I Gotta Ask Why ?

FEMA Brown Sent Back to DC; Coast Guard Takes Over

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/americas/4231170.stm

US emergencies chief Michael Brown is removed from his role managing the hurricane relief effort in Louisiana.

Wow!  Not sure if saying "About Time" is the best to say but it feels good.

~Kris

Katrina: Questions for an Inquiry

http://jacob.wordpress.com/2005/09/07/a-few-links-regarding-the-possible-jamming-of-communications/  |  Comments

http://crawfordpeace.nfshost.com/node/1833

“we now have a new unconfirmed report that the culprit may be the
Pentagon itself. The emitter is an IF (Intermediate Frequency) jammer
that is operating south southwest of New Orleans on board a U.S. Navy
ship, according to an anonymous source. The jamming is cross-spectrum
and interfering with superheterodyne receiver components, including
the emergency radios being used in New Orleans relief efforts”

http://www.resonant.org/20050904-fema-cut-emergency-communication-lines

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/04/worst-abandonments/

President of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, Aaron Broussard, on
Meet The Press: “Three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three
trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need
them. This was a week ago. FEMA, we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel
on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. When we got there with
our trucks, FEMA says don’t give you the fuel. Yesterday — yesterday
— FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines.
They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in,
he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards and said no one is
getting near these lines…”

Monday Update from Baton Rouge

Subject: The Government Sucks

Do you know anyone in the media?

We have been moving people on private transport and they are trying to stop what we are doing.

Katrina

This Is What Happens When I have A Sunday Off

I read the NYTimes, watch movies, drink coffee and post in my blog.  Whenever I see something on New Orleans my stomach flips.  Not only is half of my family from there, it's one of my most favorite cities in the US. 

I just came across this great article about New Orleans; What it Means To Miss New Orleans

Brings a tear to my eye reading this. 

We won't let you go away New Orleans

~Kris

Sunday Update from Baton Rouge

Katrina checks in with an update from the front line:

Hey,

As soon of you know, I'm in Baton Rouge at the shelters that were setup to handle the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. 

My brother John and I flew to Houston and drove to Baton Rouge with a 15 passenger van.  We have been working since Saturday morning helping organize the transportation for people out of the shelter to long-term shelters or to family members.

Its been pretty depressing.   Things have been unorganized, chaotic and sad, to say the least.  However, things are looking up.  We are clearing people out of the shelter quickly.  New shelters have opened up and we are moving people to them.

Angel Flights finally showed up and is starting to send  people on flights to family members all over the country.  Caveat: a flight has yet to take off, but we have been faxing forms like crazy.

We are still seeing people with injuries coming in.  They range from confused to upset.  I've seen people that have been sitting on roof tops for 5 days, older patients that have been evacuated from nursing homes and families that have no idea where the rest of their families are.

Families are being reunited.  It is taking teams of two people burning up phone lines to find people, but they are being found.  There is no centralized database in the shelters to locate missing persons.  There's not enough phones, computers or other equipment.

From BR,

Katrina

Idea's on How to Help

Besies the multitude of charities you can donate funds to, there are many things you can do yourself.  One issue of doing things yourself is you most likely don't have charity status and people donating to you can't use you as a charitable write-off.  Please dont' let this stop you from starting a project of help and making a difference.

What we started at our Company:

1. As an employer we are taking donations and will match what the employee's bring in; donating the whole thing to America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank.

Several employee's wanted to do more:

2. We contacted our vendor freight companies (Seko Worldwide, DHL, Elite (Portland), etc.) and asked for donations of freight costs.  We then handed out 5 gallon buckets to employees and had them fill them with canned food and clothing.  In the meantime we had aquired two palettes of water.  All this being shipped out next Wednesday to the Salvation Army logistics center in Baton Rouge.

Point is, use the resources you have and do something, you will feel good and be helping someone who so needs help.

Kris

Report from Baton Rouge

Last Thursday a friend of mine headed to Dallas and rented a van, and headed to Baton Rouge.  I was to go but stayed to help several relief projects my employee's wanted to start.

Latest Update:

From Sat;

I'm lucky,  I haven't seen many hurt people.  Those are on the way.  The people we are seeing were too
poor or too unlucky to be able to get out in time.   

Its sad.