Katrina Live Threads, Part XV

U.S. commercial air carriers continue transporting tens of thousands of evacuees from the New Orleans airport to destinations throughout the nation.

Rooftop air rescue efforts continue. One rescue chopper crashed late today. Crew members are reported safe. Gunmen who fired upon bridge repair contractors were killed by law enforcement.

To date, an estimated 70 countries and U.S. businesses have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, supplies, food and equipment to assist the United States' efforts in Katrina's aftermath. Lt. General Honore described the damage to Mississippi today, "all infrastructure south of Jackson, MS is either damaged or destroyed." Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice visited the devastated areas, and attended Sunday church services in Mobile, Alabama.

Elsewhere, Sean Penn's rescue boat, sans plug and full of his personal entourage,reportedly sank during launch in New Orleans. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) threatened to punch President Bush, and Jefferson Parish President Broussard decried that the bureaucracy of FEMA has committed murder.

New Orleans Emergency Operations Center - is now open:
504-463-1000
504-463-1001
504-463-1002

All information is subject to change. Many stations are relying on their corporate parents to configure and maintain Internet streaming. Because of the intense interest in the feeds, they may be unavailable at times because of network congestion or a problem feeding the video to the streaming servers.

WWL-TV New Orleans - WWL-TV is operating from studios at Louisiana Public Broadcasting. CBS has a relay during the morning and afternoon. When available, use the CBS relay first as they have greater streaming capacity. They have a secondary stream from Yahoo. WWL-TV is also offering a special low-bandwidth audio-only stream for dial-up users.

WDSU-TV New Orleans - The news staff has started to return to temporary news studios near New Orleans. However, expect evening coverage from Hearst-Argyle sister stations WAPT Jackson and WESH Orlando when the New Orleans staff needs to take a break.

WGNO-TV New Orleans - New Orleans' ABC affiliate has returned to the air with WBRZ-TV and launched video streaming with continuous Katrina coverage.

WPMI-TV Mobile, AL - WPMI is webcasting from 5:30am - 10:30pm CDT. When off air, you can view pre-recorded reports on demand. This feed is often unreliable.

WKRG-TV Mobile, AL - This station is providing good coverage of the situation to the east in Mississippi and Alabama. However, the station is now signing off at around 10:30pm CDT like WWL and WPMI.

WJTV-TV Jackson, MS - The CBS affiliate in Jackson is providing live coverage for both the Jackson area and south Mississippi (knowing a lot of media in that area is off the air).

WFAA-TV Dallas, TX - WFAA-TV is here because Dallas is one of the evacuation cities.

United Radio From New Orleans: WWL-AM, WNOE-FM, "KISS-FM," WRNO-FM, WYLD-FM, and WJBO-AM (Clear Channel & Entercom) who have joined forces as United Radio From New Orleans, and they are streaming.

Gulf Coast Storm Network (Clear Channel Radio) - Clear Channel offers radio listeners across the gulf coast access to a simulcast emergency radio service. This service seems primarily focused on Alabama and Mississippi, but does cover Louisiana to some degree.

Due to the number of requests to assist, the following list of some charities is provided.
This is not intended as an endorsement for any of the charities.

www.redcross.org or 1-800 HELP NOW - note: website is slow, and lines are busy
Salvation Army - 1-800-SAL-ARMY or Salvation Army currently looking for in-state volunteers - (888)363-2769
Operation Blessing: (800) 436-6348.
America's Second Harvest: (800) 344-8070.
Catholic Charities USA: (800) 919-9338, or www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee: (800) 848-5818.
Church World Service: (800) 297-1516 or online at www.churchworldservice. org.
Lutheran Disaster Response: (800) 638-3522.
Nazarene Disaster Response: (888) 256-5886.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance: (800) 872-3283.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is accepting donations at its 3,800 stores and Web site, www.walmart.com.
National Black Home Educators Resource Association http://www.nbhera.org/ Southern Baptist: NAMB - http://www.namb.net/
Samaritan's Purse - http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

It [the DHS National Response Plan] is on the DHS web site. All of your questions are plainly addressed. Their are circumstances in which the Feds can take a 'proactive' approach to responding i.e. doing it on their own. Based on the criteria in the document, there can hardly be any doubt that this qualifies. And the document specifically includes natural disasters within its scope.

For others following the discussion within a thread, here is a link to the DHS National Response Plan ...

http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRP_FullText.pdf

You are persistly refusing to particularly cite support for your position, and various other summaries are contrary to your position. Therefore, I believe the assertion that FEMA has the right to become or to control first responder, absent expressed state request, is incorrect.

