Debris from a fallen building covers several buildings in downtown New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
Posted on 08/29/2005 7:49:16 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Katrina plowed into this below-sea-level city Monday with howling, 145-mph winds and blinding rain that flooded some homes to the ceilings and ripped away part of the roof of the Superdome, where thousands of people had taken shelter.
Katrina weakened overnight to a Category 4 storm and turned slightly eastward before hitting land about 6:10 a.m. CDT east of Grand Isle near the bayou town of Buras, providing some hope that this vulnerable city would be spared the storm's full fury.
But National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield warned that New Orleans would be pounded throughout the day and that Katrina's potential 15-foot storm surge, down from a feared 28 feet, was still substantial enough to cause extensive flooding.
"I'm not doing too good right now," Chris Robinson said via cellphone from his home east of the city's downtown. "The water's rising pretty fast. I got a hammer and an ax and a crowbar, but I'm holding off on breaking through the roof until the last minute. Tell someone to come get me please. I want to live."
Along the Gulf Coast, the storm hurled boats onto land in Mississippi, lashed street lamps and flooded roads in Alabama, and swamped highway bridges and knocked out power to 28,000 people in the Florida Panhandle. New Orleans, which was in particular peril because it is so low-lying, was ordered evacuated over the weekend, and an estimated 80 percent of its 480,000 residents complied.
At the Superdome, home to 9,000 storm refugees, wind peeled pieces of metal from the golden roof, leaving two holes that let water drip in. People inside were moved out of the way.
Others stayed and watched as sheets of metal flapped and rumbled loudly. From the floor, looking up more than 19 stories, it appeared to be openings of about six feet long. Outside, one of the 10-foot, concrete clock pylons set up around the Superdome blew over.
"The Superdome is not in any dangerous situation," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.
Scores of windows were blown out at some of New Orleans' hotels. At the Windsor Court Hotel, guests were told to go into the interior hallways with blankets and pillows and to keep the doors closed to the rooms to avoid flying glass.
At 10 a.m. EDT, Katrina was centered about 30 miles southeast of New Orleans. That put the western eye wall with some of the fiercest weather over New Orleans. The storms winds dropped to 135 mph as it pushed inland, threatening the Gulf Coast and the Tennessee Valley with as much as 15 inches of rain over the next couple of days and up to 8 inches in the drought-stricken Ohio Valley and eastern Great Lakes.
Katrina was a terrifying, 175-mph Category 5 behemoth — the most powerful category on the scale — before weakening.
Mayfield said at midmorning the worst flooding from storm surge was on the Mississippi coast, east of the eye, with the highest storm surge recorded so far at 22 feet in Bay St. Louis.
Along U.S. 90 in Mississippi, the major coastal route that is home to the state's casinos, sailboats were washed onto the four-lane highway.
"This is a devastating hit — we've got boats that have gone into buildings," Gulfport Fire Chief Pat Sullivan said as he maneuvered around downed trees in the city. "What you're looking at is Camille II."
In 1969, Hurricane Camille, a Category 5 storm, killed 256 people in Mississippi and Louisiana. Storm surges were measured at 24 feet in some places.
In Gulf Shores, Ala., which nearly a year ago was Ground Zero for Hurricane Ivan's destruction, waves crashed over the seawalls and street lights danced in the howling winds.
About 370,000 customers in southeastern Louisiana were without power, said Chenel Lagarde, spokesman for Entergy Corp., the main energy power company in the region.
In New Orleans' French Quarter, where the power went out at 6:35 a.m., hotel residents huddled inside in the midmorning darkness as winds howled, a horizontal rain pinged against the windows, and slate roof tiles tore off.
At the hotel Le Richelieu, the winds blew open sets of balcony french doors shortly after dawn. Seventy-three-year-old Josephine Elow of New Orleans pressed her weight against the broken doors as a hotel employee tried to secure them.
"It's not life-threatening," Mrs. Elow said as rain water dripped from her face. "God's got our back."
Elow's daughter, Darcel Elow, was awakened before dawn by a high-pitched howling that sounded like a trumpeting elephant.
"I thought it was the horn to tell everybody to leave out the hotel," she said as she walked the hall in her nightgown.
For years, forecasters have warned of the nightmare scenario a big storm could bring to New Orleans, a bowl of a city that is up to 10 feet below sea level in spots and relies on a network of levees, canals and pumps to keep dry from the Mississippi River on one side, Lake Pontchartrain on the other.
The fear was that flooding could overrun the levees and turn New Orleans into a toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, as well as waste from ruined septic systems.
In the uptown area of New Orleans on the south shore of Lake Ponchartrain, floodwaters by 8 a.m. had already intruded on the first stories of some houses and some roads were impassable.
The National Weather Service reported that a levee broke on the Industrial Canal near the St. Bernard-Orleans parish line, and 3 to 8 feet of flooding was possible. The Industrial Canal is a 5.5-mile waterway that connects the Mississippi River to the Intracoastal Waterway.
Crude oil futures spiked to more than $70 a barrel in Singapore for the first time Monday as Katrina targeted an area crucial to the country's energy infrastructure, but the price had slipped back to $68.95 by midday in Europe. The storm already forced the shutdown of an estimated 1 million barrels of refining capacity.
