Latest News from Gulf Coast

[kathy]

People sheltering at New Orleans' main refuges say they have been robbed of their humanity.

"I don't treat my dog like that," 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he pointed at a woman who lay dead in her wheelchair outside the convention centre.

"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," 25-year-old Taffany Smith told the Los Angeles Times, cradling her three-week-old son in the Superdome stadium.

Up to 20,000 refugees from the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina have been corralled into each building.

This is where they were told to come, but the authorities were woefully unprepared for the arrival of such numbers, who include the very young, the very old, and the very infirm.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4207944.stm

[kathy]

On Friday, authorities in Louisiana were trying to crank up the rescue operation. Convoys of school buses were trying to ferry out the thousands of people sheltering in the convention centre and the nearby New Orleans Superdome amid the filth and the dead.

The head of the New Orleans emergency operations, Terry Ebbert, has questioned when reinforcements will actually reach the increasingly lawless city.

"This is a national disgrace. Fema has been here three days, yet there is no command and control," Mr Ebbert said.

"We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."

One man, George Turner, who was still waiting to be evacuated, summed up much of the anger felt by the refugees.

"Why is it that the most powerful country on the face of the Earth takes so long to help so many sick and so many elderly people?" he asked.

Flood victims walk the street in front of the Convention Center in New Orleans, 1 September
Tens of thousands of people are still waiting to be evacuated

"Why? That's all I want to ask President Bush."

And John Rhinehart, the administrator of a New Orleans hospital without power and water, said: "I'm beginning to wonder if the government is more concerned about the looting than people who are dying in these hospitals."

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4207628.stm

[kathy]

Some interesting links about the disaster in New Orleans and some snippets I found interesting:

In this "war zone" I wouldn't want the only home with power. As one of the troopers that escorted us said, "this is worse than Iraq." They were extremely cautious and I could tell their nerves were on edge. Shining spotlights on buildings as we passed. When we got to our destination at St. Charles hospital the water was 2-3 feet deep and nearly impassible with the police cars. We brought the busses in front of the hospital and the water was about 2 feet deep. The state troopers fanned out with their M-16s at the read trying to secure the area. I watched as a truck approached our convoy. Guns drawn M-16's aimed at the truck and pointing at the driver they yelled for him to turnoff his headlights. Once he complied they quickly converged upon him and had the driver and passenger get out of the truck. After they were satisfied that he and the passenger were not a threat, they let him pass.

neworleans.metblogs.com/

[kathy]

The worst has happened in New Orleans and not everyone is surprised. For years, specialists have warned that the city, built partly below sea level and in an area of radically depleted wetlands, was a natural disaster waiting to happen. And when it did, they said, we would have no one to blame but ourselves.

Arguments are already breaking out over the connection between global warming and Katrina. Most agree the rising sea levels and temperatures may have contributed to the damage it caused. But many scientists say the real problem is what has been wrought on the ground in the Gulf Coast region itself. And most serious of all may be the loss of the wetlands. Wetlands, along the edges of rivers and near the coast itself, are vital for absorbing and storing floodwaters. As such, they provided New Orleans with a natural defence against storm surges such as the one generated by Katrina.

Read full article:

New Orleans: Loss of wetlands opens floodgates to disaster
news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article309471.ece

[kathy]

Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters may still keep rising in New Orleans late on Tuesday. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until it's level with the massive lake.

New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

Continue Reading:
www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313

[kathy]

Greg Henderson is a pathologist from New Orleans.

After Hurricane Katrina struck he stayed in the city and has set up a makeshift hospital at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, along with fellow doctors who were attending a medical conference.

From there he sent updates to his friends on the desperate situation in the flooded city. One of those friends, S Syer, from Dallas, sent Mr Henderson's latest update to the BBC News website.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4208772.stm

[kathy]

Scorched by criticism about sluggish federal help, President Bush acknowledged the government's failure to stop lawlessness and help desperate people in New Orleans.

