New Orleans - Not ready for Prime time - Carnival pulls the Triumph

Carnival Cruise Lines has announced that it will NOT send the Carnival
Triumph to New Orleans this year and is canceling all bookings made on that
ship for New Orleans departures. Instead, the Triumph will stay in Miami
and do "exotic Eastern Caribbean" 7 night itineraries.

In their letter to travel agents, Carnival says that the public's perception
is that New Orleans is just not ready yet... and the public is right.
Bottom line is that Carnival was having trouble selling cruises from NOLA.
They will leave the Fantasy there doing 4 and 5 night cruises for now with
hopes of adding a second ship some time in the future.

I was in New Orleans last week and took a tour of the areas devastated by
Hurricane Katrina.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN NEW ORLEANS IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE!

60% of Orleans Parish is still without electricity
60% of Orleans Parish is still without running water
60% of Orleans Parish has no public sewer capability
Saint Bernard Parish is pretty much totally uninhabitable.
New Orleans has NO FULLY OPERATIONAL HOSPITAL. Only basic emergency cases
are seen. Anyone needing more than basic care is sent elsewhere.

People would love to move back into the city and rebuild their homes.
Problem is that you can't put a trailer on your own property unless there is
sewer, water and electricity and the government isn't restoring sewer, water
and electricity. Add insult to injury, the government is telling people to
either fix or demolish their damaged homes (but no way to get a permit) and
if the homes aren't fixed, the city will demolish them and bill the owner
for costs.

Let me repeat this.... 18 months AFTER Katrina, 60% of Orleans Parish HAS
NO ELECTRICITY, HAS NO RUNNING WATER AND THERE IS NO FULL-SERVICE HOSPITAL.

Imagine that happening in your town. Imagine it happening in Boston because
before Katrina, Boston and New Orleans had about the same population. Can
you imagine the government leaving 60% of Boston without electricity, water,
sewer or a hospital for 18 months?

My personal opinion is that everyone from Mayor Nagin to the Governor of
Louisiana to the people in FEMA to the President of the United States should
be horse-whipped for the way they have miss-handled this emergency. I would
take every politician in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Washington, DC and
drop them in the middle of the Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish and tell
them they can have any home they want because from now on, that is where
they are going to live. What do you want to bet that somehow, some way
things would start to get better almost immediately.

Funny how we have hundreds of billions of dollars to spend in Iraq when the
people in New Orleans don't even have electricity, water or a basic
hospital. I am not an isolationist but when is America going to start
taking care of Americans first?

Don't bother telling me about the liberal press. I have been to New Orleans
and I what I saw with my own eyes made me sick. It is WORSE in person than
it was ever portrayed on TV.

Don't bother telling me that I have no respect for our elected officials...
because I agree with you. I have no respect for ANY elected government
official who has put such a low priority on taking care of the victims of
this natural disaster. Funny how we send billions to tsunami victims on the
other side of the world... but 18 months AFTER Katrina, 60% of Orleans
Parish HAS NO ELECTRICITY, HAS NO RUNNING WATER AND THERE IS NO FULL-SERVICE
HOSPITAL. Funny how this was totally ignored in the President's State of
the Union Address this year. Anyone remember "You're doing a great job,
Brownie!"

Too bad New Orleans isn't a third world country. Then maybe someone in
government would pay attention to them. Funny how we have a plan to restore
electricity, schools and hospitals to Iraq... but we can't seem to get that
done here in the United States... in New Orleans.

George Leppla http://www.countryside-travel.com

April 29, 2007 GGC2007 http://cruisemaster.com/pride.htm
October 14, 2007 MOAGC 3 - http://www.moagc-3.com
January 20, 2008 - Adventure - http://cruisemaster.com/adventure.htm

I think its a great idea to spend billions on a city below sea level.

On Sun, 18 Feb 2007 21:29:55 -0600, "George Leppla" wrote:

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN NEW ORLEANS IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE!

It was foolish to rebuild New Orleans. They should have left what remained after the hurricane to the sea and rebuilt in a higher
area.

