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Anderson Cooper: Anchor, Blogger and Bestseller
Things are going well for CNN's anchor Anderson Cooper. He has his own show on CNN. His book about his experiences covering Hurricane Katrina and other disasters has hit #1 on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list. Anderson Cooper also just landed a big interview with Angelina Jolie that will air next Tuesday on CNN. You can be sure that quotes from this interview will find their way into thousands of "important" gossip blogs. Cooper's daily 360 blog is also popular. It receives dozens of comments each day and has nearly 800 inbound links according to Technorati. Not shabby for a blog that debuted about five months ago.
Posted on June 16, 2006
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Hurricane Katrina Update 12-5-05
Katrina Forgotten Already? Bloggers may not be forgetting about Katrina but they are not blogging about it nearly as much. The graph below from BlogPulse shows the decreasing trend in blog posts about Hurricane Katrina.
The total number of English language Katrina blog posts recently passed the 500,000 post mark on Technorati. There are over 468,000 posts on BlogPulse and over 900,000 posts on IceRocket.com.
Brian Williams was recently in New Orleans and he has some posts on what it is like here, here and here. This quote is from the live segment but was posted on the Daily Nightly blog.
"Finally tonight, the parts of this city not visible to the rest of the nation. From the air, New Orleans -- and this whole region for that matter -- looks like a sea of blue. The locals call it "FEMA blue," the plastic tarp material that covers the roofs of houses.
And when you fly over at night, you see the reality as well. As much as this city wants to stress the services that have been restored: there are entire areas still living in darkness. No power. No lights. For three months.
The U.S. is at war. The holidays are coming. Americans are busy. And a whole lot of people in this area want people to know: life is still a daily struggle in this part of the world."
The Pink Flamingo Bar and Grill has some photos of Katrina damage as well
as some commentary about the media coverage of Katrina.
Tapscott's Copy Desk says FEMA would get the award for least popular government agency if such an award existed. Tapscott also says FEMA is hiding the results from its own customer satisfaction survey.
Is the EPA in denial about toxic levels in NOLA? Apparently, they are. The NRDC says toxins are widespread.
"New tests by the Natural Resources Defense Council and a Louisiana-based environmental chemist found dangerously high levels of industrial chemicals and heavy metals in the sediment covering much of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The tests also found alarming levels of long-banned pesticides that flood waters carried from an abandoned factory into a residential neighborhood.
The tests found arsenic levels in samples from neighborhoods across the entire city, for example, that exceeded Environmental Protection Agency safety limits -- in some places by a factor of 30 -- and samples taken in residential neighborhoods near two toxic waste sites found high levels of DDT and other banned pesticides, and cancer-causing petroleum chemicals."
FEMA Pulls Out of Ninth Ward: Dozens of bloggers are
discussing a Washington Post article that said
FEMA pulled out of the NO's Lower Ninth Ward after threats of violence.
The Accidental Hedonist examines the status of New Orleans restaurants.
Ernie the Attorney says NO wants a new levee system: "All you have to do is click here and let the folks in Washington know that you think we should have a levee system that, well...you know, actually keeps the water out."
VatulBlog discusses the future of New Orleans in Day 95 and also expresses disappointment: "When America knew of the imminence of the Perfect Storm, why
were we so unrealistic, unprepared and uncaring? To make lemonade out of this
situation, I hope that the rest of the nation and world now understand the
horrible circumstances under which some Americans lived until the storm,
encouraged by a vicious cycle of government corruption and citizen apathy."
Construction Owners & Builders Law Blog cites a report that says the levees were poorly constructed and that they "were a disaster
waiting too happen."
The Orlando Sentinel blog blogs about a puppy rescue.
Lifesaver has posted some pics from Biloxi. Lifesaver also thanked Joe Scarborough of MSNBC for some long overdue coverage of the Biloxi area.
Were patients euthanized in NOLA?
Andreson@Large has been blogging
about the deadline when FEMA will no longer pay for people from NO to stay in hotels at several locations around the U.S. Because these people still have no homes in NO they will likely be left homeless when the deadline is reached: "Though FEMA has extended the deadline for victims of Hurricane Katrina to 'transition from' (read: get the hell out) subsidized hotel rooms in 10 states, thousands of evacuees throughout the Katrina Diaspora may
be kicked to the curb (and here) 10 days before Christmas."
Blanco documents prove that the federal response was slow.
Brownie to get his own firm? The Dilbert Blog and Rod 2.0 are discussing Brownie's future.
Some amazing photos here at Return to Waveland: Documenting the Destruction of a Small Town.
Rising from Ruin blogs about insurance blues.
Filed in Hurricane Katrina
Posted on December 5, 2005
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Hurricane Katrina Update 11-14-05
It has been eleven weeks since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans
and the Gulf coast on August 29th, 2005. There are still hundreds of thousands of people living far away from their homes. Some will probably never return. There are stories of ruined lives, toxic pollutants, rent-gouging, mold and 100 square miles of
lost wetlands. The Nola.com blog has a Times-Picayune
editorial that says Katrina is already being forgotten: "Ours is an uneasy place to be. Help is easy to come by when people are suffering on camera. But the needs exist long after those images recede, and it is a frightening prospect to fear being forgotten."
Here are some links to blog posts from bloggers that have not forgotten.
Metroblogging New Olreans continues to provide great coverage.
Recent stories cover small businesses, the new third world, waste management, US Postal Service failures and hope via a tomato plant.
