“I live here. More people died during the evacuation of Rita than will die during this storm. And there are 1.5 million more people here now.”
Can I ask a couple of questions?
How bad is the danger-to-humans situation there right now? Are people drowning? Trapped on their roofs?
TIA.
That was the situation on Sunday.
The Coast Guard was airlifting people off of roofs, and telling people to hang towels and sheets so they can be seen from the air.
Locals went to the streets with flat boats to rescue people from apartment buildings where the water in the streets were chest high.
On Sunday night, some Vice-Admiral from the Coast Guard thanked everyone for the citizen response, but said that on Monday they would have enough assets to take over. The locals ignored him and kept going. The federal assets were not enough and couldn't handle the shallow water, so they were largely ignored.
Last night, some out-of-the-box thinkers started to bring in heavy earth-moving equipment like bulldozers and dump trucks to rescue people. The Coast Guard left at sunset, but the locals kept going until after 1:00am. Today, more heavy trucks were brought in to work with the flat boats.
People are getting out, and being moved to parking lots were Metro buses are waiting to take them to the Convention Center and other shelters.
-PJ