A few weeks ago, Mr. Cantor was the hard man in the confrontation over the debt ceiling; he was willing to endanger America’s financial credibility, putting our whole economy at risk, in order to extract budget concessions from President Obama. Now he’s doing it again, this time over disaster relief, making headlines by insisting that any federal aid to the victims of Hurricane Irene be offset by cuts in other spending. In effect, he is threatening to take Irene’s victims hostage.
How is it that his supporters can continue to defend him and yet, still sleep at night?
After browsing around Youtube, I saw a few videos showing the incredible damage to the Outer Banks due to Hurricane Irene. Here are a few good ones:
From the Virginia Pilot:
From Outer Beaches Realty:
The Coast Guard:
I tooted about this earlier, but I couldn't help but writing a post here as well.
I'm very familiar with the Outer Banks. My family and friends vacation there a lot, and it's one of my favorite places in the world (especially Ocracoke Island). Because of the familiarly of OBX, I guess this piece of news feels the most real to me out of all of the other damage that Hurrican Irene caused.
So check this out:
Source: MSNBC & Steve Helber, Associated Press
MSNBC added this caption to these photos:
Officials survey the damage to Route 12 on Hatteras Island, N.C., on Aug. 28. Hurricane Irene swept through the area Saturday cutting the roadway in five locations. Irene caused more than 4.5 million homes and businesses along the East Coast to reportedly lose power over the weekend, and at least 11 deaths were blamed on the storm.
A local North Carolina TV station had this video on their site:
An article accompanied this video which contains more specific information.
I was curious, however, about where exactly the two inlets are. Based on the lone building in the first photo and about 10 minutes searching Google Maps' Satellite View, I think I found the location. Check the Street View as well. See the small structure next to it? Now look at the satellite view ago and the photo above. Fairly certain they're the same.
Now for the second photo. This is the most interesting of the two, I think, because it shows that there was a house that was destroyed and was washed out to sea. I think the second photo was at this location. See the northernmost house on the left side of the road? See the circular feature on the right side of it? See how those western-most houses are arranged in a semi-circle?. Now, notice the northern-most house on the right? See how its almost in-line with the northern most house on the left? Now check out the street view. You can see the large square brown sign on the left side of the road with white lettering. Its on both the Google Maps link and the MSNBC photo. Now look for the northernmost eastern house? Instead of the house, the new inlet is there.
The house no longer exists, at least in constructed, house-form - I'm sure it exists, but in many parts, all floating in the ocean or washed up along the beach elsewhere.
Stunning, for me at least.
Source: