you know, my friend uses this great example. salt was a strategic commodity for thousands of years, the only way to preserve food, the only way to preserve meat. it was a really big deal. countries went to war over salt mines. and with the coming of the electricity grid, that ended in a few years. frozen meat was not only cheaper but tasted better. so refrigeration destroyed salt s strategic role. we still use it, we put it on the sidewalks in the winter, eat it on corn on the cob, but nobody looks at the salt shaker when they go to the table and wonder if we re salt independent. let s just look at some of the numbers. forget libya. cost of u.s. operations in iraq, $802 billion. cost of u.s. operations in afghanistan $455 billion. if oil didn t have the strategic importance that it does have,
greta: how far from us is where the valdez had its accident? the exxon rather. 20 miles from her. growth the spill from that, did you experience it here? no, the oil didn t come up here. greta: why not? it don t flow uphill. it flowed from the reef to the southwest. it went down through montague straits, passage through the village, past the hatchery at port san juan, main bay hatchery in front of there, there was oil. greta: how many miles down to the impact on the environment? all the way out to sand point falls pass. 1500 miles. it washed up, came in, kodiak
where the valdez had its accident? the exxon rather. 20 miles from her. growth the spill from that, did you experience it here? no, the oil didn t come up here. greta: why not? it don t flow uphill. it flowed from the reef to the southwest. it went down through montague straits, passage through the village, past the hatchery at port san juan, main bay hatchery in front of there, there was oil. greta: how many miles down to the impact on the environment? all the way out to sand point falls pass. 1500 miles. it washed up, came in, kodiak
what are people saying there about this? yeah. we ve seen the dramatic pictures from earlier in the week. scientists said that fish kill was from a lack of oxygen. they don t think it was related to the oil. another one. thousands of fish again found yesterday. people are saying it s not uncommon. it is more freekd than they ve seen in the past. and the fish kill is bigger than they ve seen in past. they re asking for more testing to make sure the oil didn t have anything to do with the oxygen depletion that killed those fish. kristen dahlgren, thank you. we have business headlines this afternoon now. in separate meetings today in houston and chicago, shareholders approved the company s $3.2 million merger. that clears the way for if creation of the world s largest airline. they expect to close the merger by october 1st. this is the last day of a two-day job fair for soon to be laid off workers at nasa s kennedy space center.
been hit very hard as well. a lot of people who didn t have flood insurance because they never thought floodwaters would come anywhere near their home. they re looking at a total loss of their home so it s really, really tough on a lot of people. we re trying to reach out and governor, how great is the help those people. need going to be in your state and what is the need going to be? can you quantify it for us at this point and qualify it as well? i don t have numbers. we re doing assessments right now working with fema. fema s done a good job coming down here. they were down when the first drops started falling and the administration has been in touch with us through all of this, but what we re trying to do right now is get a handle on the amount. obviously, for people that didn t have flood insurance, there s no amount of help that will make them whole again, so it s a very tough time. but we re through the part now where the first responders have done just a great job in saving