Terry Ebbert, New Orleans director of homeland security, said more than 4,000 National Guardsmen were mobilizing in Memphis and would help police New Orleans streets.
The head of Jefferson Parish, which includes major suburbs and juts all the way to the storm-vulnerable coast, said some residents who stayed would be fortunate to survive.
"I'm expecting that some people who are die-hards will die hard," parish council President Aaron Broussard said.
The evacuation itself claimed lives. Three New Orleans nursing home residents died Sunday after being taken by bus to a Baton Rouge church. Don Moreau, of the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office, said the cause was probably dehydration.
Katrina, which cut across Florida last week, had intensified into a colossal Category 5 over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico, reaching top winds of 175 mph before weakening as it neared the coast.
A hurricane warning was in effect for the Gulf Coast from Morgan City, La., to the Alabama-Florida line. Tornado warnings were posted for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
New Orleans has not taken a direct hit from a hurricane since Betsy in 1965, when an 8- to 10-foot storm surge submerged parts of the city in seven feet of water. Betsy, a Category 3 storm, was blamed for 74 deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Evacuation orders also were posted all along the Mississippi coast, and the area's casinos, built on barges, were closed.
Katrina hit the southern tip of Florida as a much weaker storm Thursday and was lamed for nine deaths. It left miles of streets and homes flooded and knocked out power to 1.45 million customers. It was the sixth hurricane to hit Florida in just over a year.
___
Associated Press reporters Mary Foster, Holbrook Mohr, Brett Martel and Allen G. Breed contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
"MurryMom only understands when you backhand her across the face hard enough for her few brain cells to register pain."
LOL!
That was funneeee! ;o)
Just remember, some liberals are so stupid that their sole reason for existing is to remind us that evolution can sometimes go backwards.
Regards, Ivan
OK, our office is shutting down at 11:00 CST. Things are getting quite blustery here in Jackson.
"Just remember, some liberals are so stupid that their sole reason for existing is to remind us that evolution can sometimes go backwards."
ROTFLOL!
That is GREAT tagline material.
And, it is SO true!
;o)
Still attacking the Leader who will actually defend the Nation and defending the Treasonous PoS who seriously damaged National Security I see. But those in the Traitor Party could care less about protecting the United States.
Debris from a fallen building covers several buildings in downtown New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
The FNC infobabe said, "Bil-OCKS-y",
then corrected herself, and pronounced it right!
I never thought I would see the day...
I think I heard on the radio that the lower 9th Ward is flooded. Does anyone know?
Floodwaters are starting to become a problem in Orleans Parish, with 6 to 8 feet of water collecting in the Lower 9th Ward, state officials said at a briefing Monday just before 9 a.m. ...
On the north side of Judge Perez Drive (In Chalmette), waters had risen as high as 10 feet, he said. Boasso, who lives in Chalmette, said he has been in touch with Council Chairman Joey DiFatta...
Even Entergy without power
Power outages seem to have have hit almost everyone in the city, even Entergy New Orleans' command center at the Hyatt Regency Hotel next to the Superdome.
Who caused it?
The Lord God showed us what He can easily do (Cat 5)
and showed mercy upon us for the sake of those who He has a saving relationship with...
Thanks and praise are always in order..
I guess he didn't plan to swim through a window
Though I feel sorry for those whose property has been/will be destroyed by Katrina, I am equally outraged by President Bush and the entitlement mentality in this country which supports the notion that the federal government exists to provide "disaster relief".
FEMA, as well as any "aid" distributed by President Bush is socialism at its finest, and I oppose any and all attempts to use tax dollars for such purposes.
If it truly were in the best interest of Americans to help the people and businesses of New Orleans rebuild their damaged property, we would gladly pitch in and help.
But, for the federal government to march in and allocate tax dollars from my wallet into the wallets of other Americans is no less egregious that the Kelo v. New London decision.
"Perhaps the prayers of just a few were enough for the Almighty to spare the city. "
I was thinking the same thing!
I was in a disaster zone some 24 years ago. The people who were hit by it said the biggest disaster was FEMA itself.
Like I said, I'm very glad to help those in Katrina's path in whatever way I choose and am able.
However, taking property from one private citizen and giving it to another for any reason outside the specifically enumerated items in Article I of the Constitution is totally Unconstitutional, and therefore illegal.
It is sad that too many of the Bushbots/Hush Bimbo kool-aid drinkers don't/won't see it because they think the President actually cares about conservative social issues, and therefore his big government, out of control fiscal policies continue unabated.
How else can you explain the biggest non-defense spending increases in 40 years, other than by concluding that George Bush and his "neocon" ideologue aides are no less socialists than LBJ or FDR?
I am from New Orleans but do not think that the prayers of people in New Orleans are stronger than the prayers of Biloxi.
But for now, I will be thankful but someday New Orleans will go under.
A vehicle makes its way through a flooded street from the overflowing Grande Lagoon in Pensacola, Fla., as Hurricane Katrina passes through the area, Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. (AP Photo/Peter Cosgrove)
An Interstate-10 sign is nearly underwater near downtown New Orleans on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. Hurricane Katrina battered the coast with strong winds and heavy rains when it came ashore near Grand Isle. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.