I saw one gas station charging $3.39 a couple hours ago. And 7-11 seems to have new and higher prices up everytime I drive by.

Worst I've had in my lifetime was the ice storm last winter that wiped out power for a week due to all the fallen tree limbs and power lines. We get blizzards, but that's just a bunker down and wait it out situation.

We have terrible winters and odd weather, but nothing really serious.

Worst I've had in my lifetime was the ice storm last winter that wiped out power for a week due to all the fallen tree limbs and power lines.  We get blizzards, but that's just a bunker down and wait it out situation.

Worst we've had in Ottawa here was an ice storm in 97/98. Icy roads, broken trees, lotsa ice, no big deal compared to what's happening in NO and what's happened in other places in hurricane country.

 

BTW, gas here in Ottawa hit highs of $1.20 a litre (an average, I believe). I can't speak yet for the rest of Canada, just the local area. It's predicted by the end of September that we'll hit $1.40 a litre (again, also an average).

I think one of the safest places to live in my view is San Antonio. We have the occasional flash flood but typically the tornadoes are north of here. The hurricanes haven't affected us. No earthquakes, blizzards, mudslides, river floods. Seriously, I can't think of a safer place to live.

Gas was $3.19, but just as my tank was filling up it went up to $3.39. Made it just in time.

It's predicted by the end of September that we'll hit $1.40 a litre (again, also an average).

Make that next week, we got up to $1.35 a litre in Quebec City this morning

Pushing $1.25 here after it was around 97 cents for the past week or so.

I think one of the safest places to live in my view is San Antonio. We have the occasional flash flood but typically the tornadoes are north of here. The hurricanes haven't affected us. No earthquakes, blizzards, mudslides, river floods. Seriously, I can't think of a safer place to live.

I can. When was the last time you heard of any major natural disaster hitting the MD/DC/VA area? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Oh, I forgot that you guys don't have blizzards.

We don't. It barely snowed last winter. The last winter that was even remotely rough was about 4-5 years ago and that was maybe a week's worth of heavy snow but nothing even remotely resembling a BLIZZARD.

This sure turned into a game of "my city's dick is bigger than your city's dick."

I think one of the safest places to live in my view is San Antonio. We have the occasional flash flood but typically the tornadoes are north of here. The hurricanes haven't affected us. No earthquakes, blizzards, mudslides, river floods. Seriously, I can't think of a safer place to live.

I can. When was the last time you heard of any major natural disaster hitting the MD/DC/VA area? Yeah, that's what I thought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Isabel

Aside from the occassional terror scare, I think we are pretty safe in NYC.

Aside from the occassional terror scare, I think we are pretty safe in NYC.

What about King Kong and Godzilla?

I thought Godzilla terrorized Tokyo. Never knew he took a trip to NYC.

He did. Laid a bunch of eggs in MSG, which had to be blown up.

 

Of course, perhaps it's better if that trip was forever forgotten.

I think Al meant the latest Godzilla movie with Matthew Broderick.

Never saw it.

 

Hey flyboy, what about them Spurs? (Tell me your thoughts in sports)

I think Al meant the latest Godzilla movie with Matthew Broderick.

Yes. Good god that was awful.

 

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees"

 

- W on Good Morning America today

 

 

 

WTF?

In W's defense, I thought the levees would have dropped during the storm, not after it.

A lot of the Army Corps funding for projects on the levees were cut out of the budget and diverted to Iraq.

 

Oops.

 

I don't want to drag politics into this, but it's going to become hard to ignore that had the funding not been cut, perhaps NO wouldn't be under water now.

The funding didn't make a difference in this situation. Even with the added money they were only like 4 years into a 10 year project. Even had this project been completed I think the city was fucked. I don't think this was a preventable disaster.

 

I'm curious why it was the federal governments job to deal with this. It sounds like more of a local responsibility for city upkeep.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention. They had just started talking about upgrading the levees to be able to handle a storm the calibur of Katrina last year.

Well we'll never know if it would have made a difference or not, since the project was never completed. It's very possible that due to geography NO was fucked either way, but it would have been nice to try.

 

The Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of most levees and dams, so that's why their funding is a federal issue.

 

The funding was cut for other projects, no advance preparation was in place, and people in NO are saying FEMA's response has been nothing short of horrendous. Looks like they're intent on letting the folks die out there with this level of sheer incompetence on the federal level.

EDIT: Responding to MAd Dog

 

Well, when the situation demands national attention and is a national concern, as this situation clearly illustrates, then it is absolutely mandatory for the national govt. to step in, esp. if you support this national defense bullshit that has been spewed to justify the war and everything else. If you want to protect your citizens, what better way than by strengthening your infrastructure, regardless of what state it is in or what the role of city govt. happens to be?