Reply With Quote
Kori and LJ,
I've always thought you two were awesome people but you just went up a couple of notches in my book with your offer to house orphans.
I wish I was living in a house and had room, I'd be right there with you.
Thanks for the info on shareyourhome.org, Dan. We filled out the form as we are willing to take in 2 kids if necessary.
Kori and LJ,
I've always thought you two were awesome people but you just went up a couple of notches in my book with your offer to house orphans.
I wish I was living in a house and had room, I'd be right there with you.
not suprising.
Kori and LJ are platinum.
If I was home, Id be more than willing to house a family.
I just heard a C130 fly over heading towards Kelly.
FEMA is a co-ordination agency.. not an actually staffed agency.. They just do direction.. I.E. tell military and other civil service where to go and what do to. Also they handle funding issues ... but FEMA itself is not some kinda of aid organization. Just a command and control thing.
For everybody complimenting WWL-TV (and I know I have, the Times-Picayune) for their coverage, I thought you might get a good read out of this.
-----
Media Converge on LSU Campus
By Jill Geisler (more by author)
More in this series
In Baton Rouge Saturday night, faculty, staff and graduate students of Louisiana State University's Manship School of Journalism mingled at Dave Kurpius' home. Over tandoori chicken, they talked about the new school year and the hurricane that appeared to be turning in a safe direction. Kurpius, the school's associate dean, thought he wouldn't get the call he had worried about.
But hours later, it came. WWL-TV, owned by the Belo Corporation, was bailing out of New Orleans. Staffers were on their way to LSU, following a plan put into place a year earlier, when WWL's execs saw the challenges stations faced in Florida storms. Knowing the station was in an area vulnerable to flooding in a storm, they identified LSU as an emergency back-up broadcast site.
By Sunday afternoon, Kurpius, a former TV news director, was greeting the first wave of broadcasters –- some refugees from New Orleans, some support staff from other Belo facilities. A satellite truck from Belo's KHOU in Houston settled in near Hodges Hall, the j-school headquarters, to be the broadcast lifeline for WWL's newscast.
The Manship school boasts a state-of-the-art news studio. While professionals re-configured it to align with the sat truck specifications, students showed up to help. School is officially closed through September 6, but many are still on campus. Those from hurricane-hit areas can hardly go home.
Kurpius watched students turn into teachers, schooling the refugee broadcasters on the school's graphics system and switcher. When WWL took to the air at 9:30 Sunday night, students ran studio cameras, and had helped cover stories.
"When I told the chancellor (Sean O'Keefe) that WWL might be coming, he said 'Let us know, we'll give them everything they need,' " said Kurpius.
They needed plenty. The estimated 100 staffers from Belo were joined by CNN crews, then several dozen journalists from The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune. The newspaper crew moved into the school's computer lab to publish the Web edition of the paper.
As of Wednesday afternoon, university dining services had been serving breakfast, lunch and dinner to the crews, then dropping by with bottled water and coffee. Kurpius lined up dorm rooms for weary workers, while others caught rest in classrooms and even the news studio. Because they are working around the clock, the journalists simply rotate through the available dorm rooms.
But the university sent more. Aware that many of those on duty left families and devastated homes behind, LSU called out counselors. According to Kurpius, some are on site, others on call.
Professors and news execs are both expected to pinch pennies these days –- so what's the bottom line on all this generosity?
Kurpius, the point man for so much of this support, didn't negotiate contracts or set up an elaborate billing system. He says the chancellor told him, "Just do it, we’ll figure it out later."
To understand that response, Kurpius says all he need do is look out his office window and see the helicopters landing. The school's Pete Maravich Assembly Center is a triage point for people being brought in by land and air -– some dead, he says, others almost dead. The nearby indoor track and field center is a special needs shelter for Katrina's casualties.
Kurpius understands the critical role of information for those victims and their families, and how the university's safe haven for journalists provides an essential service in critical times. The school says they're welcome "as long as they need to be," and when school resumes next week, students from the advanced TV news course will adjust their syllabus to include helping out on what might be the biggest story of their budding carriers.
