Hurricane Katrina is about to hit New Orleans, and the city might not survive it. This is a thread for the rest of us gawkers who aren't currently busy getting the hell out of the city.
Article from earlier about the danger: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9754
Highway webcam: http://www.wdsu.com/wxcam/1475332/detail.html
More webcams: http://www.nola.com/bourbocam/
And finally, a particularly breathless weather alert, quoted in full below: http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/iwszone?Sites=:laz062
Best of luck to anyone in, or on their way out of, the city.
DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED
HURRICANE KATRINA
A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED
STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.
MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT
LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.
THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.
HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.
AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH
AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE
ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE
WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.
POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN
AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING
INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.
THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY
THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE
KILLED.
AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR
HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE
CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.
ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE
OUTSIDE!
LAZ038-040-050-056>070-282100-
ASSUMPTION-LIVINGSTON-LOWER JEFFERSON-LOWER LAFOURCHE-
LOWER PLAQUEMINES-LOWER ST. BERNARD-LOWER TERREBONNE-ORLEANS-
ST. CHARLES-ST. JAMES-ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST-ST. TAMMANY-TANGIPAHOA-
UPPER JEFFERSON-UPPER LAFOURCHE-UPPER PLAQUEMINES-UPPER ST. BERNARD-
UPPER TERREBONNE-
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005
Link to the original site of the video referenced to in >>60 with torrent for the complete segment:
http://www.overspun.com/?p=1549
La. governor warns troops will "shoot and kill"
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco warned rioters and looters in New Orleans on Thursday that National Guard troops are under her orders to "shoot and kill" to end the rampant violence in the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050902/us_nm/weather_katrina_kill_dc
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16488142-23109,00.html
World pledges help to US
"The US State Department or country officials have said offers of help had been received from: Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Greece, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Philippines, Portugal, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela."
>>62
http://www.fromtheroots.org/story/2005/9/3/19542/97952
"ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.
The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF."
"My sister in Germany told me that a German reporter near Biloxi described how Bush landed in an area where absolutely nothing was happening.
Rescue workers and their dogs had to stop looking for survivors to drive a few miles to where Bush would land and put on a show for the TV cameras. A few minutes after Bush left, the area was once again deserted, people could go back to doing their jobs."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-katbriefs5.4sep05,1,146331.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
"Only 3 of the New Orleans zoo's 1,400 animals died in the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.
The famous Audubon Zoo has the good fortune of being located on some of the city's highest ground, but it also had an efficient disaster plan for the animals.
It suffered no serious flooding but the storm's fierce winds toppled several large trees and knocked down branches throughout the 52-acre grounds.
The only fatalities so far were to two otters and a raccoon, zoo curator Dan Maloney said."
(emphasis mine)
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usmain044411357sep04,0,4073708.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines
"...signs of its missteps abounded. Just as the convention center was cleared of nearly all its desperate evacuees, who had spent days there with no food, water, or toilets, National Guard troops began setting up dozens of portable toilets."
http://www.borsa-italia.net/article3218.html
"Trapped Australian tourists describe hurricane-raved New Orleans as a war zone, with them and everyone else driven to looting just to survive...
Trapped Australian tourists describe hurricane-raved New Orleans as a war zone, with them and everyone else driven to looting just to survive. Rockhampton couple Tim and Joanne Miller have linked up with another Australian couple, Gary and Cynthia Jones. All four are living in an abandoned mall with hundreds of other people. They told Channel Seven News the streets were lawless with dead bodies everywhere. Mr Jones said survivors were terrified of the violence. >"It's a battle zone. There's shooting, dead bodies in the street," he said, adding that he and his wife were forced to steal to survive."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4216508.stm
An analysis
By World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website
"The breakdown of the relief operation in New Orleans was the result of multiple failures by city, state and federal authorities."
"The Department of Homeland Security said the local authorities were inadequate. The locals responded that Fema had been obstructive - it had, for example, stopped three truckloads of water sent by the store Wal-Mart."
"It took days to sort out who should send troops and from where."
"It took until Thursday, for example, for [Governor Blanco] to sign an order releasing school buses to move the evacuees."
