University of Utah Student Newspapers | 2008-09-02 | Page 2

2 Tuesday, September 2,2008 BULLETIN www.dailyutahchronide.com All stories and photos from The Associated Press Gustav only sideswipes New Orleans NEW ORLEANS—A weaker-than-expected Hurricane Gustav swirled into the fishing villages and oiland-gas towns of Louisiana's Cajun country Monday, delivering only a glancing blow to New Orleans that did little more than send water sloshing harmlessly over its rebuilt floodwalls. It was the first test of New Orleans' new and improved levees, which are still being rebuilt three years after Hurricane Katrina- And it was a powerful demonstration of how federal, state and local officials learned some of the painful lessons of the catastrophic 2005 storm that killed 1,600 people. "They made a much bigger deal out of it, bigger than it needed to be," 31-year-old security worker Gabriel Knight said in New Orleans' nearly empty French Quarter. "I was here with Katrina. That was a nightmare. This was nothing." That did not mean the state came through the storm unscathed. A levee in the southeastern part of Louisiana was in danger of collapse, and officials scrambled to fortify it. Roofs were torn from homes, trees toppled and roads flooded. A ferry sunk. More than 1 million homes were without power. And the extent of any damage to the oil and gas industry was unclear. But the biggest fear—that the levees surrounding the • Careers In the Foreign Service; 9:10 a.m. to 11 a.m. @ Hinckley Caucus Room, OSH 255 . • Monet to Picasso from the Cleveland Museum of Art: all day @ UMFA • A Fragile Empire; Rome and Her Glass: all day @UMFA • r • ; * ? < : - - - - • ; V •••> • • " ; ' . ; : • ' ; v • r • • • • v • • • ' • ' • ' • • • " • • , ' • $ •A • • ^ i - c ' ; . : ; " - • : • * = • • . > . • • • . - • * < • * . . . • • : " •• v . • - : " ' . : • • " ' • • • • K 3 Wednesday Sunny ^ 76/56 • Fall Semester 2008 Academic Deadline: Last day to drop (delete) term 4 length and first session classes • PlazaFest: Student organizations, campus departments, food, giveaways, and live music: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. @ Union Plaza. • Monet to Pfcasso from the Cleveland Museum of Art: all day @ UMFA Large pieces of brick from a building in downtown Gutfport, Miss., which was damaged three years ago by Hurricane Katrina, is knocked down by winds from Hurricane Gustav Monday. saucer-shaped city of New Orleans would break— hadn't been realized. Wind-driven water sloshed over the top of the Industrial Canal's floodwall—the same structure that broke with disastrous consequences during Katrina—and several Ninth Ward streets close by were flooded with ankle- to kneedeep water. Still, city officials and the Army Corps of Engineers expressed confidence the levees would hold. Maj. Tim Kurgan, a Corps spokesman, said late in the day: "We don't anticipate any problems, but we're still watching this storm because it has not passed the area yet." Gustav blew ashore around 9:30 a m near Cocodrie, a low-lying community 72 miles southwest of New Orleans. Forecasters had feared a catastrophic Category 4 storm on the i-to-5 scale, but Gustav weakened as it drew close to land, coming ashore as a Category 2 with 110 mph winds. It quickly dropped to a Category 1 as it steamed inland toward Texas. Authorities reported seven deaths related to the storm, all traffic deaths, including four people killed in Georgia when their car struck a tree. Before arriving in the U.S., Gustav was blamed for at least 94 deaths in the Caribbean. In the days before the storm struck, nearly 2 million people fled coastal Louisiana under a mandatory evacuation order—a stark contrast from Katrina. Those evacuated included tens of thousands of poor, elderly and sick people who were put on buses and trains and taken to shelters and hotel rooms in several surrounding states. It could be days until the full extent of the damage is known, especially in the fishing villages and oil-andgas towns of bayou country, where rapid erosion in recent decades has destroyed swamps and robbed the area of a natural buffer against storms. 4 Thursday Sunny ! v ;•> 79/55 • 2008FarmersMarket:10:00amto2pm@Webster'sLawn,justeastof Pioneer Memorial Theatre • Monet to Picasso from the Cleveland Museum of Art: all day @ UMFA • UMFA's Monet to Picasso Mini Lecture: 3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. @ UMFA • A Fragile Empire: Rome and Her Glass: all day @UMFA .; .•. ' . ; • : • - ' . - • • ' ! . . Thai PM declares state of emergency in capital ST. PAUL, Minn;—Republicans, determined to propel John McCain to the White House, opened their stp»m-shortened national convention on Monday amid distractions involving running mate Sarah Palin. POTce made more than 50 arrests in the surrounding streets as anti-war protests turned violent. Delegates had scarcely settled into their seats when it was disclosed a lawyer had been hired to represent the Alaska governor in an investigation of her firing of the state's public safety commissioner The other disclosure was personal, not political—the pregnancy of her 17-year-old unmarried daughter. The convention's opening session was abbreviated as Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast, sparing New Orleans the type of damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina almost exactly three years ago. President Bush skipped his planned speech to go to disaster and relief centers, determined to avoid a repeat of the mismanagement of Katrina. McCain was in Waterville, Ohio, where he helped pack supplies to be sent to the Gulf. Both men's wives sparked cheers when they appeared before the del- egates, shunning politics to urge contributions to help storm victims. Virtually the only political business of the convention's 2 1/2-hpur session was approval of a platform that sidestepped the Iraq War, one of the key issues in the campaign between McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. "The waging of war—and the achieving of peace—should never be micromanaged in a party platform. In dealing with present conflicts or future crises, our next president must preserve all options," it said. EU leaders warn Russia over partnership talks tions" that the cargo of military ships bringing aid to Georgia may also have