New Orleans Locals Rescue Their Neighbors in Absence of Government Response

Democracy Now! producers get reports from African-American survivors of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. We hear from a woman at the convention center and a record store owner from the Algiers neighborhood in New Orleans.
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One week after Hurricane Katrina smashed into the Gulf Coast, nearly the entire population of New Orleans has been evacuated. The streets are deserted and littered with fallen trees and twisted metal. Nearly 80 percent of the city remains submerged in water and the number of dead is unknown.

Most of the nearly 500,000 residents of New Orleans have been driven into what the New York Times calls a "modern-day Diaspora of biblical proportions."

But before the evacuation, tens of thousands of mostly poor African-American residents endured days of appalling conditions as they waited to be rescued. Survivors told horror stories from inside the SuperDome and the convention center. Others had stayed at home to avoid the mayhem.

Democracy Now! producers John Hamilton and Sharif Abdel Kouddous traveled to the convention center on Sunday afternoon. The site was completely evacuated - well almost. Three people remained at the site from the tens of thousands that had passed though over the previous week. They sat alone among the rows of empty chairs strewn outside. One of them told her story.

* Olivia Johnson McQueen, speaking outside the New Orleans convention center on Sunday.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of poor, overwhelmingly African American residents suffered the most as rescue operations faltered.

And as troops from the National Guard, marines and coast guard flooded the city, many black residents pointed to what they saw as a racially-skewed government policy.

* Henry Alexander, record store owner speaking in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans.

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We get an update from a few people we previously heard from who are searching for missing loved ones hit by hurricane Katrina. We are also joined in the studio by a war resister seeking discharge from the Texas National Guard who has family missing in New Orleans.
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On Monday, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin estimated that 10,000 people may have died in his city following last week's devastating hurricane. Across the country thousands of people have been desperately trying to track down loved ones. Last week Democracy Now interviewed several individuals who were searching for relatives and friends. We caught up with some of them again yesterday for an update on their searches.

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