Hurricane Devastates New Orleans, Miss. & Alabama

[KiwiCoromandel]

Gunmen fire at medical workers and patients at Charity Hospital......

The evacuation of patients from Charity Hospital was halted Thursday after the facility came under sniper fire twice.

A physician at the hospital said that despite the incidents staff members and patients were eager to get out after three days with no water and electricity and sparse food rations.

"A single sniper or two snipers shouldn't have to shut down a hospital evacuation for two hours now," Dr. Ruth Berggren told CNN. "I look outside, I'm not seeing any military."

more........

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katr...iper/index.html

[KiwiCoromandel]

Kiwi tells of escape from New Orleans.........

A New Zealander who fled Hurricane Katrina says all she took from her New Orleans apartment was the cat, a vintage dress and important paper work.

Much of New Orleans in the state of Louisiana and parts of neighbouring Mississippi remain flooded, looting is widespread and there's no fresh water or electricity.

The death toll is expected to be in the thousands.

New Zealander Allie Duffy says she left at the last minute before the worst of the hurricane hit and drove through violent wind and rain to the safety of Florida.

She said the situation in New Orleans and the surrounding states seems impossible.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says communication with the region is difficult.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has sent condolences on behalf of the New Zealand government to the United States, in response to the hurricane's devastation.

Clark said the extent of the devastation that Hurricane Katrina has wreaked on so many people's lives is shocking.

"I have sent a message to President Bush expressing New Zealanders' sympathy for all those so badly affected. Although extensive relief operations are already underway in the United States, I have told the president that we are ready to offer assistance, if needed," Clark said.

New Zealanders wishing to make donations to the relief effort can do so through the American Red Cross website.

Source: RNZ/TVNZ Interactive

[KiwiCoromandel]

Chaos erupts in New Orleans.........

New Orleans' mayor issued an urgent plea for relief of his flooded city on Thursday as gunshots and looting hampered the evacuation of desperate crowds trying to escape Hurricane Katrina's destruction.

"This is a desperate SOS," Mayor Ray Nagin said in a statement read by CNN. Some of the thousands of hungry, thirsty storm survivors outside the city's convention center chanted similar pleas.

"Right now we are out of resources at the convention center and don't anticipate enough buses. Currently the convention center is unsanitary and unsafe and we are running out of supplies for 15,000 to 25,000 people," Nagin said.

Congress was expected to cut short its summer break to pass emergency financial aid for hurricane victims, according to congressional aides who said an initial package could be around $10 billion.

Shell-shocked New Orleans officials tried to clamp down on looting in the historic jazz city reduced to a swampy ruin by Monday's storm. Bodies floated in the streets, attackers armed with axes stripped hospitals of medicine and authorities said they could still only guess at how many people had died.

"We don't have numbers. It could be in the hundreds, or the thousands," US Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said of the statewide death toll. "I think it's going to be shocking."

more here........

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/608274

[The Hunter]

Bush just get the fucking aid there. The mayor, has done all he can, and someone is a bit late stepping up to the plate.

[KiwiCoromandel]

Blasts add to New Orleans misery.......

An explosion jolted residents awake early Friday, illuminating the pre-dawn sky with red and orange flames over the city where corpses rotted along flooded sidewalks, bands of armed thugs thwarted fitful rescue efforts, and thousands remained stranded — crying for food, water and a way to evacuate.

Congress was rushing through a $10.5 billion aid package, the Pentagon promised 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop looting, New Orleans' airport had become the largest medical evacuation site in U.S. history, and President Bush was en route to the region Friday.

But city officials were seething with anger about what they called a slow federal response to the catastrophe.

more.........

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/

050902_neworleans_blast_hmed_5a.h2

[KiwiCoromandel]

Kiwis offer help after hurricane .........

The United States Embassy in Wellington has been inundated with offers of help from New Zealanders in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

An embassy spokeswoman said the condolences and offers of help, from individual New Zealanders and from the New Zealand Government, were "deeply appreciated".

However, she warned against well-meaning volunteers travelling to the affected areas unless directed to do so by an approved US voluntary agency.

"The unfortunate reality is that well-meaning self-dispatched volunteers can put themselves and others in harm's way and hamper rescue efforts.

"At present, the best, most efficient and most direct way that New Zealanders can make a difference is by donating cash to voluntary agencies working with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina."

US federal and state governments are coordinating a massive mobilisation of resources for urban search and rescue efforts, housing, food and medical care.

"The priority at this time is to meet the immediate life saving and life sustaining needs of victims," she said.

