Law and order are still scarce commodities on the Gulf Coast. It was reported yesterday (Sunday, September 4th) that police shot eight armed people [1], 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 [2] and other sources have reported that looting [3] and assorted acts of lawlessness [4] 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 [5]. 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 [6], courtesy of our friends of Little Green Footballs [7]. I believe that it is best to donate to church-sponsored charities like ADRA [8], since their overhead is much lower than bloated bureaucracies like the Red Cross.