Posted on 08/28/2005 3:53:54 PM PDT by BJungNan
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The mayor ordered an immediate evacuation Sunday for all of New Orleans, a city sitting below sea level with 485,000 inhabitants, as Hurricane Katrina bore down with wind revving up to nearly 175 mph and threats of a massive storm surge.
Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave before the eye of the storm strikes land sometime Monday morning, the city set up 10 places of last resort including the Superdome.
``This is a once in a lifetime event,'' Mayor Ray Nagin said. ``The city of New Orleans has never seen a hurricane of this magnitude hit it directly.''
The mayor said a direct hit by Katrina's storm surge would likely top the levees that protect the city from the surrounding water of Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and marshes. The bowl-shaped city must pump water out even during normal times, and the hurricane threatened electricity that runs the pumps.
``We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared,'' Nagin said.
President Bush urged people living in the path of Katrina to take the storm extremely seriously and follow orders to evacuate to higher ground. A day after declaring an emergency for Louisiana, Bush declared an emergency for the state of Mississippi and pledged federal support.
``We cannot stress enough the danger this hurricane poses to Gulf Coast communities,'' Bush told reporters on his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
The local authorities in NO dropped the ball.
This is not long after the time he said, hey, maybe we should all evacuate.
whoa, that's a powerful storm.
Why don't they just open up the south bound lane to north bound traffic since nobody is heading south and worry about the bottleneck further up north?
Where have you been? The mayor, the governer, and emergency managemant called for evacuations starting yesterday morning. That is hardly 12 hours before landing.
Hopefully they have been spending the last 20 hours or so pumping water from the levee.
They have done that since 4 pm yesterday.
Look, it's long past time to panic, but if you get outta' there now you'll get your turn to blame the mayor for the worst hurricane in history in due course!
He's a democrat. That explains it!
Mayor Ray Nagin (D)
Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D)
Didn't know that!
Maybe this is a stupid suggestion but why didn't he utilize the city's buses to bus the tourists who had tickets but couldn't get a flight out to other cities (Meridian, MS, Birmingham, AL, Montgomery, AL, Memphis, Nashville, even Atlanta) so they could get flights home? It would have lessened the number of people stranded in the city.
MSNBC reported it wasn't mandatory until this morning.
I wonder if the could start some demolition's to relieve the levee before the storm hits?
Because nobody in government has had an original thought in over 80 years, I think. You are right.
The mayor has said get out, get out, every hour for the last 36 hours.
EXCELLENT IDEA. I hope someone in a position of authority reads your message and passes is along.
Anyone log onto Drudge? The picture posted on his site looks like Benjamin Franklin next to a lion in the eye of the storm. Does anyone else see it, or is it just my imagination?
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