Posted on 08/31/2005 2:11:38 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Heaviest loss of life appears to be from Biloxi building collapse
GULFPORT, MISS. - Stunned residents emerged from shelters and homes Tuesday to start assessing the massive damage left by Hurricane Katrina as rescuers pulled bodies from crushed homes and apartments near the coast.
The death toll in this hard-hit county rose to more than 100, but officials believe that number will rise. "There's so much rubble, we won't know for a while. But I fully expect the number to be in the hundreds," said Jason Green, assistant to the Harrison County coroner.
In an auxiliary morgue downtown, hearses unloaded bodies uncovered by search-and-rescue teams.
"Several families have brought in their dead," Green said.
County Supervisor Connie Rockco said it appears the heaviest loss of life was in east Biloxi, where an apartment building collapsed and killed 30 people.
"But there are fatalities from one end of the county to the other," Rockco said.
Gulfport Fire Chief Pat Sullivan said most of those who died in Gulfport perished in the zone of the storm surge, which pushed up to a set of railroad tracks about six blocks from the beach.
"We begged, we pleaded, we demanded. We told them they had a good chance of dying if they didn't leave. But there's only so much government can do to protect people," Sullivan said. "Too many people tried to ride it out. We can't regulate good sense."
Thought they were safe
Sullivan said many homes that survived the catastrophic Hurricane Camille in 1969 were washed away by Katrina.
"People in them thought they were safe, that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place," he said.
In Biloxi, at the Quiet Water Beach apartments, at least 30 people died when the two-story building crumbled in the storm Monday. One resident, Joy Schovest, told the Associated Press she swam for her life.
"We grabbed a lady and pulled her out the window and then we swam with the current," said Schovest, 55, breaking into tears. "It was terrifying. You should have seen the cars floating around us. We had to push them away when we were trying to swim."
All that remained of the apartment complex was a concrete slab surrounded by a heap of red bricks that were once the building's walls. A crushed red toy wagon, jewelry, clothing and twisted boards were mixed in with the debris.
Gulfport Police Lt. Michael Shaw said he and others in his search crew carried bodies across stretches of rubble that ran blocks from the beach.
"I've lived here all my life, and in some places we were, I couldn't recognize where I was," Shaw said.
The central part of the city, near the coast, looked as though it had been rocked by an explosion. At the waterfront, the blocklong floating Copa Casino had been heaved about 200 yards onto the shore. Its sides were blown to tatters, especially on the lower levels of the roughly six-floor structure.
The floating Grand Casino also was pushed aground and came to rest several blocks west of its former location.
On the beachfront U.S. 90, near the center of town, Hugh Keting surveyed where his law office used to be. The two-story stucco house had been scraped off its foundation, although a huge live oak next to it remained with hardly a damaged branch.
Dwight Harper's workplace was all but gone, too. He works for Dole, which runs a shipping operation on the docks. Some of the facility's two-story-tall unloaders and other heavy equipment were tossed about the edge of downtown.
Inside First Presbyterian Church, which faces the water about a block from the shore, waves had pounded away the plaster up to a line about 6 feet high across the entire back wall. The floor was covered with 3 inches of sand.
Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr said the beachfront shopping center that he and his father owned was destroyed, as were their homes.
Warr and his city staff met in the largely undamaged City Hall on Tuesday morning to choose locations for distribution points for the aid they expect to come in. He said he expected it to begin arriving early today.
"We understand the military trying to reach us was bogged down on U.S. 49," Warr said, referring to the main north-south highway into Gulfport. "I was told there were more than 100 big pines across the road in a two-mile stretch in the DeSoto (National) Forest."
City officials said they could not immediately re-establish water or sewer services. All land phone lines and most cell phone communications were out of service, they said, and crews were trying to repair a major gas leak downtown.
Tons of chicken parts, which had been stored for shipping in the port area, ended up scattered across dozens of blocks west of the city.
"That's going to become a biohazard in no time," said Sullivan, the fire chief. "We'll need fast help with that, too."
Police Chief Steve Barnes said there was an immediate need for portable toilets. "There's not one left standing along the whole (Mississippi) coast," he said.
Katrina's destruction was so widespread, Barnes said, that "all the emergency resources we need are being stretched."
Marine life facility gone
After several drug and grocery stores opened late in the day, lines quickly formed and parking lots filled. Some residents, including 67-year-old Norman Vancourt, said they were planning to leave the coast until basic services are restored. "I'll go as far north as it takes to get a hot cup of coffee," he said.
