Combs Spouts Off

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Louisiana Libertarian is OK

Posted by Richard on September 8, 2005

Kevin Boyd, the Louisiana Libertarian, contacted the Life, Liberty, Property community this morning to let us know he’s safe. He had evacuated from Slidell on the Sunday before the storm hit. I mentioned Kevin in my first Katrina post on the following Wednesday:

I’m concerned about my fellow Life, Liberty, Property blogger, Kevin Boyd (Louisiana Libertarian). I only ‘cyber-know’ him, but he’s from a northern suburb of New Orleans. He hasn’t posted since Saturday, and I hope that’s only because he’s resting safely in a motel a few hundred miles north.

Kevin said he was able to return to Slidell this past Sunday, and his property wasn’t severely damaged. But he won’t be able to live there for some time. He guessed there’d be no power for a month.

Needless to say, Kevin has a story to tell and some opinions about the relief efforts and the future. He promised to have a new post up later today. I’m looking forward to it and will pass the news along when it’s up.

UPDATE: Kevin’s new post is up. He has some interesting thoughts about the politics in the aftermath and where the blame lies for the response problems: FEMA — some; the state gov’t — lots and lots; Mayor Nagin — not much. I agree, except I think he’s being too easy on the mayor (maybe he hasn’t read about the Hyatt evacuation and the abandoned buses yet). Of course, my perspective is from 1500 miles away, so what do I know? 🙂

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Redirect highway pork to Katrina relief

Posted by Richard on September 8, 2005

Ron Utt of The Heritage Foundation thinks that Congress should revisit the recently-passed transportation bill and redirect at least half the pork in it to Katrina relief:

Private citizens across the country have chosen to make personal sacrifices to help these people in need. Publicly spirited Members of Congress should join their constituents and make a sacrifice of their own—take some of the funding doled out in the recent highway bill to low-priority earmarked projects and redirect it to rebuild the infrastructure devastated by Katrina.

The bill contained more than 6,000 so-called "earmarks" — pork projects that members of Congress bring home to their districts as trophies. Utt wants them to make a "personal sacrifice" (hah!) and forego these projects:

… As Mississippi and Louisiana confront the replacement of dozens of wrecked bridges, is it possible that Rep. Don Young (R-AK) could give up one of the two $200 million dollar bridges he secured for his state? Perhaps Alaskans could go without the one that will serve a town of just fifty people, who now ride a ferry? …

… As Congress considers the vast suffering in Louisiana, is it possible that Richmond, Indiana, could give up its $3 million dollar hiking trail? Could Newark, New Jersey pass on its $2 million earmark for Waterfront Pedestrian and Bicycle Access? And can Hoboken, New Jersey, do likewise with the $8 million planned for its Waterfront Walkway? What about the $3 million that Modesto, California, expects to get for its Rails to Trails program, the $5 million Bridgeport, Connecticut, grabbed for an Intermodal Transportation facility, the $5 million Delaware will get to improve the Auto Tour Route at the Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge, and the $6.5 million that state will receive for the Wilmington Train Station Restoration? In the face of genuine need, don’t these expensive projects seem comparatively frivolous?

If enough people write their congresscritter and newspaper in support of this idea, it actually has some chance of success. Heritage and similar organizations would have to take the lead, encouraging their members and supporters to write those letters.

It would help if people could easily find the "earmark(s)" in their own congressional district — a "pork lookup" web page where you enter your ZIP code to find your local pork projects. A letter that says "I think we Podunkians can do without the expansion of the Podunk Bus Museum in order to help the Katrina victims" would be much more effective and powerful than some generic "cut the pork" plea.

Anybody know anybody at Cato, Reason, Heartland, etc., who might want to take this on as a project? The costs associated with this disaster are going to pile up fast — Bush will try to demonstrate that he’s not an uncaring racist, and Congress will try to go him one better on whatever he proposes. Let’s at least try to take some of it out of the existing pork instead of our wallets — or our grandchildren’s wallets.