KD5QEL blogs about FEMA's offer of only $26,200 for the worst-case homes.
Twilight Mermaid
looks over some of the Katrina-related blogs and comments on which ones are still being updated. Some continuing blogs include Interdictor,
the subconcious machine and Slidell Hurricane Damage Blog.
The Daily Nightly blog had a week of coverage on Katrina from 10/31/05 to 11/4/05. The blog also has archives now so you can get directly to their earlier coverage.
ePodunk has a map
of the massive Katrina migration: "Katrina caused the
biggest mass migration in U.S. history, surpassing the 1927 flood of the
Mississippi River. In terms of numbers permanently displaced, the only event
that might have been bigger than Katrina is the Civil War."
(Via KidneyNotes)
The Hammer of Truth blogs about Katrina's 521,000 pink slips.
The Gambit Weekly, a New Orleans alternative newsweekly
started publishing again earlier this month.
My Likes and Dislikes says NIN's Trent Reznor was allowed into the 9th Ward where he took these pictures.
A Blog for All has a good
wrap-up of news including fired police officers, a
criminal
investigation into levee failures, aid efforts and environmental
problems.
Polimom blogs about the post-Katrina drop in crime rate in New Orleans.
In the Agora reports that some Katrina survivors have filed a class action suit against FEMA. (also see USA Today)
B.rox and My Katrina blog about being dislocated by Hurricane Katrina. Operation Eden and Recording Katrina also have survivor stories.
Boing Boing coverage: Death needs time,
Art sale and
Audio interviews with survivors.
Blog for America discusses the scary toxin levels reported in a Nola.com blog post.
MSNBC's Rising from Ruin is covering the aftermath and recovery.
FEMA red tape from MSNBC.com's Red Tape Chronicles
Dennis Hastert blogs about not spending the $250 billion on Katrina.
Michael Moore reports on the
Katrina Cough.
Wombat Naton discusses the Slow recovery in Biloxi and posts photos of a McDonald's restaurant that has not been repaired since it was damaged by Katrina.
Michael Brown was busy declaring himself a "Fashion God" during the height of the problems in New Orleans. More about Brown's emails here,
here,
here and
here. There are even Michael Brown paper dolls at Flickrdoodle.
It is certainly not as important as some of the more serious issues but
Wizbang blogs
that Katrina ruined thousands of Armani suits.
Death Toll: 1,302 (Source: Wikipedia)
Posted on November 14, 2005
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Some Bloggers Are Disastered Out
Hurricanes, massive earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and
now bird flu to worry about as well. And this short list does not include the man made destruction from terrorism. People still need aid but are
people too "disastered out" to help? A couple disastered out bloggers can be found here and here. The term "disastered out" has been mentioned on CNN but so far the Technorati tag disastered out is empty.
Charities are also worried about donor fatigue as new disasters create more need while rising expenses like heating costs and gas prices weigh down
on people's ability to help. Some blog posts about donor fatigue can be found here, here, here, here, here and
here.
Posted on October 17, 2005
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Katrina Update 10-16-05
Katrina blog posts are still averaging about 30 per hour according
to Technorati which lists over
427,000 posts. Google shows over 1 million
Katrina posts and BlogPulse.com shows over 390,000 posts.
Metroblogging offers an
open letter to the citizens of everyplace but New Orleans. They also
have a
post about Bobby D, also known as Robert Davis, the 64-year-old man who
was beat up by the NOPD on the video everyone has seen.
Remember Jabar Gibson who stole a bus in New Orleans to drive sixty people to Houston? He is now
getting credit in the mainstream press as being a
hero. Blogs like
Main St. USA called him one over a month ago.
Sploid says FEMA's red tape is slowing the body identification process.
The Gulf has become a slot-machine graveyard: "When Hurricane Katrina
leveled the Gulfport and Biloxi area, it silenced about 18,000 slot machines at
Mississippi's floating casinos. Some of the one-armed bandits were washed into the
sea. Looters ran off with others. And the vast majority - about 75 percent - were destroyed."
Katrina Creatives says Mardi Gras is a go.
More coverage via the Mardi Gras Technorati tag.
A Blog for All
says Atlanta's mayor wants to be reimbursed for
expenses caring for Katrina evacuues. The blog also discusses some of the
reconstruction issues in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The Houston Chronicle has another new blog related to Hurricane
Katrina called In Exile.
The
Rambling Rebuilder is traveling areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Half a million people are still homeless.
The Celebrity Blog reports
that Wyclef Jean and Norah Jones recorded a charity song to help with Katrina aid.
The song and other Katrina aid music can be found here.
VR Mag
has Katrina Aftermath Panoramas.
WebbWoman in Pearl River County, Mississippi
praises the federal response to get help to her area.
John Tesh's
Katrina Convoy deserves more blog coverage.
The New Orleanian blogs
about Mayor Nagin's push for federal tax bracks for New Orleans.
Just two more storms until Alpha. Wilma may already be
developing in the Carribbean. We will have more Wilma coverage tomorrow.
Many Katrina-related blogs have ceased coverage including MSNBC.com's On the
Scence blog and SunHerald.com's
After the Storm blog.
Several bloggers are discussing the expected large increase in home heating
costs this winter: here,
here, here, here, here
and here.
Technorati shows abut 3,000 posts about home heating costs. It will be a big
concern to many Americans with costs forecast to
jump at least 30% and that's if we have a mild winter.
