August 31, 2005 Cl’c^Jortlanb ©bsertier PageA2 Gulf Coast Misery con tin u ed fro m F ront close u pone of the breached levees. A t the sam e tim e, looting broke out in som e neighborhoods, the sw el tering city o f 480,000 had no d rin k able water, and the electricity could be out for weeks. W ith w ater rising perilously in side the Superdom e, B lanco said the tens o f thousands o f refugees now huddled there and other shel ters in N ew O rleans w ould have to b e evacuated. She asked residents to spend W ednesday in prayer. “T hat w ould be the best thing to calm our spirits and thank our Lord that we are survivors,” she said. “Slowly, gradual ly, we wi 11 recover; w e will survive; we w ill rebuild." All day long, rescuers in boats James Smith wades past a storm damaged building in Gulfport, Miss. After Hurricana Katrina. a n d h e lic o p te r s p u lle d o u t shellshocked and bedraggled flood refugees from rooftops and attics. T he C oast G uard said it has res cued 1,200 people by boat and air, som e placed shivering and w et into h e lic o p te r b a sk e ts. T h ey w ere brought by the truckload into shel ters, some in w heelchairs and som e carrying babies, w ith stories o f survival and o f those w ho d id n ’t m ake it. “O h my G od, it w as hell,” said K ioka W illiam s, w ho had to hack A cyclist navigates floodwaters through the ceiling o f the beauty J as the National Guard trans shop w here she w orked as flood ports residents to the w aters rose in New O rleans’ low- A man puts a baby on top o f a car as he and a woman abandon Superdome after their neigh ly in g N in th W a rd . “ W e w ere the vehicle after it starts to float in floodwaters caused by borhoods were flooded in New screaming, hollering, flashing lights. Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, La.(AP photo) Orleans, Tuesday. It w as com plete chaos.” actually got w orse T uesday. Failed Frank M ills w as in a boarding heeded evacuation orders w ere dis ters m ade it unsafe for residents to pum ps and levees apparently sent com e hom e anytim e soon. A nd a house in the sam e neighborhood placed and 40,(XM) were in RedCross w ater from L ake P o n tch artrain m ass return also was discouraged w hen w ater started sw irling up to shelters, with officials saying it coursing through the streets. The to keep from interfering with rescue w ard the ceiling and he fled to the could be w eeks, if not m onths, be rising w ater forced hotels to evacu and recovery efforts. roof. T w o elderly residents never fore m ost will be able to return. ate, a hospital to m ove patients to T hat w as m ade tough enough Em ergency m edical team s from m ade it out, and a third was w ashed boatlift patients to em erg en cy shel by the vast expanse o f floodw aters aw ay trying to clim b onto the roof. across the country w ere sent into ters, and drove the staff o f New in coastal areas that took an eight “He was kind o f on the edge o f the region and President Bush cut O rleans' T im es-Picayune new spa hourpounding from K atrina’s howl the roof, catching his breath," M ills short his T exas vacation Tuesday per out o f its offices. ing w inds and up to 15 inches of said. “N ext thing I knew, he cam e to return to W ashington to focus In devastated Biloxi, M iss., ar rainfall. From the air, neighborhood on the storm dam age. floating past m e.” eas that w ere not underw ater were after n eig h b o rh o o d looked like Federal Emergency M anagement A cross Louisiana, M ississippi littered with tree trunks, dow ned nothing but islands o f rooftops and Alabam a, m ore than 1 m illion A g en c y d ire c to r M ik e B row n pow er lines and chunks o f broken surrounded by swirling, tea-colored residents rem ained w ithout elec- w arned that structural dam age to concrete. Som e buildings were flat ' tricity,som ew ithoutcleandrinking hom es, diseases from anim al car water. tened. In N ew O rleans, the