New Orleans

I can't tear myself away from the Hurricane Katrina coverage, for reasons personal and professional. What's the best way to keep track of the coverage? Any good RSS feeds?

WDSU.com has a live feed, and most of the news outlets have "Blogs" that don't appear to have RSS feeds.

CNN is reporting that the roof of the Superdome is failing... Thousands of New Orleans residents went to the Superdome for refuge.

Subject: Re: New Orleans

dailyheights wrote: I can't tear myself away from the Hurricane Katrina coverage, for reasons personal and professional. What's the best way to keep track of the coverage? Any good RSS feeds?

WDSU.com has a live feed, and most of the news outlets have "Blogs" that don't appear to have RSS feeds.

CNN is reporting that the roof of the Superdome is failing... Thousands of New Orleans residents went to the Superdome for refuge.

Google for public webcams in the area. Most every city has at least one.

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real-time/atlantic/storm/storm2.html

This site is really good--lots of images, official updates, etc. I know, I'm riveted for personal reasons too...my whole family lives there (and has for generations--please don't flood!!!), and I just got married there in April... everyone as far as I know has gotten out, though, at least out to Baton Rouge.

http://www.crownweather.com/tropical.html

It's freaking scary. I just got an email from the director at the New Orleans office of the nonprofit I work for saying that he's safe at a friend's home in Alabama but he doesn't know where two of our colleagues on his staff are.

BoingBoing.net suggested, among other things, the New Orleans Metblog (http://neworleans.metblogs.com/), Nola.com's webcams (http://www.nola.com/bourbocam/), various local LiveJournalers' eyewitness accounts of what's going on (http://www.livejournal.com/users/insomnia/599039.html), and Katrina pics on Flickr (http://flickr.com/photos/tags/katrina/clusters/).

Edited to add: Most of those webcams are offline, not surpisingly. Yeeks.

I also just found this Miles O'Brien's hurricane blog at CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/28/hurricane.blog/index.html

BEHOLD THE POWER OF TEH BLOGGER REVOLUTION:

Miles O'Brien's hurricane blog
CNN's Miles O'Brien is blogging on Hurricane Katrina from Louisiana.

8:17 a.m. ET Monday
The wind and rain are picking up significantly [in Baton Rouge].

END TRANSMISSION

Found one more interesting linky: WTSU Channel 6's Katrina blog (http://www.wdsu.com/news/4908558/detail.html).

http://www.wwltv.com/

My uncle sent me this--live local coverage in many formats.

Homeland Security Chief Terry Ebbert estimates it may take a month to get power back to everyone in New Orleans.

Councilman Oliver Thomas said he had received 120 distress calls from people in the Ninth Ward trapped by the storm. He said crews can not get to these people until hurricane force winds cease, the guess for that time frame is about 2 p.m.

Karen Swensen reports that Charity Hospital lost its windows on the 4th floor and that patients are being huddled in the hallways.

Senator Walter Boasso of St. Bernard Parish says there is 12 feet of water in most of the parish, up to the second floor in many homes.

Reports of 3-4 feet of water in Lakeview.

Apartment building on Wright Avenue in Terrytown has collapsed with people inside, according to Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee. Rescue crews have not been able to get to the scene as of 9:30 a.m.

Karen Swensen says there is 3 feet of water downtown near the Hyatt. She reports several office windows coming out whole from buildings.

Two holes ripped in Superdome roof, visible from facility floor, according to Associated Press reports.

.. A LEVEE BREACH OCCURRED ALONG THE INDUSTRIAL CANAL AT TENNESSE STREET. 3 TO 8 FEET OF WATER IS EXPECTED DUE TO THE BREACH...LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO ARABI AND 9TH WARD OF NEW ORLEANS.

St. Bernard Parish spokesman Larry Ingargiola says the parish's two shelters at Chalmette High and St. Bernard High are suffering major damage. He said Chalmette High shelter is losing its roof, and St. Bernard High has plenty of broken windows and glass. He estimates 300-plus refugees at the two sites.

Entergy says 317,000 customers were without power as of 6 a.m. Cleco reported 40,000 without power in St. Tammany Parish.

St. Bernard Parish officials say most of the parish has no power.

http://www.nola.com/weblogs/nola/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_nolaview/archives/2005_08.html#074761

So far, God willing, it could have been worse. It ain't good, but let's hope no more levees break. I'm very thankful that so many people sought shelter and took the evacuation warnings seriously. You can weather up through a category 3 in most modern homes, but Cat 4 and above, you get the hell out of Dodge.

Keep praying, and be on the lookout for what we can do in terms of Red Cross and other donations.

www.foxnews.com has good coverage

Alex wrote: www.foxnews.com has good coverage

I think perhaps weather coverage is the ONLY type of news I'd be inclined to watch on Fox.

apollonia666 wrote: [quote=Alex]www.foxnews.com has good coverage

I think perhaps weather coverage is the ONLY type of news I'd be inclined to watch on Fox.

I'm sure they will uncover and report the missing terrorist link between extreme natural phenomenons, WMD, and Iraq.

Mayor: 200 trapped on Ninth Ward rooftops; bodies floating in Bywater, Eastover

02:39 PM CDT on Monday, August 29, 2005

WWLTV.com

Mayor Ray Nagin said that 200 people were stranded on rooftops in the Lower Ninth Ward and several “bodies are floating in the water” in the Bywater neighborhood and in Eastover.

Nagin made the announcement in his first press briefing after Hurricane Katrina slammed just east of the city, but did plenty of devastation to New Orleans.

Nagin said that the 200 stranded people included 20 police officers who were riding out the storm at their homes in preparation to take over shifts from other officers. He said that boats would be dispatched on rescue missions later in the afternoon.

