Interdictor (blog)

Last updated

Interdictor is the name of a LiveJournal blog that documented the effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans during and following the destruction. It is operated by Michael Barnett. At the time he was an employee of Directnic.com, an internet services company on the 10th and 11th floors of an office building in downtown New Orleans at 650 Poydras Avenue, which he referred to as "Outpost Crystal" (after Barnett's fiancée, Crystal Coleman). Daniel Gifford, another employee of directNIC.com, also contributed many articles to the blog. In the early aftermath of the hurricane and flooding, it was one of the few reliable communications links between downtown New Orleans and the rest of the world. [1]

Contents

Operation during Hurricane Katrina

Operating on a diesel generator when power was lost, Barnett and fellow bloggers provided a continuous stream of reports of what was actually happening and, through webcams, live video feeds, and thousands of high resolution pictures, gave the rest of the world a chance to see the looting and destruction firsthand before the rest of the media arrived on the scene. [1] Using Internet Relay Chat and instant messaging they kept in constant contact with the outside world.

Use as source by other media

The Interdictor blog quickly became a widely recognized and cited source from inside New Orleans. Sources such as CNN even read directly from the blog on the air, putting its contents on-screen. [2] Even after the media arrived, the Interdictor blog was still commonly cited as a reference to the events ongoing in New Orleans. [3] The blog's debut and rise to prominence during the hurricane and its aftermath was listed in an MSN/ PC World article as number 14 on a list of "The 16 Greatest Moments in Web History". [4]

Activity since the hurricane

Currently the blog is used by Barnett to discuss issues related to New Orleans specifically and politics generally. It has a distinctly libertarian slant as Barnett is a self-described Austrian School economist, libertarian and anarcho-capitalist. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pass Christian, Mississippi</span> City in Mississippi, US

Pass Christian, nicknamed The Pass, is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 6,307 at the 2019 census.

<i>The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate</i> American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana

The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ancestral publications of other names date back to January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of The Times-Picayune by the New Orleans edition of The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurricane Katrina</span> Category 5 Atlantic hurricane in 2005

Hurricane Katrina was a devastating tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $186.3 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. Katrina was the twelfth tropical cyclone, the fifth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States, gauged by barometric pressure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans</span>

As the center of Hurricane Katrina passed southeast of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 1 range with frequent intense gusts. The storm surge caused approximately 23 breaches in the drainage canal and navigational canal levees and flood walls. As mandated in the Flood Control Act of 1965, responsibility for the design and construction of the city’s levees belongs to the United States Army Corps of Engineers and responsibility for their maintenance belongs to the Orleans Levee District. The failures of levees and flood walls during Katrina are considered by experts to be the worst engineering disaster in the history of the United States. By August 31, 2005, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet (4.6 m) of water. The famous French Quarter and Garden District escaped flooding because those areas are above sea level. The major breaches included the 17th Street Canal levee, the Industrial Canal levee, and the London Avenue Canal flood wall. These breaches caused the majority of the flooding, according to a June 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The flood disaster halted oil production and refining which increased oil prices worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criticism of the government response to Hurricane Katrina</span> Criticism of the U.S. government

Criticism of the government response to Hurricane Katrina was a major political dispute in the United States in 2005 that consisted primarily of condemnations of mismanagement and lack of preparation in the relief effort in response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Specifically, there was a delayed response to the flooding of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Hurricane Katrina had many social effects, due the significant loss and disruption of lives it caused. The number of fatalities, direct and indirect, related to Katrina is 1,833 and over 400,000 people were left homeless. The hurricane left hundreds of thousands of people without access to their homes or jobs, it separated people from relatives, and caused both physical and mental distress on those who suffered through the storm and its aftermath, such as Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of Hurricane Katrina</span>

This article contains a historical timeline of the events of Hurricane Katrina on August 23–30, 2005 and its aftermath.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Orleans Morial Convention Center</span> Convention center

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is located in Downtown New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The lower end of building one is located 1,640 feet (500 m) upriver from Canal Street on the banks of the Mississippi River. It is named after former Mayor of New Orleans Ernest Nathan Morial.