(HT: Instapundit)

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Aid to Superdome blocked

Posted by Richard on September 8, 2005

Fox News reporter Major Garrett reported this afternoon that the Red Cross was ready to truck food, water, and other relief supplies into the Superdome immediately after the storm had passed (that would be Monday afternoon, although the story wasn’t clear about the timing). They were prevented from doing so by the Louisiana State Office of Homeland Security because the state officials thought taking supplies to the people at the Superdome would just encourage more people to go there.

Think about the insanity of this for a moment. On Sunday, after Bush urged them to make the evacuation mandatory, Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin held a joint press conference announcing just that. At that press conference, they told the citizens watching and listening that, as a last resort, they should come to the Superdome instead of staying in their homes. Tens of thousands did just that. So a day or so later, state officials wouldn’t let supplies in because it might encourage more people to do what the Governor and Mayor had urged them to do.

Garrett said his information came from people at the highest levels of the Red Cross and that there was no doubt in their minds whatsoever that their trucks would have headed for the Superdome if state officials hadn’t prohibited it. Even after the levees broke (Tuesday), reporters were able to drive at least close to the Superdome, reaching the crowds who took refuge on an elevated section of I-10.

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt interviewed Major Garrett on his radio show, and Radio Blogger now has the transcript. Here are a couple of the key exchanges:

HH: You just broke a pretty big story. I was watching up on the corner television in my studio, and it’s headlined that the Red Cross was blocked from delivering supplies to the Superdome, Major Garrett. Tell us what you found out.

MG: Well, the Red Cross, Hugh, had pre-positioned a literal vanguard of trucks with water, food, blankets and hygiene items. They’re not really big into medical response items, but those are the three biggies that we saw people at the New Orleans Superdom, and the convention center, needing most accutely. And all of us in America, I think, reasonably asked ourselves, geez. You know, I watch hurricanes all the time. And I see correspondents standing among rubble and refugees and evacuaees. But I always either see that Red Cross or Salvation Army truck nearby. Why don’t I see that?

HH: And the answer is?

MG: The answer is the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security, that is the state agency responsible for that state’s homeland security, told the Red Cross explicitly, you cannot come.

…

HH: Of course they are. Now Major Garrett, what about the Louisiana governor’s office of Homeland Security. Have they responded to this charge by the Red Cross, which is a blockbuster charge?

MG: I have not been able to reach them yet. But, what they have said consistently is, and what they told the Red Cross, we don’t want you to come in there, because we have evacuees that we want to get out. And if you come in, they’re more likely to stay. So I want your listeners to follow me here. At the very moment that Ray Nagin, the Mayor of New Orleans was screaming where’s the food, where’s the water, it was over the overpass, and state officials were saying you can’t come in.

HH: How long would it have taken to deliver those supplies, Major Garrett, into the Superdome and possibly the convention center?

MG: That is a more difficult question to answer than you might think. There were areas, obviously, as you approached the Superdome, that were difficult to get to, because of the flood waters. And as the Red Cross explained it to me, look. We don’t have amphibious vehicles. We have trucks and ambulance type vehicles. In some cases, after the flood waters rose as high as they did, we would have needed, at minimal, the Louisiana National Guard to bring us in, or maybe something bigger and badder, from the Marines or Army-type vehicle. They’re not sure about that. But remember, Hugh, we were transfixed, I know I was. I’m sure you were and your listeners were, by my colleague, Shep Smith, and others on that overpass.

HH: Right.

MG: …saying, wait a minute. We drove here. It didn’t take us anything to drive here.

HH: Right.

MG: Why can’t people just come here?

HH: I also have to conclude from what you’re telling me, Major Garrett, is that had they been allowed to deliver when they wanted to deliver, which is at least a little bit prior to the levee, or at least prior to the waters rising, the supplies would have been pre-positioned, and the relief…you know, the people in the Superdome, and possibly at the convention center, I want to come back to that, would have been spared the worst of their misery.

