New Orleans starts free Internet wireless system

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/avantgo.hts/front/3490854
New Orleans starts free Internet wireless system

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — In an attempt to boost its stalled economy, the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans is starting the nation's first free wireless Internet network owned and run by a major city.

Mayor Ray Nagin made the announcement at a late morning news conference.

Similar projects elsewhere have been stalled by stiff opposition from telephone and cable television companies aimed at discouraging government competition.

Nagin said the system started operation Tuesday in the Central Business District and the French Quarter. It will be available throughout the city in about a year.

The system uses devices mounted on street lights to cover the city.

Most of the equipment was donated by three companies: Intel, Tropos Networks and Pronto Networks. The system will operate at 512 kilobytes per second as long as the city remains under a state of emergency. That will be slowed once the state of emergency is over — that date has not been determined — to 128 kps in accordance with state law restricting government owned Internet service.

Oil Spills from the Hurricanes....

Two months or more and we are still having issues from these storms. This first story talks about the oil spills and clean ups. Fortunately, we escaped most of that here.

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/avantgo.hts/front/3457319
Nov. 13, 2005, 12:41AM

Spills from hurricanes staining the coast
Industry says there was no way to prepare for spills

By DINA CAPPIELLO
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

CHALMETTE, LA. - When Walter Estrade returned to his home in this refinery town 10 miles southeast of New Orleans, he expected the typical hurricane damage — toppled trees, tossed cars, a waterlogged house.
What he hadn't counted on was the oil.
Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters unleashed 1 million gallons of oil from one of the massive storage tanks at Murphy Oil's nearby refinery. The spill spread over 1 square mile and stained 1,700 homes, making it one of the largest environmental spills to occur in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
But it was far from the only one.

A Houston Chronicle review of data from the National Response Center shows that the two storms caused at least 595 spills, incidents that released untold amounts of oil, natural gas and other chemicals into the air, onto land and into the water.

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This second Story is about the county jail in the county just east of here - say about ten to fifteen miles from here. Shows you how close we came to getting this.

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http://mobile.baytownsun.com/mobilestory.lasso?wcd=23707

Chambers County jail still shut down
By Austin Kinghorn
Baytown Sun

Published November 13, 2005

Hurricane Rita has displaced no Chambers County resident from their home longer than inmates at the county jail.

Nearly two months after Hurricane Rita swept through the area, life has basically returned to normal for law-abiding citizens, but 45 prisoners are still living in an Angelina County jail because Chambers County’s facility has been out of commission since the storm passed.