cleolinda | Entries tagged with hurricanes

Okay, I'm putting this above the cut, because it is one of the greatest things I have ever seen in my entire life, and given some of the things I have linkspammed, that is saying A LOT. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you: THE BEST FANDOM SECRETS POST EVER. Turn off the internet, y'all. It's time to go home.

Meanwhile, we have more icons, for both "Growing Up Cullen" and the Midnight Sun recap, from

incognito323.

(OKAY FIREFOX CAN STOP CRASHING ANY MOMENT NOW.)

Oh, re: JaHurricane: the J storm this year is Josephine, which makes me think of this Josephine. And the hurricane before Josephine? Ike. Looks like someone over at the World Meteorological Organization is a Lemony Snicket fan.

Linkspam! ( Kermit Bale, The Internet Is Here )

So last night, Sister Girl and Sister Girl's boyfriend and I were watching the nightly NBC news, you know, with Brian Williams, and some telethon had pushed it up to 6:30 from 5:30 but Sister Girl was happy that she'd get to see it anyway, because apparently she loves Brian Williams, so we sat there and laughed for a half an hour as he walked down the streets of drizzly, antclimactically un-Gustaved New Orleans, stopping occasionally to put his hands on his hips in a hero pose and intone things like, "But NO ONE... died today... in NEW ORLEANS."

"I'm gonna name my kid Brian Williams," she announces.

"Like, first name and middle name, or like 'Mary Catherine,' all together?"

"No, like Mary Catherine. Brian Williams."

"BRIAN WILLIAMS, YOU GET UP THERE AND CLEAN YOUR ROOM RIGHT NOW!"

So then she tells us this story about how this guy she works with is named Michael, and he's a Michael Jr., so he doesn't want his son to be Michael III. But he still wants him to be named Michael, so he's going to name the kid... JaMichael. (Pronunciation: "Juh-MICHAEL.")

"You need to name your kid JaBrian Williams," I tell her. "You know, so no one gets confused."

So Brian Williams is still striking poses all over Bourbon Street and we start trying to figure out what the next few hurricanes will be called, since we've already got Gustav, Hanna, and Ike in play. I think you know what the answer to this question is.

"JaHurricane, obviously."

"It was upgraded from JaTropical Storm."

I have to tell you, we cried laughing over this. No, we were not high.

Current Mood: giggly

Horoscope of Eerie Accuracy:

Quickie: Step back and analyze a recent conversation -- tiny details offer valuable clues.

Overview: Your head is all a-whirl with grandiose ideas, but force yourself to look at the finer issues as well as the attention-getting ones. Make sure you follow up on all your commitments, large and small.

Don't pinch pennies only to end up blowing dollars. In other words, it's no good brown-bagging it every day for a week if you just blow your savings on a stack of new CDs or yet another pair of black shoes. Watch your cash flow and general spending habits very carefully, especially if your emotions are on high -- you don't want to indulge in retail therapy now. Find other alternatives when it comes to handling stressful situations.

A sad event in the internet community, as reported on Fandom Lounge: "I just wanted to inform people here on JF that Kielle passed away Thursday night.

kielle, also known as

_redpanda_ on LJ and JF, was an incredibly highly influential person on online fandom. Her founding of CFAN, the archive of archives for comics fandom, was only the beginning. In her LOTR-fan-mode, she was a founder or influential in the creation of many journal-based RPGs, most notably MESPT*. And of course, on LJ, she was the creator of

metaquotes,

marysues,

iconaddicts, and dozens more communities that I can't even begin to list. She will be greatly missed."

Random notes:

>> Have felt like crap the last few days--muscle aches all over, which may be some illness going around or... not, I totally don't know. I need to go back to the doctor about the whole polycystic whatever thing, so that may be involved as well. It's not a hangover, though, because it's been going on too long for that, but I did go out last night, and it was actually rather a busy night, what with ~~Gold Nugget~~ the Lovely Emily picking out her new cell number at the Cingular store (and I do mean pick out; she ended up behind the guy's desk debating which number would be easier to remember. I talked her out of something-something-444, because previously she had had something-something-666, which used to freak my shit out, but really, after ###-#666, ###-#444 is just a comedown. It's only the Neighbor Two Doors Down of the Beast, or something), and then us grabbing dinner at Moe's, and then going to see Junebug (which was... interesting, for sure. But if you live in the South, you will recognize everyone and everything in this movie, which is the freaky part), and then going out with some friends to a bar with "Tavern" in the name, and the sad thing is that "Tavern in the name" doesn't even narrow it down for that particular shopping center, and we did, in fact, end up at Tavern on the Wrong initially. The good news is that we had the Happiest Bartender on Earth. Seriously, this guy was jazzed. This guy was the Disneyland of bartenders. He even put two cherries in my second whiskey sour, at which point I endeavored to practice my stem-tying skills, and I'll be damned if I hadn't managed a rudimentary knot by the time we were in the parking lot. Grey Goose drinks are only $5 on Thursdays, so we'll probably be back.

>> Oh! That reminds me! The Lovely Emily wants to start a dirty verbal revolution. ( Read more... )

>> Lily Rose, who is AWESOME, sold me her imp of Glitter, which, as you will recall, 1) is currently discontinued and 2) smells like bubblegum and My Little Ponies. MMMMMMM.

