04:45 PM CDT on Saturday, September 17, 2005

Tom Planchet

4:49 P.M. - LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) -- Their homes are bursting with guests. Their schools are overwhelmed. Traffic has been at a standstill for three weeks since thousands of New Orleans hurricane evacuees arrived in search of shelter.

But Lafayette, the capital of Cajun country, still knows how to party.

Throngs turned out Saturday for the first full day of the Festivals Acadiens, billed as the largest Cajun festival in the world, in a show of just what "joie de vivre" means.

4:37 P.M. - WWL-TV Reporter Bob Greene: Emotion and some astonishment from St. Bernard residents returning to their homes for the first time in nearly three weeks. Greene reports few tears though as most had steeled themselves for what they were about to see.

4:35 P.M. - Greene: Many St. Bernard residents said they didn't know if they would come back and rebuild.

4:33 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La., Sept. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center today announced it has secured housing for its New Orleans based medical center staff and students. The housing will in part be provided on an overnight ferry docked in Baton Rouge with funding provided by multiple sources. Additional housing will be provided in temporary manufactured housing.

4:01 P.M. - (AP) Day after day, for more than two weeks, the 76-year-old man sat trapped and alone in his attic, sipping from a dwindling supply of water until it ran out. No food. No way out of a house ringed by foul floodwaters.

Without ever leaving home, Gerald Martin lived out one of the most remarkable survival stories of Hurricane Katrina. Rescuers who found him Friday, as they searched his neighborhood by boat, were astounded at his good spirits and resiliency after 18 days without food or human contact.

"It's an incredible story of survival," said Louie Fernandez, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency search unit that carried out the rescue.

3:36 P.M. - Grand Isle struggles, but vows to return after Katrina. Click for story.

3:22 P.M. - UNDATED (AP) -- James Lee Witt, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency who was hired by Louisiana's governor to help the state recover from Hurricane Katrina, disagrees with President Bush's idea to expand the military's role in handling natural disasters.

An Arkansas native who headed FEMA under President Clinton, Witt says he's concerned that putting the military in charge would take authority away from state leaders.

3:06 P.M. - MANKATO, Minn. (AP) -- Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor has donated $500,000 to a fund to help college students displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

The Taylor Relief Fund will allow about 100 students enrolled in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama colleges to attend either Minnesota State University, Mankato, or South Central College, which has campuses in Faribault and North Mankato.

The fund will pay their expenses for the current school year and be given in addition to any federal aid the students receive.

2:43 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- For 116 years, it has been the job of Kathleen Rhodes Astorga's family to provide comfort and studied composure. But in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, that steadiness is being shaken.

Rhodes Astorga, whose family runs one of New Orleans' oldest black-owned funeral homes, says families are going through a lot of grief, a lot of uncertainty.

Not least the Rhodes Family of Businesses. Even as it arranges memorials for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the business is struggling to sustain itself.

Many of their employees are missing. Five of the family's six funeral parlors were shuttered by the deluge and several limousines are missing.

On top of that, the Rhodes' worry that many of the working class and poor families they serve may never return.

2:12 P.M. - (AP) - The mayor of New Orleans has set up an "extremely problematic" timeline for allowing residents to return to the evacuated city, which is still threatened by a weakened levee system, a lack of drinkable water and heavily polluted floodwaters, the head of the federal relief effort said Saturday.

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen said federal officials have worked with Mayor Ray Nagin and support his vision for repopulating the city, but he called Nagin's idea to return up to 180,000 people to New Orleans in the next week both "extremely ambitious" and "extremely problematic."

1:39 P.M. - Plaquemines Parish sets re-entry plan. Click for story.

1:05 P.M. - WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hurricane Katrina swamped President Bush's second-term domestic agenda, reordering his priorities and changing the political landscape.

His open-ended commitment to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast has become his top domestic imperative.

Swept away was Bush's pledge to cut the budget deficit in half. And his centerpiece proposal to restructure Social Security -- in trouble even before the storm -- probably is a casualty as well.

12:22 P.M. - (AP) -- As far back as eight years ago, Congress ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a plan for evacuating New Orleans during a massive hurricane, but officials say the money instead went to studying the causeway bridge that spans the city's Lake Ponchartrain.

