Katrina Live Thread, Part XIII

28,000 National Guard troops are deployed to the disaster areas in Mississippi, Alabama, and to Louisiana, where SWAT teams are working to combat the looters and shooters in New Orleans. Additional 1400 National Guard troops are being deployed daily.

Shootings reported at a New Orleans hospital, rescue boats, and a military helicopter, while conditions continue to deteriorate at the SuperDome amid refugee deaths and chaos. Evacuation of New Orleans continues.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert has voiced serious doubts about rebuilding New Orleans with federal funds, while assuring the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida that the United States Congress stands ready to help them in their time of need. New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin issued a "desperate SOS."

Doctors at two desperately crippled hospitals in New Orleans called The Associated Press Thursday morning pleading for rescue, "We have been trying to call the mayor's office, we have been trying to call the governor's office ... we have tried to use any inside pressure we can. We are turning to you. Please help us," said Dr. Norman McSwain, chief of trauma surgery at Charity Hospital, the largest of two public hospitals.

The Port of New Orleans is now open to shallow draft vessels. Congress is reconvening in an emergency session. International offers to assist the U.S. have been received from Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Germany, Venezuela, Jamaica, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, NATO and the Organization of American States.

Due to the number of requests to assist, the following list of some charities is provided.
This is not intended as an endorsement for any of the charities.

www.redcross.org or 1-800 HELP NOW - note: website is slow, and lines are busy
Salvation Army - 1-800-SAL-ARMY or Salvation Army currently looking for in-state volunteers - (888)363-2769
Operation Blessing: (800) 436-6348.
America's Second Harvest: (800) 344-8070.
Catholic Charities USA: (800) 919-9338, or www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee: (800) 848-5818.
Church World Service: (800) 297-1516 or online at www.churchworldservice. org.
Lutheran Disaster Response: (800) 638-3522.
Nazarene Disaster Response: (888) 256-5886.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance: (800) 872-3283.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is accepting donations at its 3,800 stores and Web site, www.walmart.com.
National Black Home Educators Resource Association http://www.nbhera.org/

Updates from Times-Picayune

: here

Refugee Blues in Memphis5:50 p.m.

Memphis has become a city of refugees. At this point, local officials estimate that there are 10,000 Katrina refugees in Memphis, and the vast majority appear to be from the New Orleans area.

Many are at the Comfort Inn and the Mariott Courtyard in Germantown, a fairly affluent suburb of Memphis and a community that has really embraced the refugees.

Some refugees said they are ready to stay in Memphis forever. Some can't wait to get back to New Orleans.

Elvis Hyde is one of the latter.

Hyde spent four nights at the Comfort Inn and is moving temporarily to Lafayette. He has in-laws in Lafayette who are renting him an apartment. Their in-laws found him a one-bedroom apartment for $800 - the price in Monday's paper. On Tuesday, the owner wanted $2,000 for the apartment. His family is reporting the person to the state Attorney General for price gouging.

He said they are going to get an apartment and fit as many family members as possible. The only family member outside the area is a brother in Tulsa who has already got eight other family members staying with him, including Hyde's sister and three kids.

Hyde, in the shipping business, said he is returning because he believes there will be a lot of work. His in-laws own a job placement company.
He'd rather be home, but Lafayette is as close as he can get. Other refugees are going to all points of the compass: South Carolina, Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Las Vegas.

There seemed to be a realization Tuesday or Wednesday that this wouldn't be a one or two-week evacuation. You can't pass a TV in the lobby or a computer keyboard in either hotel without seeing 10 or 20 people clustered around trying to get information on the storm. As they watch, they are trading information they have heard from relatives and friends, including a few precious bits of information from within the city itself.

John Pouey, from Metairie, was at the Comfort INn with his family. They were prepared to stay for a week and are now wondering what they will do. "We are going to stay here until the weekend, but it's $70 a day and we don't know where we will be next week. I'd rather find an apartment in Louisiana, but I don't know if we can afford to rent in Louisiana." He said he may take his family of 5, including a 3-month old baby, to Las Vegas to be with family.

"I hate to do it, but we'll probably have to make the 20-hour drive to Las Vegas. We can't put a 3-month old in a shelter."

