AAN announced today that it had established a multi-pronged effort to provide immediate relief to employees of its New Orleans-based member paper who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The centerpiece of the effort is a special fund that the association has established in its Alternative Newsweekly Foundation to accept charitable contributions from members who want to provide immediate assistance to Gambit Weekly employees. Several AAN-member companies have already announced significant contributions to the fund.
As FEMA stumbles in response to Hurricane Katrina, it's instructive to re-read a couple of articles published in AAN papers eleven months ago. In the first -- a story sponsored by AAN and published in over 20 of its members' papers -- Jon Elliston and the Independent Weekly reported the Bush Administration was shifting FEMA resources from protection from hurricanes and other natural hazards to homeland security. Disaster in the Making was published as FEMA was preparing for Hurricane Frances, only three weeks after their bang-up performance on Hurricane Charley. "They're doing a good job," one former FEMA executive told Elliston. "And the reason ... is because it's so close to the election, and they can't fuck it up, otherwise they lose Florida -- and if they lose Florida, they might lose the election."
In Homeland Insecurity (which was reported and published in conjunction with Disaster in the Making), Eileen Loh Harrist and Gambit Weekly reported that FEMA snubbed Louisiana and violated its own funding standards when it failed to provide the state with badly-needed Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) funds to protect it from flooding. According to Loh Harrist, "the nearly $60 million pot of federal PDM money went to 31 other states and Puerto Rico. Texas received the biggest share, more than $8.8 million, followed by California ($6.1 million) and Florida ($5.3 million)."
"New Orleans is gone and I can’t say when it will come back," writes Gambit Weekly editor Michael Tisserand, encamped with his family (pictured) at a friend's home near Lafayette. Tisserand describes what it feels like after the floodwaters have washed away your home, your job, and your city, and you don't know whether they're ever coming back.
We spoke this morning with Margo DuBos, who owns the New Orleans paper along with her husband, Clancy. Margo reports that she is safe with her family on dry land in a small town in Louisiana called New Roads. She believes that all of her employees are safe as well. She doesn't expect to be able to publish the paper again for at least the remainder of this year, but she remains optimistic that the city and paper will eventually recover. Although Gambit Weekly's office, which sits at the "bottom of the bowl" in mid-city, is most likely under water, the main computer servers that run the business were moved to safe ground before the storm hit. Clancy DuBos is traveling to Baton Rouge today to see if he can set up a satellite office in the capital to begin publishing the paper on the Web. AAN has received many inquiries from members who are interested in helping the paper. Rest assured that we will be working with Margo to determine how the association can most effectively direct our members' philanthropic urges.
- Go to the previous page
- 1
- …
- 679
- 680
- 681
- 682
- 683
- 684
- 685
- …
- 968
- Go to the next page
