The Katrina Horror Lives On

Jenny D breaks some terrible news. In an ongoing New Orleans homicide epidemic, five people were recently killed in 14 hours. They included filmmaker Helen Hill and Paul Gailiunas, a doctor who helped low-income patients. (UPDATE: Paul did not die. My apologies. He was shot, but remains in stable condition.) I didn’t know these two, but Jenny vouches for them as good people and I believe her. The thought of people being murdered because that Bush and FEMA view New Orleans as a problem that will eventually go away is enough to make me want to destroy something.

Editor and Publisher: “A photographer for the Times-Picayune of New Orleans who has undergone severe personal trauma since Hurricana Katrina hit was arrested Tuesday after trying to get police to shoot him to death. Police said he claimed he was depressed after he found out he didn’t have enough insurance money to rebuild his Katrina-damaged home.”

There’s Always Room for Gumbo

[EDITOR'S NOTE: USA Today reporter Bob Minzesheimer was assigned to review David Brinkley's The Great Deluge. The published draft has an extremely strange and disconcerting paragraph pertaining to gumbo. Return of the Reluctant has obtained Minzesheimer's original draft of the review, demonstrating just what kind of job the USA Today editors had on their hands.]

My name is Bob Minzesheimer and I am here to tell you that I like gumbo. Real gumbo. Not the pantywaist gumbo that they try to pass off in yuppie restaurants, but the real shit in New Orleans. Pre-Katrina.

If you ask me, the tsunami’s biggest tragedy was the sudden surcease in gumbo making. I’ve always thought New Orleans was a city that never slept. Forget the fact that the streets were flooded and that people were angry. No disaster should prevent a good batch of gumbo from being made, distributed and consumed. Why, for example, has Mayor Ray Nagin remained so silent on the gumbo question? Surely, Brinkley could have devoted a chapter to this seminal issue.

As we all know, real men eat real gumbo. Real men also read real books and review real books while they’re eating real gumbo or thinking about eating real gumbo. Gumbo is of paramount importance when assessing a book’s worth or determining the level of scholarship. David Brinkley, I suspect, is a gumbo fan. But he is not a real gumbo fan. And by real, I think you know what I mean.

This gumbo stance is problematic on several levels. His book cannot succeed until he slaps down the American Express on the table and pays at least $60 for a good bowl of gumbo. But I suspect he fears gumbo. No journalist should fear gumbo. Brinkley’s fear is evident on page 126 of his new book, The Great Deluge, where he writes:

Gumbo was the last thing on Nagin’s mind. As the bodies piled up, the gumbo stopped.

This, of course, is a preposterous assertion. For even in the face of government neglect, there is always room for gumbo. Real gumbo. Gumbo makes things better. If FEMA had fed the dehydrated Katrina survivors some gumbo, then nobody would be pointing fingers at Michael Brown.

I am a real man. I am also a real journalist. And I am momentarily a real book reviewer. But more importantly, I am the world’s foremost authority on gumbo. You may not know this, but I took a correspondence course and became a gumbo authority. Not even my wife knows this. I keep my gumbo expertise a secret from my friends and peers. I’ve kept quiet for too long. You, the devoted readers of USA Today, are the first to know.

I have been assigned to read this damn Brinkley book and I can’t stop thinking of gumbo. Many people have died and have had their lives uprooted. Such pedantic issues as government incompetence and unnecessary deaths mean nothing in the great scheme of things, particularly when gumbo is involved.

There is something about Brinkley’s face that makes me pine for gumbo. Surely I am not the only one who feels this way after staring at the author photograph. The cruel people at USA Today don’t pay me enough to buy real gumbo and chances are that you, the mere USA Today reader, haven’t experienced real gumbo.

So let’s stop all this discussion of who was right and who was wrong. Who needs more politics when there’s real gumbo to masticate upon? Let’s prevent Brinkley from writing more books. Come to my two-bedroom house anytime and let me show you that real gumbo makes the world go round.

The Height of Incompetence

Exhibit A: 1,300 lives. (via MeFi)

How Do They Sleep at Night?

