You must be a fantastic organizer. I think they could use you in NO to run something.
Thanks again.
I am watching Shep for the first time today- and I am about ready to fill up the back of my car with water bottles and drive some down there myself. How can they have people just sitting on the highway without any water on a hot day??? This whole thing is just heart wrenching.
Awesome job you are doing. Thanks for everything!
There is a very interesting resource mentioned on this thread - perhaps you would like to link it. One FReeper just found the house of a friend still intact, allaying some fear.
Perhaps the link would be of use to some others. Perhaps you would like to add it to your thread-starter list next time...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1474337/posts
Complete Aerial Picture Survey of Mississippi Coast Damage
*cough cough* ;)
It's just starting to sink in.
Yes, if the food distribution situation in the southern ports has caused no exports to foreign countries there could be some severe shortages around the world.
Current thread
Marshall law just put into effect in NO !!! Per the Mayor
Economic impacts of Katrina are still being determined. But things so not look rosy for Louisiana and Mississippi. The housing bubble has popped in New Orleans, most of Louisiana and neighboring Mississippi and several points north. Thousands are feared to be dead.
Posted, 7:23 pm:
State OES has learned that trapped victims on the Gulf Coast are calling family, friends, loved-ones, or anyone they can get a call out to in California asking for someone to rescue them. These requests need to go immediately to the US Coast Guard's Rescue Line at 800-323-7233 and immediate assistance will be sent.
Please distribute this information as widely as possible.
For all-states, alert.
NN,
Did you see this graphic in this morning's paper about storm surge in our area.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/31/Tampabay/Category_4_could_leav.shtml
Also, my Mom called and said something about Jeb Bush announcing there were limited supplies of gas in the state...have you heard that? I've looked for links but haven't found any.
From the Louisiana Department of Education.
HURRICANE KATRINA DISPLACES STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 8/31/2005
Contact: Meg Casper, (225) 342-3600, Fax: (225) 342-0193
HURRICANE KATRINA DISPLACES STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
Baton Rouge, LA—Hurricane Katrina has destroyed or damaged schools in at least six Louisiana parishes. That means that more than 135,000 students must, temporarily, find somewhere else to go.
Superintendent of Education Cecil Picard said his number one priority is getting those children back in school, "I implore Superintendents around the state to take these children in. I have heard from many of them who are already doing so. To them I say ‘Thank you.’ To the others, again, I implore you to take care of the children who come to your districts.”
Superintendent Picard said he knows there are many issues that must be dealt with but that the most important thing is for parents to get their children signed up in the school system that they are taking shelter in right now, "We will worry about school records, funding, payrolls and waivers,” Picard said. "Let us work out those details. Right now I need parents and school systems to make sure these children have the stability of a classroom as soon as possible.”
Thousands of teachers have also been displaced by Katrina. They will be needed by the school systems who will take in students who have been forced to evacuate. The Department of Education urges any teacher who is able, to apply for work in the school system in which they are taking shelter.
To those who aren’t in a position to work right now, Superintendent Picard wants you to know that you are eligible for temporary unemployment benefits. Also, the Department is working with Superintendents to get all payroll systems up and running again.
A special note for Orleans Parish, members of Alvarez and Marcell are physically trying to rescue payroll documents and get them to Houston where they can be processed.
The Department of Education is setting up teams to work out the details such as MFP funding, accountability, teaching certificates, waivers, payroll and missing school records. Superintendent Picard said, "We will work with every superintendent in the state, the BESE Board, the Legislature and the federal Department of Education to resolve these issues. It will take time and we ask for your patience.”
Superintendent Picard knows that space will be an issue for schools taking in extra students. He is calling on businesses and churches to provide space for temporary classrooms especially in East Baton Rouge, Ascension, Lafayette and Caddo Parish where large shelters are now up and running.
Any Superintendent or teacher who needs help with any of these issues is urged to get in contact with the Department of Education call center. That toll-free number is 1-877-453-2721. The Department will also set up a special space on the Teach Louisiana website to help with certification issues.
Offers of help with enrollment and materials are coming in from around the nation. The Superintendent of Education in Florida is sending the "action plan” they put into place after the hurricanes hit there last year. And the Federal Department of Education has offered any help that Louisiana might need.
"We are grateful for all of their support and prayers and we will be leaning on them to get through this,” Superintendent Picard said. "This is an extraordinary time for our state. We are experiencing a disaster unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Our job is to help you do the very best that you can to get every child in this state back where they belong; in the classroom.”
Anyone see the Fox interview the afternoon before the hurricane hit where a minister and his wife were staying on a barrier island to “ride out the storm” so that he wouldn’t leave his community? His wife joked that she was going to stay because “he made me”. I can imagine her father’s anger.
Thanks for doing this. Bookmarking for later attempt to catch up.
One of the nice things about Mississippi, however, is that there are lots of guys with pick-up trucks, ATV's, and chainsaws, so our roads were cleared by Tuesday evening. We drove into Ellisville, our little town, after driving under dangling power masts and lines, and around great old oak trees and pecans. It was awful. I nearly cried. Century-old trees toppled, houses with holes in them, roofs crumpled like tin foil. People just walking around or sitting on their porches looking out into space. It's hot. If you've never lived down here you don't know what it's like. You lose the AC and life quickly gets miserable. You think you're under stress; try it when it's a hundred degrees outside. Our house lacked water for part of Tuesday; some parts of the county still don't have water. But we're fortunate; at least seven people died in our county, where there were no evacuation orders or anything.
Tonight I'm at a relative's house in Winston County, MS, a hundred or so miles north of Jones County, where they now have power again. We're going to stay here for a few days, then go back and clean up and wait. I have no idea when I'll be able to go back to school; we have no idea when we might get electricity again. Meanwhile I'm still in a sort of state of shock. I feel like I have jet-lag or something, only more intense. I feel selfish- the coast and NO are far worse; I can't imagine now what it must have been like- still is like- for people in Southeast Asia. I was reading St. Bernard of Clairvaux before the hurricane hit, in which he talks about us only knowing what the sick or hungry feel when we have been there; only then can we truly love them and 'share in their sufferings'. I think I have a faint glimmer of what he was talking about. I would like to say I've had further epiphanies and bursts of compassion, but I haven't. I've felt miserable; angry, tired, so on. I'm tired of rammen noodles (I had spaghetti tonight at my grandmother's; it was great); my parents' and brotherd' nerves are as shot as mine, and it shows! But we'll survive; we're alive and our house is undamaged. We have a place to go back to. There are so many in my state that don't. There are people in my county who don't. South Mississippi is an open wound tonight.
Hope the Mods are hanging around keeping an eye on the thread tonignt.
Just got in from work....Read the President's speech....Any other highlihgts of today's events would be appreciated.
just joined the thread. Can anyone tell me how the hospital "take-over" is going? I hope its not still . . .
Bump, Bttt, as a bookmark