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

[dirtboy]

Nobody was stuck. Tourists could have gotten cars to leave,

The car rental agencies were closed.

could have gotten a plane before the airport closed,

Flights started getting cancelled on Saturday.

could have gone into the superdome.

The point was for people to be able to get out of the city - not stay there. That's my entire point. There were probably 2,000 school buses in the NO area - get the guard mobilized, confiscate those buses (most are probably ruined now anyway) and get those people ANYWHERE but NO.

[the Deejay]

Thanks. WDSU.com has truly great coverage!

They must be on a powerful generator to
be able to broadcast so well.

[james_f_hall]

Looting food, water, supplies is fine IMO. Looting stereo, goods, etc, that is wrong.

[EBH]

I keep reading posts about what the mayor or gov. should have done, but I can't help but think what each person should have done to help their neighbor get out.

Knowing I have a way to carry 3 extra people in the event of an evac order, my 3 top choices are the little old man across the street, the disabled vet down the street, and all our family pets (we all have cats & dogs). Plus a go bag.

Is it truly the gov. problem to evac. people under manadatory orders or is it ours to help our fellow citizens.

Just a humble opinion.

[jpsb]

If you have too swim into and out of a store is it still looting? Or is it rather salvage?

[BlueNgold]

There will be some point away from the Gulf Coast where power is reliable. You find that point, ensure you have redundancy, and begin fighting your way into the middle.

[cgk]

They're not near New Orleans, are they? This is all I have seen so far about routes open/closed...

Only way out of New Orleans is WestThe only way people can leave the city of New Orleans is to get on Crescent City Connection, head to the West Bank and take Highway 90 to Interstate 310 or I-10 on to Lafayette, authorities said this morning.

Interstate-10 eastbound, toward Slidell and the Gulf Coast, can't be traveled. Several sections of the Twin Spans have washed away and other sections of the bridge are structurally unsound.

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway has been opened to police, fire and other emergency vehicles after an initial inspection concluded the 24-mile long bridge was sound, WWL Radio reported this morning.

No other vehicles will be allowed on the bridge; and access to St. Tammany Parish remains restricted. The condition of U.S. Highway 11 across the Lake is not known.

[NautiNurse]

In MS, the Jackson Co. Emergency Ops Center roof was blown off. They had to relocate to the Judicial Center.

[Heatseeker]

You have to remember Brian Williams woke America up yesterday stating New Orleans had dodged the bullet. Of course, no one will remember that during his retirement dinner.

He should probably avoid WDSU news personnel, who currently have a lot to say about his ilk.

[kenth]

The Superdome wasn't a plan, it was a last resort.

[alancarp]

Those reports referred to the US 90 bridge going east from Bay St. Louis, MS towards Pass Christian.

[dirtboy]

I think the Jerk of the Week contest is over,

The guy is entitled to his own opinions, not his own facts. I've been floored since Sunday when I found out they had no plan to get those without cars out of a city below sea level with a hurricane approaching. And that cannot be forgotten.

[Coldwater Creek]

Are you in the Memphis area????

[CajunConservative]

They could have coordinated with other cities like Alexandria, Shreveport, Lafayette, etc to use their school and city buses and shuttled people from NO to BR then picked up from there and the other cities busses take them to the designated shelters. That is of course if there would have been a plan to impliment.

[STFrancis]

My understanding is that the Twin Span bridge is going from New Orleans over to Slidell over Lake Ponchotrain. It's several miles long.

[bjs1779]

I want to forestall a political reaction to what is clearly indicated here, a massive military response.

Why isn't that obvious?

[King Prout]

please pardon the mega-ping

I lived in NOLA for seven years. Here's the straight dope:

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.

I've heard that the river is not currently navigable to shipping.
I'm not talking about deep-hull ships.
I'm talking shallow-draft barges.
this is an emergency. The normal safety protocols do not apply.
hell - whomp up some catamaran pontoon rafts, just get the live bodies out of there before they become dead bodies.

And for God's sake: Take them UPriver.
All they need to do is get 30miles upriver.

They need to start doing this 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.

If they don't get serious about this, the death-toll will be phenomenal - just as sure as sure as dead men stink.

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

[jeffers]

"my understanding is the I-10 bridge is the one they are talking about. Not the causeway that runs through
the center of the lake.

This is a large picture file - but if you wait for it to open you will see the I-10 bridge on the east side of the
lake by Slidell. "

Gotcha, thanks. That's what I expected.

If that is in fact the Twin Spans bridge, people worrying about it are wasting their time.

I-10 ends at the Louisa Street exit, the western one, just east of downtown NO. That entire section of I-10 is gone, and the bridge just doesn't matter in the short term, except in evaluation the wide area scope of the storm damage.

[kinghorse]

Once upon a time I thought buy one of these for hurricane protection. WWW.USBUNKERS.COM.

In a real deal hurricane it'd be a watery tomb. The freaking ocean rose 20 to 30 feet in Mississippi and Alabama.

[dirtboy]

Most of these people will be picked up in 1-2 days max. My point is the US has contingincies for this and help is on it's way. These people may miss 2-3 meals at most.

I think it might take a week to get everyone out of NO. And disease is gonna start kicking in before then.

I truly hope I'm wrong. I really do.