MG: They would have been spared the lack of food, water and hygiene. I don’t think there’s any doubt that they would not have been spared the indignity of having nor workable bathrooms in short order.

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A new low: Katrina spam

Posted by Richard on September 7, 2005

I suppose it should come as no surprise that the scum who send out spam and the even bigger scum whose spam includes phishing would try to take advantage of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. The Office Watch Email Essentials team has just issued a special alert:

A message arrived a short time ago that is a new low in scamming and so offends us that we’re sending this special warning.

It appears to be a message from Amazon suggesting that you make a donation to the American Red Cross for victims of Katrina. But the message does NOT come from Amazon at all.

The From: address is faked to make it seem to come from Amazon. The look of the message copies the style used by Amazon and the wording is mostly lifted from the real Amazon appeal on their web site.

…

As with other phishing scams, the link takes you to a site that looks legitimate and lures you into entering your account, password or credit card details.

We picked this particular message as spam because it was sent to an address that we don’t use with Amazon, otherwise it would not have immediately rung any alarm bells. Having seen the messages on the real Amazon site it looked sincere.

They also noted that spammers have been using such keywords as "New Orleans" and "Katrina" to try to get past filters. Editor Rose Vines, herself a refugee from New Orleans, reported even more contemptible trickery:

After the hurricane, so many of us could no longer could use our old email accounts, and so I was receiving news of friends and family via all sorts of strange email addresses. That meant I had to open all sorts of messages I’d normally discard immediately, just to make sure they weren’t from someone trying to reach me.

There was a sudden upsurge in spam messages with subject messages such as "Are you OK?" or "Trying to reach you" (or maybe I just noticed these ones more…), and I had to check each one no matter who the sender.

When I would open the message and find some horrible spam, it felt like an assault. Really hard to take when I was in so much in pain and feeling very vulnerable. The whole thing was exacerbated by having no proper spam blocking, as I’ve had to use Web mail instead of my usual spam-protected Outlook. "

What’s the appropriate punishment for such vermin? I’m thinking we should bring back flogging or stocks.

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Firefly, Serenity, and Liberty

Posted by Richard on September 7, 2005

While some of us were glued to the weather and news channels this past week, the official new Serenity movie site appeared, the trailers became available, and the September 30 opening date moved closer.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Serenity is the feature film based on the short-lived Joss Whedon TV series, Firefly. Fox mishandled the series terribly in 2002, airing the episodes out of sequence and moving it around in the schedule. When it unsurprisingly failed to attract a large audience, they canceled it after 11 episodes. But the fans were rabidly loyal, and it’s become a cult classic. The DVD set (which includes 3 never-aired episodes) has sold over 200,000 copies. The entire cast and crew were so loyal and committed to the series that they all signed on for the film.

If you’re a fan of Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel), you know what to expect — intelligent scripts full of clever repartee, interesting and quirky characters, fine acting, and engaging storytelling. Firefly was also the most unusual science fiction series ever. It’s set 500 years in the future and there are countless inhabited planets, but there are no aliens. And at the edge of civilization where the spaceship Serenity operates, there’s a decidedly Wild West flavor.

Firefly also had a strong libertarian streak, as Sara Hinson noted:

… The series’ central theme seems to concern the ineptitude of strong central government and its tendency to oppress and stifle rather than free or secure. As Mal says, "That’s what governments are for, [to] get in a man’s way."

Through Mal and his crew Whedon asks us to consider: What does freedom mean when the nearest government agent could be millions of miles away? Like the nineteenth century American West, civilization on the outer rim of the "verse" depends not on bureaucracy, but on natural law and contracts.

Precisely because the centralized law is the very force that Serenity escapes, Mal must hold his ship afloat through a very rigorous sense of duty and loyalty; his crew is his life, and to defend them, he would do just about anything. Because of their basic human decency, Mal and his crew embody the responsible spirit of freedom. …

I can’t recommend Firefly strongly enough, and I’m not alone. At Amazon, over 1500 customer reviews give it an average of 5 out of 5 stars. Get the DVD set of all 14 episodes (plus extras) or check out a few episodes on the SciFi Channel — they’re airing it at 7pm Eastern on Fridays. (If you do the latter, be forewarned that it’s easier to get into the series with some episodes than others. If you watch one and it doesn’t grab you, give it another chance. The characters grow on you as you get to know them.)

