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

[DrewsMum]

But Shep is soooooo pretty, how can we despise him??? Not sarcastic,,,serious crush here ;)

[Arizona Carolyn]

I saw that. Tucker got red in the face. I like his show a lot better without the move-on "person"... maybe someone should tell him to jettison her if he wants to stay on the air.

However, Why doesn't ANYONE know Blanco only gave a formal request to the President this afternoon?

[Diva]

But have you noticed that it's the "Republican" Red states taking all the refugees from Louisiana?

Yep, I noticed I also noticed on Fox that they showed a black woman at the Astrodome, obviously upset and ignorant about what has been going on, to basically trash President Bush on the air. Thankfully they cut the audio-feed before the crude language began. That's when I turned Fox off, couldn't take it anymore. I doubt these people realize they are being taken care of by Red staters. I fear the good people of Houston and the rest of Texas are in for a real shock. Perhaps they can re-educate or just educate the poor and exploited of the democratic political machine in New Orleans.

[dawn53]

But for the second time in two days I heard a black resident of NO apologize to the nation. After he was taken from the Super Dome they asked him how he felt and he said he was ashamed to think that the people of his city would shoot at those trying to rescue them.

Another guy yesterday got off the bus in Houston and said, Thank you President Bush.

You don't have to be too discerning to see some of the stuff that's going on and realize it's just inner city normal problems.

The shootings and the rapes keep getting harped upon, but unfortunately, they're normal for NO.

Here's an article from August 2005 about NO crime rate, and I'm not sure what to make of the last paragraph, maybe it's talking about vigilantes:

Despite murder rate, crime down
NOPD statistics show 11 percent decrease
Saturday, August 20, 2005
By Walt Philbin

The New Orleans Police Department released statistics Friday showing that murders rose 7 percent in the first half of the year over the same time last year, but violent crime in the city was down 4 percent, and total crime dropped 11 percent. The drop in crime is even more pronounced in the second quarter of the year alone, when crime in every category, including murder, was down.But in the past six weeks, the murder rate has increased even more, rising 12 percent over the same time last year, from 171 at this time last year to 192 as of Friday, police Superintendent Eddie Compass said.

Preliminary information from an FBI study on the city's crime rate, which will be finished this fall, said much of the rising murder rate is due to the street justice that occurs when the public believes the court system isn't doing its job.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/neworleans/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1124521075239200.xml

[RushCrush]

Nope you're not alone. There are quite a few who despise him and also some that think he's been in NO for too long and needs a break.

I think at this point he's doing more harm than good.

[A Citizen Reporter]

"Shep is not a journalist but a reader of the news and way over emotional."

And O'R's overproduced show has really added to the disaster tonight. Like HE could really do something with all of his 'power'.

I ask again... WHAT HAVE THEY DONE WITH BRIT HUME?

[toldyou]

"Most people that I know are aware of this disaster, however, none of them have followed it as we here on FR have. One of our friends called my hubby today and asked how the hell I knew so much about everything. Hubby directed him here. Another convert."


I sat next to a guy yesterday on a NYC subway train. He was reading the newspaper. I told him he wouldn't need the newspaper if he would log on to FR. I even wrote the FR address on a piece of paper for him so he wouldn't forget.

[sassbox]

there are two other Amtrak trains out of N.O. as well - one to Chicago and one that goes from Florida to Los Angeles. It would certainly be a good, although slow, way to get large numbers of people out of the city. Of course that's assuming the rail lines and train station are still in working condition.

[Arizona Carolyn]

They all play with those numbers. Very hard to know the real number.

[Palladin]

Exactly. Unfortunately, the civilized rule of "Women and children first" seems to have gone down with the Titanic.

[Texasforever]

I heard FEMA ran a study last year of what would happen if New Orleans flooded. Obviously they didn't do very good planning as a result of what they learned.

Really? What would you have done differently?

[GOPrincess]

"I think the initial help should have and could have been local and state help. IMHO."

