– Great Interactive Graphic: The NYTimes provides a GIS-style interactive map, with all of the problem areas properly labeled, a levee map, latest evacuation routes and a look at Katrina’s impact on oil majors and hydrocarbon production. The neighborhood map is exactly something which I have been attempting to come up with … it’s VatulBlog approved! (Except for the Evacuation Routes section which shows the Causeway as “broken and impassable” – the Causeway is just fine and is reserved solely for police and emergency personnel)
– For those of you who want a few maps with which to compare and contrast whole areas of the city before and after the hit, DigitalGlobe’s gallery is the place to go.
– Alan Gutierrez has created a Katrina Wiki: this is well-organized with access to various blogs and reporting organizations, as well as aid agencies should you or someone you know need help. More names and resources may be added to the list – please email Alan or me, or if you’re wiki-savvy, add them yourselves. Of course, please make sure that the information you provide is moderately reliable and not a guess.
– Radio reports of Baton Rouge carjacking by displaced New Orleanians remain unproven. So far, three carjackings have supposedly occurred. Let’s not frighten our neighbors in Red Stick, shall we? If anyone has documented evidence or if they are indeed simply rumors, please let me know.
Please do e-mail me with any information.
alan@engrm.com
AIM: AlanEngrm
Or ask how you can create your own page on the wiki, for your block, business, church, school, or apartment complex.
A Wiki is a web site where the pages are easy to whip up, and it’s good for organizing information about communities, organizations, and localities.
If your school or church has a web site, but it is down, you can use the wiki to create a temporary page.
I’m more than happy to help.
Still not a breath about any carjackings anywhere online. I’m just short of calling the PR/Media hotline LSU has set up to confirm that the carjacking stories are indeed rumors. And to let them know that they really need to be forthcoming about any issues arising or the rumor mill is going make situations up for them.
Maitri, I’m ready to tell off news outlets. I’m turning into you.
I did send out an e-mail to some of my friends asking what they’ve heard. One has heard anecdotes about some robberies; another’s advisor warned her that crime was expected to rise as they brought people in and that she shouldn’t go out alone at night.
OK, I can see anticipating issues as they try to cram more people into a fixed amount of space, people under a lot of stress that may not be the best human beings in the first place. However – this all seems a bit pre-emptive, and as far as I know, they’re trying to move (homeless) evacuees from BTR so we can have a command center, resume classes etc. (Lots of people are staying at LSU’s athletic buildings.)
The only really distressing thing I’ve seen is this blurb that’s currently on the Advocate’s main page:
Update at 10:30 a.m.: City-parish officials are shutting down the governmental building and Courthouse in downtown Baton Rouge due to security issues. More to come.
And that might simply be because of the number of people they have staying in the vicinity right now.
Article on security (issues) at the BTR River Center.
But how ’bout I finish my coffee before speculating anymore?
Someone tell me about the NOKR. That is for family members only, right? Not for friends.
So it still makes sense to put names in Family Messages, right?