Aaron Francis Broussard is a former American politician who served as the president, a combined municipal-parish position, of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, from 2003 to 2010. A Democrat, Broussard became known nationally for appearances he made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audubon Nature Institute</span> Nonprofit that manages museums and parks dedicated to nature in Louisiana, United States

The Audubon Nature Institute is a family of museums and parks dedicated to nature based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ochsner Baptist Medical Center</span> Hospital in Louisiana, United States

Ochsner Baptist Medical Center is a hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. The complex of hospital buildings is located on Napoleon Avenue in Uptown New Orleans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans</span> Engineering failures in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina

On Monday, August 29, 2005, there were over 50 failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans, Louisiana, and its suburbs following passage of Hurricane Katrina. The failures caused flooding in 80% of New Orleans and all of St. Bernard Parish. In New Orleans alone, 134,000 housing units—70% of all occupied units—suffered damage from Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malik Rahim</span> American housing activist and cofounder of the Common Ground Project

Malik Rahim is an American housing and prison activist based since the late 1990s in the New Orleans area of Louisiana, where he grew up. In 2005 Rahim gained national publicity as a community organizer in New Orleans in 2005 to combat the widespread destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; there he co-founded the Common Ground Collective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media coverage of Hurricane Katrina</span>

Many representatives of the news media reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina became directly involved in the unfolding events, instead of simply reporting. Due to the loss of most means of communication, such as land-based and cellular telephone systems, field reporters in many cases became conduits for information between victims and authorities.

<i>When the Levees Broke</i> 2006 American documentary series

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts is a 2006 documentary film directed by Spike Lee about the devastation of New Orleans, Louisiana following the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina. It was filmed in late August and early September 2005, and premiered at the New Orleans Arena on August 16, 2006 and was first aired on HBO the following week. The television premiere aired in two parts on August 21 and 22, 2006 on HBO. It has been described by Sheila Nevins, chief of HBO's documentary unit, as "one of the most important films HBO has ever made." The title is a reference to the blues tune "When the Levee Breaks" by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

Gulfsails is the name of a blog, written by Troy Gilbert, that documented the effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans following that disaster. In the early aftermath of the hurricane and the 2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans, it was one of the few reliable communications links between the city and the rest of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katrina refrigerator</span> Fridges damaged in the 2005 hurricane

Katrina refrigerators are refrigerators that were destroyed or rendered unusable during Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, and their aftermath. Many were made into temporary folk art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the Louisiana Superdome</span>

The Louisiana Superdome was used as a "shelter of last resort" for those in New Orleans unable to evacuate from the city when Hurricane Katrina struck on August 29, 2005.

<i>A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge</i> Non-fiction graphic novel by Josh Neufeld

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is a non-fiction graphic novel by cartoonist Josh Neufeld. Originally published as a webcomic, A.D. tells the stories of a handful of real-life New Orleans residents and their experiences during and after Hurricane Katrina. The graphic novel was a New York Times best-seller and was nominated for an Eisner Award and a Harvey Award in 2010. In addition, A.D. was selected for inclusion in The Best American Comics 2010.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers is involved with a wide spectrum of public works projects: environmental protection, water supply, recreation, flood damage and reduction, beach nourishment, homeland security, military construction, and support to other Governmental agencies. In nineteen (19) different Flood Control Acts since 1917, the United States Congress has authorized the corps to design and build flood protection projects and one risk reduction system in the Greater New Orleans area and throughout the nation.

References

  1. 1 2 Silberman, Steve (November 2005). "Hurricane Heroics". Wired . Vol. 13, no. 11.
  2. Jardin, Xeni (September 19, 2005). "CNN Hacks New TV Technology". Wired .
  3. Running, Daniel (December 31, 2005). "Top Ten Web Moments of 2005". DownloadSquad.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2006.
  4. Tynan, Dan (October 1, 2007). "The 16 Greatest Moments in Web History". PC World . Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  5. "Interdictor: Profile". Livejournal.com. July 23, 2010. Archived from the original on June 27, 2007.