Katrina Coverage: Evening Roundup

I was originally going to post a supplement on my Katrina coverage that slammed reprehensible coverage of this disaster both on the network news (and yes, I'm referring to CBS 48 Hours that sees fit to harp on the rising misery of people in the disaster area instead of balanced coverage showing the difficulties of getting relief to those areas - complaining that social frabric is fraying) and online (but Paul at Wizbang! should have set people straight but didn't).

Let's try and put this clearly and plainly for those who are sick of the coverage elsewhere:

The effects of this storm affected hundreds of thousands of square miles. Millions of people are directly and indirectly affected. This isn't a disaster that is confined to one place or one town. Parts of a dozen states are affected by the hurricane. To get to any spot in the heart of this disaster, one has to travel hundreds of miles over roads that are in poor condition due to downed trees, lights, washouts, or downed power lines. For those helping that are already in the disaster areas, they are limited by their resources and the fact that reinforcements are going to take time in reaching the most devastated areas.

That isn't a satisfactory answer for those most in need within the disaster area, but that's the cards we're dealt. Airports in New Orleans are submerged, so airlifting in heavy equipment isn't possible at present. Major bridges are out up and down the coast. Even major military facilities took damage and it will be some time before some can be used in the relief efforts.

Heck, this is a storm that washed huge oil platforms a hundred miles off its anchorages and washed them ashore. Ships and barges hundreds of feet long were washed well inland. Massive casino barges were tossed ashore as though they were toys.

Is it frustrating watching this from afar and doing nothing more than engaging in some form of punditry - absolutely.

Okay, I'm done with my rant. I needed to get that out of my system because it is infuriating how shallow the coverage is. There is very little actual news reporting in many of these reports, which are laden with all manner of opinion.

Instead, I'm going to focus on getting information on relief efforts on communities other than New Orleans. The majority of people affected by this disaster are actually outside of New Orleans.

Slidell, a community northeast of New Orleans was devastated. The municipal website is hopelessly out of date, as is the local paper, so other sources of information are needed. The slack was picked up by a blogger. They even posted a satellite image of the flooding in the area.

In Pascagoula, Mississippi, refineries are shut, Members of Congress lost their homes, and Jacksonville, FL firefighters are lending a hand and material support.

Mississippi is also considering a move to focus on land based casinos, which provided $500,000 in tax revenue on a daily basis that has essentially been wiped out by Katrina. The state had encouraged the use of river barges and floating casinos, but many were damaged or destroyed by the hurricane.

The Pentagon has annoucned that several of its facilities were damaged, the most serious of which is Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. It took major damage to its infrastructures, but the runways are operational for daylight activities.

Six other Air Force bases are now back to normal operations, officials reported. These are Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlburt Field and Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.; Barksdale Air Force Base, La.; Columbus Air Force Base, Miss.; and Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

Navy officials were still assessing damage to bases in the hurricane-ravaged area: Naval Air Station New Orleans, La.; Naval Support Activity New Orleans; Naval Station Pascagoula, Miss.; Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport, Miss.; and Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla.

Navy Lt. Trey Brown, a Navy spokesman, said evacuation orders in place for installations in both New Orleans and Gulfport were expected to be extended today for New Orleans.

Hurricane Relief Blog Day will be held tomorrow that will provide links and information on the relief efforts and how to contact loved ones. LaShawn Barber has more information on this effort. I'm in. And so are more than 471 bloggers as of 9:10PM EDT.

As for charitable giving and what you can do, many organizations are accepting donations. If you plan on giving, I recommend the B'nai B'rith has set up a Disaster Relief Fund. Many companies, including my own, are matching employee donations (mine is doing a double match - impressive). Go check them out.

This is the Instapundit trackback post to one of the master lists of resources.

Technorati: Flood Aid; Hurricane Katrina.