Rene Mejia, a waiter at Antoine's who lives in the Lower 9th Ward, said he is on the fence whether he will go back or find work elsewhere. "I'm single, I speak four languages, I've got 27 years in the restaurant biz, I can start over anywhere I want."

He's in Memphis with nine family members and said ultimately he will go where his family goes. His sister has a condominium in Chateau Estates in Kenner that may be dry, and if his family goes back to New Orleans, he will probably stay with her. He knows he has no home anymore because he lives in the Lower 9th Ward. "Why go back if there is nothing there?"

Bill Ello, of Total Electonics Systems which specializes in security, has 15 people in his group and has 7 rooms at the Mariott Courtyard, including his 88-year-old mother. Today they rented three two-bedroom apartments in Memphis for $720 a month each, unfurnished. An agent got them furniture for $150 a month. "It's not cheap, but it's better than paying $90 a night at the Mariott Courtyard."

They figure they will be in Memphis for four- to six weeks and figures he will get plenty of work in new construction and repairs and will try to get to the city as soon as possible and fully expects to eventually return to live with his family.
As refugees were talking about how many people will return to the city, Kim Klapatch, his daughter, said: "I think a lot of people are never coming home." She estimated at least 20 percent will never see the city again.

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	Lolis Eric Elie5:50 p.m. By Lolis Eric Elie Columnist Years ago, a young South African scholar told me about his trip to America, to Boston, specifically. I don't know who was in charge of his trip, but either they failed to give him his script or he failed to memorize his lines. He was supposed to tell me about how wonderful our country is. He was supposed to have been impressed with the vast wealth of this place and with the quality and quantity of the latest technology here. He was supposed to envy our First World status. He didn't. What he remembered from his trip was not our wealth, but our poverty. He was shocked by the slums of Boston. He wondered about American aid to poor countries. How can you send aid to these places, he asked, when you need such aid in your own poor communities? What we are watching in New Orleans now is an indictment of our nation. I can understand why we see refugees in Liberia walking miles in the hope of finding sustenance or safety; often there is little of either in that country. But why are we seeing these same images here? Do we lack the trains, planes and automobiles to move our people to safety? I can understand why it takes so much time to get aid halfway across the world, but why does it take so long to get aid to our own Gulf states? I can understand why lawlessness rules the streets of many poor countries in crisis, but we have a huge standing army. Do we lack the soldiers to police American streets? I am used to seeing images of desperate people hindering the very relief efforts aimed at saving them. I have seen news reports of refugees looting food shipments. I've even heard of warlords in some countries looting the shipments and then trying to sell food to those so desperate and poor as to be scarcely able to afford it. But why are we seeing these images and hearing these reports of wanton looting — by at least one police officer, no less —in an American city? I make no excuses for the looters. What may have started out as a legitimate attempt to secure the most basic of necessities has quickly turned into a nightmarish free-for-all. But we shouldn't be surprised that the criminal element that terrorizes New Orleans and just about every other major American city, declined to alter its behavior in the midst of this crisis. I am surprised, however, that our leaders have failed to provide a more adequate and timely response to all of this. I am surprised that, in light of the current crisis in New Orleans, that the United States of America can be seen to have so much in common with the poorest and most wretched places on earth. Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	Orleans schools boss: Seek classes, work somewhere else5:40 p.m. Interim Orleans Public Schools Superintendent Ora Watson said Thursday that “at a minimum I believe it will be a couple of months” before the storm-damaged school system can become operational. She urged displaced families to enroll their children temporarily in other school systems. Watson, in a telephone interview, also said that “it may be prudent” for Orleans teachers in the system to seek work elsewhere. She could not guarantee that teachers who do not find other jobs will continue receiving paychecks from the Orleans system without interruption. “I would encourage them not to wait,” she said. Watson said paychecks scheduled to go out today for the school system will be delayed because of havoc Hurricane Katrina caused for the payroll system. But she said checks for this round of pay should go out by the middle of next week. She wouldn’t elaborate on what measures may be necessary to get pay to employees, many of whom are now in far-flung evacuation centers. “Right now we can’t give anybody a date on when we’re going to open or how it’s going to look,” Watson said, noting that floodwaters so far have made it impossible to start a building damage assessment. The Alvarez & Marsal financial consulting firm, hired to correct deep financial management problems in the Orleans system, said in a statement Thursday that the hurricane “has rendered the school district’s offices inaccessible and disrupted our ability to conduct payroll operations. We are working aggressively to solve this problem and find a way to process payments to employees as soon as possible.” The firm said it has been in contact with Coventry, the district’s benefits provider, and that health insurance will remain in effect for employees, including those who recently got layoff notices. The firm set up a toll-free hotline, (877) 771-5800, for employees to leave contact information for future announcements. “We are doing everything possible to assess the situation and develop a plan for getting the school system back on its feet,” said Bill Roberti, managing director of Alvarez & Marsal. “At the moment, our first thoughts are for the well-being of the people of New Orleans and the safety of this great city.” Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	Gumbo Krewe cooking up comfort foodLittice Bacon-Blood River Parishes bureau When Shawn and Danielle Bradley returned from Shreveport to their Norco home late Monday, they had cooking on their minds. They were thinking about gumbo, and lots of it. On Thursday, the founders of the Gumbo Krewe, transformed their covered patio on Good Hope Street in Norco into an al fresco kitchen. The group, which gained national acclaim in 2001 for packing up its pots and heading to ground zero to feed hundreds of emergency workers in New York following the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks, now wants to spread a little comfort closer to home. And by 12:30 p.m., according to Shawn Bradley's estimate, they had cooked up, dished out and delivered more than 100 gallons of chicken gumbo, jambalaya and red beans to emergency workers in St. Charles Parish and Kenner, with plans to feed many more. "We're trying to feed whoever we can,'' Bradley said. "We're feeding cops and rescue workers first." However, unlike 911, when the krewe was able to mobilize its kitchen and feed people on site, safety concerns this time around have members delivering the food to certain locations. "We have drop-off points, drop-off points that are safe, '' Bradley said. "We have to have security wherever we go." Bradley said Whole Foods in Metairie donated food, seasoning and paper products, he said. "They have given us everything we need,'' he said. "They've promised to send a truckload every day." Bradley and his band of volunteers say feeding the workers - and whoever else happens by - is their way of giving back during a time of a national crisis. "I've got to do my part,'' said Greg Lassiter of LaPlace as he readied ham hocks for stewing with red beans. Gage Alleman, 10, of LaPlace came to Norco with his mother Debbie to help with the food preparations. Earlier, he had onion duty. Did he cry? "Once,'' he said with a smile. Despite having roof damage from the hurricane, Debbie Alleman said she came simply because she heard the Bradleys needed help. "Everyone said that they were working for blessings,'' Alleman said. "I thought that was nice." With large fans sending the smell of simmering chicken, roux and onions through the air, your sense of smell could have guided you to Bradley's house. If not, the four flags - two American, one Louisiana, one Mardi Gras - posted high in the air and whipping in the wind could be easily spotted more than a block away. A banner stripped across the front porch proclaimed: Gumbo Krewe "Food for the Soul." The Bradleys say they have not put a time limit on their service. They'll dish out comfort and comfort food, they said, "until the need is not there." Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	Military beefing up presence in Gulf regionBy Paul Purpura West Bank bureau BATON ROUGE -- The Defense Department aims to build a military force of more than 30,000 across the South and the Gulf of Mexico to help federal emergency officials deal with the wrath of Hurricane Katrina. The group, known as Joint Task Force Katrina, will bring 7,000 active duty soldiers, airmen, Marines and sailors from around the United States to the Gulf region in the next few days to provide equipment and distribute water and food, officials said Thursday. Their mission is “basically the gamut, whatever the guardsmen need to do to support the local authorities and local emergency management authorities,” said Jack Harrison, a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau in Washington D.C. By law, the task force is barred by federal law from providing law enforcement assistance to National Guard troops who are aiding civilian police agencies in New Orleans who are wrangling with rampant looting and lawlessness. “That is totally being done on the National Guard side of the house,” Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the Colorado-based U.S. Northern Command, said Thursday. As of midday Thursday, 13,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen, including 5,700 from Louisiana, were on active duty, and the number was expected to increase to 20,000 overnight, Harrison said. “We think it will get up to somewhere around 30,000 in the next few days,” he said. Some of those National Guard troops will join fellow soldiers who already are assisting local police and sheriff’s offices in an attempt to quell looting in the hurricane-affected areas and to restore order. During states of emergency, National Guard troops can be designated as peace officers to support and augment local law enforcement agencies, Harrison said. “It’s not martial law,” he said. The Joint Task Force Katrina, meanwhile, will work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency assessing damages and, initially, taking “life-saving measures,” Kucharek said. About 60,000 Meals, Ready to Eat, or MREs, are being shipped in through the force, he said. The task force, headed by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honor, is based at Camp Shelby, Miss., near Hattiesburg. Supplies and relief personnel headed into the ravaged