<VV> H. Katrina - NO CORVAIR

[Rt66Vairs at aol.com]

I received this post on an email list that I'm on that has several hundred 
former AFVN and 
AFRTS broadcasters on it.

Thought you might find it interesting.

I have an Uncle in Lake Charles with a houseful and a cousin who lives in 
Hammond that has
heard that his house is standing but badly damaged. Another cousin lives in 
Baton Rouge 
and headed home this morning.

Tim Abney
IECC

Bob: I heard from a friend of mine at WWL TV on satellite phone - its even 
worse than what we see on TV. He thinks they lost some of the engineering staff 
at the transmitter site. He says there are bodies floating but there seems to 
be a tacit understanding that sight will be kept off camera. 

There was an interesting interview with one of the looters. She said she and 
her family had not eaten since they started the evacuation cycle Sunday 
morning - that many of them had been in various church shelters and makeshift places 
that flooded once the levees breeched.  The unexpected flood closed shelters, 
shelter kitchens and destroyed food supplies. The Attorney General of 
Louisiana said Louisiana law calls for a mandatory jail sentence for looting in an 
emergency - but he went on to note that while breaking into a store to get food 
stuff is a crime, in Louisiana "the necessity of survival" is a mitigating 
circumstance. He noted that this was not a license to loot and pillage, however. 
So, basically its vague.  What torques me was the kid with the grocery cart 
with boxes full of Reeboks. Now that may not be a matter of survival. The thing 
is - when you look at the situation, there is actually anarchy in New Orleans 
- and if you know the Big Easy - its always just a shade from being anarchy 
anyway.

As for me,  I know that no matter how high sounding and moral I sound, if 
members of my family were starving, the local 7-11 had best be on guard because 
in the absence of local or state help, I'd be getting my folks fed. What 
surprises me is the absolute scope of the devastation! It is so wide-spread from 
east Louisiana to Florida - the whole gulf coast will have to be rebuilt. And 
three days after the storm, there is not yet a food distribution program for the 
homeless in a city the size of New Orleans. There are some hungry, tired and 
sick folks down there ... and the children... and the old folks who need 
medicine, dialysis and psychiatric care.  Sad thing is those who had the least to 
begin with have even less now and they are suffering more. I sure do hope The 
Sermon on the Mount is on target here ... otherwise things could get ugly in 
what is now being called the most significant disaster ever to hit the United 
States. We also have a change in semantic reference - they have changed from 
evacuees to refugees.

It seems that I will have guests for a while but that's OK ... there's a 
great Chef, a couple of teachers and a musician - what a fortunate mix and they 
will not be a financial drain. Better yet, each one is a good conversationalist, 
an avid reader and each is a bit of a recluse who needs personal space.  
What's interesting is they've all  sort of found a living area and they stay there 
most of the time contemplating the overwhelming tragedy that has hit them. 
They're all computer literate and they brought up three laptops which is not a 
problem - I just reactivated the WAP and they can now log on.

The local school board president went on TV this morning. He told the 
refugees in shelters, hotels, motels and private homes around here that effective 
Wednesday morning all school-age children will be "provisionally" admitted to our 
school system. (We're several hundred miles north of Big Easy so we're in 
good shape.)  At least the kids will get a couple of good meals at school. 

Civil liberties in the flooded areas of Louisiana have been severely 
restricted with the imposition of "martial law".
  
And last -  my friend from WWL told me that an entire parish (county) below N
ew Orleans is gone. In his words, the Gulf of Mexico is 30 miles closer - 
Plaquemines Parish has disappeared. (Plaquemines means persimmon.) I can't believe 
it - just too bizarre. What about the towns and thousands of people down 
there? 

Cal