Grokking, Grasping the Legacy of Hurricane K - bl0g reports 8/31

Citizen media, journalism, & reports as it happened on Wednesday August 31st. Real time web dispatches from across the Gulf as the historic disaster unfolded, survivor accounts, photos, amateur video, links to TV station forums, and a sample of the best bloggers - discovered in a half-day scour using blog search engines. This story must be told, full documentation and a wide-eyed, open assessment must be adamantly sought, to insure better preparation in the future, and accountability for the slow, lame, immediate response which unnecessarily fomented greater tragedy upon the refugees above and beyond the devastating force of Mother Natures pass through. Without further adieau, this info-share is a
webs-eye view on the lesson & legacy of Hurricane Katrina. Refugee’s, keep your hopes alive, look for the silver-linings from those clouds, we can only feel deep empathy, as the ’unpredictable’ weather affects & connects Us All, as the famous playwright noted, " One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
William Shakespeare

*****

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/h...

this story with chosen photos w/ captions also published @
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/20...

August 28, 2005

Footage of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath
On Ourmedia, Joshua Szentpaly offers some home video footage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Florida.

http://www.ourmedia.org/node/48401

Citizens media
August 30, 2005
Citizen journalism storm chasers
kpaul mallasch pointed out this video compendium of citizen journalism storm chasers — people who chronicled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It’s a Windows Media Video file from Hurricanelivenet.com.

As the narrator says, "Words cannot describe what you’re about to see."

http://www.newmediamusings.com/blog...

Monday, August 29, 2005

(note all links in this text below are found here: link is repeated again at the end) http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlas...

TT and OGIC: Live from Katrina

In light of the continuing crisis in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast, we’ve decided to keep this posting as current as feasible for as long as possible.

* * *

We interrupt this artblog for news about Hurricane Katrina. Here are links to blogs and other sites that are covering events as they happen. (For Monday’s art-related postings, keep scrolling down or go here. For later art-related postings, scroll up to the top of the page.)

First, a short summary of the latest news reports:

New Orleans is in chaos, with looting and violence spreading throughout those remaining parts of the city not already covered by water due to as-yet-unrepaired breaks in the levee system. Looting appears to be especially severe in the French Quarter. A children’s hospital is reportedly under siege by armed men, and the "entire gun collection" of a Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District was stolen yesterday. Emergency generators at two other downtown hospitals have run out of fuel. Although the state constitution does not provide for martial-law declarations, Gov. Blanco has now asked the White House to send in federal troops to restore order. Four U.S. Navy ships have been sent to the region.

Yesterday afternoon the governor announced plans to evacuate all those New Orleans residents who didn’t leave following Sunday’s mandatory evacuation order. This includes the 20,000-odd people who took refuge in the Superdome, where conditions have deteriorated utterly and the situation, says the governor, is "untenable." (As of Wednesday morning, the plan is for these evacuees to be taken to Houston’s Astrodome by bus convoy as soon as they can be removed from the Superdome by boat.) While hundreds of people have been rescued from rooftops, others are marooned in areas that can’t be reached by rescue boats and helicopters.

Recovery from the flooding will be slow. Current estimates suggest that power may not be restored for "six to twelve weeks."

Looting has also begun in Biloxi, Miss., where damage from Katrina is reportedly even more extensive. (Here’s an Associated Press at-a-glance wire story about the effects of Katrina throughout the region.)

Here’s the breaking-news page from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which also has an excellent in-house blog, "Notebook from the Hurricane Bunker." Both pages were being updated around the clock until the staff was forced to evacuate the city and set up bureaus in Houma and Baton Rouge. As a result, the paper was unable to publish a conventional edition on Tuesday, resorting to an exclusively Web-based version. Postings are now current again after a temporary hiatus, and these pages are must reading for anyone wanting to know what’s happening on the ground in New Orleans.

Also on the paper’s Web site is a missing persons forum.

Two other sites are serving as clearinghouses for those trying to get information about friends and family, looking for temporary shelter, or looking for opportunities to volunteer: craigslist New Orleans and katrinacheckin.org.

If you’re a blogger, please note that Thursday is Blog for Relief Day, "a day of blogging focused on raising awareness of and funds for relief efforts to aid those affected by Hurricane Katrina." For information, go here.

