Damage report: Logistical quagmire worsens for Southern US

New Orleans (LA) - As the sun rose over a devastated landscape and a submerged metropolis, and the assessment process in the wake of hurricane Katrina entered its second full day, the story of Wednesday morning can be summed up with the phrase, "failing to get through."

On ABC’s Good Morning America program this morning, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco told reporters, "The logistical problems are impossible and we have to evacuate people in shelters...It’s becoming untenable. There’s no power. It’s getting more difficult to get food and water supplies in, just basic essentials."

From New Orleans to other severely impacted areas such as Biloxi, Miss., communications are completely down, and cell phone service is generally inoperative. This afternoon, Verizon Wireless is reporting that some of its technicians have been allowed into Baton Rouge, Pensacola, Mobile, and surrounding areas, although efforts to reach New Orleans continue to be hampered by continuing and worsening flooding.

Earlier this afternoon, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin told reporters cell phone service in his area was basically inoperative ; and with backup generators around the city either submerged or inoperative due to lack of fuel supply, batteries on which the city’s radio equipment relies, are fast running out.

At about 3:00 pm central time, a policeman in New Orleans noticed a fire at the Foot Locker store on Bourbon Street. But without working radio communications to contact city officials, he flagged down a CNN reporter at the scene, begging him to get the word out in hopes the officials were watching.

Verizon is also reporting that so-called "cells on wheels" (COWs) - mobile cellular communications transmitters - are ready to be deployed in the impacted areas, the moment they are given the go-ahead, presumably from local authorities, to do so. Wireless emergency communications centers will be dispatched to Baton Rouge and Houston, which continue to receive thousands of refugees. These centers will enable communications between officials forced to leave their home cities, and their colleagues (such as Mayor Nagin) who stayed behind. And in an unprecedented effort, Verizon will be converting some of its retail outlets in Pensacola and Baton Rouge into communications stations themselves, offering free long-distance service to affected areas, and even offering to charge cell phones for customers without power.

Throughout the impacted area, local newspapers’ Web sites are relying on their low-overhead blog software to help get stories up using a skeleton staff. In Biloxi, Mississippi, most of the breaking news for that city’s Sun-Herald is being posted to a blog page whose regular editors have been unable to report to work. While regular newspaper service is probably impossible at this time, the Biloxi paper’s Web site is hosted by the Real Cities network, a Knight-Ridder service operated from San Jose, California.

In an editorial, the Sun-Herald ’s executive editor, Stan Tiner, quotes one of his reporters as having advised him, "It would be easier for me to list the places that are undamaged than to list those that are damaged."

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported this morning that the state’s Department of Economic Development has begun seeking federal assistance for helping businesses relocate from New Orleans. Though the story avoided explicit mention, such relocation may possibly become permanent.

The Times-Picayune ’s Web site is hosted by Advance.net, which is owned by the group that runs Condé Nast Publications from New York. Separated from the scene of the disaster by thousands of miles, these offsite Web hosting services may prove to be the most vital communications links for communities that need not only to communicate with their citizens (those with power, at least) but with the outside world.

The streaming Internet feed for WDSU-TV - which has been live and free since the disaster - appears to be run offsite by a service that is downloading the station’s feed via satellite. During the station’s continuing coverage yesterday evening, one reporter repeated a warning to residents to boil their water and to stay indoors, before conceding that viewers may be lucky enough just to have the power to receive his broadcast, and noting that there are probably more viewers outside of the station’s regular viewing area than within it, by virtue of the Internet and satellite.

Already considering the possibility that IT professionals may have escaped the disaster with whatever data their companies may have left, a firm in Powell River, British Columbia, has launched what it calls Operation Data Recovery. From now until 16 September, the company is offering to supply affected companies and their employees for free, with tools for recovering and restoring critical data from laptops and PCs, including some that may have barely escaped flooding.

In a statement, the company’s chief software architect said, "People have lost their homes and so much more...Data recovery can add thousands of dollars to their bills and take weeks. We want to help people and businesses get back on their feet as fast as possible." Get more information .

Electric supplier Entergy, which services the New Orleans area and southern Mississippi, is reporting nearly 936,000 customers in its service area remain without power, while service to nearly 156,000 customers has been restored. Today, Southern Company affiliate Alabama Power, which services the Mobile area, reported that nearly 637,000 of its customers were left without power by the storm, but since then, nearly 317,000 of them have seen their power restored.

Having proven itself ineffective as a lifeboat, the New Orleans Superdome is preparing to be evacuated today, as Texas Governor Rick Perry and officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have made plans to bus its estimated 23,000 inhabitants to Houston, in a massive convoy of 500 busses. There, accommodations are being planned for them at the Houston Reliant Astrodome. Part of the new Reliant Park, but no longer the home of a major-league sports team, the Astrodome in recent years has survived several efforts by Houston city officials and some residents to tear it down and build an amusement park in its place.

In a news conference this morning mobilizing his state to action, Gov. Perry extended his welcome for these and all New Orleans refugees indefinitely, including making provisions for medical services, housing, and schooling. "The doors of Texas public schools will be immediately opened to those school-aged children," Perry said.

"These are our neighbors. These are people in need, and Texans are going to do everything in our power...from offering our assistance to offering our prayers," said Gov. Perry.