Katrina Live Thread, Part XI

The situation in New Orleans continues to deteriorate due to rising water levels and desperation. Search and rescue continues via boat and air. Authorities have announced the goal to evacuate all the remaining residents of NOLA. The New Orleans Mayor has reported numerous gas leaks throughout the city. Sporadic fires occurring. Attempts to evacuate hundreds of hospital patients from Charity Hospital and Tulane Medical Center are in process. Patients are being transported to other hospitals as far away as Florida.

The Army Corps of Engineers is at the NOLA levee breaks with current plans to drop 3000 lb sand bags in an effort to stop the flow of water. NOLA hospital evacuations continue for thousands of patients. Reports indicate all evacuees are being taken to the SuperDome, which is now surrounded by water. The generators at the Dome are now in jeopardy. The Governor of Louisiana has called for a day of prayer tomorrow...

Elsewhere, search and rescue continue in Mississippi and Alabama. Biloxi reports indicate catastrophic damage.

2theAdvocate - Baton Rouge Includes Slidell, St. John Parish, St. Bernard Parish updates, and other locations.

Inside Houma Today needing boats, volunteers, lists gas station openings, water, etc.

Due to the number of requests to assist, the following list of some charities is provided.
This is not intended as an endorsement for any of the charities.

www.redcross.org or 1-800 HELP NOW - note: website is slow
Salvation Army - 1-800-SAL-ARMY or Salvation Army currently looking for in-state volunteers - (888)363-2769
Operation Blessing: (800) 436-6348.
America's Second Harvest: (800) 344-8070.
Catholic Charities USA: (800) 919-9338, or www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee: (800) 848-5818.
Church World Service: (800) 297-1516 or online at www.churchworldservice. org.
Lutheran Disaster Response: (800) 638-3522.
Nazarene Disaster Response: (888) 256-5886.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance: (800) 872-3283.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is accepting donations at its 3,800 stores and Web site, www.walmart.com.

but it is totally obvious that he did not have any kind of viable plan for this event. Ah, but he did; it was the "It's gonna turn" plan.

You're wrong. And I'm tired of having to defend the mayor of a destroyed city just because politics puts him, or you, or whoever on the wrong side of the fence. The mayor and ALL of the officials of New Orleans and Louisiana as a whole warned everyone beginning Friday that this storm was not going to turn, that it was a worst-case scenario, and that everyone had to get out. A mandatory evacuation in a major US city is a significant order to give. They did it, and were as blunt as could be that people needed to leave.

A city like New Orleans does not have the means, or the equipment, or the manpower to deal with a disaster like this. THat's been the fear all along. There was no solution. With no money, what good would a paper "plan" have been? You don't have an army of helicopters and ships to plug the levees and evacuate every citizen. Keep some perspective.

"Right. Are you going to tell us what the plan is?"

Well, for a start:
(from http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html#075207)

The White House released a list of the response through Tuesday afternoon by federal agencies and the American Red Cross:

FEMA
FEMA deployed 23 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams from all across the U.S. to staging areas in Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, and Louisiana and is now moving them into impacted areas.

Seven Urban Search and Rescue task forces and two Incident Support Teams have been deployed and propositioned in Shreveport, La., and Jackson, Miss., including teams from Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Three more Urban Search and Rescue teams are in the process of deployment.

FEMA is moving supplies and equipment into the hardest hit areas as quickly as possible, especially water, ice, meals, medical supplies, generators, tents, and tarps.

U.S. Coast Guard
More than 40 Coast Guard aircraft from units along the entire eastern seaboard, with more than 30 small boats, patrol boats, and cutters are positioned in staging areas around the impact areas, from Jacksonville, Fla., to Houston, now conducting post-hurricane search, rescue and humanitarian aid operations, waterway impact assessments and waterway reconstitution operations.

Department of Transportation
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) dispatched more than 390 trucks that are beginning to deliver millions of meals ready to eat, millions of liters of water, tarps, millions of pounds of ice, mobile homes, generators, containers of disaster supplies, and forklifts to flood damaged areas. DOT has helicopters and a plane assisting delivery of essential supplies.

