i agree people are doing things and not advertising but i will use the "card" on someone who is just complaining.... looks like airlines are organizing flights to take people out. wish that could have been done earlier, hope its not to late
Well Tyree, I'm actually setting up 50 phones and 50 computers for volunteers to use over the next few days/weeks, so they can answer refugees calls for help through the 2-1-1 network. Looks like my weekend plans might be cancelled and I'll be working instead.
i know it's the wrong thread...but that's the kind of stuff that should have been done 2 days ago, with federal govt. involvement to make it happen. NOLA airport has been a shelter for those evacuated from hospitals. they're sick and they need out.
not the wrong thread, but i dont think it was possible 2 days ago, there still is no power and no communication, cant just land a commercial airplane at an airport that is basically a hospital right now...
I read on CNN that the police force has been severely affected by officers drowning in the floods, being shot, and handing in their badges.
Sure it was: <I>Airline pilots have been agitating for rescue flights for several days, at least since an American Airlines Boeing 757 landed at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong Airport to deliver supplies and evacuate more than 100 stranded employees and passengers.</I> A plane landed several days ago. Besides which, military planes are designed to fly into and land in dangerous environments. Regardless of whether commercial planes could land, military planes *certainly* could get in.
they cleared the airport for landings related to humanitarian missions three days ago. as the article says, they can fly in and out during daylight hours. this and a few cruise ships to the River Market near the convention center could have done days ago.
Where exactly is the N.O. Police Chief?? We have heard from him/her or anything about him/her all week
Even before an announcement could be made, Southwest Airlines Co., dispatched a Boeing 737 from Dallas to New Orleans just before noon today, according to airline spokeswoman Paula Berg. She said the plane would take evacuees to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Kudos to Southwest for not sitting on their ass.
FEMA is flat out incompetent (at least the leadership). Check this out: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html <I> NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday. The sanitized view came from federal officials at news conferences and television appearances. But the official line was contradicted by grittier, more desperate views from the shelters and the streets. These conflicting views came within hours, sometimes minutes of each of each other, as reflected in CNN's transcripts. The speakers include Michael Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, evacuee Raymond Cooper, CNN correspondents and others. Here's what they had to say: Conditions in the Convention Center FEMA chief Brown: We learned about that (Thursday), so I have directed that we have all available resources to get that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water and medical care that they need. (See video of CNN asking why FEMA is clueless about conditions -- 2:11) Mayor Nagin: The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies for the 15,000 to 20,000 people. (Hear Nagin's angry demand for soldiers. 1:04) CNN Producer Kim Segal: It was chaos. There was nobody there, nobody in charge. And there was nobody giving even water. The children, you should see them, they're all just in tears. There are sick people. We saw... people who are dying in front of you. Evacuee Raymond Cooper: Sir, you've got about 3,000 people here in this -- in the Convention Center right now. They're hungry. Don't have any food. We were told two-and-a-half days ago to make our way to the Superdome or the Convention Center by our mayor. And which when we got here, was no one to tell us what to do, no one to direct us, no authority figure. Uncollected corpses Brown: That's not been reported to me, so I'm not going to comment. Until I actually get a report from my teams that say, "We have bodies located here or there," I'm just not going to speculate. Segal: We saw one body. A person is in a wheelchair and someone had pushed (her) off to the side and draped just like a blanket over this person in the wheelchair. And then there is another body next to that. There were others they were willing to show us. Evacuee Cooper: They had a couple of policemen out here, sir, about six or seven policemen told me directly, when I went to tell them, hey, man, you got bodies in there. You got two old ladies that just passed, just had died, people dragging the bodies into little corners. One guy -- that's how I found out. The guy had actually, hey, man, anybody sleeping over here? I'm like, no. He dragged two bodies in there. Now you just -- I just found out there was a lady and an old man, the lady went to nudge him. He's dead. Hospital evacuations Brown: I've just learned today that we ... are in the process of completing the evacuations of the hospitals, that those are going very well. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta: It's gruesome. I guess that is the best word for it. If you think about a hospital, for example, the morgue is in the basement, and the basement is completely flooded. So you can just imagine the scene down there. But when patients die in the hospital, there is no place to put them, so they're in the stairwells. It is one of the most unbelievable situations I've seen as a doctor, certainly as a journalist as well. There is no electricity. There is no water. There's over 200 patients still here remaining. ...We found our way in through a chopper and had to land at a landing strip and then take a boat. And it is exactly ... where the boat was traveling where the snipers opened fire yesterday, halting all the evacuations. (Watch the video report on corpses stacked in hospital stairwells -- 4:45 Dr. Matthew Bellew, Charity Hospital: We still have 200 patients in this hospital, many of them needing care that they just can't get. The conditions are such that it's very dangerous for the patients. Just about all the patients in our services had fevers. Our toilets are overflowing. They are filled with stool and urine. And the smell, if you can imagine, is so bad, you know, many of us had gagging and some people even threw up. It's pretty rough.