Katrina Live Thread, Part XIII

28,000 National Guard troops are deployed to the disaster areas in Mississippi, Alabama, and to Louisiana, where SWAT teams are working to combat the looters and shooters in New Orleans. Additional 1400 National Guard troops are being deployed daily.

Shootings reported at a New Orleans hospital, rescue boats, and a military helicopter, while conditions continue to deteriorate at the SuperDome amid refugee deaths and chaos. Evacuation of New Orleans continues.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert has voiced serious doubts about rebuilding New Orleans with federal funds, while assuring the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida that the United States Congress stands ready to help them in their time of need. New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin issued a "desperate SOS."

Doctors at two desperately crippled hospitals in New Orleans called The Associated Press Thursday morning pleading for rescue, "We have been trying to call the mayor's office, we have been trying to call the governor's office ... we have tried to use any inside pressure we can. We are turning to you. Please help us," said Dr. Norman McSwain, chief of trauma surgery at Charity Hospital, the largest of two public hospitals.

The Port of New Orleans is now open to shallow draft vessels. Congress is reconvening in an emergency session. International offers to assist the U.S. have been received from Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Germany, Venezuela, Jamaica, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, NATO and the Organization of American States.

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/

Updates as they come in on Katrina

03:36 PM CDT on Friday, September 2, 2005

Tom Planchet

3:34 P.M. - (AP) The evacuation of Superdome refugees was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt hotel. They were move to the head of the line to be evacuated -- much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome for days.

The 700 had been trapped in the Hyatt just like the others, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome.

3:14 P.M. - St. Bernard Parish officials say that FEMA has not called them yet...five days after the storm.

3:07 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- U.S. Sen. David Vitter said FEMA's efforts to deal with the hurricane have been completely ineffective, and he called the federal government's response a failure.

"I think FEMA has been completely dysfunctional and is completely overwhelmed, and I don't know why. This situation was utterly predictable," said Vitter, R-Metairie. "It seems like there was no coherent plan, which I don't understand because this precise scenario has been predicted for 20 years," he said.

3:03 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Three New Orleans-area hospitals remain open. The Louisiana Hospital Association says they're asking their workers to report.

Those are East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie, West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero and Ochsner Clinic Foundation in Metairie.

The hospital association says all three have power, air-conditioning and security, and remain committed to serving their communities during these difficult times.

2:54 P.M. - WWL Reporter Jonathan Betz says the refugees at I-10 and Causeway are standing in squalid conditions. He said there are only 10 portable toilets for thousands of people and the Interstate median is full of human waste.

2:50 P.M. - WWL-TV LIVE pictures show thousands still wait to be picked up from I-10 and Causeway. Buses arrived a few hours ago, but the refugees say that it's the first sighting of buses in 12 hours. Some of the refugees have been waiting four days. State Police say five people died Thursday while waiting.

2:37 P.M. - LITTLE ROCK, AR (AP): A pediatric specialist left New Orleans this week confident of one thing -- dedicated doctors and nurses at Louisiana hospitals excelled at preserving lives while their known world crumbled around them.

Doctor Tad Fiser of Arkansas Children's Hospital says the lack of electricity and other hardships did not stop doctors in New Orleans from doing their work. Fiser says he cannot offer enough praise for the care given by doctors from the Children's Hospital of New Orleans, Tulane Medical Center and Touro Infirmary.

Fiser says at one point he rode on a helicopter with a doctor from Charity Hospital who had been working since Sunday and had only one peanut butter sandwich to eat.

Fiser traveled to Louisiana on Wednesday to help evacuate children from New Orleans area hospitals to a medical unit set up at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport. The children were being treated for grave ailments before the storm hit.

After arriving at Baton Rouge, many of the children were sent to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. Arkansas Children's Hospital has taken in four patients.

2:32 P.M. - ALBANY, NY (AP): While people around the country are donating money to buy food, clothing and other essential supplies for Hurricane Katrina victims, New York lawyers are creating a fund to help restore legal services in devastated areas and provide free direct help.

The New York State Bar Association fund will help victims in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama pay for such services as filing insurance claims, getting death certificates completed and applying for federal aid.

Association President A. Vincent Buzard says he has contacted association presidents in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to offer financial support and volunteer attorneys. When the time comes, he says many New York lawyers will head south to help.

Since most New York attorneys lack licenses to practice in those states, any legal aid they could give would have to be through lawyers belonging to the bar associations there.

Buzard is also urging his 71,000 members to donate to groups like the American Red Cross to meet the immediate needs of those affected.

2:28 P.M. - WWL-TV: Wildlife and Fisheries has said they are no longer asking people to volunteer their time and boats to go on rescue missions because of security concerns.

2:25 P.M. - (AP): The nation's airlines have been putting aside their own financial troubles to fly in supplies and take out refugees from hurricane devastated areas. Relief flights donated by airlines poured into Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport today.

Here are other efforts:

--Some pilots have set up a shuttle service out of Baton Rouge to evacuate high-risk people to Texas. Others are flying damage-assessment missions over the damaged region and taking in critical supplies.

--AirTran Airways today flew two humanitarian aid flights from Atlanta to the Gulfport, Mississippi airport. AirTran dropped more than 20 tons of water, food, clothing, medical supplies and other items.

--United Airlines this week flew 12 tons of food and water from Chicago to New Orleans. On the flight were 30 emergency medical technicians from Chicago who stayed behind in New Orleans. The same jet returned with 104 evacuees from New Orleans.

-- Fort Worth-based American Airlines is offering 500 miles to frequent-flier members who give the Red Cross at least $50 and then show a receipt to the airline.

--Houston-based Continental Airlines is giving 1,000 tickets for hurricane victims to relocate within the United States. The tickets are being doled out by emergency agencies.

2:22 P.M. - HOUSTON (AP): Passengers getting off buses from New Orleans may be in sight of the end of their nearly week-long ordeal. But first, they have to go through screening.

Police in Houston are guiding people through lines where they can undergo pat-down searches.

Paramedics wearing rubber gloves are helping medical teams conduct a triage operation. Kidney patients and others who might need immediate medical attention are being transported to hospitals.

The evacuees are also being offered icy bottles of water as they get off the buses. Disposable diapers are being passed out to those with small children.

Many of the people are asking total strangers for a few seconds of cellphone time to try to locate loved ones.

2:15 P.M. - WWL-TV: New Orleans music legend Fats Domino is safe after spending the last two days here in the apartment of LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell.

Domino was rescued for his home in the lower 9th Ward of New Orleans two days ago and brought to the triage unit at the Maravich Assembly Center on the LSU campus. Click here.

2:05 P.M. - (AP): A mix of cheering and swearing has greeted National Guardsman pouring into New Orleans.

As a convoy of relief trucks swarmed through downtown, some near the city's convention center threw up their hands and screamed "Thank You, Jesus!"

Others weren't as pleased. One man says "hell no," he's not happy to see the Guard, saying troops should have shown up days ago. Michael Levy says he'll be pleased when 100 buses arrive to evacuate people.

Levy says people at the center have been sleeping on the ground "like rats." And he says if he had his way, New Orleans would be burned down.

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