Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part IX

NOAA - NHC and Various ^ | 29 August 2005 | NOAA - NHC

[NautiNurse]

Hurricane Katrina made landfall today at 6:10AM CDT, and she continues to drive northward into Mississippi and Alabama. Several local radar sites are down. Tornado and flash flood watches and warnings are widespread.

President Bush has declared major disaster areas, clearing the way for federal aid.

The following links are self-updating:

Public Advisory Currently published every 3 hours 5A, 8A, 11A, 2P, etc. ET
NHC Discussion Published every six hours 6A, 11A, 6P, 11P
Three Day Forecast Track
Five Day Forecast Track
Navy Storm Track
Katrina Track Forecast Archive Nice loop of each NHC forecast track for both three and five day
Forecast Models
Alternate Hurricane Models via Skeetobite

Wind Speed Data

Images:

Birmingham AL Radar

Mobile Long Range Radar Loop

Memphis Radar

Montgomery AL Long Range Radar

Storm Floater IR Loop
Storm Floater Still & Loop Options
Color Enhanced IR Loop

Other Resources:

Birmingham AL Weather
Meridian MS Weather (Radar down at this time)
Jackson MS Weather (Radar down at this time)

Hurricane Katrina NOLA Photos

Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VIII
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VII
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VI
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part V
Hurricane Katrina, Live Thread, Part IV
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part III
Katrina Live Thread, Part II
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part I
Tropical Storm 12

[Spktyr]

The FEMA convoys started rolling through Dallas early this morning on the way to New Orleans. They simply cannot get in; all the bridges into NO are currently unsafe - the only safe way in or out right now is air.

FEMA, in this case, is one of the Federal agencies that really does have a clue, at least under this director and President.

[BurbankKarl]

there are water rescue teams in the air from CA and other states....getting there as fast as they can...dont even know which base they are landing yet.

[Howlin]

Please come to the end of this thread; you're 1200 posts behind. :-)

[bannie]

Gack! Sewers, alligators, fire ants and water snakes.

[Howlin]

:-)

[Shermy]

About this pump business, and it's going to take "months," what about calling in the Dutch? They're still draining polders, they must be the pros in these matters.

[Jedidah]

FEMA is hampered by the flooding, just like everyone else.

The director of FEMA said earlier this evening that they were unable to get in until toward nightfall today. They're organized and ready and will probably be able to get to work when daylight breaks.

But let's face it, there is no easy fix, and even the most dedicated relief agencies can't work miracles.

[Coldwater Creek]

Where would they go??????????

[bwteim]

That was NOAA, not Noah;)

[Ingtar]

I believe that water is still rising east and south of the river where most of the homes are under or nearly under the water. That is the side that had a breach in the levee. Sadly, that is also the side where more of the people could not afford to evacuate.

[Seattle Conservative]

"You know, my old bf, who was a Nam Vet, used to say the same thing because they charged him for coffee in Nam...I'm curious as to why you don't trust them. Serious question."

That's amazing - my Great Uncle, who was in WWI, said he would never support the Red Cross - because they did the same thing on the front lines then. He always supported the Salvation Army, because they didn't.

I looked at the administrative costs years ago for the Red Cross and the salary of some of their higher ups and decided that there were other groups that would get the bulk of my donation $s.

[AggieMom x 3]

Wow!! You can do that??? Can you tell me how?

[Petronski]

Would any/all Freepers who earlier today claimed this was "media hype" please report to the top of the thread for a figurative sand wedge to the skull?

[Howlin]

Hey, people always say I get people banned, don't they?

He doesn't know I can't.....so he's gone........LOL.

[bannie]

now, I'm really worried!!! You're grinnin' at me; and I just talked about sewage and alligators!!!

[Howlin]

It's only going to get worse.

[rolling_stone]

thanks much.....

[burzum]

I am really skeptical that there are still live wires in the NO area. If any power line was downed in water and 2 of 3 phases touched water, I can see no way why circuit breakers wouldn't trip other than some type of failure in the circuit breaker. I am curious if people are reacting to lines as if they could be live rather than that they are proved to be live.

[Howlin]

Almost exactly on point. Amazing.

