Katrina Live Threads, Part XV

U.S. commercial air carriers continue transporting tens of thousands of evacuees from the New Orleans airport to destinations throughout the nation.

Rooftop air rescue efforts continue. One rescue chopper crashed late today. Crew members are reported safe. Gunmen who fired upon bridge repair contractors were killed by law enforcement.

To date, an estimated 70 countries and U.S. businesses have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, supplies, food and equipment to assist the United States' efforts in Katrina's aftermath. Lt. General Honore described the damage to Mississippi today, "all infrastructure south of Jackson, MS is either damaged or destroyed." Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice visited the devastated areas, and attended Sunday church services in Mobile, Alabama.

Elsewhere, Sean Penn's rescue boat, sans plug and full of his personal entourage,reportedly sank during launch in New Orleans. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) threatened to punch President Bush, and Jefferson Parish President Broussard decried that the bureaucracy of FEMA has committed murder.

New Orleans Emergency Operations Center - is now open:
504-463-1000
504-463-1001
504-463-1002

All information is subject to change. Many stations are relying on their corporate parents to configure and maintain Internet streaming. Because of the intense interest in the feeds, they may be unavailable at times because of network congestion or a problem feeding the video to the streaming servers.

WWL-TV New Orleans - 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. They have a secondary stream from Yahoo. WWL-TV is also offering a special low-bandwidth audio-only stream for dial-up users.

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).

WFAA-TV Dallas, TX - WFAA-TV is here because Dallas is one of the evacuation cities.

United Radio From New Orleans: WWL-AM, WNOE-FM, "KISS-FM," WRNO-FM, WYLD-FM, and WJBO-AM (Clear Channel & Entercom) who have joined forces as United Radio From New Orleans, and they are streaming.

Gulf Coast Storm Network (Clear Channel Radio) - Clear Channel offers radio listeners across the gulf coast access to a simulcast emergency radio service. This service seems primarily focused on Alabama and Mississippi, but does cover Louisiana to some degree.

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/

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?s=3151637

Blanco Addresses FEMA Payback Issue
April 1, 2005, 10:39 AM CST

Governor Kathleen Blanco says if the state is forced to pay back the federal government more than 30 million dollars, the state's children and sick will suffer. This week, FEMA officials sent a letter demanding back 30.4 million dollars back in misspent flood buyout money.

Governor Blanco is very concerned about that FEMA demand letter. She says the state simply does not have that kind of money just laying around. Blanco says a 30 million dollar hit to the state budget would be devastating.

"The regretful thing is if we have to come up with 30 million dollars, it takes away from children, it takes away from the sick... you know, very, very important initiatives."

According to FEMA, the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security which is the overseeing agency misspent the money over a five-year period. The money is for buying out homes that habitually flood.

The letter references a federal Office of Inspector General's report which lists, among other ineligible expenses, a 2002 Ford Crown Victoria, audio and video equipment, office supplies, travel, professional dues, charitable donations, an L.L. Bean briefcase, a rain coat, and a trip to Germany by a Louisiana Homeland Security person as money that has to be sent back.

"I'm hoping that we can demonstrate that it was used for the proper function that it was intended," says Blanco.

Louisiana Homeland Security officials say it will be up to the parishes who got the money to give it back. Meanwhile, the 32 parishes included in the buyout program were notified Wednesday and Thursday about sending the money back.

East Baton Rouge Parish ranked third in the amount alleged misspent of money they got from FEMA at 3.6 million dollars. St. Tammany got the most with 8.5 million, followed by Ouachita Parish which got just under 6 million.

The entire investigation into the FEMA money originated in Ouachita Parish when local television reporters began looking into how they were using the FEMA money.

One Louisiana Homeland Security person said it may take years to resolve this issue. And it will likely be decided by a judge or jury if this thing ends up in the courts.

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?s=3145997

FEMA Says State Must Pay $30 Million
March 31, 2005, 03:44 PM CST

Louisiana officials are stumped. Do officials in our Office of Homeland Security owe the federal government more than 30 million dollars? The feds sent the bill Wednesday for money paid out in the form of grants for a federal flood buyout program. Three former Louisiana Homeland Security employees who oversaw the program are currently under federal indictment.

The state says we don't owe the money back. But they say if we do, the individual parishes the grants went to will have to pay back the money.

Mark Smith, Dept. of Homeland Security said, "Would I call it a public relations nightmare? Yes."

It was just a matter of time before the bill was sent to the state following its handling of federal FEMA flood buyout monies. The government says more than 30 million was misspent by the state through the Office of Emergency Preparedness between 1997 and 2002. Three former high level employees of the office are under federal indictment for charges related to the handling of those FEMA funds.

"Really its not that the money was misspent here or the money was misspent there," says Smith. "It's going to be, in a lot of the cases, a matter of improper paperwork."

According to the letter, the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Office of Emergency Preparedness failed to properly assess project eligibility, rank properties consistently with state priorities, and verify that projects met the criteria for priority funding.

"We'll have to look at each individual parish and possibly go back to them for money."

