(no subject)

Mornin'.

( Now with all this happening in the U.S. we can easily see where the civilized part of the world's population is )

( The president is starting to grasp the magnitude of the situation )

( Men had wandered the cavernous convention center raping and murdering children )

( The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage )

( He said some men were arrested for going into the women's showers )

From lisacurl: Charmaine Neville, of the musical Neville family, escapes. "Ms. Neville was telling Bishop Alfred Hughes of Baton Rouge what she went through escaping the 9th Ward and New Orleans, and had apparently given the station permission to broadcast it. She was so broken and emotional, but holding it together long enough to tell her story, I am just speechless. That woman has been through the fires of hell, and I defy anyone to deny it. It's on the WAFB website, http://www.wafb.com--click down to 'featured videos' on the left margin." The transcript:

( Alligators were eating people. They had all kind of stuff floating in the water. They had babies floating in the water )

(no subject)

limyaael: "I'm gathering a list on my LJ of writers/artists who are doing creative things for charity, or selling creative projects whose proceeds will go to charity- both fanfiction and original fic, drawings, music mixes, necklaces, website designs, poems, reference photos, icons, and other things. If you know someone who's making a creative effort and whom I don't have in the list, come over and pass the link along!"


( They are so desperate that some parents have come and said, Just take my child )

( In her arms was a 5-year-old child, his naked, black back scarred and pitted with welts and burn marks, his arms wrapped tightly around her neck )

Gulf Coast Jobless Rate Could Be 25%

( Desperate doctors spent days making tough choices about which patients got dwindling supplies of food, water and medicines )

International press dismay at Katrina chaos

New Orleans crisis shames Americans

( This is probably the worst catastrophe, or set of catastrophes certainly that I'm aware of in the history of the country )

( The problem is that the security mission goes on here. And if we take some out, those that are left are at some risk )

Late addition from dzturtlepower:

Hate to shoot down your bubbles but the gas prices are NOT due to panic.

My brother is a mechanical engineer on the oil pipelines for a major oil company (I won't say which for security reasons). The refineries in the Gulf Coast are operating at 60% efficiency -- about half of what our country is capable of producing (and usually DOES produce) is simply not happening. Yes, gas prices sky-rocketed overnight. *That* was not due to oil companies -- that was due to the people that sell your gas anticipating the future:

AKA -- the gas we're currently pumping in has been traveling in pipelines from the South for the past week and a half. BEFORE the hurricane. By the end of this weekend, that gas will be entirely depleted and will be missing the gas/oil that *should* have been pumped into them but wasn't, due to the hurricane and the lack of working refineries.

There will not be a total shortage. But there WILL be one, and it will hopefully clear up by Sept 11 or so. But for a few days, we will be screwed.

The only thing you can do to protect your car at this point is make sure you're at 3/4 tank full like, today, and only buy gas from commercial stations -- NOT because they're better, but because those pumps are the ones that will be kept FULL. When oil lines start going dry, they mix with dirt and water and the people selling your gas are not going to pay any attention to this, as long as they can charge you a lower price. So even if it costs more, it will save your engines and you a LOT of grief to buy Exxon, Marathon, Shell, BP, any of those, directly from the company pumps.

What's even scarier is that this was as detailed of information as my brother COULD give me -- the rest of the information about the shortage is being kept under wraps (as in, my brother's email at work is now being monitored and they're on a security level akin to level orange terror threat -- which is not a good sign).

So good luck, stay safe, don't get pissed at the oil companies because they *are* doing their best with the available resources, and be warned of dirty gas.

ETA: WTF?

