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Posted on 09/01/2005 3:46:26 PM PDT by NautiNurse
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.
Jesse Jackson has arrived in Louisiana...
Links to various news, local and state government websites:
WLOX TV Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagula has link to locate family and friends
2theAdvocate - Baton Rouge Includes Slidell, St. John Parish, St. Bernard Parish updates, and other locations.
NOLA.com
Inside Houma Today includes shelter and volunteer updates
WLBT.com Jackson MS
WALA Channel 4 Mobile, AL Includes links to distribution centers, Emergency Ops, etc.
Sun-Herald Gulfport MS Includes link to town by town reports
Gulfport News via Topix.net
WAFB Baton Rouge
Mobile Register via al.com
Mississippi updates via Jackson Ledger
Lafayette LA Daily Advertiser
Pensacola News Journal
St Bernard Local Government
Alabama Homeland Security Volunteers can sign up online
Alabama DOT
Alabama.gov
Louisiana Homeland Security
Louisiana State Police road closure info
State of Mississippi Website has traffic alerts, emergency contact numbers
Streaming Video:
WWL-TV (via CBS): WWLTV via CBS
WWL-TV Now via WFAA Dallas **NEW LINK**: http://www.wwltv.com/cgi-bin/bi/video/makeadplaylist.pl?title=beloint_wfaa&live=yes
WDSU-TV: http://mfile.akamai.com/12912/live/reflector:38843.asx
WPMI-TV: http://www.wpmi.com/mediacenter/default.aspx?videoId=113739
WKRG-TV: mms://wmbcast.mgeneral.speedera.net/wmbcast.mgeneral/wmbcast_mgeneral_aug262005_1435_95518
WTOK-TV Temporarily Not Live Streaming (follow the link on the home page): http://www.wtok.com/
WJTV-TV: mms://wmbcast.mgeneral.speedera.net/wmbcast.mgeneral/wmbcast_mgeneral_aug262005_1435_95563
Louisiana Statewide Katrina Network (WJBO-AM Baton Rouge): http://ccri.eonstreams.com/ccri_la_batonrouge_wjbo_am.asf
Gulf Coast Storm Network (radio): http://www.stormalert.net/main.html#
Louisiana Scanner
Related FR Threads:
FYI: Hurricane Katrina Freeper SIGN IN Thread FReeper Check In thread
Discussion Thread - Hurricane Katrina - What Went Wrong?!?
Post Hurricane Katrina IMAGES Here
Looting Begins In New Orleans
Hurricane Katrina HOUSING Thread
Martial Law Declared in New Orleans
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/
Previous Threads:
Katrina Live Thread, Party XII
Katrina Live Thread, Part XI
Katrina Live Thread, Part X
Katrina Live Thread, Part IX
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VIII
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VII
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VI
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part V
Hurricane Katrina, Live Thread, Part IV
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part III
Katrina Live Thread, Part II
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part I
Tropical Storm 12
I can only think of two reasons for the shooters. The most likely; gangstas and druggies who think they can claim NO as their hellish turf, strip it bare, rape and pillage and then just 'blend in' claiming to be suffering flood victims after stashing the loot.
Or two, the shooters are fifth columnists, Islamic or not, who enjoy seeing America suffer and total chaos, and they want to maximize the damage. And then 'blend in' with the refugees.
Scanner Update
I-10 and Clearview. Request for police with badges and guns to assist NG with pickup of LSP troopers.
Thanks, NN
I am going to try and find some current non-NOLA now.
My post for today will describe the way assistance is delivered.
In the overall scheme of things, the American Red Cross is the agency designated to provide mass care. The ARC is charged by the US government with developing organizational and financial capability to step in to take care of people harmed in a disaster. Both operations are conducted by paid and volunteer staff. In a major disaster thousands of disaster trained volunteers working under the direction of paid staff and senior (battle hardened) volunteers are deployed in the disaster area. The American Red Cross does not get taxpayer funds even though it has a federal mandate to act. The ARC funds are all donated by Americans.
The RC works closely and operates to perform specific designated tasks with/for FEMA. ARC is charged with opening and operating shelters to administer MASS CARE. That is the primary function of the RC in a disaster is MASS CARE. FEMA tends to deal with infrastructure and business/industrial and the RC deals with people. The early MC is food and shelter. The mass care function includes taking food to the affected areas and feeding in the field. This work is done by the fleet of Emergency Response Vehicles deployed from local ARC chapters across the country. ERV’s, the red and white ARC vehicles seen on TV are typically prepositioned before a hurricane to be ready to serve the damaged areas as soon as possible. There was an AP photo of one of these vehicles, Number 2017, that was prepositioned too far forward.
