Posted on 08/30/2005 10:10:45 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
It is with heavy heart I write this...
I have finally reconnected with my best friend who is a paramedic who was sent from Georgia 2 days ago to Gulf Port, Mississippi before the hurricane hit.
He just reached me within the last 10 mins via emergency cell phone to tell me he was alive.
Thousands of bodies have been discovered throughout Mississippi in Gulf Port, Waveland,Hancock County,Bay of St.Louis.
They are hanging in trees and they are pulling them out 30 at a time. Entire families found drowned in their homes and washing up on shore.
The stories he could tell me were brief. National Guard is on the scene and arresting anyone seen on the streets.
The numbers are staggering and what I have been told tonight will shake people to their foundation as the numbers will be coming out in the next 24-hours of just how many people have actually perished in these and 3 other beach communities.
More to follow....
Oh god no.
Prayers up.
just.......damn...
Sad, but no real surprise.
You pays your money and you takes your chances.
May the Lord God rest their souls.
Oh my God.
He just got in from a nearly 24-hour shift...pulling out bodies left and right out of trees,cars,homes,buildings,rivers,the coastline....everywhere...medics are marking the numbers of dead on their arms in marker to keep count.
I think this is the news people are waiting not to hear... I know that there was speculation that it could be into the several tousands... They said gulfport and biloxi were not at all expect something of this magnitude and the sudden turn just before landfall caught many off guard.
Many prayers for a lost souls tonight.
I am stunned. Prayers for the dead and their families.
ditto
Thousands dead. OMG!
Prayers
Please don't ask for personal details as I don't and can't give them...the law of a medic not being allowed to release this kind of info could get him fired possibly.
This is straight from ground zero....one hundred percent.
The forecasters predicting this would be America's tsunami are being proven horribly accurate........prayers out to all effected.
Prayers for all those peoplw, their families, including prayers for your friend and all those with the awful job of recovery.
Speechless...may God rest their souls and protect your friend and those who are in the recovery operations.
Hope we get more confirmations on this..Hoping this is not as bad as it sounds (like the Tsunami).
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Very sad......& this is only one state.
......and not one single peep from the media. How remote is this area where the bodies are being found?
This is just in Miss and just in the region he is in...Gulf Port and surrounding areas...NOT including the Louisiana numbers....I am back in touch via cell...pulling more info...
When I saw the helicopter video of the Biloxi area and all the destruction then heard that only 100 or so were dead, I assumed that most people left before landfall. I hope what your friend saw was isolated to his area and not widespread...
I'm saddened to hear this news, I remember early on in the storm the NWS (or some agency) had issued a statement that estimates of 40,000 to 50,000 dead could be a reality. Many poo-pooed that number as too high. I fear this may have come true...
Nam Vet
OMG... prayers for the dead and their families.
......and not one single peep from the media. How remote is this area where the bodies are being found?
BTW, I hope that you and others can help your friend cope with what he'll be seeing over the upcoming days and weeks. It's got to be pretty tough dealing with that.
How quickly we can be reminded of how much we take for granted.
Sudden turn? It was a microscopic wobble. The storm ended up taking a track within a few miles of the NHC forecast tracks from 60 hours previous to landfall.
And the wobble was irrelevant as the storm surge extended for many miles east of this area. This area would have receieved the same surge without the wobble.
The entire area was under a hurricane watch and warning for an extended period of time. There was no reason for anyone to be caught off guard.
It's too late at night for a major news break; come morning, the news media will be all over this.
Dear God..........
He spoke to me for all of 5-10 mins...named off the areas...said it is literally a war zone...like a bomb went off and killed everything in sight...the water came in nearly 2 miles....just took everything in its site.
Winds sustained at 145 at the time it all went to hell per-medic.Everything turned white.
I think the numbered dead if accurate would be the highest death toll from a hurricane since the 1928 hurricane that hit Okeechobee in Florida. I am not sure of how many died in the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 but it may be close to that. The other very deadly storm was the 1902 ( I may be wrong on the date) Galveston storm.
The high death tolls are usually a result of flooding.
MSNBC quoted the state of Mississippi as saying they estimated only 1/3rd of the permanent residents of Biloxi evacuated before the storm.
WOW, it looks like the Tsumami disaster. How terrible.
What, and abandon that Mutha' Sheehan?
This is just getting worst by the minute...
Oh, my God, how horrific. Much of the time we focused on NOLA only to find this utter loss of life a short distance away. Prayers on the way. How devastating.
As a fellow "RUSH" fan I've always rembered your name and run into your posts. If you say it's so - I believe it.
God Bless your friend and his co-heros as they spend long, hot, thirsty, gusome hours rescuing the living and recovering the dead.
God Bless the living.
2Ch 20:9 If, [when] evil cometh upon us, [as] the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name [is] in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.
Looks like a human tragedy of epic preportions.
They should have left. Nature is unforgiving in her dispatch.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
I advise all FReepers to keep stocks of food, water, and ammo at home.
Sad to say, we're seeing what many of our fellow citizens are capable of.
Take this as an object lesson.
Prayers for the innocent... Swift justice to those who are not.
Any word from the Picayune area? I lived there for a few years in my youth, and I am worried sick.
I feared but totally expected this. The death toll will reach many thousands, maybe tens of thousands. I feared this, when it was announced that 30 died in one building on the Mississippi coast. One would have to be detached from reality not to extrapolate. If the gulf coast is ever rebuilt, there will need to be a more effective evacuation plan, with free public transportation, that is mandatory. Those that were not destroyed, need to do it too. Otherwise, it needs to become just a tourist resort, with few permanent residents. The Atlantic is so hot now, that for the next many years, until the climatic cycle abates, this will happen, again, and again, and again.
He got very quiet with me when I told him the numbers that have been public so far. He asked what have they said? I told him 50-80...he said "dude..we are picking up 30 at a time...thousands are dead...why aren't they saying...I guess I better shut up then...don't give my name" word for word in the call...
Just trying to be specific for everyone here....
:-(
I told a coworker today while watching the damage on TV that there were thousands of people dead. Just the numbers that you know didn't leave and all the destruction has to mean there are thousands dead?
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