The infrastructure of this community is destroyed. There is no sense to rebuild it.

Put people in new developments at higher elevations where there are functioning hospitals, schools, and groceries. The Greenland Ice Sheet is causing sea-level rise that will result in chronic flooding and the return of storms that will devastate these areas of the Gulf Coast.

These people are now climate refugees and must be relocated to where they are safe. It is unacceptable to allow people back into their homes if the public infrastructure around them is gone.

September 3, 2021

City utility workers Fredrick Patrick, left, and Ron Fletcher look for a water meter to help stop a water leak around a destroyed building as residents try to recover from the effects of Hurricane Ida Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in Houma, La.

Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana - The Terrebonne Parish President (click here) provided an update on damage across the parish from Hurricane Ida.

Communications are still strained due to widespread damage from the category four storm.

The parish said although utility providers and communication companies are working to restore water, sewer service, electricity, phone and internet service, damage assessment and recovery efforts in Terrebonne in the wake of Hurricane Ida are proceeding much slower than hoped as a result.

Damage assessment reports that have been filed in the Emergency Operations Center Friday indicate substantial and widespread structural damage throughout the parish, particularly in Terrebonne’s bayou communities.

In these areas, damage to residences rendered about 60% of them unsafe for human habitation. In these areas, road clearing efforts are underway, according to the parish.

"The lack of water pressure, electricity, and blown-out windows and roof damage have also forced the closure of hospitals in Terrebonne Parish. Patients in these facilities, some in intensive care units or on ventilators had to be evacuated to hospitals in Shreveport and Lafayette, Louisiana, as well as facilities in Mississippi and Texas. With the forced closure of these hospitals and others in the region, there is no way to treat trauma victims or even the elderly with medical issues that require hospitalization. The lack of medical facilities in the parish and region greatly complicates the return of evacuees to Terrebonne. There is no way to accurately predict the restoration and availability of utility service in the parish and when reentry may begin. Consequently, recovery, repair and restoration efforts in Terrebonne will take a great deal of time," Parish President Gordon Dove said in an issued statement....

Children have to be tested no diffferently than adults.

Br J Anaesth. 2020 Sep; 125(3): e330–e332.

Rita Assaker, Anne-Emmanuelle Colas, Florence, Julien-Marsollier, Beatrice Bruneau, Lucile Marsac, Bruno Greff, Nathalie Tri, Charlotte Fait, Christopher Brasher and Souhayl Dahmani

...Fever and cough (click here) were the most common signs of COVID-19 after SARS-CoV-2 infection in children. Our study conclusively confirmed the clinical impression that COVID-19 in children typically presents as a mild (37%) or moderate (45%) upper respiratory tract infection and is rarely severe or critical. This result is of great significance with respect to the planning of healthcare resource use over the coming months worldwide. Given that the pandemic will continue across seasons and overlap with peak influenza periods, it will be difficult to distinguish symptomatic paediatric COVID-19 patients from patients with influenza....

Teachers need to walk out and send the children home. Now, is not the time for DENIAL

September 2, 2021

This is social distancing in the Chicago Public Schools. I doubt it is different anywhere else in the country. 

Chicago teachers (click here) are threatening to "step up resistance" if safety measures aren't heightened at city schools after the new year began in-person this week.

Classes started Monday with no agreement in place between the union and Chicago Public Schools district.

"Reports of safety failures at public schools have been pouring in from across the city since students started returning on Monday," the union said in a release Thursday morning.

According to data from CPS, at least 39 schools have reported at least one COVID case in the last week....

Heck, there are 73 million children in the USA, this virus hasn't even gotten started yet.

There are 5,115 Pediatric Intensive Care Beds in the ENTIRE USA.(click here)

5,115 PICU beds in the entire USA.

Before Trump had four years in the White House I never realized how completely stupid Americans can be about preventing disease. And, how much they do not value their own children.

September 2, 2021
By Travis Caldwell

The dramatic rise in Covid-19 cases (click here) and hospitalizations due to the more transmissible Delta variant is significantly impacting all age groups, particularly Americans ages 11 or younger who are not yet eligible to receive vaccinations.

More than 500,000 children tested positive for Covid-19 in the US from August 5 to August 26, according to state data collected by the American Academy of Pediatrics. At least 203,962 of those cases were reported in the week of August 19 to August 26; In late June, one weekly reported number was just shy of 8,500.

With concerns building over safely allowing children to return to in-person learning at schools, health experts agree that mask mandates are an effective tool in stemming infections.

