URGENT: Latest photos of New Orleans flooding

Yahoo News Photos ^ | 8/30/05

[Wolfstar]

The morning's collection of flooding conditions in New Orleans. There were few fresh photos of other devastated areas available in the short time I had available to collect these. Will try to update this thread later.

These photos are being posted especially for the benefit of FReepers and others who may have relatives or friends in the area, and who may not be able to get images any other way.

[Wolfstar]

If others find relevant photos to update the flooding and damage aspect of the story, even if they are not of New Orleans, please feel free to post them here.

Please refrain from petty arguments, juvenile jokes, and off-topic discussions on this thread. The subject matter is too important.

[Wolfstar]

8th Ward, New Orleans.

[Wolfstar]

Overhead images are from the Coast Guard, which conducted initial Hurricane Katrina damage assessment overflights in New Orleans.

[OXENinFLA]

A building is moved completely from its foundation by hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, Mississippi August 30, 2005. Hurricane Katrina strengthened into a rare top-ranked storm and barrelled into the vulnerable U.S. Gulf Coast for a second and more deadly assault on the Gulf Coast. REUTERS/Marc Serota

[Wolfstar]

[RonF]

One thing that has been repeatedly asked on these threads that I think is on-topic; "Why did 'they' build a city in a spot 8 feet below sea level?"

The answer is that 'they' didn't. When New Orleans was founded, it was above sea level. The problem is that the land has subsided. New Orleans is on a silt bed built up over 10,000s of years and more of annual Mississippi river floods. When the river was channelized and the levees were built, the floods could no longer deposit their silt in the city site and it all blew out to sea instead. This is also why New Orleans is so far inland now, when it was much closer to the ocean when it was founded. The other major reason for subsidence is that people needed potable water, so they drilled wells and started pumping out water. This caused the land to subside as well.

[Wolfstar]

Floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina flow over a levee along Inner Harbor Navigational Canal near downtown New Orleans Tuesday.

[Howlin]

Post Hurricane Katrina IMAGES Here (But please, no Getty images)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473113/posts

[Wolfstar]

New Orleans firefighters attempt to extinguish a blaze at a downtown business on Tuesday. As of about 9:00am Pacific time today, there were at least two structure fires burning in NOLA, probably caused by gas lines that had not been shut off.

[Wolfstar]

Canal Street after sunrise today.

[Wolfstar]

Survivors waiting on a roof.

And stranded in high-rise buildings.

Looters at a grocery store.

[the_Watchman]

This morning the radio announcer in Phoenix pointed out that the real problems have just started:

(1) New Orleans is already lower than the surrounding waterways. So, there is no place for the water to drain away. It has to be pumped out.

(2) Standing water in areas like this are breeding grounds for all types of pestilence that we have not seen in our generation; e.g. typhoid.

[Wolfstar]

Rescues in progress. Massive resources are converging on the Gulf Coast disaster area. The President has, in essence, unofficially nationalized the rescue and relief effort since state and local officials are simply overwhelmed. The Navy, Coast Guard, National Guard, FEMA, and other federal assets are already moving into the area, as are assets from other states.

[Wolfstar]

A New Orleans resident tries to drive his car through floodwaters past the University of New Orleans on Tuesday.

Man paddles near two half-submerged houses in the Garden district of New Orleans.

Cuong Pham(L) and Bich Tran(R), PhD students at Tulane University in New Orleans, bail water from their basement apartment in the Garden District.

[dfwgator]

It's literally "Canal Street."

[Wolfstar]

New Orleans residents ride in a boat and walk through floodwaters. Many, if not most of the people on the streets are not looting, but are either trying to help one another get to higher ground, or are wandering around uncertain what to do.

[Wolfstar]

Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Huerta scours neighborhoods over New Orleans.

They spotted two children and hoisted them up into the chopper.

[BenLurkin]

They should give serious consideration to bulldozing the ruins and building up the land level with fill and new silt dredged from the shipping channels etc.

[MIT-Elephant]

Same sort of story with Mexico City. That place is sinking fast.

[eureka!]

bump for later. prayers in the meanwhile...