Katrina links

[cleolinda]

Quick links and reader submissions:

keever:

If you're still posting them, I found another option for donations (via Jennifer Weiner) that might be of particular interest to many of your readers. From the Louisiana Library Association site:

The LLA Disaster Relief Fund is now accepting monetary donations to assist school, public, and academic library restoration efforts in southeastern Louisiana. Please make checks payable to: LLA-Disaster Relief and mail to:

LLA
421 South 4th St
Eunice, LA 70535

kashmir1: "Cleo, I was wondering if I could ask you for help. I've read in more than one place that organizations are looking for things and not necessarily monetary donations. Problem is, I can't find the links and/or articles where I read that. I have donations from my family of clothes and things but I'm also trying to get donations from people I work with. So if any of your readers know of organizations that are looking for these kinds of donations, I would greatly appreciate a link/phone number/address/contact person/ANYTHING. Or if they know of a list of things that need donated. Thanks for any help you might be able to give me. My LJ is f-locked so if people want to get in touch with me, my e-mail is kashmir1 at livejournal.com or flamegirl_08 at yahoo.com."

In that vein, piratesorka:

Cleo darling, let the people know that it is the Salvation Army that is accepting donations of clothes and personal items. But also remind folks as I shall on my LJ that the clothing really need to be clean, free of stains or rips....unless of course, they are one of those new fashionalbly ripped jeans that are all the craze now! Here is one Salvation Army address:

Salvation Army
5302 Harry Hines
Dallas, Texas, 75235

I'm no big supporter of Salvation Army but I am reasonably certain they are more concerned with getting items to people than making new members these days. Its a solid organization in times of stress.

junebug138: "I linked it in my own journal, but I have to say I was so damn proud of Tim Russert yesterday. Here's a link to the transcript of him blasting Chertoff. Actually, I can say that I'm proud to work for MSNBC right now. A good portion of our anchors and reporters are angry and refuse to sugar-coat anything. They're coming right out and asking WTF. Good on them for doing so.

And Keith Olbermann had a delicious rant on it all tonight, blasting the government and their ineptitude... And showing Chertoff's idiocy in four words, a direct quote: "The 'city' of Louisiana..." The rant is here in his blog.

Also..."



arpeggiodreams: "Sears Holdings (aka Sears and Kmart) is also accepting donations at all registers (funds going to American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund), and the corporation will match all donations up to $500,000." Please note arpeggiodreams' icon while we're at it:


More Bush/guitar icons here.

Putli Bai: "Here's something that will boggle your mind. It's an article on the Louisiana Wetlands that was published in National Geographic in 2004. But maybe this will make you feel better. It's page after page of names of all the people that are safe."

sweetly_savage: "There has been (as of Friday noon at least) no official policy released by the Federal government regarding Food Stamps for the survivors. They may be leaving it up to the individual counties to decide. Here in Fresno, California we have a temporary "emergency" policy in place. (Which came about on Friday when we got 7 survivors showing up.) We are giving Food Stamps without the usual work requirements. And we are accepting "declaration of fact" statements in lieu of identification if the survivors have lost their IDs. Predictably, people will take advantage of this. But, that will not deter us from keeping this policy going until someone gives an official policy. So, I urge those survivors who have managed to get out of the area to apply for Emergency Food Stamps (can be issued the same day) wherever they end up. The policies will no doubt vary from county to county, but this is a viable option. And this is one of the things Food Stamps were created for in the first place. In some instances people may also be able to apply for cash aid as well. There is a huge problem with Assistance programs, and that is not going to change anytime soon. But, it's nice once in awhile to be able to do the right thing and provide the much needed assistance appropriately. (And I say this as a government worker in the Homeless Food Stamp program who sees all too regularly the people most in need disqualified for ridiculous reasons.) And I have to say that having lived in England and been treated as well as the citizens there in an emergency, that I am appalled that we were asking for citizenship verification during evacuation. That's just abominable."
 
scaffold: "An article from the nydailynews.com--The photo that shames America."

halogirl8: "I have no idea if you find this worth pimping or not, but I made a whole slew of NOLA icons (like the one I'm using), if you were interested in mentioning it in your next Katrina-related post. It was just a means of therapy for me, but the response so far has been really overwhelming, and it just now occurred to me that your readers might like them as well."

He Held Their Lives in His Tiny Hands: "In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader. They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love." Happy ending, by the way.

zhai:

Transport Provided to Anywhere - Room Desperately Needed! (For the Animal Victims of Katrina)

There is transportation provided, with people ready and waiting, for upwards of 200 dogs and 150 cats so far rescued from the devastation of hurricane Katrina. What these animals need is a place to go. Kennels, boarding, vets offices, shelters with any extra space, foster homes and rescues. Even one or two open kennels would greatly help.

