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September 7, 2005
New Orleans Sees Slow Progress
Broken levee plugged, high death toll feared
John Roberts and President Bush
Lined Up for
Chief Justice
Bush nominee
opposed by NAACP
(AP) - Appeals court judge John Roberts may be
next in line for Chief of the Supreme Court, if his
latest nomination by President Bush Monday goes
through. Roberts had been named to succeed retir­
ing Justice Sandra Day O ’Conner, but Bush pro­
moted him to the chief justice nominee after Chief
Justice William Rehnquist died Saturday after a
battle with cancer.
Roberts, 50, served the court as a clerk for the
conservative Rehnquist in 1980-81.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
Fund opposes Roberts, citing “consistent and ac­
tive advocacy” for weakening federal enforcement
of voting rights, affirmative action, school desegre­
gation and fair housing. The NAACP found that
Roberts has a strong record of regressive positions
on civil rights in the past, and stated that they’ve
found no evidence of change in the nominee.
Robert’s history includes being special assis­
tant to the late William French Smith, attorney
general in the Reagan administration; associate
counsel under Fred Fielding, White House counsel
to Reagan; and principal deputy to former Solicitor
General Kenneth Starr.
Although Roberts has had extensive experience
in preparing cases for the Supreme Court, he has
limited experience as a judge - serving on the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
since May 2003.
(AP) - With a major levee
break finally plugged, engi­
neers struggled to pump out
the flooded city Tuesday as
Russell Knox Jr.,
authorities braced for the hor­ 4, looks up at his
rors the receding water is cer­
father, Russell
tain to reveal. "It’s going to be
Knox Sr., while
awful and it’s going to wake
being transported
the nation up again," the mayor
aboard a U.S.
warned.
Coast Guard
Mayor Ray Nagin said after
helicopter
from
an aerial tour that about 60
the
civic
center
percent of the city was under
the airport Satur­
water, down from 80 percent
during the darkest hours last
day in New
week.
Orleans, La.
“We are starting to see
(AP Photo)
some significant progress. I’m
starting to see rays of light,” he
said.
Nagin said it would take three
weeks to remove the water and
another few weeks to clear the
debris. It could also take up to
eight weeks to get the electric­
ity back on.
Still, he warned that what
awaits authorities below the
toxic muck would be gruesome.
A day earlier, he said the death
toll in New Orleanscould reach
10,000.
The Pentagon, meanwhile,
began sending paratroopers
from the Army’s storied 82nd
Airborne Division to New Or­
leans to use small boats, in­
cluding inflatable Zodiac craft,
to launch a new search-and-
rescue effort in flooded sec­
tions of the city.
M aj. G en. W illiam B.
Caldw ell IV, division com ­
Two victim s o f Hurricane Katrina trudge through neighborhood
mander, said about 5,000 para­
floodwaters.
(AP Photo)
troopers would be in place
this week.
sea-level city.
Nagin warned: “We have to con­
The Army Corps of Engineers began
Efforts to evacuate holdouts were vince them to leave. It’s not safe here.
pumping the water out after closing a stepped up, with boat rescue crews and There is toxic waste in the water and
major gap in a key levee that burst a caravan of law enforcement vehicles dead bodies and mosquitoes and gas.
during Hurricane Katrina and swamped from around the country searching for We are pumping about a million dol­
80 percent of the bowl-shaped, below- people to rescue.
lars’ worth a gas a day in the air. Fires
have been started and we don’t have
running water.”
Effort to get the evacuees back on
their feet continued on several fronts.
P atrick R hode, dep u ty d ire c to r
o f the F ederal E m ergency M a n ag e­
m ent A gency, said e v acu ees w ould
rec e iv e d e b it card s so that they
could begin buying necessary p e r­
sonal item s. He said the agency
w as going from sh e lte r to sh e lte r to
m ake sure th at ev a c u e es receiv ed
card s q u ick ly and th at the p a p e r­
w ork usually req u ired w ould be re ­
duced o r elim in ated .
The A ir Force late M onday con­
cluded its huge airlift o f elderly and
serious ill patients from New O rleans’
major airport. A total o f 9,788 patients
and other evacuees w ere evacuated
by air from the New O rleans area.
Local officials bitterly expressed frus­
tration with the federal government’s
sluggish response as the tragedy un­
folded.
In addition to help from other Loui­
siana and Alabama departments, a Ca­
nadian task force of firefighters and
pol ice arri ved four day s after the storm,
St. Bernard Fire Chief Thomas Stone
said.
“If you can get a Canadian team here
in four days, U.S. teams should be here
faster than that,” Stone said. Pointing
to two large oil refineries, “When they ’ re
paying $5 to $6 a gallon for gas, they’re
going to realize what this place means
to America.”
The frustrations were also felt along
the Mississippi coast, where people
who have chosen to stay or are stuck in
demolished neighborhoods scavenge
for necessities.
Some say they will stay to rebuild
their communities. Others say they
wou Id leave i f they cou Id get a ride or a
few gallons o f gasoline. But all agree
that - with no water or power available,
probably for months - they need more
help from the government just to sur­
vive.
photo by I saiah
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Madison Ragland, owner o f Lagniappe Restaurant on Northeast
Alberta Street and waitress Adrienna Ogin take orders and
donations for the relief effort to victims o f Hurricane Katrina. The
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every diner served.
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Donating Through Dining
His brother is among the
many w ho’ve lost everything
in New O rleans. M adison
Ragland, owner of Lagniappe
Restaurant on Northeast 19lh
and Alberta Streets, wants to
help ease the pain of the G ulf
C oast’s hurricane and flood
victim s like his brother and
many others.
R agland’s brother, a chef
in New Orleans, was stuck in
the city ’s Convention Center
with thousands o f other refu­
gees Friday waiting for relief
of some kind, whether it be
through transportation, food
and water or financial contri­
bution.
F o r th e n e x t m o n th ,
R agland's restaurant, along
with other select local estab­
lishm ents, will donate $1 to
the Red Cross for every per­
son who dines there. Ragland’s
been able to raise $150 in the
first couple o f days alone.
To donate to Red Cross,
call I-800-H E L P -N O W or
visit w w w .redcross.org.