Hurricane Katrina: Blog Relief

Apparently it isn't to early to do genuine analysis as regards issues around Hurricane Katrina - Mr. Snitch is on the job.

Please remember it's Katrina Blog Relief Day - charity info here.

Outside The Beltway has additional information, some I hadn't seen on Hurricane Katrina and related issues.

Missing persons link here.

Update: Link to breaking news on Katrina as of 9:20 PM.

Update: There's a website to register available housing for refugees from Katrina.

Another site for finding missing friends and family.

Northern-Alabama residents can help by ging here for drop off sites and blood donor locations.

They found Fats Domino.

Comments

[dc]

I was watching a video of the armed forces airplanes dropping something white, and saw it several times into the water. I kept trying to dertermine what it was and why it was being dropped into the water. Finally, I determined that they were dropping sandbags into the water to repair the levee. Hello, there are people that desperately need to be rescued. New Orleans is gone for now. I completely understand that the levee needs to be repaired, however, save the lives of our citizens first. It will be months before the city can be fixed.
SAVE THE PEOPLE FIRST. THEY ARE WAITING AND NEED YOUR HELP.

[angelaberdine]

I was watching a video of the armed forces airplanes dropping something white, and saw it several times into the water. I kept trying to dertermine what it was and why it was being dropped into the water. Finally, I determined that they were dropping sandbags into the water to repair the levee. Hello, there are people that desperately need to be rescued. New Orleans is gone for now. I completely understand that the levee needs to be repaired, however, save the lives of our citizens first. It will be months before the city can be fixed.
SAVE THE PEOPLE FIRST. THEY ARE WAITING AND NEED YOUR HELP.

Posted by: dc | Sep 1, 2005 10:00:09 PM

HELLO! If that had not been done, they would have been unable to stem the water from the Ponchartrain and everyone else would have died. What have you done today to help? My family and I have worked all day with time, money and organization. Do something, please. thank you.

[007Scarlett]

Another way for Northern AL (Huntsville-Decatur area) residents to help:

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=3795745&nav=0hBBe2Kb

http://www.al.com/weather/katrina/?youcanhelp.html

[TigerGirl722]

I hope no one gets angry with me for posting this...
I live near Baton Rouge, LA in a small town. We have lived in and around Baton Rouge all of our lives. Occasionally, we would go to New Orleans, but when we did, we knew we had to be careful of certain areas. The crime rate was out of control and we would always worry during Mardi Gras about the tourists who didn't have a clue.
I wanted to let you who are watching the news know that not everyone is crazy/evil from NO; however, some of the most hardened criminals
live(d) there. They are most likely the ones looting and shooting at their rescuers (for fear what they have taken will be taken away), so I consider THEM the reason that the rescue efforts are being blocked.
Another issue that has been given a positive political spin is what these people do once they are transported somewhere. I work near the RiverCenter where several thousand were taken. Many (not all by any means) were walking around downtown (which ISN'T a real problem), and some were in our parking garage at work. Why do you think they were there? Please don't tell me anything about "these are desperate people..." because I've heard far too much of that lately. Atleast one bank downtown was robbed and downtown had to be blocked off. All the while, the police chief is on TV telling everyone that "nothing is happening." The mayor has told the governor that we cannot handle all of these people. In a way, I am glad some will leave, but some of these people appreciated the shelter and food, not all of them deserve to be given the boot, but how do we tell the difference? We cannot afford for every cop to be sent downtown daily to control this, but we also need to help them.
I know I sound like a pessimist, but there are people out there who have good hearts and are in need of help, but it makes me sick to see other people have no consideration for what they are doing to the group of people as a whole. I don't know where they are sending them. Many were supposed to be in Houston, but some of those buses detoured last night and tonight to our small town. We have a very small police force and we now have 600+ new citizens. We will likely get more, but the conditions for them will go down as more and more come here.
To sum it up, this was ALL poorly planned, so not only is it lawless in New Orleans (as some would say it nearly always was), but it is becoming so where they are sending this people because the small group of bad apples will be ruining it from everyone.
Sorry to anyone who feels I was unfair with this, and I know we all need to adjust to the changes, but there are certain things (rise in crime) that should be considered when transporting people, not only for us, but for the innocent people within the evacuation groups.
Thanks for reading my ramble...
TG

[dc]

HELLO! If that had not been done, they would have been unable to stem the water from the Ponchartrain and everyone else would have died. What have you done today to help? My family and I have worked all day with time, money and organization. Do something, please. thank you.

Posted by: angelaberdine | Sep 1, 2005 10:36:20 PM

In fairness, I have seen many replays of video footage, and perhaps (hopefully) the video that I have seen last night and even this morning on television is a replay from yesterday. However, if it is live, it has already been reported yesterday, that the river level is stable, and even going down a bit in the city. If that is a live video, as people are dying and waiting for rescue, I still find it unacceptable that helicopters are completing repairs, instead of using those planes to rescue people.

In fairness also to officials, and I am not writing here to be mean to anyone, and many agencies are helping, God bless you, however, the results of many of the efforts are unacceptable. George Bush, this I do agree with you. It appears that for whatever reason, this catastrophe has caught our nation off guard, and there is not enough organization and coordination of efforts. It is strange that reporters have been reporting and showing the convention center and stating that there are dead bodies there, and showing reports of people screaming for help; It is strange how reporters can keep getting their cameras and reporters in and find people needing help, but how many officials and FEMA, and others are stating that they do not know that the people were even there. This is surprising. I am offering my prayers, and will be doing something financially. I will also attempt to do some type of volunteer aid, however, I am too far from the state to physically volunteer in the disaster area.