A few displaced journalists will be sleeping at Dave Kurpius' house, too. His wife Allison encouraged him to bring them home. He says the LSU faculty and staff feel this way: "We have our homes, we know where our loved ones are. We're very lucky. We just need to help."
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/hurricane_katrina/
I hadn't seen this picture before...I don't even know what to say. The first one in the series.
Damn, just got done talking to big sis. Some perspective for the "where is the aid" Monday Morning Quarterback types...
The disaster area for this event (I know everyone is focused on NO) is 90,000 square miles.
Read that number again - NINETY THOUSAND square miles. Just something to think about when you're ing it's taking too long to get help in places.
Didn't you rip FEMA earlier in this thread, AHF?
Thats true AHF, but the real place in need of help is much smaller. It really is only NO that is in need of immediate aid. It's just not the same. I don't honestly know what the situation is and whos fault if anyone's it is, but lets keep things in the proper perspective.
I was hoping KRT had the rights to that photo so that I could see the hi-res version of it, but AP owns the rights instead.
We need to stop eating our own...
New Orleans is not San Antonio... we grew out of the Ashes of war and the advent of Air Power. They grew off crawdads and beads
Different breed of folks..
That being said let's remember who we are.. Spurs Fans.. and spurs fans must chill. Because we are all good people..
The world is about to see how a first class city treats Americans in need. We are gonna have a fiesta baby and every fugee is gonna want to party here in town...
We about to get a big Cajun injection of love....
Hurricane, Levys, People who could have left that didn't, People engaged in criminal acts(this does not include survival needs), City Gov, State Gov, Federal Gov.
In that order.
And it's not just NO that needs help...the media just isn't covering Mississippi as well. Mississippi took that Cane head on...
MS defeinetly needs help, but the people are much easer to access because they aren't in a flooded toilet bowl with mobs running around.
Yeah, as I got some info. outside the media my opinion has changed.Didn't you rip FEMA earlier in this thread, AHF?
Another thing from my conversation - this simply isn't the case. Everything is ed up for 5 miles inland in Mississippi.MS defeinetly needs help, but the people are much easer to access because they aren't in a flooded toilet bowl with mobs running around.
She said that the biggest problem is logistics... all the roads are covered with debris, trees, houses, boats, etc. in Miss. The only way to get any aid into anywhere in coast MS and Alabama, as well as New Orleans, is by rotory air (helicopter).
There's only so many choppers they can get.
For example the Army pre-positioned teams in northern MS, Alabama, and Florida that had helped with tsunami relief last year, particularly rebuilding essentials (lots of engineers). They started out by deploying teams via ground, only to find that the roads are totally impassable.
So they've had to regroup and try to fly in the teams, problem is almost all helicopter resources in the southern US are being focused in NO.
Uh..no...the Mayor said he was pleased with the prestorm evacuation effort. I don't think anyone knew there were this many people left in the city.
Look...the responsiblity for city evac drills falls on the city government...the responsiblity for National Guard placement falls on the state government...the Govenor of Louisiana is CIC of the Lousiana National Guard....a shared responsbility with the President. Louisiana had 8000 guardsmen available in State to support this operation at the beck and call of the Govenor...where were they? Nowhere in sight.
It's the up the local governments to know their cities and the situation...not the fed, the Fed doesn't go around chasing mayors around...the Fed has to worry about the entire freaking country...the speciffics are up to the local governments...
And if the local governments tell you differently, they are lying to you.
Did you ever see this kind of crap happen in Florida? Is the Federal response crappy in Florida? No...because their city and stat governments take the lead on this crap in the early stages and the Fed steps into for the mass evacs.
You can blame the Feds for not being able to get in there fast enough today...but every thing that lead up to today is on the City and State Governments.
Agreed...
Then again...Mississippi doesn't have rape, murder, and sniper squads in their shelters, attacking their rescue workers, forcing other responsibilities on their workers, and running around sending the city into total freaking anarchy.
The people of NO don't get a free pass on this disaster...they have large groups of people engaging in serious criminal activity, weak civil leadership, and an uncommitted police force.
New Orleans has always been a wild freaking town...that's part of what makes it New Orleans...and much of this situation is because of the type of town that it is.
