Historic WWL 50 kw AM clear channel station still on the air.

[k4kyv]

Snipped from a news story re New Orleans:

City officials have seethed with anger about what they called a slow federal response.

“They don't have a clue what's going on down there,” Mayor Nagin told WWL-AM Thursday night. "Excuse my French, everybody in America, but I am pissed.”

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

I suspect Mayor Nagin doesn't really know what's going on either beyond the catastrophe we're all seeing. The feds made emergency declarations early in order to start the process rolling ahead of time, but it still takes time. Maybe they can fit pontoons onto some C-130s and land on one of the submerged sections of interstate heading into the city.

Areas around nuke plants have regular disaster drills and they always find areas that need work. I wonder how many evacuation drills N.O. has practiced over the years? 

[WV Hoopie]

If things were going "well" it wouldn't be a disaster! Can't plan for every item that can fail. Again, no reason not to put them on the table before hand and discuss the worst case. Murphy's Law states it will happen.

We once ran a simulated drill on a hydrogen pipeline which runs through public domain. The pipeline is about 10 miles in length, supplies several oil refineries, has at least 5 excess flow valves, 850psig supply pressure, etc. One of the managers drove out on the pipeline, and called in a rupture and a few details. Two of us were to locate the manager by the description of his details. After leaving our parking lot our truck became stuck in traffic for 1/2 an hour, couldn't go forward or backward. Railroad trains had all the city streets blocked. One of the plant mechanics called us on the plant radio and gave some mis-information from a dig-alert. Wasn't a fun day!

The trains and dig-alert were not part of the drill, just added to the confusion and learning experence!

Hoopie, 

[Tom WA3KLR]

I tried listening for WWL-AM last evening several times from north of Philadelphia.  I heard about 4 stations on the channel but could not discern WWL. 

I did listen in on WWL-AM today several times via their website.  I was expecting to hear emergency instructions, one-way broadcasts to police, utility workers, etc, but no such thing!  Just normal talk radio, but pissing and moaning about the disaster; surprising to me.  I didn't see any affected citizens in the t.v. coverage with a transistor radio.  With the barrage of multi-media, I think we have lost the "art" of basic communications and useage.

So the "National Guard" has arrived finally in N.O.  Whose? Louisiana's?  Why complain about the Feds?  The Louisiana National Guard involves the N.O. mayor, La. governor, LNG, no one else.  What took so long.  I don't hear of the La. governor catching any heat.  What am I missing here?

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

This from the mayor the city where the police are walking off the job. I suppose that's the Feds fault too. What a contrast from how the NYPD and FDNY comported themselves in the face of a disaster. The incompetence and corruption starts at the top in NO.

[W3LSN]

The last word from their owner Entercom was that WWL was operating at 25kw to save diesel fuel.  The general power failure around New Orleans had knocked them off the air when the hurricane hit, and then their generator refused to fire up. For a little while they were operating with a few kilowatts from  a long wire emergency antenna on the tower of their former sister station WWL-TV. Later on one of their engineers was able to get to the xmtr site and fire up the generator bringing their main site back online. I think the programming is originating from Baton Rouge where a number of NO broadcasters have retrenched in the Clear Channel studios there.

73, Jim
WA2AJM/3

I tried listening for WWL-AM last evening several times from north of Philadelphia.  I heard about 4 stations on the channel but could not discern WWL. 

[WA1HZK]

This sits in the lap of the Mayor of NO. He and the Governor of that state are guilty of the worst possible lack of planning. Everybody with a car screwed including the Mayor and they left the poor, old and sick to die.
Bottom line. To blame the feds (the rest of us) is crazy. It takes days to move fleets of ships and machines anywhere in the country. The feds are there now and it will be up to them to clean up the mess. Evacuation was the only hope and the local government totally dropped the ball. When this type of thing happened in NY the mayor was kicking ass immediatly and took command. That did not happen here at all.

[k4kyv]

The last word from their owner Entercom was that WWL was operating at 25kw to save diesel fuel... I think the programming is originating from Baton Rouge where a number of NO broadcasters have retrenched in the Clear Channel studios there.

I tried listening for WWL-AM last evening several times from north of Philadelphia.  I heard about 4 stations on the channel but could not discern WWL. 

They were coming in here loud and clear as usual just before midnight. That 3 dB's doesn't seem to make much difference here.

[W1DAN]

Hi All:

That is some good information from  Jim, WA2AJM. Thanks!

Earlier in the summer I visited my brother in NO and lived through TS Cindy. Radio coverage of the event was interesting:

[Jeff OGM]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ep/didneworleanscatastrophehavetohappen

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/opinion/02krugman.html

http://www.wwl.com/

The new "Gulf War" changes things around a bit, doesn't it?  Now, for the first time, the powers that be are faced with the need to repair and build, rather than "shock and awe" with our resources.  As a nation, we've ridden the high speed rail into Afghanistan and Iraq with a vengeance following 9/11.  But we have yet to understand the transformation that needs to take place within the military-industrial complex from the cold war paradigm to the Global War on Terror (GWOT) paradigm.  The need to be able to repair and build is greater than the need to crush third world nations under our boot-heels.