From what we know, all animals have been vaccinated and are in good health considering the conditions. There are dogs and cats of every breed and size. Some are in groups of two, three or four, hailing from the same family, while some are solitary. ANY KENNEL SPACE AVAILABLE CAN CERTAINLY BE USED. These drivers are willing to move these animals ANYWHERE they need to go. Absolutely anywhere.

The current safe houses for these animals are being inundated and some of these pets will have to be euthanized if they are not moved to make room for the incoming animals.

Please feel free to pass on this information everywhere. Every forum, every list, every community.

REMEMBER THESE ANIMALS WILL BE TRANSPORTED TO YOU.

If you know anyone, anywhere, that is willing to take in even one cat or dog, please have them contact Lynda at the information provided below.

They are also asking for ANY kind of donations for the animals - money, food, bedding, water, etc.

Please Contact Lynda V. at: 203 515 3024 (cell)
Home: 203 227 5308
Email: Lynda@portone.com

Please contact at any time, day or night. These volunteers, rescuers and shelter workers are working around the clock.

Murder and Rape: fact or fiction. Important--read this one. Turns out many of the rapes and child murder stories can't be substantiated--but the reporting of them far and wide (something I'm also guilty of) may have created a reluctance to help or take in the "violent" evacuees, as noted in previous links.

Barbara Bush: Things working well for refugees: "What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. [...] And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this [she chuckles slightly] is working very well for them."

(See, this is why I could never be a field reporter, because I would have stopped dead and blurted out, "ARE YOU SERIOUS?")

Dispatch from a Physician.

Cheetara gets an email from Netflix:

Dear Cheetara,

The U.S. Postal Service has let us know that postal delivery to your address has been interrupted due to Hurricane Katrina. All of us at Netflix extend our sympathies to you and your loved ones during this difficult time.

We want you to know that we have stopped billing your account and are in the process of issuing a refund of your last bill. When you are ready to resume your service, please visit the Netflix website, where you will have the option to restart deliveries. When you restart your service, your first month will be at no charge.

If you would like us to send your DVDs to a different address, please click here. If you would like to speak with us about your Netflix service, please call our Customer Service Team at 1-800-715-2130 which is open Monday-Friday from 6:00am to 7:00pm Pacific Time and Saturday-Sunday from 6:00am to 2:30pm Pacific Time.

Sincerely,

The Netflix Team

Survival, Hour by Hour.

‘It’s going to be awful’ as body retrieval starts.

Bush to lead investigation into hurricane debacle. curverex: "Isn't that the same as letting the robber study the break in?"

Alternate take: Bush resists immediate probe into Katrina response.

promise19: "Gulfport's doing better... Just heard a reporter from MSNBC say that there was a hotel available (with power) for them to stay in last night, the Waffle House was open and they were able to shop at Wal-Mart! The South will rise again! I have friends in Gulfport who I'm hearing from sporadically, so this was good news to get." Mmmwaffles.

particle_person:

Rivka, who writes the blog Respectful of Otters, has debunked the reports that the aid on display during Bush's visit to New Orleans was staged:

Looking at the transcripts, it seems easy enough to figure out what happened. Laura's commenter, who appears to have been reconstructing from memory a news story he'd seen on TV, elided the New Orleans segment (which had Bush speaking at "one of the few" supply distribution points) and the Biloxi segment (which had cleaning crews working only along Bush's route, and disappearing afterward). Combined, these two segments became a story about supply distribution points disappearing after Bush's visit.

Rivka is a Democratic blogger, and she adds,

It's natural that rumors are flying everywhere right now. But we should be careful about what we do with unsourced news, especially when it confirms our biases.

ETA: Rebuttal from almostnever.


Connick Surveys Father's Damaged La. Home.

Officials warn against hurricane aid scams.

"Robert Fonteaine holds his puppy, Gangster, as he watches New Orleans firefighters try to save his house after it caught fire on the east side of the city Tuesday. Fonteaine's house was a total loss."


More AP/Reuters articles and some fresh CafePress designs on the way.

Comments

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Whoops, sorry, Rivka, I didn't mean to go beyond your data. So, there are actually two bits of info suggesting that certain events along Bush's route were staged:

1) The Biloxi situation described by German network ZDF. Claudia Rueggeberg said, in response to a question about how the citizens reacted to the President, "[...] One woman burst into tears and said, full of rage, that the President shouldn't come here, he should finally see to it that help comes. All of the people, his whole entourage, these cars, they should be loaded up with supplies and not with bodyguards, and he shouldn't play the good samaritan here, and a staged visit like this doesn't help. And it actually was the case that all of a sudden this morning helper personnel showed up here, people who cleared away the rubble, who went through the houses in search of bodies, but exclusively along the route where the President traveled. Two hours ago the President left Biloxi again, and all of the helper personnel along with him."

2) Senator Landrieu's report from N.O. that, "perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment."