Well Stevie...having moved this weekend, I gotta say you're right. No one who survived Katrina needs the stress involved in looking for a new home. Then again, most of them no longer have internet access to let MoveOn help them...
Don

There are no housing offers currently within 100 miles of New Orleans. There are 2 offers within 200 miles of N.O.

It's a good idea. It will probably make more sense over the next few weeks. They should set up some centers where there are many displaced people and provide computing resources and assistance to find matches, get some attention too.

Seems like you right wing morons don't have much to say now that Bush, along with the help of the Republican congress, have caused the crisis in New Orleans. Maybe if they hadn't cut funds for levis and flood control in 2001 for New Orleans, you would be able to talk more, but frankly it's nice to see that you idiots know when to shut up and thats obviously when your DEAD wrong. Along with many of the people in New Orleans. Unfortunately their less wrong then they are dead. Keep up the terrible work right wing. Your just making it easier for Democrats in 2006 and 2008.

Thanks for setting the example, Nate.

Wait — right.

We're a solid 8 hours from New Orleans (north Alabama), but the hotels here are reporting a glut of refugees saying that this was the first area they'd reached with vacancies.

Grow up, Nate. The adults are busy right now and can't be bothered with you.

hmm, wow.
I hope Nate isn't typing this on his wi-fi laptop atop the roof of a Prius floating along Bourbon Street.
Before the conspiracy theories of Bush consorting with with his fundamentalist Judeo-Christian God, Storm of the X-Men, and Jerry Falwell to bring meteorlogical disaster to the US for its manifold sins officially hit the airwaves, some should take a moment to think back a bit...

We have always known that in the event of a major hurricane, New Orleans is a goner. I am 20 years old know and I knew that to be gospel truth back in middle school (during the Clinton Presidency if we want to keep this partisan). Now how did I know that? National Geographic had the decency to inform all its subscribers in its magazine and videos of what the scientiffic community has common knowledge for some time now. So what I watched less than 8 years ago has finally come to pass. Perhaps Bush was lazy, unprudent, or rather ignorant when he didnt push for more levies to be built, but then you could say the same about Clinton, and who knows if they would have held?

If i were to blame somebody, maybe I would initially target the state of Louisiana for not screaming its head off about this knowledge and sending to capitol hill senators charged for the sole purpose of doing soemthign about it. But i do not have enough information to make that accusation. And realistically, the only way to avoid such a disaster would be to rebuild the city 10 or so feet higher-and who can immagine that proposition going over well during peacetime, or rather, normal sea levels.

Its like Knossoss, or Atlantis, or Pompeii, yet the only difference being that they didnt know what was going to happen. N.O. on the other hand had years of not decades of forewarning. But faced with a deadline, ultimatum, or looming future, humans are notoriously inadequate. Hey, the sun is going to expand into a Red Giant in 2.4-5 billion years and destroy all life on earth, yet I see no plans for for an intergalactic ark to deliver us to a new habitat in the far corner of the universe. Hell, that could be why Bush is so interested in Mars as of late. Or even more relative, why he has been pushing to reform social security now

There is enough time to assess blame later, and yes I know its comming. What needs to be focused on is sorting out the mess. I'm sure when we have all the facts we can have a good ole mean spirited hate fest.

sorry for leaving a Chuck(le) long post

Bean- In every science class related to weather in school I remember learning about New Orleans when we studied "places that are basically doomed" a la Pompeii. Liberal science teachers would say again and again how New Orleans was not a very smart place to live in. My family had lived there for hundreds of years, but when our houses started to sink, we left.

With all the talk of rebuilding, I do hope they will map the most vulnerable areas and institute tough zoning laws and building codes. I'm not blaming the people who lived there, many of them had no choice or didn't know any better.

We heard a report on NPR that a woman in Idaho Falls and her neighbors are trying to coordinate having basically a whole neighborhood from NO come to them. That way, their kids could all go to the same school and they could maintain a sense of community while they learn what happens next. We're talking about this idea with our neighbors, several of whom seem on board with it.

It's a big commitment since, a year after one of the biggies hit Florida, rebuilding of housing was still going on. Plus we live in PA, which probably will have a sorting effect: those people willing to start over completely in a new area are more likely to come our way than people who intend to go back, I'd think.

Maybe if they hadn't cut funds for levis

How would more jeans have helped?

I blame the French! Aren't they the ones who picked the townsite?

When I checked the site out, it had just over 37,000 beds available. Curious, I hit refresh about 20 seconds after getting there. That number had grown to 37,800.

It's now up to 37,900. Absolutely amazing.

Hey Nate.

Maybe if the NOLA government hadn't used those funds as their own personal party budget quite so much, the funding wouldn't have been cut.

Everybody's really quick to blame Bush just for making the decision, but nobody ever questions WHY the decision was made. I don't know for sure what the reasons were, but I do know that an awful lot of federal funds go into state and local government coffers to get thrown around like petty cash by corrupt bureaucrats... and NOLA is *known* to have had one of the most corrupt local governments in the nation.

Let's not forget: these levees needed repair and maintenance LONG before Bush cut the funding. It doesn't take too much in the way of brains to say "WTF are they doing with that funding?" and decide that maybe they don't really need so much of it after all.

After all, sooner or later, you have to tell the local crackhead he doesn't get any more money for "food" because he's not buying food with it, and if he then proceeds to starve to death... maybe he *should* have bought food with it.

Added note: maybe I'm being completely nuts, but it seems like a good thing to send to NO right around now would be *dirt*, i.e. enough to raise the level of the town about ten to twelve feet.