ETA2: I probably should have said this earlier, but I'll say it now: DO NOT GET INTO A POLITICAL FIGHT ON MY JOURNAL, OR SO HELP ME GOD. I feel strongly about my politics, but so do a lot of other people who read this journal, and out of respect for difference of opinion, I'm just reposting these articles largely without commentary, even though some of them upset me on a political level. I think I can be forgiven a joke here and there, mostly because that's what y'all read the journal for in the first place. But I believe in questioning both sides of the fence, and I hope anything I say will be seen in that light. (Dude: Newt Gingrich is questioning his side. It can be done.) I believe that you can question the powers that be without being specifically partisan, and that you can criticize someone you previously liked (or admire someone you previously hated). But at the end of the day? It's my journal. You want to get vehement about something, you take it to your own, and DO NOT get into fights with other posters, or I will freeze threads, and I've already done it twice.

(no subject)

ngocbui:

Hi. Thanks for those links. I have family that were lucky enough to evacuate New Orleans and are now staying with my parents just west of New Orleans. They are lucky to be alive, but have found out that they lost everything--all their homes, possessions, and livelihood. They are left with just the clothes on their backs that they evacuated with.

Also, I hope word also gets out that there are over 500 people still trapped in Versailles (a big Vietnamese community on the East Bank of N.O.) in Queen Mary Catholic Church. They are up to their necks in sewage/flood water. Helicopters keep passing them by and they have not been rescued yet. They have run out of food and water and are still waiting for help. CNN did a small blurb on this, but I feel like no one wants to get them out. It is so frustrating.

Here is some information I just found out that might be helpful to some of your readers who have loved ones who have also evacuated.

hope everyone's friends and family are all safe. Just heard from a friend that the victims of the hurricane are able to get aid from FEMA. you can register online or call 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) for assistance. you can get refund for all the money you put out for the hurricane like hotel costs, gas money, food, etc. you can also get federal aid for temporary living costs such as rent, food, etc..... i've also heard that you can go to the food stamp office and show your ID and get some federal aid. so spread the word.

http://www.fema.gov/register.shtm

mybelle1975:

You'll reach so many more people than I will ever hope to, Cleo, and with all the depressing and horrifying stories you're linking in your journal, I come bearing a bit of light.

A woman named Elizabeth, along with her church, is doing something a bit different. She's thinking more along the psychological needs of the victims. A convention center in Gadsden, near her, houses refugees from the hurricane, 150 children among them. What Elizabeth wants to do is go to KBToys and purchase $20 gift cards for the children, and has arranged transport so that she can give the certificates to the children and take the families to the store herself so the kids can purchase the toy that they want.

Her blog is here: http://www.decablog.com/jett/blog.php

She outlines her plans, her reasons, and has a paypal link in the first three entries. Check it out, and if/when you can spare a bit of change, consider passing it along to Katrina Kids Relief. If you prefer to send her a check or money order, you can email her about that, the link being there at her blog. If you can't spare the change, maybe share the link with your friends, or just copy/paste this post into your own journals and whatnot, every little bit helps.

Air America Public Voicemail: "Air America Radio's Public Voicemail is a way for disconnected people to communicate in the wake of Katrina. Here's how it works: Call the toll-free number above, enter your everyday phone number, and then record a message. Other people who know your everyday phone number (even if it doesn't work anymore) can call Emergency Voicemail, enter the phone number they associate with you, and hear your message. You can also search for messages left by people whose phone numbers you know."

Also from invisible__girl: "Also, if you're looking for a way to help personally, MoveOn.org Civic Action, formerly known as MoveOn.org, launched a new web site yesterday, http://hurricanehousing.org/ asking its 3.3 million members and the public to post any available housing for the thousands of people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. The organization will directly connect evacuees with volunteer hosts, and also provide the housing information to the Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Pass it on! The more people who know, the more effective this will be."


The scariest thing you'll hear all day. From Making Light: The Red Cross has been ordered not to enter New Orleans with relief. The commenters draw a conclusion that is both terrifying and outrageous, yet seems less and less deniable the more you read. More links from the comments on that entry:

The ARC can't enter NO with relief, yet: The report of a checkpoint on one of the intact bridges turning people back.

Firefighting gear stockpile unused.