Here’s a list of bloggers who’ve been posting from/near/about New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, current as of 10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, August 31. As more bloggers are evacuated to safe locations, some sites that had previously been silent are starting to include new postings. Blogs marked with an asterisk have been updated at least once since 10 p.m. Tuesday:

• Black Cat Bone*
• Poppy Z. Brite
• Josh Britton* (an excellent source for news updates and LSU-related information)
• CrabAppleLane
• DeadlyKatrina.com*
• Electric Mist* (first-person blogging from Baton Rouge)
• Eyes on Katrina (a good newspaper blog from South Mississippi, temporarily out of commission because of "connectivity issues" in Biloxi)
• Steve Gregory (a weatherblog)
• Rex Hammock* (from Nashville)
• Hattie’s Blog
• Hurricane Harbor* (from Miami)
• Hurricane Katrina*
• Hurricane Katrina Help Wiki* (a clearinghouse for info on how to help)
• Insomnia* (frequent updates from New Orleans bloggers)
• John’s Online Journal
• Katrinacane’s Friends* (frequent updates from New Orleans bloggers)
• Kaye’s Hurricane Katrina Blog* (frequent updates from Baton Rouge, shutting down today)
• Brendan Loy* (still the best blog for Katrina-related local newslinks and summaries, though Loy says he will soon be cutting back on posting)
• Michelle Malkin* (an excellent source of regularly updated links to Web-wide Katrina-related stories)
• Jeff Masters* (a knowledgeable weatherblogger)
• Metroblogging New Orleans* (frequent updates from New Orleans)
• N.O. Pundit* (posting again after a hiatus with a group of message boards for Orleans Parish survivors, family members, etc., organized by neighborhood)
• NowPublic* (a message board with photos of missing persons)
• One Hand Clapping* (updates from Tennessee)
• Overtaken by Events
• paultwo* (a Baton Rouge-based photoblog)
• Pitch & Green
• a small victory* (now posting "good-news" stories from New Orleans)
• Storm Digest* (frequent updates)
• Updates as They Come In on Katrina* (WWL-TV’s news blog, constantly updated, an essential source for bulletins from the only New Orleans TV station that has been able to stay on the air continuously throughout the crisis)
• Workbench

More links:

Here’s a link to the AP’s national wire, to which Katrina-related stories are being posted around the clock.

Here’s a page of Katrina-related e-mail received by the BBC and updated regularly.

Here’s an automated aggregrator page of Katrina-related bloglinks.

To make an online donation to the American Red Cross’ National Disaster Relief Fund, go here.

The McCormick Tribune Foundation in Chicago is matching donations to its Hurricane Katrina Relief Campaign, $1 for every $2 given. Contributions can be made here.

Instapundit has an extensive list of flood-aid links.

Here’s what appears to be a fairly comprehensive list of links to New Orleans webcams (plus various other institutional links).

Here’s a permalink to the complete text of "Devastating Damage Expected," Sunday’s apocalyptic National Weather Service dispatch, which is looking more and more prescient ("Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks...Water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards").

Here’s a transcript of a 2002 radio documentary detailing a worst-case scenario for Category Five hurricane damage in New Orleans.

And here’s a feature from the Times-Picayune on the same subject. (This one will make your hair stand on end.)

* * *

Finally, a personal word from Terry to all those bloggers posting from the Gulf Coast, and everyone else who was caught in the path of Katrina: we New Yorkers know about disasters, and our hearts are with you. May the world reach out to you as it did to us.

http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlas...

nasa aerial fotos:

Flooding in New Orleans

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Ne...

Hurricane Katrina Refugee
My family’s personal account of our experience with Hurricane Katrina.

From Bad to Worse

As much as I can’t stand watching the tv, I can’t stop. I’m so desperate for some news that I can relate to. The news is all bad though, and it just keeps getting worse. The water is still rising in New Orleans because of the breached levee and will continue throughout the night, and may rise another 8 - 15 feet according to the tv. There are still many many people trapped in their homes, the looting is out of control and there are now 30,000 people at the Superdome.

One man at the Superdome committed suicide by throwing himself over a 2nd floor balcony after warning the people below to "watch out" and then calmly leaping to his death. I’m sure the odor of his corpse is nothing next to the waste from 30,000 people who have no bathroom or drinking water. Two men shot their AK47s into a police station. A friend sent this article from a news website (not sure which site):

BATON ROUGE, La. The scene in New Orleans appears more
grim by the hour, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said hundreds, if not
thousands, of people may still be stuck on roofs and
in attics.