Most of the discussion on the blogosphere has been about New Olreans reconstruction but
should Daulphin Island properties be rebuilt?
Death Toll: 1277 (Via Wikipedia)
Posted on October 16, 2005
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Katrina Roundup 10-5-05
Britney Spears auctions her bra, clothes and other items to raise money for
Katrina relief. One of this items up for auction is this
unusual toy bear.
Alabama state senator Hank Erwin
says New Orleans and Gulf coast areas
hit by Hurricane Katrina deserved it. "New Orleans and the Mississippi
Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness,"
Erwin wrote in a column he distributes to media outlets. "It
is the kind of behavior that ultimately brings the judgment of God."
Blogs discuss Erwin's statement here,
here, here and
here.
The Blue State blogs
about an audit conducted
weeks before Katrina that indicated FEMA was not prepared to handle a major distaser. FEMA
was overwhelmed by the 2004 hurricane season which was very bad but not the catastrophe that 2005 has been.
More FEMA slowness complaints: $100 million was spent on ice
and most of it was never used.
The Onion makes fun at FEMA's expense
and bloggers enjoy it.
A post on BET's blog by Pamela Gentry talks about the downsides of the $52 billion Emergency Assistance
and Reconstruction bill.
Massive mold
problems are expected in New Orleans.
More about Trent Lott's discovery of his refridgerator which
contained champagne available here. Lott found his fridge blocks away and
he recognized it because of the refridgerator magnets and photos.
New Orleans is finally starting to
dry out. Sisaza.blog.usf.edu wonders how people will handle the return to city psychologically.
People Get Ready
discusses price gouging contractors.
The search for bodies in New Orleans has
stopped. The death toll from Katrina is at 1,203 according
to
Wikipedia with 964 in Louisiana and 221 in Mississippi.
The Palm Beach Post's Hurricane Blog reports
that Steve Forbes now backs Senator Rick Santorum's asinine weather bill
that threaten's free public weather information.
Ginasratings tell us
that CNN has an
interactive rebuilding map that shows damage and progress by zip code.
iGamingLaw says that Mississippi's floating coastal casinos are moving
onshore thanks to a new bill. These casinos employ over 17,000 people and most were heavily
damaged or destroyed by Katrina.
Seriously Though points to
an Independent Online
article about a confidential report
that "details how funds for flood control were diverted to other
projects, desperately needed National Guards were stuck in Iraq and
how military personnel had to "sneak off post" to help with relief
efforts because their commander had refused permission."
Sirotablog, Human Voices and The Subjective Scribe are also discussing this article.
Sad News: New Orleans to
lay off 3,000 workers. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said
there isn't enough money to pay them. Discussion here, here, here and here.
Deaf Survivors Blog is a new
a blog dedicated to help deaf and hard of hearing people find each other and
provide emergency info after catastrophic events such as Hurricane Katrina.
Boing Boing
points to some floatable houses that might help in a future New Orleans.
Chris Martel
blogs at Metroblogging New Orleans that New Orleans is now like a Mad Max movie. He says don't come back if you have kids or don't like camping he warns. He has also
posted
some photos on Flickr.
Posted on October 5, 2005
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Katrina Roundup 9-27-05
Michael Brown blames the blog at horsesass.org for his troubles.
The new flooding has raised debate about rebuilding and the
President Bush's
expensive reconstruction plan. Sharon's Muse
blogs that she believes New Orleans will eventually be rebuilt but she
wonders if anyone is really looking out for the interests of the "have nots."
More Katrina related cyberscams continue to be reported. Details
here and here.
People Get Ready says New Orleans has become a police state ghost town and it looks like an Atomic Bomb went off in the city.
"Cars are strewn around in random ways straddling curbs, on the neutral grounds, some upside down. Skiffs, canoes, pirogues and even small cruisers were beached. Everything once covered in flood waters is now covered in an ash-brown dried mud. Anything that was once green, is now dead and dessicated, coated in that same ash-brown dried mud."
Speaking of ghosts: Soldiers staying at a school in New Orleans have been
spooked by the ghosts of little children. Bloggers are discussing the New Orleans' ghosts
here, here
and here
All eight of the eight missing dolphins from the Gulfport, Mississipi Oceanarium have been rescued. Unfortunately, there are now
36 missing dolphins armed with toxic darts that were trained by the Navy.
The Washington Post has Katrina Panoramas
(Via J-Walk)
Max Mayfield, the Director of the National Hurricane Center has
warned Congress that more hurricanes are coming.
Leo McGovern, who runs a zine called Antigravity, was able to save just one comic from his house before
it was
trashed by Katrina. Leo's blog can be found here.
(Via Boing Boing)
Davenetics blogs that Senator Trent Lott found his refrigerator and inside were two sentimental bottles of champagne. Lott's fridge was located three blocks from where his house used to be. The Media Cynic reports that Lott may now have a reason to open the champagne.
The memory blog wants reporters to find out if any Level-3 biolabs were damaged during Katrina. Are 5,000 monkeys carrying disease on the loose? We do know that lab animals and decades of research were lost. And we know that the living samples in at least one "hot lab" were
destroyed.
If we had only listened to Mr. Bill maybe we could have stopped Katrina from
flooding New Orleans. Via Rawfeed.com
Should FEMA reimburse churches and religious groups
for Katrina aid? No,
no, Why not,
no, no,
yes, no
and no. More blogging on this topic here.
Dallas could also flood like
New Orleans. That's scary.