region will be staged at Fort Polk in west-central Louisiana, Barksdale Air Force Base near Bossier City and military bases in neighboring states. The personnel include a Marine Corps expeditionary strike group led by the USS Iwo Jima that is expected to be anchored off the Gulf Coast by Sunday. The USNS Comfort, one of two Navy hospital ships, is scheduled to arrive by Sept. 8. The Navy’s USS Bataan based at Ingleside, Texas, is already in the region, supporting medical evacuations and search and rescue missions with helicopters, an official said. Paul Purpura can be reached at ppurpura@cox.net ____________ Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	Xavier update5:30 p.m. (This statement was issued at 4:30 p.m. by Warren Bell Jr., associate vice president for university and media relations at Xavier University in New Orleans.) As of this afternoon, all dormitory students who were unable to evacuate before the storm, along with university staff who stayed with them, have already been safely removed from the campus and relocated to a staging area next to the campus. They remain under the protection of campus police, as well as members of the New Orleans Police Department. The students and staff members are scheduled to be transported in buses this evening either to the Southern University main campus in Baton Rouge or further north to Grambling State University in Grambling. Meanwhile, the Xavier campus remains closed until further notice in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while the university can assess prospects for reopening the campus. Normal campus communications, including the web site server systems, will remain shut down until power has been restored on the campus and residents are allowed to return safely. Official information regarding the Xavier University campus will continue to be provided, as it becomes available, at the university's toll-free emergency information telephone line, (866) 520-XULA, and at the Xavier emergency web site (www.xulaemergency.com) as conditions change. Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	Stress most serious health concernBy John Pope Staff writer Nearly 500 federal public health specialists will be deployed throughout the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast region in an attempt to ward off a variety of food- and water-borne diseases, but the most serious health threat these areas face will be psychological problems brought on by stress, the head of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Calling Hurricane Katrina "our own tsunami," CDC Director Julie Gerberding said the 24 20-member teams headed for the area will include experts in infectious diseases and environmental health. They will join about 30 CDC personnel already in Louisiana who are helping assess the situation, determine the care patients need and deliver basic materials such as antibiotics, tetanus vaccine and cots for field hospitals, agency spokesman Tom Skinner added. The state Department of Health and Hospitals has asked CDC to send experts in environmental health, infectious diseases and immunizations, but they will not be needed for a few weeks because the top priority now is finding and rescuing people and getting them to medical care, spokeswoman Kristen Meyer said. "We haven't seen a lot of diseases because the things that put people at risk are being in floodwater and cleaning up after floodwater," she said. "Most evacuees haven't had a chance to go back home." To head off a possible outbreak of tetanus in Mississippi, the CDC has sent 8,000 doses of tetanus vaccine to Mississippi, Gerberding said. Although federal health specialists will work with local personnel in treating a variety of food- and waterborne diseases such as hepatitis A, diarrhea and intestinal infections, the biggest -- and longest-lasting -- health-care concern probably will be psychological problems brought on by stress, Gerberding said in a telephone news conference. "When you have no home, you have no money, and you have no job, . . . the long-term consequences are overwhelming," she said. "We will have mental-health experts at every location." These specialists will treat not only patients but also caregivers "because they are affected by the damages and the families" they see, Gerberding said. Among the CDC contingent will be people who have worked in refugee camps around the world, she said. More information about hurricane-related health concerns is available at dhh.emergencynews.com. One particular area of concern, she said, will be the possibility of a rise in West Nile virus infections as a result of the high amount of water that Katrina dumped on Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama -- water that could be breeding ground for virus-carrying mosquitoes. Although CDC arguably is the world's foremost public-health organization, Gerberding stressed that its team will be cooperating with state and local health-care personnel to "augment, not replace" them. "We've got to coordinate surveillance of infections," she said. Because Katrina was "more like a tsunami than a hurricane," Gerberding said the need for medical help in the devastated region will be vast -- so vast that qualified civilian doctors are being asked to join the CDC teams for what could be a protracted period. "We're in a marathon, not a sprint," she said. Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	DHH creates hurricane health tips websiteThursday, 5:14 p.m. Information about hurricane-related health concerns is available at dhh.emergencynews.com, which has been set up by the state Department of Health and Hospitals. The site contains items ranging from a listing of jurisdictions in which boil water notices have been issued to health tips for rescue workers.

