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August 31, 2005

Biloxi paper pleads for help, seeks death toll, asks why Air Force plays basketball as people die; unofficial stories from La.

The lead story today in the Biloxi Sun Herald is headlined Make life here possible on its homepage. It's a signed editorial. Here it is, in its entirety. They need to get the word out.

South Mississippi needs your help

The coastal communities of South Mississippi are desperately in need of an unprecedented relief effort.

We understand that New Orleans also was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but surely this nation has the resources to rescue both that metropolitan and ours.

Whatever plans that were in place to deal with such a natural disaster have proven inadequate. Perhaps destruction on this scale could not have been adequately prepared for.

But now that it has taken place, no effort should be spared to mitigate the hurricane's impact.

The essentials -- ice, gasoline, medicine -- simply are not getting here fast enough.

We are not calling on the nation and the state to make life more comfortable in South Mississippi, we are calling on the nation and the state to make life here possible.

We would bolster our argument with the number of Katrina casualties confirmed thus far, but if there is such a confirmed number, no one is releasing it to the public. This lack of faith in the publics' ability to handle the truth is not sparing anyone's feelings, it is instead fueling terrifying rumors.

While the flow of information is frustratingly difficult, our reporters have yet to find evidence of a coordinated approach to relieve pain and hunger or to secure property and maintain order.

People are hurting and people are being vandalized.

Yet where is the National Guard, why hasn't every able-bodied member of the armed forces in South Mississippi been pressed into service?

On Wednesday reporters listening to horrific stories of death and survival at the Biloxi Junior High School shelter looked north across Irish Hill Road and saw Air Force personnel playing basketball and performing calisthenics.

Playing basketball and performing calisthenics!

When asked why these young men were not being used to help in the recovery effort, our reporters were told that it would be pointless to send military personnel down to the beach to pick up debris.

Litter is the least of our problems. We need the president to back up his declaration of a disaster with a declaration of every man and woman under his command will do whatever is necessary to deal with that disaster.

We need the governor to provide whatever assistance is at his command.

We certainly need our own county and city officials to come together and identify the most pressing needs of their constituents and then allocate resources to meet those needs. We appreciate the stress that theses elected and appointed officials have been under since the weekend but they must do a better job restoring public confidence in their ability to meet this challenge.

This editorial represents the view of the Sun-Herald editorial board: President- Publisher Ricky R. Mathews, Vice President and Executive Editor Stan Tiner, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Flora S. Point, Opinion Page Editor Marie Harris, and Associate Editor Tony Biffle.

5:54 p.m. From New Orleans native Chuck Taggart's Looka! blog:

When I was home three weeks ago, we met Jack Fine, a longtime trumpet player in New Orleans, 78 years of age, and the leader of the Palmetto Bug Stompers, who play every Sunday at the Old Point Bar in Algiers Point. We talked for a while; he seems like a great, great guy. I was just watching CNN, and there was his voice; he had apparently stayed behind and ridden the storm and floods out in his home in Algiers. He's alive and well, and called in to Paula Zahn's show to describe what he was seeing and feeling. Thanking Gawd for TiVo and its ability to rewind live television because of its buffer, I transcribed these comments from Jack:

"This is a lovely, vibrant community... it's ghostly here now, the silence, blackness, roofs have peeled off all over the place. I'm alone here, all alone; there's nothing -- no heat, no light, no cooling, nothing. It's just silence, like living in a ghost city. And it's just appalling, because we're accustomed to a vibrant, alive, very very active city. I'm very much a part of the culture of the city, involved in it, and friends of mine have called, those who have survived and those who have left the city, saying 'My God, we're changed forever. Where are we going to play, who are we going to talk to, it's gone, it's finished, it's done.' And it's very upsetting, and the devastation around here is just appalling. I've seen some hurricanes in my time, but nothing like this."

Metroblogging is a group of New Orleans bloggers who are still posting, some from elsewhere now.

Good reports, wildly diverse. The last two posts, by different bloggers, want looters shot on sight and want President Bush to put down his dog:

Inspiring....to see our nation's chief executive cutting his vacation short to fly to New Orleans, land in Air Force One and stroll to a waiting helicopter WHILE CARRYING HIS DOG.

...while, on the split screen, we're seeing literally dozens of stranded folks waving from apartment windows near Napoleon and S. Claiborne, including one family on the roof with a handmade sign that says, "Help Us."

Put the animal down, my man -- you got work to do. Doesn't he have someone hired to handle this kinda thing? But I won't get political -- we'll hear what he has to say later in the afternoon...

Insomnia - The Journal of Mark Kraft is still compiling New Orleans Stories -- Hurricane Katrina and asking questions we'll hear more of after the emergency phase of this disaster:

I just read this article about how the Bush administration has been cutting funding for the Army Corps of Engineers projects around New Orleans for years, which makes you wonder whether this level of damage could've been avoided. This article, written in June of this year, is absolutely damning, in retrospect...

His Live Journal buddies are chiming in as they can. Typical:

malkierie:

"I just talked to John and he is going to stay put and wait for rescue with his family. They are placing a white sheet on the roof of the building at 7329 oak st near river road. and not leaving. River road looks dry but it is not... OCHSNER is under water."

Blogger Ernie the Attorney (Ernie Svenson) spent the storm in New Orleans, but got out and is now in Jennings, La., blogging again.

"Ernie's voice" -- a friend, apparently -- was able to blog for him in the interim. From one of these posts:

Ernie has teamed up with some neighbors and friends to evacuate within the hour. He ran around between his house and his dad's condo today. He spoke with some neighbors that had RETURNED (does anyone other than me wonder "what were they thinking!?") to their homes yesterday and felt confident that they could get back out based on the route they took in. Good to hear. He also spoke with a keeper at the zoo near his house who reported that the animals and staff were fine at this time. Ernie's evacuation team is being lead by one burly-sounding gent named Bo. Bo has a F250 and runs shipyards. We feel good about this. We're confident that this Bo, knows.

Antidote: Misery spreads, empathy makes others' problems our own.

I found a photo this morning, thanks to Robot Wisdom, at Admit One of a desert pass that sees rain once a century. This year, the rains came and, rather than devastation, these rains brought wildflowers. Click on the photo for the context.

Though many are dying, we are alive today. Catch it while you can.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 6:31 PM | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Eleanor Greene on September 1, 2005 5:48 AM

Posted by: Sheila Lennon on September 1, 2005 9:26 AM