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Show Page 4 University Journal Thursday, September 16, 2004 New Orleans preps for hurricane By MICHAEL GRUNWALD and MANUEL ROIG-FRANZI- A THE WASHINGTON POST NEW ORLEANS Waller Maestri, an emergency manager here in Americas most vulnerable metropolitan aiea, has 10,000 body bags ready in case a major hurricane ever hits New Orleans. As Huriicane Ivans expected g path shifted uncomfortably close to this urban soup bowl, Maestri said Tuesday he might need a lot ntoie. If a strong Category 4 storm such as Ivan made a direct hit, he warned, 50,000 people could drown, and this city of Mardi Gias and jazz could cease to exist This could be The One, Maestri said in an interview in his underground bunker. Youre talking about the potential loss of a major metropolitan area. Forecasters said Tuesday night they still expected Ivan to veer at least 70 m i les east of New Orleans before making landfall early Thuisday somewhere along the Gulf Coast extremities of Louisiana, Alabama or Mississippi But Ivan has consistently drifted farthei west than their predictions This port city's levees are only designed to withstand a Category 3 sloim, and of ficials begged residents to evacuate the area if you have the means. By evening, the citys few escape routes were spectacularly clogged, and authorities acknowledged that hundreds of thousands of residents would be unable to get out in time. The stranded will not be able to turn to the Red Cross, because New Oi leans is the only city where the relief agency refuses to set up emergency stoim shelters, to ensure the safely of its own staff. Even if a wall of water crashes through the French Quarter Maestris worst-cas- e scenario stranded residents will be on their own. New Orleans is often described as a disaster waiting to happen mostly below sea level, practically surrounded by water, artificially kept dry by pumps and levees, rapidly losing its natural storm protection but rarely have its leaders sounded so afraid that the wait could be over soon. Im terrified, said Winded Curole, director of the South Lafourche Levee District in the swampy bayous south of the city. Im telling you, weve got no elevation. This isnt hyperbole. The only place I can compare us to is Bangladesh. More than 100,000 Bangladeshis died in a 1991 storm, and Curole is genuinely afraid that a similar tragedy could strike New Orleans, most of which sits six to eight feet lower than the surrounding waters of the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico. Ivan is the strongest storm to threaten the region since Hurricane Betsy nailed New Orleans in low-lyin- By VALE WHITE attend the conference. This will be great for students to leam how to write ard present a paper, Walker said. Jeffiey Barnes, SUU associate professor of accounting, will present on Saturday and said the conference is new and has room for growth. This year is more academic, but in the future we will be doing more civic as well as the vwhitesuujournal.com The Utah Center for Ethics and Social Policy will present its second annual conference Saturday in the R. Haze Hunter Conference Centers Charles F. Hunter Room. Who is Raising Our Children? is this years theme. The conference will provide a forum to discuss the role of government and parents in the rearing of children. is SUU students academic, Barnes said. "Our purpose Walker said he, Rulon Jay to create a Huntsman are invited forum for ethical and Thomas to attend Williams discussion, founded the Saturdays sessions, which Utah Center sides both present are free. The for Ethics and first session of an issue and Social Policy begins at three years allow to people p.m.. while the ago to address second session become educated ethical will begin at 2 concerns of on an issue . . p.m. zoning and Richard Walker business conference practices in 1 The will program presentations about in involvement feature their neighborhood. Walker said the spark for this years theme was the case of Parker Jensen, the from Sandy who was taken from the hospital in the fall of 2003 by his parents, Daren and Barbara Jensen. The Jensens wanted to stop chemotherapy treatment on their son, and the State of Utah filed charges against them. The conference will feature as presenters Walker, Barnes, Huntsman, David Pivar, Shawn Christiansen SUU associate professor of nutrition science, DavidTufte, associate professor of economics, and Roy Johnson, associate professor of management. paternal child development, moral education and abortion, among other issues. Richard Walker, one of the nonprofit organizations founding directors, said the groups goal is to provide an environment for an issue to be discussed openly. Our purpose is to create a forum for ethical discussion, present both sides of an issue and allow people to become educated on an issue and then make their own choices about what is best for them, Walker said. He encouraged students to 1965, wreaking more than $7 billion worth of green tidal marsh, it is now mostly open water, havoc at a time when southern Louisiana was with a few strips and splotches of green. less populated and less exposed. This used to be perfect, and now look at it, The doomsayers are quick to add a caveat: Ivan Duszynski said. The buffer is gone. Now even the little storms give a big influx. might not turn out to be The One. The National Hurricane Center expects the storm to swerve Louisianas politicians, environmentalists and business leaders have been pushing for a towards the area between Gulfport, Miss., and $14 billion coastal restoration project to try to Mobile, Ala. Officials in Louisiana, Alabama, bring back those lost marshes and islands, in Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle were order to help protect New Orleans, and an oil urging residents Tuesday to leave coastal areas and gas industry that handles nearly a third of to avoid Ivan I beg people on the coast: Do the nations supply. The Bush administration not ride this storm out, said Mississippi Gov. forced the state to scale down its request to Haley Barbour. For those who do not take the advice of $1.2 billion last year, and a Senate committee authorized $375 million of that request. But a New Orleans governors, Frank Davis Mark Davis, director of the Coal ition to Restore was on celebrity chef and Bon Vivant Coastal Louisiana, believes that even if Ivan television giving tips on how to use camping bypasses the region, its scary approach could grills to prepare Spam. help galvanize support for a Most scientists, engineers more comprehensive fix. and emergency managers agree Were running out of that if Ivan does spare southern Davis said. tomorrows, Louisiana this time, The One God willing, if theres still is destined to arrive someday. a southern Louisiana next The director of the United week. Im not talking