The Embassy recommends making such donations through the New Zealand Salvation Army's phone line 0800 530 000, through the American Red Cross website www.redcross.org or to one of the other charities listed on the Federal Emergency Management Agency website www.fema.gov. (Both these web sites also contain information on conditions in the region.)

Concerned family members of those living or travelling in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina should continue to try to reach their family members by phone, email or other available means, she said.

"Reports from the region indicate that some phone lines are working but are experiencing heavy call volume, so family members should be encouraged to keep trying."

Families who continue to have concerns about New Zealand citizens known to be in the affected region may also contact the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 04 439 8000.

The Salvation Army in New Zealand has established a Hurricane Relief Fund.

The charity has been at the forefront of relief efforts on the ground, with mobile feeding units, emergency services and counselling.

Salvation Army spokesman Major David Bennett said those wanting to help relief efforts could best do so by making cash donations.

"Financial contributions rather than donations in kind are greatly needed to assess the unique needs of individuals and families, and purchase the requirements needed to help them and return money into the economy of communities affected by the disaster," he said.

Salvation Army divisional commander Major Dalton Cunningham, who is responsible for the three states hit hardest (Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama) said the scale of the disaster was "unprecedented".

At least 800,000 people in Louisiana were without power.

Those sheltering at the Superdome in New Orleans were without air conditioning and possibly electricity.

The Salvation Army had 100 people on the ground and another 200 workers in incident management teams, waiting to operate 72 canteens to feed 400,000 people a day and two mobile kitchens that could feed an additional 20,000 people a day.

The Salvation Army is also using its emergency radio network to answer inquiries on the whereabouts and health and welfare of hurricane victims.

New Zealand Red Cross is also accepting donations to help provide relief for hurricane victims.

All donations received will be passed on to the American Red Cross, which is providing lifesaving relief efforts for millions of people including the provision of food, water and shelter - the largest mobilisation of resources in its history for a single natural disaster.

Acting director general Graham Wrigley says New Zealand Red Cross has received many calls from the public wanting to donate to those affected.

"It really shows the generosity of New Zealanders. After so many gave to those affected by the South Asia tsunami, it is extremely heartening to see that New Zealanders are still finding ways to help those in need."

New Zealanders can donate online at www.redcross.org.nz, or by calling 0800 RED CROSS.

source:AP

[KiwiCoromandel]

NZ offers hurricane help, Kiwis missing........

New Zealand has offered hurricane assistance to the United States.

Foreign Minister Phil Goff has been in touch with the White House and the US State Department.

He said as a friend of the United States, New Zealand stands ready to help. The response from the Americans has been that there is no request for specific assistance as yet.

Meanwhile there is growing concern for the safety of at least three New Zealanders unaccounted for in New Orleans.

Aucklander Stacey Howes, along with two other New Zealanders who have been working at Camp America in Texas, were passing through New Orleans on their way to New York when Hurricane Katrina hit.

Her father Bill Howes last heard from her on Monday morning as the storm approached. He is optimistic the 21-year-old is still at her hotel but is worried about the lawlessness gripping New Orleans.

He has been trying to get in touch with Stacey again this morning without success.

Another of the missing New Zealanders, Marianne Lynch, spoke to her family immediately after the storm hit, but they have not heard from her since. Her father, Lawrence Lynch says he is very concerned.

A New Zealand-based charity has been stunned at the lack of preparedness in the US as authorities attempt to deal with the aftermath of Katrina. Oxfam New Zealand Director Barry Cotes said the United States should have been ready.

He said this was a disaster waiting to happen, but no-one seems to have been prepared to cope. Mr Cotes said those who are suffering are the poor and disadvantaged.

Conditions are also worsening at the New Orleans Convention Centre, where people are reported to be dying while they wait for help to arrive.

WPMI TV news reporter Scott Walker is in Mobile, Alabama, but his mind is on his hometown of New Orleans. He told Newstalk ZB's Paul Holmes Breakfast he cannot comprehend what is happening in the disaster-stricken city.

He said people always talked about what would happen when a big hurricane hit New Orleans, but he said hearing about it all your life and then actually seeing it come true are two totally different realities.

Walker said people who witnessed Hurricane Camille in 1969 never thought they would see anything worse than that storm.

source:NEWSTALK ZB

[KiwiCoromandel]

Louisiana troops will 'shoot and kill' to end violence.......

