Posted on 08/30/2005 4:17:24 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
NEW ORLEANS - The historic city of New Orleans was steadily filling with water from nearby Lake Ponchartrain today after its defenses were breached by the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina.
Water began rising in the streets this morning after a levee broke along a canal leading to Lake Pontchartrain, and many of the pumps relied upon by New Orleans -- built below sea level -- have failed.
Officials planned to use helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags into the breach, but rising floodwaters were threatening the French Quarter, residents were plucked from the roofs of their homes, bodies were seen floating in the streets and rescuers searched the city in boats and helicopters.
Portions of the Interstate 10 high-rise bridge over the mouth of Lake Pontchartrain east of New Orleans have collapsed. Another bridge, the causeway running across the middle of the lake, has structural damage, and engineers are inspecting U.S. 11, which also crosses the lake, to determine if it is structurally sound.
"We probably have 80 percent of our city under water; with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet. Both airports are underwater,'' Mayor Ray Nagin told a radio interviewer.
New Orleans, a city that usually throbs with the life of its carnivals and the sound of jazz and blues, was in a "state of devastation,'' Nagin said.
Much of New Orleans, a city of some 500,000, lies in a bowl below sea level, bounded by the lake and the Mississippi River, which curves along the south of the city before discharging in the Gulf of Mexico.
"We always were afraid the bowl that is New Orleans would fill quickly,'' Walter Maestri, emergency management coordinator for Jefferson Parish, said in a radio interview.
"The water is rising so fast I cannot begin to describe how quickly it's rising,'' Tulane University Medical Center Vice President Karen Troyer-Caraway told CNN. "We have whitecaps on Canal Street, the water is moving so fast.''
The downtown hospital was surrounded by 6 feet of water and considering evacuating its 1,000 patients.
The New Orleans VA Medical Center began to evacuate this morning after the floodwaters disrupted its generators, endangering patients on ventilators.
"The devastation is greater than our worst fears,'' Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said in a news conference. "It's totally overwhelming.''
Weather experts had predicted the city would be quickly overwhelmed by the impact of Katrina, which tore across the coast on Monday, but initially damage appeared less than catastrophic.
By today, however, the full impact was clear as the water rose and overwhelmed pumps, part of an elaborate system of walls, canals and other devices built to protect the city from just such a disaster.
Fears grew about pollution, with the water believed to be carrying sewage, spilled fuel and other pollutants from residential and commercial districts inundated in the flood.
Reporters said there was waist-high water round the Superdome, the huge covered football stadium near downtown New Orleans that had been used as an emergency evacuation center for thousands of residents.
Local television showed people and dogs sitting on rooftops, the houses below them invisible in brackish water. A hand was visible through a window in a house surrounded by chest-high water.
One man was seen using an ice chest as a flotation device. Another clung to metal scaffolding to escape the deluge, which ironically occurred in sunshine and blue skies today.
No deaths were officially confirmed, but Nagin said bodies were seen floating.
State Sen. Ann Duplessis, who owns a home in eastern New Orleans, said she had reports from neighbors in the gated Eastover subdivision of bodies floating in the floodwaters.
Officials went on television to urge people not to try to return to their homes yet. "You need to get used to where you're at right now because this may take us some time.'' said U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal.
"There will be neighborhoods where people just can't get back into their homes for weeks, if not months," said Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Even if they wanted to, New Orleans residents would have a difficult time just getting back to their hometown.
Much of Interstate 10 is closed on either side of New Orleans. Some sections of Lake Ponchartrain's I-10 twin span — a lifeline between the south and north shores of the lake — are missing; others have shifted position but are still standing.
"We know that the I-10 twin span has blown over, is no longer with us," said Mark Smith, spokesman for the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
"This will be the story for some time to come,"said Lt. Lawrence J. McLeary, spokesman for the Louisiana State Police.
Many roads and highways south and north of New Orleans are either flooded and impassable or have been closed by state police to keep people from entering damaged areas until emergency workers can rescue stranded residents and other crews can make damage assessments.
Blanco said 700 people had been rescued so far, but she said it was still too early to count the casualties.
"We have no counts whatsoever," she said, "but we know many lives have been lost."
Thank you very much....
Call the Salvation Army and let them have your info. There are no phones, no email, no nothing working in NO right now. The Salvation Army and the Red Cross do a good job of getting loved ones in touch during disasters. It might take awhile. My prayers are with you. God Save those poor people.
I have seen no numbers listed, prayers for their safety, and hopefully they will call you as soon as they can.
How is it that Bourbon Street is dry? I just don't get that?
Yeah, he sounded like a valium-addled robot. He does not come across as very competent...
He needs to be 'frog-marched' out of New Orleans. I remember last year during Ivan when New Orleans was threatened thinking to myself that they better pray he is never in charge when the big one hits. He is totally incompetent and probably corrupt. How come the LA. DEMS and politicos can bus people to the polls on election day and could not bus them to safety? Heads need to roll!!
Did someone say dry bourbon?
Bourbon Street and portions of the French Quarter may be above sea level
Don't know...
My recall was of watching ships go by on Mississippi
while I was in Jackson square while looking UP!
but river was about 17 ft. above sea level
so the perspective of memory is distorted
Bourbon Street was dry before the levee broke. Shepard Smith was standing in water this afternoon as the water rose. It's even higher now. I don't know how deep.
I look at the video and ask myself, How in the World do clean it up, and do it safely? It will be a Petri dish of diseases in very little time. You have dead animals, rotting meet and food, sewage, graveyards, and the bodies of people yet to be found.
Is it safe to say that the weight of that water will cause further sinking of the terrain in the New Orleans "bowl?"
I liked to frequent a little restaurant called the Bon Ton whenever I visited this city. Suppose its gone now.
IMO new orleans is gone. A city below sea level is just not going to work. Even if they block up the holes, pump all the water out (and that's a lot of water!) and rebuild, what stops another hurricane who knows when from tearing it all down again? It's just a very bad location to put a city.
How 'bout Virginia??
I should probably add that I am probably wrong before I get eaten!
Bourbon Street is 2.5 feet above sea level.
Does anyone have a link to make a donation?
God have mercy and help these people. Give them strength.
Amen.
I am fine, I am in New Mexico at present going to Alaska in two weeks.
I have gotten any word from her, but that could be my travel connection and email.
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