To administer long term care, that is to bring some degree of normalcy on a long term basis, it is necessary to determine the precise status of every person harmed by the disaster. The aid must be precisely tailored to each individual. At some point the individuals must be separated from the mass and have persona, specific needs administered. The RC has an army of volunteers who sit down and interview the families to determine what is needed. Drugs, eyeglasses, oxygen, etc etc are all required in specific but variable quantities that must be determined by face to face interview.
Another important part of the MC task is damage assessment. The Red Cross is responsible for assessing the damage to residential structures. That is, the ARC being responsible for MC to people determines the damages to people’s living quarters. The Damage assessment is done by RC volunteers trained to make the field surveys. The DA people visit every residence with damage. Again, the damage assessment involves locating on the ground every residential structure and making a determination of the damage and habitability. The damage assement data is done street by street, blick by block, house or apartment by house. The data is used to determine what level of care is required. There is commonly fairly high level of people claiming a much higher degree of loss than that actually experienced. It is unfortunately, necessary to try to separate those truly in need from those who want to improve their position of minor damage. A person who has lost their home must be given a higher degree of assistance than a person with water in the basement or water leaking around the chimney. This difference will not be of importance in NO where all is gone as it will be in MS where houses are gone and houses are merely damaged.
The application of all of the above is very difficult in NO. The sheer number of persons is extreme. The Damage Assessment is really not too hard for much of the city. The residential city is uninhabitable. The residential city is totaled. The criteria for a total loss is water over 24” over the floor level. This is generally the height of electrical outlets and water over this height generally means the residence is destroyed. It can not be restored to habitable condition. The reasons are complex but in a legalistic society subject top law suit by sneezing on someone, this degree of damage is considered to be uninhabitable.
To sum it up, NOLA is now a collection of uninhabitable structures that must be essentially replaced before the population can return.
The current efforts in NOLA seem to portray a failure to deliver needed services to the affected people. I have come to believe that a purposeful effort is being made to cause total evacuation. Services can’t be delivered ever in the destroyed, uninhabitable city. The people staying think they can stay…… they can’t . They must leave. Eventually, perhaps today, the message will dawn that if I’m going to survive I must get out of here. The busses will come and haul them away to Red Cross shelters where they will be cared for as it all gets sorted out.
These are 800 words attempting to describe an organizational relationship and the job of the American Red Cross. I hope the details are all currently correct. Don’t pick it to death, it is mostly correct.
There are many retired Freepers who can call their local chapter this morning and ask about a disaster training class. They will train you and send you to the area for three weeks. It will be long hours and hard work. They might even have disaster jobs locally to support those who have gone to the field. It is going to go on for a very very long time.
yup , post #2939
Bureaucrats aren't known for straight talk. I just read this ...
The following is the result of an interview I just conducted via cell phone with a New Orleans citizen stranded at the Convention Center. I don't know what you're hearing in the mainstream media or in the press conferences from the city and state officials, but here is the truth:http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/ <- Dated 10:46 PM, September 1"Bigfoot" is a bar manager and DJ on Bourbon Street, and is a local personality and icon in the city. He is a lifelong resident of the city, born and raised. He rode out the storm itself in the Iberville Projects because he knew he would be above any flood waters. Here is his story as told to me moments ago. I took notes while he talked and then I asked some questions:
Three days ago, police and national guard troops told citizens to head toward the Crescent City Connection Bridge to await transportation out of the area. The citizens trekked over to the Convention Center and waited for the buses which they were told would take them to Houston or Alabama or somewhere else, out of this area.I have "Bigfoot"'s phone number and will gladly give it to any city or state official who would like to tell him how everything is under control.It's been 3 days, and the buses have yet to appear.
Although obviously he has no exact count, he estimates more than 10,000 people are packed into and around and outside the convention center still waiting for the buses. They had no food, no water, and no medicine for the last three days, until today, when the National Guard drove over the bridge above them, and tossed out supplies over the side crashing down to the ground below. Much of the supplies were destroyed from the drop. Many people tried to catch the supplies to protect them before they hit the ground. Some offered to walk all the way around up the bridge and bring the supplies down, but any attempt to approach the police or national guard resulted in weapons being aimed at them.
There are many infants and elderly people among them, as well as many people who were injured jumping out of windows to escape flood water and the like -- all of them in dire straights.
Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids.
The people are so desperate that they're doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.
The buses never stop.
