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Top U.S. disaster official Michael Brown, under fire over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, cited prior emergency-management experience in an official biography but his duties were “more like an intern,” Time magazine reported. Brown's biography on the Federal Emergency Management Agency Web site says he had once served as an "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight," and a White House news release in 2001 said Brown had worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., in the 1970s "overseeing the emergency-services division." However, a city spokeswoman told the magazine Brown had actually worked as "an assistant to the city...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Military explosives from World War II training exercises have been found four times along Florida's Atlantic Coast since Hurricane Jeanne blew through the area last month and uncovered them. The latest find came Monday when Army explosives experts from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station removed a 10 1/2-foot-long, rocket-powered explosive nicknamed "Tiny Tim" from the sands of Vero Beach.

STUART -- Gary and Cindy Deaton were driving Thursday to do laundry at the home of a friend who has power when they saw a roadblock that looked to be the mark of a presidential visit. They didn't want to miss their chance to catch a glimpse of President Bush and his motorcade so they pulled over to cheer him on. The Deatons also said they wouldn't miss the debate Thursday night _ even if it meant using a generator to power their television and their old rabbit ear antennae to get a snowy reception.

Touring the area damaged by Hurricane Jeanne, and traveling to Florida and preparing for the first debate (in Florida), are the topics today. Here's an interesting caption from Yahoo: "As voters are swamped by a blizzard of rival surveys in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, pollsters themselves are facing increasing questions about their methodology and accuracy, with some polls showing widely divergent results." The Cheneys campaigned in Minnesota. Enjoy the daily dose of W @ Sanity Island!

This story is posted on Drudge under the title: "Haitian storm victims face a man-made disaster" ... The failure of Haiti's U.S.-backed government to disarm gangs, including the Cannibal Army that started the revolution that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has created a climate of insecurity that jeopardizes lives after the calamity visited on Gonaives by Tropical Storm Jeanne.... ...Caribbean leaders have refused to recognize the interim government, saying it unconstitutionally replaced a democratically elected president and because interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue scandalized the region by hailing as "liberators" rebel leaders that include two convicted of murders during a military...

The Liberal government has snubbed a Canadian Forces offer to deploy a special emergency relief team to help Haitians devastated by tropical storms. Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said Canada will be "generous" in its response to Haiti's needs, but so far the feds have limited aid to $2 million. Canadian Navy Lieut. Luc Charron said the military has offered up its Kingston-based Disaster Assistance Relief Team (DART), which specializes in entering disaster zones to meet basic needs such as water, medical treatment and security. Charron said the team of 200-plus soldiers is on 48-hour standby, waiting on the Liberal...

9am: FLOOD AND FLASH FLOOD WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT FOR PARTS OF CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA...AND SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA. FLOOD AND FLASH FLOOD WATCHES CONTINUE FOR PORTIONS OF GEORGIA...SOUTH CAROLINA...NORTH CAROLINA...VIRGINIA...MARYLAND...DELMARVA PENNINSULA...WEST VIRGINIA...PENNSYLVANIA...AND SOUTHEASTERN NEW YORK. Mecklenburg County flooding Mobile Home in Alcolu, S.C Rainfall amounts as of 2:00 am. NORTH CAROLINA... MONROE 2.67 WINSTON-SALEM 2.46 GREENSBORO 2.35 ASHEVILLE 2.04 CHARLOTTE 1.94 GASTONIA 1.80 HICKORY 1.78 BEAUFORT 1.52 HATTERAS 1.33

GONAIVES, Haiti - Doctors are performing amputations without electricity or running water while waste from this city's shattered sewage system contaminates mud and floodwaters, infecting wounds that threaten to turn gangrenous. More than a week after the passage of Tropical Storm Jeanne, the calamity in the northwest city of Gonaives has overwhelmed Haitians and foreign rescue workers. Thousands remain hungry. Jean-Claude Kompas, a New York doctor who rushed to his native Haiti to volunteer his services last week, says he has treated 30 people for gunshot wounds received in fights over scarce food. Another of his patients was a child...

