Hennessy's View

These are the words for New Orleans Mayor Nagin, according to Fox News:

There will be a “total evacuation of the city. We have to. The city will not be functional for two or three months,” Nagin said. And he said people would not be allowed back into their homes for at least a month or two.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of Thy love.
Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created.
And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

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Nearly 300 people have already responded to the Home for Katrina Victims site. The site has been up only about 15 hours, and it’s been working properly only since 7:00 PM.

As a Christian, I believe that all love, charity, and kindness comes from God. But we have free will to pass it along or to use it all on ourselves. For that matter, we can reject it completely. Today’s response demonstrates the American people, at least many of them, are passing along God’s graces in buckets.

This is simply amazing. As horrible as the conditions may be in our country, our spirit offsets those conditions manifold.

Thank you, all who are helping. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am heading to church now to pray for you, for them, for me, and for all.

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There are at least 35,000 refugees fleeing New Orleans. Shep Smith on FoxNews just helped save a five-day-old baby. The infant and her mother had been dropped off of a boat after being rescued from an attic with 12 other people. The baby was burning hot, and Smith had to flag down a police officer to get medical attention. Dramatically, the police and paramedics showed up while Smith was interviewing the people on the air.

The estimates from Louisana’s governor’s office is that New Orleans will be uninhabitable for 4-6. If there is a major chemical or infectious waste problem, the city could be closed even longer.

Think about this: what insurance company would insure another building or life in a city that’s below sea level and beside the sea? I honestly can’t imagine the Big Easy ever becoming a major city again.

These grim possibilities mean we must redouble our efforts. Not only the poor who had nowhere to go during the hurricane, but middle class and other folks will probably need to relocate permanently. There will be no jobs, no hospitals, no schools or colleges. People have to work, they have to live, the have to learn.

This effort is too big and too important to leave to the government. We, the people, must pick up the ball and carry it forward. Let’s see an outpouring of volunteerism, inspired by true Christian charity, that leaves the government with nothing to do and no one to help.

We can make this tragedy a new beginning. Please help.

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Some highlights:

It will take “years” to recover from Katrina.
Government allows fuel blends immediately to reduce cost of gasoline.
Victims will be overwhelmed with Americans’ desire to help.
I am confident that with time you’ll get your life back in order . . . the great city of New Orleans will be back on its feet.

Some Thoughts:

Let’s go to a 10 hour per day, 4 day work week. There is no excuse for people to drive to work 5 days a week at this point, and 10 hour days won’t hurt anyone.

Let’s encourage Americans to stay within 50 miles of home this Labor Day weekend. We can visit distant relatives and amusement parks when things stabalize.

Let’s find a home for every person who needs one.

Let’s overwhelm them with love, mercy, and generosity.

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A-B Increases Water Donations to 825,000 Cans to Aid Hurricane Katrina Victims

Anheuser-Busch Foundation Also Donates $250,000
To the Red Cross Relief Efforts

In response to requests from relief agencies following the tremendous damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, Anheuser-Busch and its wholesalers have now shipped more than 825,000 cans of safe drinking water to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Separately, the Anheuser-Busch Foundation announced today that it is donating $250,000 to Red Cross relief efforts along the Gulf Coast.

“Our sympathy goes out to all victims of Hurricane Katrina, and this donation will help those who have been most affected by the storm,” said Patrick Stokes, president and chief executive officer of Anheuser-Busch Companies.

“Anheuser-Busch and its wholesalers are always among the first to lend a hand to those in need, helping them get back on their feet.”

The Anheuser-Busch Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., a St. Louis-based corporation with subsidiaries that include the leading U.S. brewer, one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of aluminum beverage containers and one of the largest theme-park operators in the United States.

Anheuser-Busch and its charitable foundation have reached out to groups that need them, contributing to community organizations across the country and touching countless individual lives.

Over the past decade the company and the Anheuser-Busch Foundation have donated more than $330 million to charitable organizations, including those that support education, health care, the arts, cultural enrichment, social services and environmental conservation.

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To Register for Homes for Katrina Victims

Please register at http://katrinahomes.billhennessy.com

The information you provide will be used exclusively for coordinating this effort, should your kind services be required. In the meantime, we are praying that no one needs our help.

Sincerely,
Bill Hennessy

With Lake Pontchartrain continuing to pour into New Orleans, the city’s major daily newspaper has ordered an evacuation of its building and its reporters.

As of 9:40 AM:

Water continues to rise around our building, as it is throughout the region. We want to evaucate our employees and families while we are still able to safely leave our building.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon hopes to stop the growing levee burst with sandbags, according to Drudge. Officials plan to drop 3,000 lbs. sandbags from helicopters into the Lake to stem the breech.

Historic French Quarter, which survived the hurricane proper in relatively good shape, is now flooding according to witnesses. With news media abandoning the city, though, official reports are hard to come by.

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To Register for Homes for Katrina Victims

Please register at http://katrinahomes.billhennessy.com

The information you provide will be used exclusively for coordinating this effort, should your kind services be required. In the meantime, we are praying that no one needs our help.

Sincerely,
Bill Hennessy

(Original post)

As I have begun recieving gracious offers of open homes for Katrina Victims, I will launch the web site tonight. In the meantime, I have contact FEMA, the American Red Cross, and the Salvation Army to find out how we can coordinate with them to get displaced families and individuals into safe, dry, private homes until their lives can be restored.