The lawmaker who helped secure the money for FEMA to develop the evacuation plan says the outcome provides one more example of the government's failure to prepare for a massive but foreseeable catastrophe.

11:57 A.M. - Levees sufficient to protect N.O. would cost billions, take decades, according to expert. Click for story.

11:33 A.M. - (AP) Orleans Parish public school officials hope to launch the system's 2005-20006 term by November 1st on the West Bank, where a team of experts this week found most school buildings had sustained little storm damage.

The plan is to start registration of teachers and students on September 26.

Interim school Superintendent Ora Watson says parents should let the school board know whether they'll be enrolling their children, and the board needs to find out which teachers will be available to report for duty.

11:15 A.M. - More airlines begin flights in and out of Armstrong Airport.

10:00 A.M. - On Monday, September 19, 2005, the University of New Orleans will post an initial list of courses that will be offered electronically for Fall Semester 2005. Also, on Monday, September 19, 2005, an initial list of traditionally taught courses that will be offered on-site at a number of satellite campuses will also be posted. These satellite locations include UNO’s Jeff Center, Slidell High School, Mandeville Junior High School and a location on the Westbank.

Enrollment for both electronic and on-site classes will begin on Monday, September 26, 2005 with classes scheduled to begin on October 10, 2005. Fall semester courses will be completed by December 31, 2005.

These listings will be available on the Internet at www.uno.edu and will be updated frequently as new courses become available. Students needing further assistance also may call the UNO phone banks at 225-578-7816 from 8:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

UNO also requests that all faculty, staff and students, who have not already done so, visit www.uno.edu and click on the appropriate check-in link where they will be asked to provide pertinent contact information.

9:40 A.M. - WHITE HOUSE (AP) -- President Bush is asking for divine assistance in the ongoing effort to recover from Hurricane Katrina. In his weekly radio address, Bush asked God for help with "the difficult work that lies ahead." Bush painted a picture of a hopeful and vibrant future for the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast and the people there who lost family, jobs, communities and everything they owned.

9:35 A.M. - PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) -- A Paducah women was reunited with her twin sons and their father, who spent two weeks trapped in their New Orleans home by floodwaters caused by Hurricane Katrina. Jebra Driver had feared the worst when she didn't hear from them for days. In their last conversation, a phone call to Driver was cut off as the men tried to avoid rising waters.

9:21 A.M. - Mike Sanders of the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office on the reactions of people returning to St. Bernard: I've seen everything from shock to sadness to downright grief.

9:10 A.M. - Tulane University's School of Medicine is setting up shop temporarily in Texas. Classes start Sept. 26. Details are still being worked out, but here's the plan for where the 600 or so students and others will be sent:

•First- and second-year students will be housed at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Third- and fourth-year students, who spend most of their time on clinical rotations, will be with Baylor, University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, UT-Houston medical school and Texas A&M medical college in Temple. Tulane medical residents and public health students are being assigned to those institutions as well.

•Researchers are going to those four schools plus others, including UT Southwestern Medical Center.

8:42 A.M. - Plaquemines Parish President Benny Rousselle: The parish, even the southern part, will be inhabited again.

8:41 A.M. - Rousselle: We're hearing about contractors and FEMA are coming to rebuild, but we've seen no work.

8:40 A.M. - Rousselle: 40 percent of parish still under water. Buildings in eastern part of parish can't be saved.

8:37 A.M. - Rousselle: Few people have come back because there are no schools. Schools in lower part of parish have severe damage, the ones that are okay - mostly in Belle Chasse - are being used by National Guard.

8:21 A.M. - The Coast Guard has released numbers which partially explain why the death toll in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina has been lower than expected.

The Coast Guard says that during its first week of operations in New Orleans, it saved the lives of nearly 6,500 people. Officials say almost 5,000 of those rescues were by hoist in areas where the water was just too deep or dangerous for the Coast Guard to come in by boat.

All of those lives were saved by the crews of just 17 helicopters, during 1,500 flight hours in the air. The numbers released today cover Coast Guard operations which ended September 10th.

Coast guard rescue crews have been out in force since then in conjunction with National Guard units, searching for additional survivors, but also recovering the bodies of flood victims.