>> Okay, I initially posted this elsewhere, but I'm still agog at the whole thing, so I'm just going to repost it here. My sister, who's never cleaned a thing in her entire life because she's germ-phobic (which, oddly, translates to "I never clean, because there are germs" instead of "I must clean, because there are germs"), got it into her head to scour the entire hall bathroom tonight while I was out with friends. Seriously, I came home and was nearly blinded by white tile when I turned on the bathroom light. The old bathtub, which I had despaired of ever getting really clean, had been scrubbed bone-white. This was totally awesome, particularly since we share the bathroom despite the fact that she's got a bathroom inside her own room and shouldn't actually crowd me out of a second bathroom, but DOES ANYWAY, and then never cleans after herself to boot.

Here's what's not so awesome: ( Read more... )

>> Wait--Bryan Ferry wants to be my friend on MySpace?

Linkspamorama:

Roger Ebert brings the snark again: This movie is an affront to cheese. Also to breasts.

The Book Spoiler needs help with... well, full-length book spoilers.

Hilarious answers from British school exams:

3. Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread which is bread made without any ingredients.Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. He died before he ever reached Canada.

7. Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline.

10. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Dying, he gasped out: "Tee hee, Brutus."

"Hustle" Star [Taryn Manning] Survives JetBlue Scare.

Snopes on Katrina crime: A carjacker/rapist shot dead at the scene of a crime is real. Only thing is... it happened in Georgia, with native Georgians. No bloodthirsty evacuees, in other words. Also, the "4500 unregistered sex offenders set free from prison" isn't exactly true, either:

What the Louisiana Department of Corrections reported was that nearly 4,500 registered sex offenders lived in the 14 parishes hit by Hurricane Katrina — these were not criminals who were simply let out of prison after the storm hit, but persons convicted of sex-related crimes who had already served their sentences or were on probation and were therefore required to maintain their current addresses in the state's database of sex offenders.
Unlike other states such as Florida, Louisiana has no policy requiring the jailing of some registered sex offenders during storms or evacuations, so many of those listed in the state's sex offender database likely ended up in shelters or other communities throughout Louisiana, or possibly in other states.
We remain puzzled about how the anonymous author of this piece could claim to have heard about the "4,500 sex offenders that were let out of prison" on a national news program while simultaneously maintaining that "You won't hear this on the news as the media will not let this out."

Refineries See Some Damage, Dodge Bullet.

Brian Williams blogs from "the hot zone."

A link I ran across while there at MSNBC, and must be included for total awesomeness: Aussie punches attacking shark.

I leave you now to seek out sustenance.

Current Mood: hungry

I have had a few ~~complaints~~ indirect requests for lj-cuts, and since we're beyond the first few crucial days where I could argue that you could suck it up because this was important, I will comply. At this point, you're either interested or you're not.

( Read more... )

I think I'm going to stop posting AP articles--I have about 29 pages' worth in a Word document, but I'm just too tired to do anything with them. For some reason I came home from class today and crawled into bed an hour later.

Which reminds me--hi to Casey (sp?), if you're reading this. She's going to be with the American Renaissance class this semester from--the University of New Orleans, I think she said? (Sorry about hitting you with the Melville first thing, Casey.)

Volunteers

hannasus: "I've spent the last two days volunteering at Reliant Park and have posted a description of my experiences over in my livejournal, if anyone would like to hear about it."

ladyeclectic79:

I work for the Army Corps of Engineers, and I've received several emails over the last several days detailing events. You've touched on most, but just FYI within the organization there's a massive buildup of volunteers, many who have come out of retirement to provide any aid they can, who will likely be shipping out soon - myself included. As to what my job description will be (I'm a Park Ranger) I don't know; it may be grunt work or passing out MREs - I likely won't know until I get there. But we look to be shipping out en masse starting within the week.
It's also been officially confirmed (at least via my email): the Corps of Engineers runs a number of campgrounds, and many of those sites will be accepting refugees to abide there for free. They're still trying to figure out how to regulate it (who knows, I may be sent to help patrol) but they've confirmed that refugees will be allowed (or it may have already gone into affect) free camping on non-reservable sites within Corps camps. I don't know if this information has been made public yet, but anyone who's interested may want to contact the campsites in the area, or go to the USACE website. Obviously camps decimated by the hurricane are out, but we have several along the Mississippi and any Corps-run lakes.
Thanks again for all that you're doing though, I'll try to keep you updated with any info that I can pass on.

stefficus: "linda v. from community animal rescue & adoption is no longer taking phone calls for fostering pets displaced by katrina... instead, we're being directed to their website, www.carams.org to apply to shelter pets. anyone still interested should go there. oh. this post from sharon pritchard of CARA puts things in a whole different light:

There has been a BIG misunderstanding regarding the need for foster homes at CARA. We have a few pets that were owner give-ups due to their home situations. The mention of 240 dogs & 100 cats is incorrect. These are the numbers of CARA's shelter animals, not the evacuees. We would love for people to adopt them as well as the evacuee pets. We are expecting more pets to come to the shelter, so please keep checking back with us. As for the delivering of these foster pets, there are only a few women & men that run the shelter. We don't have enough people nor vehicles for transporting. We are sorry for the confusion and hope this will help clear some of it up.

if that's not an option, this petfinder.org page has info from many different sources regarding rescued pets."

Charity

From an anonymous poster: "bdbdb has a special offer for 'Angel' fans who donate money. Coinstar (you know the automatic coin-sorting machines) has an option where all the change you dump in can be donated to the American Red Cross or other charities. Donate Music is a site to gather CD/casettes/ipods/discmen/etc. for teenaged survivors."

