This week in New Orleans

As Hurricane Katrina made its deadly and destructive mark along the Gulf shore, the Web became a catalyst for first-hand information, relief efforts and scams.

Hurricane Katrina came ashore along the Gulf Coast early Monday, wreaking havoc on Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Thousands are feared dead in the wake of what could be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

New Orleans could be underwater for quite a while, according to experts, and the oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico may face years of repairs. The scope of the flooding following Hurricane Katrina, combined with the fact that New Orleans is below sea level, has created an engineering nightmare, according to Bob Bea, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley who also worked for more than 30 years in the oil and gas industry.

The extent of the damage was exacerbated by inadequacies in the levee system and failures of other safety precautions, he added. Cleaning up the offshore oil and chemical refineries poses an even more daunting challenge, which experts believe will lead to increases in the price of fuel. Some of the pipes extend 2,000 feet below the surface of the water, Bea said.

Hurricane Katrina has spawned more than misery and destruction; a new wave of scam e-mails and Web sites are exploiting the tragedy. Phony sites and e-mails, purporting to offer help to hurricane victims or provide more news on the destruction, are making their rounds on the Internet.

One spam campaign that's circulating offers breaking news reports but tricks people into clicking a link that takes them to a bogus Web site, according to security firm Sophos. The site attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and install malicious code, including the Troj/Cgab-A Trojan horse, on a victim's system, Sophos said.

Meanwhile, the tech community is rallying around victims of Hurricane Katrina, offering technical assistance, aiding the homeless and gathering relief donations. Wireless giant Sprint Nextel announced Tuesday that it would dispatch nearly two dozen specialty vehicles to coordinate the recovery effort and restore communications services.

Web giants Amazon.com and eBay pitched in by helping to collect donations and raise funds. Free community Web site Craigslist is hosting pages listing volunteer opportunities and offers, pleas for information on loved ones, and free temporary housing for those left homeless by the hurricane.

The Web provided some of the most vivid, first-hand accounts of the storm's destructive path in the form of blogs, online photo galleries and discussion forums. Blogs run by two New Orleans news outlets--the Times-Picayune newspaper and NBC TV affiliate WDSU--were among the most prolific. The Times-Picayune blog, run in partnership with local news site Nola.com, mainly ran contributions from its own reporters but also included some photos and reports from "citizen journalists." The site's online forums gave readers a place to exchange questions and information.

CNET News.com readers were divided over where the blame lies for the hurricane's pain.

"Obviously, President Bush can't be blamed for a natural catastrophe like a hurricane," Guy Jones wrote in News.com's TalkBack reader forum. "He can, however, be blamed for cutting down Louisiana's request earlier this year for funding to shore up and expand the levee system protecting New Orleans."

Other readers disagreed. "Sure, the Bush administration could have provided funding for a New Orleans fix, but the money was demanded elsewhere," wrote Earl Benser in TalkBack.

red states re-elected bush!

and i am extremly sorry that they did.
maybe response would have been different if we had an admistration that knew what to do.
LOUISANNA, MISSISSIPPI AND ALAMBAMA are red states.
i feel for the the people suffering..
homeland security a bush idea has done nothing.
we are very vernable nothing has changed since 9/11.
we need to remove this admistration from office.
clintin had an affair ..and was impeached
this president has lied..and responsible for death
he needs to go before 1/09

Katrina Aftermath

Katrina Aftermath

?The Big Problem ?
The hurricane showed no respect of persons in ?halting? illegal activities and church services alike.
Out of 136,000of people living in New Orleans, 67% are African American. Few people know that just a few years ago New Orleans had an 80% poverty rate for African Americans. During this time the unemployment rate for Blacks in that city was 68% compared to 34% nationally for African Americans. In the 1920?s the unemployment rate reached 25% and the government declared a depression. The government used every resource available to reduce the unemployment rate back then.

It would seem that the government would have begun some kind of economic recovery plan for Blacks when the unemployment rate reached 25% in New Orleans, similar to action taken in the 1920?s, but have not addressed the issue. Although officials have been aware of this poverty for several years, no one has planned, implemented, or suggested anything specific to address the problem. Both the state of Louisiana and U.S. government are aware that 12 and 13 people staying in a 2 or 3 bedroom homes is common in New Orleans black communities.