FEMA wouldn't give permission to airdrop food.

Northern Command has been ready for days, just waiting on orders.

Feds delayed the paperwork for other states to send their National Guard troops for days.

Louisiana begged for help on Sunday.

All helicopter flights were grounded during Bush's visit (that means moving patients, food delivery, search & rescue). [My note: well, that's probably standard during a presidential visit. Ill-advised at this time, perhaps, but standard.]

DHS/FEMA turned away assistance from Chicago.

Someone on DailyKos has come up with a much longer list of aid offers delayed and denied. They didn't want to believe it, either, but also point out that the overall effect could be the result of mixed intention and ineptitude: "Possible motives?  Note that any or all of them can apply, simultaneously; actions are often taken for more than one reason." If you read no other link, read this one.

From a Making Light poster, Rachel: "I am a trained Red Cross disaster relief volunteer. I've offered to go wherever they feel like sending me. No one's gotten back to me yet. If anyone knows of any organization that will fly out trained volunteers (I'm in Los Angeles) please email me."


Reporters struggle to make the truth known amid all the spin. ("This is complete and utter incompetence. If anyone heard Michael Chertoff on NPR yesterday, it was laughable. He didn't know that there were people trapped in the convention center; he kept referring back to the Superdome whenever the interviewer asked him about the convention center. This is the head of fucking Homeland Security.")

(Does Anderson Cooper know about all this yet? He is the Secretary of Take No Shit, after all [tm Wonkette].)

Hang out a bit at aralinde's journal, too: she's got tons of news links, I just realized, that I can't even begin to start collecting. Including a list of which celebrities are donating to charity, and the comments of one Viggo Mortensen, private citizen.

(no subject)

Bad news: Halliburton gets a NOLA cleanup contract.

Good news: Pandacam--keeping you sane one pandasnuggle at a time.

CafePress news: I've whipped up some samples. These are just examples, in low res--once I've decided on the design, it's no big thing to make an image in different template formats (mug, sticker, button, mouse pad, shirt). The actual design images are way huge, so these are just sort of thumbnails. If people like multiple designs, I have no problem putting up more than one per quote. ( Read more... )

[Poll #563996]

ETA: Might want to look into what the Red Cross did with 9/11 funds. I put them on the list anyway because they're the biggest and most organized, but...

(no subject)

It's funny--some of y'all seemed worried about me, but collecting all the news hasn't burnt me out emotionally at all. I think I'm sort of in a state of emotional disconnect at this point (again, because it cannot be said too many times: not watching the disaster on TV helps a lot), and I'm pretty sanguine about everything. It may even be that compiling news makes me feel like I'm being useful in some small way. My eyes are getting very tired, though.


Remember the last entry with "Bad news: Halliburton gets a NOLA cleanup contract"? Well, ter369 points out something I hadn't thought of: "I'm here in Houston, where Halliburton getting contracts means more jobs, not only in New Orleans, but here in a city with tens of thousands of new residents this week."

( Reader notes, updates, and requests )

Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans? An ARC FAQ.

Last night at the Astrodome: a personal report.

Army publication calls some NOLA Katrina victims "the insurgency."

You can help Katrina victims through eBay as well.

( Congress Likely to Probe Guard Response )

( Another Storm Possible in Hard-Hit Region )

( One guy jumped off a balcony. I saw him do it. He said it reminded him of the war and he couldn't leave )

( What he describes is nothing less than deliberate genocide against Black and poor people )

( Communities around Louisiana were refusing to accept refugees from New Orleans because of fear caused by media coverage of the same few looters )

"I ask you to mount a collective scream of outrage and wolf howls into the airwaves, radio and TV stations, so that we can come in to do what we have always done in times of disaster and that is to lend a genuine human effort that is tribal community oriented and truly compassionate."


ETA, 10:30 pm: And just when you think things can't get any better, Chief Justice Rehnquist dies. Aaaaaand the battle for ideological dominance begins.