More new Katrina blogs: BigEasyBlog.com and Operation Eden Blog (via
Boing Boing)
Posted on September 27, 2005
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Former FEMA Director Blames Blog For His Downfall
We're not making this one up, we swear. Disgraced former FEMA head Michael Brown gave public testimony today in which he informed the nation that his downfall was all because of a blog called HorsesAss.org. You can see the quicktime clip here.
While FEMA was trying to respond to probably the largest natural disaster in the history of this country, a catastrophic disaster that the president has described covering an area the size of Great Britain -- I have heard 90,000 square miles -- unless you have been there and seen it, you don't realize exactly how bad and how big it was -- but in the middle of trying to respond to that, FEMA’s press office became bombarded with requests to respond immediately to false statements about my resume and my background.
Ironically, it started with an organization called horsesass.org, that on some blog published a false, and, frankly, in my opinion, defamatory statement that the media just continued to repeat over and over. Next, one national magazine not only defamed me, but my alma mater, the Oklahoma City University School of Law, in one sentence alone leveling six false charges.
*****
But I guess it’s the media's job. But I don't like it. I think it's false. It came at the wrong time. And I think it led potentially to me being pulled out of Louisiana because it made me somewhat ineffective.
Brown has now been re-hired at his full salary as a consultant to determine exactly how he mishandled the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina. HorsesAss.org noted today that they've received a huge spike in traffic from the mention from Brown's mention, which is sure to go down as one of the most media-unsaavy pieces of testimony ever.
(Via Think Progress.)
Posted on September 27, 2005
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Blogger Feels Pressure to Blog About Rita
ZDNet has a new article about blogger Brendan Loy who received a lot of web traffic for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina. The article says that Loy has also received a lot of new traffic looking for information about Hurricane Rita. Loy, a 23-year-old law student, told ZDNet that the pressure to blog about Rita is "definitely taking a toll."
"I try to keep reminding myself that I don't have to post stuff to my blog. It's my hobby. It doesn't have to take over my life," said Loy, who lives in South Bend, Ind.
The pressure to produce isn't unique to Loy. It's the plight of many popular bloggers, said Dan Gillmor, a San Francisco Bay Area blogger with a focus on media and technology.
"Blogs are hungry beasts that want to be fed," he said. "Readers should realize, however, that bloggers do have lives outside their computers and cut them some slack -- especially the ones who do it for no financial compensation."
Knowing that his new audience is hungry for Rita coverage, Loy has recruited some guest weather bloggers to help him out. "I don't want to lose the new readers. Web traffic is a fickle thing," he said. "But there's no way I can blog Rita like I blogged Katrina."
Loy is not alone. There are tens of thousands of bloggers covering each storm. However, many of these bloggers are probably not feeling the pressure to keep posts and traffic up like Brendan Loy is. More blogs covering Katrina can be found here and blogs covering Rita can be here.
Posted on September 25, 2005
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Bloggers Cover Katrina's Aftermath and Rita's Approach
Dave Barry says not to worry. Herman, the spokescrab (pictured on right) for FEMA for Kids is here to help.
Katrina posts are approaching or past 300,000: Technorati (288,000+),
BlogPulse.com (280,000+)
and IceRocket.com (591,000+).
Doctors fear a second wave of Katrina injuries including "chainsaw people." The Waterglass
blogs this news.
Several bloggers are discussing the 76-year-old man who was rescued 18 days
after New Orleans was flooded. Virtue Blog calls it
an amazing rescue story. Stuff I Think says
Taco Bell was no way to end a fast.
DomeBlog blogs that arrival of some "I Survived Katrina" t-shirts.
MissingKids.com has been added to our Katrina links page.
MSNBC's Katrina blog discusses the Hazmat Hustle and the chipping away at the mess. Dangerous and dirty work but somebody has to do it.
Al Gore brings up global warming. Bloggers respond here, here, here,
here and here.
Gulf Sails points to
the Renew New Orleans Foundation and donation bracelet.
The Bush Adminstraion is now the Katrina Administration.
The 2theadvocate.com blog says don't gorge on those MREs.
The Price is Right runs an untimely episode offering a trip to New Orleans.
Four dolphins rescued. Four still to go.
Josh Britton blogs about oversight of the federal
money flowing into Louisiana.
Wikipedia shows the incomplete Katrina death toll at 973.
Two Alabama residents were busted after pretending to be Katrina victims.
Katrina Aftermath blogs
about a memo that shows Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff delayed the federal response.
Metroblogging has an interesting post titled, Real Police Don't Run.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Rita is forecast to make landfall as a powerful hurricane on the Texas coast. Many blogs are already discussing Rita as we mentioned yesterday. A Houston Chronicle
feature shows what the big one could be like for Houston. Hopefully, Rita
won't be the big one for Houston or any other city.
Posted on September 20, 2005
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Bloggers Cover New Gulf Threat from Hurricane Rita
While bloggers continue to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina it looks like another dangerous storm is on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Rita, currently a tropical storm with sustained winds of 65mph is forecast to become Hurricane Rita later today and move just south of the Florida Keys. Rita is then forecast to move in the Gulf of Mexico and head toward the Texas coast. Another storm near the many oil rigs located in the Northern and Northwest Gulf of Mexico will cause oil to spike again and force gas prices upwards. It is still too far out to predict where along the Gulf coast Hurricane Rita will make landfall but it goes without saying that another major hurricane hit is bad news for the U.S. A few of the many blogs already covering Rita include the Sun-Sentinel Hurricane Weblog, WeatherBlog, Weapon of Mass Distraction, 7 Stormteam Weather Blog, Pensacola Beach Blog, Miami Musings, Stormtrack, Houston's Clear Thinkers, Hurricane Harbor, The Houston Conservative, Tropical Storm Rita blog, Storm Videographer, Lazy Iguana, Storm Chasing Mikey and Huffington Post. SciGuy blogs about a Houston Chronicle article that lays out the devastation a major hurricane hit could cause.