As a result, he says, rescue crews in boats don’t have
time to deal with the dead bodies they encounter. He
says they’re just pushing them aside.

It appears the death toll from the storm will be high.
One survivor after another told of friends and loved
ones who floated off or disappeared as the floodwaters
rose around them.

The police in the Big Easy are even ignoring looters
— saying they’re focusing instead on saving lives.

And I finally found some news about Slidell from a newspaper in Baton Rouge:

Senator: Slidell area likely hardest hit by Katrina
Capitol news bureau
Much of Slidell is under water and likely sustained the worst damage from Hurricane Katrina, tate Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Mandeville, said Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Calling the devastation "total", Schedler said, only slabs remain where dozens of houses were blown down and several feet of water remain in the Slidell Memorial Hospital on Gause Boulevard as well as throughout the old town area off U.S. 11.

Slidell is a suburban community of about 25,000 people northeast of New Orleans near where Interstates 10, 12 and 59 intersect in St. Tammany Parish

http://www.katrinarefugee.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Links for Hurricane Info

For Gulf Coast residents, the best place to start looking for loved ones is on WLOX’s website. http://www.wlox.com/Global/category...

This is a pic of one of the casinos which was literally washed across the other side f the highway.

The best feature of this site is the forum which people from all over the ocuntry have been posting to trying to get info on whereabouts of loved ones.

Here is the best blog on the chaos in New Orleans http://deadlykatrina.com/

It has everything from stories about police looting, to suicide jumpers in the Superdome and incredible stories of survival. You can’t get this stuff on the TV news.

Also covering several different stories is Michelle Malkin’s blog here.
Check it out as she has a knack for finding the best stories, and getting others to write about them as well.

I just spoke with a source in BSL who said that people were drowning in the Church across the street from the BSL post office on Hwy 90. The water came much further than it did in Camille, and people were not expecting it.

Also, this is grim news, but people are marking houses in BSL with black paint or red paint. Black indicating bodies that need removal, and red indicating suriviors who need rescue as they are immobilized.

more as it comes...
http://jakecommando.blogspot.com/20...

Hurricane Katrina-Biloxi

Well, I wanted to add some photos and vidoes of Katrina here since we and many of our friends have lived in Biloxi. Rick sent me the potos at the bottom of this blog that were taken in front of the commissary at Keesler. Thanks Rick. Also, you may have gotten them via email from me, but here are some amazing video clips of the Biloxi area. If you get any cool photos please share them with us and we will add them to our site!

We heard that all unacompanied trainee housing at Keesler was destroyed and Rick says:

"From what I’m hearing, the windows of the second floor of the schoolhouse were blown out, the first floor received major damage, and the observation deck is gone. Building will probably be condemned (who knows though, that’s no one’s call to make yet except professionals) and most of the residents won’t be released until Thursday when the damage is fully assessed. The Keesler website says 3 weeks until power is fully restored. Watching the news, it sounds like Keesler actually made it out better than alot of the area".

I know that the mall is gone, as well as many restaurants and of course, countless homes. The videos below are amazing, especially if you have lived there, you just can’t imagine what these people are facing. I know Marie is at tropical school, but Brock said she was in Florida for the weekend, so she’s fine. I don’t think she knows yet if her stuff is ok, but we are glad she is. Marie, let us know how you’re doing, and if your dorm and things are ok. The following videos are great:

Video outside of Keesler:
http://us.video.aol.com/video.index...

Another Biloxi video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/player/pla...

UNBELIEVABLE aerial view of Biloxi:
http://www.cnn.com/video/player/pla...
HOLY CRAP!!!!!

More aerial shots of Biloxi:
http://www.cnn.com/video/player/pla...

Hurricane Katrina: the Videos
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/conten...

Posted by Richard Baguley
Published on August 30, 2005

Large parts of the southeastern US are currently trying to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Katrina came rolling through, and lots of camcorder users have been recording their experiences with the chaos it brought. Here’s a few links to places that have first-hand accounts of the storm in video and still image form.