Bush promised to crack down on crime and violence, rush food and medicine to the needy, and restore electrical power within weeks to millions of customers across the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

BFN Comment:

First and foremost Bush should be concerned with the food, medicine, electrical power, sanatary needs of the people and then the law and order - if people have their basic needs there would be less voilence - Kathy

Four days after Katrina killed hundreds if not thousands, Republicans joined Democrats in wondering why it was taking so long to relieve the misery of so many people living in squalor without the necessities of life.

BFN Comment:

Seems like the aid is being dribbled out in a deliberate way, whose agenda is this suiting? - Kathy

[/color]

Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., called upon Bush to recall National Guardsmen stationed in Iraq whose homes and families were in the path of Katrina's destruction. The president said there were enough Guard troops for Iraq and recovery efforts.

BFN Comments:

Ahhh but there are more riches in Iraq than in New Orleans and sure what does it matter that troops in Iraq are away from family living in New Orleans at this time? - Kathy

[/color]

Bush faulted efforts to restore order in New Orleans, where looting, violence and other crimes have been rampant. Asked what he meant by unacceptable results, Bush said, "Well, I'm talking about the fact that we don't have enough security in New Orleans yet." He said 1,200 National Guard troops arrived there on Friday and that 1,200 were deployed on Thursday.

BFN Comment:

Is this guy for real? Of course people are going to loot if they have not got their basic needs for survival, what does he expect people to do? Sit back and wait for his help?? 2, 400 troops deployed to the disaster area, when "there are 138,000 American troops in Iraq"*, so where are Mr Presidents priorities? - Kathy

[/color][/blockquote]

There were calls from Republicans for Bush to name a prominent official to oversee the recovery. Gingrich suggested former New York Mayor *Rudolph Giuliani. Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., suggested Giuliani, former Secretary of State Colin Powell or retired Gen. *Tommy Franks to take charge.

BFN Comment:

So the people of the Gulf Coast are to be subjected to the likes of Giuliani.

[/color][/blockquote]

Links of interest:
* There are 138,000 American troops in Iraq
tinyurl.com/bhbull


* Rudolph Giuliani (As if you do not know him)
tinyurl.com/c755t

*RUDOLPH GIULIANI'S "QUALITY OF LIFE" POLICE STATE
shadow.mediafilter.org/shadow/S44/s44rudy.html

Countdown to Genocide
Annihilation will be matched by the grab of a nation’s resources, smashing of its

national sovereignty and national unity, its institutions, eradication of its national heritage and permanent occupation. As in its recently acquired Afghan colony, a
quisling as Hamid Karsai will be imposed as part of the puppet show. In effect, however, the ‘Viceroy’ as he is jocularly baptised in the Pentagon will be none other
than General Tommy Franks, supremo of a killer expeditionary force.
communication.ucsd.edu/911/CounttoGenocide.htm

[BreakForNews]

worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46090


George Noory says 'End Times' are here

A national talk-radio host believes the severity of Hurricane Katrina is clear evidence that civilization is now in the "End Times" described in the Bible.

"I don't think there's any doubt," George Noory said this morning on his "Coast to Coast AM" program. "I think we're in it. I really do."

While Noory explained he did not mean an imminent end to all life on Earth, he referred to the book of Revelation in the New Testament, saying current events are "the beginning of the end."

"I cannot imagine the grief and the horror that the people in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana are undergoing," Noory said. "I see it, I hear it, but you know what, unless it happens to you, it really doesn't affect you.

"In this particular case, eventually it's going to affect everybody in the United States in some form or fashion. And as you see the price of oil going up, as you see shortages, as you see the price at the grocery store going up, you're going to realize just how serious a tragedy this really is.

"It's time to rethink the priorities of this country first and foremost and I always have in this strange mind I have, I always wonder, why did this have to happen now? Think about that for a moment. If you believe that there are no coincidences, why would this happen? I mean why would divine Providence want this to happen to us now?"

Katrina's storm surge and flooding have some recollecting the post-Christmas tsunami which killed 200,000 people and left up to 5 million in need of basic services in a dozen Indian Ocean nations.

