FLOODING, POWER OUTAGES PERSIST AFTER ISAAC

DAYS AFTER ISAAC HIT THE GULF COAST,
THOUSANDS STILL WITHOUT POWER IN USA

www.washingtonpost.com - Tens of thousands of customers remained in the dark Monday in Louisiana and Mississippi, nearly a week after Isaac inundated the Gulf Coast with a deluge that still has some low-lying areas under water. Most of those were in Louisiana, where utilities reported more than 100,000 people without power. Thousands also were without power in Mississippi and Arkansas. In Louisiana, many evacuees remained at shelters or bunked with friends or relatives. Meanwhile, inspectors from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are out trying to get a handle on losses. Residents can apply for grants to get help with home repairs and temporary housing, among other expenses. 
President Barack Obama was to visit Louisiana on Monday, a day ahead of the Democratic National Convention. He will meet with local officials, tour storm damage, and view response and recovery efforts before addressing reporters at St. John the Baptist Parish. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney visited the state Friday. Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, visited Bay St. Louis, Miss., and Slidell, La., on Sunday.

“We are part of a team to make sure Hurricane Isaac is put to rest as soon as we can for all those affected,” Napolitano said. “In the meantime, please know all of us are thinking about those in Louisiana who are without their homes or without their businesses.” At least seven people were killed in the storm in the U.S. - five in Louisiana and two in Mississippi. In St. John the Baptist Parish, where the president was to visit, residents spent Labor Day dragging waterlogged carpet and furniture to the curb and using bleach and water to clean hopefully to prevent mold. 
LaPlace resident Barbara Melton swept mud and debris from her home, which was at one point under 2 feet of water. The garbage, debris and standing water - combined with heat reaching the 90s - created a terrible stench. “It’s hot, it stinks, but I’m trying to get all this mud and stuff out of my house,” she said. Much of Plaquemines Parish, a vulnerable finger of land that juts into the Gulf of Mexico, remained under as much as 5 feet of water. The Category 1 hurricane walloped the parish, and for many, the damage was worse than that from Katrina in 2005.

Days after Isaac hammered Louisiana and Mississippi (USA) with winds and rain, much of a parish southeast of New Orleans was still flooded and thousand were without power. Thousands of evacuees remained at shelters or bunked with friends or relatives. In Mississippi, about 2,100 customers awaited power. Workers continued to deal with toppled trees and downed power lines, driving remained hazardous in areas without working traffic lights. Bay St. Louis was devastated by Katrina seven years ago, but this time it was protected from Isaac’s surge by a new seawall. We can protect ourselves from danger, but there will always be another one; as long as the conditioned soul sees the body as meant for sense enjoyment, he cannot get out of the entanglement of material miseries.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

One who is intelligent understands that there is a great and supreme authority above everything.  That great authority appears in different incarnations to save the innocent from disturbances. ... The King of the elephants decided to surrender unto Him.  This is intelligent.  One must know that great Supreme Personality of Godhead and surrender unto Him. ... We are always in danger because at any moment death can take place.  It is not that only Gajendra, the King of the elephants, was afraid of death.  Everyone should fear death because everyone is caught by the crocodile of eternal time and may die at any moment.  The best course, therefore, is to seek shelter of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and be saved from the struggle for existence in this material world, in which one repeatedly takes birth and dies.  To reach this understanding is the ultimate goal of life.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
“The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) SB 8.2.33
Canto 8: “Withdrawal of the Cosmic Creations”
Chapter 2: “The Elephant Gajendra’s Crisis” - Verse 33
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase 2003 (Folio)

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/