered among the debris left where her...

Slideshow: Hurricane Ike

Islanders who insisted on staying died in Ike

By MONICA RHOR, Associated Press Writer Sat Oct 4, 1:58 PM ET

GALVESTON, Texas - The final hours brought the awful realization to victims of Hurricane Ike that they had waited too long. This storm wasn't like the others, the ones that left nothing worse than a harrowing tale to tell.

George Helmond, a hardy Galveston salt, watched the water rise and told a buddy: I was born on this island and I'll die on this island.

Gail Ettenger, a free spirit who adopted the Bolivar Peninsula as her home 15 years ago, told a friend in a last phone call: I really messed up this time.

Within hours, the old salt and the free spirit were gone as the powerful Category 2 hurricane wracked the Texas Gulf Coast on Sept. 13, flattening houses, obliterating entire towns and claiming at least 33 lives.

The dead — as young as 4, as old as 79 — included lifelong Galvestonians firmly rooted on the island and transplants drawn by the quiet of coastal living.

Seven people drowned in a storm surge that moved in earlier and with more ferocity than expected. Nine others died in the grimy, sweaty aftermath, when lack of power and medicine exacted its toll. Eleven people were poisoned by carbon monoxide or killed in fires from the generators they used in their own attempts to survive.

Hundreds of people remain missing three weeks after Ike's assault on Texas. Local and city officials are no longer keeping their own count of missing residents, and the estimate varies wildly from one agency to another.

According to the nonprofit Laura Recovery Center, about 300 people are missing. Of those, about 200 from Galveston. However, the number "goes up and down by the minute" as people call in to remove or add names, cautioned executive director Bob Walcutt.

Some vanished during the evacuation of towns in the storm's path. Many were last heard in desperate, last-ditch calls for help.

Immediately after the hurricane, Galveston officials conducted door-to-door searches for survivors and possible victims. But the city is no longer taking an active role in the search, city spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said.

Instead, search teams of sheriff's deputies, volunteer firefighters and special K-9 search and recovery units have been using airboats and all-terrain vehicles to sift through debris fields, tangled and fetid marshlands, and the rubble left behind by Ike.

Bodies could have been tossed anywhere in the marshes, where thickets of trees are littered with the contents of houses. Refrigerators, office chairs, and television sets are scattered everywhere __ in the mud, in bushes, on treetops.

"We are definitely looking and are going to do anything we can to find them, but there may not be any answers to be given," said Galveston County emergency management spokesman Colin Rizzo. "There are definitely going to be people from Hurricane Ike that are never found."

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Gail Ettenger stumbled upon her house in Gilchrist by accident. But once she saw the site on the bay side of Bolivar Peninsula, she knew she would never leave.

Ettenger, a native of New Jersey, instilled the house with her own energy and style. The 58-year-old's garden bloomed with vibrant birds-of-paradise.

And Reba, an 11-year-old Great Dane hobbled by arthritis, was her baby. Ettenger loved to treat the dog to dinners of chicken and roast beef, recalled JoAnne Burks, Ettenger's neighbor and close friend.

Ettenger, a chemist at ExxonMobil, didn't evacuate, reasoning that her house had weathered Hurricane Rita in 2005 without a problem. She also did not want to leave Reba, who could no longer climb into Ettenger's Jeep.

Burks and her husband pleaded with Ettenger to change her mind. But she insisted.

Hours before Ike made landfall, Ettenger knew she had made the wrong choice. She called Burks and described the water pushing up under her feet, the propane tanks and other household items drifting by her windows, and wondered which would float better: her Jeep or her house.

Her voice was shaky with fear, Burks said.

Burks spent the next 10 days searching for her friend, calling local, county and state officials without success. She tried the American Red Cross, FEMA, even private investigators.

"I didn't want her to wind up like the victims of Katrina, who were never found or identified," Burks said.

Ettenger's body was found Sept. 23, tossed on a debris field in a Chambers County marsh about 10 miles from her house.

Amid the muck and remnants of homes, Burks found a pink leather collar. The name Reba was spelled out in rhinestones.

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At 72, George Helmond had ridden out many storms and thought he could take on Ike, too, neighbor Don Hanson said. "A lot of old Galvestonians are like that."

Helmond had been one of the first residents of Sydnor Lane, which overlooks a bayou on one side and a golf course on the other. A retired electrician, Helmond was a die-hard fisherman, a dove hunter and straight-shooter intensely proud of his Galveston roots.