At that time, some people reflected on the End-time warning from the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus stated: "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring ... ." (Luke 21:25)

Noory was joined on the program by former NASA consultant Richard C. Hoagland, who called the flooding situation of New Orleans a "nightmare" and a "disaster waiting to happen."

"This is such a biblical-proportion catastrophe," Hoagland said. "What I am appalled by is the lack of forethought and preplanning to save people from the inevitable. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that someday this city, sitting in a bowl, would have this happen to it, with catastrophic consequences."

Of course all this is nothing new for World Net Daily
See Link Below -Fintan

Are We Living in the Last Days? (WND promo)
worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41693

[kathy]

The scenes of anarchy and helplessness following national disaster on the US Gulf coast has provoked a great deal of hand-wringing in the US press.

"The situation in New Orleans, which had seemed as bad as it could get, became considerably worse yesterday with reports of what seemed like a total breakdown of organised society," says the New York Times.

The paper says that the government failed to rise to the challenge - despite New Orleans' susceptibility to flooding being well known - and that the poor response was compounded because many local National Guard troops were away in Iraq.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4208962.stm

[kathy]

African American lawmakers have expressed outrage and blamed U.S. President George W. Bush for the "slow and incomplete response" to the devastation wrecked by Hurricane Katrina.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, along with members of the Black Leadership Forum, National Conference of State Legislators, National Urban League and the NAACP, told a news conference in Washington D.C. Friday that the response from the federal government was slow because most of those left behind were poor.

tinyurl.com/78e4p

[kathy]

Defence Minister Bill Graham has announced that Ottawa is sending three Canadian warships and a coast guard vessel packed with relief supplies to the hurricane-ravaged U.S. Gulf Coast.

Graham said the destroyer, HMCS Athabaskan, and two frigates, HMCS Ville de Quebec and HMCS Toronto, are being readied for deployment and should leave Halifax in three or four days. They will be accompanied by the CCGS Sir William Alexander.

It will take another three to four days before the ships arrive in the Gulf of Mexico.

tinyurl.com/ah89e

[kathy]

Military convoys rolled into New Orleans on Friday, carrying troops to try to stamp out lawlessness and supplies for desperate survivors of Hurricane Katrina after days of delays and broken promises.

President George W. Bush, facing fierce criticism over the government's slow response to the one of the worst disasters in U.S. history, signed a $10.5 billion measure late on Friday to speed federal aid to Gulf Coast areas devastated by the storm.

Some cheered but others demanded to know why it had taken so long. Many stranded evacuees recounted horrific tales of murder, rape, death threats and near-starvation inside the filthy, reeking shelter this week.

www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02379490.htm

[kathy]

While the Army ordered its Louisiana-based troops to stay and fight in Iraq, the Air Force said Saturday it would send 300 airmen home from Iraq and Afghanistan to handle emergencies on a Mississippi air base devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

The airmen, all based at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., will start flying home during the next two weeks, said Air Force Capt. David Small, spokesman for U.S. Central Command Air Forces in Qatar.

Nearly 100 more airmen scheduled to leave Keesler for war duty also will stay behind, said Brig. Gen. Allen G. Peck, the deputy commander of coalition air forces in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters.

``While our focus remains on fighting the war on terrorism, taking care of people is a top priority,'' Peck said in a statement. ``They can't effectively perform the mission if their heads and hearts are focused on the safety and welfare of their loved ones.''

The group includes airmen scheduled to rotate home in September and others whose deployments will be cut short.

Peck, who is based at the U.S.-run al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, said Air Force personnel from other bases will replace those leaving early or being held back.

But U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq won't have their deployments cut back.

tinyurl.com/cmsyr

[Hawkwind]

A quick comment on your analysis ... but first let me say that it is refreshing to post on a thread (or pool of information) that hasn't been pissed in yet! ;D

This militarization of New Orleans is very disturbing and I hate to say this but ... it may have been taken out of the play book of the CIA nut job AJ! Earlier today, Bush effectively suspended "passe comitatus" (another quaint law), which is a very important Civil War era principle designed to protect each state's resident populations. The law at it most basic level says that the federal militia cannot be used against the state's citizens for local law enforcement. A very important turn of events and like AJ says ... if this ever happened ... we would be the ones demanding it and the psycho powers would be more than willing to comply to our request!

