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/

"Interestingly, Fox has been interviewing people at the Astrodome. One doctor said that many of these people have not been seen by a doctor in YEARS, if ever. They are dealing with hypertension, congestive heart failure, diabetics, etc. Doctor on now saying they need insulin and congestive heart failure meds.

Seems to me we also are seeing evidence of a complete failure of the New Orleans public health system.

Fox commentator said in some ways the peope in the Astrodome are BETTER OFF, because they are finally getting medical care!"

Thank god someone finally said something, all this time I thought it was just me sitting here wondering (and screaming about) how in the world so many people could have left without their meds or without knowing what meds they have been taking, in some cases, for years; especially the diabetics. So much time had gone by without anyone saying anything, In the end, I just figured that any insulin dependent diabetic who had walked out the door without their meds and supplies couldn't have been taking very good care of their condition in the first place because if they had, the meds and equipment would've been one of the first things they grabbed on the way out the door out of sheer habit.

Somewhat off the subject: My son's an insulin dependent diabetic. I was so sick of seeing meds and supplies around the house and of having to pack up everything everytime we walked out the front door, that I just organized everything in a backpack and that's where it stays (with the exception of 3 meds that need to be refridgerated). Now that's just me being obsessive-compulsive but...I don't know...maybe someone living an earthquake or tornado prone area or who's always on the go will find the idea useful.

[returns to lurking mode]

Your comment about the welfare system being calculated to keep people on it has a distinct ring of truth.

When most Americans in the Northeast hear about the $5.15/hr minimum wage, they think it's some hypothetical figure that only migrant workers would earn. When I lived in Massachusetts, I couldn't imagine even a high school kid rolling out of bed for a job at Burger King that paid less than $8.00/hr.

When I moved to Louisiana, I was horrified to discover that people really *do* earn $5.15/hr, and that a job paying $7.00/hr is considered a princely sum and too much to qualify for subsidy benefits.

A mother with one child in Louisiana who is a welfare recipient only receives $188/mo in actual cash, $247/mo in food stamps, 100% child care if enrolled in a vocational training program (without subsidy, figure $300/mo for full-time care for one child) and partial reimbursement of travel expenses to participate in the vocational activity. If this same mother and child are on Section 8 rental housing, 100% subsidized housing (which isn't much considering how low the rents are, maybe $400 and up for a 2-bedroom apartment) plus a monthly check to provide partial payment toward utilities (maybe $125/mo average for electricity in a 2-bedroom apartment, but drastically more in a trailer due to lack of insulation, maybe $300/mo). It isn't enough to get by because it doesn't cover car insurance of the full cost of utilities, BUT...

When this mother finds a job and gets off the welfare roll, she finds out the hard way that it wasn't worth it after all to work. Say she gets a job for $7-8/hr (and that's shooting really high because most will get minimum wage) and takes home $1,000/mo net pay. Now she's suddenly responsible for one-third of her gross income in Section 8 rent, all the utilities, only partial reimbursement of child care, all but $120/mo in transportation expenses (you do get what's called a post-FITAP check for that amount but only if you can stay consecutively employed for 12 months after getting off welfare) and all the groceries because your food stamps have been shut off, plus auto insurance if she can even afford a car. You'd be astounded at the number of people in Louisiana who don't have driver's licenses, just state ID cards.

Do the math -- taking net versus gross income into consideration, if you were a single mother, which might you choose?

David Vitter had these TV commercials during his campaign where he stood in his kitchen pouring a bowl of Cheeries and pontificating about how "I think welfare recipients should work for their benefits." A lot of people agree with him in theory, but if he knew how much it cost to make them do it, he would realize that it isn't cost-effective.

Specifically, a woman who walks into the Louisiana Office of Family Support and applies for welfare benefits is told that in order to qualify for benefits, she has to be engaged in a job-related activity for 35 hours per week.

They used to evaluate the applicant's skills and experience and route her accordingly. A woman who had clerical experience might be assigned to do filing right there in the OFS office and decide to pursue a civil service career using that as a base. Another woman who had no skills might be sent to Goodwill Industries to sort clothes, and they might keep her full-time if they liked her. How many people do you know who would willingly work 35 hours per week in exchange for $188 per *month*?

But they don't do it that way any more. Now they have this ridiculous thing called Job Readiness Training to which they even send mothers desperately in need of Parenting training. For 35 hours a week for the first 4 weeks you receive welfare, you sit in a classroom and have the teacher (a consultant brought in from the Louisiana Department of Labor) pick you apart and tell you what's wrong with you and why you're not ready for the job market. And God forbid you look for a job on your own during this month -- if you get called for an interview during class time, you are NOT allowed to go and meet with the prospective employer, because you're not putting in your 35 hours of your required activity. If you defy the teacher and go to the interview anyway, you are threatened with sanctions against your benefits.

And how much does it cost to put someone through Job Readiness Training? In addition to having the family on the welfare/food stamp rolls, the system also pays for daily transportation reimbursement and child care expense to make sure the mother is sitting in that classroom 35 hours a week...and NOT looking for a job.

The posters on FR who judge these women so harshly and call them "welfare queens" don't have all the facts. They've never seen the bureaucracy from the inside out. If wages were high enough in Louisiana that people could support their families without needing subsidies, more women would get off welfare. But until it becomes cost-effective to be self-sufficient, things aren't going to change in this state.

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