Around 10 a.m., Helmond called Hanson, who had already left, to say the water had already slipped over the road and toward his house. The street — the only way out of the neighborhood — was already impassable.

At 9:30 p.m., Helmond and Hanson talked for the last time. By then, the water had pummeled through Helmond's garage, crushing the doors and submerging his Cadillac. Hanson begged his friend to grab a life vest at his house or to seek shelter there.

But at 2:30 a.m., for reasons no one knows, Helmond got in his pickup truck and drove off at the height of Ike's fury.

Neighbors found Helmond's body the next day inside the truck, which had slammed into the white golf course fence. The windshield was shattered.

Helmond's home suffered little damage. The water had reached above the first-floor garage, but not inside the house.

"If he had stayed home and hadn't gone out, he'd be OK, but he panicked," said Hanson, 66. "Life goes on, but I will miss a good friend and I will think about him."

_____

Even as Ike bore down on Texas, Jim Devine refused to leave his cream-colored house within sight of the bay in San Leon. Devine had moved to the fishing town after retiring and loved the tranquil way of life there, neighbors said.

The 76-year-old Devine drowned when Ike sent water barreling through his house, picking him off the second-story porch and dropping him a block away. Days later, Devine's empty home still bore the scars of the storm — shattered windows, twisted wood, and his boat, the Seabar, jammed under the front steps.

His daughter left a warning and a memorial in orange spray paint: "Jim Devine. No Trespassing."

_____

Port Bolivar held special meaning for 79-year-old Marian Violet Arrambide. She met her husband there during World War II. Many years later, he built the beach house where they could retire.

Arrambide, a retired nurse suffering the onset of dementia, lived with her daughter, Magdalena Strickland, and nephew, Shane Williams, in that beach house before Ike struck.

All three have been missing since the morning of Sept. 12, just as Ike began to come ashore.

"My sister said 'I'm walking out the door in a hurry. Everything's taken care of, I'll see you in a few hours.' That was it," said son Raul Arrambide, describing a 6:15 a.m. phone call.

Since then, Arrambide has had little luck getting help or information. Instead, Arrambide said, he's been passed from one agency to another.

"They send you back and forth until you're worn out," said Arrambide, his voice showing the strain of the last weeks.

After five days with no word and no answers, Arrambide borrowed a boat to search the area himself, but sheriff's deputies turned people away. He finally found a local contractor who is helping search for missing residents. That man found his relatives' vehicles, which had been washed off the road into a tree grove.

"I want to keep the hope that they are still alive, but by not hearing from any of them, that hope is getting smaller and smaller," he said. "They helped people all their lives. They did not deserve to go this way."

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/ap_on_re_us/ike_housing_shortage

Texas tent living still common 2 months after Ike

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 24 mins ago

OAK ISLAND, Texas – Truong Van Cao and two other fishermen share a cramped, muddy tent amid the wreckage of homes, including his own, destroyed when Hurricane Ike stormed across this tiny Southeast Texas town.

Seventy miles to the northeast, Bridge City retirees Ferrel and Jerry Ashby waited a month to get a mobile home from the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the storm flooded their house.

On Galveston Island, the bullseye for Ike's arrival, Roshonda Domingeaux and her family have bounced around from shelter to shelter since Ike's 12-foot storm surge destroyed her house.

Two months after Ike struck Sept. 13, finding housing is still an agonizingly slow process in this swath of Gulf Coast that relies on the petrochemical industry and fishing for its lifeblood.

Housing was already tight before Ike. Still reeling from 2005's Hurricane Rita, the region began to enjoy a $16 billion expansion of its refineries, including a $7 billion project that will turn Motiva Enterprises LLC's plant in Port Arthur into the country's largest refinery. That meant up to 18,000 new workers looking for places to live.

"We've had housing issues the last two years due to the influx of contractors for all this construction going around here," said Bridge City Mayor Kirk Roccaforte.

That, in effect, was a good-news housing shortage. But then Ike barreled ashore, leaving thousands more homeless.

And to no one's surprise, local officials and residents say FEMA has been slow to respond with the mobile homes it promised to provide. The federal agency promised officials last week that it has worked hard to cut the red tape and that housing remains its No. 1 priority.

In Bridge City, a blue collar community of petrochemical workers, Ike damaged nearly 90 percent of the 3,400 homes.