“The virus is raging in all these children who are unvaccinated, which is why in schools mask mandates are so important,” CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told Jake Tapper last week, pointing out that inoculation rates are also low among adolescents who are eligible. “They have no other protection. They’re literally sitting ducks.”...

Cadillac goes electric.

April 20, 2021
By Sam Abuelsamid

As Cadillac creeps ever closer (click here) to finally launching its first battery electric vehicle, GM’s premium brand continues to trickle out more details about the 2023 Lyriq. This week, Cadillac is showing off the production version of the Lyriq with minimal changes from the show car that was revealed in August 2020 along with basic specifications and pricing.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic over the past 12 months with thousands of engineers and designers working remotely, GM actually managed to pull ahead the U.S. launch of the Lyriq by nine months. The electric crossover was originally scheduled to start production in China in mid-2022 with U.S. production beginning late in the year. Instead, GM’s Spring Hill, Tennessee assembly plant will start turning out Lyriqs in the first quarter of 2022 with deliveries to begin sometime in the spring....

Where is it headed? Here we go again. We need to end the petroleum disasterous industry.

I don't believe for one minute there is a significant clean-up. With multiple plumes, it is questionable that it can be contained at all without shutting the pipe down.

The pipeline has to be shut down because there are other storms on the way.

September 5, 2021

...The spill, (click here) one of multiple plumes spotted off the Louisiana coast in the wake of Hurricane Ida, was identified in satellite imagery captured Thursday by the space technology companies Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies....

New Orleans - Divers at the site of an ongoing oil spill (click here) that appeared in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida have identified the apparent source as one-foot diameter pipeline displaced from a trench on the ocean floor and broken open.

Talos Energy, the Houston-based company currently paying for the cleanup, said in a statement issued Sunday evening that the busted pipeline does not belong to them.

The company said it is working with the U.S. Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to coordinate the response and identify the owner of the ruptured pipeline.

Two additional 4-inch pipelines were also identified in the area that are open and apparently abandoned. The company’s statement did not make clear if oil was leaking from the two smaller pipelines, but satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press on Saturday appeared to show at least three different slicks in the same area, the largest drifting more than a dozen miles eastward along the Gulf coast....

There has been a report of one other death in New Zealand today. Six months between deaths.

September 4, 2021

Sept 5 (Reuters) - New Zealand (click here) reported 20 local COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the same as in previous day, giving authorities more confidence that they are gaining a winning hand over the current outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Officials said all the new cases were in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city and the epicentre of the outbreak. Daily case numbers have been declining over the past week, with the community outbreak now standing at 801 infections.

"The ongoing fall in numbers is proving that alert level 4 in Auckland and our public health measures are rapidly slowing the spread of the virus, however it is not through yet and we need to remain extra vigilant," Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a televised briefing....

New Zealand Cases

New Zealand Cases (click here)

New Zealand Vaccinations

When is this virus going to be taken seriously?

I was vaccinated to end this virus from mutating and causing problems. When is the shutdown that ends this and it's mutations?

September 2, 2021

...Variants are categorized as "variants of interest," (click here) "variants of concern" and "variants of high consequence."

The CDC states that a variant is classified as a variant of interest if it shows "specific genetic markers that have been associated with changes to receptor binding, reduced neutralization by antibodies generated against previous infection or vaccination, reduced efficacy of treatments, potential diagnostic impact, or predicted increase in transmissibility or disease severity."

"We will probably have a variant of what we call a variant of interest identified every few weeks," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday. "Like that's how this virus works. Variants of interest just mean we've seen a number of the same genetic mutations emerge and scientists around the world are on the lookout for it every single time. A virus anywhere in the world gets this genetic sequence, it gets updated into a database that's shared internationally, so we can really see what's emerging. When a variant of interest emerges, it says, 'Oh, this is something we should watch a little bit.'"

A variant of concern is one in which "there is evidence of an increase in transmissibility, more severe disease (e.g., increased hospitalizations or deaths), significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection failures," according to the CDC.

"Once we see a variant of interest clearly have an impact, meaning it is more contagious, it might be evading a treatment, it's clearly making people sicker - that makes it into a variant of concern," Arwady said.

Finally, a variant of high consequence "has clear evidence that prevention measures or medical countermeasures have significantly reduced effectiveness relative to previously circulating variants." Or, as Chicago's top doctor put it, a variant in which "the vaccine was not working very well."

Currently there are no variants of high consequence.

"I would say if something became a variant of high consequence that would be a big deal," Arwady said, adding that such variants are ones in which "the vaccine was not working very well."

