Katrina Live Thread, Part XIV

Various ^ | 2 September 2005 | Various

[NautiNurse]

President Bush continues to assess the catastrophic damage by air and on the ground in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Bush spent the day meeting with search and rescue personnel, relief commanders, and displaced residents in Mobile, Biloxi, and the New Orleans area. U.S. Congress passed a $10.5 billion relief package for the hurricane ravaged areas. First Lady Laura Bush issued a press statement from an evacuation shelter in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Patient and staff evacuations continue from numerous New Orleans Hospitals. Thousands of patients are being airlifted to a field hospital at Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport for triage, staging, and transport to hospitals throughout the United States.

The U.S. Coast Guard and civilian volunteers continue to evacuate thousands of survivors from their flooded homes in New Orleans. The Army Corps of Engineers continues work to repair the damaged levees.

The nation's airlines today began an operation intended to fly up to 25,000 refugees out of New Orleans. The airlines are volunteering their aircraft and crews for the program. Long convoys loaded with relief supplies arrived throughout the day into New Orleans, while convoys of buses are moving survivors out of the city.

Several large fires are burning in the city and greater New Orleans area. Reports indicate snipers are holding down firefighters. Reports of shots fired with LEO down in the St. Bernard Parish area. Rescue operations are underway. A bus carrying NOLA evauees rolled over in Opelousa, LA.

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:

New Orleans Emergency Operations Center - is now open:
504-463-1000
504-463-1001
504-463-1002

WWL-TV New Orleans (via WFAA Dallas) - WWL-TV is operating from studios at Louisiana Public Broadcasting. CBS has a relay during the morning and afternoon. When available, use the CBS relay first as they have greater streaming capacity. Yahoo has also provided a relay.

WDSU-TV New Orleans - The news staff has started to return to temporary news studios near New Orleans. However, expect evening coverage from Hearst-Argyle sister stations WAPT Jackson and WESH Orlando when the New Orleans staff needs to take a break.

WGNO-TV New Orleans - New Orleans' ABC affiliate has returned to the air with WBRZ-TV and launched video streaming with continuous Katrina coverage.

WPMI-TV Mobile, AL - WPMI is webcasting from 5:30am - 10:30pm CDT. When off air, you can view pre-recorded reports on demand. This feed is often unreliable.

WKRG-TV Mobile, AL - This station is providing good coverage of the situation to the east in Mississippi and Alabama. However, the station is now signing off at around 10:30pm CDT like WWL and WPMI.

WJTV-TV Jackson, MS - The CBS affiliate in Jackson is providing live coverage for both the Jackson area and south Mississippi (knowing a lot of media in that area is off the air).

United Radio From New Orleans: WWL-AM, WNOE-FM, "KISS-FM," WRNO-FM, WYLD-FM, and WJBO-AM who have joined forces as United Radio From New Orleans, and they are streaming.

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/ Southern Baptist: NAMB - http://www.namb.net/
Samaritan's Purse - http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

Previous Threads:
Katrina Live Thread, Part XIII
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

[MikefromOhio]

you are the one that made him into the story by this constant criticism. People on FR do it all the time.

Just friggin drop it. Apparently you have no emotions and you have no reason to care.

AT least Geraldo can smell the smell that is SURE TO BE PERMEATING EVERYTHING down there.

You would break down too after a while. Ohh yeah wait you have no emotions. What was I thinking?!?

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>Maybe you need a soul.

I have one, thanks.

Whazoo aperture.

[SolomoninSouthDakota]

"I got it. They're dying at the hands of Americans, too. Americans that do not care about their fellow man. Mere parasites. I've got it alright."

Excellent reply to the Pastor. The lesson to be gleaned from this is the level of depraved people we have that are quietly inhabiting our large US cities. Their cover has been blown. Some may say NO would be the worse and they may be right. But what about Detroit? I could easily envision a similar scene there. 9/11 opened our eyes to foreign scum. Katrina opened our eyes to the domestic.

[Soul Seeker]

YES, he is.

Hysterical.

And, no, if I were in the midst of this I would NOT want Shep or G. guarding my back. They cannot maintain their heads in a crisis and that helps NO ONE.