8:08 A.M. - Humane Society spokesman: Group is going house to house looking for stranded animals and nearly 2,000 have been rescued to date.

8:04 A.M. - Humane Society spokesman: Past disaster results show only that about 10 percent of pets that are rescued are ever reunited with their owners.

8:00 A.M. - WWL-TV Reporter Bob Greene: A slow trickle of cars is being seen as certain areas of St. Bernard Parish are being allowed to return.

7:36 A.M. - RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Ophelia was no Katrina.

But in a post-Katrina world, the hurricane's mere existence was enough to provoke a pumped-up state and federal response.

"They were very prepared, and possibly overprepared for this," East Carolina University political scientist Carmine Scavo said Friday as Ophelia cleared the Outer Banks. The storm did considerably less damage than feared.

"I really do believe that overpreparedness will be the rule in the future, at least for hurricanes where we know what the damage might be and what we can do about it," he added.

6:49 A.M. - WASHINGTON (AP) -- Will Hurricane Katrina lead to a loosening of legal limits on the use of federal troops on U-S soil? President Bush's desire to give the military a bigger role in responding to major disasters has Pentagon officials are reviewing that possibility. Some in Congress agree it needs to be considered.

Bush has not defined specific enhancements to the military's domestic role. But his speech from New Orleans Thursday mentioned abilities the military lumps under the term logistics. That includes things like providing supplies, equipment, communications, transportation and other assets.

6:22 A.M. - (AP) -- Business owners are being allowed back into parts of New Orleans today.

They'll be getting a head start on reopening the bars, stores and restaurants that were part of the city's good-times charm.

But many evacuees know it will be weeks and even months before their lives will start to get back to normal. Same for tourists. One bar owner emphasizes, "We don't want a bunch of tourists in here while we're trying to get our homes together."

5:51 A.M. - (AP) -- How the Gulf Coast and Washington coped with Hurricane Katrina underscores that even with considerable warning and long-term preparedness, things can go badly wrong.

It's a jolt to emergency planners across the nation. Jody Woodcock of the emergency preparedness office in Pierce County, Washington, says Katrina showed the difficulty of coordination in a disaster.

Eric Holdeman of Seattle's King County Emergency Management says unlike New Orleans, Seattle wouldn't even get a real warning for its most likely threat: an earthquake.

5:09 A.M. - (AP) -- New Orleans planners apparently did at least one thing right. The low-lying city's policy of interring the dead in above-ground tombs appears to have paid off.

Hurricane Katrina transformed the legendary cemeteries into a brown landscape of muck and stench. But fears that floodwaters would send large numbers of coffins and corpses floating away from their crypts were largely unfounded.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 17 4:44 A.M. - (AP) -- The blue dog of New Orleans is keeping his head above water.

The creation of artist George Rodrigue is usually seen in more festive surroundings. But in a painting to be sold for the Red Cross, the blue dog isn't all under water. On his chest is a red cross. The piece is titled "We Will Rise Again."

Rodrigue has a gallery on Royal Street in the French Quarter. A blue dog piece inspired by Nine-Eleven raised $500,000 for the Red Cross. Rodrigue will sign as many prints of his water dog as people will buy next year.

Rodrigue is in the process of transferring his entire operation to Lafayette, including all ten employees.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

6:42 P.M. - St. Tammany Parish Update as of Friday, Sept. 16. Click for story.

6:35 P.M. - Environmental hazards found in N.O. soil samples.

6:22 P.M. - Houma Courier Newspaper: The Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government announced this morning that local shelters have reached capacity and are no longer able to accept evacuees.

6:11 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Residents in the four parishes hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina -- Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard and Plaquemines -- will have additional time to apply for disaster-related food stamps, state officials said Thursday.

The deadline was changed from 4:30 p.m. Thursday to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 22, said Department of Social Services Secretary Ann Williamson.

So far, 281,351 individuals have received more than $103 million in disaster food stamps, said department spokeswoman Nanette White. Applications for the emergency program began Sept. 2.

5:48 P.M. - NEW YORK (AP) -- Louisiana's lieutenant governor warned today that communities across the nation facing potential disasters -- from a tornado to a terrorist attack -- must learn from the biggest failure after Hurricane Katrina: the massive breakdown of c ommunications, both bureaucratic and technological.

Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu said no one could talk to any one and added "This can happen anywhere in America."

5:37 P.M. - (AP) -- The nearly 200,000 residents returning to some of New Orleans' neighborhoods beginning next week will face military checkpoints, a lack of clean tap water and a dusk-to-dawn curfew that could keep the good times from rolling for a while.

"It's ridiculous, the curfew," said Franco Valobra, owner of a jewelry and antique shop in the French Quarter, which is world-famous for its naughty nightlife. "Once it's open, it's open."

5:21 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded $2 to $4 billion in debris removal contracts today -- three for work in Louisiana, and one for Mississippi debris.

Each was for up to $500 million through September 2006, with an option for another $500 million dollars.

5:05 P.M. - Doug Thornton, Superdome Manager: Thinks the Superdome will need to be gutted and built again from within.

5:03 P.M. - Thornton: Evaluation of building to be done in the next week, cost to repair will come in 75 days or less and should be about $100 million or more.

5:02 P.M. - Thornton: Insurance should cover cost of rebuilding Superdome, FEMA should pick up the deductibles.

5:01 P.M. - Harrowing tale from a police officer stationed for six days near the Convention Center. Warning: Adult language contained.

4:47 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- As many as 1,000 houses in Chalmette may have been contaminated by a crude oil spill that pushed into neighborhood streets from a nearby refinery, according to the U.S. Coast Guard's on-scene investigator.

"We cleaned up the streets as best we could," said Capt. Frank Paskewich, who is monitoring a series of oil spills caused by Hurricane Katrina and the storm's subsequent flooding.

4:34 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Hurricane Katrina postponed Gov. Kathleen Blanco's trip to try to bring Asian businesses to Louisiana.

Blanco, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Michael Olivier and a small delegation had been scheduled to leave Sunday to meet with business and government leaders in Taiwan, Japan, Korea and China.

4:21 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Less than a year after he took the post, state Democratic Party Chairman Jim Bernhard stepped down from the leadership job today.

Bernhard says he needs to focus on his engineering and construction company -- which is heavily involved in Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts.

4:15 P.M. - SLIDELL, La. Archbishop Alfred Hughes will celebrate mass tomorrow, Saturday, September 17, 2005 at 5:30 pm in the cafeteria of Our Lady of Lourdes in Slidell. The mass will conclude an afternoon tour of the storm affected Slidell parishes.

3:26 P.M. - (AP) President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government spending must be cut. "You bet it will cost money, but I'm confident we can handle it," he said.

Bush spoke after his advisers warned that Hurricane Katrina relief and reconstruction costs will swell the national debt by $200 billion or beyond. "It's going to cost whatever it costs," he said. "We're going to be wise about the money we spend."

3:18 P.M. - (AP) The sudden flow of billions of dollars in hurricane relief aid into New Orleans has raised fears that some of it is going to be lost to graft and sticky fingers in a state with a long and rich history of corruption.

A group of current and former state officials is calling for more safeguards, more transparency in spending and the appointment of independent analysts to avoid corruption and keep the state out of trouble.

2:47 P.M. - MIAMI (AP) -- For all the criticism of the Bush administration's confused response to Hurricane Katrina, at least two federal agencies got it right: the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center.

They forecast the path of the storm and the potential for devastation with remarkable accuracy. The performance by the two agencies calls into question claims by President Bush and others in his administration that Katrina was a catastrophe that no one envisioned.

For example, Bush told ABC on Sep. 1 that "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." In its storm warnings, the hurricane center never used the word "breached." But a day before Katrina came ashore Aug. 29, the agency warned in capital letters: "SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA COULD BE OVERTOPPED."

2:36 P.M. - GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- In the market for a good used car? Watch out for vehicles that sat submerged for days in the flooded streets of New Orleans, Biloxi or other Gulf Coast cities ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Insurance companies usually purchase such vehicles from policyholders, declare them "totaled" and then sell them at auction to be resold for parts, many of which will still be suitable for use in other cars and trucks.

But some unscrupulous dealers and wholesalers buy flood-damaged cars at scrap prices, clean them up, retitle them and resell them.