It’s been kept under the table for a while, but the elderly are having major problems adjusting to their post-Katrina displacement. For those who haven’t died from the stress, many are facing severe cognitiive attrition without recovery (”Once it’s gone, it’s gone”). Or they’re severely disoriented and confused because they were too frail to move. NPR covered the story this morning and it’s a heartbreaking segment, particularly the woman who carries her recently deceased husband’s photo in a brown bag. Of course, if this were any other country, there would be enough money earmarked to help these people adjust. But this being the United States, profligacy knows no limits. Heck of a job.

New Orleans — The Abandoned Stepchild

New York Times: “We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum. We said this wouldn’t happen. President Bush said it wouldn’t happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, ‘There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans.’ But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.” (via Ghost in the Machine)

[RELATED LINK: It looks like the New Orleans Public Library is also in serious trouble, with a whole slew of city history threatened. (Thank you, Dan Wickett.)]

And So It Begins Again

Rita: the third largest hurricane in history. Source of Texas oil supply. Population thankfully moving north. This will not be pretty.

New Acronyms for FEMA

Fracas Entertained, Minus Assistance
Federal Entity Mixes Assholes
Flyers, Entreaties, Madness & Asininity
Fecal Entrails Missing Accreditation
For Endless Mayhem Anon
Frail Eyes Mar Attention
From Ephemeral Minds, Asperger?

SF Katrina Benefit

From Stephen Elliott:

The Progressive Reading Series Presents:
A Special Benefit For The Victims Of Hurricane Katrina

When: Monday, September 19, 7pm
Where: The Makeout Room - 3225 22nd Street, San Francisco, (415) 647 2888
Price: $10 - $20 sliding scale
Proceeds to benefit the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Fund

What: Authors band together to help victims of Hurricane Katrina
Featuring readings from: Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Firoozeh Dumas, Julie Orringer, Peter Orner, Daphne Gottlieb, Kaui Hart Hemmings, Truong Tran, Michelle Richmond, Anne Marino, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, Tom Barbash, and Michelle Tea

If This Is True, Here’s Your Grounds for Impeachment

The Washington Post: “Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking [Gov. Blanco] to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state’s emergency operations center said Saturday.”

If there was an ultimatum issued and troops and aid to save lives were delayed because of this power grab, then the real investigations need to begin right now. Sickening. (via MeFi)

Who Needs Food and Water Anyway? Perhaps They Should Distribute Freshly Charged Cell Phones Too, Given That All the Phones Are Down.

Salt Lake Tribune: “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.”

First-Person Story from the Convention Center

The following email was forwarded to me. It originates from Lisa C. Moore:

i heard from my aunt last night that my cousin Denise made it out of New Orleans; she’s at her brother’s in Baton Rouge. from what she told me: her mother, a licensed practical nurse, was called in to work on Sunday night at Memorial Hospital (historically known as Baptist Hospital to those of us from N.O.). Denise decided to stay with her mother, her niece and grandniece (who is 2 years old); she figured they’d be safe at the hospital. they went to Baptist, and had to wait hours to be assigned a room to sleep in; after they were finally assigned a room,two white nurses suddenly arrived after the cut-off time (time to be assigned a room), and Denise and her family were booted out; their room was given up to the new nurses. Denise was furious, and rather than stay at Baptist, decided to walk home (several blocks away )to ride out the storm at her mother’s apartment. her mother stayed at the hospital.

she described it as the scariest time in her life. 3 of the rooms in the apartment (there are only 4) caved in. ceilings caved in, walls caved in. she huddled under a mattress in the hall. she thought she would die from either the storm or a heart attack. after the storm passed, she went back to Baptist to seek shelter (this was Monday). it was also scary at Baptist; the electricity was out, they were running on generators, there was no air conditioning. Tuesday the levees broke, and water began rising. they moved patients upstairs, saw boats pass by on what used to be streets. they were told that they would be evacuated, that buses were coming. then they were told they would have to walk to the nearest intersection, Napoleon and S. Claiborne, to await the buses. they waded out in hip-deep water, only to stand at the intersection, on the neutral ground (what y’all call the median) for 3 1/2 hours. the buses came and took them to the Ernest Morial Convention Center. (yes, the convention center you’ve all seen on TV.)

