Steve's Breaking NOLA news thread, Part Two

http://www.wlbz2.com/newscenter/article.asp?id=26018

Katrina Evacuees Being Moved To Houston


The evacuees from Hurricane Katrina who've been housed at the Louisiana Superdome will be headed to Houston, where shelter is being set up for them at the Astrodome.

HOUSTON (AP) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing nearly 500 buses for a convoy traveling the 350 miles to Houston.

A spokeswoman for Texas Governor Rick Perry says the Astrodome's schedule has been cleared through December to serve as a shelter for evacuees.

An emergency management official in Houston tells The Associated Press that plans are in the works to provide a "full shelter operation for 25-thousand people." Most of them will come from the Superdome. Conditions there have deteriorated rapidly since the storm came through. It knocked out the air conditioning and tore holes in the roof. And toilets there are broken.

Louisiana's governor says the evacuees at the Superdome, and elsewhere in New Orleans, would have to be moved out of the city.

<snip>

http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2005/08/31/ap/headlines/d8cav1200.txt

By KEVIN McGILL
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 2:05 PM EDT

NEW ORLEANS - With law officers and National Guardsmen focused on saving lives, looters around the city spent another day brazenly ransacking stores for food, clothing, appliances _ and guns.

Thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break the glass of a pharmacy. The crowd stormed the store, carrying out so much ice, water and food that it dropped from their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen noodles and other items.

Looters also chased down a state police truck full of food. The New Orleans police chief ran off looters while city officials themselves were commandeering equipment from a looted Office Depot. During a state of emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and buildings for their use.

Officials tried to balance security needs with saving lives.


<snip>

what little NG guys are there is too little too late..Bush is to blame for this needless shit

The stories coming out of there are beyond my minds' grasp. Those poor, poor people. I just can't believe this is happening, and all the while plans are being drawn up. This is so, so ,so not right.

Update on Superdome evacuation
Wednesay, 12:05 p.m.

BATON ROUGE - The 23,000 New Orleans evacuees who have been holed up at the Superdome with little air conditioning, food and water, will be bused 12 hours to Houston to be housed for an indefinite period at the Houston Astrodome, Gov,. Kathleen Blanco said Wednesday.

Department of Social Services Secretary Ann Williamson said the buses should start rolling later Wednesday. About 475 vehicles have been arranged to ferry the evacuees to Houston.

State National Guard officials said the re-location should take two days or less.

"We can use the Astrodome for a place for our folks to begin to normalize their lives," Blanco said. "This will help us immensely."


<snip>

Oil refineries still shut down
Oil refineries still shut down.

(AP) - Eight Gulf of Mexico refineries remain shut and one is
operating
at a reduced rate while damage from Hurricane Katrina continues to be
assessed by oil and gas companies.

Access to some of the refineries is difficult. Conditions at those
locations
are as follows:

_ Baton Rouge, La. - At nearly 394,000 barrels a day, one of the gulf's
largest refinery owned by Exxon Mobil Corp. is running at a reduced
capacity.

_ Pascagoula, Miss. - Chevron Corp.'s 325,000 barrel a day refinery
remains shut. The company says access to the refinery remains
difficult.

_ Norco, La. - Valero Energy Corp.'s St. Charles refinery is not likely
to resume its 260,000 barrel a day operations for up to two weeks

<snip>

Lower 9th Ward evacuees
Wednesday, noon

Deotis Washington, 38, and Nicole Rayford, 32, fled their Lower 9th Ward neighborhood in New Orleans on Saturday in Rayford's truck, and landed safely in Baton Rouge. By Tuesday night, Rayford cried outside a Baton Rouge drug store for the families they left behind.

"My mother, she was ready to go but she didn't have a ride," Rayford said, through tears as she stood beside her best friend Washington. "She was going to wait on my brother's old lady. My brother called and said, 'How could you leave mama?" I told him I didn't, she was waiting on both of them."

Her mother, Shirley Raiford (a birth certificate mistake, her daughter said, gave her the "y" instead of an "i") is 48 and lives in the 2800 block of Feliciana Street in the Lower 9th Ward.