Click on a city and find or offer hurricane housing.

Kingdom of Loathing: "In other news, KMD's radio telethon was a tremendous success. Something like $6,700 was raised, which Asymmetric Publications is going to match, for a grand total of... um... something like $13,400. Thanks to everyone for their eXtreme generosity."

1928.com (one of my favorite jewelry makers): "At 1928 we join with the rest of America who is feeling the urgent need and want to aid the victims that have been left in the devastating path of Katrina. The storm has left thousands of people homeless and caused an estimated $25 billion in damage. You can help too by ordering now as for each order over $20 we are going to donate on your behalf, $5.00 dollars to the American Red Cross. This is good for any product on 1928.com including 1928, 2028, Antiquities and The Vatican Library Collection brands. This will be a direct donation to the American Red Cross who is on the scene comforting and helping millions of people put their lives back together. We are pledging to continue to donate on all purchases over $20.00 until September 15th."

From the Publisher's Lunch newsletter: ( Donations and Book Drives )

Humor

elvensapphire: "Did you see this? It's intense as far as language goes, and in its dark humour, it is so very true. Sad, but true." Synopsis: Foamy the Squirrel reports live via payphone: "GET OFF YOUR ASS, STOP REPORTING, AND HELP SOMEONE!"

The Onion: "God Outdoes Terrorists Yet Again; Government Relief Workers Mosey In To Help."

From molliewollie: Major Disasters of the Bush Administration from A to Z. From the Daily Show. Apparently "Locusts" are next on the list. I dread the rodents of unusual size most, though.

Quick news links

terriem: "I'm not sure if you've seen it, but the BBC have a great in depth section on their website. It's got good analysis and reportage and lots of space for reader comment, discussion and eyewitness reports."

theendofallthat: "Hey--I don't know if you saw this article. it reads like more hyperbole, but for some reason it doesn't strike me as being that unlikely, given everything else that's gone on." Synopsis: rescuework goes Mardi Gras. And not in a good way.

junebug139: "In Massachusetts We'd Call This Yankee Ingenuity."

xxsincerityxx: "Here's one I found at CNN about acts of human kindness during the disaster."

"Celebrities exploit a tragedy for their own benefit."

New Orleans mayor orders forced evacuations.

Bush struggles to find the right tone on disaster.

MSNBC: Blogging from the Gulf Coast.

Katrina Victims to Get $2K Debit Cards.

Victims face bewildering options.

Police Step Up Evacuation of New Orleans.

Bush Seeks 51.8B More for Katrina Effort. ETA: For some reason, when the link appeared on my email front page, the "51" didn't come through, and I just now saw it somewhere else. So... uh... 51.8 is actually a much bigger number than .8.

Government issues

nardasarmy: "As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta. Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers. Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA. But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas."

voodoo_in_tx: "Thought you'd be interested in this: FEMA relief catch 22."

sualocin: "I don't know if you've already seen http://www.votetoimpeach.org/, and I don't really know if your political affiliation, but I find this whole response an impeachible offence. But the site does mainly talk about the war and not the hurricane."

From Tabby: "Miss Alli [of Television Without Pity] has a rant on This is Not Over that expresses something I've been stewing about for days, which is that W just doesn't seem to get it." An excerpt from "Here's What Gets Me" forthwith:

My problem with Bush -- and here, I do indeed address Bush individually, as a guy -- is that during the time that the crisis was developing, from Monday to Friday, he never seemed to experience any actual sense of urgency as a result of the simple fact that people were, minute by minute and hour by hour, dying.
Let's give him the benefit of the doubt that he was being prevented from acting by bureaucracy and the sheer magnitude of the situation. Where are the stories of how he was in his office freaking the fuck out because there were tens of thousands of Americans trapped without food and water? Where's the story of how he ripped a strip off of somebody, demanding to know what the holy hell the holdup is getting water and food to those people?
I want to hear about how he was demanding that extraordinary steps be taken. I want to hear about how he sent his lawyers into a room -- he had four days, you know -- and demanded that they come back in an hour with a plan for him to send the Marines into New Orleans with 100 trucks of food and water, posse comitatus or not. I want to hear that he was panicked. Because I was panicked. Everyone I know was panicked. Everyone I know was gnashing their teeth with helpless rage because they couldn't get in a car, drive down there, and drive a load of homeless Louisiana residents back home with them for soup and a goddamn hot bath. I want to hear that he acted at some point out of genuine despondency about the fact that citizens of the country he is supposed to be running were being starved and dehydrated in a hellish, fetid prison. We are dancing around now about whether it is his failure or not his failure. Where is the decency that would tell him that he is the president, and FEMA is part of his administration, and this failure is his to own and apologize for, whether other people also were wrong or not?

promise19: "I read a great op/ed piece by Thomas L. Friedman (one of my favorites) in the NYT this morning. I think Mr. Friedman does a great job of comparing Bush's handling of 9/11 to how his administration (that he built) has dealt with Katrina. Here, he gives a tongue lashing to Grover Norquist, the President of the coalition group Americans for Tax Reform. Also: From Interdictor's LJ: 'Sometime around midnight, a squad of 82nd Airborne guys accompanied by a US Marshall busted into our Data Center with their M4-A1s to investigate the lights and movement....'"

Misc.