In blog search engines, Technorati already lists nearly 1000 posts about Hurricane Rita and IceRocket.com lists over 1,600 posts.
Update: More Hurricane Rita coverage can be found in our Hurricane Rita section.
Posted on September 19, 2005
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Katrina Blogosphere Update 9-16-05
The French Quarter will reopen soon. Fox
News and the
New York Times say parts could be open as early as this weekend. Davenetics says he plans
to be there
for the opening.
The Media Cynic says Bush's speech
came too late and his reconstruction plan is over budget. Many blogs have mentioned that the 800 telephone phone number was silly or tacky. Michelle Malkin's blog says, "Maybe it's just me, but isn't there something tacky about having the leader of the free world reading a phone number from the teleprompter?" Technorati shows over 3,000 posts
for the keywords "Bush Katrina Speech."
Animal Rescue blogs: Yahoo has added a directory of animal rescue blogs from Hurricane Katrina which includes IFAW (although not really a blog), Petville, North Shore Animal League America's Katrina Update Blog and
ASPCA Hurricane Relief: Rescue Diary.
KatrinaSafe.com has been added to the missing persons section of our Katrina links post.
Google Earth has set up a special section for Hurricane Katrina satellite images.
Some of the search engines have set up
special section to help with missing people after Katrina. Google has a missing people search; Lycos has search and links and
Yahoo has a collection of Katrina help and aid links.
Amazing dolphins. Eight dolphins have been found in the Gulf after being swept from their Gulfport oceanarium by Katrina's massive storm surge.
Nola.com's weblog says that there is a mystery surrounding the three
floodwall failures. This has led to conspiracy theories that the levees were intentionally destroyed.
Katrina has been named the most destructive U.S. storm ever by NOAA.
Surprisingly, only a few bloggers have commented about Slate's unusual article about why dead bodies float upside down. Some blogs discussion the article can be found here, here, here and here.
Katrina gas impact update. 5% of the total U.S. refinery capacity will be shut down for months.
MSNBC.com's Katrina blog
reports on six firefighters from Illinois that going
house to house in St. Bernard Parish with an axe and a flashlight.
Brian Williams blogs about the terrifying National Weather Service
warning about Katrina's impact issued by NWS meteorologist Robert Ricks
from his office in Slidell.
The EPA has released some information about toxin levels in the water in New Orleans but others suggest a cover up is going on.
Katrina caused 44 oil spills in
the Gulf coast waters -- as much as 2/3 of the amount of oil that spilled from the Exxon Valdez.
The New Orleanian is a new blog to discuss community service projects and the recovery effort. The blog says it is also a place to share rebuilding ideas. (Via Mr. Wright)
Poets are feeling Hurricane Katrina at the Hellicane blog. There are
eleven links to Hellicane according to Google's Blog Search.
Katrian05 blogs that
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff delayed the federal response and former FEMA chief Michael Brown.
Wikipedia's Katrina page
lists an incomplete death toll of 857. The Washington Post
says Katrina is already in the Top 10 Deadliest Disaster lists.
Posted on September 16, 2005
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Katrina Blog Posts Pass 200,000 Mark
Katrina continues to be a very active topic for bloggers.
Technorati shows over 230,000 posts.
BlogPulse.com has indexed over 217,000
posts and IceRocket.com has indexed over
400,000 posts. Here is a look at some of the recent coverage in the blogosphere
as well as some new Katrina-related blog launches.
Nola.com's blog reports
that 7 of New Orleans' 24 pumps are now operating.
The Fast Company blog says the warnings were all there and links to
newspapers features
like this one that warned of the risk from a major hurricane to the
city of New Orleans.
President Bush is under pressure from Katrina fallout as his approval rating falls to just 38%. Recently, he kind of
took responsibility for the slow federal response.
The Onion provides a badly needed laugh.
Several bloggers have
responded to Slate's don't rebuild article. Metroblogging
New Orleans disagrees and says
New Orleans IS Forever. And the We Will Rebuild Nola
blog would definitely disagree with Slate's piece.
Did the Japanese mafia
create Katrina? Feedster shows 38 blogs linking to this conspiracy theory.
There is a blog about LeeAnn Bemboom Russo and her son Jahon. The blog was created in response to a moving video that showed LeeAnn caring for her ehydrated 11 month old son at the Convention Center in New Orleans. Both mother and child are now ok.
Bloggers are discussing a Daily Telegraph article that reported that doctors euthanized critically-ill patients in one hospital in New Orleans because the patients were in such agony. Some of the bloggers discussing this story include SciGuy, Lone Star Times, ZoneVerte and bioethics.
Deadly Katrina blogs that firms with ties to the Bush administration have received contracts to rebuild and repair damaged areas.
MSNBC.com's Katrina blog says Katrina delivered a tremendous blow to the fishing industry.