The Ashbys, both 70, had hoped they could stay nearby in a hotel or rent an apartment or home while they repaired their house. But the closest vacancies of any kind were in Houston, 100 miles away.

"There just wasn't anything," Ferrel Ashby said. The couple ended up at first sleeping on their son's couch and then in a tiny travel trailer he used for fishing trips.

Jerry Ashby said the only way repairs to his home could move forward would be if he and his family lived onsite in a FEMA trailer. So he and his wife remained patient during the month it took for their mobile home to arrive. They never considered staying in Houston as a viable housing option.

"I would rather have lived in a tent," he said.

Van Cao, 48, sent his wife and daughter to Houston, about 60 miles to the west, but he also felt he had no choice but to stay where he was after Ike. He couldn't leave Oak Island, home to some 300 people on the shores of Trinity Bay, unless he wanted to quit his crabbing job.

"I have to survive," the Vietnamese immigrant said.

Van Cao received a FEMA trailer about a week ago but the utilities haven't yet been hooked up.

So after spending 13 hours each day fishing, Van Cao returns to a cramped tent filled with cots and clothes he shares with two other fishermen. Two others live in a smaller tent and a sixth lives in a nearby minivan.

Their kitchen is a wooden table, partly covered by blue tarp, with a small gas stove and stacks of canned goods. Recent showers have filled their improvised campground with mud and mosquitoes.

In the last week, FEMA Administrator David Paulison as well as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff have visited southeast Texas, promising to get trailers much more quickly to residents.

"We have plenty of units. It's finding the spots," Paulison said. "As we are finding the spots, we are putting them down very quickly. We are going to see this process really start taking off."

FEMA spokesman Simon Chabel said local zoning regulations and getting waivers allowing trailers to be placed in floodplains have slowed the process. He also says FEMA has provided more than $294 million in housing assistance for repairs and rental assistance and another $253 million in low interest loans for home repairs.

"It's unfortunate we can't drop houses overnight on people who need them," he said.

As of Thursday, 921 mobile homes were occupied, most of them in Orange County where Bridge City is located. An additional 697 are being installed. FEMA says the area needs 3,800 trailers; local officials say the number is at least 5,000.

As for Domingeaux, whose family has been in shelters in Galveston and San Antonio, she felt forgotten by and frustrated with FEMA, but is hopeful things are about to change.

"They took too long to help us. The hardest part has been having to tell my child she doesn't have a home to live in," Domingeaux, 25, said as she held her 3-year-old daughter, Viviana, outside her current home, a privately run tent shelter in Galveston.

After initially getting rejected by FEMA, the agency has now approved a hotel for Domingeaux and her family.

"They say we'll be getting a trailer in two or three weeks," she said. "I feel a whole lot better now."

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Joke - Texans - hell -bush prez

2007-06-28T18:35:00.002-04:00

Texans in HellA group of Texans are driving down the road, whooping it up, drinking beer and shooting off their guns when they get into an accident with busload of nuns and orphans, killing everyone. The Texans go straight to Hell. When they arrive the Devil is shocked to see that they are not in agony over the heat and he demands an explanation.
"Well, sir, we're from Texas, and we're used to the heat," says one. This infuriates the Devil and he cranks the thermostat up to its highest setting. The lost souls all over hell start wailing. "I'll check on them in the morning and see how they like THIS." He snorts and disappears in a ball of fire.
The next morning, the Devil shows up at the Texans' camp site, and sure enough they are showing some signs of discomfort. They have taken off their 10 Gallon hats and are fanning themselves. One has even rolled up his sleeves. "Well, sir," explains a Texan, "when you have been on a cattle drive in Lubbock during August, this ain't hardly nothing." The Devil is now so angry he is seeing red.
"Those damn Texans seem immune to heat, let 's see what happens when I turn OFF the heat," he says as he heads to the thermostat to set on deepest freeze. "I'll check on them tomorrow."
So in the morning the Devil arrives at the Texans' campsite, and they are all whoopin' and hollerin' and drinkin' the beers from the ice chest in the back of the pick up, now that they have ice to chill them with. The wail of the lost souls is deafening but the Texans are partyin' like there is no tomorrow.
"I don't get it," the Devil says, completely defeated. "I tried to roast you and it had no effect, and then I tried to freeze you and you are partying. You Texans are made of tough stuff. But why are you celebrating?"
A Texan takes a swig from a Bud in a longneck and replies, "Look around! Hell is frozen over. That's just gotta mean there is another Bush in the White House."

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