Dan, I appreciate your blog. I see that the name of the individuals is slowly chaning from "Refugee" to "Evacuee". This seems to be a very small word, however, when you have been left to fend on your own, and do not have the very means to have dignity for yourself and family, do not have food and drink, cannot get out of the city from the place that officials sent you to, after you followed their evacuation directions to that location, have been raped, or subject to the atmosphere, have raw sewage, and have been stripped of your very dignity, yes, the word "Refugee", as I stated in a prior blog was for a person that was from another country, was another form of indignity for the citizens, who, five days after the hurricane are still camped on concrete outside of the superdome. Also, has anyone spoken to any of the citizens regarding the dangers of walking in the water. I just feel so bad for them. Please everyone, donate help in any way that you can, pray, donate money, volunteer with your locan Salvation Army or Red Cross, or simply be nice to your neighbors. Do something.

[sleepy]

refugee
A noun
1 refugee

an exile who flees for safety

How is it you choose to redefine the word and tell others that is a bad word? They are refugees in the truest sense of the word. You are the one twisting it, giving it some kind of negative connotation. Are they not exiles from their home? Are they not leaving for their safety?

2 refuge, sanctuary, asylum
a shelter from danger or hardship

[sleepy]

TG - What you stated is the way it is. We have already seen the start of some of the same sort of problems here in Houston. I believe I read this morning that we have also declared a state of emergency due to some of these issues. The government in all of the states and cities that are so openly welcoming the refugees are beginning to see some serious problems and I hope that they are right on top of this from the start so they don't allow the displaced thugs to destroy our cities and harm our neighbors also.

[TigerGirl722]

Sleepy,
I'm sooooo sorry to hear that you have also encountered this. It is a tragedy within the catastrophe of the hurricane! People should have been told before they took these people what some might be capable of, so that proper security measures would be taken. But, instead, our public officials here in LA have flat-out LIED to other cities to get rid of the problems. No, we don't have the resources to hold everyone; however, we should NOT go around pretending some of these people may bring some crime to the area to which they are brought. It isn't fair to those who so graciously opened their cities to these people. It gives all New Orleanians a bad name. The people as a whole are not terrible, but there was a high element of crime in the city and I fear for the security of those who mess with them. There were places even police wouldn't go in NO. Why are we surprised about the violence? I'm not, but I'm still angry that they are "sweeping" it all under the rug. It's not right for us and not right for those in the shelters who are good people. They need to be safe too.
I will pray things get better for you. Like I said before, my small town near BR now has far more people in the shelter than we do police. Everytime I see buses leaving NO, I pray they don't bring them here, we have exceeded our limit. None we supposed to be sent here from the dome, but our citizens wanted to help. But, they are walking our neighborhoods and begging for things everywhere. I'm a student and my husband is a teacher. We just got married and have NO extra income. He has gone everyday this week to help, but we cannot contribute any more for them other that what we are doing now. I have given all the clothing, tolietries, etc possible for us..
I pray that things will get better. And, that these people will be able to see how much people care about them and want to help, instead of assuming the world has abandoned them.
TG

[jeannette]

i agree everything was very poorly planned we knew from the beginning that all the people sheltered in the superdome were going to stay there for more than a couple of days why pack so many there??? Why not bus some to other shelters before all the chaos now the thousands of people are without food ,water, and medical help in a hot ,filthy and unsafe place . I feel mostly for the children, babies and elderly. There is murder and rape going on in a time of crisis and nothing is being done can you imagine being in this situation being a father not sleeping at night to protect your family ,seeing children die because of lack of water or food must be unbearable and worst its happening here in wealthy America its a shame we help others but when we need it theres no one by our side as it seems not even the government is doing all they should. We should all pray and help because someday it might be us who need it.

[!]

I am stunned, numb and its like horror movie.
i cannot believe what I just found.
I just found all my pictures I took in New Orleans in 1999 and all the brochures and memorbilia I brought back when I went there in 1999. I will scan them and send them to Dan to post. Some beautiful pictures. I thought I had lost them in the flood I went through as well, as just yesterday I threw away 10 pictures albums of my life time memories. We are still cleaning up here. Over a thousand pictures.
As I was sitting here today watching the news coverage of the devastation I noticed a basket I had sitting over in the corner of my living room and I saw it had some books and broshures in it and I began looking through it and found all my New Orleans pics in two albums there as well as all kinds of collectable things I had broght back. I could not beleive it. We also have 4 framed pieces of signed limited edition prints we bought while we were there and had them shipped back to us. Those items were on the wall thank goodness we still have them.

I find it strange that the only pics that we have left are of our trip to New Orleans but I am so glad we do.

I will treasure these items and pass them on in the future to a museum as many of these places I had collected all these brochures from will never exist anymore. I read where over 600,000 businesses are history now.

I never dreamed in my lifetime I would witness such a catasthrophy as this.

I hope everybody will pitch in and do what they can to help. Remember, every little bit help no matter how small it is.

:O)