Salon.com > Hurricane Sandy http://www.salon.com Fri, 03 May 2013 20:06:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Peter King: “I wouldn’t want to be involving New York with Ted Cruz” http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/peter_king_i_wouldnt_want_to_be_involving_new_york_with_ted_cruz/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/peter_king_i_wouldnt_want_to_be_involving_new_york_with_ted_cruz/#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 13:50:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13287544 Rep. Peter King doesn't think the New York GOP should have invited Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to host its fundraiser this month, in light of his vote against Hurricane Sandy relief aid. "I wouldn't want to be involving New York with Ted Cruz," King said.

"He went out of his way to attack New York on the bill,” King, R-N.Y., added, the New York Daily News reports. "It's a little early to forgive and forget."

“It’s life and death,” King continued. “There were really false and phony charges made against the Sandy aid, and if Ted Cruz had prevailed, my constituents would be homeless."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/peter_king_i_wouldnt_want_to_be_involving_new_york_with_ted_cruz/feed/ 3 Christie: I don’t regret sparring with GOP over Sandy relief http://www.salon.com/2013/04/29/christie_i_dont_regret_sparring_with_gop_over_sandy_relief/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/29/christie_i_dont_regret_sparring_with_gop_over_sandy_relief/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:12:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13284558 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday that he doesn't regret sparring with Republicans who were holding up relief funding after Huricane Sandy. “I say the same thing to all my critics, no matter where they are in the spectrum, and that is that I’ve got a job to do,” Christie said on "Morning Joe" Monday, “and the fact is, There was nothing else that ever crossed my mind in the days after.”

He continued: "You’ve got people suffering and you say to yourself, I’ve got to do my job. I say the same thing to all of them – put yourself in my shoes, and if you’re a responsible elected official, you would do nothing different.”

At the time, Christie sharply criticized House Speaker John Boehner and other House Republicans for holding up a vote on relief funds after the hurricane, meanwhile praising President Obama for his efforts in the state.

“Listen, I supported Mitt Romney and I was very vocal about it,” Christie added. “But the fact is, presidential politics was not the first thing on my mind that day. It was getting my state recovered and restored.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/29/christie_i_dont_regret_sparring_with_gop_over_sandy_relief/feed/ 2 Why do we love to look at strangers’ family photographs? http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/why_do_we_love_to_look_at_strangers_family_photographs_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/why_do_we_love_to_look_at_strangers_family_photographs_partner/#comments Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:58:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13268060 ONE OF NEW YORK’s most sophisticated galleries of interactive art used to be on St. Mark’s Place. And I do mean on St. Mark’s, out on the sidewalk. Itinerant street vendors would set up tables piled with the detritus of anonymous lives, cast off books, earrings, scarves, toy trucks, every item compressed under the weight of a small sadness. It almost seemed unkind to look, as if you were staring at a stranger weeping in private grief. But the collection of black-and-white photographs shoved under a table practically sang out its conspiratorial invitation: Complete me.
The Weeklings

I’ll never forget the moment when, after fishing blindly in this box of a thousand dead memories, I pulled out a work of art.  It had not been intended as one; it was just a snapshot.  But it was aesthetically bewitched.  The time it took for a shutter to open and close in, oh, I don’t know—a sheared-off sliver of one second in Depression-struck 1932?—was the exact amount of time it took the eye to remake it. A picture of a picture, this time taken by the beholder.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/why_do_we_love_to_look_at_strangers_family_photographs_partner/feed/ 2 Dick Morris makes Chris Christie-ice cream joke at CPAC http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/dick_morris_makes_chris_christie_ice_cream_joke_at_cpac/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/dick_morris_makes_chris_christie_ice_cream_joke_at_cpac/#comments Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:57:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13228940 Speaking to a sparse audience at CPAC on Thursday, former Fox News contributor Dick Morris cracked a joke about Gov. Chris Christie, who was not invited to speak at the conference.

