New Orleans
Comments
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dailyheights wrote: I blame John Kerry.
I do too- for not being a better candidate, one who could have beaten the schmuck in chief when he was so obviously vulnerable. -
queen_of_pies wrote: All of my family on my mother's side lives in New Orleans, and I spent the first part of my life there. We haven't heard from my aunt since just before the storm hit. Some of us are talking about going down but don't even know where to begin looking for her.
I just saw on www.wwltv.com they have forums to post a message if you are looking for someone and if you are safe but can't call out (although in that case I don't know why you'd be able to be online, but whatever). It's sort of a long shot, but it's a place to start. I bet other sites have similar things set up too.
They also posted that all medical personnel, to the city's knowledge, are OK, they just can't call right now and will do so as soon as possible.
And, to echo Carnivore, going down right now is a really bad idea. People who originally evacuated died trying to get back to their homes too early. A whole lot of people are probably okay, just have no way to get in touch with their families right now. -
I just heard they're going to move everyone in the Superdome to the Astrodome in a giant bus convoy. At least there they'll have water, a/c, and working toilets.
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bluedove wrote: I just heard they're going to move everyone in the Superdome to the Astrodome in a giant bus convoy. At least there they'll have water, a/c, and working toilets.
astrodome in houston? -
Yep! It's unused and can hold 25,000 people.
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bluedove wrote: Yep! It's unused and can hold 25,000 people.
as long as they find everyone a home before rodeo season ... (just kidding - though the rodeo is fun). that sounds like a good solution. they're going to need like hundreds of buses. nuts. -
Does anyone have an idea which charity would be best to donate money. Is it just the Red Cross (I'm still a little leary of them).
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Subject: Let's talk dirty to the animals
Anyone know what they did, or plan to do, with the animals at the Audubon Park Zoo? -
Medusa wrote: Does anyone have an idea which charity would be best to donate money. Is it just the Red Cross (I'm still a little leary of them).
Any particular reason?
BTW, if anyone is planning to give money online, be really careful of phishers. Don't click on random ads asking you to give money; type redcross.org (or whatever) into your browser manually and be careful that the site's URL is always correct and not red.cross.org or redcrossUSA.com or anything that smells bogus. There were a lot of fake sites going around after the tsunami disaster and I'm sure their owners made short work of getting them up and running again for this one.
(/no-brainer) -
Medussa - I know you are a little leary about the Red Cross but during the times after 9/11 they were a godsend. I made friends with a lot of the volunteers and the services they provided to the families were superb. Maybe their internal politics suck but their grass roots efforts are by far the best.
PS - I heard on the news today that they are accepting donations of old cell phones to be given to the elderly and disabled of New Orleans. I think they said there are people collecting them and Grand Central Station. -
Subject: Re: Let's talk dirty to the animals
Muk wrote: Anyone know what they did, or plan to do, with the animals at the Audubon Park Zoo?
No, good question!
alafairnadia: 475 buses -
Subject: Re: Let's talk dirty to the animals
bluedove wrote: alafairnadia: 475 buses
wow! -
Other than the Red Cross, another good organization to donate to is
Mercy Corps. They are based in Portland, OR and have an incredible record of service providing both short term and long term assistance in disaster regions.
www.mercycorps.org They mostly work abroad and did very extensive work during the Tsunami but they also respond to some domestic disasters as well. I like them because they spend 92% of their funding on programs and only 8% on administration. Also, they were named as one of America's best charities by Worth Magazine. -
Also, a good website that has a really comprehensive list of organizations who are accepting donations to help with Hurrican Katrina victims is
www.networkforgood.org -
Medusa wrote: Does anyone have an idea which charity would be best to donate money. Is it just the Red Cross (I'm still a little leary of them).
There are good reasons to be wary of the Red Cross. They have a reputation of using disasters as fund-raisers and then don't use the funds to help directly with the disaster. Not to mention their somewhat anti-Semitic stance towards Israeli rescue services.
Craigslist has a great page filled with info on organizations that are collecting for Katrina relief:
http://newyork.craigslist.com/about/help/katrina_aid.html -
Jack wrote: There are good reasons to be wary of the Red Cross. They have a reputation of using disasters as fund-raisers and then don't use the funds to help directly with the disaster. Not to mention their somewhat anti-Semitic stance towards Israeli rescue services.
Thanks for the explanation. Mercy Corps looks good. For the tsunami we gave to Oxfam but I imagine they wouldn't get involved with this. -
Concerning the animals at the Audubon Zoo--I know the Houston Zoo said it would accept the animals and my parents (who are watching local news in Louisiana) said something was aired where the animals were being housed at a hotel, but all I was able to find was a picture of dolphins in a hotel pool in Mississippi and no story along with it.
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Does anyne know if there are any Red Crescent (the Islamic version of the Red Cross) offices operating in the U.S.? It would be cool in so many ways if they could have a more prominent role in the relief operations.
