Heads up for you guys in the flood zone

[nadinbrzezinski]

these notes come from a small rant by an poster on the IOWA board. He is correct, this is perfect territory for Disaster Capitalism

So here is a small road map of what you may have to do in order to avoid some of this... and as Naomi Klein pointed out, information is power

...reaching for that hat as a disaster tech for the Mexican Red Cross.. but it works the same anywhere... and where they can try to privatize things

1.- Security... seems obvious that you will need NG and Local police to keep looters away... This can and usually is a small problem.... enter blackwater. So you need to make sure the local sheriff does not deputize these guys... and it is tempting. The locals are exhausted by now. So you may want to offer your selfs as local patrol deputies.

2.- When you go back you will need to make sure houses, and other structures are salveagable and that debris is removed. DEMAND this stays with LOCAL contractors... and not the usual cronies. If it stays with local contractors this helps to restart the economy. On a personal point, make sure that your house is throughly dried due to mildew which will be a problem anywhere from two weeks to a year. Oh and your local health department should instruct you on how to use clorox to help you in the process... it is not for keeping your whites whites anymore.

3.- Houses that are destroyed or condemned will need replacing. Here is where in an ideal world FEMA gets involved. Make sure that the check can pay for your local contractors. See above.

Oh and a note on locals... just because they are your local neighbors does not necessarily mean they will not try to take advantage... So do watch out for fraud. And demand to see licenses.

4.- Water... assume your water is bad for months to come. So boil it every day for at least ten minutes.

Mostly you need to keep as much of the effort as you can LOCAL... and with LOCAL materials. This will help to jumpstart the economy. Oh and watch out for the many who will try to buy you out of condemned properties

Oh and to the local businesses, if they get enough help rebuilding they may be able to restart and go on

One thing the International Red Cross loves to do after these kinds of disasters is to bring in building materials and let the locals rebuild... the closest to this in the US (no, I don't expect ICRC disaster teams on the ground) is Habitat for Humanity. Oh and this also means that getting rebuilding permits and all that is where some of this will be tried. So demand an eye be kept on all your local officials, who will be offered quite a bit of beanies for helping along in the privatization effort

Hope this helps....

What does she say? Oh yes, when you know what to expect, it is harder to do this. So do share with neighbors, your best hope is to fight it as a group.

[madeline_con]

1. FEMA suggested using Lysol Lemon Breeze for mildew

removal when we were hit by Hurricane Frances. It can be used on things that can't be bleached.


Hope this helps.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Yep, true... they will give guidance

but it needs to be dealt with or will get really bad

[strategery blunder]

3. K & R

Before this handy little thread sinks beneath all of the Russert threads.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I'm partially guilty of it, by the way

guilty as charged!

[strategery blunder]

21. You have atoned for your crime of Russert-thought

by OP'ing this thread in the first place :hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Hey, just doing my job

but I am genuinely bothered by the canonization of one Mr Timothy Russert.

[Swamp Rat]

5. WATCHOUT FOR BLACKWATER MERCENARIES!!!

They WILL kill you, just for fun even.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. That is why they have to be kept AWAY at all costs

[ColbertWatcher]

9. What does Erik Prince call someone from Iowa?

Target practice!

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Damnitalltohell!

The IOWA board poster is right: this disaster is ripe for GOP exploitation!

Damnit, not again!

How the hell are we going to put a stop to this crap!?

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. This is part of the roadmap

and people need to act fast and collectively

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Isn't there a law against mercenaries?

I know Posse Comitatus makes it illegal for the government to use the military against its citizens, but is there anything to stop private armies from doing their bidding!?

Holy tin foil, Batman!

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. The bushies suspended posse a year or two ago, irrc

and no, there is no law technically

In an emergency the local sheriff can deputize anybody... yes even blackwater

And right now they are anywhere from exhausted to beyond... so having the offer of "trained" personnel with their own weapons and logistics chain sound oh so tempting.

Unfortunately I've been there (the exhausted part), why the locals need to offer to do the patrols themselves

Looting is a real problem, human nature actually. and I don't care for the skin color... it just happens... and it does about this phase anywhere in the world

[ColbertWatcher]

13. Pfft. Blackwater might get theirs, but...

...that doesn't mean all the services in the town must be privatized.

Halliburton shouldn't be given the contract to rebuild, Ignite! Learn shouldn't be given the schools and Waste Management shouldn't be given any money to "clean up".

The GOP-disaster-industrial complex has to be stopped.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Why folks have to insist all of this stays LOCAL

and not the usual cronies

[ColbertWatcher]

15. ? n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Insist that all the rebuilding is done by local companies, that will keep halliburton

away

Offer to do patrols.