"After Barack let him ride on Air Force One, he gave him an ice cream cone," Morris said.

The famously inaccurate pundit was presumably alluding to a ride Obama and Christie took together to tour devastation in New Jersey stemming from Hurricane Sandy. Christie has gotten on the bad side of some conservatives for praising the president's handling of the disaster and its aftermath.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/dick_morris_makes_chris_christie_ice_cream_joke_at_cpac/feed/ 17 The federal government’s enormous rebuilding gamble http://www.salon.com/2013/03/06/the_federal_governments_enormous_rebuilding_gamble_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/06/the_federal_governments_enormous_rebuilding_gamble_partner/#comments Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:52:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13220635 ProPublica This story is being co-published with New York public radio’s WNYC.

If Staten Island’s Great Kills Marina Café is able to reopen this spring after Sandy ripped apart its interior – blowing out windows and punching through walls – it will be thanks to assistance from the federal government.

The Small Business Administration has approved the restaurant for a disaster loan of almost $1 million.

There’s just one problem: Newly drawn FEMA flood maps show the cafe is at high risk of flooding again, raising the question of whether it makes sense to rebuild there or move elsewhere.

The cafe is not alone.

A WNYC and ProPublica analysis of federal data shows at least 10,500 home and business owners have been approved for $766 million in SBA disaster loans to rebuild in areas that the government now says could flood again in the next big storm. The data, which shows loans approved through mid-February, was obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.

More loans could be going to flood-prone areas. The analysis did not cover Long Island or Connecticut.

The loans require borrowers to get flood insurance, which in turn could encourage some to rebuild properties to be more flood-resistant. However, for many owners there’s no requirement they raise their properties to the heights FEMA recommends.

The result: the federal government is helping people rebuild despite the risk that flooding will again destroy the properties.

The SBA says it’s not their job to assess whether it’s smart to build in flood-prone areas.

“Our mission is to help these homeowners and business become whole again,” said Carol Chastang, an SBA spokeswoman. “We really aren't in a position to tell people where or where not to rebuild.”

Such a hands-off approach worries a diverse coalition of advocates -- including conservative groups, environmental organizations, insurance associations and housing coalitions. These groups are urging government at all levels to change the way it builds in disaster-prone areas and insures such properties.

Environmental groups like the National Wildlife Federation say the best flood protection are wetlands and to leave stretches of the coast undeveloped.

“Ideally we’re going to help people move away from the flood zone and not give them assistance to rebuild exactly as is,” said Joshua Saks, the federation’s legislative director. “But we recognize it’s a very personal decision, it’s a local decision.”

For Sam Corigliano, the decision is obvious. Corigliano opened the Great Kills Marina Café in 1980 and built it into a neighborhood fixture over the years.

“We’ve been here 32 years, had 32 years of good luck, and good fortune and laughs. We’ve had parties here, christenings, family events, a lot of happy times. We had one bad day,” Corigliano said. “You don’t walk away from one bad day.”

The program

Disaster loans are one of the main tools the federal government has to help homeowners, nonprofits and business owners after something like Sandy. The Small Business Administration provides as much as $200,000 for damaged homes and $2 million for businesses. In rare cases, homeowners might qualify to have a portion of their mortgage refinanced with an SBA loan.

The loans carry low interest rates – as little as 1.7 percent for home loans and as low as 4 percent for business loans -- and can be repaid over 30 years.

As of mid-February, the SBA approved more than 21,500 disaster loans worth $1.5 billion for Sandy-related damage, according to a copy of the loan database WNYC and ProPublica obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The SBA estimates it could ultimately approve as much as $2.5 billion worth of Sandy-related disaster loans.

The loans are an important tool the government uses to help stabilize an area’s tax base, said James Rivera, associate administrator in the SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance and the official in charge of the disaster loan program.

“It’s good government. I mean, basically it’s what the private sector won’t do,” Rivera said.