From skyblade: Sean Penn's rescue bid sinks. "Penn had planned to rescue children waylaid by Katrina's flood waters, but apparently forgot to plug a hole in the bottom of the vessel, which began taking water within seconds of its launch. The actor, known for his political activism, was seen wearing what appeared to be a white flak jacket and frantically bailing water out of the sinking vessel with a red plastic cup. With the boat loaded with members of Penn's entourage, including a personal photographer, one bystander taunted the actor: 'How are you going to get any people in that thing?'" I'm hearing a second report now that the boat didn't spring a leak--it just started taking on water because of the number of people he brought with him. Which, again: a point to the bystander.

cordeliadelayne: "Hey Cleo. Don't know if you've come across this yet but someone has started up poor_planning. Looks like they're doing the same as you, gathering info, but in their user info it does state their aim is to "to put together the case that the poor of New Orleans were left to drown." May be a good resource for news and they do intend to try and get the Black Caucus involved."

On that note: I think I'm going to continue collecting news--just at a reduced rate. Again: no mountains of AP articles. I want to stop, but... I just don't feel like I can.

ETA: AUGH. There is a rogue bold tag and I CAN. NOT. FIND IT. I give up.

ETA2: GOD, FINALLY.

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: ( 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 )

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: ( When you restart your service, your first month will be at no charge )

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.

Quick question: Does anyone know what font they use for the Lost logo?

Reader submissions

I cannot substantiate the ohnotheydidnt story about Britney wanting to televise her birth for charity. I would, however, chip in to pay her not to televise it.

I steal from aralinde like a stealing thing: ( Oprah, cannibals, British survivors and armed foot patrols )

Red Cross Discourages Opening Your Home to Evacuees. As

roseredhoofbeat points out, "OK, I officially HATE the Red Cross right now. Has anyone told them that this is TEXAS? We all have GUNS for crying out loud! If someone tried to make off with the good silver, we can legally shoot them, because THIS IS TEXAS!"

promise19: "Here's a link to a NYT article that confirms the reports that have been floating around about the NOLA police department. Law Officers, Overwhelmed, Are Quitting the Force: 'Reeling from the chaos of an overwhelmed city, at least 200 New Orleans police officers have walked away from their jobs and two have committed suicide.' " [Use bugmenot.com to bust past the required registration.]

Gwynevere1: "Just wanted to suggest a link. JustHuman has a really good post on empathy, that I think would be helpful to those who have been reading your journal for days now."

supersyncspaz7: "Here's something: in Arlington, TX (near my part of the world), the salon I get my hair done at is offering free hair treatments for evacuees around the nineteenth. I can't remember the name of the salon (the stylist who does my hair just moved over there and I've only been by once), but once I do, I'll be sure to mention it. Also, they're collecting school supplies for the kids too."

(My note: I think there's a salon here in Trussville (AL) doing something very similar.)

sorchar: "We're getting a thousand refugees here in Portland, but I'm still trying to find out what we can do to help."

Speaking of which,

piratesorka: "I just heard that the Oregon National Guard are coming back with about 300 or so NO folks and put them up in a Portland area high school that was recently closed. I'm packing up some of my plus size clothes and making a donation."

In that vein,

ankhet: "If you're still collecting links, I'd suggest taking a look at this post about plus-sized clothing desperately being needed."

Note: I'm hearing that the Red Cross does not accept used clothing. You'll have to take it to another charity, I think.

From Cheetara, an actual refugee currently in Atlanta: "For those of you looking for an alternative to the national news, www.wwltv.com, a local news station, is very good."

A link from... uh, me: Giving Works at eBay, where you can sell or bid on items for charity.

captainsblog: "For the next round of linkspam: http://cdbaby.com, a much-loved indy music site, has arranged with the artists on hundreds of CDs in its catalog to donate all profits from sales of the selected albums to the Red Cross. I've had trouble searching for specific groups, but hey. Pick a genre and browse. You'll fall in love with a deserving artist who you've never heard of before and get a legal disc out of the deal for a donation that will matter."

jennnk: Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski opens the state to 1000 Katrina refugees. "In the days since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, Oregonians from every corner of the state have reached out wanting to help," Kulongoski said in a statement. "Our offer has been accepted and now its our time to pull together to help those victims who lost their homes and their communities find some solace so they can regain their strength and begin healing from the tragedy that they--and our nation--have endured."

elkins on JournalFen: "Might I also suggest... Sisyphus Shrugged's Lake George Link List? She links to the blackfolks timeline as well, and also to a number of other very good informative articles, a few outright rants), and at the end, to a number of organizations who are accepting donations or suggesting unconventional ways to help."

ladykatiewench: "I would like to recommend another place for people to send donations and have the money go directly to the people who need it the most. There is a group called Desire Street Ministries. ( Right now, Desire Street is trying to help evacuate the people of Ninth Ward and find them places to stay )

gryphonmage: "Cleo, I don't how true this is nationwide, but my local Smith's (in New Mexico) grocery store is allowing you to include a donation to the Red Cross on your grocery bill. Smith's is part of Kroger, and according to the Smith's website all the stores in the Kroger chain will be doing this, so for people who want to donate, but like me, don't have a local Red Cross office or have one that seems like it is always closed, or just don't want to use the website, they might want to check out this option."

