Around the nation Gustav hits New Orleans Hurricane Gustav slammed into the heart of Louisiana’s fishing and oil industry with 110 mph winds Monday, delivering a glancing blow to New Orleans as hopes rose that the city would escape the kind of catastrophic flooding spawned by Hurricane Katrina three years ago. That did not mean the state survived the storm without damage. A levee in the southeast part of the state was on the verge of collapse, and officials scrambled to fortify it. Roofs were torn from homes, trees toppled and roads flooded. More than 1 million houses were left without power. The nearly 2 million people who left coastal Louisiana under a mandatory evacuation order watched TV coverage from shelters and hotel rooms hundreds of miles away, many of them wondering what kind of damage they would find when they were allowed to return home. Keith Cologne of Chauvin looked dejected after talking by telephone to a friend who didn’t evacuate. “They said it’s bad, real bad. There are roofs lying all over. It’s all gone,” said Cologne, staying at a hotel in Orange Beach, Ala. But the biggest fear—that the levees surrounding the saucer-shaped city of New Orleans would break and flood all over again—hadn’t been realized. Wind-driven water sloshed over the top of the Industrial Canal’s floodwall, but city officials and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers said they expected the levees, still only partially rebuilt after Katrina, to hold. Evacuees returning Thousands of people who fled Hurricane Gustav forced New Orleans to reluctantly open its doors Wednesday, but more than a million homes and businesses across three states were still without electricity. Officials said it could take as long as a month to fully restore power. As residents went home to New Orleans, President Bush viewed toppled trees and downed power lines in Louisiana. He said the response to Gustav has been “excellent,” and he praised the improvement since Hurricane Katrina. Faced with traffic backups on paths into New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin gave up checking ID badges and automobile placards designed to keep residents out until early today. His surprise reversal eased some of the gridlock that for two days has clogged many of the highways leading into the city. McCain fires back John McCain’s campaign fired back Wednesday at news media inquiries into the vetting process for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Campaign strategist Steve Schmidt called some of the stories circulated a “faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee” for vice president. “The McCain campaign will have no further comment about our long and thorough process,” Schmidt said, lashing out at “the old boys’ network” that he says runs news organizations. “This nonsense is over.” Schmidt also denounced a report in the National Enquirer, hours after its publication, as “disgraceful” and “a vicious lie. The smearing of the Palin family must end,” Schmidt said in an e-mail distributed to journalists. The Enquirer, which exposed John Edwards’ extramarital affair, cited unnamed sources in alleging that the Alaska governor had an affair with a business associate of her “fisherman husband,” Todd Palin—the story doesn’t say when—and that he found out and severed relations with the man. In a quickly arranged news conference, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift complained about “an outrageous smear campaign” against Palin and said, “She is more prepared than Barack Obama to be president of the United States.” Palin scolds critics Adjusting her glasses and staring ahead, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Wednesday in St. Paul, Minn., scolded her critics for figuring she’s not cut out for the job, sending the Republican National Convention into howls of praise. “I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone,” Palin said, drawing jeers from the crowd. “But now here’s a little news flash for those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.” Palin, speaking to a crowded Xcel Energy Center on the Republican National Convention’s third night, defended her first executive office, that of small-town mayor, “since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience. Let me explain to them what the job involved,” said Palin, a “hockey mom” whose entire family and soon-to-be son-in-law sat in the audience before joining her onstage. “I guess a smalltown mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.” Around the state Thieves take cell phones Thieves cut a hole in the roof of an Alltel Corp. warehouse over the weekend in Fort Smith and loaded up to four semitrailers with pricey cell phones, police reported. Warehouse employees found the hole in the roof and locks cut on four loading-dock doors when they arrived for work Tuesday morning, Fort Smith police spokesman Sgt. Jarrard Copeland said. An alarm also was disabled, and police found a pair of bolt cutters nearby, Copeland said. Plant manager Mike Krouse called police to the facility at 5000 Burrough Road about 7 a.m. Copeland said several pallets of cell phones are missing. Police and the FBI are working with Alltel officials to determine what was taken and how much it’s worth, he said. “Anytime you’ve got four tractor-trailers loaded with merchandise that can fit in the palm of your hand and that can cost $ 200 apiece—it’s going to be large,” Copeland said of the value. Hardin signs agreement University of Central Arkansas ’ board of trustees and President Lu Hardin on Tuesday signed a severance agreement that could vary almost $ 100, 000 in pay alone, depending on whether UCA gives him a lump-sum or monthly buyout. The more expensive monthly buyout would mean the university would have to find a different way to pay its next president while it is still paying Hardin, said Tom Courtway, UCA’s general counsel and newly named interim president. The board granted Hardin a paid sabbatical for the rest of this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2009. The buyout is for the remaining three years of his contract. Hardin would get at least $ 923, 036. 35, including this year’s salary, if not more. Courtway said in an interview that the monthly option is more expensive, in part because of higher line-item costs and because of a provision requiring UCA to make retirement contributions under the monthly plan. Courtway said the buyout will come from the board’s discretionary fund even though it does not specify that source. That fund consists of money UCA gets from a private vendor with which it contracts to sell books. While the fund does not include state revenue, the Arkansas attorney general’s office has said it believes the fund is public money. Storm remnants linger The remnants of Hurricane Gustav lingered over Arkansas on Wednesday, dumping rain that flooded rivers and some businesses and cutting off power to more than 100, 000 statewide. Some communities, including Hampton in Calhoun County and Hot Springs in Garland County, have gotten nearly a foot of rain since the storm system moved into the region late Monday, said John Lewis, senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock. Nineteen counties, most in south Arkansas, had declared emergencies by late Wednesday, the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management reported. It was unclear if any of the counties will seek state aid to help recover from the flooding.
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