So which variants are being tracked so far? Here's what we know:

In the U.S. and around the globe, there are currently four variants labeled "variants of concern" by the CDC and the World Health Organization.
Alpha Variant

Also known as B.1.1.7, the alpha variant was first identified in the United Kingdom and quickly spread to the most prevalent variant in the US, before the delta variant took hold....

Mu

September 3, 2021
By Tom Tapp

Dr. Anthony Fauci (click here) on Thursday said U.S. public health officials are “keeping a very close eye” on a new variant of Covid-19 that was first detected in Colombia.

Known as B.1.621 or the “Mu variant” according to the World Health Organization nomenclature, it has “a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” according to a WHO report released on Monday. “Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Working Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccine era similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies.”

Today, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced the Mu variant, for the first time, has been identified in the region. The numbers are still small; Only 167 Mu variants have been identified in L.A. County thus far. “These specimens were sequenced between June 19 and Augusts 21, with the majority of Mu specimens sequenced in July,” according to a statement from county public health officials....

Someone needs to explain the deaths in Lake Travis, Texas.

Well, that explains everything, it is just a bad year for swimmers in Texas. Just one of those things. There are now TEN dead in 2021 in Lake Travis. TEN DEAD IN LAKE TRAVIS.

Just a bad year. Not much anyone can do about bad years, except, to wait for the bodies to roll up on the beach.

"Golly, this is a bad year AGAIN."

September 3, 2021
By Jaclyn Ramkissoon

The body of a swimmer who went missing in Lake Travis (click here) last weekend was recovered, according to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office.

TCSO said the man’s body was found at about 2 p.m. using sonar, at a depth of 144 feet. The man was one of two who were last seen in the Hurst Creek area on August 28. Deputies are still looking for the second man’s body.

Of nine people who TCSO has searched for on the lake this year, seven of them have been recovered. Deputies are continuing to look for the bodies of the other two:

Swimmer reported missing on August 7 between Starnes Island and North Shore
Second swimmer reported missing on August 28 near Hurst Creek

The sheriff’s office said while nine is a high number, it has seen similar numbers of disappearances on the lake before. In 2011, eight bodies were recovered from the lake, and seven were recovered in 2018.

Over the last 10 years, four people last seen swimming in Lake Travis are still missing, TCSO said:
2014: 1
2018: 1
2021: 2

As Labor Day weekend is upon us, TCSO reminds swimmers to wear a life jacket. Deputies said “without exception, missing persons recovered from Lake Travis by TCSO were not wearing a life jacket.”

People are losing their homes. Ida has left people of Lourisiana growing number homeless.

Ida brought long term displacement of people. Americans are now climate refugees.

September 5, 2021
By Shay O'Connor

Houma - As clean-up efforts (click here) continue in Houma, residents of a few apartment complexes in the city just received a notice from management that they will no longer have a place to stay given the amount of damage inside the buildings.

The Belmere Luxury Apartments near South Hollywood Road and Corporate Drive was one of the complexes where residents were told to clear out. Residents there said they feel let down.

The people who live at Belmere apartments said they have nowhere to go at this point. Many have sustained damage to their units, but finding out they now have to leave because their apartments are "uninhabitable" is causing a huge inconvenience.

Now, they're scrambling to find shelter just days after Hurricane Ida hit the region.

According to emails sent by Fairfield Property Management to residents, officials said they are no longer able to ensure the safety of their residents given the amount of damage sustained to the complex....

Shot and killed over gasoline. Wow. There are too many guns on the street. This is no way to end an argument.

This isn't a good guy or a bad guy incident. Some of the homicides with gun violence are CONVENIENCE killings. THE GUN WAS CONVENIENTLY AT THE SCENE when tempers flair and someone ends up dead.

It is no different than when two men were arguing over their cell phones, pull to the side of the road and both that had concealed carry permits ended up dead due to the passions of the moment.

THESE ARE NOT CRIMINALS PLANNING TO BREAK THE LAW AND HAVING GUN(S) TO ASSIST THE CRIME; THESE ARE CRIMES OF PASSION and the GUNS WERE CONVENIENTLY AT THE SCENE.

THERE ARE TOO MANY GUNS ON THE STREET.

September 4, 2021

A New Orleans man (click here) has now been arrested in connection to a fatal shooting Friday at a Metairie gas station.

It happened just before 6 p.m. Friday at the Chevron gas station on Clearview Parkway near West Napoleon Avenue.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said 20-year-old Walter Sippio, of New Orleans, shot and killed Dwayne Nosacka, 30, of Metairie, following an altercation over gasoline.