Denise said she thought she was in hell. they were there for 2 days, with no water, no food. no shelter. Denise, her mother (63 years old), her niece (21 years old), and 2-year-old grandniece. when they arrived, there were already thousands of people there. they were told that buses were coming. police drove by, windows rolled up, thumbs up signs. national guard trucks rolled by, completely empty, soldiers with guns cocked and aimed at them. nobody stopped to drop off water. a helicopter dropped a load of water, but all the bottles exploded on impact due to the height of the helicopter.

the first day (Wednesday) 4 people died next to her. the second day (Thursday) 6 people died next to her. Denise told me the people around her all thought they had been sent there to die. again, nobody stopped. the only buses that came were full; they dropped off more and more people, but nobody was being picked up and taken away. they found out that those being dropped off had been rescued from rooftops and attics; they got off the buses delirious from lack of water and food. completely dehydrated. the crowd tried to keep them all in one area; Denise said the new arrivals had mostly lost their minds. they had gone crazy.

inside the convention center, the place was one huge bathroom. in order to shit, you had to stand in other people’s shit. the floors were black and slick with shit. most people stayed outside because the smell was so bad. but outside wasn’t much better: between the heat, the humidity, the lack of water, the old and very young dying from dehydration… and there was no place to lay down, not even room on the sidewalk. they slept outside Wednesday night, under an overpass.

Denise said yes, there were young men with guns there.but they organized the crowd. they went to Canal Street and “looted,” and brought back food and water for the old people and the babies, because nobody had eaten in days. when the police rolled down windows and yelled out “the buses are coming,” the young men with guns organized the crowd in order: old people in front, women and children next, men in the back. just so that when the buses came, there would be priorities of who got out first.

Denise said the fights she saw between the young men with guns were fist fights. she saw them put their guns down and fight rather than shoot up the crowd. but she said that there were a handful of people shot in the convention center; their bodies were left inside, along with other dead babies and old people.

Denise said the people thought there were being sent there to die. lots of people being dropped off, nobody being picked up. cops passing by, speeding off. national guard rolling by with guns aimed at them. and yes, a few men shot at the police, because at a certain point all the people thought the cops were coming to hurt them, to kill them all. she saw a young man who had stolen a car speed past, cops in pursuit; he crashed the car, got out and ran, and the cops shot him in the back. in front of the whole crowd. she saw many groups of people decide that they were going to walk across the bridge to the west bank, and those same groups would return, saying that they were met at the top of the bridge by armed police ordering them to turn around, that they weren’t allowed to leave.

so they all believed they were sent there to die.

Denise’s niece found a pay phone, and kept trying to call her mother’s boyfriend in Baton Rouge, and finally got through and told him where they were. the boyfriend, and Denise’s brother, drove down from Baton Rouge and came and got them. they had to bribe a few cops, and talk a few into letting them into the city (”come on, man, my 2-year-old niece is at the Convention Center!”), then they took back roads to get to them.

after arriving at my other cousin’s apartment in Baton Rouge, they saw the images on TV, and couldn’t believe how the media was portraying the people of New Orleans. she kept repeating to me on the phone last night: make sure you tell everybody that they left us there to die. nobody came. those young men with guns were protecting us. if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have had the little water and food they had found.

that’s Denise Moore’s story.

Lisa C. Moore

Katrina Headlines XXVIII

Crooks and Liars: Amazingly, FOX News now concedes of the failure to help. Geraldo Rivera held up a baby, demanding all viewers to see the face of reality. Shep Smith shouts at Hannity!
Associated Press: Rhetoric not matching reality.
General Honore: “By-and-large, these are families that are just waiting to get out of here. They are frustrated; I would be, too. I get frustrated at the cash register counter when the paper runs out.” I like this guy.
WWL: Convention Center still not secure; considerable unrest.
NOLA: Loss of real estate records dating back to early 1800’s, could be nightmare at providing insurance claims.
Headline of today’s Times-Picayune: “HELP US, PLEASE.”
Paul Krugman weighs in: “At a fundamental level, I’d argue, our current leaders just aren’t serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don’t like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.”
Flamethrowing response from Steven Gilliard.
Storm Digest points to this DHS report about what’s coming in the convoy. No reference to MREs being distributed to Convention Center.
The Katrina “I’m OK” Registry.
Link to live New Orleans police radio scanner.
The Interdictor is still posting: “Homeland Sec comes driving by and yells water and hums a 20 ouncer at our feet without slowing down….Bunch of stressed out, trigger-ready police and military types driving by suspicious as all hell. It’s not safe just standing out on the street even if you look like you belong there.”
Accountability? Maybe: “Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who heads the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the panel’s top Democrat, said they would begin an oversight investigation next week into what they called an ‘immense failure.’”
70 year-old Nellie Washington: “What took you so long? I’m extremely happy, but I cannot let it be at that. They did not take the lead to do this. They had to be pushed to do it.”
Kanye West criticizes bush during telethon: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Kids set up lemonade stand for victims.