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	Lolis Eric Elie5:50 p.m. By Lolis Eric Elie Columnist Years ago, a young South African scholar told me about his trip to America, to Boston, specifically. I don't know who was in charge of his trip, but either they failed to give him his script or he failed to memorize his lines. He was supposed to tell me about how wonderful our country is. He was supposed to have been impressed with the vast wealth of this place and with the quality and quantity of the latest technology here. He was supposed to envy our First World status. He didn't. What he remembered from his trip was not our wealth, but our poverty. He was shocked by the slums of Boston. He wondered about American aid to poor countries. How can you send aid to these places, he asked, when you need such aid in your own poor communities? What we are watching in New Orleans now is an indictment of our nation. I can understand why we see refugees in Liberia walking miles in the hope of finding sustenance or safety; often there is little of either in that country. But why are we seeing these same images here? Do we lack the trains, planes and automobiles to move our people to safety? I can understand why it takes so much time to get aid halfway across the world, but why does it take so long to get aid to our own Gulf states? I can understand why lawlessness rules the streets of many poor countries in crisis, but we have a huge standing army. Do we lack the soldiers to police American streets? I am used to seeing images of desperate people hindering the very relief efforts aimed at saving them. I have seen news reports of refugees looting food shipments. I've even heard of warlords in some countries looting the shipments and then trying to sell food to those so desperate and poor as to be scarcely able to afford it. But why are we seeing these images and hearing these reports of wanton looting — by at least one police officer, no less —in an American city? I make no excuses for the looters. What may have started out as a legitimate attempt to secure the most basic of necessities has quickly turned into a nightmarish free-for-all. But we shouldn't be surprised that the criminal element that terrorizes New Orleans and just about every other major American city, declined to alter its behavior in the midst of this crisis. I am surprised, however, that our leaders have failed to provide a more adequate and timely response to all of this. I am surprised that, in light of the current crisis in New Orleans, that the United States of America can be seen to have so much in common with the poorest and most wretched places on earth. Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	Orleans schools boss: Seek classes, work somewhere else5:40 p.m. Interim Orleans Public Schools Superintendent Ora Watson said Thursday that “at a minimum I believe it will be a couple of months” before the storm-damaged school system can become operational. She urged displaced families to enroll their children temporarily in other school systems. Watson, in a telephone interview, also said that “it may be prudent” for Orleans teachers in the system to seek work elsewhere. She could not guarantee that teachers who do not find other jobs will continue receiving paychecks from the Orleans system without interruption. “I would encourage them not to wait,” she said. Watson said paychecks scheduled to go out today for the school system will be delayed because of havoc Hurricane Katrina caused for the payroll system. But she said checks for this round of pay should go out by the middle of next week. She wouldn’t elaborate on what measures may be necessary to get pay to employees, many of whom are now in far-flung evacuation centers. “Right now we can’t give anybody a date on when we’re going to open or how it’s going to look,” Watson said, noting that floodwaters so far have made it impossible to start a building damage assessment. The Alvarez & Marsal financial consulting firm, hired to correct deep financial management problems in the Orleans system, said in a statement Thursday that the hurricane “has rendered the school district’s offices inaccessible and disrupted our ability to conduct payroll operations. We are working aggressively to solve this problem and find a way to process payments to employees as soon as possible.” The firm said it has been in contact with Coventry, the district’s benefits provider, and that health insurance will remain in effect for employees, including those who recently got layoff notices. The firm set up a toll-free hotline, (877) 771-5800, for employees to leave contact information for future announcements. “We are doing everything possible to assess the situation and develop a plan for getting the school system back on its feet,” said Bill Roberti, managing director of Alvarez & Marsal. “At the moment, our first thoughts are for the well-being of the people of New Orleans and the safety of this great city.” Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	Gumbo Krewe cooking up comfort foodLittice Bacon-Blood River Parishes bureau When Shawn and Danielle Bradley returned from Shreveport to their Norco home late Monday, they had cooking on their minds. They were thinking about gumbo, and lots of it. On Thursday, the founders of the Gumbo Krewe, transformed their covered patio on Good Hope Street in Norco into an al fresco kitchen. The group, which gained national acclaim in 2001 for packing up its pots and heading to ground zero to feed hundreds of emergency workers in New York following the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks, now wants to spread a little comfort closer to home. And by 12:30 p.m., according to Shawn Bradley's estimate, they had cooked up, dished out and delivered more than 100 gallons of chicken gumbo, jambalaya and red beans to emergency workers in St. Charles Parish and Kenner, with plans to feed many more. "We're trying to feed whoever we can,'' Bradley said. "We're feeding cops and rescue workers first." However, unlike 911, when the krewe was able to mobilize its kitchen and feed people on site, safety concerns this time around have members delivering the food to certain locations. "We have drop-off points, drop-off points that are safe, '' Bradley said. "We have to have security wherever we go." Bradley said Whole Foods in Metairie donated food, seasoning and paper products, he said. "They have given us everything we need,'' he said. "They've promised to send a truckload every day." Bradley and his band of volunteers say feeding the workers - and whoever else happens by - is their way of giving back during a time of a national crisis. "I've got to do my part,'' said Greg Lassiter of LaPlace as he readied ham hocks for stewing with red beans. Gage Alleman, 10, of LaPlace came to Norco with his mother Debbie to help with the food preparations. Earlier, he had onion duty. Did he cry? "Once,'' he said with a smile. Despite having roof damage from the hurricane, Debbie Alleman said she came simply because she heard the Bradleys needed help. "Everyone said that they were working for blessings,'' Alleman said. "I thought that was nice." With large fans sending the smell of simmering chicken, roux and onions through the air, your sense of smell could have guided you to Bradley's house. If not, the four flags - two American, one Louisiana, one Mardi Gras - posted high in the air and whipping in the wind could be easily spotted more than a block away. A banner stripped across the front porch proclaimed: Gumbo Krewe "Food for the Soul." The Bradleys say they have not put a time limit on their service. They'll dish out comfort and comfort food, they said, "until the need is not there." Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	Military beefing up presence in Gulf regionBy Paul Purpura West Bank bureau BATON ROUGE -- The Defense Department aims to build a military force of more than 30,000 across the South and the Gulf of Mexico to help federal emergency officials deal with the wrath of Hurricane Katrina. The group, known as Joint Task Force Katrina, will bring 7,000 active duty soldiers, airmen, Marines and sailors from around the United States to the Gulf region in the next few days to provide equipment and distribute water and food, officials said Thursday. Their mission is “basically the gamut, whatever the guardsmen need to do to support the local authorities and local emergency management authorities,” said Jack Harrison, a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau in Washington D.C. By law, the task force is barred by federal law from providing law enforcement assistance to National Guard troops who are aiding civilian police agencies in New Orleans who are wrangling with rampant looting and lawlessness. “That is totally being done on the National Guard side of the house,” Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the Colorado-based U.S. Northern Command, said Thursday. As of midday Thursday, 13,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen, including 5,700 from Louisiana, were on active duty, and the number was expected to increase to 20,000 overnight, Harrison said. “We think it will get up to somewhere around 30,000 in the next few days,” he said. Some of those National Guard troops will join fellow soldiers who already are assisting local police and sheriff’s offices in an attempt to quell looting in the hurricane-affected areas and to restore order. During states of emergency, National Guard troops can be designated as peace officers to support and augment local law enforcement agencies, Harrison said. “It’s not martial law,” he said. The Joint Task Force Katrina, meanwhile, will work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency assessing damages and, initially, taking “life-saving measures,” Kucharek said. About 60,000 Meals, Ready to Eat, or MREs, are being shipped in through the force, he said. The task force, headed by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honor, is based at Camp Shelby, Miss., near Hattiesburg. Supplies and relief personnel headed into the ravaged region will be staged at Fort Polk in west-central Louisiana, Barksdale Air Force Base near Bossier City and military bases in neighboring states. The personnel include a Marine Corps expeditionary strike group led by the USS Iwo Jima that is expected to be anchored off the Gulf Coast by Sunday. The USNS Comfort, one of two Navy hospital ships, is scheduled to arrive by Sept. 8. The Navy’s USS Bataan based at Ingleside, Texas, is already in the region, supporting medical evacuations