We are not a very well thought out society ... are we?

Keep up the great work!

-Hawk

[kathy]

Mississippi hurricane survivors looked around Saturday and wondered just how long it would take to get food, clean water and shelter. And they were more than angry at the federal government and the national news media.

Richard Gibbs was disgusted by reports of looting in New Orleans and upset at the lack of attention hurricane victims in his state were getting.

``I say burn the bridges and let 'em all rot there,'' he said. ``We're suffering over here too, but we're not killing each other. We've got to help each other. We need gas and food and water and medical supplies.''

Gibbs and his wife, Holly, have been stuck at their flooded home in Gulfport just off the Biloxi River. Water comes up to the second floor, they are out of gasoline, and food supplies are running perilously low.

Until recently, they also had Holly's 75-year-old father, who has a pacemaker and severe diabetes, with them. Finally they got an ambulance to take him to the airport so he could be airlifted to Lafayette, La., for medical help.

In poverty-stricken north Gulfport, Grover Chapman was angry at the lack of aid.

``Something should've been on this corner three days ago,'' Chapman, 60, said Saturday as he whipped up dinner for his neighbors.

He used wood from his demolished produce stand to cook fish, rabbit, okra and butter beans he'd been keeping in his freezer. Although many houses here, about five miles inland, are still standing, they are severely damaged. Corrugated tin roofs lie scattered on the ground.

``I'm just doing what I can do,'' Chapman said. ``These people support me with my produce stand every day. Now it's time to pay them back.''

tinyurl.com/d3dl8

[kathy]

State and local officials are trying to piece together a criminal justice system in a region that had descended into anarchy after Hurricane Katrina.

Early Saturday, a temporary booking and holding facility was opened in New Orleans to process people who'd been arrested. However, it may not include the traditional fingerprinting and photographing.

After prisoners are processed, they'll be moved to other jails, said Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti. It wasn't immediately clear how many people already were booked at the temporary jail.

``The entire criminal justice system is alive and well and is being rapidly re-established,'' said U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, who represents the district in and around New Orleans and is setting up a new office in Baton Rouge.

The evacuation of prisoners in Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes was complete by Thursday without a single escape, officials said; deputies and their families were finished evacuating a day later.

tinyurl.com/856hm

[kathy]

Officials closed a shelter Saturday because more than 20 people there fell ill, and doctors believe the patients may have contracted dysentery from tainted water.

Another 20 people in the area also were treated for vomiting and diarrhea.

The shelter at a Biloxi school had been without water and power since Katrina hit Monday. About 400 people had been staying there, and doctors said some may have ignored warnings to stay away from water.

Some running water came back on late Friday, but it was not safe to drink or even to use to brush teeth or wash, said Dr. Jason Dees, a volunteer working at Biloxi Regional Medical Center.

Most of the patients were treated with antibiotics. About 30 ill residents were taken to a hospital in Mobile, Ala., while the rest were bused to a shelter in Thomasville, Ga.

Biloxi police Cpl. Kayla Robert said she had no idea what caused the illnesses.

``Who knows what they swallowed before they got here,'' she said. ``Half of them were swimming in stuff that we don't even know what it was.''

tinyurl.com/8druc

[kathy]

Farmers near the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina are dumping their milk because they've run out of room to store it, even as thousands of people go hungry in the New Orleans area.

Many storage tanks are just big enough to hold two milkings, and co-ops have not been able to pick up the excess milk, said Dee Simpson, who has been dumping milk at her family's 250-acre dairy farm since Thursday.

The loss of income combined with the huge expense of repairing damaged barns and using generators to run dairy equipment could be disastrous for the heart of the state's dairy industry.

