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

[John Jamieson]

In 1938 the northeast was hit by the Great Hurricane of 1938 (now estimated to be cat 3). New York took the biggest hit but even Boston was hit with 130 mph winds and 8 foot storm surges.

Now Kennedy/Kerry are just finishing up their massive raid on the US treasury for the Big Dig (I-93) with miles of tunnels up to 100 feet below sea level. The tunnels have had substantial leakage problems, but they claim that they have that fixed.

I'd sure like to see their hurricane evacuation plan now that 100,000's of cars will have to drive under the bay level to escape. Anything goes wrong 100,000's will drown.

Sure would have been a lot more federal money for other cities if these two hogs hadn't taken all the milk.

[hoosiermama]

We've seen pictures of the demolished bridges in NOLA....Have wondered if there were any car or trucks on them when they crashed.

[John Jamieson]

I'm sure I saw a few cars in the photos, but most would have been in the water somewhere.

[jeffers]

The friction between Nagin and Blanco reportedly goes back to Nagin's support for Bush's Presidential bid.

Nagin is on the record as saying that he hopes all this will get Blanco off his back so he can get something done.

He's also on the record saying that the CIA is trying to kill him.

Reading through this thread suggested a possible root cause for all this.

Corrupt state government is looking at either the end of their careers or the biggest pork barrel in history. Corrupt means ties with criminals, yes?

We have criminals delaying the relief, actually shooting at rescue boats and choppers, while the Governor first claims she has the situation totally under control, actually offended at "rumors" of chaos, then at the last minute we have a "hysterical" switch to her pleading for Federal help and complaining that it isn't coming.

The levees were "spec'ed" to Cat-3 but the funnel between Orleans and Bernard has been known for years and from all accounts the levees weren't maintained even up to Cat-3 standards.

No apparant local plan seems to have been in place either, except the one which has failed everytime it was gamed, along with the Ivan and Georges hypothetical failures too. They let the buses and the police cars and police radios sink under the water without lifting a finger to stop it.

Jackson and Gore and McCain show up, all of them after something, they are politicians afterall, and the only prize anywhere in sight is a contaminated stinking cesspool, stained with the bolld of virgins....that, and the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars it will take to rebuild it.

The media is completely over the top, literally pushing the limits of Clinton expanded credibility (who also has his nose in the arena).

Finally we have Nagin in the middle, flipping back and forth, is he shopping for the highest bid?

Nobody with a nose for cold cash can have missed the charitible bonanza that 9/11 turned out to be, and it's starting to look like the sharks are circling, scenting another cash cow.

But the cow hasn't given birth yet.

The Red Cross has collected 100 million, but these folks don't play for that kind of chump change. The insurance compaies are on the hook for $33 billion so far, but even being allowed to slide out of their responsibilities won't generate much in the way of liquid cash, the premiums have already been assimilated.

There is no prize but the players are all rolling into town and that means the prize is yet to come.

It can only come from a few places I can think of. Straight Federal feeds out of existing tax revenues, some kind of new tax, or else voluntary donations. Whatever the vultures ( and they are vultures in every sense of the word hoping to feed on the dead) smell, you can bet it starts with a "$B", not an "$M".

The thing is, the Fed is already budgetarily under the gun for the relief effort, the people are one step from arms over gasoline prtices, and a new tax or call for voluntary charity on this scale will fall onto closed ears.

Stay tuned, the pattern is beginning to emerge from the receeding clouds of the storm.

A few key pieces of the puzzle are still obscured, but it won't be long before we see it all.

[ClancyJ]

That is why I think FR could become a news source. We just need a way to verify news reports.

We have people on the ground all over the country. We have various expertise. We have great readership.

[ClancyJ]

Someone earlier posted to me that he had never had a question he could not find an answer for on FR.

I was thinking to myself - well, I still haven't found that volunteer contact I needed and missed.

Then when to the next reply on my list and here you give it to me.

Proves what he said - never had a question with no answer.

Now, my other questions.......

What do we do about the judicial appointments?

What do we do about the horror of the Katrina damage?

What do we do with all those people, the animals, the looters?

Will Bush and the governor settle their territory disputes?

[Rokke]

"Bush sees a bigger picture that we are still trying to puzzle out."

If I were Bush, I would round up those working for me and ask them to give me a 100% accurate picture of what is going wrong and what is going right. I would demand documentation and physical evidence to back up whether or not each agency was fulfilling its obligation. If the answers were positive, I would do just what he is doing. I would stand behind my staff, support them in their efforts and continue with the job. But I would also get in touch with people like the Governor and mayor and tell them exactly what was going to rain down on their heads when the task at hand is complete. I would explain that the facts are, and will remain facts, and the only thing that can influence the record will be their performance from this point on.