(My note: I can add that the Publix chain down here is doing the same thing.)

pride4u2: "Hey, Cleo...I don't mean to jeopardize your sanity even further (or anyone else's for that matter), but everyone needs to see this."

angelic_oni: "Just wanted to let you know that Maddox, the creator of the Best Page in the Universe (http://maddox.xmission.com/), has updated his site and for the next few days (until Wednesday) 50% of the profit made at his store (http://store.theworstpageintheuniverse.com/) will go to the Red Cross. A lot of people know about and love his site and yours, for that matter, so maybe you can pass this on. Every little bit helps, I figure."

bellatrys: "I found this editorial in the Biloxi paper which is also still reporting although they don't know where 9 of their people are yet, and it says much the same thing, but I think everyone shoudl read it because it's about survivors' guilt and practical, simple things to do - it's *good* you're a survivor, that you were less hurt than your neighbors, because now you will be able to help them, is the message. I needed to hear that, I know."

Late addition via

pygmymetal, from

subtlesabotage...

PLEASE get this out. They have approved (I believe) 60 million in grants to aide evacuees who are no longer recieving a paycheck. These will be the first people they want to emply to clean and rebuild, and there is emergency disaster unemployment available.

1-866-4usa-dol / www.dol.gov

If you or someone you love has been left unemployed as a direct result of Katrina... CALL.

A lighthearted link I found on Yahoo News: Gas Prices Drive Man to Commute by Horse.

My right eyelid is starting to twitch again; I may not compile anymore news posts until tomorrow.

AP/Reuters articles

( We're going to have to go house to house in this city. We're going to have to check every single place to find people who may be alive and in need of assistance )

( Asked for more details, he said only, The incident is under police investigation )

( He is now sleeping on a cot in what used to be centerfield in the Astrodome )

( Bureaucracy has committed murder )

( It was not known why the helicopter was in the area )

( They started telling us we're thieves, he says. We're not thieves. We just wanted to feed the babies )

( Before this whole thing, I had a complex about white people. This thing changed me forever )

Warning: discussion of suicides. ( It's New Orleans, man. We're going to celebrate )

( A door-to-door search will take weeks, if not months )

( It wouldn't be unreasonable to have 10,000 dead )

Entry 2: Everything else I've got at the moment. God, I need to go do some more designs, or watch Rome or something, for my own sanity. It's getting bad out there.

la_sonnambula: "I had a vague notion that the government can get commercial airlines to help and wondered why civilian airplanes couldn't airlift people out of New Orleans. The Civil Reserve Air Fleet, for reasons I don't know, is not deployed. Instead, late Thursday afternoon Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson asked James C. May, president of the trade group Air Transport Association whether the airlines could fly people out of NOLA. Operation Air Care was launched and the first mercy flight left for New Orleans at 8 A.M. Friday morning. Twelve airlines, including Air Canada are donating their planes and crew to the relief effort. FEMA will reimburse them for the jet fuel. Cargo airlines like FedEx and UPS are also helping."

carlanime: "Speaking of cronyism, have you linked to anything about FEMA director George Brown's qualifications yet?"

sigma7: "And more links, if you're so interested....

Journalists in Baton Rouge need places to crash. And some journos in the area are missing.

Wisconsin paper says don't use "looting" (third letter down).
N'awlins paper still printing. Damn.

AP weighs in on the "looting"/"taking" wank.

Coach of the U of N'awlins accuses other schools of trying to "loot" his players. Insert wank joke here...."

Quick links:

If you read nothing else, read this link. How "a shot was fired" turned into "Snipers are shooting at helicopters!" ("We're controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of them reported being fired on," she said, adding that the FAA was in contact with the military as well as civilian aircraft. )

Doors never closed at this Big Easy bar.

Mississippians' Suffering Overshadowed.

Help the Internet Archive archive blog coverage of Katrina.

White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials.

U.S. Asks EU, NATO for Hurricane Aid.

A Navy hospital ship has been sitting for a week off the coast of New Orleans, waiting for FEMA to allow them to help.

A list of links about offers of aid that have been or still are being delayed or turned down.

Chertoff: Feds in Control of New Orleans. Chertoff is the one, I might add, who said FEMA had no idea there was a major situation at the convention center, at which point Ted Koppel said, flabbergasted, "Do you not watch TV at all? Do you not listen to the radio?"

Ann Coulter in all her nonsensical glory: "And in the same way the rest of the country ran to support New York, I'm waiting to see if New Yorkers will run to support the suffering victims of Katrina. I just think New Yorkers think of themselves as their own country. Of course, New York firefighters, they're Americans."

"I don't care if I get blamed for it," Gibson said, "as long as I saved my people."

Anne Rice: "Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans?"

Another viewpoint from NO: now officially the site of America's greatest shame. "The Cavalry can't get past FEMA": ( Son? Is somebody coming? And she drowned Friday night )

krickets: The hurricane and the poor of New Orleans - a timeline ( Did I forget to mention that the city only ordered an evacuation AFTER the city had closed the buses and trains that could lead people out to safety? )

More AP articles. Be careful--I'm kind of desensitized to the horror after collecting these articles for so many days now, but the articles are getting more and more grisly as we go, and there's discussion of suicide in at least two of the articles. The last two, I think.

( We saw my mother's house on the television with just the roof showing so we know she has lost it )

( We are still in the middle of an emergency )

( New Orleans emergency service agencies have had to deal with some suicides among their ranks )

( People been all their life. They don't know nothing else )

Okay, I have such a swamp of links that I'm going to spam you with a few separate entries by topic. This one is charity and aid.