flooding w ater. A n u ntold nu m b er w ho casses and chem icals in floodw a Hurricane Relief Turns to Despair Survivors face homelessness, uncertainty (A P) — R elief gave w ay to d e spair T uesday for many survivors o f H urricane Katrina. Facing days o f m isery and uncertainty, aw ait ing clearance to return to d am aged or destroyed hom es, som e broke dow n in tears. “ E verything is totaled, every thing is destroyed, everything is gone,” said T hom as G reen, res cued by a boat along w ith his family from the attic of their flooded one-story house in New O rleans. In the Louisiana Superdom e, where thousands o f residents un able to evacuate the city had taken refuge, a woman cried as a T V news cast detailed the devastation and reported that residents would be blocked from returning to their neighborhoods until next week. Many thousands o f people will need tem porary shelter for weeks, p o s s ib ly m o n th s , sa id M ik e Brow n, director o f the Federal E m e rg e n c y M anagem ent A gency. M any areas also face prolonged pow er outages. A long the M ississippi G u lf C o ast, the h ard est hit region, evacuated residents struggled to com e to term s w ith the extent o f the destruction, and the m assive cleanup and rebui Iding efforts that lie ahead. “N ow w e’re trying to salvage ju st a few m em ories,” said D or othy Loy o f Pascagoula. “ It's so depressing, really, because you have no address.” Alex Rom ansky, a G u lf C oast resident for 30 years, said he was unlikely to stay. “Do we rebuild, do w e buy, do we just m ove the hell out o f here?” he w ondered. “ My inclination, af ter seeing this kind o f storm d am age, is that we d o n ’t w ant to live here anym ore.” Further north in M ississippi, at an in te r s e c tio n o u ts id e H attiesburg, dozens o f cars were lined up to get gasoline at aco n v e- nience store, with the occupants hoping to be allow ed back to the coast. T he H ighw ay Patrol was sto p p in g m otorists from going south on U.S. 49 as em ergency vehicles sped past. Jake W alker, 34, and his wife, Shelia, 4 1, o f Saucier, had evacu ated from their m obile hom e with th e ir dog and tw o pet d o v es, R om eo and Juliet. T heir pickup truck w as full o f furniture. “ M y h o m e p ro b a b ly a i n ’t there,” Jake W alker said. Bill H igginbotham , a 9 1 -y e ar- old retired carpenter from Biloxi, and his son-in-law had driven up from the coast seeking to buy gaso line. “ M ost probably I d o n 't have a hom e anym ore,” he said o f the single-story, tim ber-frame home he built in 1940 on the Back Bay o f Biloxi. “ 1 w anted to live, but after this I d o n ’t w ant to live no m ore.” Another Biloxi resident. 19-year- old L andon W illiam s, d id n 't heed the evacuation orders and had to sw im for his life after floodw aters sm ashed into his apartm ent in the Q uiet W ater Beach com plex where num erous other residents are be lieved to have died. “ I lost everything. W e c a n ’t even find my car," said W illiam s, a construction worker. “ I think I’ll m ove on to N orth C arolina and do som e w ork over there. I ca n ’t take it here any m ore - not after this.” Debra Harville worked at the newly com pleted Hard Rock C a sino in Biloxi, which was scheduled to open in early September. Its first tw o floors were washed out. "W e had w orked hard to put this place together. It w as so beau tiful," she said. “ I d o n ’t know what I’m going to do now. A lot o f people a in ’t got now here to go.” L o u is ia n a G o v . K a th le e n B lanco em pathized during a new s conference in Baton Rouge after surveying the devastation and e n countering survivors with “despair in th eir faces.” Come Bid With Us Portland Public School District welcom es interest and participation by MBE, WBE and EBS companies in our contracts for goods and services. Throughout the year, we purchase a variety of items including office equipment, school