Alleged video of police looting:
http://www.thatvideosite.com/view/614.html
Cannot watch it on my computer, so if anyone knows where to get the file in a sensible format, lemme know!
Barbara Bush: Things Working Out 'Very Well' for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans
NEW YORK Accompanying her husband, former President George
H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in
Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the
poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated,
"This is working very well for them."
The former First Lady's remarks were aired this
evening on National Public Radio's "Marketplace"
program.
She was part of a group in Houston today at the
Astrodome that included her husband and former
President Bill Clinton, who were chosen by her son,
the current president, to head fundraising efforts for
the recovery. Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Barack
Obama were also present.
In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of
evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost
everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to
Houston."
Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of
scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is
so overwhelmed by the hospitality.
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you
know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she
chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054719
crooksandliars is awesome
>>42 clip of the "so poor, so black" coverage:
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/2005-09-01-CNNTSRBlitzer.wmv
Asked to say a few words from the pulpit, Rice, a preacher's daughter, said: "The Lord Jesus Christ is going to come on time." She added: "If we just wait."
http://nightlight.typepad.com/nightlight/2005/09/dont_hide_behin.html
SCHIEFFER: "Finally, a personal thought.
*We have come through what may have been one of the worst weeks in America's history,
a week in which government at every level failed the people it was created to serve.
There is no purpose for government except to improve the lives of its citizens.
Yet as scenes of horror that seemed to be coming from some Third World country flashed
before us, official Washington was like a dog watching television.
It saw the lights and images, but did not seem to comprehend their meaning
or see any link to reality.
As the floodwaters rose, local officials in New Orleans ordered the city evacuated.
They might as well have told their citizens to fly to the moon. How do you evacuate
when you don't have a car? No hint of intelligent design in any of this.
This was just survival of the richest."*
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Face-the-Nation-Sheiffer-blasts-Katrina-response.wmv
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/ftn/main3460.shtml
Should've posted this earlier:
This wiki, a community-editable website, was setup to factor the tons of random bits of information flowing out of New Orleans in totally disorganized chunks, and being repeated around the internet in various forms. Blogs are not up to the task of distilling this info in a useful way, so we've setup this ad-hoc project at nola-intel.org to try and keep track of all of this. Please see About nola-intel.org for more details.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/09-05/09-04-05/b02op951.htm
"Twelve years ago, I was living in rural Illinois [] when the rains came."
"By the first of August 1993, most of the Midwest was under water, towns and cities swamped when the great levees that protected them from the flooding Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois river gave way, drowning entire communities and hundreds of square miles."
"I will never forget [] the professionalism and competence of the federal authorities who seemed to be everywhere along hundreds of miles of shoreline. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers were on the scene with a plan to allow the rivers to drain once the rains quit and to lend shelter, comfort, food, and medical supplies promptly and compassionately."
"And then [now, 2005], after Hurricane Katrina took dead aim at the city with 145-mph winds, the federal agencies that are charged with protecting the homeland failed to get supplies, transportation and troops for days while a human disaster unfolded in front of their eyes."
http://www.reason.com/links/links090605.shtml
Did the rumor mill help kill Katrina victims?
"Relief efforts ground to a halt last week after reports circulated of looters shooting at helicopters, yet none of the hundreds of articles I read on the subject contained a single first-hand confirmation from a pilot or eyewitness.
The suspension-triggering attack—on a military Chinook attempting to evacuate refugees from the Superdome—was contested by Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown, who told ABC News, "We're controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of them reported being fired on.""
Cross-posted from elsewhere as a followup to >>76:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1563532,00.html
There were two babies who had their throats slit. The seven-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in the Superdome. And the corpses laid out amid the excrement in the convention centre.
In a week filled with dreadful scenes of desperation and anger from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina some stories stood out.
But as time goes on many remain unsubstantiated and may yet prove to be apocryphal.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html
Bodies found piled in freezer at Convention Center
"Arkansas National Guardsman Mikel Brooks stepped through the food service entrance of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Monday, flipped on the light at the end of his machine gun, and started pointing out bodies.
"Don't step in that blood - it's contaminated," he said. "That one with his arm sticking up in the air, he's an old man."
Then he shined the light on the smaller human figure under the white sheet next to the elderly man.
