Katrina Live Thread, Part X

Various ^ | 30 August 2005

[NautiNurse]

Catastrophic damage occurred to Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Major bridges are destroyed. Mobile AL suffered its worst flooding in 90 years. In New Orleans, a large section of concrete levee broke last night. Water continues to rise, threatening, among many things, Tulane Hospital with 1000 patients. New Orleans officials: Do not attempt to return to the city at this time if you evacuated. It is too dangerous.

Sun-Herald Gulfport MS

WLOX TV Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagula

Gulfport News via Topix.net WAFB Baton Rouge

Slidell, Mandeville, and Covington Updates Warning: website is overloaded due to heavy traffic

Mobile Register via al.com

Mississippi updates via Jackson Ledger

Lafayette LA Daily Advertiser

Pensacola News Journal

[jpsb]

"So many Gulf Coast oldtimers just decide to hunker down"

Folks in the path of the next huricane will most likely rethink "hunkering down". I know I will.

[nwctwx]

Reuters: Hundreds may be dead in Biloxi.

[owl37]

The levee is very close to the Superdome. They could just pull some barges up the river and load the people into them from the levee and tow them to Texas. The accomodations wouldn't be great, but this is about saving lives, not about deluxe accomodations. I'd rather be on a barge and breathing fresh air than in that dome right now.

While many people have commented they are glad that their house isn't "next to the levee" the Mississippi levee is the highest point in the city. The first thing that people do if a flood is anticipated is park their cars on the levee. If I were in N.O right now I'd walk out of the city via the dirt road that is on top of the levee. It might take some days to reach a place where you could catch as ride, but what else would you be doing?

[Howlin]

I wouldn't even want to guess.

Report out of Biloxi from CNN: "hundreds" of people may have been killed from the storm surge.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Thanks you guys...they were planning a big event there in the first part of October; a friend of mine was booked to speak. I have a pretty good hunch that it "ain't gonna happen" (as they say) at this point.

That's the least of anyone's concerns, though - I was just thinking about it and thought I'd ask.

(My dad has a brick in the walkway there.)

[the Deejay]

And those who are looting should be shot.

I said that yesterday.

In some countries that they would have.

Looters will pay dearly in one form or another.

Maybe a snake will bite some of them in the butt.

[ContemptofCourt]

LLOTING NOW IN BILOXI:

An Assosiated Press reporter on the beach in Biloxi says it "looks like a free-for-all," as looters come running out of souvenir shops, loaded down with merchandise.

He saw two men riding go-carts taken from an amusement park near the beach.

Two men were pushing a large plastic garbage can with wheels -- so full that it took both of them to drag it down the street.

[nwctwx]

Biloxi fears hundreds dead after Katrina

BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - Hundreds may have been killed by Hurricane Katrina in the Mississippi Gulf Coast city of Biloxi after being trapped in their homes when a 30-foot (9 meter) storm surge came ashore, a spokesman for the city said on Tuesday.

"It's going to be in the hundreds," Vincent Creel told Reuters. "Camille was 200, and we're looking at a lot more than that," he said, referring to Hurricane Camille, which hit the area in 1969 and destroyed swaths of Mississippi and Louisiana.

http://olympics.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-08-30T181136Z_01_SCH065511_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-WEATHER-KATRINA-DEATHS-DC.XML

[Types_with_Fist]

One Helicopter and a few men to rescue all those people. Amazing courage.

Riveting stuff. I saw a fish jump out of the water as they were bringing up that last girl.

[cajungirl]

I saw that and expected it. The death toll will rise, nobody is in these places yet reporting. And I worry about the lower parishes in Louisiana.

[DocRock]

"So will the fundies - blaming it on Mardi Gras excesses."

Inappropriate comment, please refrain.

[DollyCali]

Once this take over occurs, I wonder if looters will be shot? that would be a hard task to put on our troops. Shooting the terrorists in the mideast in one thing.. but their fellow citizens (yes, deprived etc).. is another.

Hopefully the looters will come to their senses

[nicmarlo]

I thought it was just me who was left speechless.

