Riehl World View

Rut Roh!

Looks like New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin may have some more explaing to do. It appears some pictures seem to indicate public buses were used to evacuate people from New Orleans - 48 hours too late.

Is this the deal where they couldn't get people to show up for work pre-Katrina I remember hearing about? If so, it sounds like maybe he should lay off those 3,000 people he's talking about - and start with the bus drivers.

Hurricane Katrina: Internet Fraud

If you donated funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina through a sight called airKatrina.com, you might want to contact the authorities. Please see link. h/t Cindi.

(CBS/AP) The nation's first Internet charity fraud case involving Hurricane Katrina has surfaced in Miami.

FBI agents arrested a Sunny Isles Beach man today in the country's first Internet charity fraud case involving the alleged exploitation of Hurricane Katrina victims for personal profit.

New Looting Breaks Out In New Orleans

Yes, it's sad, I know. But what is even more so is that through government inefficiency, mismanagement and waste, and perhaps a little profiteering thrown in, now they are looting from you and me. It appears the fleecing of America has begun.

Knight Ridder has found that a lack of oversight, generous contracting deals and poor planning mean that government agencies are shelling out as much as 10 times what the temporary fix would normally cost.

The government is paying contractors an average of $2,480 for less than two hours of work to cover each damaged roof — even though it's also giving them endless supplies of blue sheeting for free.

New Hurricane Katrina Photos

Take a look at what Katrina did to reader Jules' house - read the captions for an explanation.

The house was designed and built by Robert Seaton, an architect from New Orleans in the mid-1800's. The elevation of the land is 32 feet above sea level. The water came up up 4 to 5 feet in the house and smashed it like an eggshell and rocked it off its foundation.

I think the word is devastation.

Katrina's Wrath From Gretna, LA

Bob's church organized a relief team and were some of the first people back into Gretna, LA. They sent out some pictures displayed here.

Let Them Eat Cake

But why? Here's an ABC report from the New Orleans Convention Center dated Sept. 14th ... they were eating caviar.

Caviar and Camaraderie Found a Place Inside the New Orleans Convention Center

The cultural spirit of New Orleans was experienced by some Hurricane Katrina survivors, who managed to dine on gourmet provisions and create a sense of community while waiting for help to reach the city's crowded convention center.

While accounts of violence and disorderly conduct have been used widely to describe the scene in the flooded Gulf Coast city, a far calmer and more neighborly environment is being described by two of the hurricane victims who sought shelter at the convention center days after the storm tore through their city.

Images Of New Orleans You Haven't Seen

Bumped: Preview a few, then click through Snitch's place for a large number of artful post-Katrina photos of New Orleans you probably haven't seen before.

Journalists Disgraced At The Superdome

Read the whole thing - h/t to Richard and Dean Esmay, as well as two readers - one was Jeanne.

Such shoddy professionalism might be expected from one team or another at some of the more boring Super Bowls. But you would think that when certain journalists get their shot at the big time, they might have brought along a better game.

We don't normally cover this type of thing, but seeing it first hand air live on Hannity & Colmes  Sept 2nd, we felt compelled to post this disturbing emotional plea on behalf of these two brave reporters.

Geraldo Rivera and Shepard "Shep" Smith are in the front lines of the New Orleans Super-dome refugee camps, trying to beg the US Government to release the tens of thousands of refugees from hurricane Katrina. Mr Smiths piece mentioned he's seen people with their throats slashed, babies stuffed in coolers, and worse human atrocities.

Or maybe they were just playing the ratings game, after all.

After five days managing near-riots, medical horrors and unspeakable living conditions inside the Superdome, Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron prepared to hand over the dead to representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Following days of internationally reported killings, rapes and gang violence inside the Dome, the doctor from FEMA - Beron doesn't remember his name - came prepared for a grisly scene: He brought a refrigerated 18-wheeler and three doctors to process bodies.

"I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalls the doctor saying.

The real total was six, Beron said. Of those, four died of natural causes, one overdosed and another jumped to his death in an apparent suicide, said Beron

So, I'm Wondering

Where are all the news cameras now? They certainly seemed to almost enjoy showing us the devastation in downtown New Orleans.

CREOLE, La. (AP) - Hurricane Rita's path of devastation along the Texas-Louisiana coast became shockingly clear Monday, as rescuers pulled stranded bayou residents out on skiffs and Army helicopters searched for thousands of cattle feared drowned.

Crews struggled to clean up the tangle of smashed homes and downed trees. The hurricane slammed low-lying fishing villages, shrimping ports and ranches with water up to 9 feet deep. Seawater pushed as far as 20 miles inland, drowning acres of rice, sugarcane fields and pasture.

In coastal Terrebonne Parish, the count of severely damaged or destroyed homes stood at nearly 9,900. An estimated 80 percent of the buildings in the town of Cameron, population 1,900, were leveled. Farther inland, half of Creole, population 1,500, was left in splinters.

"I would use the word destroyed," Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore said of Cameron. "Cameron and Creole have been destroyed except for the courthouse, which was built on stilts on higher ground. Most of the houses and public buildings no longer exist or are even in the same location that they were."

Hurricane Recovery

There's a real danger that political infighting and popular demand could easily lead to another disaster in New Orleans, especially as most experts are predicting a decade or two of increased hurricane activity due, not to global warming, but cycles of atmospheric and water temperature conditions as old as man himself.

The largest previous flood recovery and rebuilding effort took place, in of all places, North Dakota and Minnesota. ABC News apparently profiled it Sunday night and they have some sound advice for New Orleans.