Help rebuild every business in downtown Cedar Rapids

Help neighbors get up on their feet

And refuse all contracts given to outside cronies

It can be stopped, but it has to be a concerted effort, and it has to start now

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Locals get jobs to rebuild their town.

They get work, they get their town back.

It should have happened in New Orleans.

The laws do not have to change just because there is an emergency.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. How much do you want to bet that right now

there are plans to do NOLA part deux?

That is why the people in IOWA need to act

Naomi Klein is very specific, the way to stop this is with knowledge and if need be direct action

They rely on the shock to take all of this away from the locals, exactly what happened in NOLA

These parasites thrive in disasters

[ColbertWatcher]

19. Yes, they do.

Which is why people need to see the GOP's negligence in this disaster as proof that the GOP will stand in the way of assistance in order to garner profit for themselves.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Quite on purpose the coverage of this has not been as good as NOLA

I have had to search far and wide to find good reporting

Either the local stations, which do not offer an overall strategic image of the disaster, or foreign press...

I hate to say it, but Russert's passing was the blonde white girl they needed. No, they didn't kill him, but once they had the soft story... they dropped the other one like a hot potato

This was not a coincidence...

[ColbertWatcher]

23. Lazy-assed GOP-controlled media.

They had video of Russert in archives, to get pictures of this disaster they would have had to send a helicopter or something.

Plus, they would have to report what is going on.

Like, Bush is in Europe, and McCain makes statements with Lieberman feeding him his lines.

And Obama has organized volunteers to do real work on the ground.

So, if you think about all those things, it's obvious why the GOP-controlled media had to ignore the flooding in favor of the ready-for-TV passing of Russert.

Poor guy, later someone is bound to blame his death as the excuse for the GOP-controlled media ignoring the flooding.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. It goes deeper than that,

if I don't know how bad that is... aka regular citizen, I cannot get angry at them for lousy response

In my particular case I would not send memo to senator reminding her how to bring in the cavalry we need from other countries

Remember, with Katrina we had that help in-place FAST and state ended up throwing up its hands in about ten days.

Last thing they want is a repeat of that.

[ColbertWatcher]

30. Last thing they want is a repeat of that.

Which is why I am confused by the response.

Hell, they didn't even put on a show of responding.

[orleans]

12. KICKIN and recommending! great thread. n/t

[cascadiance]

24. The state's main water testing facility is in Iowa City at their Oakdale campus...

The Hygienic Laboratory is also used for other forms of environmental testing (air quality, health, etc.)

http://www.uhl.uiowa.edu/

I used to work there many years ago and have friends that still work there that will probably be pretty busy in the coming months. Hopefully Oakdale will still stay high in the flood plain to keep it from getting messy, though I'm sure its hard for employees to get there as long as the floodwaters stay high there. They also have a branch lab in Des Moines too which might be able to handle a lot of the work while things are still a mess in Iowa City, but keep our fingers crossed that they don't get messed up.

Of course it would be the disaster capitalism folks to make a plot that works around them inflating the population of the nearby prison facility in Oakdale with prisoners being evacuated from Cedar Rapids and other jails too that would create an incident to shut down this lab as well! :) Hope though that the fact they are moving prisoners here is a sign that the Oakdale campus is "above the fray" in terms of being a victim of flood waters rising more there, for all of the state's sake there in terms of getting environmental testing helping fix things in the weeks to come!

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/NEWS/80612026/1130/COMM08

...
A total of 400 inmates from the Linn County Jail were transported to state prisons in other counties.

About 365 male inmates were divided into two groups and transported to prisons at Oakdale and Anamosa. Another 48 prisoners were transferred to the state women's prison at Mitchellville, said Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa prison system.

"This is an emergency, and everybody has to step up and help each other," he said. "It's about public safety, so the main thing is to keep them secure."

[Donkeykick]

25. All of this flooding going on...

and not only is the news still on Russert, but now I see that Dubya's plane has landed for a visit with Queen Elizabeth. That's watching out for the interests of the good ole USA, huh. :eyes:

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. In a media that could walk and chew gum them breaking for five

minutes to tell us that Dubya landed would be fine...

Then again, Dubya should have cancelled the trip, like any other reasonable head of state out there.

See President Calderon of Mexico, who is also an ass, he was abroad when the mess in Tabasco started, he flew home within 12 hours

[cascadiance]

28. The corporate media hasn't reported this yet, but crest may have already passed now in Iowa City

The graph image of flood stage and projection has been greatly revised over the last few hours to show that the peak has already past and is not going to happen on Tuesday as earlier predicted.

The Weather Channel is still reporting that it is projected to rise in the last hour. Not sure if they've not looked for updates on this yet, or if not reporting that things are getting better is part of the "Disaster Capitalism" "Shock Doctrine" M.O.

Latest graph now:

[lonestarnot]

29. Hang on Iowa! Hang on! Stick together like glue!