about States Geological Survey has is the politics of the possible warned that New Orleans is on anymore. Its now a question a path to extinction. Gregory of which side are you on: Do Stone, director of the Coastal you support the obliteration Studies Institute at Louisiana of a region, or do you want to State University, frets that Gregory Stone try to save it? like Hurricane On Tuesday, though, a Category 2 storm Georges most local officials were that swerved away from New Orleans a day thinking more about the potential danger than before landfall in 1998 the potential opportunity. If Ivan does pound only give residents a false sense of security. The Red Cross has New Orleans, tidal surges could leave the city rated a hurricane inundating New Orleans as underwater for months, since its pumps are only Americas deadliest potential natural disaster capable of removing about an inch every hour, worse than a California earthquake. creating a toxic soup of chemicals, rodents, I dont mean to be an alarmist, but the poisons and snakes. The local officials said they could not order a scenario is going to happen doomsday Stone said. Ill stake my mandatory evacuation in a city as poor as New eventually, Orleans, where more than 100,000 residents professional reputation on it. have no cars, but they urged people to find some The main problem with southern Louisiana is that it is dangerously low, and getting lower. way to escape. If you want to take a chance, buy a lottery ticket, said Jefferson Parish President The levees that imprisoned the Mississippi Aaron Broussard. Dont take a chance on this River into its shipping channel and helped hurricane. make New Orleans one of the worlds busiest New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin seemed ports have also prevented the muddy river from flustered as he pleaded with his constituents spreading sediment around its delta. As a result, to flee, at one point suggesting that they take southern Louisiana is sinking into the Gulf, shelter in area hospitals. Visitors were also losing about 24 square miles of coastal marshes and barrier islands every year, the equivalent of urged to find somewhere else to go including 10,000 conventioneers in town for the annual two Superdomes every hour. Those marshes and islands used to help slow down storms as they meeting of the National Safety Council. This is not a drill, Nagin said. This is the approached New Orleans; computer simulations real deal. now predict that the loss of these natural storm barriers will increase storm surges and waves The underlying problem. Maestri said, is that the city never should have been built here in the by several feet. On a seaplane tour of the region Tuesday, first place. It is a terrific location for business, Gerald Duszynski, assistant secretary of the but a lousy locatipn for safety. Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, The Chamber of Commerce gets really mad at me when I say this, but does New Orleans get pointed out an area near the tiny bayou town of Leesville where he fished for redfish and rebuilt? Maestri asked. The answer, he said, flounder 25 years ago. Once a solid patch of could very well be no. "I dont mean to be an alarmist, but the doomsday scenario going to happen eventualiy." near-miss- Laws limit options FOR SALE MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION COMPANY Contracted accounts in Washington, Iron and Clark counties with annual profits around $30,000. Owner moving and anxious. Make an offer! for transgendered with new identities BUSINESS RESOURCE CENTER Toll free 888 (or 435) 628-662- OR 3 435-680-31- By Jean-Pau- l Renaud Usually, the process of changing ones name is relatively easy and in most cases it just requires LOS ANGELES TIMES PHOTO BY GEORGE DOLLAR CUT a 1 f; - 919 S. 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That may pose a problem when applying for jobs, where employers routinely compare a job seekers information against government records. Some transgender people say a policy that releases gender information to employers and doesnt allow records to be is without changed surgery dangerous and careless. Those who have stood in lines, filled out forms or approached officials behind counters say the process can be costly and uncomfortable. personally, of Jessie Jacobson Is your COLLEGE STUDENT covered? 4 r 4 Some college students are not protected by their parents health insurance. Student Select insurance through Assurant Health provides protec.ion that helps take one worry off your mind. As a State Farm agent I can help. I i Call me today. Suzette Cardon, Agent 415 N Mam Cedar City, UT 84720 Bus suzette cardon b7m1statefarm com name-chang- Slate Farm agent for details on coverage, cost, restrictions, and renewability See a local P044027 Administration mutilation." I 'Coverages issued and underwritten by Fortis Insurance Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin No member of the State Farm family of companies is financially responsible for the product Fortis is not an affiliate of State Farm Security "For me, its a form 1 t a marriage license or divorce decree. For transgender people, the process which varies from is more agency to agency complicated because they must change both their name and sex. It goes back to security, said Kelly Shannon, a spokeswoman for the Buieau of Consular Affairs, which is in charge of issuing passports. We want some legal recognition that this person is the person who they say they are. In California, the Superior Court will only grant such an order with proof of surgery for a sex change and $297.50 to file papers. The court requires that an advertisement be placed in a newspaper for four weeks announcing the change. The ad is to alert interested parties, such as tenants and creditors, of the identity change. 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To many transgender people those men and women who, gay or straight, identify with the opposite sex changing their name and gender on official records is as important to their identity change as or surgery hormone therapy, advocates say. Since Brenna was a teenager, she knew she was not supposed to be a boy. The name change was a crucial part of a long journey to become what she felt she was meant to be a woman. It meant the world to me, Brenna said of the license with her new name. But without an official name change, transgender people cannot use the new name on leases, credit cards, insurance records or college transcripts. And the steps required to change the basic documents Social Security cards, drivers licenses and passports can be confusing, and sometimes unfair, advocates said. The increasing concerns of e identity theft have made processes for transgender people even more difficult to undertake, attorneys said. 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