Matt addressed that question for Arkansas here. Matt the Bruins fan "Natter .38 Special" Sep 3, 2005 10:37:04 pm PDT I imagine his points are true for Oklahoma as well.

Here's what's going on in Branson:

Entertainers announced a benefit concert. Hotel and restaurant owners offered free lodging and meals. Church pastors are creating a directory of volunteers willing to adopt families into their own homes. And the city of Branson is compiling a list of available jobs.

In an amazing moment of synergy, dog trainer Angela Walker stood up in the meeting at Presleys' Country Jubilee Theater and said she has room in her kennel to house 10 more dogs. Next, Realtor Bob Huels stood and said he'd planned to open a pet shop and has, literally, a ton of dog food he would donate to Walker. Then, someone in the center of the theater pointed to Benny Levy who arrived in Branson on Sunday from New Orleans. "He has four dogs that need shelter."

Even in a town I can't stand, sometimes people don't suck. Branson plans on having 100 jobs to offer.

It looks like community centers in KC are gearing up to be shelters. And in long term plans...

A joint plan to provide a minimum of 250 units of housings in the Kansas City area beyond transition housing or emergency shelter will be announced.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Arkansas: Gov. Mike Huckabee says Arkansas likely had 50,000 evacuees in the state as of Friday and another 20,000 could be expected.

Oklahoma: Buses carrying nearly 2,000 evacuees arrived in Oklahoma on Saturday. As many as 3,000 others are expected to follow.

Oklahoma has two medium-sized cities and a plethora of Baptist summer camps and military facilities. And yet, they're only taking 5000 people. Why?

Arkansas Air National Guard C-130s with people from New Orleans started arriving here in Ft. Smith mid-day Saturday. The people were then bussed the five miles to Fort Chaffee.

Fort Chaffee is not much like what it was back in 1980 when it sheltered 20,000 refugees from the "Mariel Boatlift." What's left of it now can only house about 4,000 people long term. By 10 p.m. Sunday approx. 9500 had arrived, and 3600 had completed processing at Fort Chaffee and been bussed out again, to shelters for 50 or 100 or 200 scattered around the state--mostly "church camps." We're expecting to process approximately 20,000 through here total.

Here's one local TV report, for what it's worth: [link]

I haven't heard what's going on in Oklahoma, I'll have a look at their newspapers when I get a chance.

"Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race."

"I mean, he certainly doesn't leave ME unattended (wink, wink)!"

Greece is donating a cruise ship, among other things. That's one of the donations we're actually going to accept.

In other good news, another 737 crashed (in Indonesia) : [link]

Bush has nothing to fear. Karl Rove and Dan Bartlett are on the case.

I exhibit no surprise whatsoever, but I should really get coffee before reading the newspapers in the morning. Really.

From that article:

These officials said that Mr. Bush and his political aides rapidly changed course in what they acknowledged was a belated realization of the situation's political ramifications.

Humanitarian aspects be damned - there's political issues here!

Even my extremely conservative, pro-administration houseguest is having trouble with the federal response to this.

Report From WWOZ New Orleans General Manager: [link]