Most people I'm talking to are overwhelmed with frustration that they can't do anything--not just donate, but physically go down to New Orleans and do anything. Let's face it, though--even if you and I drove down there, they wouldn't let us in. And even if we got in, we would (well, I know I would) not be much help. If you're trained in medical or rescue aid, that's one thing; but most of us aren't, and would only get sick, injured, and/or in the way. Now, when the city is finally drained and Habitat for Humanity goes down there to rebuild--yeah, that's when you can go down and help. But right now, the most helpful thing you can do is 1) donate money and 2) keep yourself informed in terms of all sides of the story. (You'll see what I mean in the next entry.) We're just going to have to be keyboard warriors for now.

anatsuno, bringer of many links this weekend:

People can now also donate time online to help gather and consolidate missing persons / found persons messages from all over the place.

A different kind of help you can donate to.

Some people are writing about NOLA reconstruction.

fandom_charity is listing fan writers' and artists' offers and requests--people who will donate in return for a certain fic, or writers who will write a certain pairing in return for a donation, and so on.

I've lost the name of the poster who brought me this, but it's another good Red Cross donation option: "Barry and the Manilow Fund for Health and Hope have both agreed: You donate $1.00… Barry will match your $1.00… and the Manilow Fund will match another $1.00…. so your one dollar becomes $3.00."

keever: "An alternative for non-monetary Red Cross donations: airline frequent flier miles, which they use to get relief workers to disaster sites."

anne_jumps: "Famous World O' Crap commenter Anntichrist S. Coulter (not her real name) is personally taking goods to shelters in the area using the donations she receives via Paypal, etc."

JournalFen: Something Awful raises $20,000 for the Red Cross; PayPal takes it away.

I think this got buried under a cut in a previous entry, but if you've been curious to try Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab oils, this season's Limited Edition blends will benefit the Red Cross and Katrina victims. Unfortunately you can't get samples of LEs, so it is $16 for a 5 ml bottle (and since this is very concentrated oil, that's a lot, trust me). The Lab's blends are often very complex and will change on your skin while you wear them; while they will differ on each person due to body chemistry, when they say "crackling leaves," that is actually what you will smell. (I have a decant of Samhain 2004, and yes, it's exactly as advertised.) Sometimes almost bizarrely true to life, BPAL oils are an experience in themselves. ( This season's LEs )

potatofishy:

Hey Cleo. I live in West Virginia, and a whole bunch of the stereotypes are true--many people have bad grammar, bad mullets, bad teeth--but here's a great one: West Virginians are kindly, welcoming people with big hearts who just want to help. Our governor, Joe Manchin, just issued an open invitation to NOLA refugees to come stay here. They're being flown up on military transports and housed in a base, where they'll go through a sort of triage and get plenty of food, water, clothes, and hot showers. They first wave of people is coming now--about 80. Our local news says they expect maybe 500, all told. That's not many of the thousands and thousands displaced--but it was enough to make me cry (I'm a big baby). As far as I've heard, Manchin's the first governor of a state not immediately in the area to open it up like this. I hope more follow.

I got most of this from my local news; I couldn't really find an online news resource. I did manage to find Manchin's statement, though.

My favorite part? Manchin described WV as a big family. Even though I badmouth you all day long for having no cities and no culture, I love you, West Virginia.

West Virginia is, by the way, one of the only safe places in this country to live.

Current Music: Aerosmith, "Angel"

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.

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...

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.

Current Music: more Aerosmith

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.

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 )

superego_18: "Hi. I've been a long time reader of your livejournal and know that many people read it as well. If anyone that is reading this and is in the New Orleans area, I have a favor. If anyone in that area might have seen or heard from my cousin or if they know where the citizens of Slydell, LA were evacuated to. Her name is Amanda Ernst. She's 16 years old. I know it's a longshot but I'm desperate. I wrote about it in my latest journal entry, the post itself is really long but her name is at the bottom for those that don't want to read the whole thing. It's mostly just me venting. Thank you."

( His numbed staff was forced to subsist on intravenous sugar solutions )

( Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag )

Warning: FEMA Directing Donations to Pat Robertson

BBC Correspondents' Log

Wonkette: "Ray Nagin for President, Anderson Cooper for Secretary of Take No Shit"

I linked to an mp3 of Nagin's emotional interview in the previous entry (transcript here). Here's Cooper, who previously cut a back-patting senator into tiny little pieces:

KING: Anderson Cooper in Biloxi, Mississippi and you were an angry man today, Anderson, at what?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I wouldn't say I'm angry, you know. I think I'm tired of hearing the politicians say that, you know, they understand the frustration of people down here. To me, you know, it's not frustration. It's not that people are frustrated.

It's that people are dying. I mean there are people dying. They're drowning to death and they drown in their living rooms and their bodies are rotting where they drowned and there are corpses in the street being eaten by rats and this is the United States of America.

My friend Marcus, another New Orleans citizen:

hey since a billion people read you, please let them know this:

Okay, just to stress for people not from NOLA. DO NOT BELIEVE CLAIMS OF RACISM in regards to rescuing. The fact of the matter is, this is created partly from anger of the stranded citizens and partly by the media. The fact is, The LARGE majority (i'd wager 90-95%) of the people who didn't/couldn't evacuate are poor black people. New Orleans is in impoverished city. Are black people dying because they're not rescued in time? Yes. Sadly. Very sadly, yes. Are white people being saved because they're white? HELL NO. Why? Because white people could afford to get out of town. I am not stressing the superiority of a race over another. It's just simple facts. NOLA is divide along poverty lines and those lines double as racial. It's a very unfortunate situation. How many white people have you seen rescued from rooftops? MAYBE 1? Probably elderly? That's because the neighborhoods hardest hit by flooding were unfortunately prominently black, poor neighborhoods. Remember, 70% of the population of New Orleans is non-white.

