As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

[Neggy]

http://www.defensetech.org/

NoLa's Biolab Mystery

Anybody know what happened to New Orleans' anthrax labs? That's the excellent and scary question Defense Tech pal Russ Kick asks over at the Memory Hole.

bsl4_suit.jpgIn and around the Big Easy are a number of Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) labs, meant to handle some of the nastier biological agents out there -- stuff like anthrax, plague, and genetically-engineering mousepox. Louisiana State University’s Medical School and the State of Louisiana both ran BSL-3s within the city. Tulane kept 5,000 monkeys for biodefense studies in its "National Primate Research Center," located in nearby Covington.

"What's happened to the infected animals? Are they free and roaming?" Russ wants to know. "Are they dead, with their diseased bodies floating in the flood waters? And what about the cultures and vials of the diseases? Are they still secure? Are they being stolen? Were they washed away, now forming part of the toxic soup that coats the city?"

And not to turn the fear dial up any higher, but, if the national average is any guide, the keepers of the Louisiana labs weren't particularly experienced. 97 percent of the "principal investigators" who got biodefense grants from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases were newbies to that kind of work.

The government oversight these neophytes get is minimal, at best. Instead, the labs are expected to police themselves, through "Institutional Biosafety Committees." But the records of these committees is, to put it politely, uneven. When the Sunshine Project, a biowatchdog group, "asked for all minutes of all meetings of [Tulane's] IBC since January 1st, 2002, Tulane replied that it has no responsive documents. That is, Tulane University cannot produce a single page of minutes of any Institutional Biosafety Committee meeting for the past two and half years."

[Humble]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

If we were dumb enough to store those particular viruses in a lab that was situated in a flood plain, then we deserve whatever we get.

[N1095A]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

If we were dumb enough to store those particular viruses in a lab that was situated in a flood plain, then we deserve whatever we get.

Really? What if they put up a nuclear power plant next to you that got hit by an F-5 tornado and irradiated the area? Yikes.

[Guest]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

I just saw a program on these chimps and monkeys recently. It was called Chimps on Death Row. I never knew any of this until I saw the program, but there are hundreds if not thousands of primates infected with nasty diseases like small pox and hepatitis etc for the purpose of discovering vaccines and cures. Many of these animals had no symptoms of the diseases they carried but because they were dangerous to the human and primate populations, they have been kept for years in cages and enclosures. Many of them were no longer needed for research, but no one was able to make the decision to euthanize them because so many of them had become like pets to the researchers. Some were even trained in sign language.

So to think that these animals are on the loose, or their diseased bodies are floating around is a terrible travesty. Most of them wouldn't know how to survive after so long in captivity, but since they are so used to human contact, they would certainly be drawn to the human population for food and companionship. So sad, but perhaps it's a fitting end for some of them after what they have been put through by human beings.

[N1095A]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

[Guest]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

Read this and get a glimpse of the Tribulation to come!

http://wnd.com/news/printer-friendly...TICLE_ID=46234

Friday, September 9, 2005

IN KATRINA'S WAKE
Tales of horror
from New Orleans

Evacuees in Texas relate similar stories of violence, filth, rats, gators

Posted: September 9, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Ron Strom

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

The harrowing, heartbreaking stories of Katrina evacuees are innumerable, with many containing similar accounts of life-changing horror – first, waiting for eventual rescue from their homes submerged by the killer floodwaters, and then surviving the filth and crime of spending dark nights with thousands of other refugees on the streets of New Orleans.

Dr. Edward Lias interviewed six evacuated families at the Fredonia Hill Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Texas, last weekend. The church is hosting between 200 and 300 people from New Orleans, many of whom make up incomplete families still searching for lost loved ones.

Lias noted several common experiences among those he interviewed:

Surprise at the powerful incoming water hours after the storm was over;

Fist fights and violence from gangs who wanted to loot and steal from anyone who had clothing, food or water – endured for three days and nights;

Utter filth that even pets would not step in – endured for many days;

The futility of waving to helicopters who had to rescue people in tree tops before rescuing those who were on roofs or hanging out of upper windows;

Pushing and shoving when busses arrived with little or no respect for the need of families to stay together; and

Six hours on a bus in soiled, smelly clothing – then the first good meal and cold water at the Texas border.

Melvin Davis and his wife survived, but their three children are missing, Lias reports:

Thinking the Davises had survived the storm, it was a shock to suddenly see water coming into their two-story house. The levee had broken and water rose in the house, about six inches every two minutes.
Grabbing a few things, they went upstairs. Peeking down they saw their refrigerator and freezer floating near the ceiling, along with cosmetics, trash and broken sheet rock from falling ceilings.

Soon water was coming up through the second floor into upstairs rooms. Then it was knee-deep, then waist-deep on the second floor. The storm had blown out several windows in the lower and upper floors so when water rose to that height, it rapidly filled the house.

Part of the peaked roof had blown off in the storm, so with a hammer they knocked off roof boards and escaped to the sloped roof.

Melvin has one leg missing, so they placed a big loud speaker on a table so that he could struggle to the roof with his crutches.

Davis was rescued from his roof via a body hoist and helicopter Sept. 1. He was dropped onto a causeway underpass, where he endured the filth, violence and sickness commonly reported by refugees, before boarding a bus to Texas Sept. 3.

Ernest Putman, who doesn't know the whereabouts of his son, was plucked off his roof after spending two days there. He was dropped off at the same causeway.

Writes Lias: "Putman experienced another two days of violence and fighting off looters. His unspeakable conditions involved pets, huge rats nibbling at people, trash, open sewage, soiled clothing and the smell of death in the air."


James Thomas and Thelma Scott

James Thomas and Thelma Scott were able to boat from their home to a local school on Aug. 30, the day the levees broke and flooding New Orleans. The boat picked up several neighbors and evacuees reportedly had to push corpses out of the way to navigate the area.

Reports Lias:

Helicopters lifted everyone from the school to the infamous causeway underpass where a day and night of fighting, sniper shooting and threatening gangs prevented all possibility of sleep. Everyone had to keep fending off cat-sized rats and other animals that came in the darkness from all directions. There was no electricity, remember.

Busses arrived Saturday morning, taking them to the Texas border and then onward. Everyone remarks about the cold water and food at that border stop and how it was the first human kindness they had experienced throughout this ordeal.

Three members of 'family' of 10.

One impromptu "family" housed in Nacogdoches includes 10 people from the same New Orleans neighborhood who didn't know each other before Katrina hit. There was need for group strength in fending off looters, so the ten people formed an informal bond.

After boating to the roof of a nearby bank, Aggie Licciardi spent what she called two days of "living hell."

Besides fending off looters, who often were high or drunk after breaking into drug stores, the group had to prevent alligators from climbing onto the roof:

Alligators threatened to climb onto the roof, along with rats, sewage and swimming deer. Adrift were dead pets, dead bodies and stench. When rescuers came, there were people who said, "I will not abandon my pet." So to save a life, an authority sometimes had to shoot the pet despite the owner's screams while being forced into the helicopter rescue basket. Aggie managed to save her dog – somehow.

During the night you could hear people far and near on rooftops beating pans and lids together, calling for help. Meanwhile, floating by were dressers, freezers, boxes, garbage bags, bodies and sewage. After being lifted from the bank roof, they then experienced the causeway misfortune, covering themselves with garbage bags in the night to preserve warmth.

Aggie's son, daughter and brothers were still missing or lost as of Monday.

A family from Saint Bernard could see one of the levees from their home and, when water first began flowing over the dam, they joked, "How nice – we have a waterfall now." The joking ceased when the levee broke and water began gushing into the neighborhood, with the level rising around them about one foot per minute.

"For over 50 hours, [this family] was crushed away from bus doors as stronger people forced their way onto the vehicles," Lias reported. "The bus drivers who tried to maintain order could not keep families together. A person getting onto the bus would say, 'That's my son and wife – right out there – get them on' – but there was no way to enforce civility. When army personnel began to appear, order and civility gradually overcame lawlessness."

The evacuees expressed gratitude for the help they now are receiving. The Red Cross is helping them to re-establish identification material, most of which was lost in the flood.

[Guest]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

N1095A,

WOW, I remember that movie. It was pretty good.

Bluejaye

[Humble]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

Really? What if they put up a nuclear power plant next to you that got hit by an F-5 tornado and irradiated the area? Yikes.


A nuclear power plant is designed to withstand an F5.

[Guest]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

There was plenty warning for them to 'pack up and head out' before the storm hit. Being on the 'scientific hi-way' they should have been prepared for such an event.
My bet is that this is another scare tactic headline.
I'm nobody, no scientist, doctor, nothing, and even I'd know we needed to get our animals and cultures out of there...before the storm hit.

OTOH, it'd be nice to be reassured by the media that those in charge did evacuate ahead of time.

[Issachar]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

I wouldn't assume that all is well with hazardous materials because of the keepers intelligence. All might be well, but I wouldn't assume it. After all, the fact that the Gulf Coast is prone to hurricane strikes isn't exactly a thing, yet, look at what is built there. The fact that Southern California is atop a multitude of active fault lines doesn't seem to deter building major infra-structure there.

There are some intelligent people involved in all these things, but collectively, I don't assume anything.

Issachar

[N1095A]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

Really? What if they put up a nuclear power plant next to you that got hit by an F-5 tornado and irradiated the area? Yikes.


A nuclear power plant is designed to withstand an F5.

Well let me go more to the point. If someone built something bad in your area and a natural disaster occured would you still say "we deserved what we got" if something bad happened and it affected you and your family?

I hope not. I don't think you'd say that at all.

[Humble]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

Well let me go more to the point. If someone built something bad in your area and a natural disaster occured would you still say "we deserved what we got" if something bad happened and it affected you and your family?

I hope not. I don't think you'd say that at all.


That wasn't my point at all.
We all know that NO is below sea level, and the levee system was less than adequate. We knew this before the levee system failed.

I only expect a little bit of foresight when constructing buildings that contain dangerous elements.

People who build their house on the side of hill, shouldn't be shocked when gravity pulls it down the slope.
People who build their house next to a river, shouldn't be shocked when they wake up with fish in their bedrooms.

[N1095A]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

Right and I'd agree with that, for the most part. It sounded like you were making the bio lab problem the accepted consequences of the people of New Orleans. Thanks for clarifying.

[Guest]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

I live on a lake. I guess I better be ready to catch some fish when the time comes

[Radio Free Narnia]

Re: As if things weren't bad enough for New Orleans!!

From "American Dream" by Casting Crowns:

" He used to say, "Whoever dies with the most toys wins"
But if he loses his soul, what has he gained in the end
I'll take a shack on the rock
Over a castle in the sand"


BTW, check out the video of this song. It is just plain outstanding.