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco warned rioters and looters in New Orleans that National Guard troops are under her orders to "shoot and kill" to end the rampant violence in the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Announcing the arrival of 300 Arkansas National Guard troops in New Orleans fresh from service in Iraq, Blanco said, "these troops are battle-tested. They have M-16s and are locked and loaded."

"These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will," she said.

US Representative Charlie Melancon, a Democrat, said as many as 100 people in his district southeast of New Orleans have died as a by-product of the violence that has gripped the city after Katrina slammed into the region on Monday, causing massive flooding.

Those who died, Melancon said, had been waiting at a warehouse pier along the Mississippi River in Chalmette, Louisiana, to be picked up for evacuation. They had received little food and no water since Monday or Tuesday.

"They were afraid they would have to go through New Orleans (to deliver the supplies)," Melancon said.

Melancon said some of those waiting for pickup died of dehydration in the 90-degree heat that has afflicted the region since Tuesday.

Despair is also affecting those in New Orleans charged with protecting the city, said State Police Superintendent Col H L Whitehorn.

Some New Orleans police officers have resigned rather than face the violence in the city.

"It's my understanding those who have resigned said they have lost everything and it's not worth being shot at and losing their lives," Whitehorn said.

Whitehorn said he did not know the specific number of police officers who have quit their jobs.

source:REUTERS

[The Hunter]

http://www.herald.ns.ca/breaking/stories/n59453045.html

[KiwiCoromandel]

Australians stick together as foreigners targeted.........

They were tourists who became refugees, bewildered at the disintegration of the city and the humans around them: women giving birth in squalor, deaths, rapes and assaults, a suicide.

They have little food or water, have not bathed, and their safety is as uncertain as the future of the city itself. For Australians trapped in New Orleans there is only one way to describe the fetid, anarchic wasteland around them.

"It hell here," wrote Yasmin Bright, 22, a traveller from Newcastle and one of several Australians trapped when Katrina hit and who have since endured days in the desperate refugee camp at the Superdome.

Ms Bright and other foreigners, including about 10 Australians, have now been moved to nearby hotels amid fears for their safety. They were a tiny minority among thousands of angry locals who apparently believed the tourists might be given preferential treatment.

A Brisbane man, John McNeil, rang his father, Peter, yesterday and said the foreigners had been escorted from the Superdome under armed guard.

"The situation in the Dome was so bad they were under threat of murder," Mr McNeil said, adding that his 22-year-old son had told him of at least one rape, as well as stabbings, fights and bashings. One man committed suicide.

The 60 foreigners, Mr McNeil said, had to huddle together at night for safety. "If they had integrated they were dead. There's no law. It's absolute, total chaos."

Like Yasmin Bright, Mr McNeil was awaiting evacuation by bus to Houston, Texas. "John told me he's just had enough," his father said. "He sounded distressed … and I think he's very scared."

In her email to the Herald, sent from a handheld device, Ms Bright said there were "a heap of us stuck in the Hyatt" and asked: "Do you know of any plans for us?"

In Newcastle yesterday her mother, Barbara, said Ms Bright had made a brief call home. She had also sent her family an email, describing "dangerous and dodgy" conditions.

While still at the Superdome, she and other foreigners had stuck together, playing cards, music on a harmonica and a guitar, and "talking about what they would like to eat". Ms Bright had even witnessed a birth.

Conditions were slightly better at the Hyatt. "There's even a bit of electricity there, but still no running water or toilets."

The tourists were now waiting to be moved to Houston.

There was good news yesterday for four other Australians who had been living without food or water under a bridge in New Orleans. Tim and Joanne Miller, of Rockhampton, and another Australian couple, identified as Garry and Cynthia Jones, were driven out of the city by a crew from Channel Seven.

A Seven reporter, Mike Amor, sent an email saying: "I have Joanne and Tim Miller. Driving them out in the morning. Please tell their daughters."

Their daughter, Tamara, said Mr Miller, 54, had been threatened by a guard at gunpoint as the couple tried earlier to board a bus to escape.

The Miller's daughters joined other relatives in criticising the response of the US and Australian governments. "How can a news reporter get in and get someone out when the Australian embassy isn't even allowed in? It does not compute when there are lives at stake."

Sharon Cullington, who left Sydney for the US last night to find her daughter Vanessa, 22, said she was going because the Australian Government "isn't going in" and not doing enough to help. Her daughter had contacted her at her Chatswood home on Tuesday saying she was at the Superdome.

source:smh.com.au

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

DirecTV Launches Katrina Information Channel

DirecTV Inc. on Friday said it has launched a 24-hour Hurricane Katrina information channel that broadcasts a continuous stream of email messages from family and friends of hurricane victims.

