On the day President Bush visited this devastated city, thousands of tired and angry people stranded at the convention center welcomed National Guard troops and trucks carrying food, water and medicine with cheers and tears of joy.
"The crowd erupted," said Tishia Walters, a woman in the convention center crowd told CNN by telephone.
"Flags went flying, people shouting and waving. There's like 7,000 people out here in dying conditions," she added.
Walters said she was outside of the center when she saw the National Guard and police arrive.
"It's amazing. They've come in full force," she said.
Lt. Gen. Russel Honore was directing the deployment of National Guard troops -- expected to number 1,000 -- from a New Orleans street corner. ...
Greyhawk (via e-mail) has this roundup of important links:
Useful public service request - help spread the word.
http://www.dod.mil/home/features/2005/katrina/index.html - contact info for military families displaced by Katrina (also a great collection of news releases on the military efforts in hurricane relief)
http://www.guardfamily.org/ - info for Guard families impacted by the storm.
http://www.gxonline.com/gxintelnews?id=24147 - info for getting deployed Guard members in touch with their families who might be displaced by the storm - and vice versa.
http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/003484.html I compiled them here, but it's more important to get folks to those other pages. Feel free to ignore this one.
A Small Victory wins a small victory:
I'm trying to catch up on my email, I have a zillion mails from people who want to help out with the school supplies - I have Trish organizing things in Houston, please email me contact info if you want to help out there. I am in serious need of help in Baton Rouge, I have only Dave there so far. And thanks to everyone who put money in the PayPal, and I'll mention it again for those who are emailing asking how to donate school supplies if they aren't in my area:
My Paypal button is on the left sidebar. If you donate, I will use the money to purchase school supplies to put on the truck. Simple as that. You have to trust a complete stranger with your money, yes - but I think a lot of readers will vouch for me, I've done things like this before. ...
Ready for some good news yet? I know I am. Michele has it here.
Have a good weekend. See you next week.