National Guard
The National Guard of the four most heavily impacted states are providing support to civil authorities as well as generator, medical and shelter with approximately 7,500 troops on State Active Duty. The National Guard is augmenting civilian law enforcement capacity; not acting in lieu of it.

Department of Agriculture
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) State Emergency Boards are coordinating agricultural-related responses at the county, state, and national levels in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and elsewhere. USDA is also coordinating damage assessments to area crops, livestock, and other agriculture-related operations. Farmers are encouraged to contact their local USDA Service Center for additional information on assistance available.

Department of Health and Human Services
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has sent 38 U.S. Public Health Service Officers to Jackson, Miss., for deployment. In addition, HHS has 217 U.S. Public Health Service Officers on standby for deployment to support medical response in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf states.

Department of Defense
The United State Northern Command (NORTHCOM) continues to assist FEMA after disaster declarations were issued for Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi following the devastation caused in parts of each state by Hurricane Katrina.

Department of Labor
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is contacting major power companies to the areas affected to provide safety briefings to employees at power restoration staging areas in affected communities. OSHA is also releasing public service announcements to inform workers about hazards related to restoration and cleanup.

American Red Cross
The American Red Cross is providing a safe haven for nearly 4,000 evacuees in more than 230 Red Cross shelters, from the panhandle of Florida, across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas. The Red Cross is launching the largest mobilization of resources for a single natural disaster involving thousands of trained disaster relief workers, tons of supplies, and support.

And that's just through Tuesday afternoon. Now we hear that the Pentagon is sending five Navy ships and possibly a hospital ship.

A magic 8 ball doesn't ask questions, it provides answers.

Um, that was the joke. :)

Anyway, case in point: He tells the governor that there are reports of a prison riot with hostages being taken, and then asks her what she can tell him about it.

She oh so casually replies (close paraphrase), "Oh, well, we lost communications with the prisons, so I really don't have any way of knowing what's going on there."

Larry just moved right along from that INCREDIBLE statement, as if she'd given a SANE reply!

In the same segment, he had a guy on the phone, who was allegedly employed by a landlord of an apartment building that had been destroyed. The guy was incredibly awkward, using words ten sizes too big for his shoes, telling a tale of how he stuck around to "help" people, because he LOVES helping people, because he just LOVES, period.

He then went on to tell how he and some others were going house to house, "helping" people, because he just LOVES helping people. He seemed to talk himself into a bit of a corner, because it sounded to me like he was explaining how his team was going house to house gathering food and whatever the could find. When Larry SEEMED like he was going to move in for the kill -- asking the guy, well, what do you EAT? -- the guy mumbled something about oh, cans of food, whatever we can find -- and Larry then did the incredible.

He said goodbye to the caller, and then started singing his praises, about what a wonderful guy he was, and how we needed MORE people like him, and on and on and on. Then, the governor kicked in, and said that she thought he was a WONDERFUL example to others!

If you heard the guy, you know what I'm talking about. Ask any cop, and he will tell you that nothing sets off his radar like an ass-kisser -- and this guy was in full turbo puckersmooch mode from the moment he started talking. He ALSO sounded EXTREMELY nervous -- like someone who had been caught with his hand in the cookiejar, trying to tell the cook what a FANTASTIC kitchen he ran, and how he LOVED the guy's cooking.

It took me a while to haul my jaw off the floor after that surreal moment.

"To: SolomoninSouthDakota

Maybe, but the lake has a HUGE drain into the gulf. Maybe someday, we will get to the bottom of it."

The Lake IS above its normal level.

The outlet to the Gulf IS exactly as big as the maps show it to be.

The flow through that outlet IS however many gallons per second it is carrying out now.

Since the Lake IS above normal levels, and the outflow IS what it IS, the inflow MUST exceed the outflow at this point.

The inflow can only come from two places.

The river, which drains so much of the US that you can't view all of it and the Lake on the same scale map, AND

The area around the Lake which is inundated from the storm surge and the rainfall.

I think the fundamental thing you arer missing is that this is a dynamic situation.

There is NO water IN the Lake.

All the water is flowing THROUGH the Lake.

More is coming than is getting out.

When that is not true, the level will drop.

While it is, the level will rise.

The guys with big calculators that get paid to calculate exactly this equation say that the level is rising.

My money says they are correct.

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