We have been to N.O. several times and while it wasn't my favorite city
I did appreciate what she had to offer and her history.
.............I'm with you on this George but don't expect everyone else
to agree. Rebuilding the levee's correctly would be way too
costly.........it makes much more sense to pour billions MORE into Iraq
and prepare for a war with Iran. Watch out California.......with that
kind of thinking you might be next on the elimination list. You have
way too many fires and mudslides not to mention earthquakes. That
leaves the many, many towns in the midwest wiped out by tornadoes. And
Florida just might be in trouble too since they are good for a couple of
hurricanes a year. And as for the people who once lived in N.O. and
have lost everything? Oh well, how sad, too bad.

~Dory~

Bravo George. rosaly

"Dean" wrote

I think its a great idea to spend billions on a city below sea level.

Holland just called to tell you it can be done.

BTW - the original specs for the levees stated that the steel pilings be 30
feet deep. After Katrina, they pulled out the damaged pilings and they are
now laying by the side of the road. To my uneducated eye, they appear to be
12 to 15 feet long. Wonder how that happened? Maybe one of those "no-bid"
or crony contracts. Government corruption has been around for a long time.


--
George Leppla http://www.countryside-travel.com

April 29, 2007 GGC2007 http://cruisemaster.com/pride.htm
October 14, 2007 MOAGC 3 - http://www.moagc-3.com
January 20, 2008 - Adventure - http://cruisemaster.com/adventure.htm

On Feb 19, 9:30 am, "George Leppla" wrote:
"Dean" wrote

I think its a great idea to spend billions on a city below sea level.

Holland just called to tell you it can be done.

George, I tend to agree with what you said - it's an absolute disgrace
how the catastophe of Katrina has been handled. But, one question
popped into my head, when I read the above statement...

How often does Holland find herself in the direct path of a hurricane?

Lee

"LeeNY" wrote

Holland just called to tell you it can be done.

George, I tend to agree with what you said - it's an absolute disgrace
how the catastophe of Katrina has been handled. But, one question
popped into my head, when I read the above statement...

How often does Holland find herself in the direct path of a hurricane?

Holland's system can handle that and more. If interested, look at
http://www.deltawerken.com/en/10.html%3Fsetlanguage=en and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works

Funny how a small country like the Netherlands can afford to take care of
it's own coastal regions... but we can't seem to get a simple set of
effective levees in place.

Maybe they have more money than we do? Nah. Maybe they have their
priorities in order.


--
George Leppla http://www.countryside-travel.com

April 29, 2007 GGC2007 http://cruisemaster.com/pride.htm
October 14, 2007 MOAGC 3 - http://www.moagc-3.com
January 20, 2008 - Adventure - http://cruisemaster.com/adventure.htm

That doesn't sound good. In less than a month I'm leaving on RCI out
of NOLA. I'm spending two nights pre-cruise there. I suppose I
should be OK. I probably should consult the concierge before going
out of the French Quarter.


Carnival Cruise Lines has announced that it will NOT send the Carnival
Triumph to New Orleans this year and is canceling all bookings made on that
ship for New Orleans departures. Instead, the Triumph will stay in Miami
and do "exotic Eastern Caribbean" 7 night itineraries.

In their letter to travel agents, Carnival says that the public's perception
is that New Orleans is just not ready yet... and the public is right.
Bottom line is that Carnival was having trouble selling cruises from NOLA.
They will leave the Fantasy there doing 4 and 5 night cruises for now with
hopes of adding a second ship some time in the future.

I was in New Orleans last week and took a tour of the areas devastated by
Hurricane Katrina.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN NEW ORLEANS IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE!

60% of Orleans Parish is still without electricity
60% of Orleans Parish is still without running water
60% of Orleans Parish has no public sewer capability
Saint Bernard Parish is pretty much totally uninhabitable.
New Orleans has NO FULLY OPERATIONAL HOSPITAL. Only basic emergency cases
are seen. Anyone needing more than basic care is sent elsewhere.

I CANNOT AGREE WITH YOU MORE. When will they take care of people in this
country,my guess is NEVER,Foreign country's come first,U.S.A. low man on
the totem pole


cruise lover