And of course, go see Serenity when it comes to a theater near you at the end of the month. Talk is that if it does well, there may be two more feature films and/or a new TV series.

How can you not love a series with this kind of dialog:

Jayne (a big, mean, ugly man): Well, I don’t like the idea of someone hearing what I’m thinking.
Inara: No one likes the idea of hearing what you’re thinking.

Mal: We take it to Whitefall, maybe talk to Patience.
Zoë: Sir, we don’t want to deal with Patience again.
Mal: Why not?
Zoë: She shot you.
Mal: Well, yeah, she did a bit.

Saffron: I do know my bible, sir. On the night of their betrothal, the wife shall open to the man as the furrow to the plow, and he shall work in her, in and again till she bring him to his fall, and rest him then upon the sweat of her breast.
Mal: Whoa! Good bible.

Wash: Little River just gets more colorful by the moment. What’ll she do next?
Zoë: Either blow us all up or rub soup in her hair. It’s a toss-up.
Wash: I hope she does the soup thing. It’s always a hoot, and we don’t all die from it.

Jayne: Don’t see much point getting involved in other people’s troubles without an up-front price negotiation.
Zoë: As I said, no-one’s forcing you to go. This job is purely speculative.
Jayne: Good. Don’t know these people, don’t much care to.
Mal: They’re whores.
Jayne: I’m in.

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Carnival of Liberty #10

Posted by Richard on September 7, 2005

Mover Mike is hosting this week’s Carnival of Liberty, and it looks like a great collection of posts. How can you resist reading a satire involving Jaques Chirac, for instance? Or one about the "Sound of Atlas Shrugging"? Or Mover Mike’s own comparison of New Orleans with Rwanda?

Of course, modesty prevents me from mentioning… wait a minute, I’m not modest! My own brilliant post, "The law west of Canal Street," is one of the entries — but then, you’ve already read it, right?

When you’re done at the Carnival, wander on over to the Watcher of Weasels and check out the posts that the Watcher’s Council voted as the most link-worthy pieces of writing around. Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

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Econ 101: gas is too cheap

Posted by Richard on September 6, 2005

QandO’s Jon Henke apparently took a road trip this past weekend, and he wasn’t happy about all the service stations that were selling their gasoline too cheaply:

On my way back from Georgia, approximately 1/4th of the gas stations I encountered were completely out of at least one grade of gasoline. As we all (ought to) know, shortages (aka "excess demand") are caused by prices set below the equilibrium (market clearing) price. That is to say, if we’re seeing shortages, then prices aren’t too high…they’re too low.

If the Federal government wants to correct the "problem":

The federal government is also taking complaints about gouging at gaswatch.energy.gov.

…we might as well report gas stations who limit access to gas by under-pricing their fuel and causing shortages.

Henke bemoaned the widespread ignorance of basic economics, as evidenced by all the wailing and teeth-gnashing over gasoline "price-gouging":

This really is simple Econ 101 stuff. It’s hard to believe our major newspapers and politicians really can’t put 2 and 2 together and explain this to people.

Jon, Jon — why in the world would newspapers and politicians want to explain supply and demand to people when they can instead rail against the evil oil companies? BusHitler! Cheney! Halliburton! Aaaaaaaaaarghh!

Seriously, though, econ seems to be hard for many people to "get," as evidenced even by some of the comments to his post by people on Henke’s side:

… "They have all that gasoline they bought at $2.50 a gallon, they should have to sell it at $2.50 a gallon." I tried, briefly, to explain the concept of replacement cost to him, but that just set him off.