The SBA also checks to make sure applicants have an ability to repay the loans. Government loan officers will check an applicant’s credit history, finances and collateral. The SBA approves about 52 percent of applicants, Rivera said.

Field inspectors assess damage and determine the maximum amount the SBA will loan.

The SBA disburses the money like a construction loan – in chunks as work is completed – minus whatever a borrower’s insurance covers.

The flood zone

At the same time the SBA was approving disaster loans, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was releasing new “advisory” flood zone maps.

Approved maps ultimately determine flood insurance rates and help builders decide how high to make their properties. The existing maps that govern building along the coast are from 1983.

The new preliminary maps show FEMA thinks far more properties throughout the region are at risk of flooding. FEMA also says many of those properties already in flood zones should be raised even higher to avoid future damage.

FEMA rushed to release the maps to ensure property owners had the data as they start to rebuild, said Michael Byrne, FEMA’s coordinating officer for New York operations.

“It’s the best science we’ve got. We certainly hope people will take it seriously,” Byrne said.

But the maps won’t become final for as long as three years. And it’s up to local governments to decide if they want to require higher elevations before then.

New York City requires “substantially” damaged properties to rebuild to the existing flood elevations. But in many cases that’s not as high as FEMA now recommends.

Corigliano, owner of the Marina Café, said he’s not raising his restaurant. It would cost too much and take too long.

“You’re probably talking about maybe two years of paperwork. You’re talking Army Corps of Engineers to sink piles and so on and so forth,” he said.

There is no data yet on how many property owners who received a loan will actually rebuild and, of those, how many will raise their properties to withstand a future flood.

Of the loans made in New York City, 83 percent went to a property in areas FEMA says are at risk of flooding, the data shows. In New Jersey 71 percent went to a proposed flood zone.

The recipients

The biggest loan approved as of mid-February was a $1.5 million loan to the Fairfield Beach Club, a private beach and tennis club on the shore of the Long Island Sound in Connecticut. FEMA has not yet released new maps for Connecticut, but the effects of Sandy certainly suggest the club is at risk.

The club’s century-old wood buildings were badly damaged by surging waters, including some that were shifted on their foundations, said Arthur McCain, a member of the club’s finance committee.

McCain said the club will try to raise buildings to help protect them from a future flood. But there’s only so much the club can do.

“If we really wanted to avoid future damage we’ve got to close the club and move inland two or three miles.” McCain said.

Families have enjoyed the beach club since it opened in the late 1880s, he added. And he said if the club were to close it would just leave a blighted piece of land.

McCain also pointed out that the SBA money is a loan and the government will make money off the club, which also pays a considerable amount for flood insurance.

The loans, however, can cost the government.

The default rate on disaster home loans is about 10 percent, and it’s about 20 percent for some business loans, according to the SBA. The administration estimates that it costs taxpayers 11 cents for every $1 of disaster loans.

“These loans do not come without risk to taxpayers,” said Pete Sepp, executive vice president for the National Taxpayers Union. “We need to have a policy that carefully considers whether rebuilding in flood prone areas makes sense and whether such building ought to be encouraged by government or at least abetted by government through the use of aid and loans.”

But locals like Nicholas Dorman don’t want to leave their homes. Dorman, a fireman, bought his home in Staten Island in 2006. It was his first and has been home to his young family.

The house is now leaning after he says the surge smashed boats against the property. He was approved for a $192,100 disaster loan from the SBA. He’s not sure it will be enough and hasn’t even thought about how high he might build. But he wants to find a way.