Raiford didn't know where her mother, two brothers, her grandfather, or nieces in New Orleans were. She didn't know if they had they made it out. Her mother cares for her sister's children, ages 4, 10 and 9, all girls.

<snip>

St. Bernard Rescue
About 2,000 people have been rescued in St. Bernard Parish, but there are still people on rooftops, State Sen. Walter Boasso said Wednesday morning.
Some of them have been moved to evacuation shelters by ferry, he said. "There have been no mass casualties at this time, Boasso said

Medical patients evacuated through floods outside Superdome

By Laura Maggi
Capital bureau

Letrice Whitley sat on a folding chair outside the
Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Wednesday morning,
waiting to give birth alone, without her loved ones.

Whitley had been cooped up at the Superdome with her
family since Sunday, but when she began having
contractions, officials decided she needed to be moved
out. Wading through the floodwaters, Whitley piled
into a ambulance with three other people who needed to
be removed from the Dome because of medical
complications.

When she got to Baton Rouge, doctors determined that
Whitley was not in active labor, but will likely
induce labor soon because she is 38
weeks pregnant,
she said.

"I'm here alone. I don't want to have my baby like
this," said Whitley, who lives in Gretna. She has been
focusing on an ultrasound they took of her baby, who
doctors have said is doing well.

Canal breach update
Wednesday, 1:40 p.m.

By Jan Moller

BATON ROUGE - Water levels in Orleans Parish have crested and are beginning to slowly recede as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prepares to begin an unprecedented effort to fix a 200-foot breach in the 17th Street Canal that has inundated the city, state and federal officials said Wednesday.

State Secrertary of Transportation and Development Johnny Bradberry said Lake Pontchatrain has receded by two feet since yesterday as water levels equalized between the lake and the flooded city interior.

"The good news here is that we've stabilized. Water is not rising in the city," Bradberry said.

Maj. Gen. Don Reily of the Corps of Engineers said flood levels are now receding at a rate of one inch per hour, but that it's likely to take at least 30 days before all the water is gone from New Orleans. "Lake level has equalized with interior water inside the city,. which means that it won't be any more flowing into the city except for a high tide," Reily said.

The Corps and the Louisiana National Guard are planning to use Chinook helicopters to drop 1,200 bags of sand into the breach weighing 20,000 pounds each, and 250 concrete highway construction barriers. In the meantime, they are using smaller bags of sand, weighing 3,000 pounds apiece, to try to stem the deluge.

<snip>

Text message
Cellphone users who share the 504 area code have had difficulty contacting each other in the aftermath of the hurricane. Here's a solution: Text message family and friends to stay in touch.

Emergency generators at Charity and University hospitals out of fuel

By Jan M oller
Staff writer

The emergency generators at Charity and University hospitals in downtown New Orleans ran out of fuel and shut down at 8 a.m. today, worsening an already intolerable situation for about 350 patients and more than 1,000 doctors, nurses and evacuees who sought shelter there.

Donald Smithburg, who heads Louisiana State University's Health Care Services Division, said he's been told that fuel is available a few blocks from the hospitals' downtown New Orleans campus, but that authorities have not yet figured out how to transport it through the flooded streets to the hospitals.


"It's my understanding that the fuel is nearby, it's just a problem of getting to it,'' Smithburg said. "I think the state is as frustrated as we are in findings ways to get it transported just a few blocks.''

The hospitals, which host the only Level 1 trauma center in southeast Louisiana and also serve as teaching hospitals for LSU's medical school, lost power during Katrina and lost use of their main emergency generator due to flooding. Since then, they had been receiving power from a number of smaller generators that have been used to support essential medical equipment.

<snip>

Wednesday, August 31, 2005



Tidal shift
Maj. Gen. Don Reily, head of the U.S. Corps of Engineers' storm recovery operation, said at midday Wednesday that Lake Pontchartrain water level has dropped and has “equalized” with flood-waters in the city. That means water has begun to recede, flowing back into the lake, at a rate of approximately a half-inch an hour.

