Hey everybody,
Today was a busy, hectic day. Lots of phone calls; lots of things to do with clients and stuff. I'm falling into a daily routine of picking up supplies, making gas runs, taking pictures and then hunkering down and working on the computer at night. I was supposed to go downtown into the city today but decided against it as I wanted to attend Aaron Broussard's press conference and talk with some of those guys about what's going on.
Lots of news today. Last night we set up donation links on the Humane Society's web page and then I proceeded to do some online promotion, calling attention to HSL's need for supplies. Within seconds donations started rolling in. They collected over $10,000 in online donations within the last 24 hours!
As a board member with the Humane Society of Louisiana, I went to visit one of the Triage units for rescued pets today. Jefferson Pet & Feed on Jefferson highway has opened up and is a center staffed with lots of medical personnel who are treating wounded animals. There are lots of problems with the pet rescue efforts right now. Most notably they are short pet carriers and are limited in how many pets they can contain. The inner-city pet rescue efforts are also suspended because the main destination for rescued pets is now full. The Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales has a large section of it dedicated for housing rescued pets and livestock. Unfortunately it's now jam-packed, and until they transfer animals to outlying shelters, there is no place to house rescued pets. There are large roving bands of animals in parts of the city. I witnessed lots of dogs and cats that were being treated and everybody is lacking resources to properly care for the animals. The big thing people need are dog crates.. particularly large and medium-sized. If you have any, visit http://www.humanela.org/ for contact info on how you can help, and of course, any donations are most certainly appreciated. I'm hoping to come along on some of the pet rescue missions in the coming days. Some of these animals are really suffering and need to be rescued ASAP.
Pictures from this trip here:
http://www.mikeperrymedia.com/xib/20050910-pets/index.html
Recognize anyone's pet?
At 11:30 today, Parish President Aaron Broussard called a press conference which included all the mayors of neighboring parishes (minus Orleans) and various other elected officials and police chiefs. This was to announce their new "Operation Jumpstart Jefferson." (http://www.jeffparish.net/JeffParish.nsf/vwWeb/OtherJumpStart) This is an ambitious project whereby the neighboring Parishes, spearheaded by Jefferson's aggressive desire to be "operational" within three weeks, have implemented a program whereby local businesses can gain early access to the Parish and expedited bureaucratic processes in order to restore "essential services" to the city.
The project centers around a new web site that allows businesses in select categories to register online and receive credentials to get past the checkpoints. There are also several locations in the area where permits can be obtained in person. I went and filled out the form and already got my credentials, so I am impressed with how quickly they've managed to get things implemented, and the program isn't even supposed to start until Monday. Good work Mr. Broussard!
As part of the project, there are obvious "essential businesses" that are on the list, such as telecommunications and construction, but also things like "accountants". When Broussard was asked what type of business was not considered essential, they pondered over whether "hair salons" would fit into that category but decided that "movie theater" was a better example. Considering the disasters at the box offices, I'd tend to agree.. why make people who've survived Katrina suffer through The Dukes of Hazzard?
Perhaps the best part of the press conference was seeing the prototypical "crazy dude" pestering the mayors with inane questions and statements that seemed to make no point. I also watched Ronnie Harris, the mayor of Gretna corner the Red Cross representative and complain about how they can't seem to get through to the Red Cross to get any assistance. And a nice quote from Broussard off camera where he said, "I need to go see the new head of FEMA. I know we got a good one now."
After the conference I had a discussion with some of the councilmen about how they planned to approach Orleans-parish businesses. My concern is that every day, more and more New Orleans-area businesses are setting up shop in Baton Rouge and other areas. While Operation Jumpstart Jefferson is geared towards established Jefferson businesses, I suggested they act fast to prep the area as a staging ground for displaced New Orleans businesses as rapidly as possible and they completely agreed and said that in the coming days, they will be making announcements to address this specific situation.
While many businesses are setting up in outside areas, things look very good for Jefferson Parish to experience a huge boom in business as they'll be online long before Orleans Parish residents and businesses can even get a chance to look at their property.
Miscellaneous tidbits:
Amazing photo-pictorial of French Quarter hotel employee, Alvaro Morales, and his tale of staying through the first five days of the hurricane in the French Quarter and just barely escaping:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=14ewb3ap.b147fdut&Uy=nyvoby&Ux=1
Funny picture of the hurricane situation:
http://www.bsalert.com/artsearch.php?fn=2&as=904&dt=1
I'm cross-posting my notes on this blog:
http://mikewisdom.blogspot.com/
Unfortunately, I have been on a bunch of different computers, so I don't have the earlier posts. If anyone has them, send them back to me.