Finally, Some Good News

Aid has finally arrived.

Katrina Headlines XXVII

Every American needs to hear this. Nagin on radio interview. (Transcript.) : “I’ve talked to everybody under the sun. I’ve been out there man. I flew these helicopters, been in the crowds talking to people crying don’t know where their relatives are. I’ve done it all, man and I tell you man, Garland, I keep hearing that it’s coming. This is coming. That is coming. And my answer to that today is “BS”. Where is the beef? Cause there is no beef in this city. There’s no beef anywhere in southeast Louisiana and these god damn ships that are coming - I don’t see them.”
More reportage from high-rise.
City is now on fire.
Call your Senators, call your representatives, and demand immediate action and aid and assistance.
Visual comparison of CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News homepages. As can be expected, FOX stands out.

Katrina Headlines XXVI

For those looking for alternative coverage, the BBC is keeping a blog. Horrible first-hand reports of people left to die in rest homes and a man outside the Superdome screaming, “This is America, why are we in this situation?”
A lot of them are gone now, but new ones continue to crop up. People are posting sex-for-shelter ads (”Women with large breasts only,” “Must be self-starter,” “Send photos first.”) on the New Orleans Craig’s List site. MeFi thread. Interestingly, there seems to be a double standard for women posting similar messages.
Storm chasers catch video of Katrina.
Craig Giesecke isn’t too impressed by FEMA.
Daily Kos: “This is not politics. This is not partisanship. This is unforgivable.”
Images from Plaquemines Parish.
Hastert: “It looks like that place could be bulldozed.” Electric Mist ain’t happy.
Fats Domino found.
Bush cuts delayed flood control work. (Source: Reuters)
Oliver Willis has video inside the Convention Center: Dead babies, people without food or support for four days, all doing what they were asked.

Katrina Headlines XXV

FEMA directed donations to Pat Robertson’s faith-based charity; then tried to hide this after being exposed by Ken Layne.
Police Chief Eddie Cross: “We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten. Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon.”
WWL blog: Astrodome is now full. 23,000 people estimated to arrive in Houston. Numerous reports of New Orleans police turning in their badges.
Another report from the Superdome: Reports of lawlesness, disorganization, unbearable stench, long lines, enough to make a new Mel Gibson movie: Mad Max: Beyond Superdome.
Blanco gets into pissing fight with Dennis Hastert. Hastert’s comments can be found here.
Local officials incensed: “Some people there have not eaten or drunk water for three or four days, which is inexcusable.”
More from CNN: No word on where the people not let into the Astrdome will go. One resident pleading for someone with a bullhorn to talk with these people to come in before the National Guard.
It’s a questionable source, given that weapons were checked upon entry, but British students are saying that inside the Superdome, there were guns, knives, crack cocaine use, threats of violence, racial abuse, and the rape of a seven year old girl in the bathroom.
First-hand reports from Mongo: “Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint….There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area — Saulet Condos — once they tried to get cars from there… well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed.” These folks are reporting news until the generators go down. Incredible.
Pictures being posted from the streets of New Orleans: including the first water dropoff in days.
Salon: “On cable news, our normally buttoned-down blow-dried correspondents, almost all of them white, are cracking under the strain of bearing witness to the suffering and even death of the people who weren’t looting, who did the right thing and headed to the Superdome, only to find a worse hell awaited them. “
More reports from inside the Superdome from a more legit source: It’s being run like a concentration camp and two children have been raped. Confirmation of seven year old girl being raped as well as eight year old boy. Indeterminate others raped.
Tourists fleeced of money, told to wait for buses that never arrived. “The tourists here are an afterthought.”
Anderson Cooper tears Landrieu a new one: “Senator, I’m sorry… for the last four days, I have been seeing dead bodies here in the streets of Mississippi and to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other.” (Transcript ) (Video link)
Bush says, “I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the levees.” He was wrong. Mr. Bill did back in 2004.

