Have we heard from our shooter in New Orleans?

I can think of Mike Dixon, Dennis Couvilio (sp). Have we heard from

them? The mess there just floors me, leaves me speechless.

Seemingly serious question on CNN this AM involving the talkingheadbabe and the helicoptervideoguy, high above New Orleans: "...should we pull everybody out?...it's getting dangerous!"

 

Why am I remembering Robert Capa?

As I posted earlier, Dennis showed up on my "buddy list" and we briefly instant messaged this morning. He and his family were evacuated and are fine. They're planning on staying with relatives for awhile.

>>>In a message dated 8/31/2005 7:10:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time, couvilaw writes:

What really bothers me, among many things at the moment, is that I may have lost ALL of my negatives... years and years of negatives.<<<

 

If that's Dennis's main concern he must be healthy and safe!

That's both good and bad news from Dennis. He may have lost all his negatives? Sad, very

sad. Let's hope for the best.

Maybe he has an off-site backup.

Neil - As I recall, Mike Dixon is over in Korea or somewhere in Asia right now. Also, while here in the states he was known to reside in Nashville for the most part.

 

While Al can account for Dennis C, has anyone heard from John Fleetwood? (Hope I have his name right!)

"Seemingly serious question on CNN this AM involving the talkingheadbabe and the helicoptervideoguy..."

 

And this pm, from a blowdrydude, something like: "People shouldn't go to the Superdome, they should head west on the I-10. If you go far enough you'll get to Los Angeles."

 

I really wish there was something better to do than donating money. I realize it's the best thing to do but it's unsatisfying, somehow. Too impersonal, I guess.

Right, Mike Dixon is Nashville. I agree on feeling that money isn't enough despite they need it. I'm sure we'll all have local drives for cloths/shoes etc to be shipped down there. Can you imagine how it must feel? Today when I went to work, just on me at that moment I had "more" of whatever than 10s of thousands. A house, a job, a car and some future that I at least think is solid. Yeah they need more than money.

money is a good start, however.

"I really wish there was something better to do than donating money. I realize it's the best thing to do but it's unsatisfying, somehow. Too impersonal, I guess."

 

My church (The Episcopal Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast) is making arrangements for families to be relocated to homes where there is room for up to several months. We're hoping to find temporary work for the parents and get the children in local schools until they have something to go back to. If you're interested email me at ywdprice at yahoo dot com

Will - I agree. Money doesn't seem to be enough, but as Skeeter points out, it is needed.<br><br>

 

If a person is searching for organizations this non-profit clearinghouse, www.Networkforgood.org (<a href="http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/animal_environ/hurricanes/?source=YAHOO&cmpgn=NEWS">here</a>), has a nice list of non-profits in the area that can help. I have linked directly to the hurricane relief page. One of the more interesting features is that by clicking on a non-profit's name you can see their financial charts and see what percentage of donations actually go to the cause. There are groups here of which I wasn't aware. While there's nothing wrong with the American Red Cross, sometimes it's nice to have choices!

<br><br>

Help as your heart leads you to do.

I am glued to the TV news and growing angry. The coverage is pathetic -- they mainly show looting and personal stories. Nobody is asking tough questions and clearly, help is getting there late! Only now Larry King asked if there was more we could have done before Katrina hit the Gulf. New Orleans and Louisiana lef their poor, old, sick and disabled behind. Did you see the pictures? Almost all the people left behind are black Americans. And nobody asks if there was any transportation provided for these who couldn't afford to get out? Were there any destinations with shelters listed for those who had no resources to afford a hotel or no family to take them in. If the evacuation was mandatory, why nobody enforced it? How could 80 year old, lonely, sick woman get out on her own? They knew days ahead this is going to be the biggest hurricane ever. Are we a third world country? I'm sorry but I am so angry right now.

 

Here are some photographs from Washington Post -- click on <a href ="http://www.washingtonpost.com/"> the image </a>to get to the gallery.

Maria, it is physically impossible to get that many people out. Most people who stayed chose to stay. The city has been concerned about those who can't leave on their own. The problem is the warning that this is the one did not come til late friday night and early saturday. It was forcast to go to the Florida panhandle. Most hurricanes do not have a such a wide swath of destruction. It is usually limited to 30 to 50 miles wide, The mayor called a mandatory evacuation for the first time in the city's history. But there is no way to enforce it. There are 500,000 people in the city with 1.4 million in the metro area. This is the first storm I did not stay and ride out. I dont know why but my gut said get out. New Orleans is 70% african american. What you are not seeing are the people stranded in the surrounding parishes. The national media is focusing on a very small part of the metro area.

