I fear there will be many of us here who are going to have many, many relatives and friends left homeless - or at least displaced for a long while. I'm trying to stay thankful that they got out with their lives, but for them and us, this is far from over.
FEMA director arrives in BR
FEMA Director Mike Brown arrived at the state Office
of Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge shortly
before 11 a.m. and joined a conference call with
Gov. Kathleen Blanco and other federal and state
officials.
Brown will hold a press briefing with Blanco at 3:30
p.m., although state officials could also provide more
information after a noon conference call with local
officials who are tracking the storm damage.
Researchers watching the storm from Baton Rouge have
gotten reports of 6 feet of water at Jackson
Barracks in the Lower 9th Ward, as well as flooding
along the Industrial Canal.
But Kevin Robbins, director of the Southern Regional
Climate Center at LSU, said that water should begin
receding around the Industrial Canal area. Robbins
said he hasn't had any reports of flooding in the
Uptown area.
During the height of the storm, 12 feet of water
was pushed up the Mississippi River in New Orleans,
Robbins said. There was also a 3-foot surge in the
river at Baton Rouge, but in both cases the water was
contained by the levees and did not go over the top.
But those kind of surges "could cause havoc with
boats," he said.
Many of the stations that record water surges in lakes
and rivers went out during the storm, so researchers
do not currently have much information about the worst
surges, Robbins said.
"We are working in a data poor environment," he said.
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