I suppose we’re into Econ 201 at this point, but "replacement cost" is irrelevant. For any given supply, the price is determined entirely by the demand for that supply. Cost of production doesn’t matter; if it did, I could make a good living selling carefully hand-crafted mud pies.

The "right" price for anything is always what the market will bear, just as the "right" acceleration of a falling object is 32 ft./sec.² — it’s a law of nature. Any attempt to change it is as foolish as Canuck’s attempt to hold back the tide. Worse, because the market-clearing price conveys vital information to both producers and consumers — it signals how much demand there is for the product.

If politicians and bureaucrats — or even well-intentioned oil companies "holding the line" on prices as a gesture of public spiritedness — artificially force the price of gasoline below the market-clearing level, then in effect everyone is being lied to about how strong the demand is for gasoline. Producers and consumers both end up making decisions about their future behavior based on false information.

That’s bad in the short run because, as Henke noted, it leads consumers to miscalculate, causing shortages. But it’s worse in the long run because it leads producers to miscalculate, causing less than optimal allocations of capital and thus less than optimal economic growth. We will all be poorer as a result.

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Replacing Rehnquist

Posted by Richard on September 4, 2005

Commentator on left (FoxNews): Rehnquist wasn’t ideologue like Scalia and Thomas.

Idea: that’s true. In fact, Scalia isn’t like Thomas. Hoping for someone like Thomas, not like Scalia or Rehnquist.

Dershowitz (sp?) called Rehnquist "a Republican thug" and suggested he was a racist. FYI.

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Priority evacuation: the Hyatt

Posted by Richard on September 4, 2005

Brainster and JunkyardBlog cover two different stories about buses in New Orleans, and I do the easy work of connecting them. First, Brainster:

Hmmmm, Sounds Like Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People

According to this story in the NY Post:

At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses pulled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line – much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the Superdome since last Sunday.

"How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?" exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.

Oh, wait a minute. It’s New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin who doesn’t care about black people:

Mayor Ray Nagin has used the hotel as a base since it sits across the street from city hall, and there were reports the hotel was cleared with priority to make room for police, firefighters and other officials.

No comment necessary, really.

But I’ll do the intellectual heavy lifting here and note this: The Nagin administration had no trouble finding buses to evacuate the Hyatt on Friday. But before the storm hit, after President Bush called and persuaded the reluctant Governor and Mayor to order a mandatory evacuation, they somehow overlooked all these buses found by JunkyardBlog (multiple posts linked individually below):

School buses not used to evacuate N.O.

The satellite photo above shows 255 school buses. A wider shot (here, but be warned — it’s over 2MB) shows that they’re just off the freeway less than 2 miles from the Superdome.

The second photo shows 146 NORTA (New Orleans Regional Transit Authority) buses at their Canal Street facility less than a mile from the Superdome.

They’re all sitting in water now, of course, but that didn’t happen until Tuesday, when the levees broke. JunkyardBlog has lots more info here and here and here and here.

Conservatively, these 400 buses could have transported 25,000 people out of the city in one trip. If evacuations had begun on Saturday, when Bush "pre-declared" the disaster area, these buses could have made three trips to Houston before the hurricane hit and more to nearer locations.

Hard to find that many drivers? Maybe, if you didn’t bother to plan to use these buses. But at a minimum, couldn’t a few of these buses have been turned over to corrections personnel, with orders to transport the jail inmates elsewhere, instead of just unlocking the doors and turning them loose to prey on the helpless people left behind?

And on Tuesday, when the levees broke, couldn’t volunteers have been found to drive as many buses as possible the short distance to the Superdome or the elevated portion of I-10 so they wouldn’t be lost to the floodwaters?

As JunkyardBlog notes, it’s not as if they didn’t have a plan, and it’s not as if these buses weren’t a vital component of that plan:

Here’s the southeast Louisiana evac plan supplement, most recently revised in 2000. Go to page 13, read paragraph 5. It states:

5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.