(Mayor's video: Armed addicts fighting for a fix -- 1:03) Violence and civil unrest Brown: I've had no reports of unrest, if the connotation of the word unrest means that people are beginning to riot, or you know, they're banging on walls and screaming and hollering or burning tires or whatever. I've had no reports of that. CNN's Chris Lawrence: From here and from talking to the police officers, they're losing control of the city. We're now standing on the roof of one of the police stations. The police officers came by and told us in very, very strong terms it wasn't safe to be out on the street. ( The federal response: Brown: Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well. Homeland Security Director Chertoff: Now, of course, a critical element of what we're doing is the process of evacuation and securing New Orleans and other areas that are afflicted. And here the Department of Defense has performed magnificently, as has the National Guard, in bringing enormous resources and capabilities to bear in the areas that are suffering. Crowd chanting outside the Convention Center: We want help. Nagin: They don't have a clue what's going on down there. Phyllis Petrich, a tourist stranded at the Ritz-Carlton: They are invisible. We have no idea where they are. We hear bits and pieces that the National Guard is around, but where? We have not seen them. We have not seen FEMA officials. We have seen no one. Security Brown: I actually think the security is pretty darn good. There's some really bad people out there that are causing some problems, and it seems to me that every time a bad person wants to scream of cause a problem, there's somebody there with a camera to stick it in their face. Chertoff: In addition to local law enforcement, we have 2,800 National Guard in New Orleans as we speak today. One thousand four hundred additional National Guard military police trained soldiers will be arriving every day: 1,400 today, 1,400 tomorrow and 1,400 the next day. Nagin: I continue to hear that troops are on the way, but we are still protecting the city with only 1,500 New Orleans police officers, an additional 300 law enforcement personnel, 250 National Guard troops, and other military personnel who are primarily focused on evacuation. Lawrence: The police are very, very tense right now. They're literally riding around, full assault weapons, full tactical gear, in pickup trucks. Five, six, seven, eight officers. It is a very tense situation here. </I>
I heard an interview with the head of FEMA on the radio yesterday that was unbelievable. The interviewer was asking him about the "thousands of people" in dire conditions at the Convention Center, and the FEMA chief kept saying things like, "I don't know that it's thousands" and "We need to be careful about one or two anecdotes" and "I haven't heard reports of those conditions so I can't comment on that." Meanwhile, all he had to do was turn on CNN to get reports of the conditions over there. Seriously, if Brown doesn't lose his job over this, something's very very wrong.
I don't think there is much people can do, and there is not much blame to place, this is what a catastophre is. You are talking about stretching a lot of help over a large area that is covered in water. It's just not that easy to do. Especially when you have no practice. And when you did not expect 1/3 of the city to still be there. Not to mention it Mogdishu down there as well. I really don't think there is any blame here. It just is what it is. And everyone is doing all they can do.
A bit more in the good news department: ----- Cdn navy heads to New Orleans on Tuesday HALIFAX (CP) - Defence Minister Bill Graham says three warships and a coast guard vessel are being packed with relief supplies and will be sent to Louisiana on Tuesday. The ships, which will also carry 1,000 personnel, are expected to arrive in the Gulf of Mexico three to four days after departing from Halifax. Organizers of the mission, dubbed Operation Union, were still compiling a list of what's needed on Friday. They expect to provide humanitarian aid, along with divers, and engineering expertise for reconstruction. Three Sea King helicopters will also be sent to ferry personnel into the devastated areas. Graham says he's been consulting with Prime Minister Paul Martin and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, who is leading a cabinet committee on aid response. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/09/02/1199575-cp.html
PM: Canada will up oil output Prime Minister Paul Martin answers reporter's questions about Hurricane Katrina. (CP PHOTO - Larry MacDougal) SASKATOON (CP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin promised Friday that Canada will provide more energy to the U.S. in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, but with oil production already flat-out, Canadians will have to use less fuel to create extra supply. Responding to a plea from the International Energy Agency for member countries to release reserves, Martin said Canada is prepared to help. "Canada, through the offices of the deputy prime minister and the minister of energy, will be saying that we are there and that we are prepared to do our part," Martin said while visiting Saskatoon for Saskatchewan's centennial celebrations. "Canada is not an importer, we're an exporter, so for that reason we do not have reserves," he said. "So the question is are we going to be in a position to provide additional supplies and . . . we have checked across the country with the companies and the provinces . . . (and) we will be able to do so. The purpose of this is to stabilize the prices, to make sure there is in fact stability in the prices, at the same time as helping the Americans." A senior federal government official later said Ottawa hopes Canada will be able to increase supply because higher gasoline prices will