“It meant everything to us. I had my pension in there. Everything I had into that house. To me it was gorgeous,” Dorman said.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/06/the_federal_governments_enormous_rebuilding_gamble_partner/feed/ 4 The future of the planet rests on the hunched shoulders of Gen Y http://www.salon.com/2013/03/02/post_sandy_millennials_are_at_forefront_of_disaster_relief_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/02/post_sandy_millennials_are_at_forefront_of_disaster_relief_partner/#comments Sat, 02 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13216375 On October 29, Superstorm Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, leaving damage strewn across the Caribbean in its wake. With a diameter of 820 miles, Sandy was the largest Atlantic tropical storm to date and caused roughly $50 billion in damage, making it the second most costly disaster after Hurricane Katrina. Hospitals were evacuated, the stock exchange was closed for the first time since 1888, levees broke, the New York City subway flooded, power was cut to 8 million homes and communities were left to cope with property damage and the loss of loved ones. While damage and hardship were widespread, the storm greatly affected the region’s most vulnerable: the poor, the ill and the elderly.
Next New Deal

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/02/post_sandy_millennials_are_at_forefront_of_disaster_relief_partner/feed/ 4 Peter King: Rubio has some “balls” to fundraise in New York http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/peter_king_rubio_has_some_balls_to_fundraise_in_new_york/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/peter_king_rubio_has_some_balls_to_fundraise_in_new_york/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13215019 Rep. Peter King of New York slammed fellow Republican Marco Rubio for fundraising in New York after voting against federal funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

"Being from New York we’re not supposed to be suckers,” King told the New York Observer's Politicker blog. “It’s bad enough that these guys voted against it, that’s inexcusable enough. But to have the balls to come in and say, ‘We screwed you, now make us president'?"

King said that New York donors should cut off Rubio and any other Republicans who “threw a knife in the back in New York” by opposing the bill. “[Republicans] are more and more taking on this anti-Northeast attitude,” he said. “We say fine, if you want to be anti-Northeast, then the Northeast is going to be anti-them."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/peter_king_rubio_has_some_balls_to_fundraise_in_new_york/feed/ 7 Krauthammer: Christie gave Obama a “lap dance” http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/krauthammer_christie_gave_obama_a_lap_dance/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/krauthammer_christie_gave_obama_a_lap_dance/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:56:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13213615 Charles Krauthammer told Bill O'Reilly that though he thought Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., gave President Obama a "lap dance" after Hurricane Sandy, it was a "vast overreaction" to shut him out of CPAC.

"I think this is a vast overreaction. It's a mistake," Krauthammer said on Fox News. "He's a leading Republican, obviously presidential timbre. He's got the highest popularity of any governor and he's in a blue state."

"Look, I wasn't very happy with what he did at Sandy," he continued. "I thought he deserved three months of quarantine. The three months is up and I'd let him out. I'd have him at CPAC. We should have a wide tent. And if that's what it takes to win elections in the Northeast and nationwide, let's go for it." Krauthammer added that he thinks the CPAC organizers, the American Conservative Union, are "trying to define legitimate ideology fairly narrowly and they want to rule people out."

Watch:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/krauthammer_christie_gave_obama_a_lap_dance/feed/ 13 Christie snubbed from CPAC over Hurricane Sandy aid http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/christie_snubbed_from_cpac_over_hurricane_sandy_aid/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/christie_snubbed_from_cpac_over_hurricane_sandy_aid/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:08:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13213419 Why was Chris Christie really snubbed from the Conservative Political Action Conference? According to Al Cardenas, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, the group that organizes CPAC, it was because the New Jersey governor backed things like the Hurricane Sandy aid bill and the Medicaid expansion.

Cardenas told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that Christie's harsh rhetoric against congressional Republicans during the time that they were blocking the Sandy bill was a dealbreaker. "This past year, we were disappointed with his take on the disaster relief bill," he said. "We're hoping that next year he will give us a reason to invite him again."

He added: "[Christie] made it very hard for Republicans in the Congress at a time when we were trying to deal with fiscal restraint."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/christie_snubbed_from_cpac_over_hurricane_sandy_aid/feed/ 7 “Girls” recap: Ray wants his “Little Women” back http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/girls_recap_ray_wants_his_little_women_back/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/girls_recap_ray_wants_his_little_women_back/#comments Mon, 18 Feb 2013 03:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13204659 Poor Staten Island. After being battered and nearly eclipsed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, it has now suffered an even greater indignity: being made into a metaphor by Ray.

