Hey Louisiana! Hey Mississippi!

Minimum of 6-8 weeks before power restored to NO!
I-10 bridge over Lake Ponchatraine gone!
No drinking water until ...?
Incomprehensible human and economic loss.

http://drudgereport.com/
Break in 17th Street Canal Levee is now 200 feet wide and slowly flooding the City of New Orleans. Huge sand bags are being airlifted to try to stem the rush of water in that area. The expectations are that the water will not stop until it reaches lake level...

State by state summary -
Louisiana headlines from Associated Press -
Katrina's effects, at a glance

08/30/2005

Associated Press

Hurricane Katrina's effects, at a glance:

LOUISIANA:

_At least two breaches in levees allowed water from Lake Pontchartrain to inundate sections of New Orleans. Dozens of people rescued from roofs and attics. [

_Highest wind in New Orleans estimated at about 100 mph.

_Some 370,000 customers estimated without power in southeast Louisiana; number expected to rise. New Orleans water unsafe to drink without boiling.

_Entire city of New Orleans, city of 485,000, ordered evacuated before storm struck. Mayor Ray Nagin estimated 80 percent of the city's residents left.

_About 9,000 took shelter in New Orleans Superdome arena, where storm ripped two holes in the vast roof.

_New Orleans police made several arrests for looting.

MISSISSIPPI:

_As many as 80 deaths possible, said Gov. Haley Barbour. That includes estimated 50 people in coastal Harrison County, with about 30 of those at one beach-side apartment complex in Biloxi.

_At least 450,000 customers without power.

_Casinos that dot the coast are closed. Emergency officials had reports of water reaching the third floors of some of the barge-mounted casinos.

_More than 1,600 Mississippi National Guardsmen activated.

_Quote: "The devastation down there is just enormous," Barbour on NBC's "Today."

ALABAMA:

_Two deaths.

_More than a half-million homes and businesses without power.

_Flooding reached 11 feet in Mobile, matching record set in 1917, according to National Weather Service. Water up to roofs of cars in downtown Mobile and bayou communities. Piers ransacked and grand homes flooded along Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay.

_Major bridge over the Mobile River closed after it was struck by an oil drilling platform that floated away from a shipyard.

_Quote: "She said she was in water up to her chin," Kim Stringfellow said of woman and five children brought to shelter at church in Bayou La Batre.

GEORGIA:

_One person was killed in a car accident as stormy weather moved through the western part of the state.

_Some 6,300 customers were without power Tuesday morning.

_More than 30 buildings were damaged or destroyed in west Georgia's Carroll County.

TENNESSEE:

_Flash flood warnings were in effect across western Tennessee, where up to 3 inches of rain fell Monday night.

_About 75,000 customers were without power.

_Dozens of school systems canceled classes, including Nashville-area schools.

_Thousands of evacuees from Mississippi and Louisiana sought shelter in Tennessee. No evacuations in Tennessee.

KENTUCKY:

Most of Kentucky was under a flood watch until Wednesday morning.

FLORIDA:

_Deaths: 11, according to state tally on South Florida strike last week.

_77,000 customers were without power Tuesday morning in the Panhandle, hit by eastern edge of storm Monday. In South Florida, 155,262 customers still without power Tuesday morning.

 

I think people are only just beginning to understand how huge this disaster is. It will not be as big as the tsunamai disaster because that covered a wider area BUT this disaster might be much bigger than any body really thought.

I lived in this area so I knew how big it was going to be. Most of this area is at sea level or below. I am looking at TV now....watching them mispronounce all the towns names.

This is a real horror show and I am sad for New Orleans, Mobile, Biloxi, Gulfport and all the rinky-dinky towns that everyone never heard of in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana..

Wall Street had a party yesterday because their hear of not much rig damage and they thought CAT 4 Hurricane was less worse than a CAT 5 but sadly that is not so.

I lived in this area and knew that even if they had no rig damage, it would take quite some time to get oil rig production going in the Gulf again.

I used to run supply boats going out of Fourchon (prounounced Foo-Chon not Four-Chon like they garble it on the news). That is Cajun country things are pronounced the "French" way. Fourchon is a huge infrastructure for most of the Gulf oil platforms. All of the equipment, cement, drilling pipe, boats, oil rigs, Liquid mud (used for drilling)....all that stuff it wiped out. BE PREPARED FOR HIGHER OIL PRICES!!!

The human cost will be horrible. All the deaths that have happened or will happen have yet to be recorded. People that are still in the area might die from disease from contamination of water and food. Some might starve to death.....some might drown.

It was lucky that most people in New Orleans evacuated. If they had not the death toll could have been in the tens of thousands....as it is it could get as high as 1000 or more dead before it is all over....I can only pray it is less.


Starrob

 

As RobZee posts, it's getting worse in NO--not better. With the breach in the Canal St. levee, it's like having your bathtub filled with water with the water tap running, the side of the tub caved in--and no way to stop it. In addition to that is the debris, dead animals and people, and sewage that has no place to go. Potable water is nonexistent at this point.

Dallas Morning News reported (early edition this morning) that French Quarter was getting back to it's business of partying--but I believe this was before the failure in the levees. Now reports are that NO is 80% under water, and there are reports of natural gas leaks, gasoline spills, etc.