Before the supplies were pitched off the bridge today, people had to break into buildings in the area to try to find food and water for their families. There was not enough. This spurred many families to break into cars to try to escape the city. There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area -- Saulet Condos -- once they tried to get cars from there... well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed. Snipers got on the roof and told people to get back.
He reports that the conditions are horrendous. Heat, mosquitoes and utter misery. The smell, he says, is "horrific."
He says it's the slowest mandatory evacuation ever, and he wants to know why they were told to go to the Convention Center area in the first place; furthermore, he reports that many of them with cell phones have contacts willing to come rescue them, but people are not being allowed through to pick them up.
Addendum: Bigfoot just called to report that "they" (the authorities) are cleaning up the dead bodies at the Convention Center right now.
I note the occurance of providing food and water to the COnvention Center, and the FEMA Director said food and water had been supplied to the convention center. But man what a difference in the story depending on how the delivery was accomplished.
I assume both versions are colored to suit the teller's objectives, FEMA to come off as capable, the victims to obtain help. But I think this story is closer to reality than the picture the government is trying to paint.
It's not the best we can do. We have no leadership to push. Boy are the locals putting down the Governor on WWL...
Regarding price gouging. People who think is this price gouging do not understand basic economic concepts. Lawmakers calling for investigations should know better.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050902/NEWS0110/509020378/1260
September 2, 2005
McNeill area escapes major storm damage
County suffers 17 deaths in hurricane, but small community "very fortunate," says assistant fire chief
By Ana Radelat
Clarion-Ledger Washington Bureau
MCNEILL — They consider themselves lucky in the small Pearl River County community of McNeill, despite a countywide death toll from Hurricane Katrina of 17.
Pearl River County, near the coast and less than 30 miles from New Orleans, was in the eye of Katrina. But the people who live in McNeill survived the storm without any casualties or much destruction. Amazingly, while the area lacks power like much of Mississippi, its community water system continued to work.
"We consider ourselves very fortunate," said Greg Glidewell, the assistant fire chief.
But the county coroner has reported 17 storm-related deaths elsewhere, and the devastation to the largely rural area is enormous. Downed trees still litter the backroads. The downtowns of the county's main towns, Picayune and Poplarville, are shattered.
But Glidewell said the area is coping.
He's spent three days trying, so far unsuccessfully, to clear the roads of fallen trees with the help of an all-terrain "Gator" the McNeill Fire and Rescue squad received though a grant.
"We laughed and said, 'we'll never use this thing,' but we've been driving it for three days and nights now," Glidewell said.
While some back roads are impenetrable, the county's main artery, I-59, is clear.
A line of cars snakes into Pearl River Central Elementary, where the Federal Emergency Management Agency has set up a water- and food-distribution center manned by the Mississippi National Guard.
First Sgt. James Carroll is commander of the operation. About 30 members of his air defense artillery unit from Morton are handing out bags of ice, bottles of water, and -- until about noon Thursday -- "meals ready to eat," packaged military meals also known as MREs.
Roger Baker, one of the hundreds who have been served, is sorry the center has run out. "They're great," he said. "Especially the jambalaya. It's delicious."
The unit was called up for duty on Sunday and sent to Hattiesburg's Camp Shelby. They worked in Gulfport on Tuesday and set up the center in McNeill on Wednesday.
Carroll is proud of the orderly operation he's running, with the help of several inmates from a local jail, and worried his unit will be sent to Poplarville or another site.
A convoy of buses needs escort to Kender Hospital (spelling?).
Police needed to escort Murphy Oil people to fire area.
The expert is saying how both the state and feds abandoned well drawn emergency plans, for whatever reasons. Dr. Maestri from Jefferson Parish is the one critting.
No
Scanner Update
Police escort needed to for oversize load truck to repair levee.
Apparently, NG and police need armed escorts for any type of convoy traffic in NO now.
I criticized Smith yesterday and some folks tried to hand my head to me.
I heard that interview that the mayor gave. He was blaming everyone but his self, and using terrible language that I did not know was allowed on the air. He is taking no responsibility and evidently has no communication with the Governor.
I can't get back on the scanner...I thought the person doing it was off air. Is it back up?
He was doing his job. He has tons of people under him to do the actual work.
I'd go further, and say that it's good to have a clear pitcure of the form that government relief takes, too.
I said after 9/11, one of the best things the leaders could do would be to admit their limitations, instead of talking up their capabilities. Society is better served by self-reliance and local charity than by reliance on a political bureacracy.
You and me both!!!!!!
WE have eyes and ears, and can judge this situation for ourselves. Some people don't want to see.
This morning, I saw one Mother holding her toddler, saying the child is listless from lack of nourishment of any kind. You can't make this stuff up..
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