YouTube - videos submitted with the tag Katrina
WeatherVine - videos from hurricane chasers. The one on the home page is very large, but gives a great idea of how hideous it would be to be caught in one. There’s also a blog from storm videographer Jeff Gammons here.
OurMedia - home videos of the aftermath of the hurricane
StormChaserVideo - videos from Dougls Kiesing, who claims to be the "world’s only real full-time freelance storm chasing photojournalist". He shoots for the Weather Channel, which has a lot of Katrina videos online.
Flickr - still images of the hurricane

@ http://www.camcorderinfo.com/conten...

Pics taken over the eye of Katrina onboard the
NOAA-43

http://flickr.com/photos/deaah/

INSIDE
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Use our Forums to discuss your neighborhoods!
» Orleans Forum
» Kenner Forum
» Jefferson Forum
» River Parishes Forum
» St. Bernard/Plaquemines Forum
» St. Tammany Forum
» Mandeville Forum
» Weather Forum

http://www.nola.com/weblogs/nola/

Slidell Hurricane Damage Blog
http://slidell.weblogswork.com/

What’s the Latest?

---

Chris Everly, Your Sister Is Looking for You
August 31st, 2005 09:44:46am
From a friend of mine:

http://slidell.weblogswork.com/

http://websearch.about.com/gi/dynam...

mississippi

victims forum @ http://www.wwltv.com/forums/viewfor...

updated personal stories from katrina

"Well. The looting is getting pretty bad here now. Almost all the grocery stores are being looted. Some kids across the street came up carring tons of stuff. I asked if they found a place open. SOrta...THey were just coming back from stealing cigarrettes and soda and beer from Roberts. GOod job scum-bags. THey are now saying it will be about a month to two months before power is restored all over. I think I might need to leave town for a while. I’ll have to see. Again, thanks for caring guys. It’s heart-warming. If I don’t find a way to recharge my laptop, there won’t be many updates coming. But I’m alive and in one piece. Everything else is gravy, yes?"

This is bellygoth posting for melanie. I just got off the phone with Mel an here is the latest news: They are ok and armed and defending the bar (Flanagan’s Pub). They plan on staying at the bar until the police make them leave or until the situation with the electricity looks too bleak. The quarter isn’t flooding yet and so far they still have gas at the bar so they’ve been cooking what perishables they have left. Here are a list of other people that are at the bar with her and Andy: Shy. marc the shark, sadie ,levi aura, bill, van, leslie, matt , keith"

@

http://www.livejournal.com/users/in...

professional report ,lotsa of aerial fotos

"

Here’s an AP photo of the state of the bridge. The car is the same one as in the CNN video. Watching the CNN video a couple of times, it looks like something is flopped over the steering wheel, though you can’t see into the car from this angle. (Follow the link for a crisper image.
This is from the Times Picayune, where I finally did get their slide-shows to work.

An Afterthought: we blog-folk are doing this by the seat of our pants and actually getting somewhere. But as Xeni Jardin asks, "media evacuates, there is no grid, damage map?" Why do you see this attempt here and not on the CNN of MSNBC site?

This isn’t a disaster movie. It’s real. People care about specific people in specific places. They want to understand precisely where the water is 20 ft. deep, where the water is coming in. Many, many people have very specific, individual relationships to this city. The specifics we are being given just don’t cut it. If I can look this stuff up, why don’t they?"

http://www.kathryncramer.com/kathry...

*

What will Katrina’s death toll be?
At least 100 people have been killed in a single county in Mississippi.

There are at least two dead in Alabama.

And now New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says "minimum hundreds, most likely thousands" are dead in his city.

Nagin has not been the most reliable source of information during the hurricane, but he may well be right. And his figure does not include the outlying Louisiana parishes, especially those along the Gulf south and east of Orleans.

The final tally won’t be available for weeks, at least. I’m afraid it might eclipse 1,000.

Here’s a link to a table of the deadliest U.S. hurricanes. Galveston’s 1900 storm is no. 1, with 8,000 deaths.

Posted by Eric Berger at 01:41 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

Still a few bloggers left in New Orleans
Here’s a glance at some of their stories last night and today...

Interdictor has ridden out the storm on the 10th floor of a downtown office building on Poydras Ave. He’s running on a diesel generator at an Internet services company. He has some vivid detail about looting in the central business district:

Right now we’re trying to show you all the looting. Guys pushing shopping carts with 40 Nike boxes in them. People breaking into cars. Assaulting ATM machines. It’s hard just to sit by and do nothing. That’s property that belongs to other people and these animals are just taking it.

