Small town America is helping...

Again I turned off CNNI...while reporting about how the aid got quickly and efficienty to Mississippi, the reporter HAD to add an anti Bush statement from a Democratic LOUiSIANA congressman...but it was a non sequitor, since he was in Mississippi and supposed to be reporting from that state. And this doesn't include the slimy Brit who earlier dissed the pope and is now busy drooling about how this will destroy Bush...again it was in the middle of a conversation/interview about something entirely different....nah, no bias here, folks, just move along (maybe if they bothered just once to show the flooded school buses and ask they Mayor why they weren't used..but I haven't seen any criticism of local officials yet)...

So again I'll blog good stuff in small towns.

Let's see how far away we can go...how about Minot North Dakota (above link)

North Dakota airmen and National Guard members are heading south to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Helicopter pilots and crews from the Minot Air Force Base left Friday for Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. About 30 members of a North Dakota National Guard water purification unit are to leave for the hurricane zone late Sunday or early Monday.

Kansas City?LINK
D.A. Christian, the city’s emergency management director, estimates that 500 more people will head this way in the coming week, the spillover from 2,000 hurricane victims who sought refuge in St. Louis. Barnes said the information Kansas City was receiving on those numbers was in flux....

The Kansas City Fire Department already has two urban search-and-rescue personnel in the Gulf Coast, and four other firefighters are in Atlanta receiving training. An additional 12 are expected to join them soon.

Officials with the Water Services Department have sent 31,000 bottles of water to the hurricane zone and are working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Environmental Protection Agency to send railroad tankers of water to the area.

Foster said the community’s backing has been wonderful. About 100 area residents have been dispatched to the gulf. “The help is just pouring in,” she said...

St. Louis? LINK

And here is a summary of help LINK
Texas is housing more than 220,000 evacuees, with more than 120,000 in shelters and 100,000 in hotels.

The American Red Cross has placed more than 96,000 storm victims in shelters across the south. About 50,000 displaced people sought shelter in northern Louisiana. Another 50,000 were in Arkansas.

In Mississippi, where coastal cities were devastated by the storm, about 12,500 people were in shelters. In Alabama, Gov. Bob Riley was seeking permanent and semi-permanent housing for 10,000 residents.

To the north and west, states are offering to help ease the burden. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has said her state can take about 10,000 people. In Minnesota, it's 3,000 and Colorado, 1,000.

Dozens of evacuees are already being housed at the Indiana State fairgrounds. Hundreds more could follow, state officials said. Other states expect similar numbers.

The Utah National Guard has processed 750 evacuees from New Orleans at Camp Williams outside Salt Lake City, and about 1,250 more are expected, said guard spokesman Lt. Col. David Thomas.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, who offered to open his own home, said the evacuees are welcome to settle in the city if they wish....

Spontaneous outpourings of help from individuals continue, meanwhile.

In Sterling Heights, Mich., Best Western hotel owner Victor Martin opened his rooms to 28 people who drove up from New Orleans. They'll be able to stay there with their meals provided through November, he said.

"They are just so relieved to not be sleeping on the floor somewhere," Martin said.

Martin doesn't know yet whether the government will reimburse him, but like others across the country, he said he felt he had to do something.

"People really want to help," he said. "People come in (to the hotel) and say, `I just want to take them out to dinner.'''

Yup...it's all Bush's fault...