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New Orleans marks One year after Hurricane Katrina
Ernesto heads for Florida, USA

ATCA Briefings


ATCA: The Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance is a philanthropic expert initiative founded in 2001 to understand and to address complex global challenges. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on global opportunities and threats arising from climate chaos, radical poverty, organised crime, extremism, informatics, nanotechnology, robotics, genetics, artificial intelligence and financial systems. Present membership of ATCA is by invitation only and has over 5,000 distinguished members: including several from the House of Lords, House of Commons, EU Parliament, US Congress & Senate, G10's Senior Government officials and over 1,500 CEOs from financial institutions, scientific corporates and voluntary organisations as well as over 750 Professors from academic centres of excellence worldwide.

The views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. Please do not forward or use the material circulated without permission and full attribution.



intentBlog: New Orleans Anniversary & Ernesto hits Florida

London, UK - 29 August 2006, 12:50 GMT - New Orleans marks One year after Hurricane Katrina -- Ernesto heads for Florida, USA

[Please note that the views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on global opportunities and threats.]

On the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which battered the US Gulf Coast and swamped New Orleans last year, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Officials and residents are mindful of nature's force a year to the day since Hurricane Katrina flooded most of New Orleans, killing 1,500 people and causing over USD 80 billion in damage.

Meanwhile, tropical Storm Ernesto has begun intensifying on Tuesday as it has left Cuba and heads over open water towards south Florida where forecasters say there is a chance it can come ashore at hurricane strength. A state of emergency is in effect in Florida as Ernesto approaches. Residents are stocking up on supplies and tourists have been ordered out of the Florida Keys while courts and schools remain closed.

A year after one of the worst natural disasters in US history, the shattered city of New Orleans has turned its attention to mourning and also celebrations of life. In broken neighbourhoods, churches and the City Hall, residents are gathering on Tuesday for vigils marking the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. They plan to remember the dead, ringing bells to mark the moment one of the city's flood walls breached and water engulfed the northern edges of the city.

The US National Hurricane Center said Ernesto is expected to come ashore along the middle to upper Florida Keys and heavily populated south Florida in 18 to 24 hours. Ernesto was briefly the year's first hurricane on Sunday when its top winds reached 75 mph (121 kph) before it weakened over the mountains of Haiti.

In New Orleans, Wreathes will be laid on the site of each successive levee break, dotting the city with bouquets in a commemoration of the flood. In one of the Crescent City's age-old traditions, a jazz funeral is to wind through downtown streets, beginning with a sombre dirge and ending with a song of joy.

At the city's convention centre, where for days tired refugees waited last year in vain for food, medical assistance and buses, President Bush is to join an ecumenical prayer service. Others plan to mark the occasion privately at home with their own prayers, including personal calls for protection.

Katrina touched Florida before making landfall at 6:10am Local Time on August 29th, 2005, in Buras, a tiny fishing town 65 miles south of New Orleans on one of the fingers of land jutting out into the Gulf of Mexico. Entire blocks of houses, bars and shops have vanished as they were whipped into the Gulf by a wall of water 21 feet high. In New Orleans, the sun came out after the violent winds subsided, but the worst came after that: The industrial canal began to leak, and when two sections of the wall fell, a muddy torrent was released that yanked homes off their foundations. Throughout the city, other parts of the levee system began to fail. With each breach came a cascade of water, until 80 percent of the city was submerged.
Throughout New Orleans, white trailers still line driveways in neighbourhoods where debris is stacked up in piles and unchecked weeds have overtaken abandoned houses. Only half the population has returned. Emergency medical care is doled out in an abandoned department store, while six of New Orleans' nine hospitals remain closed. Only 54 of 128 public schools are expected to open this fall. The one-year mark is a reminder of how much still needs to be done.

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We look forward to your further thoughts, observations and views. Thank you.

Best wishes


For and on behalf of DK Matai, Chairman, Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance (ATCA)


ATCA: The Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance is a philanthropic expert initiative founded in 2001 to understand and to address complex global challenges. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on global opportunities and threats arising from climate chaos, radical poverty, organised crime, extremism, informatics, nanotechnology, robotics, genetics, artificial intelligence and financial systems. Present membership of ATCA is by invitation only and has over 5,000 distinguished members: including several from the House of Lords, House of Commons, EU Parliament, US Congress & Senate, G10's Senior Government officials and over 1,500 CEOs from financial institutions, scientific corporates and voluntary organisations as well as over 750 Professors from academic centres of excellence worldwide.

The views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. Please do not forward or use the material circulated without permission and full attribution.


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intentBlog: New Orleans Anniversary & Ernesto hits Florida

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