09/28/2005

SPIEGEL Surfs the Web

New Orleans One Month Later

It's been almost a month since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The blame game continues, but meanwhile, people in the Big Easy have begun the long process of cleaning up.

Cleanup in New Orleans has begun, but there is still a lot to do.

AFP

Cleanup in New Orleans has begun, but there is still a lot to do.

Almost one month after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States, the aftermath of the storm is still making headlines. But it's no longer the misery of New Orleans or the horrendous damage suffered by Biloxi that's under the microscope. While cleanup in the Big Easy continues, cleanup in the halls of officialdom is also underway. On Tuesday, for example, the former head of FEMA, Michael Brown, who was forced to resign due to his organization's poor handling of the disaster, defended himself in congressional hearings. But some senators weren't having any of it. Also on Tuesday, the New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass quit without providing much in the way of explanation. He, along with virtually everyone in an official position in New Orleans, had been criticized for his handling of the disaster. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said he had not asked for Compass's resignation. Also, the New Yorker takes a look back at the federal government's handling of Hurricane Betsy in 1965.

Meanwhile, though, the Big Easy is slowly getting back on its feet. Bourbon Street is back to its partying ways and many are returning to those parts of the city not still underwater -- although even while welcoming its citizens back, the city of New Orleans has warned people of the many dangers that still lurk in the city. Finally, the Times Picayune reports that the violence at the Superdome and Convention Center wasn't nearly as bad as at first thought.

New Cosmic Conquests for Cassini

It's time yet again for one of our periodic Cassini updates. Yes, the thing is still flying around up there and is continuing its investigations of the moons of Saturn. This week, the ultra-high tech spacecraft managed what mission controllers are calling a double header: two moons in just three days. To whit, on Saturday Cassini did a flyby of the moon Tethys. And on Monday, Hyperion was added to the satellite's life list of moon spottings. The result is a number of excellent photos of both moons which were promptly posted on the mission's official Web site. If you're looking for a slightly more intuitive picture gallery, though, head over to flickr's gallery which has exactly the same photos as well as all the previous Cassini photos in easy-to-navigate galleries. And stay tuned. The next flyby is already on the horizon; in fourteen days Cassini will be visiting Dione.

Photos of Not-So-Lovely Rita

Hurricane Rita wasn't as fierce as everyone thought, but she still killed two, ripped up gas stations, halted semi trucks, sparked electrical fires, and re-flooded part of New Orleans. About 3 million people evacuated their homes throughout the region; blackouts in Texas and Louisiana left over a million without power. But even if the storm hasn't left behind a trail of chaos and destruction on par with Hurricane Katrina, it has left behind a ton of photographic evidence. This woman took photos in Houston. The San Francisco Chronicle has a dramatic gallery from the landfall in Texas and Louisiana, and photos of the storm sweeping through Florida can be seen on John Noe's Flickr site, which seems to feature a flying crab.

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