South of the Suwannee

A good Saturday for Florida football teams -- eight teams played; seven won. Four teams put up 45 points or better, including University of South Florida in its upset of ninth-ranked Louisville.

Since it wasn't broadcast, few people saw what had to be one of the most exciting games of the day: Bethune-Cookman's 63 to 61 victory over Norfolk State in the fourth overtime period.

Save the Biltmore is a website established by a group of individuals who want to see the 1897 hotel preserved. A number of good photos, history and links.

From Foote's Forecast:

11PM [9-21-05]UPDATE... I am just sitting in stunned silence that in less than one month, we have witnessed with our own eyes TWO of the FOUR strongest hurricanes [ever] in the Atlantic basin, and Rita is now tied with Katrina for highest winds, at 175 mph. Believe it or not, the NHC official forecast brings Rita onshore near Galveston at 155 mph, which combined with forward motion of 10-15 mph, is essentially a Cat 5. We are talking absolute total devastation of all structures within a 40 mile radius of where this makes landfall extending inland for 20-30 miles or more. If this happens, it will far outstrip Katrina's damage path, and costs could exceed $200 billion.

I don't have any particular insight into what is happening, but having lived in Florida all my life (and thus having been aware of what hurricanes are doing) I have never witnessed anything like this . . .

Scapegoating, however, is a different matter:

Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.

The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."
..........
Whoever is behind the e-mail may have spotted the Sept. 8 issue of National Review Online that chastised the Sierra Club and other environmental groups for suing to halt the corps' 1996 plan to raise and fortify 303 miles of Mississippi River levees in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

The corps settled the litigation in 1997, agreeing to hold off on some work until an environmental impact could be completed. The National Review article concluded: "Whether this delay directly affected the levees that broke in New Orleans is difficult to ascertain."

The problem with that conclusion?

The levees that broke causing New Orleans to flood weren't Mississippi River levees. They were levees that protected the city from Lake Pontchartrain levees on the other side of the city.

Excerpted from the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger)

Back home in time for another hurricane!