We've set up this site (polimom.com) as an information repository and resource for the residents of Algiers. We will be releasing information specific to the West Bank of Orleans Parish here.
There are forums for people to stay in touch, discussions about how to get help, photos from people who have been into Algiers since the storm, and information from official sources, to help you sort yourselves out from the larger Orleans Parish issues. This site is not intended to replace wider news sources; there are many local news links in the left nav.
The forums and queries are being moderated / responded to by Algiers residents, either via established phone communications, or online. This site is for you, and is being supported by your neighbors. Feel free to let them know if you have suggestions or feedback.
The forums, posts, and pix contained in this Katrina are for archival / reference purposes. All interactive functionality has been disabled.
Set up shortly after the storm, they primarily served the Algiers communities.
If you have questions or need further information, please contact polimom directly.
Every time I think about the devastation in New Orleans, and how they continue to find bodies all these months later, my stomach turns over – because there are still over 3000 people missing.
Where are they?
Are some still in the rubble waiting to be discovered by relatives? Were they washed into Lake Ponchartrain, as some reports are speculating?
I don’t even want to go there in my mind. It’s too terrible a thought. I’m hoping that the vast majority of these folks are at work today, or at school, or just going through the normal activities of life somewhere.
If they are, then somebody probably knows about it. Everybody needs to look at this list of names, and see if they can help answer some really scary questions.
The alternatives are unthinkable
NOTE: This is copied/pasted from Polimom Says... (the blog). If you get a "hit", please let us all know in the comments section after you've contacted DHH. (Their phone number is at the top of the list of names.)
From an email (thanks, Fergie!)
Right this very second, in the back rooms of congress, IMPERATIVE legislation on federal assistance to the gulf for levee rebuilding and business, personal reconstruction assistance is hanging in the balance.
HR 2863 - a Defense Spending Bill - is slated to go to a bicameral conference committee tonight or tomorrow. Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi (chairman of the senate appropriations committee) is trying to attach an amendment to the bill which will fund the reconstruction of the levees, among other funding for reconstruction of the gulf area.
Full information about efforts here:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1134633664141790.xml
Senator Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi) is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and is trying to get a Supplemental Spending bill as an AMENDMENT tacked onto a Defense Spending bill (the full bill is called HR 2863) passed through his committee and onto the full senate. This AMENDMENT to HR 2863 contains earmarked funds to repair the currently defunct levees in SE Louisiana back to a Category 3 and put a hefty down payment on a category 5 infrastructure.
But this REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN is running into resistance from the republican caucus and the White House. On the GOP House side, Rep Bobby Jindal (R-Lousiana) is pushing the amendment there as well and also meeting resistance. The resistance from the White House is over disclosures that the US Army Corps of Engineers will have to provide as part of the rebuilding process.
Algerines,
I'm going to be coming to visit for a few days, right after Christmas.
If you think it would be fun, I'd love to have some kind of get-together. There are so very many of you I'd like to finally meet face-to-face.
I'm announcing here so I can get a feel for whether there will be many folks in town who might have interest.
You can give your feedback as a comment here, or (as ever) feel free to email.
Either way, though, I'll be there, and I hope we can have a party!
