Hello, from Kansas

[KatK]

Hello, some of you may recognize me from comments at various blogs, or from Websleuths forums. :) *waves*

ETA: My user image was made at elouai's very nifty portrait maker by the way. It's a cool site. I only wish I could post a link to it, but I am not allowed to yet. *sad* Just do a search for elouai's portrait maker, or candybar doll maker, and you'll get the correct site. ETA3: Er, and I had to make the image smaller via Irfanview to fit the site's requirements, as well.

ETA2: Er, and I wanted to ask about the rules "don't use real names" and "don't use real locations". Have I already fallen afoul of this rule? *points at her user name, and location on her profile* Kat is my RL nickname, and I live in Kansas... If it is only with regards to postings discussing various crimes, well, but....how can we discuss the crimes or what we have discovered via our sleuthing?

[KatK]

Hello, replying to this topic to let everyone know what is going on in my part of the world. We need all the good thoughts/prayers you can send. Pray for those who lost everything (I am not amongst them, and I am humbly grateful.) and pray for the ecosystem downstream.

Here is a Reuters article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070702/ts_nm/refinery_coffeyville_dc) about what has happened in my town, here is a page (http://www.coffeyville.com/flood.htm#Boil_Water) (scroll down to see six images that aren't in the other photo album, the image with the two green buildings and the buildings in a rectangular position is the Four State Fairgrounds, which is canceled this year, since the area won't be clean by the first half of August.) on my town's website, and here is a site set up to impart news relating to the events. Here, is a picasa photo album (http://picasaweb.google.com/kstatealec/CoffeyvilleFlood2007) with images of the flood.

[KatK]

Hmm, I guess I am pre-occupied eh? Here (http://coffeyvilleflood.com/) is the link to the site the city set up to impart news and updates on the flooding and oilspill. ETA: Even though I didn't personally lose everything, I have friends who did. Also, I have not been able to bathe, (As of late last night word got out you can bathe, and I finally did, but from July 1st to this morning I couldn't bathe) flush the toilet, (still aren't much, water must be conserved) and have had to conserve water severely. At least now I can wash and sanitize (by dipping them into a weak bleach water solution for a full minute) real dishes to use instead of paper plates, plastic cups and utensils. I can feel the shock, worry, and misery this town has, it permeates the air. Everyone is dazed.

[Crimefighter]

Kat

Why didnt you book into a Best Western or a Days Inn, it is only $60 per night?

Best Wishes

Crimefighter

[Damian]

Dear katk
are you guys ok over there.. do you live in Coffeyville?

[KatK]

Yeah, I live in Coffeyville. Crimefighter, Best Western?! I'm disabled, we couldn't afford that... Also, they wouldn't have had water either, given that the CITY'S water supply went out. (And the Best Western in town was corded off, it was less than a block from the flooding.) Most of the residents of Coffeyville/this area live at, or below poverty. Cite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffeyville,_Kansas).

No word yet on the clean up that I have heard. The refinary was up and running a day or so ago though. The "scuttlebutt" I heard is that the refinary is going to buy up all the land that was affected by the oilspill, they've been wanting the land for years. (That's the land on the East Side, the poor side, the slum.) No doubt for much less than the land is worth. Also there are lawyers in town investigating whether or not the oilspill was intentional, and I think the EPA is still looking into it as well. The poorest of the poor of this town lost everything in that flood. My husband and his cousin helped a business owner clean out her shop, they had to put on hazmat suits, and brass figurines had to be thrown out. He said "I don't know what was in that water, but it wasn't just oil. That brass was CORRODED! Whatever it was, ate right through brass." This still leaves a large amount of this town's citizens without homes. :(

I talked to the owner of a second hand clothing store in Coffeyville. She's a hero in my book. She camped out at her shop for days and days, had no food, little water, handing out clothing (and some things like canned formula and the like for the babies, which was brought in by other poor people to be handed out so the babies wouldn't starve, a very real risk) to the flood victims, and standing vigil so the out of state looters (*GROWL*) who came into town (just the fact that they risked the trip, which would have been extra long to get around the flooding says something) couldn't rob the car dealership or other businesses on that street. This woman gave away most of her stock, and is worrying that she can't hold out and not go bankrupt before she catches back up financially. She's bone thin now, she lost weight from the ordeal.

[Crimefighter]

Hi KatK

Oh dear, i am very sorry to hear that and it sounds like the whole town when through a dramatic time. I hope the lady from the shop gets back on her feet.

Please keep us updated.


C/F

[KatK]

Coming back to clarify. When I say whatever was in that "oilspill" corroded brass, I don't mean just a little rust. It *ate* through the metal, stripped it, corroded it. The things weren't in the floodwater long enough to rust them clear through, this was an interaction with something CAUSTIC in the water.

I also didn't mention that the refinary's insurance company is going around trying to get out of paying as much as they should for the damges caused by the oilspill. They tried to tell the business woman my husband helped out that there wasn't oil sludge in the basement of her shop, that she had no oil damages at all. Ha! He said there was a thick layer of sludge down there, undeniably oil.