And they absolutely should have known to be ready for that. An article posted elsewhere here today dating from the time of Hurricane Ivan last year mentioned the Superdome's owner(s) didn't want it to be an evacuation center "of last resort" because it wasn't equipped for it. I think the government was in denial, figured people could ride it out there and then all would be fine. (Of course, it would have helped if people had thought to bring their own provisions, but you can't depend on 25,000 or so people to show up with several days' worth supplies...)

[TexKat]

It’s very strange and maybe just coincidental. But have you noticed that it's the "Republican" Red states taking all the refugees from Louisiana?

Distant Cities Get New Population Segment: Evacuees

As evacuees flee the regions hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina, nearby cities and a few afar are marshalling resources and preparing to serve the hungry and the homeless, many of whom are arriving from New Orleans.

Cities near the affected Gulf Coast region are setting up shelters that offer free food, and sometimes medical care, while one more distant city, Detroit, has offered to transport by plane 500 families that it will house and feed until Dec. 1.

The first family was flown in from New Orleans on Northwest Airlines today, and will be supplied vouchers for hotels and food by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, a Democratic congresswoman from Michigan.

More

[oceanview]

last time I looked, people exiting the Super Bowl didn't do it through flood waters with snipers taking shots at them.

if a particular city is inclined to go into "insurgency mode" after a catastrophe, if the local government structure that is supposed to provide civil order walks away from the assignment, then yes - it could happen anywhere. it didn't happen in NYC on 9-11, many west coast people believe it would happen in Los Angeles for example if some calamity happened there. FEMA has nothing to do with whether that occurs or not, in either place.

the idea that FEMA can be structured to instantly take anarchy at every level, and restore normal life within 4 days, is crazy. that's not to say they aren't mistakes they are making. but as a mission assignment, you are asking the impossible.

[Shortstop7]

LOL.....I know.....that's why I was a fan at first...

Sadly, I had to get over the pretty face. Heehee.

[madison10]

...But since so many resources are spent trying to rescue NO, Miss has to wait...

Will be sending $$$ to Salvation Army IN Mississippi. New Orleans HAS help.

Are there any other organizations that can assure us that $$$$ will be going to Mississippi or Alabama? Thanks.

[Steve_Seattle]

"How in the hell do you know that this isn't the plan. Look, this is unprecedented. This is a nuclear explosion without the radiation. This is 92,000 square miles of total destruction. This is a hell of a lot bigger that what is happening in New Orleans. There are 2 million people out there that have lost everything . . . "

Thank you for bringing back into the debate the basic, overwhelming fact that this is a MASSIVE crisis and it is impossible to get to all the victims in the first or three days. In my area, some people are without power seven to ten days even after a relatively minor windstorm. Too many Freepers have bought into magical thinking about this event, thinking you can just snap your fingers and rescue everyone and get food to a million people spread out over hundreds of miles of demolished towns and flooded land.

The Bush bashing and general negativism about the rescue effort sickens me. If Bill Schneider from CNN knocked on my door, I think I'd kill him. As for the people in the NO convention center and on the freeway ramps, I'd ask local and state officials about that. Why can't the local rescue people get to those folks? Why do they need the National Guard for that? The mayor of NO has been sitting with his finger up his butt and his mouth open for four days. He hasn't done ANYTHING but complain. He actually seems to think that's his job, that he has no responsibility to help organize the rescue effort. He's clueless. He's a stinking pig.

[Howlin]

Randall Robinson is an absolute fool and he's one of the main people behind the reparations movement.

He is B A D news.

[del4hope]

And we will start and end with the real Americans, both black and white together, AGAINST the riot mongers.

[AmericanInTokyo]

How about THIS tearjerker (from outside the 'Helldome':

""They're going to get us out of here. It's just hard to hang on at this point," he said. Pets were forbidden on the buses. On Thursday, when an officer confiscated a dog, a little boy cried out "Snowball! Snowball!" until he vomited. National Guard officers said dogs were being taken to a stairwell in the New Orleans Center, a shopping mall near the Superdome, and given food and water. They feared some of them might have escaped, and two small dogs were seen wandering nearby streets. "