Katrina Live Thread, Part XIV

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.

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.

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/

45 Years on the Federal Plantation - the Long Term Effects of Direct Deposit

As I watched the remorseful scenes unfold in and around the Super Dome, my mind wandered to the civilian victims of WWII. Countless millions were displaced by the horrors of colliding armies.

Probably because I was born shortly after WWII started, I've always had a keen interest in the war from an historical aspect. I've watched quite a number videos and movies concerning almost every major campaign.

Invariably, the film maker includes scenes of displaced civilians and the suffering they endured. One favorite scene included in probably half of the movies I've seen, shows a long line of civilians trudging single file down a narrow road in the country. Up above, Nazi pilots see them and swoop down to strafe the fleeing civilians, spraying the column with machine gun bullets.

Once the attackers have satisfied their thirst for blood, the civilians climb out of the protective ditches on either side of the road. They brush themselves off, collect their meager belongings, and once again begin their march to safety, which brings me to my point.

Do the people at the Super Dome lack the basic instincts for survival?

Most say they have lost everything. What is preventing them from picking up their lawn chairs and walking out of New Orleans?

Surely, there is a way out. Otherwise, how did the myriad of reporters get there with all of the heavy equipment required to beam the tragic scenes to us?

Why not use highway 610 and walk right out of New Orleans?

From numerous personal visits, I know that it's not a great distance to Kenner. My maps indicate it's somewhere around 10 miles.

What's at Kenner? Well for one thing, the New Orleans airport is at Kenner. Certainly the local airport has to be the logical place to go when you're in need of emergency supplies.

Why are these people stuck at the Super Dome?

I repeat, do they lack the ability to react to their basic survival instincts?

My conclusion is that they do. They have lost the ability to think for themselves and respond to their basic instincts.

Instead, they remain in an untenable situation and make desperate pleas to television audiences throughout the world.

How could this be?

Here's what I think. These people have been on the "Federal Plantation" for generations. They subsist on their monthly "gubment check." They are the product of 40 plus years of depending upon the government for their very existence. So, when they are put in a situation where the government can't tell them what to do, they are lost. Worse than that, they have lost the ability to think for themselves. They have lost the ability to react to their basic survival instincts. They cannot get out of the ditch and continue their march to safety after Katrina has strafed them.

Furthermore, they are not a community. They are a mass of anonymous humans each fighting for a chance to suckle at the government breasts. How else can you explain six murders and 12 rapes in the Super Dome while Katrina was roaring? The perpetrators had to view their victims as strangers, members of another tribe, to justify their assaults.

A really horrifying thought is that this lack of initiative, the inability to think and take action, permeates the political infrastructure of Louisiana. I cannot think of a more inept pair of "leaders" than New Orleans Mayor Nagin and Louisiana Governor Blanco.

Mayor Nagin in a public display of incompetence, admitted on CNN cameras that he "doesn't know whose problem this is" when questioned about disaster relief response. I can tell you Mayor Nagin, it's your problem. However, your many years of taking orders from the political machinery that runs the State of Louisiana has left you without the ability to think for yourself and make the necessary preparations for eventual disasters.

Mayor Nagin you were warned repeatedly that there was a 20 foot tidal surge on the way. You knew that the levies most likely would not hold up against the surge. What plans did you make to protect your constituents in the event flooding took place? Apparently, you had none.

And Governor Blanco, you are in control of the National Guard. Contrary to the main stream media's insinuations that President Bush should have called up the National Guard, you are the one who could have staged Louisiana Guard units in Baton Rouge, or Alexandria, prior to the storm. You are the Commander in Chief of the Louisiana National Guard. You are the one responsible for the proper use of the National Guard during times of disaster.

Having spent six years in the Texas Army National Guard, I'm surprised that any Guard units are in New Orleans. It generally takes at least 48 hours just to mobilize a unit; that is get everyone to show up at the Armory. It takes another 48 hours to load the trucks with equipment and various gear. Then you have the march, the actual movement of the unit to the theatre of operations.

Meanwhile, refugees are filling up sports arenas, the convention center, etc throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The constant barrage of new reports leads us to believe that these people will be productive members of our community. They just need a little help getting started again, after their misfortune.

Of course, this is a lie. By and large, these people will simply move into one of the government projects when they are forced to leave their temporary arrangements. They won't add to the economy, because they don't work. They will simply make the crowded projects even more crowded and increase the crime rate.

After all, you don't even have to go to the mail box to get your "gubment check." They can direct deposit it right into your account.

People chose not to leave, even when they had free travel. so much for that part of your plan.

Oh please. There were a lot of people with no ability to leave prior to the hurricane.

Wiped out. Next part of your plan, please?

Emergency services are capable of setting up communications nets almost immediatly. It's what the guard is doing now.

They were there, and hundreds of thousands of people have been eating and drinking *since day one* because of them.

And yet many places are just now getting supplies. Tens of thousands of people at the convention center had no food or water until yesterday.

That's just simply a lie. 250 shelter sites have been up and running even *during* the hurricane and since... and are taking pretty good care of anybody that isn't shooting at them.

You mean like in the Superdome, which is now full of human waste, and in which there have been numerous stories of attacks and rapes?

I'm not sure you are watching the same news stories the rest of us are.

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