Katrina's aftermath

12:58 P.M. - WASHINGTON (AP): Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., urged President Bush to appoint former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani or two former military officials to run the ground response in the Gulf Coast, saying local authorities are not up to the task. Sweeney suggested Giuliani or retired generals Colin Powell and Tommy Franks could take charge of the much-criticized hurricane relief efforts

fixed.

...Orleans deputies were out on the roof tops, ordering them not to jump into the water, and that they would be shot if they did. well, they ended up shooting and killing about 100 prisoners who would not listen.

...They told us that the Sheriff of Orleans Parish, and his top brass, all evacuated the area for the storm, and told them to just handle things while they were gone.

...We weren't told where, or what we would be doing. When we got to the Convention Center, we heard shots being fired like popcorn.

...Our SWAT team came up on a group that was inside looting, took them down, and started searching them. Out of about 20 people they detained, the first 5 they searched were NOPD officers!!! These idiots are going right along with the other crooks, taking stuff that doesn't matter. I could understand if they were breaking into places to get food and water, but they are going for designer clothes, perfume, jewelry, and other junk. There were dead people laying in there, mostly from gunshot wounds, and the other thieves would just walk right over them and never pay attention to them.

To me, the bizarre part about this quote is the phrase "in that part of the world" -- which I know is a locution that Bush uses all the time to refer to Iraq or whatever, but seems inappropriate in this context, with the effect of distancing himself from the situation. It's not like he's making a special trip to the Sudan -- this is YOUR COUNTRY. YOU SHOULD'VE ALREADY BEEN THERE.

oh man wtf

I'd repost it here, but I think that we have enough fuel. Suffice to say, he managed to call me unAmerican, said that NBC can't be trusted since they fingered Richard Jewell, and of course, the word "Waco" came up.

I replied and told him to never speak to me again. I also cc'ed it to my boss.

The coolest thing was that some of my co-workers who I suspected were Red-State voters wrote me back saying that I -quote - ROCK. See? You can go to church AND be disgusted by George W. Bush.

I'm not the CEO. Trust me on that one.

Thanks for the praise, but sadly, hitting that Reply All button was about the most courageous thing I've done in six months.

Anyway, apologies if this has been posted already (I looked for it but didn't see it): the NO Mayor Ray Nagin interview with CBS affiliate WWL-AM. I caught the last three/four riveting minutes on CNN earlier this afternoon, but the whole thing is worth a listen (long, though):
http://audio.cbsnews.com/2005/09/02/audio813006.mp3

yeah, he looks pissed off.

God, all this stuff makes me so angry.

I'm really hoping that once the water recedes or is pumped out, things won't get worse than they already are. I mean, what if they have to level 80% of the city and start over? Where will all those people go for months?

http://www.boston.com/globe/search/stories/health/how_and_why/011298.htm

The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau and local hotel owners have also been meeting with city officials and have determined that about 2,000 to 3,000 rooms would be available for hurricane victims, according to the mayor.

[...]

The Detroit Medical Center is among 34 hospitals in Wayne, Washtenaw, Livingston and Monroe counties that are mobilizing volunteer medical personnel to be deployed to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Local health officials plan to set up temporary hospitals with 250 beds each to treat injured or sick people, the station reported.

Michigan health care workers volunteering for the mission will divide into 100-member teams to staff one hospital each. Officials plan to have 10 hospitals running by this weekend and 10 more by next week, the station reported.

"We sort of anticipate what they're going to need and we put the call out and the enrollment is beginning this afternoon at different sites across not only southeastern Michigan, but every hospital in Michigan," said Dr. Jenny Atas, of the DMC. "All of this is being coordinated with the Michigan Department of Community Health in conjunction with the Michigan Hospital Association."

Officials have asked medical personnel not to attempt to go down to hurricane-stricken regions on their own, but to coordinate their efforts with the hospital-organized volunteer effort...

(of course, Kilpatrick is currently in hot political trouble due to shenanigans, but at this point, who gives a fuck? Somebody wantsta offer help, take it)

Editorial: Faster, faster -- Please
Friday, 3:34 p.m.

On the elevated portion of Interstate 10 near Orleans Avenue, a group of displaced people pushed a wheelchair carrying a dead woman. She wore pink pajama bottoms -- and a white kitchen garbage bag on her head.

