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

[Shortstop7]

I heard it reported earlier...but didn't hear any followup on it. It had been confirmed when I heard it though.

[NautiNurse]

You listed the need for gas to get to ATM machines. Cash on hand is another basic item on the hurricane list.

[hoosiermama]

Caddy dealership was broken into by the looters and cars stolen.....According to radio fourteen men arrested leaving town with cars filled to the brink with looted items....Heading north to sell their goods...Looks like a few were caught on camera.

[Born in a Rage]

Funny, I saw a lot of live pictures of the burning, but none of these fireboats streaming water...

Really? That's too bad, I know Fox and some other channels showed the boats and did an absolutely wonderful job explaining all about it.

[bonfire]

It wasn't mentioned once. That is why I'm not sure I believe it.

[Rokke]

You've got to be kidding me! That is the first I've heard that anything was done at all. The media was moaning that New Orleans was on fire and nothing was being done to stop it.

[John Jamieson]

PS, even the little town of Athens TX down the way from us, is taking in 250.

[LikeLight]

Saw the live shots of fire boats at work on local media feed, but not on FoxNews . . .

[chet_in_ny]

What entity do FReepers do think is the most efficient place to donate? I'm wary of the Red Cross after the 9/11 'administrative' overhead expose. Moreover, I'm not interested in donating to any entity with an agenda (including leftist and/or missionary types), although the Salvation Army seems OK.

[BurbankKarl]

there are a lot of feeds online from the Astrodome...if you are curious.

[Route66]

What happened to those screened out? Back on the streets?

I was thinking about that, too. Unless they reverse the decision to empty this city, all of them are going to have to be moved out one way or another. Exactly where are they going to send these urban terrorists? If they expect the rest of the country to keep up their enthusiasm for taking in the homeless, some really serious decisions need to be made about what to do with them.

[PhiKapMom]

Deport posted on another thread about a newspaper article coming out this morning. Gov Perry was very explicit that everyone would be searched for weapons/drugs and am sure they would be arrested. After the searches they found weapons thrown in the bushes which meant these people traveled across the LA and TX with weapons.

Houston has a lot of police on the scene and the media is being kept out so these folks can finally get a decent night's sleep in a clean bed with hot meals and be able to take a shower. Mom's don't have to worry about their kids being attacked by some of the scum that was present in the SuperDome. The stories that came out of there were disgusting. Now these Mom's can relax and let their kids play.

Those children deserve so much because they are helpless in this whole tragedy.

[buickmackane]

Louisiana only issues a rear license plate.

[onyx eyes]

.....and because we couldn't find a hotel or motel that wasn't booked up we spent -- wife, me, two kids and dog -- one heck of a miserable four days without electricity. Food and drink we had, (lucky us) -- but not having air-conditioning and TV and all the amenities we were used to really got to us by the second day it wasn't like camping out anymore.

[BurbankKarl]

if anyone sees two Mercedes-Benz E Class' with California Distributor plates 5504 freepmail me

[md2576]

Could you imagine the mass exodus then? My God no one would get out. The streets would be packed with people and no vehicles could leave. Loose Loose situation.

[mommya]

The police chief was saying that the NG arrived and everyone was hopeful and that they had 3 helicopter food/water drops - was sarcastically complaining about that not being nearly enough for the 30,000 he says are still there.
I dunno - I can't believe that Shep and Heraldo would just lie so extremely. Something does not jibe though.

[John Jamieson]

1 million is about .3% of the country. We should ration each state its .3%.

[two23]

Shep came on after Geraldo and said that the people can't get through because there is a check-point set up and they won't let them pass.

[Ramius]

Quite so.

And... while we're evaluating the political components of this: The left once again made a really big mistake of getting out in front of the facts.

Personally, I think that once more and more becomes known about this disaster, the more miraculous the efforts of the responders will seem. One of the reasons that there is any back-biting is merely because those doing the second-guessing have *zero* clue about the magnitude of the problem.