2:11 P.M. - EL DORADO, Ark. (AP) -- Murphy Oil Corp. said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday that two class action lawsuits have been filed against the company and its Murphy Oil USA Inc. unit because of leaks blamed on Hurricane Katrina.

The suits were filed by residents of St. Bernard Parish, La., and seek unspecified damages caused by a release of crude oil at the company's Meraux, La., refinery.

2:02 P.M. - ATLANTA (AP) -- Georigia officials say about seven-thousand affordable rental units are now available for evacuees of Hurricane Katrina in their state.

The governor's office issued a statement today saying the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have approved Perdue's request to temporarily suspend two key requirements of its Housing Tax Credit Program. Those requirements are income restrictions and the prohibition of transient housing.

1:55 P.M. - Humane society complains about animals being left behind.

1:42 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- As thousands of animals remain stranded in hurricane-ravaged Louisiana, trapped in homes or roaming evacuated streets, the head of the Humane Society complained Friday that state and federal officials have ignored pleas to coordinate and set a policy for animal rescues -- leaving dogs, cats and other pets to starve.

1:37 P.M. - Entergy President Dan Packer: Restoration of power to some areas will require a complete rebuilding of the facilities providing power to those areas.

1:33 P.M. - Packer: Children's Hospital, Touro and Memorial Medical Center all have power now.

1:31 P.M. - Packer: 95 percent of Algiers has electric service and 100 percent has gas service.

1:30 P.M. - Packer: Gas lines turned off to N.O. East and Ninth Ward due to flooding. Also most of the French Quarter because gas lines are under water.

1:28 P.M. - Packer: We will not judge ourselves on how fast we get power back on, but how safely we get it back on. Safety trumps speed.

1:23 P.M. - KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A southwest Missouri woman fired for caring for her granddaughter during Hurricane Katrina gets her job back.

Fifty-four-year-old Barbara Roberts was dismissed from her assembly line job at Positronic Industries in Mount Vernon on September sixth.

1:15 P.M. - Father William Maestri, superintendent of Archdiocese schools in N.O.: All St. John and St. Charles Parish schools are back. St. Tammany schools, except for one, will open next week. Jeff Parish schools to follow soon.

1:11 P.M. - Maestri: Catholic schools will open regardless of gender if the need is there. Rummel and Chapelle will take in boys and girls and platoon classes if needed.

1:08 P.M. - Maestri: We want to open Orleans and St. Bernard schools if possible, but haven't seen them. As soon as civil and medical authorities say it's OK to check, we'll go in and assess when we can open them.

1:07 P.M. - Maestri: We haven't given up on St. Bernard Parish, although a lot of people are writing it off.

1:06 P.M. - Maestri: We will take ANY child who wants an education, regardless of religion or ability to pay.

12:44 P.M. - St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis: We anticipate needing 15-20,000 mobile homes for displaced residents. The first area is being put together near Pearl River.

12:36 P.M. - Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness: The figure of 2,000 children missing is not accurate. There are 2,000 reports of missing children, but some are duplicates and some children know where their parents are and so do the authorities, but until they are physically reunited, they don't come off the list.

12:34 P.M. - Office of Emergency Preparedness: There are 50 children that have been placed into the custody of the state because they don't think they can find a parent match in a short time. There are 11 more that they believe they are close to matching.

12:31 P.M. - Office of Emergency Preparedness: 500 foster children have not been accounted for, but most are likely okay. The state is having trouble finding their case workers but when they do, many of those children come off the list.

12:26 P.M. - Senator David Vitter: I flat out don't believe any poll that shows a majority of people won't return to New Orleans.

12:24 P.M. - Senator David Vitter: The country has to afford rebuilding this area. It's my job to make sure the money is used wisely.

12:21 P.M. - Vitter: The private sector needs to be involved in rebuilding. Local people also need to be involved.

12:20 P.M. - Vitter: Compared to some of the dire predictions, I think the rebuilding is moving along more quickly than expected.

12:10 P.M. Dr. Walter Maestri, Jefferson Parish Emergency Center: Some cleanup is being slowed because insurance companies can't bring in enough adjusters and people are unwilling to part with their soaked carpets without having it documented by adjusters.