The general said this should continue, except during a high tide “later in the evening.”

“As it (the water) recedes this will help” the attempt by the Corps and the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board to temporarily plug the breach in the 17th Street Canal and drive sheet-pilings and also possibly rock into the junction of the canal at Lake Pontchartain,” the general said.

In the two-pronged operation, the huge sandbags and “concrete jersey-barriers are being dumped into the flood-wall breach,” by the Corps, the general said at a press conference in Baton Rouge early Wednesday afternoon where a New Orleans Sewer and Water official and U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter also spoke.

You can help....
3 p.m.
August 31

Medical personnel and volunteers working at the Hurricane Katrina medical triage headquarters at LSU’s Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge are expecting to handle about 30,000 people each day. To help, drop off the following items: liquid canned baby formula, Pedialyte, infant diapers, feminine products, toothpaste, toothbrushes and other toiletries.

Do not bring clothes, shoes and toys to the Assembly Center. Drop off those items at one of the hurricane shelters. Some of the things that are especially needed are clothes, especially underwear and infant wear; children’s shoes, toys in good condition, bed linens, pillows, blankets, said Tommy Moffitt, 42, a Baton Rouge volunteer. Members of Moffitt’s family were left homeless by Hurricane Katrina and he has been volunteering at the Assembly Center.

Also, medical personnel are needed at the Chateau Living Center in Kenner, 716 Village Road. Call 464-0604.

3:33 P.M. - (AP) -- The latest video from New Orleans shows apartment buildings with people crowded on balconies and roofs. Below, flood waters lap at the second floor. Two children standing on one roof held up a sign that read: "Help us."

A Blackhawk helicopter crew rescued at least eight people from a roof where, in red spray paint, was written the words "Diabetic, Heart Transplant, Need transportation."

Two-by-two, the chopper hoisted the people off the roof as the wash from its rotors blew shingles off another section of the building and caused small waves in the water below.

Other shots show people standing at windows and on balconies, some waving white towels to attract the attention of possible rescuers.

Peeling open a store
4:50 p.m.

Looters went to extraordinary means to get into the Rite Aid drug store on Carrollton Avenue and Oak Street in Uptown New Orleans, where metal storm doors were rolled shut on the doors and windows.

Looters commandered a fork lift, which they used to ram into the metal and peel open the protective covering to get inside the store. That allowed a steady stream of looters, many wheeling shopping carts, to stock up, primarily with food, candy, any soft drink or water or alcohol, and cigarettes.

After much of the store had been emptied, a pair of looters carrying handfuls of candy and chips stopped briefly to talk to a newspaper reporter.

"They still have come canned foods in there if you want some."

Fuel shortages, security worry hospitals
Wednesday, 4:38 p.m.

By Jan Moller
Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE - Some 1,600 patients at nine New Orleans-area hospitals hit hard by Hurricane Katrina are awaiting evacuation, health care officials said Wednesday.

Another 8,600 hospital staffers and their families, along with healthy people who sought refuge in the hospitals during Katrina, also are awaiting help, said spokeswoman Coletta Barrett of the Louisiana Hospital Association.

Barrett said authorities are in the process of evacuating patients by helicopter from Tulane University Medical Center near the New Orleans Central Business District, but that evacuations have yet to begin for other hospitals, such as Charity and University hospitals, both nearby.

Donald Smithburg, head of Louisiana State University's Health Care Services Division, said generator fuel is the biggest problem at the New Orleans area hospitals but that other necessities such as food and medicine are also in short supply. Normal electrical service is out and might remain so for weeks.

No Children's Hospital Looting
4:35 p.m.

Doug Mittelstaedt, vice-president of Human Resources for Children's Hospital in New Orleans, said one of the biggest issues at the hospital on Wednesday was debunking the prevalent rumor that looters had stormed the hospital.

Mittelstaedt said things actually were operating smoothly at the hospital - the generator was running efficiently and efforts to relocate patients were going well - but fighting the rumor was a major issue.