Clifford and Patty Champlin are using 300 gallons of diesel fuel a day to power five generators at their 500-acre dairy farm. The Champlins also will have to replace the roof of their animal wash lot, which they had just spent $3,000 to replace.
tinyurl.com/9phat

[kathy]

Link to Survivor website:
www.hurricanekatrinasurvivors.com/home/

Link to Survivors forum
www.hurricanekatrinasurvivors.com/index.php

[kathy]

Katrina may seem like the last word in hurricanes, but there is a very real possibility that another major hurricane may hit New Orleans or some other portion of the 200-mile coastline devastated by Katrina in the weeks to come.

``We're not out of the woods yet,'' said Susan Cutter, director of the University of South Carolina Hazards Research Laboratory. ``We're not even in the height of hurricane season.''

A forecast released Friday by meteorologists at Colorado State University calls for six more hurricanes by the time the hurricane season ends on Nov. 30, three of them Category 3 or above. On average, about one major hurricane in three makes landfall in the United States.

``We expect that by the time the 2005 hurricane season is over, we will witness tropical cyclone activity at near record levels,'' the Colorado State meteorologists wrote.

So far there have been four hurricanes this year - Katrina, Irene, Emily and Dennis, a Category 3 storm that caused more than $1 billion in damage to the Florida panhandle in July. There have been nine tropical storms.

www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5254599,00.html

[kathy]

Paul Maguire analysis the physical suffering and medical responses in New Orleans
Robert Shortt, Washington Correspondent, reports live from New Orleans
Paul Maguire talks to Irish people who returned from the US this morning
Noeleen Leddy speaks to Jean and Michael Leyden from Co Leitrim who were on honeymoon in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit

[kathy]

Paul Maguire analysis the physical suffering and medical responses in New Orleans:

dynamic.rte.ie/av/thisweek/2071559.smil

Robert Shortt, Washington Correspondent, reports live from New Orleans:

dynamic.rte.ie/av/thisweek/2071560.smil

Paul Maguire talks to Irish people who returned from the US this morning:

dynamic.rte.ie/av/thisweek/2071561.smil

Noeleen Leddy speaks to Jean and Michael Leyden from Co Leitrim who were on honeymoon in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit :

dynamic.rte.ie/av/thisweek/2071562.smil

You need real player to listen to the above Audio files.

[kathy]

The official version; then there's the in-the-trenches version

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday, with statements by some federal officials in contradiction with grittier, more desperate views from the streets. By late Friday response to those stranded in the city was more visible.

But the conflicting views on Thursday 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.

* 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. ( See CNN report, 'People are dying in front of us' -- 4:36 )

* 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 of corpses stacked in 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. (Watch the video report on explosions and gunfire -- 2:12)

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. ( See Jack Cafferty's rant on the government's 'bungled' response -- 0:57)

* 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.

To view the video reports listed on this article visit the CNN website:

www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html

[kathy]

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff says relief efforts are hampered by an inability to transfer resources. Thursday, Chertoff spoke at a Preparedness event with Red Cross Chairman Bonnie McElveen-Hunter. Reuters

In Depth

*
Sep. 1, 2005
Looting, Snipers Mar New Orleans Evacuation
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4828774

All Things Considered, September 1, 2005 · Days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall east of New Orleans, thousands remain stranded in the city, many without food or fresh water. The city's mayor has issued what he called an "Urgent SOS" for help.

Heavily armed National Guard troops evacuated people from the squalid conditions of the damaged Superdome; the evacuees are being bused to the Astrodome in Houston.

But it has now emerged that people stranded at the New Orleans Convention Center -- about eight blocks away from the Superdome -- are in dire straights, lacking basic essentials and avoiding corpses and waste on the streets.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is overseeing the biggest recovery operation in U.S. history. President Bush is proposing $10 billion in relief for the area.

Listen to the audio report of this interview:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4828771

[kathy]

NPR.org, September 4, 2005 · Washington Post reporter Ann Gerhart talks with Neal Conan about the scene in New Orleans Saturday during a live NPR news special.

Gerhart traveled with rescue teams around the city and says that about half the time people turned down the chance to leave. She describes how those choosing to remain behind are getting by, and how rescue teams are operating.

Listen to this interview:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4832301