"That's a kid," he said. "There's another one in the freezer, a 7-year-old with her throat cut.""
"One of the bodies, they said, was a girl they estimated to be 5 years old. Though they could not confirm it, they had heard she was gang-raped.
"There was an old lady that said the little girl had been raped by two or three guys, and that she had told another unit. But they said they couldn't do anything about it with all the people there""
http://www.cadillacnews.com/articles/2005/09/06/news/news01.txt
"A police officer visited the hotel and told guests they would have to leave."
""We walked through the waters to this bridge where they were supposed to be picking us up."
After another 45 minutes they were told no transportation would come back that night - there were 2,000 people on the bridge.
"There were a lot of people on this bridge and they were not very nice people," she said. "They were smoking crack and doing drugs.""
"The little group decided to walk to the Superdome."
""It was nuts in there," she said. Bathrooms were overflowing and not usable. Crack addicts were getting high on the 10-yard line."
"At one point, they witnessed a man who was forbidden to leave commit suicide because troops at the facility would not let him leave."
http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=15936007%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26page=2%26headline=i%2dwaded%2din%2dfilth%2dto%2dbarricade%2dhotel%2ddoors-name_page.html
""I couldn't describe how bad the authorities were - just little things like taking photographs of us, as we are standing on the roof waving for help, for their own personal photo albums, little snapshot photographs.
"At one point, there were a load of girls on the roof of the lobby of the hotel saying 'Can you help us?' and the policemen said 'Show us what you've got' and made signs for them to lift their T-shirts.
"When they said no, they said 'fine' and motored off down the road in their motorboat.""
The US government should impose heavier restrictions on gun ownership.
http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8CFKIEO0.html
U.S. to give $2,000 debit cards to Katrina victims
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=120066®ion=4
DISEASE CLAIMS FIRST VICTIMS
"Five people died after coming into contact with contaminated water several days after being evacuated from the disaster zone. "
"CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said the victims were killed by a cholera-related disease called vibrio vulnificus, "a bacteria that can enter somebody through a cut, a scratch or a wound." "
http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/summaries/reader/0%2C1854%2C578193%2C00.html
"while supplies of heroin, cocaine, and crack have dried up, addicts can still get morphine, sleeping pills, and prescription opiates like Oxycontin."
"In one Bourbon Street transaction witnessed by a reporter, an addict traded two new pairs of Levi's jeans for a couple of morphine pills. Asked about his business fortunes in the wake of the storm, the dealer said, "We're surviving. The good thing is that all these places here were looted, so there is stuff all over the place.""
Uho! Nice rant:
http://media.putfile.com/OlbermannSwings
Two timelines
http://www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline
http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2005/09/04/katrina-response-timeline/
Olbermann's (the guy who delivered the rant in >>85) Time Line
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Countdown-Timeline-Katrina.wmv
Hillary Clinton wants an investigation into Katrina
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Today-Hillary-Clinton-Investigation.wmv
A survivor's horrible tale:
http://www.wafb.com/Global/SearchResults.asp?qu=charmaine+neville&x=13&y=10
http://www.wafb.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?clipid1=516003&at1=News+%2D+Special+Coverage&vt1=v&h1=Charmaine+Neville%3A+New+Orleans+Evacuee&d1=363667&redirUrl=www.wafb.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage
Katrina: "Rape, murder, beatings" in Astrodome, say evacuees
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/07/katrina_rape_murder_.html
U.S. to Block Media, Not Just Photos of New Orleans' Dead?
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/012203.html
↑ Weatherman Claims Japanese Mafia Behind Hurricane Katrina
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050908/NEWS06/509080485/1012
1st pockets of bodies are found
"Thirty people were found dead at a flooded nursing home in Chalmette, elderly residents who had been left in their beds"
http://www.newschannel5.tv/News/Other/2512/Mexican-Army-makes-historic-trip-into-U-S-
"The Mexican Army made history Thursday when its convoy of tractor-trailers, trucks and ambulances crossed into the United States to provide medical workers and supplies to shelters housing Hurricane Katrina victims."