If the “Girls” episodes up until now have been about the hazards of striving, this one is about the perils of having actually arrived. First up is Hannah, who, as the episode begins, is being courted by an actual, real-life, buying-the-drinks editor. He's got gray hair. He knows money men. And he'd like her to write a book — an e-book — the kind that must be delivered in a month. Hannah leaves the lunch and, like a newly expectant mother, pukes on the sidewalk.

Meanwhile, Shoshanna is trying to convince Ray that he should invest in more than the mop he is scornfully pumping up and down. She would like him to attend an entrepreneurship seminar given by Donald Trump. “Don't you want to run your own coffee shop one day?” she asks. Ray laughs at this dubious honor, then hands the mop to Hannah, whose e-book deal, however illustrious, has not yet provided her the means to not be mopping Grumpy's floor. “I can't believe I have a friend who signed a book deal!” breathes Shoshanna. “It's so adult and intriguing!”  Intriguing enough that Hannah herself may need some guidance. “How fast do you think you can write a book?” she asks Shoshanna.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/girls_recap_ray_wants_his_little_women_back/feed/ 8 Wayne LaPierre is very afraid http://www.salon.com/2013/02/14/it_must_suck_to_be_wayne_lapierre/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/14/it_must_suck_to_be_wayne_lapierre/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:33:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13201158 It must be terrifying to be Wayne LaPierre, the man who has led the NRA for the past two decades. For years he has shared his nightmares and fears of daily living with us -- a worldview of paralyzing paranoia, where terrorists, bad weather and Latin American gangsters lurk behind every corner, ready to prey on unarmed citizens.

“Latin American drug gangs have invaded every city of significant size in the United States. Phoenix is already one of the kidnapping capitals of the world," he explains in his latest expression of anguish, an Op-Ed published in the Daily Caller yesterday. "And though the states on the U.S./Mexico border may be the first places in the nation to suffer from cartel violence, by no means are they the last.”

“Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals," he continues. "These are perils we are sure to face -- not just maybe. It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival."

While the world has always been an impossibly forbidding place, LaPierre continues, our socialist president has made it it worse, naturally: “When the next terrorist attack comes, the Obama administration won’t accept responsibility. Instead, it will do what it does every time: blame a scapegoat and count on Obama’s 'mainstream' media enablers to go along.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/14/it_must_suck_to_be_wayne_lapierre/feed/ 141 No matter what, I’m still Catholic http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/no_matter_what_im_still_catholic/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/no_matter_what_im_still_catholic/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:40:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13198914 When Pope Benedict announced Monday that he was stepping down from the job,  he wasn't, as one-third of Americans who were raised Catholic have already done, walking away from the church entirely. He was just giving notice on the professional side of it. But his choice, coming as it did just two days before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the most sacred and thoughtful time in the Catholic year, seemed designed to provoke that familiar, recurring question among many of us who fill the pews on Sunday mornings: What am I still doing here? I found myself wondering yet again why I, a feminist and eternal Christopher Hitchens fangirl, in spite of everything supremely messed up and awful in the church, still call myself a Catholic.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/no_matter_what_im_still_catholic/feed/ 153 After the flood, art still “Matters” http://www.salon.com/2013/02/09/after_the_flood_why_art_still_matters_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/09/after_the_flood_why_art_still_matters_partner/#comments Sat, 09 Feb 2013 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13195590 Printed Matter may be nearing middle age, but the 37-year-old organization shows no sign of slowing down. From its beginnings in New York as an alternative venue for artists’ books, Printed Matter has grown into a publishing house, educational database, bookshop, event space, and gallery. In 2006, it launched the annual NY Art Book Fair at MoMA’s PS1. This month, Printed Matter put on the first LA Art Book Fair at that city’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
ClusterMag