Today was a busy, hectic day. Lots of phone calls; lots of things to do with clients and stuff. I'm falling into a daily routine of picking up supplies, making gas runs, taking pictures and then hunkering down and working on the computer at night. I was supposed to go downtown into the city today but decided against it as I wanted to attend Aaron Broussard's press conference and talk with some of those guys about what's going on.
Lots of news today. Last night we set up donation links on the Humane Society's web page and then I proceeded to do some online promotion, calling attention to HSL's need for supplies. Within seconds donations started rolling in. They collected over $10,000 in online donations within the last 24 hours!
As a board member with the Humane Society of Louisiana, I went to visit one of the Triage units for rescued pets today. Jefferson Pet & Feed on Jefferson highway has opened up and is a center staffed with lots of medical personnel who are treating wounded animals. There are lots of problems with the pet rescue efforts right now. Most notably they are short pet carriers and are limited in how many pets they can contain. The inner-city pet rescue efforts are also suspended because the main destination for rescued pets is now full. The Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales has a large section of it dedicated for housing rescued pets and livestock. Unfortunately it's now jam-packed, and until they transfer animals to outlying shelters, there is no place to house rescued pets. There are large roving bands of animals in parts of the city. I witnessed lots of dogs and cats that were being treated and everybody is lacking resources to properly care for the animals. The big thing people need are dog crates.. particularly large and medium-sized. If you have any, visit http://www.humanela.org/ for contact info on how you can help, and of course, any donations are most certainly appreciated. I'm hoping to come along on some of the pet rescue missions in the coming days. Some of these animals are really suffering and need to be rescued ASAP.
Pictures from this trip here:
http://www.mikeperrymedia.com/xib/20050910-pets/index.html
Recognize anyone's pet?
At 11:30 today, Parish President Aaron Broussard called a press conference which included all the mayors of neighboring parishes (minus Orleans) and various other elected officials and police chiefs. This was to announce their new "Operation Jumpstart Jefferson." (http://www.jeffparish.net/JeffParish.nsf/vwWeb/OtherJumpStart) This is an ambitious project whereby the neighboring Parishes, spearheaded by Jefferson's aggressive desire to be "operational" within three weeks, have implemented a program whereby local businesses can gain early access to the Parish and expedited bureaucratic processes in order to restore "essential services" to the city.
The project centers around a new web site that allows businesses in select categories to register online and receive credentials to get past the checkpoints. There are also several locations in the area where permits can be obtained in person. I went and filled out the form and already got my credentials, so I am impressed with how quickly they've managed to get things implemented, and the program isn't even supposed to start until Monday. Good work Mr. Broussard!
As part of the project, there are obvious "essential businesses" that are on the list, such as telecommunications and construction, but also things like "accountants". When Broussard was asked what type of business was not considered essential, they pondered over whether "hair salons" would fit into that category but decided that "movie theater" was a better example. Considering the disasters at the box offices, I'd tend to agree.. why make people who've survived Katrina suffer through The Dukes of Hazzard?
Perhaps the best part of the press conference was seeing the prototypical "crazy dude" pestering the mayors with inane questions and statements that seemed to make no point. I also watched Ronnie Harris, the mayor of Gretna corner the Red Cross representative and complain about how they can't seem to get through to the Red Cross to get any assistance. And a nice quote from Broussard off camera where he said, "I need to go see the new head of FEMA. I know we got a good one now."
After the conference I had a discussion with some of the councilmen about how they planned to approach Orleans-parish businesses. My concern is that every day, more and more New Orleans-area businesses are setting up shop in Baton Rouge and other areas. While Operation Jumpstart Jefferson is geared towards established Jefferson businesses, I suggested they act fast to prep the area as a staging ground for displaced New Orleans businesses as rapidly as possible and they completely agreed and said that in the coming days, they will be making announcements to address this specific situation.
While many businesses are setting up in outside areas, things look very good for Jefferson Parish to experience a huge boom in business as they'll be online long before Orleans Parish residents and businesses can even get a chance to look at their property.
Miscellaneous tidbits:
Amazing photo-pictorial of French Quarter hotel employee, Alvaro Morales, and his tale of staying through the first five days of the hurricane in the French Quarter and just barely escaping:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=14ewb3ap.b147fdut&Uy=nyvoby&Ux=1
Funny picture of the hurricane situation:
http://www.bsalert.com/artsearch.php?fn=2&as=904&dt=1
I'm cross-posting my notes on this blog:
http://mikewisdom.blogspot.com/
Unfortunately, I have been on a bunch of different computers, so I don't have the earlier posts. If anyone has them, send them back to me.
posted by Wisdom at 7:07 PM
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