What's incredible is that NO took the "weak" side of this storm. Gulfport, Biloxi, and Mobile bore the fury of the eastern side of Katrina. It will be sobering to see what is left of that shoreline, and those communities...

EDIT: Syntax.

 

If New Orleans took a true Cat 5 hurricane direct hit, there would be hardly anything left. That might have even taken down the Superdome and killed people in the place of last resort. New Orleans was lucky if you call what happened luck.



Starrob

 

There are now setting up refugee camps within the USA from the hurricane disaster. Bodies floating in the water everywhere.....Southern Plaquemines Parish is gone....reclaimed by the mississippi.......

 

I am watching this on TV on Fox News. I am sure there will be plenty of news links in the days following.



Starrob

 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167633,00.html

 

I see that Martial Law has been declared from the Times Picayune Newspaper which is NO major newspaper.

"Local television stations report that Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes are all now under martial law, allowing the military to assume control over civilian forces."


http://www.nola.com/weblogs/nola/

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9130254/

 

Salvation Army


http://www.redshield.org/crisis/index.cfm?mode=story&storyid=29

 

Red Cross


http://www.redcross.org/

 

If you're having trouble trying to visualize the levee breech, there's a great photo over at Flickr showing precisely where it occurred.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jomatt/38658605

 

The more that we see of this, the worse this situation becomes. I have been watching Fox News coverage of this event, and where as about 24 hours ago many people were feeling somewhat lucky in the sense that "it could have been much worse"....now as we are seeing more video footage and more reports, I don't see how it could be!!! They estimate the damage at possibly as high as $50 BILLION, far surpassing the damage from Hurrican Andrew that hit Miami/Dade County Florida in 1992. And it is now estimated that 80% of New Orleans is under water....and as RobZee suggested, one of the levees surrounding Lake Ponchetrain has now partially collapsed....or at least has developed servious, serious, major leaks....and they predict that the water level could rise in New Orleans to that of the lake itself!!!

Catosrophic stuff, indeed.....

 

CNN Breaking News:

Just came via email:

-- Rising waters force evacuation of tens of thousands who sought refuge in New Orleans rescue centers, state governor says.

Watch CNN or log on to http://CNN.com

 

Amazing that so many people decided to "brave it out" and risk staying in the area. Of course, I realize that many had no other option, as they could not afford transportation, etc., but I wonder how much of it had to do with previous forecasts of storms this magnitude that turned out to be "the boy who cried wolf".

CNN's coverage of this disaster has been good, as has MSNBC's. Surprisingly, the Weather Channel hasn't focused on it as much as I would have thought. Anyway, I guess whichever source you want or choose to get the news from doesn't really matter, as long as one gets it. I prefer Fox for a multitude of reasons, but all of the major networks have done an admirable job of coverage, I think we can all agree on that.

 

My fingers do their excercise by clicking mostly between the weather channel & Fox. And occasionally to CNN.
It's manic.


It's all just so heartbreaking ....

 

I agree completely, Nat. I am in my late 30's, and I can't remember a natural disaster of this magnitude hitting the US in my lifetime. Maybe the great blizzard that hit much of the Eastern United States in the late 70's comes close, but I don't really think it even compares to this one.

I was talking to my mom earlier today, and she made the comment that "this is the U.S.'s "tsunami". I think she may be right......

 

I just watched a heart wrenching story on cnn when a resident (a Mr. Jackson) was interviewed wondering in the streets(not sure which city) with his children and he said he was on the roof of his house with his wife and family when the house suddenly split apart and he desperately tried to hold on to his wife but couldn't and she was swept away. Her last words to him were "take care of the children"....

I'm sure there are many many such tragic stories out there.


snowbound

 

The great hurricane of 1900 which hit Galveston and killed 8,000 had been the worst to have ever hit the U.S. until now. Regardless of the ultimate tragic death count, I cannot begin to comprehend the loss - in both human and economic terms - of Katrina's devastation.

Just saw this prophetic article in 2001 (actually published on 9/11/2001) - "NEW ORLEANS IS SINKING"
Here is the link http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1282151.html

Rob

 

Texas, OK, AR, NM deploy Disaster Medical Assistance teams to Louisiana to assist in Katrina aftermath. (Other FEMA regions responding as well) More info from FEMA here:

Link to FEMA Region VI

 

Agreed. The only ones that come close are Camille in 1969 and Andrew in 1992. Remains to be seen what the final outcome will be, but this is bad not only for NO, but the coastal cities in MS and AL that Katrina battered.

It's real "The Day After Tomorrow" stuff...

My wife (who has not had a chance to see or read the news in the last couple of days) remarked: "Is it really that bad, Jim?"

I told her that I don't remember a hurricane that powerful hitting such a vulnerable spot with that many people during our lifetimes.

I don't think it can even compare to the tsunami last year, but that certainly doesn't diminish the terrible loss Katrina is going to be responsible for.

A columnist in the Dallas Morning News reported a scientist estimated that a hurricane like Katrina exerts energy comparable to 10-20 atomic bombs--except with massive amounts of water added.

Maybe that can help put the damage in perspective.

 

I think everybody needs to pray for all who are going to be affected by this. The effects of this are probably going to be felt world wide.