Katrina & Beyond Leaving New Orleans for the First Time August 31, 2005 • The topography of New Orleans is central to its current woes. Collette Creppell is an architect at Tulane University and a former New Orleans city planner from an old New Orleanian family. Creppell and most of her relatives evacuated the city Saturday before Katrina hit -- the first time she's ever been forced out by a hurricane. She said it was a tough decision to make.
Katrina & Beyond Defying Gravity, and Odds, in New Orleans August 31, 2005 • In a great disaster, victims are first concerned with their basic needs: food - clothing -- shelter -- medical care. Those are the essential things necessary for human life. But commentator Aaron Freeman says the flood in New Orleans shows a more essential force is at work.
Katrina & Beyond Relief Agency: Maintain Evacuation August 31, 2005 • There is an array of federal departments handling various aspects of the hurricane emergency. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is coordinating efforts to provide housing, medical and other needs. He is urging people who evacuated early not to return to the affected regions, which he describes as very dangerous.
Katrina & Beyond Looting Spreads Through New Orleans August 31, 2005 • As police and other emergency officials focus on rescue and evacuation efforts in New Orleans, reports of widespread looting continue. Robert Siegel talks with Erika Balstad of The Miami Herald, who is in New Orleans, about the looting. She says some of it has been for survival, and some was simply theft. The police presence is expected to increase.
Katrina & Beyond Dark Days In Evacuated New Orleans August 31, 2005 • Robert Siegel talks to New Orleans resident George Schmidt. Schmidt made it to Monroe, La., before Katrina hit. From a friend's house there, he says he has been watching images of flooding and looting in the city where he is an artist, a gallery owner, a singer and a banjo player.
School Buses Run Up High Fuel Bills August 31, 2005 • School buses are rolling on the first day of school in Oxford County, Maine, but the district has banned field trips and told drivers they may not idle their engines. Even with these fuel-saving measures, school officials are reeling from the high cost of diesel in Maine and around the nation. Charlotte Albright of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network reports.
Law ACLU Seeks Details of Library Records Request August 31, 2005 • The American Civil Liberties Union asks a judge to allow the release of the name of a Connecticut library from which federal agents sought patron records. The agents invoked a law that forbids the library to reveal the demand for records.
Your Money Retirement: Timing Is Everything August 31, 2005 • With the oldest baby-boomers nearing retirement age, NPR explores some of the questions that surround retirement, beginning with how to pay for it. NPR's Scott Horsley begins our series with a profile of the Baker family of Orange County, Calif. John Baker is about to turn 65. His wife, Christine, is 61; they are both are looking forward to a time when they can take it easy.
Katrina & Beyond Hurricane Recovery Efforts in Mississippi August 31, 2005 • State government officials and relief organizations are trying to help the citizens of Mississippi recover from Hurricane Katrina. Some survivors, surveying the damage, are beginning to realize they have lost everything.
Katrina & Beyond Hospital Resources Stretched to the Breaking Point August 31, 2005 • Medical facilities are scrambling to help the victims in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Alex Chadwick talks about the crisis with Randy Roig, medical director for the North Oaks Comprehensive Medical Rehabilitation Unit in Hammond, La., who says hospitals are running out of supplies and may be unable to treat more patients.
Katrina & Beyond Health Crisis Lurks in Tainted Floodwaters August 31, 2005 • The flooding in New Orleans is likely to lead to a massive health crisis in the coming days, apart from the initial deaths caused by storm emergencies. Oil and chemical contamination of the floodwater, plus rotting vegetation and bodies, could lead to water-borne illness on a huge scale.
Katrina & Beyond At the Eye of the Storm: Gulfport, Miss. August 31, 2005 • Alex Chadwick talks with Associated Press reporter Holbrook Mohr about the hurricane-related damage recovery and rescue efforts in the coastal Mississippi city of Gulfport. The city was directly in the path of Hurricane Katrina's "wall eye" and some areas have been completely flattened by winds and a massive surge of water from the Gulf.
Katrina & Beyond Rescuing Victims of Hurricane Katrina by Air August 31, 2005 • Alex Chadwick speaks with Erroll Babineaux, who works for an ambulance company based in Lafayette, La. He has been coordinating the air rescue effort to pluck victims of Hurricane Katrina from flooded areas of New Orleans.
Katrina & Beyond Old Tales of Hurricane Betsy, New Fears of Katrina August 31, 2005 • Growing up in New Orleans' historic 9th Ward, Mia Adams heard stories about how Hurricane Betsy devastated the neighborhood in 1965. Adams, now staying in Georgia, is trying to reach members of her family who also fled New Orleans to escape Hurricane Katrina.
Katrina & Beyond Evacuees to Go from Superdome to Astrodome August 31, 2005 • Thousands of flood victims who have been staying at the leaking, flood-threatened Superdome in New Orleans will be evacuated by bus, officials say. Their new destination? The Houston Astrodome.