08:08 PM CDT on Saturday, September 10, 2005

Staff reports

8:05 P.M. - N.O. councilwoman Jackie Clarkson said Algiers could be back up and running in 2-3 weeks. She said trash will be picked up Monday and that water service has been restored. She still advises residents who haven't returned to STAY AWAY until more services, especially electricity, come online.

8:00 P.M. - The U.S. Airforce will spray a special pesticide over Orleans Parish beginning Sunday night near dusk to prevent mosquitoes from spreading the disease.

7:55 P.M. - St. Bernard Parish to have town hall meeting in Baton Rouge. Click for story.

7:08 P.M. - WWL-TV Reporter Lee Zurik: Rental trucks are not to be found in the New Orleans area, spokesman says no trucks available in 200-mile radius.

7:07 P.M. - The FEMA Immunization Center located at the East Jefferson General Hospital Wellness Center will offer tetanus, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B vaccinations on Sunday, 9/11, and Monday, 9/12, from 9am to 4pm.

7:05 P.M. - Army Corps of Engineers say draining of the city of New Orleans could be complete in 30 days if things continue to go well.

7:03 P.M. - New Orleans officials say the first street-by-street search for bodies seem to indicate that the death toll will fall well short of the 10,000 number that had been bandied about.

7:00 P.M. - WWL-TV will postpone its annual Memory Bell ceremony for the victims of 9-11 due to Katrina.

6:57 P.M. - Carla Works, Cleco spokeswoman: We have restored power to half the homes on the Northshore.

6:40 P.M. - Tulane, Loyola and Our Lady of Holy Cross colleges say they will reopen for the Spring semester. The following are closed until further notice: UNO, SUNO, Dillard, Xavier, Delgado C.C., Nunez C.C., and the LSU Health Sciences Center.

6:37 P.M. - NEW YORK (AP) -- With the waters of Hurricane Katrina yet to recede, Randy Newman sang about a long-ago flood in "Louisiana 1927" to open a benefit program spread across dozens of television networks Friday.

Dr. John ended a show suffused with the spirit of a musical city singing a song that's only a wish now: "Walkin' to New Orleans."

The hour-long appeal was an echo of a somber event held four years ago to benefit victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, with the same producer. This time, the telethon had more determination than shock and featured native jazz, gospel and swamp-rock sounds.

"Tonight let's show people on the Gulf Coast that they have friends all over the world, friends who care, who understand and are there to give them shelter from the storm," said comic Ellen DeGeneres, who was raised in New Orleans.

ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and the WB -- the six biggest broadcast networks -- aired it along with several cable networks. Viewers in nearly 100 countries were able to tune in.

6:35 P.M. - Father Lanoux Rareshide - Pope John Paul II high school and St. Margaret Mary elementary will reopen on Sept. 19.

6:29 P.M. - Airport Director Roy Williams: Cargo flights to begin Sunday, passenger flights, approximately 30 per day, will begin Tuesday. Food services and other amenities won't be available immediately.

6:24 P.M. - AUSTIN (AP) -- As Vice President Dick Cheney toured Hurricane Katrina shelter operations in Texas' capital city today, a group of about two dozen protesters gathered outside chanting -- "Cheney, Cheney, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide."

Cheney visited the Austin Convention Center shelter and the Texas State Operations Center, where state officials orchestrated the intake of more than 240-thousand people last week after flood waters rose in New Orleans.

6:22 P.M. - FEMA official: Lack of recent rainfall has helped in draining the city. "Mother Nature has helped us for once."

6:20 P.M. - (AP) -- Searchers retrieving the dead in New Orleans have pulled at least eight body bags from a century-old senior citizens' center.

Elsewhere, at City Park in the heart of New Orleans, two bodies were taken away. One had been partially submerged, and the other was covered in a blanket.

The director of a morgue outside the city in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, says they're processing bodies around the clock. Terry Edwards says determining the cause of death becomes harder as time goes by.

6:18 P.M. - GONZALES, La. (AP) -- Why are some Katrina evacuees staying in cages?

Because they are dogs or cats or birds that have been separated from their owners.

Thousands of animals are being housed at the Lamar Dixon Expo Centre, in Gonzales, Louisiana.

Volunteers are streaming into the town, south of Baton Rouge, to care for these pets.

6:16 P.M. - Congressman Bobby Jindal: Rumor that Louisiana can't pay its bills is not true.

6:15 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The American Red Cross is looking for 40,000 new volunteers to help Gulf Coast residents recover from Hurricane Katrina.

Spokesman John Degnan says they will be dispatched to hurricane-stricken areas to assist with long-term recovery, as well as other parts of the country where victims have been relocated.

Volunteers will work at shelters, feeding and delivery sites.

6:14 P.M. - Congressman Bobby Jindal: Wants government, both federal and state, to give money to companies that had to relocate due to Hurricane Katrina, under the condition that the businesses return to Orleans and Jefferson Parishes once the situation is better.

6:12 P.M. - NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Over 120 Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms were still shut down Saturday and nearly 60 percent of the gulf's normal daily oil production remained blocked from the market because of evacuations due to Hurricane Katrina, a federal agency said.

Following a survey of 56 energy companies, the Minerals Management Service reported that 122 of the 819 staffed platforms in the gulf were shut down, blocking 897,605 barrels -- or 59.8 percent of the Gulf's normal daily production of 1.5 million barrels.

The shutdowns also blocked 3.8 billion barrels of natural gas from market, or 38.2 percent of the gulf's normal daily gas production of 10 billion cubic feet, the agency said.

6:10 P.M. Congressman Bobby Jindal: People should still not return to Orleans, though conditions are improving.