ReadersRead.com's Book Blog reports that the Katrina book deals have begun. The Book Blog also says Michael More is considering a "Fahrenheit Katrina" documentary. Moore has been
blogging frequently about the federal response and
writing letters.
R. David Paulison, who was behind the duct tape terror fighting idea,
will replace Michael Brown who was sent back to D.C. and then later resigned.
CBS News' new Public Eye blog discusses a poll about what people thought of the Hurricane Katrina media coverage.
Katrina has inspired one blogger to launch Project Mayday, a blog
about ways to "prevent the type of chaos that ensued after Hurricane Katrina
hit land."
Andy Karvin has
set up the Katrina Thanks Blog. The blog will "serve as an open space for members of the public to thank donors, volunteers and relief workers for lending a helping hand in the days and weeks following Hurricane Katrina."
A new blog has been set up to help musicians in Southeast Louisiana
(Via Redhouse Jazz)
Hellicane is a new blog for Katrina-related poetry. (Via Everything and Nothing)
Posted on September 13, 2005
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MSM Using Katrina to Get Foothold in Blogosphere
The mainstream media, including organizations like
CNN, ABC News, CBS News, MSNBC and USA Today have all
launched blogs to cover Katrina's deadly impact. Many
of the blogs are getting linked to and covered by bloggers.
MSNBC.com launched the Katrina blog on September 2nd and
continues to publish frequent entries. The blog appears to very
active with lots of comments. Some posts have received hundreds of
responses. MSNBC.com has about a dozen other blogs as well on other
subjects.
NBC has been covering the storm with
The Daily Nightly. The blog has included regular commentary from anchor Brian Williams.
ABC News has a Reporter's Blog that includes comments from top anchors like Diane Sawyer.
CNN has the Scene Blog. They also had a blog from
anchor Miles O'Brien.
CBS News has the Katrina Disaster Blog.
Yahoo featured blogs on its homepage and recently launched a blog of their own called the Katrina Relief Blog.
USA Today had a Katrina blog.
The Houston Chronicle debuted the DomeBlog covering
stories inside the Houston Astrodome. The Chronicle
also has several other blogs.
The Sun-Sentinel has the Hurricane Weblog,
the Palm Beach Post has the Storm 2005 Blog
and the Miami Herald had a blog
back when the storm was approaching South Florida.
The Times-Picayune has a Breaking
News Blog.
The Sun Herald launched the Eyes on Katrina blog
and Al.com has the Storm Central blog.
NPR has a Katrina Blog.
Not all of the blogs are still active. For some of these news organizations the blogs were their very first blogs. Because of Katrina many people probably read blogs for the first time and it may have been an MSM blog they were reading. In addition to
these blogs from large media organizations there were lots of very
good blogs from local news providers. Many of these blogs and other
blogs are listed in our Hurricane Katrina section.
Posted on September 12, 2005
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Alvaro's Katrina Photo Essay
Here is an interesting slideshow take by Alvaro who works at the Chateu Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans and was
inside New Orleans during and after the storm. His photographs and descriptions show his initial hope that the city had not been hit too hard. This hope quickly dimmed as Alvaro found more and more structural damage. Alvaro then shows photos on days 2 and 3 as the water begins to rise in parts of the city where it had previously been dry. The photos also include the arrival of journalists into the city, damage caused by looters and the people stuck with no help at the Convention Center. (Via Fred Schoeneman)
Posted on September 10, 2005
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Katrina and the Blogs
Katrina-related posts have soared near or past the 200,000 post mark for some
of the blog search engines. Technorati has
197,963 posts for Katrina.
BlogPulse.com has
197,367 posts and IceRocket.com has
367,285 posts. Here is a look at some of the topics being covered.
Yahoo has launched a Katrina
Relief Blog.
U.S. Senator Rick Santorum
blames the National Weather Service. That's ridiculous considering the
National Weather Service saw the storm targeting New Orleans days before and posted dire warnings about the devastation it would cause like this one.
New Orleans is our second biggest coffee port. A Thought Over Coffee
blogs
the possiblity of coffee prices rising. CNN also has an
article about coffee and Katrina. A Thought Over Coffee also discusses Katrina
aid from Starbucks.
SciGuy says Katrina is heating up the debate about Global Warming.
Colin Powell blasts the total response to Katrina including the local, state and
federal response. (Via Moebius Recursive).
Bloggers are heavily covering the forced evacuations and
gun seizures
in New Orleans. Scenes on CNN show some very angry people
that have food, water and dry land in New Orleans that do not
want to leave. One attorney and gun owner says he won't leave unless he is
dead. The forced evacuations seem like an unnecessary
waste of time especially considering many don't want to leave
and don't appear to be in any danger. Plains Feeder discusses the
NRA
and the Katrina gun grab. Many other blogs are
discussing the possiblity of forced Katrina evacauations.
Eyes on Katrina points to some excellent NOAA satellite images
of the damaged areas.
Fema chief Michael Brown has been sent back to D.C.
After every disaster the scammers come out. Information about scams
here, here
and here.
MSNBC's blog has a detailed post
about Miss Kitty's happy rescue.
Some Louisiana National Guard troops have
returned home from Iraq. Some have damaged homes, flooded homes or missing families.
Most of the fish were lost but a few marine animals including penguins and a
large sea turtle named Midas were
saved by the hard working staff at the New Orleans Aquarium.
More here (includes Midas photo),
here, here,
here, here,
here and here.
Deadly Katrina has harrowing tales of
British tourists stuck in the Superdome.
