Helping Haitians

A group of Lincoln Haitians - including Junior Jacques, who I wrote about before - organized a benefit for the Red Cross's efforts in Haiti. Here's a piece I wrote on the event, as well as a few follow-up links from other things I've covered:

Gathering shows support for those still suffering after quake

Dozens of people gathered at Marz Bar, 1140 O St., for a relief benefit hosted by the Cornhusker Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Other links:

Union College team in Haiti

Ben Larson, former Lincoln seminarian who died in the earthquake

It's Time to Party

Andrew W.K. would be disappointed. Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady told me last week that us college-age Lincolnites have been partying less and less hard since 2005. Here's the story, which ran on page 1A in today's paper:

Police use landlords in battle against loud parties

More news from Haiti

I wrote two more Haiti-related stories this weekend. One is about a group of college students with rescue and relief training who left for Haiti on Sunday. For the other, I spoke to Junior and Stanley Jacques - brothers who lost their uncle and grandmother in the earthquake - while they were on their way to Omaha to pick up their mom, who escaped.


The Jacques family, with mom Florence at top left. (Courtesy of Junior)

Union College group to leave for Haiti
Saturday, four students and a staff member from Union College were scrambling to prepare for a last-minute relief trip to Haiti. (01/17/2010)

Haitian mom returns to family in Lincoln
Danel "Junior" Jacques heard his uncle was OK Tuesday night - but the next morning, Junior found out the uncle was dead, buried in the rubble of his house in Port au Prince, Haiti. (01/18/2010)

Expect more on both of these stories, as well as the HLMS (see previous post) in the coming week.

In the nick of time

I spoke with the executive director of the Haiti Lutheran Mission Society today. The HLMS is a national organization headquartered in Lincoln, and its director, Dick Buethe, returned from Haiti the same day as the earthquake. Here's what he had to say:

Back from Haiti, Lincoln mission director's thoughts remain
Since Dick Buethe returned from Haiti on Tuesday, he's been flooded with calls. Unfortunately, none came from his friends and employees on the island, which was rocked by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake just hours after Buethe's plane departed Tuesday. (01/13/2010)



Also, check out this story by my fellow reporter Cory Matteson:
Nebraskans with ties to Haiti hold breath on news of earthquake

Be careful out there

Saturday was a pretty nasty day for car crashes. There were 62 of them - 11 of them with injuries - in Lincoln, quite a few compared to most Saturdays, even in the middle of a major storm.

One of my roommates, Kaity, was in one of the injury crashes. She doesn't remember much about the crash, but lucky for all of us (especially her) she got home safe after spending a short time in the hospital. Her car, on the other hand, didn't quite make it:

Snowy Lincoln

It's been crazy in the Lincoln/Omaha area these past couple weeks. About 30 inches of snow have fallen so far this winter, most of that coming in two consecutive storms. Coupled with wind chills in the negative 30s, it makes for a wonderful 2-mile walk to work.

Here are some stories and a photo from after my white Christmas. They seem to be centered around transportation issues, mostly for emergency workers.



Snow leaves tight squeeze for fire engines, buses
Lincoln Public Schools and Lincoln Fire & Rescue have each had three vehicles involved in crashes since the recent holiday storm, fire and schools spokespeople said. (01/05/2010)

Snow or shine, sickness still happens
Rescue workers and emergency volunteers drove doubletime over the weekend, picking up overdue dialysis patients, hospital workers and other unable to overcome mountainous snowdrifts in Lincoln. (12/27/2009)

Storm leaves behind ice, tickets and towing
After seven people died in the early stages of Nebraska's holiday snowstorm, authorities remain worried about the storm's lingering dangers. (12/27/2009)

Moldy memories

A water main broke at a museum near Beatrice over the weekend, flooding a climate-controlled room filled with priceless artifacts. Here are two stories (the original and a follow-up brief) I wrote about the incident:

Water damages Homestead Monument artifacts
A Gage County Sheriff's deputy and park superintendent Mark Engler discovered the flood just after 5 p.m. Friday, after being called there because of a motion-detector alarm. (01/02/2010)

Heritage Center books, saddle now safe
Homestead National Monument superintendent Mark Engler sounded positive Sunday about the condition of hundreds of books damaged in a water leak. (01/03/2010)

I'm also going to take this opportunity to post a photo of two outstanding works of sure-to-be-historical-someday art. My teenage brother gave me a second clay pot this Christmas, adding to my already wicked collection Leo Pluhacek creations.