here is info for them & those seeking to help:
photo: An aerial view of New Orleans and its surrounding waterways before & after the the levees broke.
Images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz/NASA Earth Observatory August 31st, 2005 07:08:06pm
here's as breaking news page of NOLA.com and other resources posted below.
As of 11:45 pm NOLA time a large crowds of looters had formed outside the Children's Hospital and were trying to break into the facility. Police and National Guard have been unable to respond. Other Looters were reported earlier in the parking garage at Tulane Hospital.
Hwy 90 still impassable , as of 11:00 pm on Aug 30th some water had receded in Slidell, a town of 25,000 east of NOLA. At the height of the storm Monday, major flooding extended from Lake Pontchartrain Drive through Olde Towne and up to Fremaux Avenue. It has receded in some areas closest to the lake such as Oak Harbor and Eden Isles, with some areas still under 3 feet of water. I-12 is open for traffic as of 3:00 pm Aug 31, but all exits in St. Tammany Parish are blocked.
NEW: Parish access and road information
Find out which roads are out and which parishes are allowing residents to return.
Full WWL StoryWWL KATRINA BLOG: Click for the latest text updates on Katrina
Slidell Mayor Ben Morris estimated that 75 percent of homes in Slidell
sustained some kind of damage. He cautioned residents not to return to the city, saying many roads are still completely blocked off by fallen trees. All entrances to the city are being blocked off by state troopers, who are letting only residents enter the city. Looters have been chased off by armed neighbors in some areas.
Airplane pilots earlier in day on Aug 30 reported corpses floating "everywhere" in areas along the SOLA coast, Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parish . Sharks seen swimming along flooded I-10 roadway in Metairie.
Lower Plaquemines is engulfed in river water with most of the buildings destroyed. At the peak on Monday flood waters turned Chalmette and other towns around it into a continuous lake so deep that rescue boats narrowly passed under street lights...
Local Forums for finding survivors are at
• Kenner
• Orleans
news on Tulane, and 400 students safely evacuated to Jackson State,
Stats: a 50 inch New Orleans city water main is severed as welll as a 200 yard stretch of the critical 17th Street levee. Water was reported up to 25 feet deep just outside the westernmost corner of the French Quarter. Water was rising on the afternoon of Aug 30th an inch every 5 minutes.
Reports have Westwego between 4th street and the Expressway are rather good - with no flooding, minimal wind damage. Westwego between the Expressway and Lapalco, on the other hand, is a different story. The levee back by Bayou Segnette was breached, so that side of Westwego was under water.
The Louisiana Coastal Government website is inaccessible, but the governer is issuing regular reports out of Baton Rouge. The local news site there is http://www.2theadvocate.com/which includes video clips from WBRZ, such as this story from Slidell.
On Tuesday the N.O P.D were issued hoses to siphon gasoline for emergency vehicles as they run out of fuel.
A large ship loose from Bollinger shipyard sailed upriver & nailed a diesel tanker in Gretna causing 1000's gallons fuel dumping into Mississippi river.
One of the death's at The Superdome was reportedly suicide as a man threw himself over a 2nd floor balcony after warning the people below to "watch out" and then calmly leaping to his death.
Brian Oberkirch, a resident of Slidell, LA, has started a blog to collect information - updates, photos, anything at all - on what’s going on in the disaster zone. He received over 3000 hits on Aug 30th, and well over 10,000 by the next day.
Craigslisters Are Offering Help & Prayers to Katrina's Victims
Craigslist.org, the popular classifieds Web site, has turned into a place where people are offering help and prayers to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. here (a special New Orleans Craigslist page) for information, notices, ways you can help out, etc. as well as the "free" and "volunteer" sections of the Craigslist New Orleans site are filling up with postings like "Free housing for victims.Lost and found section Volunteer section Free section
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Chicago Bulls player Chris Duhon is calling for donations for his hometown of Slidell.
good luck y'all...
Busta Funk - 
Janet Weiss, was once the drummer for a band called ED, and for a minute she switched over to guitar and played for a bit in a band I was in. She was doing us a favor, and dating our mandolin guy, but she was way more fun than than the guitarist she was filling in for... I was so bummed when he came back from vacation... and missed her presence at practice for sure...
Before we satiate your curiosity with digital downloads, I thought it would be appropriate to realize that Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the bill creating Social Security ( a.k.a Economic Security Act ) in the US 70 years ago today.
FDR upon signing the bill on Aug 14th 1935 : 
That would be vocalizer Pete Simonelli, a character I've long referred to as the world's youngest grumpy old man...
A website that provides readings for the blind offers up numerous audio programs including a half hour podcast style overview from a New Yorker article of New Hampshire's most infamous girl group 