12:01 P.M. - ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- First lady Laura Bush said Friday that young children should learn their full names, addresses and parents' names to speed up reunions after disasters like Hurricane Katrina or anytime a child is lost.

Bush told the story of a 5-year-old boy found walking on Interstate 10 in New Orleans who knew his name, address, mother's name and the name of his church.

"So that's a very good reminder to all of us that we need to teach our children as soon as they can talk," she said during a visit to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which set up a special Katrina hot line with retired law enforcement officers working the phones.

11:46 A.M. - BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) -- A Florida-based company wants to hear from medical professionals who've lost their jobs due to Hurricane Katrina.

Medical Staffing Network Holdings is the country's largest provider of per diem nursing services.

The company today announced it's offering temporary employment to nurses and allied health care professionals whose hospitals have been closed because of Katrina.

11:33 A.M. - ST. GABRIEL, La. (AP) -- The 73-year-old New Orleans grandmother who police say took 63 dollars in goods from a looted deli the day after Hurricane Katrina struck is going to be transferred today to the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna and released this afternoon.

The woman, Merlene Maten, a church deaconess with a clean record, had been held on 50-thousand dollars' bail at a state prison in Saint Gabriel.

11:05 A.M. - WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Friday that the Gulf Coast must be rebuilt with an eye toward wiping out the persistent poverty and racial injustice plain to all in the suffering of the black and the poor in Hurricane Katrina's wake.

"As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality," Bush said during a national prayer service with other political leaders and religious figures from the affected region at the National Cathedral."

10:31 A.M. - JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- The federal government is trying to find evidence of any past efforts by environmental groups to block work on New Orleans' levees, according to a published report.

The Clarion-Ledger said Friday it obtained an internal Justice Department e-mail sent out this week to U.S. attorneys that asks: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."

10:10 A.M. - (AP) -- Members of the military continue their search for bodies of victims of Hurricane Katrina. One National Guard commander is optimistic the worst of the discoveries is over.

Colonel Monty Brodt's men have been going door to door on the west side of the city -- covering an area nine miles wide and seven and a half miles long. He says "I think we're pretty close to recovering all the bodies now."

Brodt says there may be some hurricane victims behind the locked doors of some homes. But he says legal issues prevent his men from breaking down doors. And then, of course, some areas of the city are still badly flooded, and there's a chance more grim discoveries will be made there.

9:55 A.M. - MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Iron bars and cinderblocks separate Edward Flynn from the rest of the world, but as a Mobile native he can relate to the hardships of Hurricane Katrina victims who've lost homes and loved ones in the Gulf Coast wreckage.

Shocked and hurt by the images unfolding on the old television he shares with 120 other inmates in his dorm at Montgomery's Kilby prison, Flynn decided they could do more than watch. Together, the prisoners raised $1,112.37 for the American Red Cross from their own cash-strapped prison accounts.

9:32 A.M. - JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- The University of Southern Mississippi's coastal campus was so badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina that it is unusable, but the school will still resume classes next month on the Coast, its president told higher education officials on Thursday.

"I've really never seen anything like this," USM President Shelby Thames said by conference call during Thursday's state College Board meeting. "It looks like someone took a giant vacuum cleaner to these first floors and sucked everything out. And I mean everything."

9:05 A.M. - PATTERSON, La. (AP) -- One major challenge for federal officials in the hurricane stricken Gulf Coast is building a city from scratch, then doing it again and again in just a few months.

That's essentially what it's going to take to house up to 300,000 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

It's going to require building dozens of temporary cities of up to 25,000 homes from the ground up. Most of the huge logistical questions have yet to be answered or even anticipated. A Cornell University urban planning professor calls the task "staggering."

8:42 A.M. - WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hurricane Katrina refugees in Houston have little faith in the government, but a poll finds they have a lot of hope for the future.

The Washington Post-Henry J- Kaiser Family Foundation poll found six in ten people polled at shelters say the storm showed the government doesn't care about them.

Nine in ten of them, however, are hopeful about the future. Eight in ten also say their religious faith is stronger now than before the storm.

8:08 A.M. - LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) -- A lawsuit seeks what attorneys say could be billions of dollars from a long list of oil companies for damages to wetlands that would have allegedly softened Hurricane Katrina's blow.

