Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part IX

I'm not thinking of drowning. I'm wondering how that many people can be evacuated. I wouldn't want to be trapped inside there.

Go my post 2333

I was holding out hope that just now at the top of the hour he'd be off...and he's STILL here. Ugh.

Naw, there are ramps leading to the dome, that could be use as boat launches. It will just take a while. Could also get the military to put in a pontoon bridge to the higher ground several blocks to the west on the river levee, where the convention center and casino can be used as a more comfortable evac. camp. Could also load from there onto large ships to move up to other evac tent cities. But those tent city needs just went from FEMA's 100,000 person estimate to maybe 500,000+. At least the south bank river communities should be able to recover much faster.

And it's not a live feed .. it's the videos of Nagin's update plus more info.

The damage from surge to the east of NO is very similar to that of the tsunami.

Do you remember the before and after aerial pictures of the shoreline? A few people remarked at the time, that it looked like the US. I found a copy of it, FWIW:

Thanks gosh well not rising fast? Well I guess thats why the Corp gets paid the big bucks

Funny how out of 11 men that part never made it to light.

Really? Not when you consider the odds or the reason for the directive.

Of all the WWII vets (God bless 'em all), you expect to know one that was paid to be a Napoleon's corporal to Ike?

I haven't heard anything about the areas south of New Orleans. Is that mostly swampland or towns?

If you had been watching the video feeds from the local TV station today then you would find it easy to believe that 80% of the city is flooded to some level. Trust me there is a lot of water around there.

Parts of SE LA will look like that when we get new high res shots. There are regions which may never come back above water.

There are river communities and suburbs immediately across the river from NOLA that are protected by levees. Had damage and flooding, but I haven't heard of the massive flooding there that NOLA had. But then significant hard news seems to be slow in trickling out.

same here - I know they will be safe but how will they get them out if the water goes up and over the balcony on the dome? is it high enough? How far down does the breech go?- Did it start seeping in from the bottom of the levee first and did it levee slowly break from the bottom up?

Thanks. It was kind of hairy for a while, wondering if these tornados were going to make it here or not. We live just north of Blairsville GA and are just on a line of separation between two phone companies. Our phone service comes out of Blue Ridge GA (Fannin county) which evidently got some damage from the storm that just slid to our west.

I listened to some of that briefing by the mayor. It's not good if all that is true. We prayed for lives to be spared, not necessarily locations so at least we have a lot of that.

I watched some video one Atlanta station showed of some poor man who lost his wife because of losing grip with her in rising waters. It was heartwrenching.

"Someone reporting from the Dome earlier said the natives were getting very restless inside"

Uless they are really good swimmers....I don't think they will be going very far.

Finally someone is asking someone near cops

SD is 274 feet tall!

It doesn't matter .. I'm sure the cops must have a supply of flexcuffs and locked rooms to store any offenders, but just think about 6' of water now in downtown NO, and more water pouring in uncontrollaby .. there's no place to take these evacuees in the Dome, plus think of all the people who partied in the FQ after the worst of the storm passed, thinking they were home free. Well, now the reporters, residents, etc. are there .. and the water is as surely going to go there too, making survivors of the hurricane potential victims of the flood.

This is a calamitous and deadly situation .. I just don't see how thousands of people (1,000 people alone in Tulane hospital, most of whom have to be airlifted they're so sick) are going to be able to rescued from this catastrophe.

I'm glad to know the Corps of Engineers is working on it .. but I think it will take a miracle to save the people in the city of New Orleans from this impending disaster.

Here's another posting at nola.com

Again, I'm sorry for this very long post, but thought it had important information.

'Look, look man: It’s gone'

By Bruce Nolan
Staff writer

Hurricane Katrina struck metropolitan New Orleans on Monday with a staggering blow, far surpassing Hurricane Betsy, the landmark disaster of an earlier generation. The storm flooded huge swaths of the city, as well as Slidell on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, in a process that appeared to be spreading even as night fell.

A powerful storm surge pushed huge waves ahead of the hurricane, flooding much of St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, just as Betsy 40 years ago. But this time the flooding was more extensive, spreading upriver as well to cover parts of the Bywater, Marigny and Treme neighborhoods.

As with Betsy, people scrambled into their attics or atop their roofs, pleading for help from the few passers-by.

