Sean Penn bails water out of a boat with a plastic cup as he and members of his entourage make an attempt to rescue stranded people in New Orleans. Photo: AFP
Houston AstroDome Operations:
http://radio.artplz.com:8000/NewOrleans.mp3.m3u
http://www.goodphuck.com:8088/listen.pls
http://egg.dishnuts.net:8000/NewOrleans.m3u
San Antonio Shelter Operations Feed Unreliable - More Relays Coming:
http://aurora.foghaven.net:8000/san_antonio.m3u
Gulf Coast ARES Emergency Net:
http://ve3nsv.no-ip.org:8000/canwarnlive.m3u
Hurricane Welfare Information:
http://207.44.198.6:8000/listen.pls
Hurricane Katrina Watch Net - Health and Welfare:
http://209.189.239.77:8048/listen.pls
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New thread
Thank you, ma'am...
Need I say more?
An Osprey just flew over my house.
They would be an asset there.
Thank you NN!
You are wonderful for all your hard work on these threads!!! ;-)
FOX just clarified this...it was a private helicopter company, not military. Nonetheless, only minor injuries.
When you posted the first Hurricane Katrina thread at 9:30AM on August 24, you probably had no idea how big this thing was going to become. Here we are 15 threads and nearly 50,000 replies later! This is certainly the biggest news event we ever have gone through here in Free Republic. Yes, bigger than 9/11, bigger than the 2000 election fiasco, the 1998 impeachment and yes, bigger than even all those Hobbit Hole threads.
The Times-Picayune of New Orleans on Sunday published its third print edition since the hurricane disaster struck, chronicling the arrival, finally, of some relief but also taking President Bush to task for his handling of the crisis, and calling for the firing of FEMA director Michael Brown and others.In an "open letter" to the president, published on page 15 of the 16-page edition, the paper said it still had grounds for "skepticism" that he would follow through on saving the city and its residents. It pointed out that while the government could not get supplies to the city numerous TV reporters, singer Harry Connick and Times-Picayune staffers managed to find a way in.
Here is the text.
*** We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it right."
Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.
Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.
How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.
Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.
Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.
Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.
Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.
We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.
Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.
It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?
State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."
Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President. (CD bold)
Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."
That’s unbelievable.
There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.
We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.
No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.
Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.
When you do, we will be the first to applaud.
LOL! Sean Penn's boat sank because he forgot to put in the plug...... that is priceless....... the best news I have heard in days. Excuse me while I guffaw! HA HA HA HA HA!
BY JOHN PACZKOWSKI
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT) - (EDITOR'S NOTE: This daily roundup of Web and blogosphere coverage of Hurricane Katrina appears on the Web site of the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. It can be found at
http://blogs.sunherald.com/after(underscore)the(underscore)storm/)
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WHO ORDERED NEW ORLEANS EVACUATED?
Amid all this finger pointing at the Bush administration it's worth noting that, according to reports, the mandatory evacuation in New Orleans last Sunday was ordered at the president's behest.
The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.
---
A PHOTO OP?
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu on Sunday upbraided the Bush administration for its poor response to the hurricane tragedy and called upon the president to appoint a Cabinet-level official to direct the federal response to one of the worst natural disasters in American history.
"Yesterday, I was hoping President Bush would come away from his tour of the regional devastation triggered by Hurricane Katrina with a new understanding for the magnitude of the suffering and for the abject failures of the current Federal Emergency Management Agency. Twenty-four hours later, the president has yet to answer my call for a cabinet-level official to lead our efforts. Meanwhile, FEMA, now a shell of what it once was, continues to be overwhelmed by the task at hand.
``I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims - far more efficiently than buses - FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.
``But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the president, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast - black and white, rich and poor, young and old - deserve far better from their national government.
"Mr. President, I'm imploring you once again to get a Cabinet-level official stood up as soon as possible to get this entire operation moving forward regionwide with all the resources - military and otherwise - necessary to relieve the unmitigated suffering and economic damage that is unfolding."
---
SO YOU DID HAVE A PLAN
Turns out there was a hurricane disaster plan for Louisiana, the city and state just didn't quite manage to implement it. A few excerpts from THE STATE OF LOUISIANA EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN:
The first:
Tidal surge, associated with the "worst case" Category 3, 4 or, Hurricane Scenario for the Greater New Orleans Metropolitan Area, as determined by the National Weather Service Sea, Lake and Overland Surge from Hurricanes (SLOSH) Model, could cause a maximum inundation of 20 feet above sea level in some of the parishes in the Region, not including tidal effects, wind waves and storm rainfall.
The area is protected by an extensive levee system, but above-normal water levels and hurricane surge could cause levee overtopping or failures.
It will take a long time to evacuate large numbers of people from the Region.
Then there's this:
The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.
Recommended Evacuation: 2. Mobilize parish/local transportation to assist persons who lack transportation or who have mobility problems.
3. Announce the location of staging areas for people who need transportation. Public transportation will concentrate on moving people from the staging areas to safety in host parishes with priority given to people with special needs.
Is there a timeline anywhere that compares the response to Hurricane Andrew with the response to Katrina?
BREAKING NEWS: ACLU has just filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all those flown out of NOLA by the airlines, saying that they had been discriminated against becasse they did NOT receive frequent flyer miles..
The good news is that this week, the conservative radio talk show hosts across the country will start getting the truth out there. They are the "ace in the hole."
Interesting snip picked up from another thread...
"The resolution is in contrast to a recent trip by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to Cuba where she had a lobster dinner with Fidel Castro. Governor Blanco's meeting with Castro has come under fire by Louisianans for failing to meet with dissidents, call for democratic reforms, release of political prisoners, freedom of the press, and respect for human rights."
http://www.asambleasociedadcivilcuba.info/CPrensa/CANF.htm
I noticed Amazon.com put the Red Cross on their home page...wonder how many hates mails they received....
nice skirt, molly henneberg.
Landreau's comment may not have been as off the wall as it seems. Look here--
http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/marcello/13.html?sect=16\
This is a huge article about the now dead New Orleans boss, what really got my attention is the incident where he punches an FBI agent.
ML's comment is so far off the map of rational Senatorial comment, could she have been deliberately referencing this incident? I have seen only one reference on FR and no discussion of the effect of Katrina and the flood on the NO mafia.
Sean Penn bails water out of a boat with a plastic cup as he and members of his entourage make an attempt to rescue stranded people in New Orleans. Photo: AFP