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I wrote about it, too, as my friendslist doesn't follow the political blogs and that's where most people are discussing it. I saw those pix on BoingBoing first.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/bradamant/161347.html -
Holy crap! The looters have made it to the Zoo!!!!! [MOD NOTE]These are photos from Nigeria, NOT looters in New orleans[/MOD NOTE]
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Those photos are from Nigeria.
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Um, what is Alex's point, exactly?
BTW, I've never been south of Charleston and I could tell that wasn't LA. Places that are flooded usually aren't so, er, dusty. -
Alex is using humor to deal with tragedy. It's a technique as old as the hills. It's also in really poor taste considering one of the problems right now is getting accurate information from the affected areas. Shoulda posted a disclaimer after the pics, dood.
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From an online chat with a travel expert...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/08/31/DI2005083101228.html (free registration required)
Washington, D.C.: My elderly aunt didn't evacuate before the storm. She lives on St. Charles Street. My husband is driving towards New Orleans to try to get her and her cats out of her apartment. Will he be able to just drive up and get her? Are there detailed flood maps of the city?
Peter Greenberg: no, he will not. the city is in an official locked down state. he needs to contact the red cross immediately with her exact location and medical condition so they can go in and get her
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[This might cause more grief than relief, but you might be able to see what happened to a particular location using Google. Remember, even if a house is wiped out, the inhabitants very well could have evacuated or moved once the waters rose, so they may well be fine.] --James
Santa Cruz, Calif.: All of the coverage has been about the large cities; Ocean Springs is 14 miles east of Gulfport, and my friend owns a home about one mile inland there, in Gulf Park Estates. Do you know the status of this neighborhood / area?
Peter Greenberg: I don't, but if you know the address, or zip code, try google.earth.com, and you might be able to access an up to date satellite photo of your friend's house, or location -
JamesonVandy wrote: This might cause more grief than relief, but you might be able to see what happened to a particular location using Google. Remember, even if a house is wiped out, the inhabitants very well could have evacuated or moved once the waters rose, so they may well be fine.
Google Maps and Google Earth use the same database. The photos are updated every 3 years, so I'm doubting you'll be able to see anything.
From an online chat with a travel expert...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/08/31/DI2005083101228.html (free registration required)
Santa Cruz, Calif.: All of the coverage has been about the large cities; Ocean Springs is 14 miles east of Gulfport, and my friend owns a home about one mile inland there, in Gulf Park Estates. Do you know the status of this neighborhood / area?
Peter Greenberg: I don't, but if you know the address, or zip code, try google.earth.com, and you might be able to access an up to date satellite photo of your friend's house, or location -
BoingBoing has an article about Google Earth satellite map overlays - you can click on the "overlay" and it adds an image to your Google Earth view. So essentially, you overlay a "found" image of flooding on top of the Google Earth standard database image. The results are a bit mixed but it's a cool concept.
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mayor of new orleans just announced that 1,000s have died...bodies floating everwhere...water is rising 1in. per hour. and he is asking the government to send more troops to help control the looting (b/c most of their national gaurd is in iraq).
the levees did not break, they were never finished. in 2003, the federal government cut new orleans funding significantly, the levee project was put on hold b/c of lack of funding. federal money was being redirected to the war.
i have some questions regarding those that were left behind. yes, many were ignorant and chose to ride it out. but those that are poor...why wasn't a plan activated to get them out by bus etc.
post 911, the top 3 threats to the safety of this country were listed as follows: 1. terrorism 2. severe hurricane hitting new orleans 3. severe earthquake hitting san fran or LA.
what is going to happen when thousands of new orleans file for bankrupcy following this disater under the new bankruptcy law?
it's just sad.
here some fun links regarding all this:
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313
http://www.hurricane.lsu.edu/_in_the_news/houston.htm
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4200/is_20050606/ai_n14657367#continue
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/08/29/slashed-hurricane/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8953253/ -
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Anonymous wrote: federal money was being redirected to the war.
I really hate making tragedies political, but Katrina proves how idiotic this war in Iraq is. We have National Guard troops serving in Iraq to basically protect our own forces. Which means few if any are here in the U.S. to help out in situations like this.
Fun fact: Most of air search/rescue crews operating in the wake of the Katrina disaster are actually training groups that have NEVER done anything close to this in their lives. Stone cold rookies. Imagine if people who were experienced were there. Imagine if MORE support and rescue crews were there.
Add to this the fact that the Bush administration has been CLOSING more and more domestic bases really makes me want to scream. It's viable to send a Lousiana troop to Iraq to defend a pointless war yet it's not viable to fund internal resources that could help save people at home.
This is so sickening.
I can't imagine what it must be like to be a resident of those states serving in Iraq and seeing this mess transpire from their barracks in the 'green zone'.
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