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Nightmarish Scenes at New Orleans Convention Center
Daily News Reporter in New Orleans: Scope of Destruction
Much Worse Than 9/11
White House Response to Gulf Coast Disaster Sparks Criticism
Race in New Orleans: Shaping the Response to Katrina?
Desperately Seeking Loved Ones Missing in New Orleans
Historian: Government Relief Efforts to 1927 Mississippi
Flood Faster Than Katrina
Nightmarish Scenes at New Orleans Convention Center
We begin our special coverage of Hurricane Katrina by going
to New Orleans to hear the voices of refugees stranded outside
the city's Convention Center. As camera crews passed by on
Thursday hundreds of stranded people started chanting for
help.
The Convention Center which has become a symbol of the plight
of survivors in New Orleans. In a statement to CNN, the city's
mayor Mayor Ray Nagin said, "Right now we are out of
resources at the convention center and don't anticipate enough
buses. We need buses. Currently the convention center is unsanitary
and unsafe and we're running out of supplies."
- Survivors outside the Convention Center in New Orleans.
Daily News Reporter in New Orleans: Scope of Destruction
Much Worse Than 9/11
We go to New Orleans to speak with New York Daily News reporter
Tamer El-Ghobashy. He reports from outside one of the main
refugee centers in New Orleans - the Super Dome, where as
many as 30,000 people sought shelter.
- Tamer El-Ghobashy, journalist with the New York Daily
News speaking outside the Super Dome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Jacquie Soohen, an independent filmmaker with Big
Noise Films, speaking outside the Astrodome in Houston,
Texas.
White House Response to Gulf Coast Disaster Sparks
Criticism
President Bush is coming under increasing criticism for
his slow response to what is now being described as one of
the worst natural disasters in the country's history. We play
some of the president's remarks as well as excerpts from a
White House news conference.
President Bush is coming under increasing criticism for his
slow response to what is now being described as one of the
worst natural disasters in the country's history.
On Monday, as Hurricane Katrina surged ashore just east of
New Orleans, Bush traveled to Arizona and California, pitching
a new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
On Tuesday he went to San Diego where he was photographed
playing a guitar before returning to his estate in Crawford.
On Wednesday, as Bush returned to Washington, Air Force One
flew over the Gulf Coast region so the president could see
the magnitude of the devastation from the air. He went on
to give a televised address in what a New York Times editorial
called, "one of the worst speeches of his life."
On Thursday, Bush again addressed the nation with former
Presidents Bill Clinton and George HW Bush by his side.
- President Bush, news conference, September 1, 2005.
The White House has been scrambling to defend itself against
criticism that it has consistently proposed cutting the budget
for Army Corps of Engineers water and flood control projects.
In February, President Bush proposed cutting the Corps"
budget by 7 percent. The year before, Bush proposed a 13 percent
cut.
Pentagon officials today said an additional 4,200 National
Guard troops would be deployed over three days and that 3,000
regular Army soldiers may also be sent in to disaster areas.
According to some estimates, there are 11,000 National Guard
personnel from Louisiana, of whom about 3,000 are in Iraq.
President Bush has come under criticism for stretching thin
the National Guard. On Thursday longtime White House correspondent
Helen Thomas questioned White House Press Secretary Scott
McClellan about the issue.
- Scott McCllelan, White House news conference, September
1, 2005.
Race in New Orleans: Shaping the Response to Katrina?
Race and class loom large in the critical discussion of
the federal response to the impact of hurricane Katrina. We
speak with two African-American activists about the poor communities
that have been hit hardest by the hurricane.
The frustration and anger over the slow federal response
to hurricane Katrina's destruction and aftermath continues
to mount. The disturbing images are revealing: bodies floating
through floodwaters, thousands of desperate survivors clamoring
for food and distraught families with stricken children. Throughout
all this, one thing is starkly evident: the vast majority
of victims are black. African American leaders and activists
are saying better planning and response by federal authorities
could have lessened the severity of the hurricane's impact.
Race and class are becoming central to the discussion about
what happened in the cities torn apart in the last few days.
- Damu Smith, Executive Director of National Black Environmental
Justice Network and founder of Black Voices for Peace.
- Dr. Beverly Wright, founder and Director of the Deep
South Center for Environmental Justice at Xavier University
in New Orleans.
Desperately Seeking Loved Ones Missing in New Orleans
With communication lines down in the areas hit by the hurricane,
there are thousands of people with no word about their loved
ones in the area. We hear the voices of worried family and
friends broadcasting their messages to those missing.
We hear from people around the country who are searching
for any word of loved ones that were in the path of hurricane
Katrina. We hear the voices of people who posted in the Craig's
List New Orleans lost and found section. They give the names
of their loved ones who they cannot find, asking for them
to call. Also posted on Craig's list is the best friend of
the well-known musician and singer Alex
Chillton calling for him to call as well, the lead singer
for the Boxtops and Big Star.
Historian: Government Relief Efforts to 1927 Mississippi
Flood Faster Than Katrina
We go back to the spring of 1927 when the Mississippi River
flooded after weeks of incessant rains. While the federal
government response was well-coordinated, African Americans
were rounded into work camps by land owners and prevented
from leaving as the waters rose.
While the survivors of Hurricane Katrina struggle to cope
the devastation, this is not the first time the Gulf Coast
has been wracked by a natural disaster.
In the spring of 1927, after weeks of incessant rains, the
Mississippi River flooded. Racing south from Cairo, Illinois,
the river blew away levee after levee, inundating thousands
of farms and hundreds of towns, killing as many as a thousand
people and leaving nearly a million homeless. The disaster
laid bare the feudal between whites and blacks in the South.
As New York Times columnist David Brooks writes, "Blacks
were rounded up into work camps and held by armed guards.
They were prevented from leaving as the waters rose. A steamer,
the Capitol, played "Bye Bye Blackbird" as it sailed
away." The racist violence that followed the floods helped
persuade many blacks to move north."
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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