Officials had to lock the doors of the hospital because people had arrived, apparently thinking there was a mob scene and they could get in on looting.

He said the hospital has been flooded with calls offering assistance from other Children's Hospitals in Louisiana and Texas. "The amount of calls we have gotten for support have been overwhelming," Mittelstaedt said. "The phones literally have been ringing off the hook."

Banks attempt a comeback
Wednesday, 5:55 p.m.

By Mary Judice
Business writer

BATON ROUGE -- New Orleans area banks worked Wednesday to bring branches outside New Orleans back into operation and announced financial packages to help customers in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Chase Bank reopened branches in Baton Rouge and Houma as power was restored and rerouted to other centers its auto financing transactions that had been processed in the New Orleans area.

“We stopped collection efforts in the zip codes affected and set up financial relief packages,’’ said Chris Spencer, Chase spokesperson in Baton Rouge.

The bank will waive automated teller machine fees and offer free check processing as part of the package, he said. Also, Chase will work with customers to post transactions that were made in the days immediately before the storm.

Wharves damaged
Harbor Police Chief Robert Hecker said Wednesday afternoon that there was "a lot of damage" on port property around the wharves, but life-saving and security duties are taking precedence over a close assessment of how serious the damage might be.

“There is obviously a lot of damage -- light poles and trees down -- but
hopefully none that can’t be repaired,” Hecker said.

He said two ships were in port when the storm hit and neither reported damage.

Some of his officers have been operating the department’s two boats
the past two days, helping New Orleans police in life-saving efforts,
particularly in the 9th Ward, Hecker said.

FEMA is sending 39 teams to cover two million plus people in the disaster area?
The fact that virtually nothing has been said about the fatalities has me really scared.

"Right now we are concentrating on the living, we will deal with the dead later"...just these vague things. It is kind of freaky. You would think there would at least be estimates, and the fact that they won't make estimates makes it seems like the numbers are very high...

:scared: :cry:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20050831-1059-katrina-looting.html

By Kevin McGill
ASSOCIATED PRESS

10:59 a.m. August 31, 2005



Associated Press
A New Orleans police officer holds a shotgun as he tries to keep people away from a drug store in a flooded area of downtown New Orleans Tuesday.
NEW ORLEANS – With law officers and National Guardsmen focused on saving lives, looters around the city spent another day brazenly ransacking stores for food, clothing, appliances – and guns.

Thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break the glass of a pharmacy. The crowd stormed the store, carrying out so much ice, water and food that it dropped from their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen noodles and other items.

Looters also chased down a state police truck full of food. The New Orleans police chief ran off looters while city officials themselves were commandeering equipment from a looted Office Depot. During a state of emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and buildings for their use.

Officials tried to balance security needs with saving lives.

<snip>

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/world/12524626.htm

DANICA KIRKA

Associated Press



VIENNA, Austria - From papal prayers to telegrams from China, the world reacted with an outpouring of compassion Wednesday for the American victims of Hurricane Katrina, even moved to offer aid at the sight of what nature could do to a wealthy and powerful country.

Images of flood-ravaged New Orleans earned particular sympathy in central Europe, where dozens died in raging floodwaters only days ago.

"Nature proved that no matter how rich and economically developed you are, you can't fight it," said Danut Afasei, a local official in Romania's Harghita county, where flooding killed 13 people last week.

Throughout Europe, concerned citizens were keeping a close eye on events as they lamented the loss of life and the damage caused to New Orleans, often described as one of the North America's most "European" cities.

<snip>

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=39336

US bishops plan special collection for hurricane victims

Washington, Aug. 31 (CNA/CWNews.com) - As the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina continues to unfold along the Gulf Coast, The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced a nationwide collection to be taken up for victims of the disaster.

In a message sent Tuesday to all US bishops, Bishop William Skylstad, head of the Conference asked that a special collection be taken up in the nation’s 195 dioceses in a spirit of “fraternal support to our brother bishops at this tragic time.”

Bishop Skylstad noted that while most of the bishops in that area are still unreachable due to downed phone, internet and communication lines, the USCCB had received a request for the collection.

