Taro T

Ok, now that its all been settled that the whole thing was Nagin's fault, or Blanco's fault, or Bush's fault; etc. etc. and NO is starting to get drained, are there any guesses as to how the next 6 months to 2 years play out? There are now something like 1MM people displaced from 3 states. I am certain that local, state, and federal officials have "plans" for what to do following a disaster. I just would be surprised if any of the details of the plans have been thought out, as we have NEVER had a disaster of this magnitude on US soil. This is NOT a knock on the planners, it is just my perception of reality. (plan says people go to x and y happens - unfortunately plan doesn't have details of how 250,000 people get to x) If the plan goes FAIRLY smoothly, I will view that as a monstrously good accomplishment. Are there going to be efforts to provide these people jobs in the intermediate term, and are they going to be headed up by govt. or private organizations? Will these people remain concentrated in Texas and Baton Rouge or will they spread across the US? Are the jobs "temporary" with the expectation that the people go back to NO (or Biloxi, or Gulfport, etc.) when rehabitable, or are they "permanent" and NO is much smaller in its next incarnation? I've heard some reports that the business district of NO wasn't beat up as bad as other parts of the city, which would indicate that people could come back to work in fairly short order; but if there isn't anything habitable, could they? Also, just because the main employers could get their people back; would any of the support - grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, necessary be functional? Do the major employers take temporary offices in other cities with plans to return to NO when the support functions are available? I am certain that some of the people will find jobs elsewhere on their own, but with 500,000 - 1MM newly displaced workers, I expect it will generally be difficult for most to find new jobs in what is typically considered a reasonable amount of time. Assuming, NO gets rebuilt (and Biloxi and Gulfport as well), will this result in a renaissance for the city; or will the "best and brightest" find jobs elsewhere in the country, leaving an even greater concentration of low income people in the rebuilt city? I know NO is a major port, but I would imagine that a lot of the "port" activities could be transferred to Baton Rouge. EII and others - is this a plausible scenario? Will Congress actually wait a couple of months to begin hearings, so that the people trying to direct this effort will be able to do what they are supposed to (or at least try) rather than sit in hearings - talking about what they did or did not do in the past rather than doing what they should at the present time; or will the opportunity to try to score political points be overwhelming - much like the urge to get the next fix is to an addict? Unfortunately, I think I know the answer to that one. (Here's your fix, Mr. or Ms. Congresscritter.) I have lived through Andrew's Louisiana foray, but have never been associated with something at this massive a scale. I, obviously, have not been involved with disaster recovery, so any insight from people who do have experience with this will be particularily appreciated. Thanks in advance. Dave.

Thanks for the cronology. Also, thanks to other posters who answered. Dave.

I have seen you post this on a few occasions. Could you please tell me when FEMA was cabinet level (my understanding is that it is an agency and not a department and its head would not be a member of the cabinet) and when it was reduced in stature? Was it part of the creation of the Homeland Security Department? Thanks in advance. Dave.

Thanks for the update. Dave.

JP's preseason quarterback rating? Dave.

Yeah, and he also missed a 28 yarder against Pittsburgh. After the 5th game, when he was 1 of 3, Lindell was never given a chance to kick another 40+ yarder. I'd rather take my chances with an unproven kid, rather than a "proven" Lindell. Dave.

No, he's not. The weather for the game played on January 20, 1991 was "light rain, 36 degrees, 10/15 mph winds" (Source: 1993 Buffalo Bills media guide) The wather for the January 15, 1994 game was as follows. "The gametime temperature was zero, the windchill was minus 32, making this the coldest game in which the Bills ever had played." (Source: Relentless - the hard-hitting history of Buffalo Bills football) Dave.

They are going to wear the throwbacks this Sunday vs. Houston. They also plan wear them on the road for one game. I've heard that San Diego is the most likely candidate, but haven't heard of that one getting finalized. If the Saints play in Buffalo, I think they should wear them for that one as well, but the Saints would probably want to wear their home blacks, so they wouldn't be able to. Dave.

If he had announced a personal contribution, then you'd have tons of people screaming about him trying to capitalize on the tragedy. I really find it hard to believe that there are people in this country who are thinking about donating to the relief effort that are saying: "boy, if only the president would give money; then I could". I also seem to recall there being billions of dollars donated and successful blood drives after 9/11, and I don't recall (maybe I just missed it) hearing about W making a personal donation. My guess is that he did donate as did millions of other Americans, but I don't recall him making a big deal out of it. Dave.