If you maintain differently, fine, but will not retract my assessment of either of these men so if the point is to convince me to do so please refrain. It will not happen.

[RummyChick]

Nice young black girl just bought a house last year. Said everything she had is gone but it doesn't matter she is alive. Now she has to build her life. Seemed to have a good attitude.

[hipaatwo]

Yesterday the New York Times editorial board wrote a fire-breathing editorial that for almost 24 hours ranked as the "most-discussed story" on Technorati and the "most e-mailed article" on nytimes.com. The board wrote that "George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday." Instead of "consolation and wisdom," the President offered "a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast." The board went on to offer a long laundry list of angry accusations. The editorial board doubted that Bush "understood the depth of the current crisis" — unlike the wizened board, which had been following the crisis on CNN.

The editorial built up to this penultimate paragraph:

While our attention must now be on the Gulf Coast's most immediate needs, the nation will soon ask why New Orleans's levees remained so inadequate. Publications from the local newspaper to National Geographic have fulminated about the bad state of flood protection in this beloved city, which is below sea level. Why were developers permitted to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that could have held back the hurricane's surge? Why was Congress, before it wandered off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some of the gaping holes in the area's flood protection?

Good question. Maybe because Congress listened to the NY Times editorial board in April of 2005:

Anyone who cares about responsible budgeting and the health of America's rivers and wetlands should pay attention to a bill now before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The bill would shovel $17 billion at the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control and other water-related projects — this at a time when President Bush is asking for major cuts in Medicaid and other important domestic programs. Among these projects is a $2.7 billion boondoggle on the Mississippi River that has twice flunked inspection by the National Academy of Sciences... [snip]

This is a bad piece of legislation.

Lesson: Don't listen to the NY Times editorial board. (via Don Luskin)

http://media.nationalreview.com/

[WoodstockCat]

Does anybody know if the DUmmies over at DU have anything to say about the mayors "school bus vs. Greyhound" remark?

Karl Rove sent people in to slash the tires.

[dfwgator]

Someone on WDSU is saying that if we can get troops into Iraq in 24 hours, how come we can't get them into NO as fast.

The ignorance of how the military operates is astounding.

[MikefromOhio]

only when the others stop.

I don't see that happening anytime soon. I mean after all, if it werent for the cynical morons on this forum, I wouldn't come back.

[madison10]

They Red Cross has no established presence in NO. They are grabbing money just like they did after 9/11.

Give your money to the Salvation Army instead.

Isn't the Red Cross helping the people in Mississippi & Alabama? They were hit VERY hard, too. Is the Red Cross in Texas waiting for evacuees? Just because they aren't in New Orleans does not mean they aren't doing their job.

That being said...I'd still donate to the Salvation Army because they don't charge people for what they get.

[dfwgator]

That girl gets it.

[steveegg]

He had at least 650 local buses which could have been used in an evacuation. Provisions for this would have to been made in adavance and in the city's evacuation plan, of course. The point is, these resources were left unused.

650 buses at 48 people per bus is 31,200 people that could have been taken out per trip. If they had started Saturday afternoon, and had places for everybody (that's the other thing; once you actually start taking people away as opposed to "merely" ordering people to get out, you become responsible for them), that would be 2-3 trips.

And I'm not even counting the city buses that were used to bring people to the Superdome.

[mabelkitty]

He's a beefy and gruff guy.
He must have decided to EARN the name ; )

[Texasforever]

People have literally died before his eyes, this is multiple times worse than 911 and a still ongoing disaster.

Died before whose eyes?

[uncitizen]

You're kidding right?

[RushCrush]

attacks? you mean these little letters on a computer screen?

as far as I know the only ones doing the attacking are the thugs in NO.

The rest of us are spouting our opinions from the warm comfort of our homes. I think we're entitled to that, but I'm not sure...

[Types_with_Fist]

Uh... yes.

[RummyChick]

Mayor said the same thing and was cursing. I think it was a radio interview. Also talked about how fast we helped in the Tsunami disaster.

[bwteim]

hurry, you forgot your /sarcasm off tag....

[Husker24]

Actually, to me most of the people I've seen being interviewed, seem to be pretty nice.