The class-action suit, filed in federal court in Lafayette this week, names as plaintiffs "all persons, businesses and entities in the state of Louisiana who have suffered damages as a result of Hurricane Katrina's winds and storm surge."

7:38 A.M. - Slidell Mayor Ben Morris on WWL-TV Eyewitness Morning News: FEMA has sent nothing except some ice.

7:36 A.M. - Morris: We have 15,000 homeless and we've been promised temporary housing, but have none so far.

7:34 A.M. - Morris on CNN: I'm pissed off. Nothing has happened.

7:25 A.M. - Robbyn Cooper, CLECO: Power has been restored to about 73 percent of the company's customers and they hope to have 100 percent returned by the end of the month.

7:22 A.M. - Cooper: CLECO is asking that motorists give the right of way to their trucks. She says the large volume of traffic in St. Tammany is hindering the trucks from getting where they need to go to restore power.

7:08 A.M. - LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- A daylong surgery Thursday to give a 9-year-old refugee of Hurricane Katrina a heart pump to buy him more time for a heart transplant was successful, doctors said.

Jacques Brumfield of Angie, La., received the Berlin Heart in the eight-hour surgery at Arkansas Children's Hospital.

6:33 A.M. - (AP) Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, President Bush has asked religious leaders around the country to join him in a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance on Friday for the storm's victims. But once again, several pastors said, the government was a step behind.

6:02 A.M. - SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Louisiana musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina are finding support in arts communities and tourism towns across Texas and elsewhere. A blues band called the Peaux (po) Boys was formed by two displaced New Orleans musicians. They rocked a San Antonio RiverWalk British pub last night with sounds that made the Crescent City famous.

5:05 A.M. - PATTERSON, La. (AP) -- One major challenge for federal official sin the hurricane stricken Gulf Coast is building a city from scratch, then doing it again and again in just a few months. That's essentially what it's going to take to house up to 300-thousand people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

It's going to require building dozens of temporary cities of up to 25-thousand homes from the ground up. Most of the huge logistical questions have yet to be answered or even anticipated. A Cornell University urban planning professor calls the task "staggering."

4:13 A.M. - Americans watched President Bush's speech from New Orleans on Thursday with mixed expectations. Some hoped for more contrition for the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina; others sought inspiration for a devastated Gulf Coast.

So it was hardly surprising that the speech failed to resonate with some viewers. For his part, Karl Kettelhut counseled patience from his seat at a bar inside a Las Vegas American Legion Post. "Let's see what happens in six months, how much of what he says happens," said Kettelhut, 65, visiting Las Vegas from Kingman, Ariz. "You can say whatever you want. It's what happens down the road that counts."

2:55 A.M. - (AP) -- A small fire Thursday night at a downtown b uilding got a big response from firefighters, with about 40 engines showing up for flames from a basement transformer that were extinguished in minutes.

It was unclear what is housed in the 15-story New Orleans Public Service Inc. building where the fired happened. The building about two blocks from Canal Street was formerly the site of city's electrical utility.

2:22 A.M. - NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The Washington Post is reporting that a poll shows that fewer than half of all hurricane survivors from New Orleans now in Houston shelters plan on going back. The poll, to be published in tomorrow's edition, finds that two-thirds of those wanting to live elsewhere, prefer to settle in the Houston area.

The results come from 680 evacuees selected for interview at random last week at Houston shelters. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

FRIDAY 1:05 A.M. NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- President Bush says Hurricane Katrina's survivors are showing "a faith in God no storm can take away." But in his address to the nation from New Orleans, the president also mourned the hundreds who died while waiting in vain to be rescued.

11:17 P.M. - WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic leaders in the U.S. Congress havecommended President Bush for his "comforting words" in an address to the nation from New Orleans. But they say a greater recovery plan is needed.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, in a statement released after the president's address, called for "a Marshall plan to help families get back on their feet."

10:33 P.M. - NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- President Bush promised Thursday night the government will pay most of the costs of rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast in one of the largest reconstruction projects the world has ever seen. "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again," the president said.

10:00 P.M. - Jefferson Parish announces re-entry plan.

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