You know, this crisis is going to end. One day it is going to be over, and people are going to have to live with themselves and the knowledge of how they behaved. The cowards, the thieves, the murderers. We’re getting a guy on cam right now stealing tires from one car and putting them in his car.

Here’s a post from a friend of Scyllacat, who is holed up in a French Quarter apartment. It comes 36 hours after Katrina began assaulting New Orleans, and Scyllacat’s last post had been about a building next door collapsing. She ends her brief update then with: "This may go soon, wall missing big cracks. fun trip love you." She survived:

This is actually Mark posting. I spoke to Kat on the phone today. She’s fine, after a very harrowing experience (the building really did fall down around her!). The French Quarter has not been flooded, though it’s now an island in the midst of a vast toxic swamp. They’re not letting anyone in or out until they get the pumps and levies repaired, which will probably take several days. Meanwhile, she has a warm, safe place to sleep, food, etc.

Bobbysan also has interesting comments about the looting, but unfortunately his laptop battery is about to go:

Well. The looting is getting pretty bad here now. Almost all the grocery stores are being looted. Some kids across the street came up carring tons of stuff. I asked if they found a place open. SOrta...THey were just coming back from stealing cigarrettes and soda and beer from Roberts. GOod job scum-bags. THey are now saying it will be about a month to two months before power is restored all over. I think I might need to leave town for a while. I’ll have to see.

Again, thanks for caring guys. It’s heart-warming. If I don’t find a way to recharge my laptop, there won’t be many updates coming. But I’m alive and in one piece. Everything else is gravy, yes?

And GulfSails reports a shark sighting in the city:

Bull shark seen on i-10 service rd in metairie. New orleans not releasing death count.

Check out the sites for all of these bloggers. They’re providing some fascinating insights about life inside the Big Easy for those left behind.

Posted by Eric Berger at 12:50 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

How bad has it become in Jefferson Parish? Part II
Yesterday, Jefferson Parish officials ordered all residents out, telling them not to return for a month.

Today, it appears they may have reached the breaking point. Consider this snippet information from the Times-Picayune on its ongoing news blog:

The normally unflappable Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Walter Maestri broke into tears as he broadcast a call to help for anyone who could offer food or water to officials at the parish’s emergency operations center in Marrero.

Maestri said anyone who can help with the necessities of life for workers at the center can call (504) 349-5360.

Maestri said the water situation is so dire that like many people in the parish and the area, they are trapped in the center.

http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/

lotsa video links

http://www.2theadvocate.com/wbrz/vi...

N.O. evacuees looking for family, food
New Orleans evacuee tells his story
Wednesday aerials of uptown, residents raising flags
Aerials of Xavier, Claiborne areas
Bruce Katz illustrates levee breach
Wednesday aerials of uptown New Orleans
Wednesday morning aerials from New Orleans area
Air Force One flies over New Orleans
Refugees from New Orleans to be moved to Astrodome
Navy ships to provide assistance
Army to join FEMA unified command
Focus on stopping levee breach

http://www.2theadvocate.com/wbrz/vi...

Also, two of my Journalism School classmates, Mike Keller and Josh Norman, are working at the Biloxi Sun Herald. They started a blog as the storm approached called Dancing With Katrina. At first, their blog’s tone was clever and cheerful with pictures of Mike in a sleeping bag on the newsroom floor. It didn’t take long for that tone to change.Their last post has 280 comments, many of which are frighteningly similar to this:

Can anyone tell me anything about the North Gulfport...Orange Grove area? My mother and grandmother decided to stay in their apt on Old Hwy 49 In Gulfport due to my Grandmother being to weak from surgery to make it in a shelter. I ahve not heard from them since late Sunday night.
10:01 a.m. CDT
The Bay St. Louis Bridge is gone and Hghwy 603 is not passable. The only way to get there is from I-10 and Highway 90. Don’t head there.
Porter Ave and hghwy 90 is devastated. President Casino deposited in the middle of the highway.
posted by MKeller at 10:00 AM 345 comments

http://www.dancingwithkatrina.blogs...

 always trying to make the best of even utter adversity is one of the main functions in the repertoire of humane, caring people with the aim of spreading love.

 is this a lesson asking for integration, realization to jump-start transformation in the quest for some unification to congeal at a higher-level?

*There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.
R. Buckminster Fuller

homepage: http://www.clevelandmetronews.com