6:08 P.M. - Entergy Update

6:05 P.M. - Congressman Bobby Jindal: Jefferson Parish is asking all business owners to return to the parish beginning Monday. Sam's Club and Wal-Mart stores in the parish are reopening under the orders of Harry Lee. The stores wanted to reopen, but were told not to by the federal government, but Lee used his powers to order them opened.

6:04 P.M. - Jindal: Some Jefferson Parish schools to open by early-October.

5:55 P.M. - St. Tammany Parish Update as of 4 p.m. Saturday.

5:22 P.M. - NEW YORK (AP) -- Challenged in court by CNN, the Bush administration agreed on Saturday not to prevent the news media from following the effort to recover the bodies of Hurricane Katrina victims.

The government won't, however, permit photographers to join them in boats or helicopters during the mission to recover bodies from flooded homes.

CNN filed suit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency in U.S. District Court in Houston late Friday, concerned about two statements made by government officials that day. The officials said they didn't believe it was right for the news media to show pictures of Katrina victims.

4:46 P.M. (Staff reports): Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport will reopen Tuesday, Sept. 13, for scheduled passenger air service. Cargo flights will resume immediately.

Armstrong International Airport has been operational since Tuesday, Aug. 30 for humanitarian relief flights and civilian and military rescue efforts.

4:19 P.M. (AP): Three people from New Orleans face identity theft charges in Mississippi after trying to get personal information from Hurricane Katrina evacuees at a shelter in Laurel, Miss.

Jones County Sheriff Larry Dykes said Saturday that the trio posed as representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to try to get personal information from some of the more than 1,700 people from the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Louisiana at the Magnolia Center, a multipurpose venue in Laurel used for concerts and horse shows.

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Edward Charles Francis Jr., 44; Michelle Davis, 39; and Danielle Marie Doyle, 36, are being held without bond because they are considered a flight risk, Dykes said. They were arrested this past Monday and charged with identity theft, he said.

4:09 P.M. (AP): The Federal Emergency Management Agency has paid out $669 million nationwide to families affected by Hurricane Katrina, officials announced Saturday.

Nationwide, FEMA has registered 573,262 families, agency spokesman Ed Conley said.

3:56 P.M. (New York Times): As of Sept. 7, State Farm, the largest residential insurer in the area, had received more than 62,000 Katrina-related claims from homeowners in Mississippi and Alabama, as well as 16,000 auto claims.

Compounding the problem is the complexity of hurricane-related claims. Hurricanes are a combination of wind and water. Most private homeowners' policies will pay for wind damage. But if the damage was the result of flooding, coverage would be available only if the homeowner had separate flood insurance purchased from a government program or a private insurer. Many residents who suffered severe hurricane damage did not have flood insurance, so sorting out the damage in those cases is sure to be complicated.

3:16 P.M. (AP): Hornets owner George Shinn wants his team to stay in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, but understands that cannot be done.

"Our objective is not to abandon ship here or to get out of dodge," Shinn told The Times-Picayune from his summer home in Telford, Tenn. "Our plan is to hope and pray New Orleans rebuilds. And I think it will with everyone's support and the federal money that's coming in there. I think it will be stronger."

The Hornets have received offers to play NBA home games this season in Louisville, Ky.; Oklahoma City; Kansas City, Mo., Nashville, Tenn; and San Diego.

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Shinn said hopes are dimming to play in Baton Rouge because the downtown Rivercenter and LSU Assembly Center in Baton Rouge are being used as evacuation shelters and medical facilities.

3:00 P.M. (AP): A group of police, doctors and National Guardsmen inspected Charity Hospital, where doctors and patients had been stranded in rising flood waters.

Doctors hoped to be able to reopen it to help treat skin infections, dehydration and other illnesses, said Dr. Jeffrey Kochan, who is overseeing medical services in New Orleans. But they found the basement full of water, meaning electricity couldn't be restored. Kochan said they would inspect the city's other hospitals.

3:00 P.M. (AP): The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said most of the city could be drained within a month, though some areas hit by the storm surge could take longer. The estimates are far shorter than early predictions by the corps, which has struggled to get breached levees repaired and pumps operational.

"We learned long ago not to be too optimistic in times like this. But a few days ago we were talking about 80 days," said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the Corps' chief of engineers, who was in Vicksburg, Miss.

Power and other utilities remain out in most of the affected region. More than 427,000 customers lack power, and 500,000 have no phone service, state officials said.

2:48 P.M. (AP): Just under 60 percent of the Gulf of Mexico's normal daily oil production remained blocked from market Saturday because of production platform evacuations forced by Hurricane Katrina, a federal agency said.

Following a survey of 56 energy companies, the Minerals Management Service reported that 122 of the 819 staffed platforms in the Gulf were shut down, blocking 897,605 barrels -- or 59.8 percent of the Gulf's normal daily production of 1.5 million barrels.

2:46 P.M. (AP): Vice President Dick Cheney toured Hurricane Katrina shelter operations in Texas' capitol city Saturday, a group of about two dozen protesters gathered outside chanting, "Cheney, Cheney, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide."

2:30 P.M. (Staff report) American Red Cross spokesman Joe Degnan said Saturday that while the organization appreciates people's willingness to help, individuals and groups shouldn't just pack up and head into devastated areas or major shelter centers.

"We need to make sure we have trained people who can come," Degnan told a group of reporters assembled in Baton Rouge for a joint FEMA/Red Cross press conference. "It's not just people coming to load and unload trucks, and even that takes training."

He said the Red Cross needs volunteers with special training in areas including congregate living, health care and financial assistance.