🚀 go-pugleaf

"Byker" <byker@do~rag.net> wrote in message
news:8rhSe.6150$_84.3137@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> One for the screwy-enough-to-be-true department:  Using cruise ships to
> house the LOOTers until further notice.  Yeah, right.  We've already seen
> what the burrheads did to the Superdome and Astrodome.  Within ten days
> those ships would be so thoroughly trashed that it would be more
> cost-effective to auction them off for scrap.  I'll tell you one thing
> that'll be worth doing:  Start a rumor that this cruise ship business is
> simply "bait" to lure negroids aboard so they can be sent back to Africa.
I
> wouldn't put it past Jesse and Fat Al to fall for it.
>
> Buahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Cruise lines debate use of ships to house Katrina victims
>
> By Tom Stieghorst
> September 1, 2005
>
> The government asked South Florida's cruise industry on Wednesday to
> consider housing storm victims in New Orleans, as the humanitarian crisis
> there intensified and many routes into and out of the city remained under
> water.
>
> A big cruise ship could offer shelter to 2,000 to 3,000 people. Carnival
> Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean Cruises are among the lines operating
ships
> from New Orleans.
>
> But cruise operators noted there were many complicated issues involved in
> mounting a cruise-based relief effort. Among them is the safety of
> navigating the Mississippi River upstream to New Orleans after the storm.
>
> Hurricane winds and storm surge may have sunk objects in the river. There
> were reports of widespread silting of the channels in the river and
> destruction of navigational buoys and other aids. A survey of the channels
> by the Army Corps of Engineers or other authorities will be needed to
assure
> safe passage for ships on the river.
>
> Shallow-draft tugs and barges are currently the only ships cleared for
> operation on the river by the Coast Guard.
>
> Cruise industry officials said they received an exploratory inquiry on
> Wednesday through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which maintains
> close contact with the cruise lines because of health inspections of
ships.
>
> Michael Crye, president of the International Council of Cruise Lines, a
> trade group, said it is still unclear whether the ships would be used to
> evacuate residents, as a base for disaster relief workers, or as long-term
> housing.
>
> "We are exploring what is feasible and trying to talk to the federal
> government," Crye said.
>
> If a ship is used for more than emergency relief, Crye said, there would
> have to be a supply of potable water and a means of delivering food to the
> vessel. Also to be worked out is where the ship would be moored.
>
> The line in perhaps the best position to help is Miami-based Carnival
Cruise
> Lines, although Crye said virtually all of the council's 16 members are
> working on the request.
>
> Carnival has two ships that operate from New Orleans, the Conquest and
> Sensation. The 2,974-passenger Conquest is in Freeport for a previously
> scheduled two-week drydock. It has no scheduled cruises until Sept. 11.
>
> The older 2,052-passenger Sensation is scheduled to complete its current
> five-day cruise today in Galveston, Texas.
>
> In a statement Wednesday, Carnival said it is actively looking at the
> feasibility of using one of its ships for relief and said it intends to
work
> with federal officials if they want a ship in the area.
>
> Cruise ships have been used as floating hotels at sports events such as
> February's Super Bowl in Jacksonville, and the Summer Olympics in Athens,
> Greece. Crye said there has been no discussion yet about whether or how
> cruise lines would be compensated for the use of a ship if it is employed
> for disaster recovery efforts.
>
>
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zcruise01sep01,0,3604734.story?coll=sfla-business-headlines
>
>
>
> Carnival: Feds ask about using cruise ships in Katrina relief
>
> 8/31/2005, 5:26 p.m. CT
> The Associated Press
>
> MIAMI (AP) - Carnival Cruise Lines said Wednesday that the federal
> government has asked whether cruise ships could be used as emergency
> shelters or help in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in some other way.
>
> The world's largest cruise line said that although "to undertake such an
> endeavor would involve many complicated issues, we are actively taking a
> look at it."
>
> Carnival operates 21 ships, each of which holds anywhere from about 1,500
to
> 3,000 passengers.
>
> "It is our intention to work with federal officials to determine the
> feasibility of moving a ship into the area if that is their desire," the
> Miami-based company said.
>
> Meanwhile, a Carnival Cruise ship returning to its Mobile port had to
detour
> around Hurricane Katrina and drop off its vacationers in Tampa.
>
> Many passengers didn't know if they had a home to return to after Katrina
> tore through Louisiana, Mississippi and southwest Alabama.
>
> "I used to live north of the lake," said passenger Sandy Bergeron,
referring
> to Louisiana's Lake Ponchartrain, which rose in Katrina's storm surge and
> flooded New Orleans and other areas.
>
> "I might have a lakefront home now. My home might even be in the lake,"
she
> told the St. Petersburg Times.
>
> The 1,450-passenger Holiday left Mobile last Thursday on a four-day voyage
> to Cozumel, Mexico. The ship was supposed to return to Mobile on Monday,
but
> the storm had shut down the port.
>
> The Holiday now is to begin its trip back to Mobile on Thursday and resume
> normal operations Saturday, Carnival Cruise Lines spokeswoman Jennifer de
la
> Cruz said Wednesday.
>
> When the ship stopped Tuesday at Tampa, passengers were given until noon
> Wednesday to disembark. They were also credited $150 to offset the costs
of
> returning home, de la Cruz said.
>
> Joel Moody and Erin Williams, who said they hadn't heard from their family
> in Biloxi, Miss., planned to drive back home immediately.
>
> Other passengers met up with relatives who had traveled to Tampa to escape
> Katrina's wrath.
>
> "There's one thing I've learned on this cruise," said Rodney Atwater, who
> was picked up at the dock by some friends Tuesday. "Do not get on another
> cruise if there's a tropical storm coming across the tip of Florida - no
> matter what the forecasters said."
>
>
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1125527641246452.xml&storylist=louisiana
>
>