I mean New Orleans is the murder capital of the Wolrd you know...and has been for many many years.
It's a dark ritualistic city, that's part of it's mystique...and the compunding factors of this disaster are just reflection of that.
Man, listening to these interviews New Orleans is a living .
The main doctor at either the convention center or the Superdome said that there was no security and he and his staff were being threatened...he said in one night there were 3 murders and one rape. He said he got the out and won't be going back until his safety can be guranteed.
At one of the places there is one ing nurse and she has no supplies.
At one of the hospitals the National Guard is having to protect the hospital staff from angry mobs wanting food and water...even though they don't have any food or water themselves.
The cops are saying they won't get out of their cars when they are one cop being expected to control 2000-3000 people that have guns...
Another guy said that the Police haven't slept, seen their families, or changed clothes in 4 or 5 days, theri own homes are destroyed, and are having as much trouble finding food ...he said some of them are doing good just to protect their own headquarters and keep each other alive.
In some of the precincts 50-60% of the Police Force disappeared...
The CNN Producer I am listening to now said he was getting fired on by the looters.
Said the looters are firing on the police the instant they see them.
Insane.
Military analyst on CNN said that the President cannot empower the National Guard to act as Law Enforcement Officers in a State...only the Govenor of the State has the power to authorize them as Law enforcement officers(make arrests, shoot to kill orders).
Said the Guard was ready to evac New Orleans after the Hurricane but when the Levy broke it made it as difficult for them to get in as it was for everyone else to get out.
Govenor of New Orleans is saying she needs 40,000 National Guardsmen...Holy ...for one City with 50 K people left in it? That's almost a guardsmen per person...
It only took 10k troops to seize Baghdad initially and that city has millions of people in it.
Mayor of New Orleans is passing the buck....from Baton Rouge...piece of needs to be in his city, didn't he watch Guilianni...No wonder things are going to ...if he bailed how can he expect his cops to stay?
Last edited by whottt; 09-02-2005 at 05:24 AM.
This Mayor of New Orleans is a Grade A piece of ...blames everyone but himself and accepts no responsibility. I guess he doesn't realize that there is only one person in charge of that city..it's him, and he's not even there... while his cops are getting their asses shot off and having to fight for food. What an asshole.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/0...log/index.html
That could get pretty hairy when they try to get control of that prison back.It's tough to verify from our vantage point here, but one of the officers said that some of the inmates at the Orleans Parish jail may have taken control of the prison. From what we are hearing, the prisoners have weapons. They have not left the jail. They can't get out. But we heard that they have control of weapons inside the jail.
If this was already posted, I'm sorry...
He's lucky he's in the United States.
In many countries, he'd get a bullet between the eyes for this kind of performance.
Depot explosion in NO, per Yahoo.
(AP) -- Major developments in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:
The relative calm of night was disrupted early Friday with a series of massive explosions on the riverfront a few miles south of the French Quarter.
Congress rushed a $10.5 billion recovery bill to President Bush, who called the relief effort the biggest in U.S. history.
Texas agreed to triple to 75,000 the number of evacuees being taken in from Louisiana. Houston officials temporarily stopped admitting people to the Astrodome late Thursday after accepting 11,325. Others will be housed in the adjacent Reliant Center, where the Houston Texans play football.
President Bush planned a tour of Gulf Coast communities battered by Hurricane Katrina, a visit aimed at alleviating criticism that he engineered a too-little, too-late response.
Asia-Pacific nations including tsunami-battered Sri Lanka promised Friday to send money and disaster relief experts to the United States to help deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Lawmakers demanded an investigation into gasoline prices after thousands of motorists called a government hotline to complain of price gouging. The Energy Department reports more than 5,000 calls, though there was no way to immediately determine how many of the allegations were valid.
Crude oil prices eased slightly Friday and gasoline futures fell for the first time in a week as several energy facilities on the Gulf Coast resumed operations. Crude oil contracts from November through February traditionally high demand months were all trading above $70 a barrel.
The military expects to put 30,000 National Guard troops on duty in the Gulf states as demands grow for more security and relief assistance, officials said.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
