Bakewell last heard from his mother, Marybelle, 80, and his aunt, Delores Brazil, 79, about 5 a.m. Sunday Pacific time as they were preparing to speed off to a hotel on the outskirts of town.
"I never got a call back. I have no idea which hotel she went to," he said. "And although I know lots of people in black newspapers and the New Orleans mayor's office who could help locate her, the phones don't work. I can't penetrate the power outages."
Bakewell said the Brotherhood Crusade would establish a special fund for "people wanting to get aid to those in distress, which is virtually everybody in New Orleans."
Terrel Skinner, a nurse who moved to Los Angeles from New Orleans eight years ago, could not locate his father, grandmother, uncles and aunts -- all of whom had defied orders to evacuate the city.
"I told them to leave, but they decided to wait out the storm in their homes," said Skinner, who had tried all day Tuesday to reach them. "They all said things like, 'Oh, well, it won't be as bad as they say.' "
"As far as I can tell, their homes are underwater," he said. "There's nothing else I can do but wait."
With about 100 relatives in southern Louisiana, Ray Leon, policy analyst for Oakland City Councilman Larry Reid, received more comforting news Tuesday afternoon.
"Some of them got hit pretty hard by the hurricane in terms of property damage: torn roofs, broken windows, flooding," he said. "But we have no fatalities."
Responding to the urgent need for assistance, the Los Angeles Fire Department dispatched 14 firefighters specially trained in water rescue operations, three inflatable boats, technical rescue equipment and supplies.
Members of San Diego's Swiftwater Rescue Team are also headed to the disaster area, along with firefighters trained in searching collapsed structures.
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors has authorized its five members to collect money, clothing, food and medical supplies for the relief effort.
Jo Ann Levi, 47, an administrative assistant at the Church of the Transfiguration, had reason to be thankful Tuesday morning. She finally made contact with her father and sister in Laplace, La., about 30 miles west of New Orleans.
"When we were growing up, my mother, who died this year, was always telling us how to prepare for a hurricane," Levi said. "But it never came.