I hate that these people are dying and stranded, especially because they could do nothing to help themselves. They just couldn't get out. But these media accusations are baseless and are bold faced lies. And they only worsen the situation.

( It is one of the most unbelievable situations I've seen as a doctor, certainly as a journalist as well )

Kanye West, rogue presenter. With video download.

squirrelgirl22: Just passing this on...

shadbolt75 is going to give $1 to the Red Cross for each and every comment she gets here: ~~http://www.livejournal.com/users/shadbolt75/53974.html~~. Check it out!

ETA:

squirrelgirl22: "Ryan (

shadbolt75) unfortunately met his donating limit midway though his posts, so I'm picking the torch and running with it. My employer will match dollar-for-dollar my total donation. I'm ready to give, but I'd love to do so on a bunch of people's behalfs as well!"

I promise I will post about something other than Katrina later today. Just for my own sanity, if nothing else.

( These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will )

( Get off your asses and let's do something )

( I say burn this whole city down )

( I think it puts into question all of the Homeland Security and Northern Command planning for the last four years, because if we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack? )

Can't believe I forgot this: The Hunger Site is giving food to Katrina victims. "Your click on the 'Give Free Food' button funds food for the hungry, paid for by site sponsors whose ads appear after you click and provided to people in need around the world through the efforts of Mercy Corps and America's Second Harvest."

ETA: Download this.

From littlebitca:

Drowning New Orleans: "A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands. Human activities along the Mississippi River have dramatically increased the risk, and now only massive reengineering of southeastern Louisiana can save the city. [...] Large hurricanes come close every year. In 1965 Hurricane Betsy put parts of the city under eight feet of water. In 1992 monstrous Hurricane Andrew missed the city by only 100 miles. In 1998 Hurricane Georges veered east at the last moment but still caused billions of dollars of damage. A direct hit is inevitable."

The date of the article? October 2001.

From atalantapendrag: Cancer Cluster or Coincidence?

( scott_lynch is my hero )

Major companies -- including Home Depot and Ford -- pledge millions to hurricane relief efforts. "Corporations are contributing millions of dollars in relief aid to help cope with the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina. The following is a list of companies that have taken steps to provide aid to those in need of funds, food and medicine following Monday's storm..."

Fats Domino found in New Orleans: "The musician's niece, Checquoline Davis, posted a plea on Craigslist.com for information on her missing relatives, writing that Domino and his wife, Rosemary, and their children and grandchildren "didn't get out" of their New Orleans home. Her plea was one of thousands seeking information on missing friends and family on the site."

interdictor: "This journal has become the Survival of New Orleans blog. In less perilous times it was simply a blog for me to talk smack and chat with friends. Now this journal exists to share firsthand experience of the disaster and its aftermath with anyone interested."

I cannot confirm the Superdome "chemical plant" explosion you guys are reporting. When Bravo Team becomes functional this morning, we're going to do a Medium Range Recon Patrol around our section of the CBD. We need to access the area for potential human threats, situational threats (burning buildings, etc.), flooding, potential evac routes, military and civilian authority presence, etc.

We bring the camera with us everywhere we go, whether it's to empty fuel into the tank or perform personal hygiene.

Everyone has secondary responsibilities. Crystal, for instance, has the secondary responsibility of organizing physical assets. Sigmund's secondary responsibility is photography. Donny's secondary responsibility is inter-team communication. My secondary responsibility is first aid. And so on.

"Destroying FEMA":

In the days to come, as the nation and the people along the Gulf Coast work to cope with the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we will be reminded anew, how important it is to have a federal agency capable of dealing with natural catastrophes of this sort. This is an immense human tragedy, one that will work hardship on millions of people. It is beyond the capabilities of state and local government to deal with. It requires a national response.

Which makes it all the more difficult to understand why, at this moment, the country's premier agency for dealing with such events -- FEMA -- is being, in effect, systematically downgraded and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security.

( Federal disaster declarations covered 90,000 square miles along the U.S. Gulf Coast, an area roughly the size of Great Britain )

( Things turn ugly at the New Orleans Convention Center )

( "The sight of a superpower humbled is in itself humbling," the Daily Telegraph wrote in an editorial )

Marooned doctors plead 'Please help us'

Doctors at two desperately crippled hospitals in New Orleans called The Associated Press Thursday morning pleading for rescue, saying they were nearly out of food and power and had been forced to move patients to higher floors to escape looters.

(See the video report of a sniper attack at Charity Hospital -- 1:06)

( She asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, "Go to hell - it's every man for himself" )

Housing for Refugees

callmecayce: "I don't know if you've gotten this one, but http://moveon.org just emailed me about this their housing site. This is what (part of) the email said..."

This morning, we've launched an emergency national housing drive to connect your empty beds with hurricane victims who desperately need a place to wait out the storm. You can post your offer of housing (a spare room, extra bed, even a decent couch) and search for available housing online at: http://www.hurricanehousing.org.

From

stepliana: ( If you know of students who were planning to attend a 4 year institution in the area of the hurricane and are now without a college home, we will guarantee admission )

More housing help: http://www.katrinahome.com.

