Law and order are still scarce commodities on the Gulf Coast. It was reported yesterday (Sunday, September 4th) that police shot eight armed people, killing at least five of them, after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors that were traveling across a bridge near New Orleans on their way to make repairs. Meanwhile, 200 of the formerly 1,500-strong New Orleans Police department have either formally resigned or have deserted, and two have committed suicide. WorldNetDaily and other sources have reported that looting and assorted acts of lawlessness are continuing in inland areas of Louisiana and Mississippi that were spared the worst of the hurricane’s effect but that are still without power. I’d appreciate hearing some accounts from SurvivalBlog readers close to the scene that would confirm, deny, or clarify the foregoing.
If you want to donate to the relief effort, here is a fairly extensive list of relief organization contacts, courtesy of our friends of Little Green Footballs. I believe that it is best to donate to church-sponsored charities like ADRA, since their overhead is much lower than bloated bureaucracies like the Red Cross.