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/

6:40 P.M. - WASHINGTON (AP): Sen. Mary Landrieu called Friday for President Bush to appoint a cabinet-level official to direct the federal response to the devastation along the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said she asked Bush during his tour of New Orleans on Friday to act within 24 hours to put a single official in charge of the overall relief effort who would report directly to him.

"The suffering has gone on long enough," she said. "Now is the time for action."

There also were calls from Republicans for Bush to name a prominent official to oversee the recovery effort. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., suggested Giuliani, former Secretary of State Colin Powell or retired Gen. Tommy Franks to take charge.

President Bush acknowledged Friday before leaving Washington that "the results are not acceptable" and promised that the government would restore order in lawless New Orleans. He has faced increasing criticism from state and local officials for the government's slow response to the disaster.

6:38 P.M. - BATON ROUGE (AP): The Veterans Administration set up toll-free numbers for veterans displaced by the storm to call to rearrange their medical care, and for V.A. employees to check on where to go and what to do for work.

Stacie Rivera says more than 50,000 veterans from south Louisiana and probably more from Mississippi now need to know how they can get their medicines and get to a doctor.

She says veterans from both areas can call 1-800-507-4571 for the information, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Rivera said the number for V-A employees -- 1-888-766-2474 -- is open seven days a week, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Rivera used to be paid spokeswoman for the New Orleans V.A. hospital. Today, she was acting as a volunteer, calling from her home in West Virginia.

6:26 P.M. - WASHINGTON (AP): Thousands of people stranded in two swamped parishes south of New Orleans are just as desperate for food, water and supplies as those trapped in the city, but they can't get the attention of federal disaster relief officials, Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., said Friday.

And to make matters worse, Melancon said in a telephone interview, he was unable to deliver that message to President Bush during his visit to New Orleans on Friday because the president's security detail couldn't clear him in to meet with Bush on Air Force One.

After waiting 90 minutes while a U.S. marshal using a satellite phone repeatedly tried, and failed, to contact Bush's plane -- located just 300 yards away at New Orleans' Armstrong airport -- a disgusted Melancon left.

"After an hour and a half of that, and two hours to get down there, I am now back on my way, without seeing the president, not accomplishing anything in my mind today. I've wasted time while people are dying in South Louisiana," he said. "It's not personal to the president. It's just that this whole thing has been handled terribly."

Melancon said the communications problems that kept him from meeting with Bush are symptomatic of the problems that have plagued the slow-moving federal response to the devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina.

6:05 P.M. - (AP) AP Essay: Can this actually be happening in America? Click here to read essay.

5:57 P.M. - (AP): Hundreds of thousands of people with no homes, no food, no jobs, no money -- the reality is staggering. A mass exodus of refugees from Hurricane Katrina has left communities across the nation scrambling to find ways to care for the newly dispossessed.

The hurricane that drowned New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast will pose an unprecedented test for communities, churches and schools that will have to find the space and the dollars to cope with throngs often arriving on their doorsteps with little but the clothes on their backs.

Thousands of storm survivors have already found temporary homes: More than 15,000 people bused from Louisiana have packed in the Houston Astrodome. The city's convention center and an exhibition hall are expected to house more.

More than 94,000 other hurricane refugees are living in 284 Red Cross shelters in nine states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri and Florida.

College dormitories, churches, schools and community centers have all been converted into shelters. Other hurricane refugees are holed up in hotels or bunking with families or friends.

5:53 P.M. - (AP): Days after Hurricane Katrina struck, nobody can say how many people it killed. And in a situation marked by chaos and flooding, that won't change anytime soon, disaster experts say.

In Mississippi, for example, the confirmed death toll has reached 131, but Gov. Haley Barbour said Thursday, "We don't know how many fatalities there are. The official count is really meaningless."

5:01 P.M. - OPELOUSAS (AP) - One Hurricane Katrina refugee died and many others were injured when a bus carrying them west from the Superdome in New Orleans overturned and rolled across a highway median. At least 10 people were taken to hospitals, several critically injured, The Daily World of Opelousas reported on its Web site.

3:54 P.M. - FEMA Spokesperson: The first estimate we got was that about 10,000 at the Superdome had to be rescued and it's been in the tens of thousands.

3:54 P.M. - FEMA Spokesperson: I'm probably going to lie awake at night for a long time second guessing how we responded.

3:52 P.M. - FEMA spokesperson: The magnitude of this overwhelmed us.

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.

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

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