The Houston SPCA is taking in the pets of refugees arriving in the Houston area:

Due to the hit from Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast region, the Louisiana SPCA moved all animals out of their shelter to the Houston SPCA. We are now accepting animals from those who are staying in Houston Area Shelters. For those needing shelter for their pets, please call our hotline at 713-802-0555.

Monetary donations are needed to help us care for the over 260 extra animals in our shelter and to help us help the Louisiana SPCA respond to the needs of the animals still in the area.

Hurricane Katrina resources from

lederhosen and more from

zarq.

( Late addition: Snopes tackles Katrina )

That's all for now, because I'm afraid I'll exhaust LJ's single entry capacity.

Satellite pictures: before and after Katrina.

Articles are disappearing as they update the URL, so here's one you need to read before they change it. ( New Orleans Mayor Issues 'Desperate SOS' )

An email forwarded from my mother. I have withheld the contact information, and I would prefer not to give it since I don't have direct permission to repost this, but--the email starts off with "This is a devastating report that needs to be publicized," so... I can do that. My point is, I can provide verifying/contact information if necessary. ( Subject: FW: Neonatal Evacuation report from New Orleans )

Charities

Thank you so much for all the links and suggestions--I may try to compile them in a laundry list later, but right now,

crickets_lj has been collecting the legwork of several other people, and we're discussing some kind of "top four or five basic can't-go-wrong" donation links. I'm giving you the link so you can go through what other people have come up with as well, which include:

oulangi's entry on making sure you get a reputable charity. More on her journal.

(While we're here: why you should donate money instead of goods. Short version: by the time they've spent money to ship the goods down there, they could have spent the money more efficiently on goods in bulk more locally.)

Charity Navigator: "America's premier independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."

Several good, reputable charity links at

dark_christian, a link I just got in my email. Notable: they list charities of different religions and denominations (Lutheran, Mennonite, and Tzu Chi were among the ones I saw).

Major charities, in no particular order:

1. ( The Red Cross )

2. Second Harvest: "America’s Second Harvest—The Nation’s Food Bank Network, the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization has activated its disaster mode in response to Hurricane Katrina. Learn more about how we work ..."

3. United Way: "100% of your gift will be used for Hurricane Katrina long-term recovery efforts. United Way and its partners will cover all associated fees regarding processing of credit cards and other administrative costs."

4. The Salvation Army: You may have issues with the "salvation" part, as I'm hearing they push that a bit. I'm also hearing that they're very good in crises, though. This being the South, the "salvation" part may not be as intrusive an issue as it might be elsewhere.

5. The Humane Society: I hadn't realized this before, but you can't take pets to shelters. People either had to abandon pets and just pray for the best, or stay and face the hurricane with them. There's no telling if some of these pets will ever see home or their owners again, and no telling how many owners have been separated from their pets--by evacuation, or literally by flood waters pulling them away. In the same vein: Noah's Wish: A not-for-profit animal welfare organization that keeps animals alive during disasters.

I want to do something towards raising funds, but I don't know what yet. It may be more useful to do something later, when the initial wave of generosity has been exhausted but there's still need out there.

Current Music: Sia, "Breathe Me"

News links I collected over the last couple of days:

I took my Chevy to the levee and the levee was... uh, it was not dry.

Now everyone has to leave.

Communism breaks out on Canal Street:

On New Orleans' Canal Street, which actually resembled a canal, dozens of looters ripped open the steel gates on clothing and jewelry stores, some packing plastic garbage cans with loot to float down the street. One man, who had about 10 pairs of jeans draped over his left arm, was asked if he was salvaging things from his store.

"No," the man shouted, "that's EVERYBODY'S store!"

Different, updated version of that article.

And then it turns ugly. Guns were stolen from a Wal-mart (yeah, I bet you're glad you stock those now, you corporate asshats) and "gangs of armed men" are roaming the streets and, at one point, shooting at officers. There's a general amnesty on the looting of food, water, and medicines, however--it's not like anyone's around to sell them anyway.

"Minimum, hundreds [dead]. Likely, thousands."

Speaking of those levees, we all know the war in Iraq was way more worthwhile than finishing those:

"It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.

Oh, and from what I'm hearing--if you are in Atlanta or thereabouts, fill up on gas NOW. Just--trust me on this. I know that people freaking out and buying up the gasoline elsewhere is driving up the prices, but--you can't overcharge for something you don't have, if you see what I'm saying.

Don't forget about Mississippi (scroll down).

ccaretta reports from Mobile.

Who should we donate money to, y'all? The Red Cross has the biggest and most immediate presence, but I've heard bad things from people (firsthand) about their overhead and their habit of charging for goods and services. Is there anyone else with that kind of presence? I'm thinking in terms of Mississippi and Alabama as well as New Orleans.

ETA: "A Concert for Hurricane Relief." (Thanks,

elbiesee.)

Profile

cleolinda

Patreon

June 2024

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Iris at Dusk for Modular by branchandroot
Resources: Plum Together

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jun. 16th, 2025 04:38 am

Cleolinda everywhere

Classy dame, sparkle consultant, gothic enthusiast, sporadic recapper.

Entries tagged with hurricanes

I feel like it's Monday, and now I'll be confused all week

Early post for the hell of it

Notes from the Homefront

Katrina links

Katrina links

Katrina links

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

Profile

June 2024

Links

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags