Human Rights Law

Hurricane Ike, Eight Days Later

By Alexa

In fact, Cuba sustained damage from four hurricanes: Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike. Gustav hit the western end of Cuba as a Category 4 storm. Ike entered the east of Cuba as a strong Category 3, then shredded the full length of the island for three days. There were reports of walls of water 50 feet high hitting the north shore.

In a country of more than 11 million people, 2.7 million evacuated their homes when Ike came through. Today, 444,000 homes in Cuba are damaged, meaning up to 2.2 million Cubans are living dangerously or wondering when it will be safe to go home.

Without those supplies, the boats could very well sail before November. Americans with family in Cuba will be furious with the Bush administration for placing politics over saving lives. Cuban refugees who make it onto U.S. soil will benefit from the wet-foot/dry-foot policy that other Latino immigrants - a key demographic this cycle - view with considerable hostility.  
Authorities have reported a total of 61 deaths in the U.S. as Ike moved from Texas northeastward across the U.S.:

Texas - 26, including three people found in their Houston home where they had been running a gas generator.

Louisiana - six, including two contractors who were electrocuted.

Tennessee - two, both golfers killed by a falling tree.

Arkansas - one, a man killed by a tree falling on a mobile home.

Ohio - six, including five by falling trees and one person electrocuted while working on a generator.

Indiana - seven, including a father and son killed helping children escape from a ditch.

Illinois - two, including an elderly man found in a flooded backyard.

Missouri - four, including a woman struck by a tree limb and an elderly man suspected of drowning in a flooded yard.

Kentucky - three, a 10-year-old boy struck by a tree limb, a woman exposed to carbon monoxide fumes from a generator and a utility worker electrocuted while restoring power in Louisville.

Pennsylvania - two, a 46-year-old man struck by tree limb while helping remove a large tree from a house, and a 43-year-old utility worker who was electrocuted when he stepped on a live wire while working to repair power lines.

Michigan - two, a 1-year-old boy apparently drowned in a stormwater-filled ditch near Auburn, Mich., and a 15-year-old killed when his all-terrain vehicle crashed into a hidden ravine created by storm water.

To update the many rumors I've seen on these here innerwebz about the Galveston County Jail, here's the "latest"; (N.B. tell me there's no news blackout in Texas, please: the latest
news is from Thursday morning, 19 September) and it's not exactly reassuring.

Reports from the Galveston County Jail, where 1,000 inmates were not allowed to evacuate during Hurricane Ike, are raising concerns of unsanitary conditions and inhumane treatment at the facility.

"They're just sitting there, they're desperate, it's disease waiting to happen," said Shirley Rutledge, a Hardin County resident whose son, an inmate there, told her they haven't been able to bathe or wash their hands because water is in short supply. "This is inhumane treatment for them. ... And now the mayor is saying the city is uninhabitable. So does that mean uninhabitable for everyone except the prisoners?"

The situation has caused enough questions and concerns on the part of the family members and the media - who haven't been allowed inside the facility - that the executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards plans to travel to Galveston on Friday to check the conditions.

"We haven't heard anything bad going on," said Adan Munoz Jr., the director, who said he's been in contact with jail officials since the storm. "But it's in order to try and just see what's there."

Let me reiterate; that was on Thursday. That was nearly four full days ago. I checked the Texas civil rights blogs, most notably Grits For Breakfast, who've been true citizen journalists, staying ahead of the media on this story for over a week. The above Dallas News info is their latest report as well. CK deserves our support and thanks for walking point on this ongoing story of complete and utter disregard for human lives, safety and humane treatment of some of our most vulnerable citizens.

. . . the Galveston County jail's decision to not evacuate 1,000 inmates despite a mandatory evacuation order for the city and warnings that those who remained in the area faced "certain death."

I want to point out here for anyone reading that there is a rather enormous difference betweeen a county lock-up and a state prison. Look it up, pendejo, if you truly don't know. A great percentage (75%?) of county jail population are rilly scary hardcore criminals who committed dangerous acts of being late with child support payments, or other misdemeanors that are generally put to rights before the first court appearance. These aren't seasoned criminals. I don't think Dog The Bounty Hunter, aka Duane Chapman broke a sweat and that should tell you something 'cuz if the vato isn't praying or persecuting "lowlife scum," you know the earth has shifted off its axis.

Many thanks to Arken at Daily Kos, who has been very consistent in highlighting the news each day after Ike.

Ms. Rutledge, however, said her son reports a tinderbox atmosphere inside the jail.

"He told me this afternoon, 'I feel like, in here, that if somebody snaps their fingers, there's going to be a riot,' " Ms. Rutledge said.

Reminds me of Gitmo on the Bayou, and the outrageous, inexcusable treatment of inmates in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. When Hurricane Katrina hit, there was no evacuation plan for the 7,000 prisoners in Orleans Parish Prison, the New Orleans city jail, generally known as OPP, or the approximate 1,500 prisoners in nearby jails. According to first-hand accounts gathered by advocates, prisoners were abandoned in their cells while the water was rising around them. They were subjected to a heavily armed "rescue" by state prison guards that involved beatings, mace and being left in the sun with no water or food for several days, followed by a transfer to state maximum security prisons.

Although their treatment brought national attention to the condition of prisoners in Louisiana, and comparison to prison abuse scandals from Attica to Abu Ghraib, local government officials have attempted to dodge accountability and continue with business as usual.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on September 24, 2008 (boomark / email).