According to Joanne Moreau, Director of the East Baton Rouge Parish Homeland Security, East Baton Rouge will be asked to pony up 3.6 million dollars. Moreau says she has requested documentation from the state to prove what they owe.

East Baton Rouge Parish applied for their own grants and did not enlist the help of private companies like Aegis Innovative Solutions. Aegis contracted with many of the parishes who will be asked to pay back the money. Aegis is owned by former Office of Emergency Preparedness employees.

Moreau says she believes the letter from FEMA clearly asks the state to re-pay that money. In other words, it's a state issue and not a parish by parish issue. We also asked the state Homeland Security Office to show us the documentation the federal government used to come up with that 30 million dollar figure. They agreed to show us, but not until Thursday.

A Blockbuster Report As the city's murder rate escalates, the NOPD is "bleeding police officers," states the new Police Foundation study. By Allen Johnson Jr Photo by Donn Young The first major study of the New Orleans Police Department under Mayor Ray Nagin's administration promised to be what one source called a "blockbuster." Requested by the mayor, commissioned by the private New Orleans Police Foundation and conducted by scholars at the University of New Orleans, the detailed report on NOPD's manpower crisis would, a second source predicted, "send shock waves through this city."
It didn't happen. Ironically, the police study, released on Jan. 8, became quickly swallowed up in a 24-hour news cycle of bloody crimes.
Yet the blockbuster potential for the police study story remains. One month later, the depth and severity of NOPD's manpower crisis may still be understated as cops take to the streets this first weekend of Carnival to protect tens of thousands of parade-goers. The report spells out why cops are disappearing in a city that entered 2004 as the nation's homicide capitol of 71 major cities (with a population of 250,000 or more) for a second consecutive year.
As part of an unannounced compromise to appease image-conscious business leaders, sources close to the project say, neither the mayor, the UNO scholars nor Police Foundation officials directed the media's attention to the city's homicide rates.

The UNO report was disturbing enough, sources say, without calling attention to the "alarming" facts, which reporters could find on their own when -- or if -- they read the 34-page report or the Police Foundation's "action summary" placed inside the press kits distributed at the mayor's press conference.
Indeed, the most dramatic account of the study's findings on why (in the Foundation's words) NOPD is "bleeding police officers" is found in the summary that top Foundation executives authored with help from a local public relations firm. "New Orleans is facing a crisis: our police force is shrinking at the same time that our city has recaptured the distinguished title of 'murder capital' of the United States among major cities," the Foundation stated. "We now have only about 1500 officers actually engaged in police work, down from 1700 three years ago. Not surprisingly, the reduction in police strength has been accompanied by steep increases in the number of murders. A New Orleanian is now seven times more likely to be murdered than a New Yorker. (Italics from the report.)

"It is the belief of the New Orleans Police Foundation that this city needs a minimum 2000 officers to maintain adequate security and reduce the murder rate. Unfortunately, instead of increasing the size of the force, we have been moving steadily in the wrong direction. ...

Aside from the Police Foundation summary, the study also offers chilling findings about New Orleans' murder rate: "Particularly alarming is homicide in New Orleans. New Orleans has consistently faced one of the highest homicide rates of any city in the United States. Over the last 10 years, more than 3,000 people have been murdered in the city. In 2002, New Orleans had the highest homicide rate among cities of 250,000 population or more."

Last year, the report continues, the city had a murder rate that was nearly 10 times higher than the national average. "For New Orleans to have a murder rate that is on par with New York City's, our city would have to record only 36 murders per year. This is 221 fewer murders than the 257 murders recorded in 2002. Also alarming is that murder in New Orleans is on the rise, registering increases every year since 1999."
IF NAGIN AGREES WITH ANY PART of the Police Foundation's admittedly "bleak picture," he did not tell the standing-room-only crowd of media, cops and public officials gathered in the mayor's press briefing room at City Hall on Jan. 8. Yet it cannot be said that he omitted the city's murder rate from his news conference. In his introductory remarks, the mayor initially mentioned the city's homicide problem, albeit briefly.
"You're going to hear some things that caused us to pause," Nagin said of the UNO study. He added: "The homicide rate ... is back at 1997 levels. So what that tells me is that we really did not fix the problem." (In fact, the study shows that the homicide rate for 2003, 56.5 murder victims per 100,000, is higher than the 54.7 per capita rate recorded in 1997.)

The matter of murders came up again near the end of the mayor's press conference. And the mayor would intervene when Chief Eddie Compass unloaded on the media for what Compass called its unbalanced coverage of NOPD's response to the city's homicide rates.
Before the chief could respond, Nagin took the microphone. "If you go back and look at the history of the city, we have always ranked in the top five of murders per 1,000 residents," the mayor said. "So, that hasn't really changed. But what we are telling you today is that the current trends over the past six months and the trend of this current year is very positive. The work we have done with the federal government and Jim Letten is paying results. We're expecting to have a significant year as it relates to murders being down. If we get the 200 police officers that we need, we can guarantee you that this will be one of the safest communities in America."

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2004-02-10/news_feat.html

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