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KANSAN
8, 2007
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2007
NEWS
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ASSOCIATED PRES
Florida Highway State Police cruiser covered with bags of marijuana Tuesday. The Florida Highway Patrol says anyone missing two big pots can call their Tampa area office. A crew picking up litter from along Interstate 4 near Tuesday morning made an unusual find: two big plastic garbage bags stuffed with freshly harvested marijuana.
>> NATURAL DISASTERS
Year produced fewer hurricanes
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Researchers fear apathy in preparation for next year's storms
MIAMI — Despite alarming predictions, the U.S. came through a second straight hurricane season virtually unscathed, raising fears among emergency planners that they will be fighting public apathy and overconfidence when they warn people to prepare for next year.
The preliminary total for the season: 14 named storms, five of them hurricanes, two of them major.
That was less activity than the government predicted before the season started, and stands in stark contrast to 2004 and 2005, when the U.S. was hit by one devastating storm after another, including Hurricane Katrina.
Friday marks the official close of the Atlantic season, so unless a storm forms in the next few days, only one hurricane — and a minor one at that — will have hit the U.S. during the June-to-November period. Mexico and Central America, however, were struck by a record two top-scale Category 5 storms.
However, forecasters and emergency managers warned that one result of the good year for the country may be increased skepticism when they urge people to stock up on food and draw up their hurricane evacuation plans for next year.
"Now that we've gone a couple of years without major hurricanes will the public be more apathetic before the next hurricane season? The answer is also
lutely," said Craig Fugate, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. "The further we get away from these types of events ... the more complacent people become, and that's the challenge we have to continue to fight."
dent of the Insurance Information Institute, said the industry saw about a 20 percent increase in the number of flood policies sold in Gulf Coast states in the two years after Katrina. But about one in five new policies is not being renewed, he said.
The season were on the low end of the 13 to 17 government scientists predicted. The five hurricanes didn't reach the seven to 10 forecast. The two major hurricanes were also below the three to five predicted.
"People believe they've rode out the worst of the storm, so to speak," Hartwig said. "Nothing could be further from the truth."
He warned that the failure of homeowners to renew their policies is "a tragedy in the making."
The season's 14 named storms
Similarly, Robert Hartwig, presi-
"People believe they've rode out the worst of the storm, so to speak. Nothing could be further from the truth."
ROBERT HARTWIG Insurance Information Institute president
State University weat her researcher William Gray was farther off the mark. Before the start of the season, he forecast 17 named storms, includ-
water in the Pacific that normally boosts the formation of hurricanes, had weaker-than-expected effects.
The government's 2006 preseason forecast proved overly pessimistic as well. Scientists predicted 13 to 16 named storms, eight to 10 of them hurricanes, with four to six of them major. Instead, there were nine named storms and five hurricanes, two of them major.
Bell said that this marks the second "near normal" season in a row. However, storm activity tends to go in cycles, and he said the Atlantic
"Now that we've gone a couple of years without major hurricanes will the public be more apathetic before the next hurricane season?"
U. S. in two years. It was blamed for one death and $30 million in damage.
ing nine hurricanes, five of them major, with a strong chance that a major hurricane would hit the U.S. coast.
CRAIG FUGATE Director of the Florida Division of Emergency
Gerry Bell, a hurricane forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the season was relatively quiet largely because La Nina, a cooling of the
Humberto, a Category 1 storm that hit Texas and Louisiana in September, was the first hurricane to strike the
is still believed to be in a more active hurricane period that began in 1995.
Forecasters underestimated the 2005 season, which proved the busiest on record, with 28 named storms, including 15 hurricanes, four of which hit the U.S. That year brought Katrina.
the costliest natural disaster in American history.
Despite the overpredictions for the 2006 and 2007 seasons, Bell said the government's forecasts are still valuable, stressing that they remind coastal residents they need to be prepared.
"Generally our forecasts have been very good," he said.
Mike Stone of the Florida Division of Emergency Management said emergency managers don't base stockpiles or hurricane preparations on the government's forecast. Instead, he said, they have standing contracts for ice, meals and other perishables, and they can call on the suppliers when they need the items.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lawsuit alleges steroid use
WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury investigating Blackwater Worldwide heard witnesses Tuesday as a private lawsuit accused the government contractor's bodyguards of ignoring orders and abandoning their posts shortly before taking part
in a Baghdad shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.
>> BLACKWATER
Filed this week in U.S. District Court in Washington, the civil complaint also accused North Carolina-based Blackwater of failing to give
The Justice Department began to investigate whether it could bring criminal charges in the case, despite the State Department's promised immunity to the Blackwater guards.
of Columbia's federal courthouse. One of them emerged sporadically to speak with an attorney, who refused to identify himself, his law firm or his client.
— tests to its guards in Baghdad — even though an estimated one in four of them was using steroids or other "judgment altering substances."
When the grand jury was dismissed for the day, the men left without commenting, as did Kohl.
A Blackwater spokeswoman said Tuesday its employees are banned from using steroids or other enhancement drugs but declined to comment on the other charges detailed in the 18-page lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed Monday on behalf of five Iraqis who were killed and two who were injured during the Sept. 16 shooting in Baghdad's Nisoor Square. The shootings enraged the Iraqi government, and the Justice Department began to investigate whether it could bring criminal charges in the case, despite the State Department's promised limited immunity to the Blackwater guards.
Before the shootings in Baghdad
Justice Department national security prosecutors Kenneth Kohl and Stephen Ponticello, both of whom are handling the Blackwater case, spent much of Tuesday afternoon in the grand jury room, which is off limits to the public. Two witnesses also spent hours behind closed doors in the District
Blackwater and State Department personnel staffing a tactical operations center "expressly directed the Blackwater shooters to stay with the official and refrain from leaving the secure area," the complaint says. "Reasonable discovery will establish that the Blackwater shooters ignored those directives."
Additionally, the lawsuit notes:
"One of Blackwater's own shooters
tried to stop his colleagues from indiscriminately firing upon the crowd of innocent civilians but he was unsuccessful in his efforts.
according to the lawsuit filed by lawyers working with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
it likely will be months before it decides whether it can prosecute the guards, and it is trying now to pinpoint how many shooters in the Blackwater convoy could face charges. A senior U.S. law enforcement official confirmed Tuesday that government investigators were looking at whether the Blackwater guards were authorized to be in the square at the time of the shooting. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
The civil complaint offers new details of the incident that has strained
In an interview, lead plantiff attorney Susan L. Burke said private investigators turned up the new evidence through interviews with people in Iraq and the United States "who would have reason to know." Those people did not include government officials, Burke said, and she declined to comment when asked if they include Blackwater employees.
relations between the United States and Iraq, which is demanding the right to launch its own prosecution of the Blackwater bodyguards.
The civil lawsuit does not specify how much money the victims and their families are seeking from Blackwater, its 11 subsidiaries and founder, Erik Prince, all of whom are named as defendants.
"We're looking for compensatory (damages) because the people who were killed were the breadwinners in their families," Burke said. "And we're looking for punitive in a manner that suffices to change the corporation's conduct. We have a real interest in holding them accountable for what were completely avoidable deaths."
"We're looking for compensatory (damages) because the people who were killed were the breadwinners of their families."
SUSAN L. BURKE lead plaintiff attorney
The Justice Department says
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said his Cabinet is drafting legislation that would force the State Department to replace Blackwater with another security company.
The State Department declined to comment on the case Tuesday.