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FEMA et alia need to stop thinking about SAR in land-air terms.

There's really only one way to have a mass-exodus out of New Orleans at this point:

THE RIVER.

The river levee is the highest large open patch of land in the area, and there are a lot of docks.

I *know* there are a lot of shallow-draft barges and tugs which could be militarized and tasked for evacuation. Getting folks to the levee might require teams in zodiacs, pirogues, and maybe even hovercraft, but it can be done.

They need to start doing thios NOW NOW NOW - the situation in NOLA is going to get a lot worse, especially if the river levee breaches or is topped when the upstream rains swell the Mississippi over the next few days.

Pass this on, if you have FEMA/NG contacts.

Bump

URGENT NEWS ABOUT NEW ORLEANS VIA A LOCAL LOS ANGELES REPORTER STRANDED IN A HOTEL DOWNTOWN. (Don't know where else to put this, so am posting here.)

The local KTLA Channel 5 Los Angeles science and technology reporter, Kurt Knudtsen (spelling ?) is stranded in a hotel in downtown New Orleans. This morning, while the cable news stations still don't seem to have quite gotten what's going on in New Orleans yet, Kurt has been giving live updates to his station in L.A. Turns out the land line in his hotel is still working where he's at because, he said, its on a slightly higher bit of ground than the surrounding area, and the lines are underground there. No telling how long they'll continue to work, but for now he's able to give updates to the folks back here at KTLA.

What he describes is devastating. Looting. Shooting. He said he heard screaming, but was afraid to peak outside to see what was happening.

There are fires in a couple of buildings in the city due to gas lines that have not been shut off. No way to put out those fires right now, so the fires might spread.

KTLA has been showing helicopter footage of New Orleans. Looks like most of the city is flooded up to rooftop level. One of the fires is in a small wood-frame house that had been totally gutted when taped from the helo. A guy was stranded on a roof a couple of houses over. If that fire spreads, no telling how many trapped and/or stranded people are nearby.

Eight feet of water surrounds Kurt's hotel, which he says is in the oldest part of N.O., and on a slightly higher piece of ground. The hotel staff have said anyone who leaves doesn't get back in because of the civil unrest outside. They are down to food rationing. A piece of fruit this morning, a muffin for lunch, don't know about dinner. He says it's getting to the point where soon it will be every person for themselves as desperation and hunger set in.

He says its starting to be like on the Survivor TV show where people are making alliances with other people they think can survive this. Kurt says he's made an alliance with another guy he knows, and they are thinking about trying to make it over to a large parking structure nearby so that they might have a chance to flag down a rescue helicopter.

He says people are walking around in a daze not knowing where to go, but that things at the hotel have not quite gotten to the really desperate stage yet.

The people here at KTLA are trying to find a way to get him out. He was on assignment in New Orleans for the station -- not hurricane related assignment, I don't think. Just happened to be there and couldn't get out like a lot of people who happened to be visiting the city.