President Bush has proclaimed Friday, September 16,2005 as a
National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Katrina victims. Bloggers respond.
Round One to CNN: CNN has sued to challenge the government's plans to deny the media access to
the recovery of dead bodies. TVNewser says the government has granted CNN
a temporary injunction with a hearing scheduled for Saturday morning.
The Drudge Report says there could be a scaled
down Mardi Gras festival.
The Huffington Post reports
on Cris Rock's funny joke that "George Bush Hates Midgets" that was based on Kanye West's
comments during a telethon earlier this week. Many bloggers are
discussing Rock's joke.
Life Hacker points to the Katrina Information Map which
provides information about storm damage using a Google Maps hack.
The DomeBlog reports on Tom Delay's "Is this kind of fun?" comments to
New Orleans evacuees at the Houston Astrodome.
The Bush - Clinton Katrina Fund website
is online. The fund set up by former presidents Bush and Clinton has already raised
more than $2 million in online donations. (Via Superchefblog)
Posted on September 10, 2005
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Katrina Blogosphere Highlights 9-8-05
Boing Boing points to a collection of Superdome photos on Flickr.
GamersGame.com blogs that virtual worlds like Second Life, Everquest II and There are raising money for Katrina survivors.
FEMA Failures is a new blog looking closely at problems with FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina.
Crooks and Liars has the video of Celine Dion breaking down in tears on Larry King.
The Houston Chronicle has launched the DomeBlog which covers events inside the Houston Astrodome where many evacuees from the Superdome are now staying.
Even after the flood waters recede the bacteria, toxins and chemicals may not. Plus, mold may form in homes and business.
Blog prediction: The New York Times says "Weather nerd" Brendan Loy blogged on August 26th that, "If I were in New Orleans, I would seriously consider getting the hell out of Dodge right now, just in case." Brendan Loys' blog also points out that poor Snowball may have been found according to an MSNBC.com story.
Here is a list of a few online auctions helping to raise
money for Hurricane Katrina survivors.
25,000 body bags have been ordered by the government.
Other nations say the U.S. has been too slow to accept aid.
The Ninth Ward was the hardest hit by Katrina.
Jeff Jarvis blogs about a new wiki called Recovery 2.0 -- an
opensource disaster recovery initiative. "It's designed to be a clearing house
for independent initiatives towards building reliable web-based platforms for
disaster recovery efforts."
Sales of John M. Barry's Rising Tide book about the 1927 Mississippi River flood have spiked to #11 on Amazon.com since
Hurricane Katrina hit.
Brad Delong looks at the economic impact of Katrina.
IE Only: LifeHacker says to get Katrina aid from
FEMA’s assistance site you need Internet Explorer 6.0. Boing Boing says you need Windows + IE unless you use some fancy work-around software.
Blogpulse.com does another roundup of blog storm coverage as bloggers point fingers at the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina.
Think Progress has a Katrina Time Line.
Onegoodmove.org comments on Keith Olbermann's criticism of
Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff's slip, "Louisiana is a city
that is largely under water."
Yahoo, which has added a directory of Katrina blogs, is also featuring individual blog posts in their Katrina Full Coverage area. For Katrina, Yahoo has now not only featured individual blogs posts in its news area but also linked to Katrina blogs from its homepage last weekend.
Posted on September 8, 2005
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Brian Williams Blogs About Censorship in New Orleans
NBC Anchor Brian Williams is blogging about his tour of the French Quarter. He reported good news that the French Quarter area appears to be drying out. Unfortunately, he also says that the military and law enforcement is blocking some of the news from being reported. Williams reports that a police officer even pointed her weapon at the media.
At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.
It is shocking that reporters can no longer get into the Convention Center and Superdome. Brian Williams himself had even blogged from the Superdome last week before the military arrived. The government's attempts to prevent coverage have also been reported by many bloggers. As we reported earlier many bloggers are also upset that FEMA won't allow the media to photograph any of the dead bodies found in New Orleans. The Media Cynic has more about press censorship in New Orleans.
Posted on September 7, 2005
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Katrina Blogosphere Highlights 9-7-05
Lots of blogger reaction to FEMA's "request" for photographers not to take photographs of the dead in New Orleans. Blogs discussing the issue can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.
MSNBC.com's Katrina blog
asks what is FEMA thinking?
Greatscat points out
that the Red Cross'
Family Links website, which is helping people find family members, currently lists 94,000 people as missing.
Oprah, President Bush and others have said not to label the
people made homeless by Katrina as
refugees. Sunny's Journal thanks
Oprah for bringing this up.
Ty, Inc. has made three beanie baby bears for Louisiana and Mississippi with $2 of each purchase going to the Red Cross.
There's E. Coli bacteria in the flood waters of New Orleans reports the Huffington Post. Five have died from a bacteria-caused illness.
Lots of posts about Sean Penn's leaky boat. Still it was a good effort. Terri-Tutorial says "But hey..he's helping....he's doing more then I am. Kuddos to you Mr. Penn."
EW's Popwatch reports
on the star lineup for the joint network benefit called Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast.
The telethon will feature performances by Sheryl Crow, Dixie Chicks, Randy Newman,
Neil Young, Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys, and Paul Simon. Presenters will include
Jennifer Aniston, Ellen DeGeneres, Ray Romano, Jack Nicholson, Cameron Diaz,
Sela Ward, and Chris Rock.
More celebrity aid is listed in this USA Today article.