Poppy Z. Brite — Is She Okay?

Troubling news from Caitlin Kiernan: It seems she’s been unable to get in touch with Ms. Brite in Mississippi. Jesus, I hope she’s okay.

[UPDATE: Poppy's okay and has has just posted at her blog.]

Katrina Headlines XXII

Okay, we’re doing our best to balance the tragic with the comic (one of the reasons we extended the photo contest). Apologies for the inconsistency in tone, but it keeps us sane. So here’s the latest rundown.

Blog transforms into first-person account of what’s happening in New Orleans. Sounds like the police infrastructure has turned into Rio Bravo. (via MeFi)
Multiple telethons prepared to raise funds for Katrina victims.
NOLA: Looters getting closer to heavily populated areas.
Radio used to inform people of horrors.
Thousands now belived drowned; martial law in effect.
WWL blog is reporting that buses are arriving early at Astrodome, some of them renegade.
Craig’s List New Orleans flooded with housing offers.
Horrific reports from within the Superdome: people sleeping in urine and peeing on the floor.
T-Mobile offers free wi-fi.
New York Times: “Waiting for a Leader.”
Storm Digest reminds us that typhoid and cholera are next.
Engineers struggle to find ways of “unwater” New Orleans (via < Brendan Loy, who is doing a great job).

Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg has started the fight about the Bush Administration’s late response.
Maud points to this article of New Orleans literary landmarks.
500 complaints of gas gouging in IL.
In Florida, thieves are posing as FPL workers and stealing cash from widows.
New York Yankees and NFL gives $1 million to aid.
Jack Shafer wants to know why race and class haven’t been mentioned.

Katrina Headlines XX

Katrina Checkin: A place to connect people affected by Hurricane Katrina to their loved ones.
While Bush continues to remain silent, Texas Governor Rick Perry pledges to open up the Astrodome, with evacuees arriving within the next 24 hours.
Also from WWL blog, flights to New Orleans International could resume in two months.
NOLA: Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Walter Maestri broke into tears, begging for necessities of life to be brought to workers. The phone number is 504-349-5360.
No dignity for the dead.
A list of what’s now gone from the Mississippi Coast. (via Storm Digest)
Multiple Katrina maps.
NOLA: Looters trying to break into children’s hospital.
Paul at Wizbang, who is down to four pairs of underwear, is telling everyone to chill out.

Huzzahs to the Times-Picayune

The Times-Picayune must be commended for their remarkable journalism under the circumstances. Remarkable photos, first-hand accounts and solid information to draw conclusions from. These folks are still putting out a newspaper despite having to capitulate their building and despite a paper edition precluded by the rising waters. In today’s edition, there are the following details:

Terry Ebert, director of New Orleans Homeland Security: “Truth to tell, we’re not too far from filling in the bowl.”
The waters are rising at about 3 inches per hour.
There are apparently gangs of armed men moving around the city, having obtained their weapons stock from a brand new Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District.
The silver lining of a slow surge is that the death toll is considerably lesser than what might have happened, had the eye passed directly over New Orleans.
Plans are in place to stop the flooding through 800 tons of concrete. There are about 108 15,000 pound concrete barriers that the Army Corps of Engineers hopes to drop into place by air.

Katrina Headlines XIX

Email from rescuer at BoingBoing.
CNN says the people at the Superdome, who number between 12,000 and 15,000, could be there for a week. Apparently, plans to rescue these people are being made. But nothing has been revealed thus far. With rising floodwaters, it would seem to me that some action should be determined immediately.
WDSU: Entire city will soon be underwater.
A three-foot shark is cruising the streets.
The word from Lieutenant Governor Landrieu: 3,000 rescued to date. Also, the helicopters that were planning to drop 3,000 pound sandbags and stop the levee never arrived. Mayor Ray Nagin extremely upset. Where were these helicopters? In Iraq, as other reports have noted?
Amazingly, the NFL says the Saints will play at the Superdome on September 18.
Storm Digest notes that the Gulf Coast News Missing Persons Database was hacked.
Chris Martel observes that the same networks airing commercial-free tsunami coverage for days aren’t even covering Katrina.
Electric Mist describes the refuge situation in Baton Rouge.
This blog is devoted to the damage at Slidell.
The LA Times on the prison riot.
Bush 404 Error
What stage is Katrina at right now? Let meterologist Jeff Masters tell you.
Some places to donate.