encourage Canadians to conserve. "The way that'll happen is through a reduction in domestic demand," he said. "We think that the response to higher prices will be more than enough to meet our obligation." The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which speaks for all of Canada's major oil and gas producers, said tight supply in hurricane Katrina's wake should be a "call to action" for Canadians to lower their fuel usage. President Pierre Alvarez said Canadians need to conserve gasoline in the short term and not start "hoarding" fuel. Canadian energy companies may be able to find small de-bottlenecking projects to incrementally add production, and optional maintenance and shutdowns can be put off to keep oil flowing at full capacity, he said. But Alvarez added a significant ramp-up is not possible. And because damaged refineries along the Gulf Coast could take months or longer to return production to pre-Katrina levels, North American and global oil and gasoline prices could be affected for a long time. Alvarez said in the longer term, global energy market shockwaves created by Katrina should serve as a wake-up call to look closely at energy supply and the need for more pipelines coming out of the northern Alberta oilsands. The prime minister stressed aid will not come at the expense of Canadians, who are facing skryrocketing prices at the gas pumps. "Our goal will be to help stabilize the existing situation, but not in a way that would pose any diminution of supply for Canadians," he said. "The idea is in fact to stabilize the prices. The whole purpose of increasing the amount of oil that is on the market is directed to do the exact opposite. That is to make sure prices are stabilized." Martin also said he wants to tour the disaster area, but not until aid workers and U.S. officials have the situation in hand. "I certainly do expect to go down at some point but I want to go down when it's appropriate. "Obviously I think the better time is once Canadian aid is on the ground and is operating." Alberta officials were quick to agree with the oilpatch that it is not a simple task to increase oil output at a time when the industry is already operating at full-throttle to take advantage of record high prices. "Everything is at capacity already," said Cathy Housdorff of Alberta Energy. "As you can appreciate, you can't build a refinery in a couple of weeks. You can't expand a pipeline in that period of time either," she said from Edmonton. "One of the things probably being asked of people in North America is to take a look at our own consumption, and is there anything we can do to ease off on what we're using ourselves at this point in time?" On Friday, the Paris-based International Energy Agency said it will release two million barrels of oil a day for the next month from strategic reserves held by some of its 26 member countries. "The loss of production in the Gulf of Mexico and considerable damage to oil refining and transportation infrastructure constitute a serious disruption of supplies," the agency said in a release from Paris. The U.S. is expected to contribute 44 per cent of that amount in crude from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, while European government stockpiles will likely make up the rest. Because Canada is a net exporter of oil, it is not required to hold strategic reserves like the United States. Fears of escalating fuel prices spread across the U.S. this week as damaged Gulf Coast refineries and fuel lines shut down. It's estimated Katrina shut down 90 per cent of production facilities on the Gulf of Mexico. On Thursday, U.S. President George W. Bush urged Americans to be prudent in their consumption of energy, but called the hurricane a "temporary disruption" to gasoline supplies. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/09/02/1199612-cp.html
Air Canada provides rescue flights to evacuate New Orleans; launches in-flight donations program for victims MONTREAL, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - In response to a request from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Air Canada is participating along with U.S. member airlines of the Air Transport Association, in a voluntary airline industry initiative to support rescue and relief operations in the region ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Air Canada today dispatched an Airbus A321 aircraft from Toronto to New Orleans, Louisiana, carrying bottled water and relief supplies. As part of the disaster relief effort organized by the Department of Homeland Security, Air Canada will operate shuttle flights on a continuous basis over the next several days to assist in the evacuation of approximately 25,000 victims, from New Orleans to the safety of Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas. Since Air Canada received the request for assistance yesterday evening from the Air Transport Association, of which it is a member, Air Canada employees worked around the clock to prepare and dispatch the donated aircraft and voluntary crew for the shuttle mission. The Air Canada Airbus A321 is the largest narrow-body aircraft in its fleet, capable of carrying up to 166 passengers and 5,600 kg of cargo. "On behalf of the more than 30,000 employees of Air Canada and the entire ACE group of companies, I want to express our sadness and extend our condolences to those affected by this terrible catastrophe," said Robert Milton, Chairman, President and CEO of ACE Aviation Holdings, on board the first flight as it departed Toronto today at 1:00 p.m. en route to New Orleans. "Air Canada is proud to represent Canada in this relief effort and contribute to help those in greatest need, as quickly as possible." In addition, Air Canada today announced a partnership with the Canadian Red Cross to help raise funds to assist people affected by Hurricane Katrina. Beginning as early as Saturday September 3, 2005, Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz flight attendants will distribute and collect Red Cross donation envelopes on flights across its North American network in Canada and the U.S. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-02-2005/0004099400&EDATE=