Gallup has a poll about people's reaction to the storm and the response from the local and federal government. Surprisingly only a few
bloggers are linking to this poll so far.
Very Expensive Storm: Byer's Basic blog says Katrina's cost is now estimated to be "150 billion smackeroos."
Byer links to this
article for the details.
The Superdome will probably be torn down. Will it be rebuilt? Covering Katrina
points out that the Superdome was built on top of an old graveyard. Dummies.com also has that information.
Metroblogging New Orleans has a post called
Future Shock about what will happen to the city's service industry jobs especially
since it will take a while for tourism to recover.
Hammer of Truth blogs
about a report that FEMA turned away fire fighters and had them hand out fliers instead
of helping out in New Orleans.
Metafilter has a post about Britons
and other foreign tourists stranded in the city during Katrina who are now missing.
Ophelia Next Concern?
Tropical Storm Ophelia has formed
and it is threatening the east coast of Florida.
It is uncertain whether Ophelia will make landfall but there will be heavy rain
for Florida's east coast at a minimum. The latest
forecast from the National Hurricane Center says that some of the computer models show the storm threaten the Northern Gulf Coast which would be very bad news because the last thing they need there is more wind and rain. Hopefully, Ophelia will remain offshore and go out to sea. Technorati shows about
150 posts already about Ophelia.
Posted on September 7, 2005
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Katrina Blog Posts Pass the 100,000 Mark
Heavy blogging about Katrina's aftermath continues. Technorati
now records over 84,000 posts for "Hurricane Katrina" and 133,000 posts for "Katrina." IceRocket (230,000 posts) and BlogPulse (130,000 posts) have also broken the 100,000 mark in Katrina posts.
The city of New Orleans continues to be evacuated. Tens of thousands of people have already left the city. Texas is already providing
shelter for over 230,000 New Orleans residents. Some of the blog coverage has now switched to the rebuilding phase. And many bloggers are concerned about the large numbers of abandoned and lost pets. Technorati shows over 2,000 posts for the keywords "Katrina" and "Pets." We talked about the high death toll in another post and now New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says there could be 10,000 dead in the city.
Here is a roundup of some recent Katrina posts by bloggers.
The Google Blog
writes that post-Katrina satellite images are
available on Google Maps.
Kuro5hin reports on the news from outside the u.S.
There have been
thousands of blog posts about Kanye West's off-script remarks during a
celebrity telethon for Hurricane Katrina survivors that aired on NBC
where he said, "George Bush don't care about black people."
Blogcritics.org reports on missing New Orleans musicians Domino, Thomas and Toussaint. Fats Domino and Irma Thomas have been found.
Media Cynic comments on President Bush's promise to rebuilt Trent
Lott's home.
The Writer's Blog discusses the reactions of two bestselling authors:
Anne Rice and John Grisham.
Brainwidth posts some links
to first-hand accounts and pictures from inside the Superdome.
Arts Technica reports on how blogs and the web are helping to connect tech-savvy volunteers.
Doc Searls blogs about the War on
Error
Simple Thoughts searched and found no evidence of cannibalism in New Orleans. That's a relief!
Librarian.net posts about library resources in a post-Katrina world.
B2Day reports on DirectNIC, a data center in New Orleans that has managed to stay running despite the disaster. DirectNic also has a blog.
The Flickr blog shows the before and after pictures of the
Pass Christian House.
Church of the Customer talks about the technology buzz barometer
about what went wrong after Hurricane Katrina hit.
Arianna Huffington tells the media to stop enabling the White House blame game.
Katrina.com's traffic surged after the hurricane hit.
Gadgetopia thinks Katrina is the "first really big crisis in the U.S. to come after blogs have hit their prime."
The Times-Picayune has written an
open letter to President Bush. (Via
Majikthise)
Matthew Good questions whether a stolen bus to escape New Orleans was really an "extreme act of looting."
Many bloggers like pretty dumb things are saddened by the stories of abandoned and lost pets.
More Katrina blogging coverage, including links and resources, can
be found here.
Posted on September 6, 2005
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Yahoo Features Hurricane Katrina Blogs on Homepage
Hurricane Katrina is pushing blogs deeper into the mainstream. Yahoo has featured Hurricane Katrina blogs on its homepage as part of a hurricane relief efforts feature. The link goes to Yahoo's collection of Hurricane Katrina blog links. Is this the first time blogs have been mentioned on the front of Yahoo, Microsoft or Google? Blogs have provided the best format for providing news about the storm and the aftermath. Some major new providers like CNN, CBS, BBC and NPR all have Katrina-related blogs. NBC's Brian Williams was even inside the
Superdome blogging earlier this week. Some of the best mainstream media blogs are the local blogs like the Times-Picayune's Breaking News Blog,
WWLTV Blog and WDSU Blog. Local news networks had both the resources and inside knowledge
about the area and its experience with past hurricanes to provide excellent coverage.
Yesterday, President Bush toured some of the storm damage in Mississippi and visited New Orleans. He said we will rebuild the damaged area. Even Trent Lott's house will be rebuilt. Also, rescue operations including National Guard troops are finally starting to arrive in New Orleans. Once everyone is removed from the city the next big steps will be taking care of the survivors with food, water and shelters. Reuniting
survivors with family and friends will also be a big complicated issue. The city of New Orleans will have to be drained which will take weeks according to the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- but he could not give an exact time. After that comes clean up of the toxic mess that remains. In the meantime, everyone hopes that there are no more | | |