I don't buy it, Olivier -- all the white folks got out. And the ones left behind are black, old, sick and poor. It's a shame.

As impersonal as it is, money is the best donation. Used clothes have to be cleaned, packaged, then shipped -- and what roads there are will be needed to transport essentials, heavy earthmoving equipment, etc. Then the headache of sorting and distributing. Same with canned food.<p>

 

The areas on the fringe of the devastation can use an economic boost -- relief spending in those locations will help. Money can be targeted at specific needs, sent and distributed quickly and easily without clogging the roads. A friend in India after the tsunami reported bales and bales of donated clothes, abandoned by the roadsides, getting in the way. <a href="http://www.interaction.org/disaster/advantages_cash.html" target="_blank">Click here </a> for more details -- this is regarding aid to foreign disasters, but it's all the same. <p>

 

I agree with the sentiment, I'd love to do something personal to help, but money has the greatest flexibility.

"I am glued to the TV news and growing angry"

 

Maria...Try turning you TV off and getting you feet wet and your hands dirty...It'll change your perspective.

that's a silly thing to say, David. As much as I'd like to get my hands dirty, I'm the last person you need down there right now. And yes, I sent the money already.

Just sent a C to Sally. It will provide four meals for a family of four plus a kit of clean-up materials. Wife and I spend more than that every week eating out because we just don't want tp cook -- so we hope to put continuing donations in our budget. Wish we could do more but at four score options are limited to generosity and prayer. I saw how Sally operated in Alaska in '64 and in '67 they bailed me out in Fairbanks. They cannot use donations in kind at this time because of storage problems. Red cross does a good job too. Give what you can, you'll feel better for it.

Just three weeks ago, La Forice Nealy, a manager in disaster and emergency actions here in Chicago for the American Red Cross guest lectured in my graduate Administration of Non-Profit Organizations class. He told us what Matt just wrote. It's too difficult to deliver clothing and goods in proper sizes etc. or food that can't be prepared or is the wrong type and that what emergency agencies need is money they can give to people to take care of whatever they need urgently and critically. (Side note: He also told us the ARC uses only 17 cents out of any dollar for administration.)

 

Mayor Daley has asked Chicagoans to send $100 to any relief agency. This is a good city and I expect there will be a good response. On the news tonight they showed an overlay map of New Orleans in outline and if that happened here, it would cover 56% of Chicago. Graphics are a real eye-opener.

 

I can hardly breathe I am so disturbed by what they are all going through and will go through.

 

Photographically, I find the still shots they've shown to be more powerful than the video clips.

Conni

Dennis lost all his negatives? That's HORRIBLE luck!

I lost hundreds of NYC and Colombia negs in a basement flood in Vancouver in l972 and I still haven't gotten over it! He's a good egg, [to quote Roberto Benigno], and a good photog, as obsessed with the craft as any of us, and we all should be pulling for him.

 

I hope Mike Dixon hasn't suffered the same fate.

I couldn't imagine something as desatrous as that hapening in the western world. I barely remember a storm and flood in northwestern germany in 1962, I was 2 1/2 then. I still have the sound of the wind in my head and how my father carried me over to my grandparents and then left me.

He went out to defend the dyke with most other able bodied males.

Here in Bremen we weren't hit very hard, flooded cellars broken trees and smashed windows, but some 60 miles north Hamburg was left with some 30,000 injured, 660 dead and more than 100,000 with destroyed homes.

 

Omly after that event the early warning system was improved and the dykes at the rivers reinforced.

 

Homeowners here pay a dyke tax and it's allways tragedies like this which remind me that not all taxes are a bad thing :-(

Due to the rising sea and flood levels, our dykes had to be reinforced and heighthend recently and we're some 60 miles from the northsea.

Re: ...The mess there just floors me, leaves me speechless.

 

What - Iraq? Yeah a total mess - leaves me shocked and awed :0

"...the ones left behind are black, old, sick and poor. It's a shame."

 

David Brooks, not someone ever accused of being a radical libersl, makes the same point in the NY Times. There's going to be lots of political fall-out from this.

 

Yes, money is the best thing to give, the logistical systems to handle "stuff" from the public aren't in place yet and the people at the other end have no place to put it even if they got it right now.

blame, political fallout? Why do people focus anger against others when these horrible events happen. There really was no place for these folks to go, no way to move them and many wouldn't have left anyway. All our energies, now, need to be conciliatory and working as a group to help. Blame here serves no purpose. If you read the papers, the spirit of New Orleans, The Big Easy, always has been the worst would never happen.... and that contributes to the culture and lifestyle there.