Available on channel 100 of the satellite-TV service, the program also provide information on road closures throughout the Gulf region, which was heaviest hit in Monday's storm; the location and phone numbers of special needs shelters in Louisiana and shelter openings throughout the Gulf Coast.

In addition, the channel lists counties and parishes in the Gulf region that are able to assist evacuees, insurance company contact information and relief agency contact information, including phone numbers for the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Feed the Children.

Read entire story here.

[DudeAsInCool]

Thousands Of National Guard Troops Finally Arrive

http://nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nat...artner=homepage

[The Hunter]

Multiple failures caused relief crisis

The breakdown of the relief operation in New Orleans was the result of multiple failures by city, state and federal authorities. There was no one cause. The failures began long before the hurricane with a gamble that a Category Four or Five hurricane would not strike New Orleans.

They continued with an inadequate evacuation plan and culminated in a relief effort hampered by lack of planning, supplies and manpower, and a breakdown in communications of the most basic sort.

On top of all this, there is the question of whether an earlier intervention by President Bush could have a made a big difference.

The planning

Before Hurricane Katrina struck, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) was confident that it was ready. Its director, Michael Brown, said: "Fema has pre-positioned many assets including ice, water, food and rescue teams to move into the stricken areas as soon as it is safe to do so."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4216508.stm

[The Hunter]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4216142.stm

[slum_goddess]

all day yesterday we saw armed troops patrolling the streets and i read that NO was like a ghost-town. so why did the preznit still NOT go into town? they kept saying it wasn't safe for him (WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?)

AFAIC, this show of military bullshit is just that--a fucking show for the TV cameras of the world.

leave it to the French to not mince words: ' Bush is completely out of his depth in this disaster. Katrina has revealed America's weaknesses: its racial divisions, the poverty of those left behind by its society, and especially its president's lack of leadership.'

out of his depth? he's out of his depth when he puts on long trousers

[slum_goddess]

BTW, september is national preparedness month.

WHO KNEW? (fire all their asses and impeach him yesterday). fuckers.

[The Hunter]

Out of the bad comes some good.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...Story/National/

[DudeAsInCool]

Meanwhile, Bush objected to references to displaced Americans as "refugees."

"The people we're talking about are not refugees," he said. "They are Americans and they need the help and love and compassion of our fellow citizens." The president raised the subject during a meeting with service organizations that are helping with the relief effort.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/06/D8CESRQG0.html

Maybe there's hope yet for George - for once in his life, he got something right

[DudeAsInCool]

Bush, Congress Vow Probes Into Disaster Response

WASHINGTON (Sept. 6) - President Bush and Congress pledged separate investigations into the widely panned federal response to Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday as Senate Democrats said the government's share of relief and recovery may top $150 billion.

"Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people," Bush said after meeting at the White House with his Cabinet on storm recovery efforts.

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.ad...903143909990003

[DudeAsInCool]

Water Receding Noticeably in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS - In a herculean task that could take months, engineers struggled to pump out the flooded city Tuesday, and the filthy waters were dropping noticeably. "I'm starting to see rays of light," the mayor said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050906/ap_on_...HNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[DudeAsInCool]

FEMA Chief Relieved of Katrina Duties

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, The Associated Press has learned.

Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, where he was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster, according to two federal officials who declined to be identified before the announcement.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/09/D8CGS6680.html

A Vice Admiral is being brought in...

[Kooperman]

FEMA Chief Relieved of Katrina Duties

A Vice Admiral is being brought in...

Just what we need...more vice from the Bush administration....

[DudeAsInCool]

NPR Special on What Went Wrong with Interviews with the National Guard, Scientists, and Govt representatives who were involved - Listen here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4839943

[DudeAsInCool]

Plans in the works to re-open the French Quarter rin 90 days - and a scaled down Mardi Gras in February 2006

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash7.htm

[The Hunter]

Washington — President George W. Bush thanked Canada on Friday for helping the countless U.S. victims of hurricane Katrina, an expression of gratitude that stood in contrast to his failure to acknowledge Canadian assistance in the days after Sept. 11.

“Canada has sent ships with disaster supplies,” the president said in televised comments during the swearing-in for Karen Hughes, the State Department's new undersecretary for public diplomacy.

“Air Canada's planes assisted in the evacuation.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...9/BNStory/Front

Edited September 10, 2005 by The Hunter