For the benefit of other readers, page 357 of the PDF starts an annex that is referred to as "Catastophic Incident Annex". Page 360 starts a summary of the concept of operations. The summary is full of "terms of art," words that do not have their natural meaning, or that have indefinite meaning (e.g., "federal assistance" is indefinite). Nowehre do I see a phrase that indicates the Feds can countermand a state "order" during the cooperation phase.

You can spin the lingo in the plan all you want. I think your conclusion is incorrect.

January 06, 2005 Contact: Elissa Davidson
(202) 224-4751
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
SENATOR COLLINS' STATEMENT ON DHS NATIONAL RESPONSE PLAN
Washington, DC - Senator Susan Collins today said she was encouraged that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has completed a National Response Plan to establish a unified and standardized approach across the country for protecting citizens and managing homeland security incidents. The plan sets forth how the federal government agencies would coordinate with state, local, and tribal governments and the private sector during threats or acts of terrorism, major natural disasters, or man-made emergencies.
"The National Response Plan integrates disparate law enforcement and homeland security departments into one team. It helps to coordinate local police, fire, and rescue units with state and federal emergency management agencies, to ensure that all responders are working together in the case of a disaster or terrorist attack," said Senator Collins.
"This plan lays the groundwork for first responders and state and federal homeland security teams to operate off a common script in planning for and reacting to emergencies. As the Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I will examine the implementation of the plan to ensure its success and continued improvement to counter threats."
The National Response Plan establishes standardized training, organization, and communications procedures through a National Incident Management System, and clearly identifies authority and leadership responsibilities among federal, state, and local agencies. Under the plan, first responders maintain responsibility for incident management at the local level. For those events that rise to the level of an Incident of National Significance, the Department of Homeland Security would provide operational and/or resource coordination to provide federal support to on-scene incident command structures.
The National Response Plan was developed by teams of experts from federal departments and agencies, state, local, and tribal officials, incident response and private sector committees from around the nation.
"Secretary Tom Ridge has shown great leadership in preparing the country react quicker and more efficiently in national emergencies," said Senator Collins. "The completion this project was a top priority for Secretary Ridge. He should be commended both for finishing such a massive effort before leaving public service, as well as, for his commitment to involve all stakeholders in this process."
For more information about the National Response Plan, first responders and incident management authorities may call 1-800-368-6498. Interested citizens may view and download a PDF copy of the National Response Plan online at http://www.dhs.gov/nationalresponseplan. Information on FEMA National Response Plan training courses is available through links at the above website.
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Good message.

WWL

Updates as they come in on Katrina
07:39 AM CDT on Monday, September 5, 2005

Tom Planchet

7:35 A.M. - BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon raised more than $3 million by late Sunday night in a unique edition of the annual event that benefits both the Muscular Dystrophy Association and victims of Hurricane Katrina. Viewers pledged more than $3 million by 10:30 p.m., according to Bob Mackle, a telethon spokesman. The total amount of donations to aid hurricane victims was not immediately available, he said. The telethon, which started at 6 p.m. Sunday, ends Monday afternoon.

7:20 A.M. - Senator Frist volunteers as doctor, criticizes administration's response.

7:14 A.M. - (AP) Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., lashed back, saying she won't tolerate federal officials' denigrating local efforts to deal with the catastrophe.

"If one person criticizes them or says one more thing, including the president of the United States, he will hear from me," she said on the ABC's "This Week." "One more word about it after this show airs and I might likely have to punch him. Literally."

7:08 A.M. - New Orleans Times-Picayune editorial: "Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially."

7:07 A.M. - WWL-TV: Residents of Jefferson Parish are being allowed back in without having to show identification, as previously planned. A long line of cars is streaming in at a good pace.

7:05 A.M. - Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff on the coming death toll: "We need to prepare the country for what's coming... It is going to be about as ugly of a scene as I think you can imagine."

7:00 A.M. - (AP) -- A week after Hurricane Katrina, dozens of military and U.S. Coast Guard helicopters filled the air over New Orleans. But it's getting harder to find people who needed rescuing. One Navy helicopter crew flew in from Pensacola Naval Air Station, only to spend most of their 13-hour shift fruitlessly searching flooded neighborhoods.

6:55 A.M. - (AP) Miles-long lines of vehicles crawl into Jefferson Parish today. The traffic began moving into the parish about 6 a.m. and officials plan to allow traffic in for 12 hours, though they encouraged residents to inspect their property, pick up personal items and leave.

The parish, which has about 500,000 residents, has been closed since a mandatory evacuation just before Hurricane Katrina hit a week ago. Wide portions of Metairie and Kenner suffered heavy flooding and authorities say thousands of homes were damaged.

6:45 A.M. - Robin Cooper, CLECO spokesperson: 7,000 homes in St. Tammany have power restored, but 73,000 remain without. Power restored to hospitals.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.