and search and rescue missions with helicopters, an official said. Paul Purpura can be reached at ppurpura@cox.net ____________ Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	Xavier update5:30 p.m. (This statement was issued at 4:30 p.m. by Warren Bell Jr., associate vice president for university and media relations at Xavier University in New Orleans.) As of this afternoon, all dormitory students who were unable to evacuate before the storm, along with university staff who stayed with them, have already been safely removed from the campus and relocated to a staging area next to the campus. They remain under the protection of campus police, as well as members of the New Orleans Police Department. The students and staff members are scheduled to be transported in buses this evening either to the Southern University main campus in Baton Rouge or further north to Grambling State University in Grambling. Meanwhile, the Xavier campus remains closed until further notice in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while the university can assess prospects for reopening the campus. Normal campus communications, including the web site server systems, will remain shut down until power has been restored on the campus and residents are allowed to return safely. Official information regarding the Xavier University campus will continue to be provided, as it becomes available, at the university's toll-free emergency information telephone line, (866) 520-XULA, and at the Xavier emergency web site (www.xulaemergency.com) as conditions change. Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	Stress most serious health concernBy John Pope Staff writer Nearly 500 federal public health specialists will be deployed throughout the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast region in an attempt to ward off a variety of food- and water-borne diseases, but the most serious health threat these areas face will be psychological problems brought on by stress, the head of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Calling Hurricane Katrina "our own tsunami," CDC Director Julie Gerberding said the 24 20-member teams headed for the area will include experts in infectious diseases and environmental health. They will join about 30 CDC personnel already in Louisiana who are helping assess the situation, determine the care patients need and deliver basic materials such as antibiotics, tetanus vaccine and cots for field hospitals, agency spokesman Tom Skinner added. The state Department of Health and Hospitals has asked CDC to send experts in environmental health, infectious diseases and immunizations, but they will not be needed for a few weeks because the top priority now is finding and rescuing people and getting them to medical care, spokeswoman Kristen Meyer said. "We haven't seen a lot of diseases because the things that put people at risk are being in floodwater and cleaning up after floodwater," she said. "Most evacuees haven't had a chance to go back home." To head off a possible outbreak of tetanus in Mississippi, the CDC has sent 8,000 doses of tetanus vaccine to Mississippi, Gerberding said. Although federal health specialists will work with local personnel in treating a variety of food- and waterborne diseases such as hepatitis A, diarrhea and intestinal infections, the biggest -- and longest-lasting -- health-care concern probably will be psychological problems brought on by stress, Gerberding said in a telephone news conference. "When you have no home, you have no money, and you have no job, . . . the long-term consequences are overwhelming," she said. "We will have mental-health experts at every location." These specialists will treat not only patients but also caregivers "because they are affected by the damages and the families" they see, Gerberding said. Among the CDC contingent will be people who have worked in refugee camps around the world, she said. More information about hurricane-related health concerns is available at dhh.emergencynews.com. One particular area of concern, she said, will be the possibility of a rise in West Nile virus infections as a result of the high amount of water that Katrina dumped on Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama -- water that could be breeding ground for virus-carrying mosquitoes. Although CDC arguably is the world's foremost public-health organization, Gerberding stressed that its team will be cooperating with state and local health-care personnel to "augment, not replace" them. "We've got to coordinate surveillance of infections," she said. Because Katrina was "more like a tsunami than a hurricane," Gerberding said the need for medical help in the devastated region will be vast -- so vast that qualified civilian doctors are being asked to join the CDC teams for what could be a protracted period. "We're in a marathon, not a sprint," she said. Print \| Send To A Friend \| Permalink (Learn More)
	DHH creates hurricane health tips websiteThursday, 5:14 p.m. Information about hurricane-related health concerns is available at dhh.emergencynews.com, which has been set up by the state Department of Health and Hospitals. The site contains items ranging from a listing of jurisdictions in which boil water notices have been issued to health tips for rescue workers.