People wandered around expressway on-ramps hoping for a ride to... anywhere.

Outside the Superdome, refugees were crowded onto a concrete walkway. The situation inside the Dome was beyond hellish.

Hurricane Katrina has created a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions. And if the main strategy for addressing that crisis is to evacuate the east bank of New Orleans, then local, state and federal officials need to move much faster to get people out.

On streets across the city, people are in agony. And lives are in danger, because of looters, because of dwindling medical supplies, because of conditions that would strain even the healthiest of people.

Security had improved in much of the city late Thursday and Friday. It was a relief to see so many uniformed men bearing machine guns patrolling expressways and major intersections. But in some parts of the city -- particularly those slivers of Uptown New Orleans that suffered relatively little flood damage -- the presence of law enforcement and relief agencies seemed minimal at best.

In those same areas, some residents were still under the dangerous illusion that they could wait out Katrina's aftermath at home, just as they waited out the hurricane itself. Others understood the dangers but had no way to travel and little hope of getting authorities' attention. On Constantinople street near Prytania, a severely sunburned, diabetic 80-year-old had run out of insulin, and the woman who had given her shelter could get no assistance. On Belfast Street near Fontainebleau, two 93-year-olds needed to evacuate but could not.

As more and more people clear out of the city indefinitely, those who remain are at even greater risk. People across the east bank need help in getting out, and lives will be lost if they do not get it.

check out what Bungie(the guys who made Halo & Halo 2) are doing:

Bungie Weekly Update
September 2nd, 2005

Hey everyone. It's been a grim week. It's been marked by utter helplessness. We've watched the events in the Gulf States helplessly. We've watched the helpless victims waiting for aid. We've watched government agencies helpless to reach these people. But we're not helpless. We have unlimited opportunities to help and we can start here.

BUY THIS T-SHIRT RIGHT NOW

Seriously. Stop reading for a minute, get a credit card, go to the website and buy the T-Shirt. It's $19.99 and about $15 of that will go directly to the Hurricane Relief effort, through the American Red Cross. Not a penny profit will be made and every cent of cash will go where it's needed.

Don't have a credit card? Grab a parent, make them read this, and get them to buy it for you. And hassle them about it. Make them do it. Come on, you talked them into buying you Halo 2 right? Well this is much more important. Do it. Do it. Do it.

[...]

Now, why did we make a T-Shirt? We used the tools we have. We have a company store that can handle the transactions. We have designers, and we were able to make T-Shirts faster than anything else. And a T-Shirt is something you can wear to show solidarity with the folks suffering there, and reminds everyone around you that it's good to donate. It's a billboard for what we're capable of doing when people need help.

only know a couple guys from bungie, but they've always seemed like very cool, very quality people...extraordinarily considerate of their fanbase....

you know when i saw that, what immediately occured to me(aside from "fuck yeah! gamer power!")?

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

and i'm not saying this with any pejorative sense whatsoever. Even nerds, geeks & gamers want to help, and fuck all if they're not gunna help in whatever way they can.

2:25 P.M. - (AP): The nation's airlines have been putting aside their own financial troubles to fly in supplies and take out refugees from hurricane devastated areas. Relief flights donated by airlines poured into Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport today.

Here are other efforts:

--Some pilots have set up a shuttle service out of Baton Rouge to evacuate high-risk people to Texas. Others are flying damage-assessment missions over the damaged region and taking in critical supplies.

--AirTran Airways today flew two humanitarian aid flights from Atlanta to the Gulfport, Mississippi airport. AirTran dropped more than 20 tons of water, food, clothing, medical supplies and other items.

--United Airlines this week flew 12 tons of food and water from Chicago to New Orleans. On the flight were 30 emergency medical technicians from Chicago who stayed behind in New Orleans. The same jet returned with 104 evacuees from New Orleans.

-- Fort Worth-based American Airlines is offering 500 miles to frequent-flier members who give the Red Cross at least $50 and then show a receipt to the airline.

--Houston-based Continental Airlines is giving 1,000 tickets for hurricane victims to relocate within the United States. The tickets are being doled out by emergency agencies.

That last one is interesting, and I wonder if it is being matched. I'm thinking of Fetchboy and his family here, unless they've got means already to get to LA.