included "military components that will be used for the rearmament" of Georgia's military. He provided no evidence, but said such suspicions were a reason for Russia's call for an arms embargo. Lavrov reserved particular criticism for the United States, which has trained Georgian troops, saying such aid had failed to give Washington sufficient leverage to restrain the Georgian government. Instead, he said, "It encouraged the irresponsible and unpredictable regime in its gambles." Neither the State De- partment nor the Pentagon had immediate comment. Human Rights Watch said Monday that Georgia—as well as Russia— dropped cluster bombs during the conflict. The rights group said Georgia's government has admitted it, while Russia continues with denials. "These indiscriminate attacks violate international humanitarian law," said Bonnie Docherty, arms division researcher at the New York-based body, who said the casualty toll in only four Georgian villages from cluster bombs and thieir leftover duds was 14 dead and dozens wounded. ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE IM| E 0 WS |A|T R I A [cm A N T T 0 R [SIN |T|O R Y |S|L |ZM Y £ • 1 if I E i• P | E|L L E N TlHlE DA D | U | N E|S S N A m 01 S | E v11 | L nm I IsB • 7 D|E|L • N|E 1 1 S A C R Pt 1 51 I H E A T A D E 1 L|O|A A UJRlK E|7 Z T ME | B | A B Y S N I|T|S | A |o|w L A S T|E|R | s |W|E E R E E|D|S • T IEIL • I A * U T E R P M R o] U D G E E N "ol S T m|z war. The Bush administration welcomed the EU's move. "This extraordinary EU summit demonstrates that Europe and the United States are united in standing firm behind Georgia's territorial integrity, sovereignty and reconstruction," White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement. Earlier, Russia warned the West against supporting Georgia's leadership, suggesting that the United States delivered weapons as well as aid to the former Soviet republic and calling for an arms embargo until the Georgian government falls. "If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Hours after Lavrov's comments, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry suggested U.S. ships that carried humanitarian aid to Georgia's Black Sea coast following last month's war may also have delivered weapons. Without naming a specific country, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said there were "supposi- CROSSWORD ON CLASSIFIEDS 1>AGE 3 ••£'•,'&$. BANGKOK, Thailand—Thailand's prime minister declared a staW-'-pf emergency in t h e capital Tuesday after street fighting overnight beriftg£h supporters and opponents of the government left/one'jhaiJi^eatf a n d j t t f t s injured. ^^^^? The developments came after state workers threatened to cut off watfer, electricity and phone service at government offices and disrupt flights of the national airline in support of protesters trying to bring down Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. An announcement broadcast on all Thai television stations at 7 a.nx said Sa-1 mak had decreed a state of emergency of Bangkok. It said Army Gen. Anupong Paochinda would be in charge of carrying it out. In Thailand, a state of emergency allows the use of military forces in policing activities, and suspends some civil liberties. GOP convention opens with appeal for aid BRUSSELS, BelgiumEuropean Union leaders warned Russia on Monday that talks on a wideranging political and economic agreement would be postponed unless Russian troops pull back from positions in Georgia. The threat to delay talks set for this month on the "partnership and cooperation agreement" with Russia came after Britain and eastern European nations held out for a tougher line. But Europe's dependence on Russian oil and natural gas deterred stronger sanctions. "I think we found an excellent compromise (by) not going back to business as usual, but still making clear that we want to maintain contact with Russia," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. At a four-hour meeting, the leaders ordered EU bureaucrats to study alternative energy sources to reverse growing dependence on Russia, which supplies a third of the EU's oil and 40 percent of its natural gas. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he plans to travel to Moscow next Monday for talks with the Russian leadership. A cease-fire he brokered to endfightingbetween Russian and Georgia calls for forces to be withdrawn to their positions before the • • UTAH Critic: FrontRunner not worth the money PROVO, Utah—A government watchdog group says commuter rail isn't ate traffic instead. _ r "We can put an end to this debate once and for all," saicf DrewChamberlain, a #%bhmV^ business fftVCdEfl^1 for Accountable Government "I don't think UTA is going to be very happy." Chamberlain says the new FrontRunner commuter rail line from Ogden to Salt Lake City isn't taking enough cars off roads to be cost effective. The Utah Transit Authority says FrontRunner has 7,800 trips per day. Chamberlain says that compares to about 140,000 daily car trips along the same stretch of Interstate 15. If every one of the train's riders previously drove a vehicle, FrontRunner removed 5 percent of the traffic from the road at a cost of $611 million plus ongoing costs paid for through taxes and boarding fees, Chamberlain said. He said his research shows that about a thousand of those 7,800 riders came from buses, meaning a smaller percentage of traffic was newly taken off the freeway. Corrections J , .^ , and Clarifications The policy of The Daily Utah Chronicle is to correct any error made as sopn as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at 801-581-8317. .THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Advertising 801-581-7041 News801-581-NEWS Fax801-581-FAXX EDITOR IN CHIEF: Dustin Gardiner ([e-mail] ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR: Lucas Isley [e-mail] MANAGING EDITOR: Rachel Hanson ONLINE PRESENTATIONS EDITOR: Daniel Mace [e-mail] [e-mail] PRODUCTION MANAGER: Alyssa Bailey PA6E DESIGNER: Jaron Halford [e-mail] PAGE DESIGNER: Natalie Holbrok ASST. PRODUCTION MANAGER: Chad Zavala COPY EDITOR: Angle Fellows [e-mail] COPY EDITOR: Mikelle Worwood NEWS EDITOR: Rochelle McConkle COPY EDITOR: Anna Kartashova [e-mail] PROOFREADER: Clare Dulgnan ASST. 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