“The devastation and destruction by Hurricane Katrina”, he wrote, “is being felt in many dioceses of the United States, but most especially in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.”

<snip>

have they started the evacuation yet. What about the hospitals???

***Water continues to rise on the east bank of Orleans and Jefferson Parish and residents are flocking to the west bank, the one dry spot in the two parishes. Director of emergency services says food and water supplies are out for those evacuees.***

LSU Health Sciences Center is asking for medical personnel who evacuated to come to Baton Rouge to help. Click to contact.

Instructions for disinfecting water when you can't boil it.

Searching for someone? Post in our special forum.

Are you okay? Post in our special forum.

FEMA numbers to begin assistance process 1-800-621-FEMA or http://www.fema.gov.

KATRINA BLOG: Click for the latest updates on Katrina.

Northshore Update Click for story.

http://www.wwltv.com/

http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/world/national/2005/08/31/New_Orleans20050831.html


Last Updated Wed, 31 Aug 2005 14:58:08 EDT
CBC News

The mayor of New Orleans said hundreds, maybe thousands of people are dead in the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Two breaches in the Florida Street levee, looking toward the Mississippi River

Mayor Ray Nagin said there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water and others dead in attics.

The Bush administration declared a public health emergency for the entire Gulf Coast.

The government is rushing food, medicine and water to the victims as part of a virtually unprecedented rescue-and-relief response.


<snip>

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16454814%255E1702,00.html
From correspondents in London
01sep05

QUEEN Elizabeth II overnight voiced shock and sadness over the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, in a message of condolence to US President George W. Bush.

"I was deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the deaths and injuries caused by Hurricane Katrina, and the scale of the damage and destruction now becoming apparent across the southern states," said the message made public by Buckingham Palace.

"My sympathy goes to you and the people of the United States, especially to the families of those who have lost their lives, to the injured and to all who have been affected by this terrible disaster."

Hundreds of people are feared dead in the southwest of the United States, with New Orleans and other population centres flooded after being hit by the storm, one of the worst ever to ravage the country.

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



Updates as they come in on Katrina

02:06 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Tom Planchet

2:04 P.M. - WAFB-TV video shows hundreds of people in the Uptown area near Claiborne and Napoleon, stuck in apartments and other buildings and waving for help. Helicopters are rescuing one or two at a time.

1:45 P.M. - WWL-TV's Mike Ross says "do not come back (to Slidell and Grand Isle)."

1:39 P.M. - Hoss: Wind damage seen at the Target store on Clearview Pkwy.

1:28 P.M. - WWL-TV's Mike Hoss said the I-10/Causeway interchange has turned into a massive first aid station. 50 ambulances are stationed there, and those who need immediate medical attention are being kept there in tents. Black Hawk helicopters and other rescue copters are constantly ferrying evacuees in to the area.

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=40115


POSTED: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 2:59:12 PM
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 3:00:18 PM

One in four American adults say the city of New Orleans should not be rebuilt, according to an exclusive SurveyUSA nationwide poll of 1,200 adults conducted 8/31.

As the magnitude of the Gulf Coast destruction became known, and as the private and public response to Hurricane Katrina came into focus, six of 10 of American adults say local officials are unprepared to respond to the challenge that is before them.

Half say the Federal Government is not doing enough to help survivors. One in 3 Americans say they know someone who has been directly affected by the hurricane.

Pollster Caveat: Like the situation on the ground, which is volatile, public opinion is fluid, consensus just beginning to form. SurveyUSA attempts here to capture a moment-in-time with this survey, conducted Wednesday 8/31, before President Bush addressed the nation, while the Superdome was being evacuated, while flood waters in New Orleans were still rising, and before the number of dead was known. Public opinion can and should be expected to change over the coming hours, days and weeks, as new information, both good and bad, becomes available. Some portions of the Southeast were without electricity and telephone service during the field period for this survey; areas without phone service would be under-represented in this telephone survey.

<snip>

How many of those American Adults are in favor of letting the tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people who are now homeless now take shelter in their communities?

I just wonder.