Home Depot Plywood Quality

[George]

Problem was that the railroads were privately owned. We weren't so keen on capitalizing them, because the same sort of talk about corporate welfare and being in the pocket of big corporations would have begun ad nauseam. They were occupied trying to get the firemen off the diesels at the time.

Without eminent domain the highways would be impossible, much less railroad rights of way. Though we can take for purposes of economic development now, right? Then there's the demand to get them all off of street level anyway so that motorists who can't wait or like to challenge trains won't get hurt. Think of the liability insurance, the toxic spills, the horror....

I remember the Chicago, South Shore and South Bend as quite a ride. Still there?

[Han]

Lew Hodgett wrote in news:XEO6i.16122$j63.4423 @newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:

That would be 1 1/2 to 2 hrs each way. Of course there might be classes at Cornell Medical School, Columbia university, New York University or a dozen other universities which would be acceptable for me and closer by.

[Morris Dovey]

| Maybe it's been a long time since you made that trip. It's | currently a 20-hour train ride from Chicago to NY. If you have a | "roomette", it runs $482 one way. I have family in San Antonio, TX. | I've looked into taking the train with my wife and our 2 little | ones. It would take 32+ hours and cost about $1600 round trip with | the "family bedroom". I can fly for about half that. I wouldn't | mind the time so much, but I can't pay double just for the pleasure.

It has been quite a while. I don't remember what the fare was - but am reasonably certain it was a _lot_ less than $482 :-)

Coincidentally, my last domestic train trip was to Killeen, Texas from Fayetteville, North Carolina. Definitely a different level of comfort on a troop train - but it'd be difficult to beat the fare...

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Charlie Self]

cost. IMS, I got $78 a month when I got to Parris Island. Long time ago, but it didn't go far even then.

One of my uncles bitched that he made about that as a tech sgt. in the S=2E Pacific during WWII. True? I dunno. He wasn't much of a BS artist.

[Charlie Self]

Yeah, Lew, but you wouldn't do it. Go to Rutgers or Princeton instead, or even NYU or Columbia. COmmuting that distance in the east is nuts...there are simply too many alternatives.

I used to commute from Amawalk, NY (northern Westchester County) to Manhattan when I worked in a downtown ad agency--William St. That didn't last too long. It blew something close to five hours a day, and at 23, I had other uses for that five hours. I simply moved into Manhattan (admittedly, probably not a solution today, especially if you're making a munificent $85 a week). Single room, with bath but no cooking facilities, $13 a week.

[Charlie Self]

Actually, he probably figured everyone read the dialy newspapers.

[Larry Blanchard]

This was during the Depression????

[Brian Henderson]

Most of the Netherlands doesn't have a choice, there's nowhere else to build. New Orleans does. It's moronic to rebuild somewhere that has constant problems, as New Orleans always has, when you can build it somewhere else without those problems.

[Brian Henderson]

Them mega-tsunamis are fun, huh? But at least they don't happen every year like hurricane season.

[Brian Henderson]

Exactly, but it's easier to point fingers and claim racism than to deal with the fact that they were given the money to fix the levees time and time again and they squandered it.

[Lew Hodgett]

I had almost forgotten that part of east coast culture.

"Commute" is a word in a foreign language they do not understand.

Of course with the east coat highway system, it is understandable.

30 years ago, The Garden State looked like a page straight out of the Monopoly game. If it were ever to come up to current standards, a complete rebuild would be necessary.

Still remember a trip up the NJ Pike AKA: Parking lot.

Sunday night, 5:00PM, just another weekend, hit the NJ Pike from the PA Pike and come to a complete stop.

3-4 hours of stop & go later, the Holland Tunnel.

Definitely not a winner.

Lew

[Leon]

I believe that NO would be managable with the right management. IIRC a lot of money that should have gone into securing the city went into polititions pockets.

[Leon]

Actually, he probably figured everyone read the dialy newspapers.

Yeah, no Bias there.

[Leon]

The real crying shame is the fact that assistance was offered before the storm to help prevent this kind of human tragity from happening in the first place. Get the people out before the flooding. But uh Oh noooo... said the mayor and the govenor. We got it under control. And speaking of being ready for the storm, I recall a reporter interviewing NO's head guy for emergency management 2 days before the storm it. The reporter asked what have you done to prepair for the storm? The answer was sweet and short. To sum it up, nothing was done. The second question, are you ready? The answer was something like, we hoped this would not happen on our watch.

[Chuck Taylor]

IF ONLY someone were doing a good job of dismantling the U.S.' leviathan federal government back to within its Constitutional boundaries.

[Morris Dovey]

| Remember, the feds can't do much of anything unless asked by local | functionaries. It's sad that the feds were hamstrung by the stunning | incompetence of the local folk. For example, there were enough | school busses to take a goodly portion of the people in the dome | all the way to Houston (one "stolen" bus made the trip).

Lesson: Do not depend on competence of government. Be prepared.

I'm an amateur radio operator. It's not just an interesting hobby - there are associated responsibilities: provide communications in emergency situations; provide communications equipment, on demand, to the federal government; cease operations instantly when radio silence is ordered, etc.

I inquired as to the need for communications volunteers in NO and was told to stay away - that volunteers would just get in the way. I've heard that other people volunteered to take boats, food, and just about everything else you can imagine - and that they were told the same thing.

Lesson: If volunteers are needed, just go. The command and control crap can all be sorted out when the immediate needs have been met. When lives are at stake, it's not about "who's in charge."

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Morris Dovey]

| Having been through a disaster like that, the people themselves | have to take responsibility in helping them selves. Fema could | have been there moments after the storm and there would still would | have been the devestation and the people with out homes. It was a | natural disaster of epic proportions. Not a whole lot was reported | about the winds of the storm which was the really dangerous part. | More was reported on the water after the storm. Too bad the mayor | let the school buses sit and be flooded. Before hand planing and | prefaration was the real problem.

Lesson: Contingency planning is essential. Lesson: A transportation plan is manditory.

Want to bet that they still haven't identified staging areas for moving supplies in and people out next time around?

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Robatoy]

A good friend of mine from Ft Pierce FL went immediatly after Katrina to try to help out. He's personally been hit badly by hurricanes, and felt the need to help. On the second day, he was told, in the strongest terms, to go home, "that things were under control"..they'd call him. He had water, a couple of generators, some fuel, food, a couple of walkies...

go figure.

[Morris Dovey]

| A good friend of mine from Ft Pierce FL went immediatly after | Katrina to try to help out. He's personally been hit badly by | hurricanes, and felt the need to help. | On the second day, he was told, in the strongest terms, to go home, | "that things were under control"..they'd call him. | He had water, a couple of generators, some fuel, food, a couple of | walkies...

Lesson: An emergency is, almost by definition, a situation that is not under sufficient control to protect lives and property.

When you next speak with your friend, please pass along my appreciation for his efforts. If I'd gone there - as I should have - I'd have had need of his generator after the second day.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Leon]

No doubt. I still recall seeing the aerial view of the "hundreds" of school buses sitting under water that could have been used to evacuate. More than enough to have emptied the Superdome so the Super Dome could have remained empty and none of those people would have had to live in that mess.

Next time I bet they make sure the fuel tanks are empty before the storm to guard against contamination when they flood again.