CNN: Harrowing stories emerge from Katrina's devastation

"SLIDELL, Louisiana (CNN)-- For many of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, little is left but heartbreak and hardship."

"Deteriorating conditions are difficult for survivors to bear"

Give help or send money.

Go to:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/30/katrina.advice.us/index.html

for some resources, and all over the net.

ABC News: Boy calls 911 says 'My Daddy killed me'

"Aug. 25, 2005--If you saw Anthony Sukto, you wouldn't think he's any different from most little boys. He's just as playful and cheerful.

But many people call him a hero. Less than a year ago, Anthony's father stabbed his mother to death before the boy's eyes in their home in Tacoma, Wash. Then he turned the knife on Anthony.

The eight year-old was stabbed six times--slashed in the face, neck and chest and cut twice in the liver. Despite bleeding profusely, he managed to call 911.

When emergency worker Kristin Woodrow answered the call, she heard the boy's plaintive cry: 'Please help me!'

He continued, 'My daddy killed me with a knife and I'm gone. Can you please send the army men or the ambulance?'

Anthony gave an address, and then suddenly hung up. Woodrow called back. Anthony explained to her: 'My daddy killed me with a butcher knife.'

'How did that happen if you are talking to me?' Woodrow asked.

'My dad, he was killing my mom and then, my dad told me to go into the other bed,' Anthony said. 'Then he's like "You're next" and then he killed me. I'm still alive. I kind of survived.'

"...Anthony says he wasn't acting alone. 'God helped me. He sent his angel,' he told Quinones. 'The angel carried me to dial 911.'

Anthony says that as he lay there bleeding, he actually heard a voice telling him to play dead until his father left the house. 'I heard "I will save you" ' he told Quinones.
...
He still has nightmares about the day his mom was killed, but today Anthony is recovering surpisingly well-thanks to the love of his family and friends and thanks to those 'angels' who he says saved his life."

Yahoo! News/AP: Airlines face growing fuel shortage risk

"By Brad Foss, AP Business Writer
Washington- Lost luggage, bad weather and now...no fuel?

While fliers haven't yet had to add that problem to the list of headaches associated with air travel, it may not be far away. Airports in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada recently came within a few days-and at times within hours-of running out of jet fuel.

Because of supply bottlenecks, airlines were forced to fly in extra fluel from other markets and scramble for deliveries by truck. But these are expensive, short term fixes that do not address what airline executives consider to be the underlying problem: with passenger traffic rising above pre-9/11 levels, the nation's aviation business is slowly outgrowing the infrastructure that fuels it.

...

But the near shortages underscore the added strain on refineries, pipelines and the airlines' own fuel procurement efforts as the industry recovers from its worst-ever downturn-June passenger traffic was up 4 percent from 2001 levels, according to industry data-and energy demand rises throughout the economy.

'It's really starting to surface as an issue', said James Holland, vice president of logistics at Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. a Houston based pipeline operator.

Part of the problem is that refining and pipeline capacity in some regions of the US have grown slower than demand, meaning companies must run their equipment harder to satisfy growing fuel needs. This raises the chances of operational snags and leaves less of a cushion when something does go wrong. Recent refinery outages have helped push oil prices to record heights near $64 a barrel."

It hit over $64 a barrel recently. It would seem that these problems are the just a tip of the iceberg we are heading for just as the Titanic did back in its day.

You can see cries for more national production of oil rather than dependence on oil from the Middle East. That would only exacerbate pollution which could only make things worse from an economic and health standpoint. Is anyone noticing the increase in asthma rates which is affecting the young in America? Doesn't this point to a national security issue? In addition, China's warning that pollution affects economic development should also make us pay attention to the problem of dependence on fossil fuels.

It seems that developing a clean and renewable source of energy should be a primary national security concern since energy is the fuel of our economy...

It does not take a rocket scientist to notice this trend, but as in the past, people just don't seem to move on an issue until it becomes a crisis...