When I was a bibliographic intern at the nonprofit last year, it was hard to imagine anything shaking the unflappable organization, or the Chelsea storefront it has called home since 2005. But then, last October, Hurricane Sandy hit New York. Floodwaters devastated Printed Matter’s basement, which was filled with archival material and the bulk of the store’s inventory. I spoke with Adam O’Reilly, the organization’s development coordinator, about the ways Printed Matter’s work has changed because of the storm and how its nonprofit status has helped it recover.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/09/after_the_flood_why_art_still_matters_partner/feed/ 0 Obama signs $50.5B Superstorm Sandy aid bill http://www.salon.com/2013/01/30/obama_signs_50_5b_superstorm_sandy_aid_bill_2/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/30/obama_signs_50_5b_superstorm_sandy_aid_bill_2/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:50:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13185914 WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has signed into law a $50.5 billion emergency measure for Superstorm Sandy victims.

Congress gave the measure its final approval late Monday. Obama signed it Tuesday night, minutes after returning to the White House from a visit to Nevada.

It took Congress three months after Sandy devastated areas along the East Coast to approve the emergency funding. Obama scolded lawmakers for delaying recovery efforts even as he commended them for providing the long-awaited aid.

Conservatives concerned about billions in debt opposed the measure. Earlier this month, House Republicans removed unrelated spending from the bill.

The Oct. 29 storm was one of the worst to strike the Northeast and is blamed for more than 130 deaths and tens of billions of dollars in property damage.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/30/obama_signs_50_5b_superstorm_sandy_aid_bill_2/feed/ 2 Obama says he’ll sign $50.5B Sandy aid bill soon http://www.salon.com/2013/01/29/obama_says_hell_sign_50_5b_sandy_aid_bill_soon/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/29/obama_says_hell_sign_50_5b_sandy_aid_bill_soon/#comments Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:32:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/2013/01/29/obama_says_hell_sign_50_5b_sandy_aid_bill_soon/ WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said he'll sign a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for Superstorm Sandy victims as soon as it lands on his desk.

Three months after Sandy ravaged coastal areas in much of the Northeast, Obama chided lawmakers for taking their time to approve the funding even as he commended them for providing the long-awaited aid.

"So while I had hoped Congress would provide this aid sooner, I applaud the lawmakers from both parties who helped shepherd this important package though," Obama said in a statement late Monday.

Despite opposition from conservatives concerned about adding billions of dollars to the nation's debt, the Senate cleared the bill, 62-36, after House Republicans had stripped it earlier this month of spending unrelated to disasters.

"This is a huge relief," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Northeast lawmakers said the money is urgently needed to start rebuilding homes, businesses, public transportation facilities and other infrastructure damaged by the Oct. 29 storm, one of the worst to strike the Northeast. Sandy is blamed for more than 130 deaths in the U.S. and tens of billions of dollars in property damages, particularly in New York and New Jersey.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/29/obama_says_hell_sign_50_5b_sandy_aid_bill_soon/feed/ 3 Sandy’s heroes get the Vogue treatment http://www.salon.com/2013/01/17/sandys_heroes_get_the_vogue_treatment/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/17/sandys_heroes_get_the_vogue_treatment/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:34:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13174135 In the new issue of Vogue, Annie Leibovitz shoots key responders to Hurricane Sandy — alongside some of the top models in the industry, dressed in designer togs. There are the models, reclining at the Lexington Avenue Armory while National Guardsmen lift crates of food; there they are pulling just a bit of focus from the neonatal nurses of Bellevue. Ms. Leibovitz even road a Coast Guard response boat in order to nail her shot of three sylphlike models rising from the sea on a military vessel.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/17/sandys_heroes_get_the_vogue_treatment/feed/ 2 Why didn’t anyone ask Christie about climate change? http://www.salon.com/2013/01/10/why_didnt_anyone_ask_christie_about_climate_change/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/10/why_didnt_anyone_ask_christie_about_climate_change/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:13:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13166938 If you watched any news on television Wednesday, you almost certainly caught a glimpse of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during his stunning five -- yes five! -- national television interviews about Hurricane Sandy. The interviews with ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and Fox Business, not surprisingly, featured plenty of 2016 presidential speculation, some conversation about the state of the Republican Party and a bit of discussion about how hard the New Jersey shoreline was hit by the storm.

