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/

WWL
Updates as they come in on Katrina

09:25 PM CDT on Saturday, September 3, 2005
Tom Planchet

8:58 P.M. - Ann Rice article, "Do you know what it means to lose New Orleans in the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04rice.html?ei=5090&en=ce2f33f8719dba9c&ex=1283486400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

8:47 P.M. - (AP) The last bedraggled refugees were rescued from the Superdome on Saturday and the convention center was all but cleared, leaving the heart of New Orleans to the dead and dying, the elderly and frail stranded too many days without food, water or medical care.

No one knows how many were killed by Hurricane Katrina's floods and how many more succumbed waiting to be rescued. But the bodies are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating among the ruined city, crumpled on wheelchairs, abandoned on highways.

8:42 P.M. - Health official: No timetable on when New Orleans will be decontaminated. First, he said, it must be drained, then it must be decontaminated.

8:40 P.M. - (AP) Thousands of people remain at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, where officials turned a Delta Blue terminal into a triage unit. Officials say three- to five-thousand people had been treated at the triage unit, but fewer than 200 remain. Others throughout the airport are waiting for transport out of the city.

Jake Jacoby, a physician who's helping run the triage center, says "in the beginning it was like trying to lasso an octopus."

Airport director Roy Williams says about 30 people had died, some of them elderly and ill. The bodies are being kept in refrigerated trucks as a temporary morgue.

8:18 P.M. - Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard: People can return beginning Monday at 6 a.m., but they must show identification and they are urged to leave the area after that for about one month. Broussard said the returns will cut off at 6 p.m. each day. The return visits will end next Thursday.

8:17 P.M. - SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) -- New Orleans-based Hibernia is assuring its customers that banking will go on uninterrupted and was working to re-establish communications with its mainframe.

The company says ATM and debit cards should be working and has seen only isolated instances of problems, said Keith Bergeron, regional chairman for northwest Louisiana. Its telephone banking system is overloaded and may give busy signals but will be improved. Payroll for its employees and other companies is on track.

8:08 P.M. - Congressman William Jefferson: "It is utter devastation." On my helicopter tour, I flew over New Orleans East, the Lower Ninth Ward, Central City - it's all under water. I saw the levee breach at the 17th Street Canal, it's unbelievable. I have never seen anything like it. My entire district, the city I love, is gone."

8:06 P.M. - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin: There are some employees who have been on for six straight days in horrible conditions and some of them are starting to crack.

7:58 P.M. - St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis: Sales of alcohol no longer allowed in the parish. Also parish under a "no burn" order.

7:56 P.M. - CBS' Cami McCormack on WWL Radio: People at the Convention Center site were wetting themselves rather than getting out of a line for buses and possibly losing their place.

7:55 P.M. - McCormack - The conditions in the Convention Center were horrible. There were people being beaten, there were rapes, there were people banding together to keep watch around themselves due to the crime.

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