Well, well. Can you say "smoking gun," Mr. Mayor? Mr. Ebbert? How about a smoking arsenal? I guess whether or not you decide to act is based on how you define "school and municipal buses" and "staging area." Or "hurricane." Or "mandatory," as in "mandatory evacuation."

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A dearth of real men

Posted by Richard on September 4, 2005

Baldilocks has a wealth of thoughtful commentary and useful/interesting info and links about New Orleans. Here’s a link to the specific post from which I’m quoting (it’s on top at this moment), but you really should go to her main page and just keep reading post after post of good stuff.

Like me, Baldilocks was impressed by Jabbar Gibson (and had posted about him earlier). In her latest post, she draws a connection between the dearth of Jabbar Gibsons and the plentiful supply of kids with no fathers:

Back when I was growing up, real men took charge and made decisions. They protected women and children–especially their own children–and got them out of harm’s way; out of the way of things like hurricanes, especially when they had days of advance warning. And if they made the wrong decision, they tried to make things right and/or took the consequences. Like young Jabbar Gibson.

They didn’t expect someone else to be the protector—be the man—and then whine about how the substitute man wasn’t being the substitute man fast enough.

No one should wonder that gangs of thieves, terrorists, rapists and murderers plagued the refugees. Such are the rotten fruit of fatherless societies–societies with a dearth of real men.

Baldilocks is Juliette Ochieng of Los Angeles. A very interesting woman. Check out her biography and her contributer profile at Pajamas Media (scroll down past the two ugly guys).

I love her "One-Line Bio" and can totally relate:

You know you’re old when your baby pictures are in black and white.

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A hero from New Orleans

Posted by Richard on September 3, 2005

Greta van Susteren, broadcasting from the Houston Astrodome Friday night, interviewed a young man from New Orleans with an amazing story, along with some of the people he helped.

His name is Jabbar Gibson, and he’s a remarkable young man. New Orleans needs — this country needs — more Jabbar Gibsons.

Gibson, trapped in New Orleans and determined to do something to help himself and those around him, went to a nearby school with buses sitting outside. He found the room with the bus keys, matched a set to a school bus, and took the bus.

Gibson then loaded it up with 70 people, ranging from infants to the old and infirm, and somehow found his way out of the city safely. He’d never driven a school bus before, but he drove this one all the way to Houston. He’d heard on the radio that the Astrodome was taking New Orleans evacuees. The group pooled what little money they had to buy fuel and diapers.

(Fox News doesn’t seem to have the interview on their website, but the Houston Chronicle has a story, complete with a picture of the jam-packed bus, with Gibson at the wheel, arriving at the Astrodome.)

The group was initially denied entrance to the Astrodome because it was "reserved" for the "official" evacuees. But eventually, someone came to his or her senses, and they were allowed in:

They looked as bedraggled as their grueling ride would suggest: 13 hours on the commandeered bus driven by a 20-year-old man. Watching bodies float by as they tried to escape the drowning city. Picking up people along the way. Three stops for fuel. Chugging into Reliant Park, only to be told initially that they could not spend the night.

Every bit worth it.

"We took the bus and got out of the city. We were trying to get out of the city," James Hickerson said.

Several passengers on the bus said they took the matter into their own hands earlier Wednesday because they felt rescuers and New Orleans authorities were too slow in offering help.

"They are not worried about us," said Makivia Horton, 22, who is five months pregnant.

Thursday, in a rant about the situation in New Orleans, I wrote:

One of the grave weaknesses of our culture is that most people have come to believe that it’s not merely acceptable, but necessary and proper for them to completely surrender responsibility for their own safety and well-being to others. …

In the worst of times — and this is the worst of times in New Orleans — such helplessness and dependency can be deadly.

Jabbar Gibson took matters into his own hands. He stepped forward and took responsibility for his and his neighbors’ safety and well-being. Bravo! Someone in Houston should hire this young man, and fast!

UPDATE: It’s a weekend open trackback festival! Several bloggers have invited their compatriots to submit trackbacks to interesting posts they’d like to share, so I’m sharing this one (and hoping some readers will click through to my earlier post about the situation in New Orleans, which I humbly submit is worth reading).

So, if you’re looking for some varied and interesting reading, browse the submissions at:

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My favorite Katrina picture

Posted by Richard on September 2, 2005

Yes, I’m a big-time cat lover. When I saw this picture, I involuntarily went "awwww" and felt moved. Maybe it was because the one on the left is staring at the camera with just the most adorable expression. Maybe it was because the one in the middle reminded me of the late Griz, whom I loved deeply and will always miss. Maybe it was because I’m becoming a maudling old fool.

But, damn, I really like this picture. Alex, I hope you and your beautiful cats are OK now.

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Fats Domino rescued

Posted by Richard on September 2, 2005

Here’s a piece of good news out of New Orleans:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Fats Domino, who went missing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, was rescued by boat from floodwaters near his New Orleans home and is “stressed out” but safe, his agent said on Friday.

Domino, 77, beloved for his boogie-woogie piano style and such hits as “Ain’t That a Shame” and “Blueberry Hill,” ended up as one of thousands of New Orleans residents stranded by flooding after he rebuffed pleas from friends to evacuate as the storm bore down on the city, agent Al Embry told Reuters.

The rotund musician, his wife, Rosemary, and at least one daughter were picked up by rescue boat on Tuesday following frantic efforts by Embry to alert authorities that Domino and his family were believed trapped in their home, Embry said.

“We heard he was on the balcony with his family and waving to people,” Embry said.

Fats Domino was one of the early rock and R&B greats. If you’re not familiar with such wonderful songs as “Ain’t That a Shame,” “Blue Monday,” and “Walking to New Orleans,” pick up a Fats Domino album or two (there’s a long, long list to choose from). You’ll enjoy the heck out of them, and I’m guessing Fats and his wife could use a little boost in the royalty checks about now.

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Katrina Relief

Posted by Richard on September 1, 2005

Bumped up again. But please scroll down to new posts below (or see Recent Entries to left).

Update and bump: To donate online to the Salvation Army, use this link instead of the one below. The Salvation Army’s servers have been nearly overwhelmed by the response, but they’re adding more. That link also provides an address for mailing donations plus the phone and Wal-Mart info I have below. Thank you for doing what you can.

The images of devastation and looting are disturbing. The stories of loss and suffering are heartbreaking. The stories of heroism and benevolence are heartwarming.

This isn’t a long post about Katrina. By now you’ve probably seen and heard as much as I have. But, along with hundreds of other bloggers, I’m asking you to contribute what you can to what will certainly be the largest disaster relief effort in U.S. history — because it needs to be.

As I mentioned in my previous post about this, I recommend donating to the Salvation Army, and I was pleased to see video on Fox News a short while ago showing people lined up at Salvation Army trucks offering food, drink, and other assistance. Donate online through the link above, call 1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769), or take a donation to any Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club.

Another good choice would be the Operation Katrina Soldiers Relief Fund. Thousands of National Guard soldiers in Iraq are from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. A significant number of them will be returning home in coming weeks to find that their families are in a shelter and their homes and businesses have been destroyed. They’ve been doing so much for us — we need to help them now.

For other giving options, see TTLB’s long list of suggested charities.

Here are some other Katrina-related links that might be helpful:

Instapundit and The Truth Laid Bear are spearheading the online relief efforts, serving as information aggregators and coordinators.
The WizBang folks have started an even more ambitious project, Hurricaid. Want to know how to get help from FEMA? Trying to find a missing person? Want to look at an interactive map of New Orleans on which people are inserting info on local conditions? They’re adding stuff like this all the time and quickly becoming an important information clearing house for all things Katrina-related.
The Katrina Help Wiki is the other important information clearing house. If you’re not familiar with wikis, they’re sets of web pages that anyone can edit. This one has ever-changing pages of Help Offered, Help Needed, Missing & Found, News Resources, etc.

Other blog entries about: flood aid, Hurricane Katrina, Katrina

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