It will be a long time before people devastated by hurricane Katrina return to any semblance of normal day to day life, but in the process we can hope that our nation's resources can be better directed to the task of nation building.  We have the resources and the manpower, but the culture of cold war mentality needs to be erased, once and for all.

In place of what still exists within the military-industrial complex is a complete reorganization of purpose.  We still need the leviathan military, but we also need a military that is capable of rebuilding over the long term.

A comparison between what resources are needed to rebuild in Iraq is hardly dissimilar to the resources that are now needed to rebuild in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.  And we are seeing how ill prepared we have been, all along, to do just that.  The vulnerable underside of the past five years of federal spending has finally been exposed.

I mean, we even have "insurgents" in New Orleans now!

Jeff
KA1OGM

[W1DAN]

Two more ponts....

WWL is the official FEMA radio station for New Orleans. Tuesday and Wednesday I looked at their web site and went to the emergency page and here was no information!

Their web site changed sometime before or on Friday and now gas lotsa good stuff.

Enetrcom should be doing better here.

Dan
W1DAN

[k4kyv]

...WWL (had) "Sporting news radio" and "Coast to Coast with Art Bell," syndicated programming that originates elsewhere.

WTIX, WSMB and WGSO also had syndicated programming and obviously no personnel at the station who were either able or willing to broadcast any form of weather update or related information.

The FM dial here is also full of automated music stations... no people.  In the many times I tuned across the FM band, there was obviously no weather information.

It's not just in New Orleans.  It's pretty much that throughout the country.  We can't even get local school closing information on the radio here.

This is another reason that about the only radio I listen to is NPR or one of the nearby university stations.

[W1DAN]

Hi Don.

I see it and agree with you.

Boston still has a good radio market.

Dan

[W1UJR]

So the "National Guard" has arrived finally in N.O.  Whose? Louisiana's?  Why complain about the Feds?  The Louisiana National Guard involves the N.O. mayor, La. governor, LNG, no one else.  What took so long.  I don't hear of the La. governor catching any heat.  What am I missing here?

Right on point Tom, the time that the mayor of New Orleans is spending on the air swearing, pissing and moaning about perceived slowness of Federal response is time he is NOT spending working on the problem. I sure don't see him out in the streets doing any work. He instead might want to ask himself how conducive his crude remarks are in motivating other officials and agencies to work with him.

Sadly, these poor folks suffering has become just another football in the game of partisan politics.
When you see Jesse Jackson involved, you know things are only going to get worse.
How much of his personal time and wealth is the “Reverend” contributing to the cause?

Let's face it; nothing goes perfect in a disaster, that’s why it’s called a disaster.

The more time spent finger pointing, the less work is getting done to aid these folks.

Todd's right, regular drills and plans should have been in place for this long before Katrina roared into town.
I guess we can blame that on the Federal government as well?
Please, this entire event as been about the abdication of personal responsibility.

As Frank pointed out, when 9-11 happened the mayor and governor did not blame the Feds, they took action.
Contast Nagin's inactions with Giuliani's leadership.
Nagin should take some pages from Giuliani's playbook, during a crisis you don't fingerpoint when a problem arises, you take action to solve that problem.
When this is all over, I suspect many of the fingers will be pointing at Nagin and his cronies.

Where is Rudi when you need him?

[W1DAN]

Hi All:

hanks for some good observations!

Most cities have disaster plans. New Orleans has had hurricane plans for years. Everyone there knew that sometime a cat 4 or 5 could hit, and the levees would break.

What I saw last week is a feeble attempt at a disaster plan for a level 2 or 3 storm with no consideration for removing the poor folk.

Why did the city not have city and school busses taking these people out of the low lying flood prone areas BEFORE the storm hit?

For good reading see the 2002 Times Picayunne article series:

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/

BTW, alot of the damage is now is due to looting and not hurricane damage (i.e shopping centers burning down). Will FEMA pay for that?

Love my town!

73
Dan
W1DAN

[W1UJR]

For good reading see the 2002 Times Picayunne article series:

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/

BTW, alot of the damage is now is due to looting and not hurricane damage (i.e shopping centers burning down). Will FEMA pay for that?

Love my town!

73
Dan
W1DAN

Excellent link Dan, thanks for providing that.
If you click on it and review the article you will see that the author provides a description of exactly what has occured.

Scary that they had it that close in 2002 and nothing was done about it.
Some one was asleep at the switch.

How is the HRO collection going?

-Bruce