Now, remind me, how long ago was that posted?

[cgk]

Eyes on Katrina Blog back online: A South Mississippi hurricane journal

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Monday, August 29, 2005

A survivor's tale 

A story I wrote for tomorrow:

By DON HAMMACK
dthammack@sunherald.com

GULFPORT – It must have seemed a completely plausible plan at the time to Mike Petro and his family.

They lived at 1514 18th Avenue, just east of downtown, just off the beach, just south of the railroad tracks, right off Second Street. He and his wife Andrea, his 30-year-old son, twin 13-year-old daughters, a 6-year-old daughter, a dachshund and a cat thought they’d be able to beat Hurricane Katrina and leave town early Monday morning.

Having disregarded mandatory evacuation orders, it nearly proved a fatal mistake in a neighborhood where a similar mistake was likely punished with death.

When Katrina slammed into the Central Gulf Coast in the early morning hours, ruining what we like to call our little slice of heaven, the Petros’ power went out, interrupting their last-minute packing scheme. Then they heard the water, a strange rumbling train sound.

Their house, more than 100 years old and not built on the cheap like modern ones, this one a good tongue-and-groove carpentry, began to be ripped apart at the seams.

The family began to move for shelter, angling across the intersection one house north of their lot.

Petro got knocked down by a piece of his house. It plunked him down on a slab of something, he said, while his wife and kids were being herded up the street by the storm surge.

The rest of the family wound up pushed to another house on the east side of 18th. Mike Petro’s slab helped him make it up and across 18th Street, and he need the help. He’d had hip replacement surgery recently and he moved with a noticeable limp.

"I was afraid for the kids," said Petro, his voice cracking for the first time. "You can beat the hell outta me…"

As he stood on the listing porch that was two houses north of the intersection of 18th Avenue and Second Street, he nearly apologized for setting up shop in a neighbor’s severely damaged house, using a piece of debris as a cane. He said he was going to leave them a note of thanks.

"I was scared to death by the end," he said. "But they weren’t," meaning the dachshund, which they’d managed to keep with them, and a cat that they hoped would be back after expending one-ninth of its allotment of good fortune.

His wife joined him after he was interviewed, having crossed the street. Mike Petro sitting on the threshold to the borrowed house, she squatting in front of him. They grasped each other’s faces with two hands, sharing a moment they nearly robbed themselves of by poor decision making the night before.

Around him, even as the back end of Katrina’s feeder bands continued to hack at the coastline, recovery had already begun. Two young Seabee who lived in the brick house just south of the railroad tracks were climbing over the piles of debris on 18th.

There was a lot of debris, including a mess of maroon upholstered pews and the organ from St. Peter’s By the Sea was instead by the railroad tracks. The Episcopal church moved east several years ago when the Grand Casino purchased the old church proper with enough slot machine coin to build a beautiful new building, one that’s apparently been demolished.

Also among the debris was the house just north of the Petro’s, and in it, apparently an 85-year-old woman and a younger man. They were in the house Sunday night, neighbors said, and Monday morning there was evidence of what had been, but only if you knew what there was when it started out.

There was a perfectly clean, silver oxygen bottle, the green paint on it not so much as smudged as it lay among the pickup sticks wreckage underneath it, but with no hose to lead back to a possible victim.

The Seabees crawled all over the place, hollering for survivors. They’d survived Katrina, with water up to their waists in the first floor of their brick rental.

Petty Officer Third Class Jesse Good said he’d been the target of an insurgent mortar attack while stationed in the Middle East with NMCB 7.

"I haven’t seen nothing like that in Iraq," said Good, 22.

It didn’t appear there was much for them to hope for in their search.

There was an ironic sign of hope among the wreckage. Lying on a sidewalk north of where the debris field began trailing off, lay a brightly colored, hand-painted, thin wooden plaque.

It certainly had been attached to some kitchen wall someplace just 24 hours earlier.

"If you’re lucky enough to live by the beach you’re lucky enough."

It just didn’t seem too lucky Monday morning for the vast majority of South Mississippians.

Mike Petro and his clan found a sliver, but there wasn’t much else.

posted at # 10:36 PM