His house in Long Beach, a town of about 17,000 just west of Gulfport, was demolished. "In a storm like this, you don't even board it up," he said.
Six bottlenose dolphins from Marine Life Oceanarium that rode out the storm in two motel pools will leave town soon, too.
"We were totally destroyed," said Moby Solangi, the aquarium's president. "We're planning to put them in another facility until we can rebuild."
Three of Solangi's sea lions that ended up in neighborhoods were recovered alive, he said.
"The birds and fish, they're free now," Solangi said, describing how the storm crushed several 30-foot-tall tanks.
thomas.korosec@chron.com
I hope we can get rid of things in the next year. I have a cellar stuffed full of things I sell at the local big flea market, framed pictures (my hobby), antiques and stuff I want to use upstairs when the walls get fixed, etc., etc. Christmas stuff enough for 5 trees. Ya know? That doesn't count all the stuff upstairs on shelves, in cupboards. We're rich in STUFF.
Actually, I continue to hear you loud and clear. I get the boy cried wolf story. I don't see that government cried wolf everytime a tropical depression showed up on radar. From my vantage point, they've always seriously considered and weighed all the facts and predictions put out by the "experts". What else can they do? As far as I know, accurately predicting the stormtrack of a hurricane isn't 100% at this point in time.
My tinfoil hat keeps tellin me, the delay in evac, the denial of authority to declare an evac,,, has all the fingerprints of Mary L's protege, madame Rotten. Think about it, Mayor denies he has authority to declare an evac order. Why? Was he denied the authority by someone with more authority? Possibly. The Gov is next up the chain of command. Why did the Gov delay the evac order? Who denied her the authority to give the evac order? Next up the chain is Senator Mary L. Sen Mary L. was on TV the day of Katrina, front and center to blame GWB for the troop deployment being responsible for greivous injury to Dim voters. Who could coerce Mary L. to delay the evac order? The shadow of the shrew is all over this farce of "responsible" govenment of the people. It may seem a bit convoluted, but it has motive (Blame W). The only other explantion is in which case the Bunko Blancos should step aside and let the competant take charge to prevent any more loss of life, and property!
Kill A Commie For Mommie
Seven Dead Monkeys Page O Tunes
The conservative position is always to err on the side of public safety.
I was trying to figure out if I could get down there in time with my boat to help the rescue ops, but I'm afraid I'd get there too late to do any good.
Add to your tin foil that officials of Plaquemines and St. Barnard parishes asked for martial law and have been told that there is no provision for it in the state constitution. That means that it will have to be federalized or left in chaos. Bush gets blamed either for bypassing posse comitatis or doing nothing.
Kill A Commie For Mommie
Seven Dead Monkeys Page O Tunes
"What is there for people to return to? Homes? Jobs?"
No, and No. If they're lucky they still have their loved ones.
I think the comparison of scale of damage to a series of small nuclear blasts is apt in many ways.
I went through Hurrican Allen in 1980 during basic training at Lackland A.F.B. (San Antonio). The storm hit near Brownsville, but based on my experience, I'd need no evac order to leave Dodge. Anybody who's been there knows how solidly the dorms are built (not the barracks but the dorms). I distintly remember hearing the building groan as it was "breathing" in the wind. The 24 hours of non-stop thunder was unerving. And I mean non-stop. The thunder was continuous, with one peal blending perfectly into two or three others.
Only somebody who's been threw something like that knows the resounding cry of exuberant joy upon the realization of the first 3 minutes of silence. And you know what was even louder? The second cheering when we timed the period of silence about 15 minutes later, lasting almost a whole five minutes before the thunder resumed. And very rapidly the thunder diminished in frequency, to the point that within an hour or so we could actually understand what was being received on the guys little portable A.M. radio. Before that it was pure white noise static the kind that you hear when lightning strikes.
Looking down, turning red, stammering -- OMG. I should have known France wouldn't give a hoot. A sheepish "sorry 'bout that" :)
Thanks :)
It looks like it couldn't hurt to try. I am trying to find a group to go with, I know Governer Perry has put out a request for medical personal. I'm a nurse, and it's killing me to just watch it all unfold...
These people need help, fast, needed it days ago. When all is said and done, when this starts to get settled down, there needs to be some SERIOUS after action discussion, and perhaps indictments...
I was advised by LA authorities NOT to come.
They stated that they had enough problems dealing with their own citizens without trying to coordinate "individual volunteers", and that within one week the city would be deserted anyway.
She didn't believe the water was toxic?! Appalling!
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