Nosacka was shot once in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gasoline is in short supply in much of hurricane-ravaged southeast Louisiana. The sheriff said the argument stemmed from Sippio cutting a line in an attempt to get gasoline.

Witnesses tell police that Sippio cut in line with his white minivan, directly in front of Nosacka’s car.

A line of cars stretched several blocks, all attempting to get gasoline at the Chevron station.

Officials said Nosacka got out of his car and began arguing with Sippio.

Sippio then grabbed a gun, shot Nosacka once, then fled the scene in the minivan, officials said....

Were the evacuation plans of these nursing homes pre-approved by the state health department?

There are seven nursing homes involved. Either they are all part of the same chain of health care organization with management making decisions on evacuation or they were all told where to take their residents to a warehouse. The evacuation plan was very faulty. 

September 4, 2021

The state of Louisiana (click here) has ordered the "immediate closure" of seven nursing homes that evacuated residents to a warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish to ride out Hurricane Ida.

State health officials confirm seven of the residents have since died. Several others were hospitalized after officials said they faced squalid conditions in the Independence warehouse after the Category 4 hurricane moved through.

News of the nursing home closures broke Saturday in tweets sent out by the Louisiana Department of Health, citing state health officer Dr. Joseph Kanter and LDH Secretary Dr. Courtney N. Phillips.

"What happened in Independence is reprehensible, and I know there are many families hurting as a result," Phillips said.

Kanter said that the state is "taking immediate action" to protect public health. He called what happened to the residents and the lack of regard for their wellbeing an "affront to human dignity."...

A Republican is leaking classified information. For real? He only cares about his politics? For real?

Five days after the last American plane left Afghanistan, a bunch of people is stranded on a tarmac in North Afghanistan. I guess they are going to have problems, why? Because they are not validated at to the manifest of the plane. When the Americans left everyone on the planes was validated in their credentials. These evacuees are not. That is why it was important to leave while everyone had a chance. The explosions of ISIS drove people to northern Afghanistan and now they want the right to leave. It isn't going to happen.

They are not hostages so much as prisoners because of the lack of identity provided in the manifest.

September 5, 2021

By Daniella Diaz, Jennifer Hansler, Nicky Robertson and Sonnet Swire

Rep. Michael McCaul, (click here) the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he has received classified briefings that American citizens and Afghan allies are stuck at the Mazar-i-Sharif airport in Afghanistan.

"(The Taliban) are not clearing the airplanes to depart. They've sat at the airport for the last couple of days," McCaul said on Fox News Sunday. "We know the reason why is because the Taliban want something in exchange. This is really Chris, turning into a hostage situation where they're not going to allow American citizens leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America."

McCaul told Fox News that he has received information "in the classified space," that the number of Americans in Afghanistan is "in the hundreds."

The Texas Republican added: "We have six airplanes at Mazar Sharif airport, six airplanes with American citizens on them as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the Taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now." CNN has not been able to independently confirm McCaul's claim that aircraft with American citizens onboard have been unable to leave the airport....

A plane can't be loaded with passengers and simply fly looking for a place to land. Who is the pilot, what is the airline, and who is on the plane?

No matter what airport they land at they will be arrested. The manifest does not match the passengers is what is being reported. I strongly suggest if Afghans have made it to Mazar Sharif Airport, they should have kept moving north by car or foot to Tajikistan.

McCaul is inflammatory. He lacks a plan to bring about a movement for these people. 

ARE THERE ANY AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS? Tajikistan has airports but can they accommodate the aircraft leaving Mazar-i-Sharif airport. 

This was all classified information and now the lives of the people on the plane are in danger because McCaul decided to play politics with people's lives. This is going to continue because IS-K attacked Afghans trying to leave the airport. McCaul should not have leaked this information and there might have been something we could have done, but, playing politics with lives is not going to protect them or facilitate them to a different place. Leaking this information is completely irresponsible. 

August 16, 2021

By John Cox

With the collapse of the Afghanistan government, (click here) what happens to the airspace? Can flights get in and out of Kabul or overfly the country?

On Sunday, airlines were notified that civilian air traffic control services were no longer available in Afghanistan. Kabul's airport has closed to civilian air traffic, and all commercial flights in and out of Afghanistan are canceled.

That hasn't stopped desperate civilians from trying to get out of the country as the Taliban reassumed power. On Monday, USA TODAY reported that seven people died amid the mayhem as crowds swarmed the military landing strip at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Military aircraft are flying in Afghanistan to provide evacuation services and are being controlled by U.S. military controllers. How long that evacuation will take is uncertain....