I suspect this is possibly what Bush has done. He knows the law. He knows the facts. He knows what is right and what is wrong. And as a man of moral courage and integrity, he is ensuring the job gets completed...before the boom gets lowered. The mayor and the governor are aware of that as well. The schizophrenic behavior of the mayor is evidence of a man who knows his future is hanging on a thread. The efforts by the governor to surround herself with well known shields reveals a woman who knows she's gonna need some help. Bush, on the other hand, seems more and more confident and in control. Someone is holding a good hand...and someone isn't.

[backhoe]

"Which kind is in Utah? I remember that it was the largest field of that kind outside of Indonesia (?) before the toon federalized the land so it could not be used for mining."

---

That Trillion-Dollar Ripoff-- Clinton's Utah Coal Deal
various websites | 7-29-02 | The Heavy Equipment Guy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/724170/posts

[Arizona Carolyn]

I know what Gore was doing at the airport.... here is the link. I'm not certain if we can post the article here or not....

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_4054083,00.html

[jeffers]

The Washington Post has released an article confirming many of the suspicions voiced in my last post, to wit:

"Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her
a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.

The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that
such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away
from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476915/posts

[grey_whiskers]

I pick out my wife's clothes at Chico's FAS.

How do the styles there compare to Talbot's?

Prayers for ALL !

[grey_whiskers]

My wife said we'd better make sure money to that charity really helps flood victims instead of being funneled to Islamic Jihad (durka-durka, Muhammed Jihad).

Prayers for ALL !

[grey_whiskers]

then people will see the enormity>/b> of what Bush and our brave government personnel accomplished.

Sorry, enormity means "great evil". Don't inadvertently give ammo to the enemy :-)

Prayers for ALL !

[grey_whiskers]

Can you say recess appointment?

Top Choices:

1. Robert Bork

2. Mark Levin (The Great One)

3. Ann Coulter

4. Jeb Bush (JFK appointed his brother attorney general w/o ANY experience, so it'd drive the moonbats NUTS)

5. Dubya himself (for the same reasons as #4)

[jveritas]

Finger pointing and blame game do not win elections because it is a great sign of lack of leadership and inability to find solutions. The majority of the American people want leadership and solutions not blame and finger pointing. That is why the Republicans are winning elections and the Democrats are losing them.

[rdl6989]

US News and World Report had an article on July 18, 2005 about the hurricane threat to NO that sends chills down my spine reading it now.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/050718/18neworleans.htm

[cgk]

UPDATE!

Hardy Jackson¹ is a resident of Biloxi, Mississippi who lost his wife of 29 years, Tonette Jackson, during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

His story was widely reported both nationally and internationally after television news stations began broadcasting the short interview with him by Jennifer Mayerle, a local TV reporter for WKRG. Hardy's story elicited an outpouring of emotion and his story was widely recorded in blogs, newspaper articles and TV reports all over the world.

Before the interview with Hardy, Mayerle was coming to the end of her news report from Biloxi, Mississippi. She had been describing the destruction in the town caused by Hurricane Katrina when she encountered Hardy and his family. Hardy described how his whole house split in two during the hurricane. He was holding onto his wife in the raging floodwaters before she said "You can't hold me, take care of the kids," and slipped away.

The first update was on Thurdsay 1st September 2005. In the new report there is news that the body of his wife, Tonette Jackson, has been found and is in Gulfport, Mississippi. Hardy was going to walk but WKRG offered to take him there. Another update was broadcast the following morning. WKRG were going to take Hardy to see the body of his wife at the makeshift morgue in Gulfport, Mississippi. He was then told that it probably wasn't there but more likely to be elsewhere in Biloxi. He found a photograph of her in the remains of what is left of their house. He was shown walking around the ruins repeatedly saying, "I tried, why'd you let go?"

Mayerle showed him some of messages that had been received from people wanting to know about him, his wife and family and how he was coping. "There's still good people in the world. Thank you", he said. Hardy is slowly coming to terms with the loss of his wife. His sister living nearby and a neighbour who helped him on the night the hurricane struck are both still alive. He plans to do as his wife asked when they were last together by looking after the kids.

On September 2, 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas reported that Hardy was on his way to Atlanta because someone has offered him and his family a room to stay.

[edit]

Notes

Note 1: Hardy's first name has incorrectly been given as being Harvey in many reports. This is probably due to a mishearing of his name because of his southern accent when asked who he was (he had a distressed tone to his voice too). Perhaps also because Hardy is not a common first name.

[Howlin]

This story just really hurts, doesn't it?

[grey_whiskers]

Wesley Clark is hoping to attack the Russian relief flight at the airport. Relive his glory days.

:-)

He is also a high-up in the same consulting firm that Witt belongs to.

This has the smell of a DNC/Clintonista setup.

Prayers for ALL !

[jveritas]

I think O'Reilly will claim that because of him the convention center in New Orleans was evacuated by the military. Did you see his show last Friday where he was telling this idiotic Gerardo Revera that the military were listening to this show and they would soon send the troops to help in the evacuation of the convention center. If O'Reilly had watched President Bush statement just two hours before his show, he would have realized that the President already announced that the convention center would be the first priority for evacuation and it did happen, and thousands of people were evacuated on Saturday.