Mayor Nagin issued a "boil water" recommendation for water in the city - except for Algiers and the CBD due to a water main line break that may have compromised the water.

Nagin said at least 20 buildings in the city had collapsed and that it might be 48 hours before residents would be allowed back to their homes to assess the damage.

I wish I had time to set up a blog about what's going on right now in New Orleans. It's chaos.

The breach in the 17th Street canal (on the lakefront) is "football sized" and they are trying to sandbag it. In the meantime, all of downtown is filling up with water. No news on the airport that I've heard, but many of the roads out are now underwater since the levees broke. CNN is reporting that 80% of the city is "under water" now--that can't be right, can it??

The report on CNN a few hours ago was that there are about 10,000 people stuck in the Superdome and the authorities won't let them out yet, mainly because there's nowhere for them to go, and many of the roads out are pretty much blocked. The tension is getting pretty extreme, and one guy just deliberately jumped to his death - he got up from a domino game, said "look out" and threw himself over a balcony.

Refugees are flooding toward the Superdome right now, because the water is still rising. The area around the Superdome has gone from knee-deep to waist-deep and is expected to go even higher.

Finally, just saw footage of Canal Street looters - the stores are all being completely pillaged! People are stopping in the street to try on Nikes and make sure they get the best fit.

dailyheights wrote: I wish I had time to set up a blog about what's going on right now in New Orleans. It's chaos.

The breach in the 17th Street canal (on the lakefront) is "football sized" and they are trying to sandbag it.

I think you mean football-field sized...it's over 200 feet long.

www.wwltv.com has some incredible pictures and a good blog of updates.

It's terrifying and very sad.

has anyone else read christopher rice's a density of souls?
http://www.christopherricebooks.com/density.html
new orleans, hurricane, massive flooding, etc.

alafairnadia wrote: has anyone else read christopher rice's a density of souls?
http://www.christopherricebooks.com/density.html
new orleans, hurricane, massive flooding, etc.

Isn't he Anne Rice's son?

Well, that link is broken now, not surprisingly... Here's the latest from WWL:

HURRICANE KATRINA
Jeff Parish President. Residents will probably be allowed back in town in a week, with identification only, but only to get essentials and clothing. You will then be asked to leave and not come back for one month.

Homeland security chief optimistic that 3,000 pound sandbags can close break in levee at 17th Street canal.

KATRINA BLOG: Click for the latest text updates on Katrina.

Jefferson Parish and Plaquemines Parish under Martial Law. No one being allowed into New Orleans.

Levee breaches are causing rising water in New Orleans.

Mayor Ray Nagin updates state of the city. Click for the story.

Northshore Update Click for story.

daveb wrote: [quote=alafairnadia]has anyone else read christopher rice's a density of souls?
http://www.christopherricebooks.com/density.html
new orleans, hurricane, massive flooding, etc.

Isn't he Anne Rice's son?

yeah. better writer, too.

they just decided to evacuate the superdome

Have you seen the section of I-10 across the lake from New Orleans to Slidell? It's completely devastated.

I can't believe that the rescue centers now have to be evacuated. I, naively, thought that the worst was over yesterday afternoon. My thoughts are with everyone down there.

To think, I was just there a couple of weeks ago and the city was just so sparkling and alive. Ugh.

arielbl wrote: they just decided to evacuate the superdome

Muk wrote: I can't believe that the rescue centers now have to be evacuated. I, naively, thought that the worst was over yesterday afternoon. My thoughts are with everyone down there.

To think, I was just there a couple of weeks ago and the city was just so sparkling and alive. Ugh.

[quote=arielbl]they just decided to evacuate the superdome

I was pretty shocked that they used the superdome as a shelter. It's so close to downtown and the french quarter, parts of new orleans that are notoriously prone to flooding. aren't there like 10,000 people there? this is insane.

The wwltv blog updates are unbelieveable.

I just talked to my mom, who is monitoring from afar as well but has gotten a couple of messages from relatives in the area. Apparently people in the Superdome are starting to get sick/die (this is, like, third-hand but believable) from the terrible and worsening conditions in there.

To think, I was just there a couple of weeks ago and the city was just so sparkling and alive. Ugh.

I know. I was there a month ago; it's so surreal.

bluedove wrote: I just talked to my mom, who is monitoring from afar as well but has gotten a couple of messages from relatives in the area. Apparently people in the Superdome are starting to get sick/die (this is, like, third-hand but believable) from the terrible and worsening conditions in there.

I'm sure -- they'd been evacuating hospitals to the superdome. germ-wise, it's a frickin nightmare.

4:21 P.M. - WWL-TV Reporter quotes officials as saying there may now be 60,000 people in the Superdome and that more people are still being urged to go there.

dailyheights wrote: Have you seen the section of I-10 across the lake from New Orleans to Slidell? It's completely devastated.

I saw the video on cnn.com. That is hugely bad news, because it cuts off the city from half of any potential resupply. Everything's going to have to come in from the other side. I can't even think about how much cash that alone will cost to repair.

How would you make a decision as to whether it's worth it to rebuild New Orleans or the other affected areas? Outside of rebuilding, I assume there would have to be several billion worth of reengineering done on the mouth of the Mississippi to deal with the levee situation.

It will be extremely expensive. Is anyone yet saying that this is enough to tip the US economy into recession?

dailyheights wrote: It will be extremely expensive. Is anyone yet saying that this is enough to tip the US economy into recession?

I wonder what the level of devastation has been to the offshore oil rigs.

dailyheights wrote: It will be extremely expensive. Is anyone yet saying that this is enough to tip the US economy into recession?

I read a quote that said 24 billion. It always seems to work out ot be less though. Who knows?