Fats Domino missing in New Orleans flood

One of rock 'n' roll's chief architects has been rescued from the rubble of New Orleans.
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Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans is being felt in the world of entertainment.

Many celebrities and performing artists have relatives or other ties to the flooded city and the Gulf Coast, some have been directly affected.

Fats Domino, a native of New Orleans, was reported missing Thursday by his agent, Al Embry. The 77-year-old R&B legend and his family had remained at their home in the city's low-lying 9th ward.

Master P, also a New Orleans native, told The Associated Press that his uncle, father-in-law and sister-in-law, among others, were unaccounted for. His father was missing until recently. The rapper-producer said his houses and those of his family members were under water.

Blues legend B.B. King, a native of Mississippi, said he had loved ones in the area: "I have some friends and family down in New Orleans, and also on the Gulf coast of Mississippi. I've tried to call them several times but I can't get through to them so I don't know where they are."

Harry Connick Jr., who grew up in New Orleans, told NBC's "Today" show the city's residents are "freakishly strong" and would rebuild. Connick developed his music in jazz bands and at clubs in the French Quarter.

His father, Harry Connick Sr., served as the city's district attorney for 29 years before retiring in 2003.

Actress Patricia Clarkson said her mother, New Orleans councilwoman Jackie Clarkson, had stayed at the side of Mayor Ray Nagin while Katrina ravaged the city. "She's all right, otherwise I wouldn't be here," Clarkson said at the Venice Film Festival in Italy, where she was promoting her new movie.

Rapper Juvenile, who left New Orleans before the hurricane hit, lost his home, but counted himself lucky. "I am obviously devastated by my personal loss but thank God that I was able to get my family out to safety while many families were not so fortunate," Juvenile said in a statement. "I have lost some friends and to their families I send my deepest condolences."

Soul Asylum frontman Dave Pirner said he was anxiously watching news reports on television, hoping to see if his house in New Orleans had escaped destruction. "We are, you know, examining our silver lining and being very lucky that we're out of harm's way," said Pirner, who was visiting his hometown of Minneapolis when the hurricane struck.

Ellen DeGeneres, a Louisiana native, said her 82-year-old aunt's home in Pass Christian, Miss., had been destroyed. "She has nothing. She grabbed four pictures out of her house. She's lost her entire life."

Britney Spears, who was raised in Kentwood, La., posted a message on her web site saying her family was safe and that her "thoughts and prayers go out to everyone" on the Gulf Coast.

Morgan Freeman, whose Mississippi Delta home received only rain and high winds, helped organize an online auction to raise funds for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2005/09/01/Arts/katrina_celebrities20050901.html

Rock 'n' roll pioneer Fats Domino was among the thousands of New Orleans residents plucked from rising floodwaters, his daughter said Thursday. Karen Domino White, who lives in New Jersey, identified her father in a picture taken Monday night by a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer.

The photograph shows Domino, the singer behind the 1950s hits "Ain't That a Shame" and "Blueberry Hill", being helped off a boat near his home in the city's Lower 9th Ward. His whereabouts since the rescue were not immediately known. Nor was there any information about his wife, Rosemary, friends said.

The neighborhood was heavily flooded when a levee failed as Katrina slammed into southeastern Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Thousands are feared dead in the storm, Louisiana's governor and the mayor of New Orleans have said, though no official tally has been compiled.

White said she last heard from her father August 23, four days before the storm hit, and was unable to contact him Sunday.
"I didn't have any information. I was just praying," she said.
Writer Charles Amann said he last spoke to Domino on Sunday, and the singer refused to join the evacuation that was then under way. "He said to me, in that wonderful Southern accent of his, that no, he was staying on -- that he had gone through the last one and he could go through this one," said Amann, who is working on a book on the early days of the "American Bandstand" television program.

Many of those evacuated from the Lower 9th Ward were taken to the Louisiana Superdome and are being transferred to the Astrodome sports stadium in Houston, Texas. Alan Warner, an EMI Music executive, also saw the photograph of Domino's rescue. But he said he did not know where the 77-year-old singer, born Antoine Domino, was taken afterward. "But the fact that he actually was rescued is just so gratifying," Warner said.

On a personal note, my good friend and New Orleans night club owner Leila Habib, surfaced in Las Vegas, miraculously avoiding the catastrophe. New Orleans ex-patriate and writer Jean-Paul Lewis, (grandson of Nobel laureate Sinclair Lewis), phoned me from Washington, D.C. with the news. His brother Gregory had narrowly escaped to St. Petersburg, Florida during the storm.

“This is an unforgivable situation”, he told me this morning. “How is it that these reporters can get in, yet no food or water?” “It’s as if they don’t care. The poor, black population of New Orleans are suffering… I’m wringing my hands watching CNN and The Mayor of New Orleans on the airwaves, begging for more help." If these people were white, would this be happening? It smacks of racism", he told me.

Let’s hope to God it's not.

E. "Doc" Smith is a musician and recording engineer who has worked with the likes of Brian Eno, Madonna, Warren Zevon, Mickey Hart, Jimmy Cliff, and John Mayall among others. He is also the inventor of the musical instrument, the Drummstick. He can be reached at drummstick [at] earthlink.net