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