supplies, paper products, maintenance services, construction projects and more. Please contact our office for additional information on bidding opportunities. Elaine Holt, CPPB Contracts and Procurement Manager Portland Public Schools 501 North Dixon Portland, OR 97227 (503) 916-3113 (503) 916-3109 fax “We encourage and appreciate your interest in doing business with Portland Public Schools.” Elaine Holt, CPPB Vicki L. Phillips, Ph.D. Contracts & Procurement Manager Superintendent of Schools k I Ludacris (from left) joined Eric Williams and Randy Marshall o f Portland, in the making o f the MTV win ning rap video "Number One S pot." Local Talent Directs Best Rap Video Joins Ludacris at MTV awards Randy M arshall, a form er P ort land resident, w as on stage at the M TV A w ards Sunday for his work behind the aw ard w inning selec tion for Best Rap Video. His mom w as hom e in Portland w atching the aw ards cerem ony live via satellite and scream ing with delight. “ I'm so proud,” La V erne G reen said about her son. G reen is a teacher at S elf En- hancem ent, Inc. in north Portland know n as T he Fat Cats. T ogether they collaborated with and an artist-director o f local th e L udacris to produce “ N um ber O ne ater productions. Spot,” voted the best rap video at Her son M arshall, 35, attended the M TV aw ards. Irvington G rade School in north Both artists jo in ed Ludacris on east Portland and Tubm an M iddle stage during the aw ards presenta School in north Portland before w inning a scholarship at the New tion. M arshall has an extensive back York Dance T heater o f H arlem and ground in the production w orld. graduating from M orehouse C o l H e d e v e lo p e d h is c r a f t at lege in A tlanta, Ga. M orehouse with alm a m ater d irec Marshall w ho is now married and tor Spike Lee. A fter a few years o f the father o f four children in A t set w ork. M arshall caught his first lanta. T here hooked up Eric W ill break directing a com m ercial for iams. another M orehouse gradu ate. to create the hot directing duo Section 8 Mob. Morning After Pill Delayed ( A P ) — T h e g o v e rn m e n t on q u e s tio n ,” said FDA C o m m is F rid a y p u t o f f its lo n g -a w a ite d sio n er L e ste r C raw fo rd . T h e d r u g 's m aker, B arr P h ar fin a l d e c is io n o n w h e th e r to se ll e m e rg e n c y c o n tra c e p tio n m a ce u tic als, criticiz ed the d e c i w ith o u t a p r e s c rip tio n , sa y in g s io n , q u e s t i o n i n g h o w th e th e p ill w as sa fe to se ll o v e r- ag en cy co u ld ack n o w led g e that th e -c o u n te r to a d u lts b u t g r a p sc ie n tific e v id e n c e su p p o rte d p lin g w ith how to k e e p i, o u t o f n o n p re sc rip tio n sales an d yet th e h a n d s o f y o u n g te e n a g not allo w th o se sales to begin. “ It’s like b ein g in p u rg a to ry ,” e rs . T h e F ood and D ru g A d m in is said B arr c h ie f e x e cu tiv e B ruce tratio n p o stp o n ed fo r 6 0 d ay s a D ow ney. The m orning-after pill is a high final d ecisio n on how to allo w n o n p re s c rip tio n s a le s o f th e dose o f reg u lar birth co n tro l that, m o rn in g -after pill c a lle d Plan B taken w ith in 72 h o u rs o f u n p ro te cted sex , can lo w er the risk o f ju s t to w om en 17 o r o ld er. “ E n fo rc e a b ility is th e key p reg n a n cy by up to 89 p ercen t. Emanuel Strike Scheduled Legacy Emanuel Hospital is brac ing for a one-day strike by food service, housekeeping, transport and other healthcare em ployees. T he w orkers, represented by L o cal 49 o f the Service E m ployees International U nion, scheduled the W ednesday, Aug. 31 strike to ex press their frustration with Legacy m anagem ent o ver a new labor co n tract for about 420 Em anuel E m ployees. Hospital officials said trained replacement workers will be brought in to cover their duties for this one day if an agreem ent is not reached. 1