The powerful Category 4 storm crossed the coast near the mouth of the Pearl River shortly after daybreak with winds of 135 mph. Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse reported an early morning gust of 105 mph.

With the power out throughout the area and fierce winds raging throughout the day, officials barely began Monday to assess the full damage of the monstrous storm, which was expected to leave thousands homeless and many more coping with damage from the wind and water.

Meantime, five miles to the west, engineers worked to close a breach along the New Orleans side of the 17th Street Canal.

Huge drainage pumps ordinarily can drive millions of gallons of rainwater uphill through the canal, as it takes water from the low-lying city into Lake Pontchartrain. But the breach turned the canal into a major threat. Lake water flowed back through the breach, hemorrhaging into Lakeview and beyond.

Across Lake Pontchartrain and closer to the site of Katrina’s landfall, thousands of homes in Slidell flooded. From the Interstate 10 overpass at Slidell’s Old Spanish Trail, the only visible structure from the dense commercial intersection was a boat bobbing on the waves.

“This is Lake Pontchartrain,” said St. Tammany deputy sheriff Kenny Kreeger.

Sections of the I-10 twin bridges linking St. Tammany and Orleans parishes over Lake Pontchartrain have been “severely damaged’’ in both directions, some knocked out, Louisiana highway officials said.

There were no confirmed reports of fatalities in New Orleans, although officials, including Gov. Kathleen Blanco, said they expected to find bodies in rescue efforts today.

St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis said there was one storm-related fatality on I-10, although he declined to give details. Earlier, three elderly residents of a nursing home died during their evacuation to Baton Rouge on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Margaret O’Brien-Molina, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross’ southwest service area office in Houston, said national Red Cross executives earlier today described Katrina as “the largest recovery operation the Red Cross has ever attempted.”

“The Red Cross response to this event is the equivalent Hurricane Andrew, Sept. 11 and more,” said American Red Cross Executive Rick Scofield.

The huge storm also flooded cities along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts.
Katrina pushed Mobile Bay into the city’s downtown district. A 22-foot storm surge devastated parts of Gulfport and Pascagoula, officials said.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called the storm “pretty awesome.”

He noted the city’s strategic importance as a port and a domestic oil refiner as reasons the federal government should assist in the rebuilding. “I think this is a wake-up call for the city and country,” he said.

President Bush promised swift federal relief for New Orleans and other devastated communities.

“FEMA said give us a list of your needs,” said Nagin, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “And let me tell you, we’re giving them a hell of a list.”

As night gathered over a city without lights, it appeared that at least 150 people – perhaps many more – were marooned on rooftops, sometimes with their children.

State Wildlife Secretary Dwight Landreneau said that by dawn he would have more than 200 boats in the water, about 120 more than he had on Monday. He said he also has a commitment from Texas for another 50 boats.

City officials said they might open the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center as a temporary refuge to shelter an estimated 50,000 people made homeless by the storm.

Police Chief Eddie Compass said officials were desperately trying to make conditions a little more comfortable for the more than 25,000 refugees housed in the sweltering Superdome. Saying that the Dome was filthy and smelled bad, Compass said he was going to allow people to go outside.

Travel about the city on the east bank of the Mississippi River to assess damage was limited, but certain reference points emerged:

-- Floodwaters blocked entry to the Lower 9th Ward along St. Claude Avenue.
“Look, look man: It’s gone. It’s gone,” said City Council President Oliver Thomas, who grew up in the 9th Ward and teared up while discussing the devastation. “This is crazy. Nothing like this ever happened before.”
-- Jackson Barracks near Arabi was beneath 12 feet of water. Chalmette High School and the St. Bernard Civic Center, both on St. Bernard’s main commercial artery, were both under an estimated 12 feet of water.
-- Along I-10 between Treme and Gentilly, only housetops were visible in a sea of floodwater. People waiting for rescue shined lights or called out to the rare motorist on the interstate.
-- At 3:30 p.m., National Guard trucks started bringing dozens of people trapped in their houses to the Superdome. Many were barefoot and wrapped in sheets.

In many neighborhoods, people waded through more than water waist deep, sometimes carrying food. Late Monday, a party of five adults waded along Tulane Avenue between Canal and Broad Streets, towing five toddlers in a large plastic tub.

In Kenner, Williams Boulevard flooded from I-10 to a point near Lake Pontchartain. Officials said it appeared worse than the memorable flood of May 8-, 1995.

