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September 8, 2005

Jon Stewart: If you don't like the blame game it is usually because you're to blame; New Orleans music foretold the flood

9:53 a.m.
Jon Stewart last night: "If you don't like the blame game it is usually because you're to blame." It's at One Good Move.

11:49 p.m.

AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Irwin Thompson

The band plays on. The mural was photographed Sunday in New Orleans.

New Orleans music foretold the flood

8:25 a.m.

Jon Stewart, back from vacation, cuts to the chase.

The Onion does Katrina.

Satire too: What do we call these folks, now that refugees is out. How about 'Caners?

Katrina political cartoons

Not satire: Doc Searls: What the button resets.

One of the Millions of Hurricane Katrina Stories: It's an articulate one, written by Xavier University professor Michael Homan.

A far more harrowing one: Paramedics at a convention end up in a Mad Max scenario.

In his later years, the late (that's an obit) Bob Denver resembled the pending fourth of the Three Stooges.

10:35 p.m.
Corpus Christi shelter authorizes bus, plane tickets anywhere

Providence native Bob Fabrizio just confirmed by phone that Corpus Christi, Texas, shelter officials announced that anyone who wished would be given transportation by airplane or bus wherever they wanted to go.

This shelter is in the municipal Ben Garza Gym.

(When Bob Fabrizio called me from the Corpus Christi shelter, it was as a friend, and only after I got off the phone did I think to write about his experience. Today he agreed to use his full name. I've added it to the earlier post.)

Update: Transportation confirmed. Corpus Christi Caller-Times today:

Evacuees who want to leave the city to reunite with family and loved ones in other cities and states will receive transportation assistance from the state, Noe said. City officials already have begun the process of visiting shelters and asking evacuees if they'd like to leave the city and where they would like to go.

The process of transporting evacuees from Corpus Christi to other states was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency canceled an operation that would have moved about 250 evacuees out of state on two American Airlines flights. Corpus Christi International Airport officials said the two flights have not been rescheduled....

FEMA's recent history includes (CNN: Right city, wrong state) alerting Charleston, S.C. to accept survivors, but the plane went to Charleston, W.V. instead.

6:48 p.m.
How to proceed if a Rhode Islander in a shelter asks to come "home" (so you don't mess things up for them); : If you get a call from a former Rhode Islander in a shelter who wants to come "home," as I did yesterday, how should you proceed?

I posed that question today to Angie Henderson Moncada, director of communications for the American Red Cross of Rhode Island.

She said that with more than 150,000 displaced people in shelters, decisions about where they're sent are being made by matching needs to available facilities. The 500 people coming to Rhode Island from the Houston Astrodome are those with medical needs and families with small children who can most benefit from the actual housing available on the former Navy base in Middletown rather than the gyms and community centers that will house evacuees elsewhere.

"But if someone shows up here, they immediately fall under the responsibility of the local chapter," Moncada said. "We will take care of them, housing them for 14 days, and giving them a debit card for immediate needs." (While 14 days is standard policy, news reports have generally noted that shelter needs are expected to extend well beyond that period.)

I just spoke by phone to Bob, the former Rhode Islander who contacted me from the Ben Garza Gym shelter in Corpus Christi, Texas. He said he had been told that officials there were attempting to secure seats, a few at a time, on planes heading where shelter residents wanted to go, if they had preferences or ties elsewhere.

Bob was going to give it another day or two to see if that happens. If it does, he'll arrive under the auspices of the relief effort carrying his own paper trail, which might smooth the relocation process.

So if you want to help the displaced person or family start a new life here, you might first have them inquire about such flights at their own shelters.

If neither of you want to wait, and you are willing to arrange transportation for your friend, he or she should contact the Rhode Island Red Cross on arrival: 401-831-7700 or toll-free at 1-800-842-1122.

Ocean State Free-Net down Wednesday afternoon as equipment moves: Michael L. Umbricht, who maintains the servers of the Ocean State Free-Net, Rhode Island's free, text-based access to the Internet, sent this email today:

I plan on shutting down the Free-Net at about 3:30 pm on Wed. (Sept. 7th) to move the equipment to the new location.

I expect we'll be back online at the new site by about 8 pm.

(Actually, it should take less time than that, but I'll schedule it for that long just to be safe. I also need a little time to do some routine maintenance...)

I served on the board of the nonprofit Free-Net in the mid-90s. You may telnet to it from the link above, but it offers free, fast dial-up access with a modem and a comm program, too. The text-only Lynx Web browser is built into the Free-Net's software. It's especially useful for visually impaired people who use a screen-reading program, but is also a way to see just the words on the Web, without graphics or sound.

The Free-Net operates with a volunteer staff, grants and in-kind donations: The $2,150 annual cost of the Internet connection is donated by Conversent Communications; electricity and a place to house the servers is donated by the Retro-Computing Society of R.I.

Umbricht writes that, "The largest expense that OSFN must pay for are the phone lines for the dialup modems and help desk which totals $122 every month." Some, but not all of this cost is covered by grants.

So the Free-Net is launching a fundraising drive. Its goal is as minimal as its needs: $350. More info at osfn.org.

Posted by Sheila Lennon at 9:53 AM | Permalink