Wow, that didn't take him long to go from blaming everything on FEMA to blaming everything on the governor. Dave.

Could you save 10 minutes if you boiled the noodles in the pickle juice? Or would that just be wrong? Dave.

Not that it would matter much, because it is one of the worst teams in the league, but wouldn't SF have to cut a player to make temporary room for Rice now that rosters are limited to 53 players? I've never seen a team bring someone back for a day during the regular season, just so the person could retire from that particular team. Dave.

I would be very surprised to see Losman get pulled. The only way I would expect to see Losman pulled is if the team is losing by a large margin (17+ points) late in the 3rd quarter. With the defense the Bills have, I doubt that Houston could get that big of a lead. Of course if he had a couple of int's returned, it could happen; but as I stated, I'd be surprised to see that happen. I expect that the game plan will be a lot of Willis, followed by more Willis, with JP sticking to relatively safe throws. My guess is that the Bills win a rather offenseless game, 14 - 10. (Notice, I don't expect the Bills to make any field goals.) Dave.

I remember reading a few years back that very few Bills quarterbacks won their 1st game started as a Bill. (I want to say there are like 3, and surprisingly Todd Collins is in that group.) Does anyone know what the records are? My guess is that JP will be able to buck this trend due to the defense hopefully overwhelming Houston. Thanks in advance. Dave.

Yeah, but all the media outlets (except Fox and the WSJ) lead with the headline: "BUSH CAN'T SWIM!". Dave.

Can he kick? We know Lindell can't. Dave.

You forgot Peerless and hopefully soon you'll have forgotten Lindell. Dave.

The sad part is, those 2 games will cost us the playoffs. Just like last year. Has any other team in the last 20 years had a kicker so bad that they only let him try 3-40 yarders? I can't believe that there isn't one kicker available who is better than this guy. If the team gets stuck with him and he does cost the Bills 2 games to miss the playoffs, will anybody else look at the decision to let Drew Preston get a few snaps as the snapper as the moment that killed the season? Before the missed extra point, Lindell was kicking well (one miss and it was from ~54 yards) and he was getting good distance on his kickoffs (about 50% inside the 2 yard line). Since the missed extra point he has missed at least 2 more field goals and I haven't seen him get one inside the 10 (in fairness, I didn't see either of his kickoffs tonight). He has become the head case he was last year. Oh well, there's always next year. Dave.

I've been happy with Gandy's performance in the preseason. My concern is with Bennie Anderson. Especially for all the hype, he seems to be the weak link on this line. Dave.

Warrick is from Baton Rouge and his mother was a cop there. She was killed in an attempted robbery at a night deposit box at one of the local banks. Warrick is a tremendous individual and I hope that the people he was appealing to heed his call. Dave.

Could you please explain to me why it is the federal government's responsibility to have levees that will withstand category 6 huricanes and nuclear explosions in New Orleans? Why couldn't New Orleans or the state of Louisiana have done anything to upgrade the levees? The residents and local governments (and yes the federal government as well) have know for a long time (perhaps ever since people started moving to New Orleans) that the area can, will, and does get hit with major hurricanes. (There was a major near miss in the early 90's when Andrew came through and did a number on Baton Rouge ~70 miles down the road.) Can we dispense with the blame for a few days? Can we allow the people that are trying to save the desperate people down there to do their jobs without saying (and I paraphrase (it is not an exact quote): "if the evil whitehouse would only have let us spend $18 billion (source: WSJ Wednesday) we could have made designed and built levees that would not have failed; just like the 17 federal levees (out of nearly 100 total levees that failed) that did fail in the early 90's Mississippi River flood (source:WSJ Tuesday (might have been Monday edition, I do not still have that one in front of me))")? It is horrible what happened and there will be plenty of time - years - to decide where and how to cast blame. Can we for now just say a prayer for the people down there and write a check to our favorite relief organization? I apologise for the tone of this reply; I realize that you are as frustrated as I am and many other posters are at the inability to do anything more to help these people now, but I just needed to get this off my chest. Dave.

New Orleans cops quitting in the middle of this, I would consider abandoning the mayor. They are and they have. (Source: the Baton Rouge Advocate website) Dave.

Apparently, for at least the last 10 years, UB didn't realize they have a team either.

My bad. Thanks for the correction. Dave.

According to the top post in this thread, it was Rob Lee the rookie cornerback that was cut, not Rashard Lee the running back. Dave.