"[This is] the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846 and the first Mexican disaster aid mission to the United States"
"This is the materialization of the friendship and relationship that is everyday for us on the border," said Daniel Hernandez Joseph, the Mexican consulate in Laredo."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4227974.stm
Bush declares Katrina prayer day
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20050908:MTFH90504_2005-09-08_17-58-40_N08203006:1
"America's response to Hurricane Katrina was hamstrung by well-known system-wide problems that could have been fixed but went unattended and wound up costing lives, the two men who led an inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said."
"The two said a leading cause of suffering for stranded residents of New Orleans, where officials say thousands may have died, was an absence of clear authority illustrated by bickering between state and local officials.
"There was nobody in charge," observed Kean"
>>82
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/national/nationalspecial/09debit.html
Confusion on Debit Card Aid
"Reports that the debit cards would be distributed on Thursday morning at the Astrodome, a temporary shelter, brought several hours of mayhem to the complex, attracting a crush of cars and pedestrians that caused the police to shut the gates, locking out thousands of residents in the 90-degree heat."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23889-1772779,00.html
Katrina Tales: day 12
"International aid meant for the victims of Hurricane Katrina is backing up at an Air Force base in Arkansas because relief lorries are being directed to the wrong places.
Civilian truck drivers hired to take food and supplies to Louisiana and Mississippi from Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas have been repeatedly diverted to places which already have what they need,"
"Forced to drive through the disaster zone, looking for places to drop off aid supplied by Russia, Italy, Spain and Britain, the drivers are taking two days instead of one to deliver their loads."
http://olympics.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-09-09T201836Z_01_FOR927615_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-BROWN-DC.XML
FEMA Director pulled off Katrina relief
"Chertoff said he was putting Vice Admiral Thad Allen, chief of staff of the U.S. Coast Guard, in charge of the relief effort on the ground."
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7982 (subscr. req.)
"The most important vaccine for people in the disaster zone is the combination diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine.
The CDC is recommending the vaccination for everyone in crowded shelters, everyone under 18 displaced by Katrina wherever they are living, and for any displaced adult or relief worker who has not had a tetanus shot for 10 years.
But the federal stockpile contains none of this vaccine, a spokeswoman for the US National Vaccine Program Office told New Scientist."
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/12600417.htm
Fearful Southerners buy firearms at torrid pace
"Gun sales across the South have been booming since the first reports surfaced of armed looters roaming the streets of New Orleans"
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/09/BAGL1EL1KH1.DTL
"late Wednesday afternoon, the group set out for a bridge called the Crescent City Connection,"
"they were met by more police officers, this time from neighboring Gretna, La., who weren't letting anyone pass.
The officers fired warning shots into the air and then leveled their weapons at members of the crowd,"
""They told us that there would be no Superdomes in their city," the couple wrote."
"And when exhausted hurricane victims set up temporary shelters on the highway, Gretna police came back a few hours later, fired shots into the air again, told people to "get the fuck off the bridge" and used a helicopter to blow down all the makeshift shelters, the paramedics said.
When the officers had pushed the crowd back far enough, one of them took the group's food and water, dropped it in the trunk of a patrol car and drove away."
Covertly got 100
>99
Gretna, LA is DQN
yep
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/topcompanies/0905/10bizkatcnn.html
(reg. req.)
CNN wins ruling on news coverage
"CNN obtained a temporary restraining order late Friday to prevent government agencies from restricting news coverage as victims are recovered in New Orleans and other areas hit by Hurricane Katrina."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/11/katrina/main832650.shtml
"[Katrina] could end up costing almost as much as two wars.
Although estimates of Hurricane Katrina's staggering toll on the treasury are highly imprecise, costs are certain to climb to $200 billion in the coming weeks. The final accounting could approach the more than $300 billion spent in four years to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq."
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,374268,00.html
"Last week, a German military cargo jet carrying 15 tons of food labored into the air bound for the United States. [] Refused permission to land, the plane was forced to turn around and head back to Cologne, still fully loaded. Food from other countries has likewise been banned.
Why was the aid not accepted? As it turns out, the US Department of Agriculture had rejected the rations [] out of fear they may be tainted with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) []
But officers at a US base in Pensacola -- where previous German aid planes had landed -- believe there was another reason. In reality, the critics said, the Bush government was trying to avoid embarrassing images of Europeans making food relief deliveries to the States.