Here’s the text of my letter:

Sir or Ma’am,

In response to a proposal on my blog (http://www.hennessysview.com), I am receiving many offers from people, like myself, willing to open our homes to long-term displaced persons who lose their homes and livelihoods as a result of the hurricane in the Gulf states.

I am going to set up a web site on which others who would like to open their homes to victims may securely post their contact information. Please let me know how we can work with you. Though many of us are several hours’ drives from the Gulf Coast (I live in St. Louis, MO, others are in Florida, southern Missouri, Arkansas, and various locations), if a person or a family faces complete loss, they may need to temporarily relocate outside of the disaster area. Consider us distant relatives, even to these strangers.

I will also contact the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross regarding our offers. You may contact me at [phone] or by replying to this e-mail address.

Cordially,
Bill Hennessy

The people who are huddled in the SuperDome as their material lives are torn to shreds are, of course, the poorest of the poor among the richest in history. They need our help. As in so many disasters, this is an opportunity for long-term good. As Fulton Sheen taught, the rich need the poor more than the poor need the rich. The poor need the rich for material goods, but the rich need the poor for salvation.

Thanks and God bless those have already responded. Thanks to InstaPundit and to Michelle Malkin for drawing attention to this effort.

May Almighty God bless them and keep them close to his fatherly heart, and may He send forth the Holy Spirit to give them strength and to open our hearts to renewal through loving charity.

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I know that everyone with a heart is watching prayerfully as the Katrina prepares to make New Orleans a piece of Americana history. If the worst of the predictions comes true, there could be several hundred thousand refugees.

To Register for Homes for Katrina Victims

Please register at http://katrinahomes.billhennessy.com

The information you provide will be used exclusively for coordinating this effort, should your kind services be required. In the meantime, we are praying that no one needs our help.

Sincerely,
Bill Hennessy

If anyone else in reasonable proximity to New Orleans would like to extend such an offer, please e-mail me at mail@billhennessy.com. I can fire up a website to coordinate these private shelters in 24 hours, but only if there’s interest. Click here for lastest on Open Homes

Why the gloom? Because New Orleans may be under water for . . . months. Here’s a cross-sectional view of the city

(click for larger view)

As you can see, the city is below water level. A 20-foot storm surge on Lake Pontchartrain could (with Dan Ratheresque emphasis) — COULD — put much of the city under 12-20 feet of water. The pumps which discharge each gallon of rain water from New Orleans run on electricity with diesel backup. They don’t work if flooded, and they don’t have enough diesel fuel to return the lake to its banks. Add in the trillion dollar price tags, and try to find a re-insurance company willing to insure a building. Thus, New Orleans may cease to be a major city. The displacement of persons might be permanent, causing a northward migration not seens since the end of the Civil War.

At 9:00 CDT, our family will say a Rosary for the people in New Orleans. Please join us.

UPDATES:
The Rosary has been said. The Glorious Mysteries, of course. God’s will be done, and may the Holy Spirit give the people of the Gulf Coast the strength, faith, and courage to rise above nature’s fury. May their faith guide them to, one day, stand before the Lord Who tells them, “Well done!”

Tonight, I’m linking to some blogs that I’ve never seen before, as well as familiar ones. I wanted to catch the words and thoughts of prayers of those in the path of the storm or with loved ones therein.

Never Misunderestimated headlines with the perfect line from CCR

WhenYouSpeak has family from New Orleans visiting a place of safety.

Andy Penner says goodbye New Orleans

Echoing my lovely and perceptive wife, ProsAndCons speaks of the Wrath of God

South Florida Bible Talk, knocked off the air due to Katrina, prays for New Orleans

Raven’s Rant is a sad, good read from the path of the storm

Michelle Malkin has a running Katrina entry, and she points us to a very sobering report on Storm Digest blog that questions the integrity of the SuperDome, where more than 30,000 of New Orleans’ poorest, neediest, and most unfortunate are gathered to ride it out. I thought the same thing myself. But what choice do those poor people have.

And, just to prove all is still right with the world, the liberals have already blamed the hurricane on George W. Bush.

UPDATE: FoxNews reports that the roof of the SuperDome is leaking.

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Anyone who has anything nice to say about Mozilla’s Firefox browser has such because of emotional bigotry, not objective analysis.

I have been running Firefox on both Linux (SuSE’s latest) and Windows (XP Pro SP2) since beta days. With each release and each patch, I expect the uncountable list of problems to abate. Instead, the list grows only longer.

On Windows, Firefox has plenty of plug-ins, though not enough. It freezes constantly. It is unable to interprest RSS or RSS2 from most sites where other browsers, including the crappy Opera, have no trouble.

On Linux, Firefox is even worse. It is hideously slow and has very few plug-ins. Those it does support–RealPlayer, for example–do not work as expected.

By comparison, the generic Mozilla browser is wonderful. All of its plug-ins work flawlessly without hours of administrative tweaking. It is fast, clean, and handles javascript errors better than any browser I have tested.

For usability, though, IE is still champion. (In case you’re wondering, until I can afford dual P4 3.0 ghz processors, I will not install Netscape, perhaps the worst commercially produced software ever written.) IE is fast, it has intelligent and configurable caching, and allows developers to do the things users demand. Its security problems are exclusively the result of its popularity.

Firefox 1.0 had numerous, serious security holes. I can only assume that the rest of the application is so awful as to prevent its popularity from making it a target for hackers. Unless a 2.0 version comes that actually works, Firefox’s developers need not worry about that scenario.

Update: Here’s Firefox lover who has started a blog about problems with Firefox.

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