[randita]

If I were in N.O right now I'd walk out of the city via the dirt road that is on top of the levee. It might take some days to reach a place where you could catch as ride, but what else would you be doing?

I believe I read where the mayor was exhorting people to do just that -- start walking toward Baton Rouge if you're able.

[BlueNgold]

That's not how I see (or saw as I watched this intensely) the time line...

Friday August 26th:
AT 8 PM EDT...0000Z...THE EYE OF HURRICANE KATRINA WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 24.7 NORTH... LONGITUDE 83.3 WEST OR ABOUT 100 MILES... WEST OF KEY WEST FLORIDA.(NHC report)
Strike probabilities at that time were highest from Apalachicola to Pensacola Florida with diminishing probabilities moving east. As many people, the mayor included, said: on Friday night this was a Florida storm.

It was the 11 PM EDT NHC forecast and discussion that began to center the forecast west, closer to areas around the LA/MS coast, however strike probabilities were still essentially equal from Pensacola across to NOLA.

The Saturday 5 AM advisory narrowed the prediction to the MS/LA line considerably.

Saturday 10AM CDT the NHC recommends issuing a Hurricane Watch for SE LA. However, as can be seen from the concurrent advisories, the Hurricane Watch was not converted to a Hurricane warning until 10 PM CDT Saturday night, at which time Katrina was still a CAT III Hurricane. The Strike Probabilities did not make NOLA the clear center until 4 PM Saturday.

Saturday August 27th, before the NHC issued a formal Hurricane Warning, the Mayor and Governor called for a voluntary evacuation of NOLA, suspended tolls, and put in place the Contra Flow plan.

Sunday 1 AM The NHC identifies Katrina as a Cat IV storm.

Sunday 7 AM the NHC identifies Katrina as a CAT V storm.

Sunday morning August 28th the voluntary evacuation was made mandatory, shelters were opened, and the LANG was mobilized (some orders to report had gone out the night before).


Now some want to blame the politicians for not doing more, or for not doing more sooner. Several parishes issued mandatory evacuation orders prior to Sunday, but people still chose not to listen. Sunday Night, with Katrina bearing down and the doomsday scenario looming - after the Mayor had called Katrina the storm people had feared for years - people were partying on Bourbon St and swearing at those who questioned their judgment in staying (live on FNC no less) - but, of course, it is the politicians fault that people show bad judgment. Is Haley Barbour responsible for the idiots who were surfing the storm in Gulf Shores, or is Bob Riley responsible for the same type of idiots in Orange Beach? Of course not. (Oh wait, those are Republicans, we like blaming Democrats, so lets focus on NO and LA in general.)

In the modern era we have access to unprecedented amounts of information, but what has not changed is that people remain responsible for what they do with that information. I find no malice and nothing that I would call negligence in the reactions and policies of those responsible for public safety. I see great amounts of negligence in those responsible for their own safety. There was time - the warnings were issued. Many people simply chose not to listen. So now we will help, and we will pray. And some, as always, will blame before they do anything else.

At what point should the evacuation order have been made mandatory? At a 15% strike probablity? 20%? 40%? Its not as easy as it sounds from the couch.

[Txsleuth]

Oh, sorry....can't figure out why they would put up an ALERT for 9 INCHES when most of the city is under FEET of water, though.

[tomkat]

From the CNN weatherguy's explanation earlier, I'm gathering that the main break is the one in this edited slice from the big link above, Lake P being in the direction of the bottom of the picture:

But there appears to be another, smaller (for the moment) breach on the other side of the canal.
Perhaps a result of hydrologic forces in that direction from the original break ?

[nwctwx]

Speculation or not... I have no doubt thousands are dead.

[jeffers]

The clorinatio info was from the earlier poster.

I always use 8 drops of Clorox per gallon when backpacking, but I'd up it to 16 drops per gallon in a case where sanitation plants have failed. The clorox can take up to an hour to work in cold water, so I usually leave it overnight before drinking. During that time, a plastic container will absorb most, if not all of the taste. Much better than iodine or halozone, IMO.

[Howlin]

I am just speechless.