How are bloggers getting through?

[dreamshark]

I've been following links to various blogs coming out of New Orleans reporting the situation hour by hour. Most of them sound perfectly plausible, and I want to believe that I am reading something real. But I'm confused - I thought that electrical service in New Orleans was completely gone, along with all landline phone service and most cell phone towers. How are these people getting these blogs out of the city and onto the Internet? Appparently even the emergency services can't communicate because whatever wireless infrastructure they had been using has been blown apart. But somehow the bloggers are getting through. Even if they had fully charged laptops and cell phones 3 days ago, and their cell phones were among the very few that could get a signal, how are they recharging their batteries?

I know I'm a horrible, cynical, suspicious person, but I can't help wondering if some of these vivid and heartrending descriptions are elaborate hoaxes.