On the New Orleans lakefront, the Southern Yacht Club burned to the ground.

Meanwhile, Katrina’s winds split homes, collapsed buildings and uprooted trees across a vast area. The famous oaks along St. Charles Avenue and its Uptown side streets were shattered. The avenue was made impassable by thickets of downed trees, many entangled with downed utility poles and criss-crossing power lines. Parked cars were smashed; many trees fell onto houses they once shaded.

Winds of more than 100 mph tore open a large part of the Superdome’s distinctive white roof. Rain poured in, forcing officials to move some refugees, who were using the building as a refuge of last resort.

Windows blew out of high-rise hotels in downtown New Orleans. Thousands of curtains waved like tattered handkerchiefs out the empty windows of the Hyatt Regency Hotel next to the Superdome.

Charity Hospital lost windows on five floors. Nagin said doctors and nurses there were ventilating patients manually.

Glass shards and other lethal debris whipped down deserted streets. In some hotels, elderly or infirm guests were carried down flights of stairs to the safety of windowless ballrooms.

In Marrero, nurses at West Jefferson General Hospital moved sick patients from their rooms into hallways to protect them as windows shattered, said Jennifer Steel, hospital spokeswoman.

Remarkably, the French Quarter seemed largely untouched.

The neighborhood was among the last to lose power as the storm strengthened shortly after dawn. After its passage, pedestrians bought beer through walk-up windows and guests loitered on second-floor balconies.

Among the only obvious signs of damaged: a portion of a wall collapsed exposing part of the third floor interior of Antoine’s Restaurant, and the U.S. Mint appeared to suffer heavy roof damage.

Jefferson Parish’s Chief Administrative Assistant Tim Whitmer said the damage from Katrina was almost equally split between the east bank and the West Bank. “We have widespread devastation in the parish,” he said.

Whitmer said officials were not able to assess all areas of the parish because of flooding and downed trees and power lines, which were scattered everywhere, as well as a shortage of workers, who had evacuated to escape the storm.

Based on reports officials had received, Whitmer said Westwego was particularly hard hit, with about 90 percent of the homes on the south side of the West Bank Expressway sustaining some kind of damage. Avondale also was hard hit.

Widespread flooding also was reported in Kenner in East Jefferson, particularly north of the interstate. Power remained out and water pressure was lost, but not because pumping stations were not working, he said.

“We had trees that came down and pulled up our (water) distribution lines, which caused breaks and we lost pressure,” he said.

By nightfall, the storm left behind a cluster of soaked, blacked-out coastal communities. Power failed. Telephone service was spotty or non-existent.
Jefferson Parish authorities told residents to boil their drinking water.

Sporadic looting broke out in some locations in New Orleans.

Katrina cut power service to an estimated 770,000 people, including 700,000 who form Entergy’s entire customer base, said utility spokeswoman Amy Stallings. Stallings warned 700,000 electrical customers to be prepared to go without power for a month or more.

The storm damaged every element of the power grid, from big generating plants to transmission lines to smaller feeder lines connecting to homes and businesses, she said.

She called the damage the worst ever seen in Entergy’s four-state territory.
Terry Ebbert, director of homeland security for New Orleans, said it could be two months – twice Entergy’s estimate – before electricity is restored to all of the city. He said Entergy will send 4,500 workers to the region and house them on barges on the Mississippi River.

Katrina struck a nearly empty city. Given the gift of a full weekend to evacuate, hundreds of thousands fled as far as Dallas, Little Rock and Memphis.
Officials urged them to stay away until further notice.

Blanco said people who attempt to return to the city will be stopped.

“You will be turned back. Only official emergency personnel will be allowed in,” Blanco said at an early afternoon news conference at the state Office of Emergency Preparedness.

State Adj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau said that it is too early to say when people will be allowed to return to the city. He said civil authorities haven’t even begun to make initial assessments of the damage.

O’Brien-Molina, the Red Cross spokeswoman, said state officials shut off interstate highways re-entering Louisiana to keep people from returning to flooded areas.

“I-10 is completely closed down,” she said. “No one can go back in and we have to find a place for them to stay.”

Officials are telling the public to expect no one will be allowed to go home for at least two days, O’Brien-Molina said.

17th st. canal. You can see how it runs into Canal St.

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