After all, the meals had already been certified by NATO as BSE-free. Additionally, the same types of meals have been used in common deployments in Afghanistan, and they've also been consumed by American troops."
Bush Takes Responsibility for Blunders
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050913/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_washington
WASHINGTON -
President Bush for the first time took responsibility Tuesday for federal government mistakes in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and suggested the calamity raised broader questions about the government's ability to handle both natural disasters and terror attacks.
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at a joint White House news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
"And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility. I want to know what went right and what went wrong," said Bush.
Facing sharp criticism and the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, Bush scheduled a speech to the nation from Louisiana for Thursday evening. It will be his fourth trip to the devastated Gulf Coast since the storm struck two weeks ago.
It was the closest Bush has come to publicly faulting any federal officials involved in the hurricane response, which has been widely criticized as disjointed and slow. Some federal officials have sought to blame state and local officials for being unprepared to cope with the disaster.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/14/katrina/main842327.shtml
"Homicide charges were filed against the husband-and-wife owners of a nursing home where 34 elderly patients are believed to have died during Hurricane Katrina, the first major criminal case related to the storm's still rising death toll.
For Louisiana alone, the toll surged by more than half Tuesday to 423, and officials fear the numbers could climb as floodwaters recede and more of the city becomes accessible to search teams. Including deaths in four other states, Katrina's overall death count stood at 659."
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/12636484.htm
"HOUSTON - Three teenagers were hospitalized and five were arrested following a Tuesday morning fight at Jones High School that broke out after a student from Houston threw a soft drink can into a group of evacuee students, a school district spokesman said.
Officials said the resulting fight involved 20 to 25 students."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3352946
"Jones students said Tuesday that they'd tried to welcome the evacuees to their school, but they changed their tune when New Orleans students started threatening to take over the campus and the city."
""It's not working," 15-year-old Tracy Williams, a Houston sophomore, said. "We were doing good before they came here — for real."
Teens said they're frustrated that the evacuees are getting extra assistance and special attention.
"Nobody's giving us $2,000. When it floods here, we don't go over there," said Pedro Umana, 14, a freshman from Houston. "They started it, but we finished it. And it's not over yet."
Senior Treyvaun Jones, 18, said, "I'm scared to go back to my own school, and I'm a grown man.""
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-21T124625Z_01_SCH117391_RTRUKOC_0_US-KATRINA-LEVEES.xml
"Hurricane experts said Hurricane Katrina's storm surges were smaller than authorities have suggested and that poor design, faulty construction or a combination of the two were to blame for the failure of New Orleans' flood-protection system, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Scientists and engineers at Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center -- with the help of computer models and visual evidence -- concluded the levee system should have been sufficient to keep most of the city dry.
They also said Katrina's storm surges did not come close to going over the floodwalls, contradicting statements from the Army Corps of Engineers, which has said the surges sent water from Lake Pontchartrain over the top of the concrete walls."
"Ivor van Heerden, the Hurricane Center's deputy director, said the real scandal of Katrina is the "catastrophic structural failure" of barriers that should have handled the hurricane with relative ease.
"We are absolutely convinced that those floodwalls were never overtopped,""
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aZqO.iAcddLc&refer=us
"Ex-FEMA Head Brown Defends Katrina Response to [Congressional and Republican-led] Panel"
http://cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/27/brown.fema/index.html
"Brown serving as consultant to FEMA"
http://www.suntimes.com/output/hurricane/posts27.html
Board to investigate officers who left posts
"About 250 police officers-- roughly 15 percent of the force-- will be investigated for leaving their posts without permission during Hurricane Katrina and the storm's chaotic aftermath, a deputy police chief said Tuesday."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1164092
New Orleans police chief quits
"The police chief of New Orleans said on Tuesday he was retiring from the heavily criticized force, giving no reason for his decision"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/28/AR2005092800441.html
"On Tuesday, a combative Michael Brown blamed the Louisiana governor, the New Orleans mayor and even the Bush White House that appointed him for the dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in a fiery appearance Tuesday before Congress."
""I'm happy you left," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn."
""So I guess you want me to be the superhero, to step in there and take everyone out of New Orleans," Brown said.
"What I wanted you to do is do your job and coordinate," Shays retorted."