However, did you happen to notice that something was missing? Yeah, me too. Somehow, in interviews with every major national television news organization about an unprecedentedly severe weather event, Christie wasn't asked about climate change. That's right, he wasn't asked about whether Hurricane Sandy changes his views on climate change or whether Hurricane Sandy means we should address climate change more urgently. He wasn't asked whether homes should be rebuilt in New Jersey's climate-change-threatened areas. He wasn't even asked why he didn't mention climate change in his first state of the state following the hurricane.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/10/why_didnt_anyone_ask_christie_about_climate_change/feed/ 9 Mississippi GOPer backtracks opposition to Sandy relief funding http://www.salon.com/2013/01/09/mississippi_goper_backtracks_opposition_to_sandy_relief/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/09/mississippi_goper_backtracks_opposition_to_sandy_relief/#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13165873 Though he voted against the first round of Hurricane Sandy relief aid, Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., says he has changed his position, following backlash over his 2005 request for federal aid for his own district, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

In a statement, Palazzo says he flipped after touring the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. "I was saddened to see the hard-hit portions of New Jersey and New York. I was reminded of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Mississippians have been through much of what the Sandy victims are experiencing," he said.

"Now is the time for the federal government to provide immediate relief to those affected by the storm," Palazzo continued. "I am fully committed to providing the relief they so desperately need."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/09/mississippi_goper_backtracks_opposition_to_sandy_relief/feed/ 11 N.J. Democrat: Chris Christie “prayed” for Hurricane Sandy http://www.salon.com/2013/01/08/n_j_democrat_chris_christie_prayed_for_hurricane_sandy/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/08/n_j_democrat_chris_christie_prayed_for_hurricane_sandy/#comments Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:54:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13164464 New Jersey's Senate president said Monday that Gov. Chris Christie "prayed a lot and got lucky" when Hurricane Sandy hit the state .

Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat, was speaking at a news conference designed to highlight what he calls Christie's failed economic agenda, and was likely responding to an interview with the governor in the Philadelphia Inquirer, in which Christie said new jobs and rebuilding efforts would stimulate the economy.

"We gave the governor a jobs package. We gave him one. He vetoed it. And his job package is a hurricane," Sweeney said. "I guess he prayed a lot and got lucky a storm came. I shouldn’t say that...I apologize for saying it.”

In that same press conference, Sweeney also said state Democrats were considering  him to run against Christie this fall.

It didn't take long for Christie to respond, in a statement:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/08/n_j_democrat_chris_christie_prayed_for_hurricane_sandy/feed/ 3 Republican who voted against Sandy relief asked for Katrina funds http://www.salon.com/2013/01/07/republican_who_voted_against_sandy_relief_asked_for_katrina_funds/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/07/republican_who_voted_against_sandy_relief_asked_for_katrina_funds/#comments Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:49:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13163562 A Republican congressman who voted against federal funding for Hurricane Sandy relief last week asked the federal government for millions in funding for his Mississippi district in 2005, after it was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

TPM reports that in the fall of 2005, Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., then the chief financial officer for the Biloxi Public Housing Authority, appealed to the federal government for Katrina relief money, to the tune of more than $38.5 million.

“We will rebuild and we’ll provide homes for those displaced; but we cannot do that until it is funded,” Palazzo wrote in a BPHA pamphlet published in August 2005. “We’re ready to do the work -- but we simply do not have the financial resources on our own to handle a catastrophe like Katrina.”

“Tell our national leaders -- don’t send more inspectors -- we know what’s damaged and how to fix it,” he added. “Send us money so we can put families back together and do our part to rebuild our community.”

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