Photo Caption Racism

Black people loot, white people borrow. (via Maud)

Katrina Headlines XVIII

Goddam. I thought we were going to win this. The latest from WWL: “Efforts to stop the levee break at the 17th Street Canal have ended unsuccessfully and the water is expected to soon overwhelm the pumps in that area, allowing water to pour into the east bank of Metairie and Orleans to an expected height of 12-15 feet.”
Times-Picayune: “Homes in West End, Bucktown and at the Orleans-Jefferson Parish line are nearly underwater, with residents being plucked from the water and rooftops by passing boats, WWL-TV video shows.”
Biloxi appears devastated from air.
Hurricanes from space.
Long-form feature from the L.A. Times.
All people are urged to evacuate. Efforts to beat the levee are over.
Main public hospital no longer functioning.
What’s the word on the Superdome evacuation?

Katrina Headlines XVI

The big question: is there any confirmation that the water is still rising or have the sandbags dropped in the levee somehow managed to halt the waterflow from the lake?
WWL is now reporting that state officials are trying to figure out how to transfer 4,000 inmates from the New Orleans jail and 1,000 inmates from the Jefferson Parish jail. Both prisons face flooding.
Now all hotel guests are going to the Superdome.
Now here’s where Republican self-sufficient state policy gets interesting: Louisiana is begging the White House to waive federal rules that push a sizable chunk of the financial burden of the cleanup onto the state. They want the federal government to help pick up the tab. Here’s where things get interesting: During the Florida hurricanes, FEMA picked up 100% of the costs after the first 72 hours. Will there be a quid pro quo, a deal with the devil, or a poltical favor to ensure that FEMA picks up 100% of the tab for Louisiana after three days? I sincerely hope political reporters are paying attention to this. Josh Marshall, will you keep this issue alive?
Katrina in Louisiana.

Katrina Headlines XV

Great coverage over at Brendan Loy.
Many victims left with nothing.
Video aerial tour of coastline wiped out is at MSNBC.
Hugh Hewitt wants some ideas on how to coordinate fundraising.
Looting: “It’s downtown Baghdad.”
How the media’s been improvising to report the storm.
Retail stocks take plunge.
MSNBC’s Janet Shamlian describes what she’s seen in a Q&A.
Katrina effort is largest undertaking of American Red Cross in its history.
More global warming name-calling from Ross Gelbspan.
More good coverage from Deadly Katrina.
Blanco says there is a plan to rescue people in Superdome: (1) get them food and supplies, (2) develop network to get them out.
More on the energy relation.
They’ve even thought about the pets.
From Brendan Loy: An elevation map from the Washington Post, with the French Quarter on high ground.
Reports of looters shooting cop in head.

Katrina Headlines XIV

National Guard says there’s 60,000 people in the Superdome.
One of the deaths at the Superdome: a person leaping to their death from the upper level.
Biloxi apartment complex: 30 dead in collapse.
Mobile Loaves and Fishes coming into act.
$3 gas in Omaha.
Logic Voice points to this Democracy Now item: Iraq war will play role in recovery. Much of the Louisiana National Guard’s equipment is in Iraq.
Overview of Katrina’s economic effects.
Behind the scenes at the National Hurricane Center.
Times-Picayune: Latest update on neighborhoods. Seems that area near West Jefferson Hospital is dry, as is 1700 block of N. Turnbull St. Rumor now that water around Canal Blvd. does not seem to be rising. So perhaps we’ve reached the peak of the levee breach flooding.
Missing Persons Number: 225-925-6626.
WWL-TV blog: Confirmation that 60,000 people are in Superdome, Jefferson Parish saying that schools could reopen two months after Labor Day.

Rising Floodwaters Outside Superdome