?When someone is ?knocked down? or already ?down ? and someone (or something) comes along to drive them ?further into the ground of despair and hopelessness?, history has shown that it is always vented into negative aggression, protest, and rebellion. When the oppressed are relegated to survival instincts, given the opportunity to rebel, they will.?
This is what hurricane Katrina did to the poor Blacks living near the Gulf in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
That aggression and rebellion can be seen in the many reports coming out of the New Orleans area since Katrina?s destruction. It has exposed the worst and best in the human race.

?Thug Activities Dominating the News?
There is a 27 block radius in New Orleans that potential foreign business investors/developers are ?warned? not to build. In fact, the police and other social service programs in the city do not venture to that area after midnight unless there is an ?excessively serious crime? reported. This seems to be the area that most of hideous crimes are taking place during the hurricane Katrina recoveries.

I believe that city, state, and government bodies knew that ?thugs? infested the area when the cities murder rate was the second highest in the country in 2002. National news reports validate that the city was aware of the potential destruction of a 4 to 5 rated hurricane but cut corners on building it?s levee. As a result ¾ the city has been swept underwater. After waters receded, thugs seem to have steeped their crime activities up a bit. Not only have rapes and strong arm robberies being constantly reported, but many of the city?s police are not reporting for work in order to protect their own homes and families.

Police got into a shootout with looters at an abandoned car dealership when they went to replace their storm damaged police vehicles. Police are said to be ciphering gas from abandoned cars in order to keep patrolling the streets. 1700 police officers were reassigned from their daily routines to downtown New Orleans to discourage looting. Unless there is a threat of violence, looters are being chased away by police in downtown New Orleans instead of being arrested. The looters include people as young as 7 years of age. Some of the older adults were let go that had basic supplies, food, and water.

Police also said snipers were shooting at the police station and hospitals bringing patients in for emergency care. Rival gangs started shooting inside the Superdome in New Orleans during the time people were being relocated to the Houston Astrodome.. A man shot his sister in the head over a bag of ice in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Wednesday, August 31.A medical supply truck was carjacked and robbed for Diabetes medicines, Anti-Biotics, aspirin, and cold medicine.
A total of 47 cars were reported hijacked within 24 hours in New Orleans. It is believed that 85% of these incidents are transpiring in the dreaded 27 block radius of New Orleans.
This ?thuggish? area has been thriving with little intervention before the hurricane. The truth of the matter is that almost anything goes in communities where there is no sincere concern for the citizens. Thugs set up shop and vulturize those living in poor communities that have been forgotten not only by the government but their own people as well.

Perhaps some of the good news coming out of these tragedies is the help that thousands are helping and lending.

Shawn ?P-Diddy? Combs and hip hop artist JZ are uniting to donate $1 million to the cause. And some of the companies that Blacks have ?made wealthy? are ?giving back to the community.
The Wal-Mart and Anhueser Busch companies have doubtless made billions selling Black folk clothing, household items, and liquor, over the last three and four decades. Wal-Mart decided to chip in a million dollars to relief causes and $1 million to the Red Cross while the Anhueser Busch brewery donated 85,000 bottles of water for relief efforts.

After a reasonable amount of time of recovery for hurricane victims perhaps the most disheartening element in this ?awakening? is to understand that the lives of the poor people devastated by this tragedy will probably return back to normalcy, lifestyles of poverty and survival.
The bible teaches that ?wisdom? is the ability to ?live today? as if one ?knew tomorrow?. It is probably safe to say that few had, or will have the necessary wisdom for assisting the poor, disenfranchised, and forgotten.
Urban Spirit
http://www.urbanspirit.faithweb.com

Fox News

Every time I tuned in to Fox news they were describing the looting and shootings even though, after watching the other news coverages it was obvious Fox was exaggerating the situation. They seemed to take it upon themselves to create an alibi for the inept response by their neocon friends in Washington.