Waiting on the hurricane

I know it’s a crapshoot every year, but I can’t believe that just three short years after Katrina, we are watching another major hurricane aiming straight for New Orleans.

I remember the buildup to Katrina, the terrifying warnings that came out of NOAA that day, the sigh of relief as it missed the city, and the growing horror of the following days as the true destruction came to light. Jeanne Meserve describing hearing the calls for help in the utter darkness. The Superdome. Nursing home residents drowning in their beds, helpless. The bodies found for weeks and months afterwards.

Tommy Evans was in New Orleans for the post-Katrina coverage. I hope that he and Michael have not been roped in to cover Gustav. Anderson Cooper is there and will be airing a special edition of AC360 tonight.

Godspeed, New Orleans, and everyone else in Gustav’s path.

It’s Morning in… New York, anyway!

Michael was on American Morning again, hating the early morning grind! But he was watching the convention last night, and still not hearing answers for the questions he’s been posing for awhile now — how do we withdraw from Iraq without leaving another disaster in our wake? Hopefully we’ll get answers soon… and I’m still hoping the Obama campaign will contact him and set up a meeting!

Got his hair cut yesterday, too. I was liking the longer look, but oh well. You knew it was coming!

Back in New York

Michael’s back in New York and giving some commentary on the various Democratic ticket plans for Iraq. I’m still hoping that Obama actually does meet with him, although I wonder whether it would be made public? Anyway, as always, he cut straight through the “smoke and mirrors” and laid out the tough options we face. 

I wonder whether they will have him on the panels during the conventions? I mean, if they’re going to cut back to NY for punditry discussions, he’d be a great reason to do it, and a great BS detector!

Click for big versions…

The latest from Georgia (and Baghdad)

Speaking of covering two fronts…

There is some very brief footage out of Georgia this morning showing the Russians pulling out of what looks like Gori and I believe we even got some shots from Michael’s personal camera, because for the first time in all of this coverage, there is a ground-level shot, which is an angle he loves to use. That was filmed earlier, as of 6pm local time he himself was back in Tbilisi. Don’t you love the bit about Russian troops just changing uniforms and *poof!* magically becoming peacekeeping troops? No clue as to which producer it was that saw that but we now have an excuse to worry about Tommy more!

Meanwhile, news out of Baghdad is that there is finally a new SoFA, and it sounds to me like seriously bad news for the next president. No immunity for the security contractors, which puts in doubt whether HALF the force we have in Iraq will stick around. (Talk about an International Incident in the making… imagine the headline “American to be executed in Baghdad for violating Iraqi law.”)

And warrants needed for arrests, which means (a) there will be damn few of those (b) except for people the government doesn’t like. That’s a bit of the bad old days coming back to life.

Okay, maybe I’m being cynical. Maybe everything will work out and everyone can hold hands and sing Kumbaya. It has to happen eventually, right? Right?

Georgia update

Michael was on three times Tuesday, and all three clips are up. All the Domestic transcripts for Georgia are also up. I was hoping to create ones for the International clips, but just did not have the time. I’ll get to them when I can. (Someday, I’ll get to ALL of them!) 

The International clip was done via phone, and the two Domestic ones were pre-records, so I suspect he spent most of the daylight hours poking around looking for evidence that the Russians have any intention to leave. (And maybe of those rumors that Wolf mentioned — internment camps, ethnic cleansing, etc.) 

We’ll see what today brings…

Today on ATC…all Georgia clips

I posted several clips from the war coverage on ATC today. Two are from Matthew Chance, one is a telephone interview with Time photographer (and Michael’s former journo partner) Yuri Kozyrev, as well as five of Michael’s clips. One of them aired today and is not yet on the site — and it is another tshirt/jeans/roaming-around-the-town clip that will definitely have people commenting. (Consider that a warning. )

I have to blog 360 now, but once that is done I will start working on his two clips from today. His marathon work this week meant that I had nothing prepped for ATC today, so I am still way behind, and I apologize for that. But I have another day off tomorrow and will make sure everything is done. The transcripts are gonna be a bear, no Russian-inspired pun intended!

Not sure how long he’ll be in Georgia, especially if peace does indeed break out, or whether he’ll head to Baghdad or go to Afghanistan to cover the Musharraf ouster… But with the Democratic convention next week, CNN will be focusing more on that. (Oh, and I have all four days off, I will be glued to the TV!)

UPDATE: I am a bad, bad webmistress… I posted the other new Domestic clip from today on ATA tonight. I usually never post there before I post the clips here. Bad me… And they will be up as soon as the conversions are done. (Different conversions for the website than are used on Blogger. Are you feeling sorry for my poor laptop yet?)

Peace breaks out?

Délie sent me a clip that aired on International earlier, which just aired on Newsroom, as well. Michael was in Gori earlier today, checking on whether the Russian troops were moving out. (Three guesses…)

Saturday in Georgia

Michael was on several times this morning… I think the count when I left for work was 4 Domestic and 1 International (thanks to Delie!). He’s doing some absolutely incredible reporting. There is footage of Russian heavy artillery, and he followed the wire to the location where someone stood and hit the detonator to blow the railroad bridge. It is an amazing clip, but I didn’t have time to post it… I did,however, get the large version uploaded, so if you want to see it, it is here.

Day two in Georgia

Okay, still working on yesterday’s clips — five more to go! — and he’s been on once this morning on Domestic. He was in the port city of Poti. Délie tells me he has since been on International and is now back in Tbilisi.

He’s back… in Georgia

Michael is reporting from Gori, Georgia this morning. The clip is up in a new section under “More Countries.”