President Bush has declared a state of major disaster in the storm-ravaged southern U.S. state of Florida, hit by four strong hurricanes since last month. "Major disaster" status makes Florida eligible for federal emergency funds and relief assistance for residents and businesses. Mr. Bush acted late Sunday after Hurricane Jeanne swept over Florida's central Atlantic coast, lashing the same area raked by another hurricane (Frances) three weeks earlier. Hurricane Jeanne's winds and torrential rains killed six people in the United States and added to an already heavy toll of property damage. But the storm's worst effects were felt in Haiti,...

Jeanne, Florida's fourth hurricane in six weeks, piled on destruction in already ravaged areas Sunday, slicing across the state with howling wind that rocketed debris from earlier storms and torrents of rain that turned streets into rivers.

At least three people died in the storm, which came ashore in the same area hit by Frances three weeks ago. More than 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The third hurricane to hit NASA's spaceport in just over a month blew out more panels and left more gaping holes in the massive shuttle assembly building, but overall damage was not as severe as feared, a space agency official said Sunday. "Where there's obviously some more damage, it doesn't look appreciably worse than it did," said NASA spokesman George Diller, part of a 206-member team that spent the night barricaded inside the Kennedy Space Center. "We just had a prayer service with the base chaplain because we all felt so relieved that we came out...

between 1,000 and 2,000 killed by hurricane Jeanne and massive destruction of homes, businesses and government buildings. In February, independent journalist Gwynne Dyer described Haiti in stark terms. "Eighty percent of Haiti's 10 million people are unemployed, and the average income is $3 a day," he wrote. "The trees are long gone and the rich soil is eroding away into the sea at a frightening rate. "Much of the population survives only because of food aid. Average life expectancy is 53, the rate of HIV/AIDS infection is the highest outside Africa, and most Haitians would like nothing better than to...

Check out the FNC right now. /girl reporter fox is giong to on the coast is GREAT. Red amorak. She's standing beside a wall protected from the wind (sort of!). Horizontal rain behind her. She is really COOL.

Jeanne Tears Across Bahamas Toward Fla. Sep 25, 5:12 PM (ET) By JILL BARTON WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Hurricane Jeanne got stronger, bigger and faster as it battered the Bahamas and bore down on Florida Saturday, forcing hundreds of thousands more residents to hurriedly shutter their homes ahead of its anticipated devastating punch. About 2 million people were urged to evacuate from Florida City to the Georgia border as Jeanne strengthened to 115 mph from 105 mph earlier in the day. It was expected to come ashore late Saturday or early Sunday somewhere on the state's central Atlantic...

Thought a thread in Breaking News for the weekend covering Hurricane Jeanne would be a good thing. Post your link, pics, updates and freeper check-in's here

Hurricane Jeanne Advisory Number 47...Corrected Statement as of 5:00 am EDT on September 25, 2004 ...Corrected to add headline and storm tides along the Florida West Coast... ...Jeanne moving westward toward the abaco islands...expected to intensify into a category three hurricane... A Hurricane Warning is in effect along the Florida East Coast from Florida City northward to St. Augustine...including Lake Okeechobee. A Hurricane Warning is also in effect for the northwestern Bahamas...including the Abacos...Andros Island...Berry Islands...Bimini...Eleuthera...Grand Bahama Island...and New Providence. Preparations to protect life and property throughout the Hurricane Warning area should be rushed to completion. A Hurricane Watch remains...

Fears were growing for remote L'iles de la Tortue, which was was hit by a tsunami. Yolette Etienne, Oxfam's Haiti spokeswoman, said: "The situation is extremely serious. I don't know how much more we can take. It is difficult to assess the extent of the crisis, but many have died and others have had their homes and livelihoods destroyed.

GONAIVES, Haiti -- Hungry, thirsty and increasingly desperate residents attacked each other in a panic to get scarce food and water Thursday as workers struggled to bury hundreds of corpses six days after the city was struck by Tropical Storm Jeanne. More than 1,100 were killed and 1,250 are missing, and the toll was rising. The storm left 250,000 homeless in Haiti's northwest province, which includes the port of Gonaives. Health workers feared an epidemic of disease in the country's third-largest city from the unburied dead, overflowing raw sewage, lack of potable water, and infections from injuries. Some people already...

Hurricane Jeanne is looking more and more like a Central Florida landfall come late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. Somewhere between Vero Beach/Brevard County or a bit further south in Pt.St.Lucie. Evacuations begin in Brevard County at 6 am.