Astonishing Exclusive From Mississippi [hundreds if not thousands dead]

Paramedic Rescue Operation | 8-31-05 | My Favorite Headache

[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....

[GOP_Thug_Mom]

I wanted to let you know that I just talked to a woman here outside of Houston who's father picked her and her two children up from Gulfport, MS, after the hurricane. She told me that they had to keep their kids from looking outside because they didn't want them to see all of the dead bodies floating around in the water...

Her husband is still there trying to salvage what little they have left, but he has no gas to get out of town. incredible.

[My Favorite Headache]

Well considering you are a new member color me skeptical because news has been all over the place and Freepers e-mail me about discoveries all the time along the Miss.coast.

[My Favorite Headache]

Try again Peter. Saddened Deeply is a troll....

[My Favorite Headache]

Sorry they had to witness that...scarred for life no less. Just horrible.

[My Favorite Headache]

I just got a freepmail along with another one from people who were trying to meet up with family and all they could see were bodies in the water. Incredible.

[GOP_Thug_Mom]

Did you not read my post?? (#2261)

"I wanted to let you know that I just talked to a woman here outside of Houston who's father picked her and her two children up from Gulfport, MS, after the hurricane. She told me that they had to keep their kids from looking outside because they didn't want them to see all of the dead bodies floating around in the water..."

[GOP_Thug_Mom]

correction--post #2621--just above yours. =^0

[GOP_Thug_Mom]

correction--post #2621--just above yours. =^0

[Rusty Roberts]

So much to catch up on, but I came upon this blog, from a seach engine:

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5846830.html

follow above link for direct links to web cam and photo gallery below, as well as the blog.

Six blocks from the Mississippi River, in a 27-story skyscraper on Poydras Street in New Orleans, the staff of an Internet domain hosting service is chronicling Hurricane Katrina's chaotic aftermath with an immediacy that remote bloggers simply can't mimic.

Armed with food, water, a diesel generator, a camera and at least one firearm, five employees of New Orleans-based DirectNIC have been holed up since just before the storm blew in nearly a week ago on the 10th and 11th floors of the building that houses their headquarters.

Since then, employee Michael Barnett has described the saga on an oft-updated Livejournal, once a place for him to "talk smack and chat with friends," which he renamed this week as "The Survival of New Orleans Blog."

The staff has also been updating a companion photo gallery and pointing a live Webcam (another feed available here) outside, providing firsthand footage of looting, fires and other civil disturbances that have ravaged the flooded city.

Meanwhile, they have been sharing patrol duties of the building, conducting photo-taking "recon" missions of their surroundings, and struggling to procure enough diesel fuel to feed their generators.

And, much to Barnett's surprise, their operations have become a media magnet. Comments have flooded his entries, and thousands of IM messages have poured in. The multimedia sites have been overwhelmed with traffic, prompting mirrors for the Webcam and brief outages of the photo gallery.

Neither Barnett nor his public relations representative could be reached for comment. Following are some excerpts from his journal entry.

It began with what could be the understatement of the year. "Hmm. This could actually be a nasty storm," Barnett posted at 9:05 p.m. PDT on the Saturday the storm began approaching.

Just after 6 a.m. PDT Sunday, he issued a challenge: "Come on with it then, storm. Bring me what ya got. Let's see who wins."

Throughout Monday morning, he reported messy conditions, "but as long as no flooding occurs, the city should be fine. There's really nothing to say...Imagine a low rumbling turbine engine for several hours, lots of wind and debris, and me taking pictures and video."

But by Tuesday morning, his tone grew more serious: "I do not want to be an alarmist, but people who have the means to leave the greater New Orleans area need to do so. The infrastructure required to maintain a city is down. It could be a long time before it's back up. There will be too many people fighting for exceptionally scarce resources."

On Wednesday morning, the chaos began: "If you're on the cam, you've got a special treat: You're watching the flood progress (hasn't moved in 24 hours) and the looting of a hotel."

He went on: "We're seriously considering trying to restore some order to this city since the government has totally given up (and probably couldn't do anything anyway). The police have been looting according to reports, and the honest ones are under siege at their precincts as automatic gunfire was unloaded at one near the Quarter.

"I know it's dangerous, but I've got some experience with Foreign Internal Defense, and if there's a chance of slowing down this Planet of the Apes deterioration, someone's got to take the first step. I mean, it's Lord of the Flies out there right now. There's no order at all. No respect for private property, no respect for life."

And later on Wednesday: "The police are looting. This has been confirmed by several independent sources. Some of the looting might be 'legitimate' in as much as that word has any meaning in this context. They have broken into ATMs and safes: confirmed. We have eyewitnesses to this. They have taken dozens of SUVs from dealerships ostensibly for official use. They have also looted gun stores and pawn shops for all the small arms, supposedly to prevent 'criminals' from doing so. But who knows their true intentions."

Before heading to bed early Thursday morning, Barnett wrote: "Security has become a major concern now, because the NOPD is ineffective and the looters (and) terrorists are roaming the streets. Word is now that they're lighting buildings on fire, but I can't confirm that. Anyway, we have to run guard shifts and patrol and it limits our downtime.

"It is a zoo out there though, make no mistake. It's the wild kingdom...That doesn't mean there's murder on every street corner. But what it does mean is that the rule of law has collapsed, that there is no order, and that property rights cannot and are not being enforced. Anyone who is on the streets is in immediate danger of being robbed and killed. It's that bad."

But as evening set on Thursday, he stood firm: "As far as I'm concerned, this building is my post, and it will not be abandoned until I'm properly relieved."

After surveying the damage from the rooftop on Friday morning, he lamented: "This place is completely coming apart. The hopelessness on the street breaks the heart. The old, the tired, the sick seem resigned to their presumed fate. Death."

But, just hours later, signs of relief? "This convoy coming down the street is loaded with supplies. I see MREs and water and I assume ice," Barnett wrote. "OK, so the troops used to restore order went in first and now the supplies are coming for orderly distribution (I hope).

"Hope is on the way for the people at the Convention Center. Finally."

[George W. Bush]

Any updates on death tolls in Mississippi yet? All you see is stuff about NOLA. I don't get that. The areas outside NOLA are the places that were hardest hit. Places where they don't have a levee system.

There should be more news now in many of these places. The flood waters should be receded and search/recovery operations should be moving ahead.

Very odd we're seeing so little on Mississippi.

[SauronOfMordor]

I can't believe how inept the government's response has been.

Inept is a good word for it

Survivors outside New Orleans feel they're forgotten

[snip] The nation has largely focused on the death, destruction, lawlessness and overwhelming loss in New Orleans, leaving the Gulf Coast – where the vicious storm scored a direct hit – feeling somewhat forgotten. But misery has company.

As President Bush saw yesterday when he toured Biloxi, the town that once boomed with floating casinos and gleaming hotels and a proud fishing fleet is now a massive pile of rubble. Scores of people have died in Mississippi, and the newly homeless choke emergency shelters.

[snip]

"We waded 30 feet through the wind and the storm surge to a concrete section that looked like it would hold," he said. "Thank God it did."

From the time the storm passed Monday until yesterday morning, the couple and construction laborers David and Wilma Magee said they saw many curious things at the motel, including helicopters passing low overhead and bodies in the parking lot and on the beach.

"We kept waiting for some rescue person to come by and check on us. Nobody did," Jake Edwards said. "Finally, we flagged down a cop, and they found a truck and brought us here (yesterday afternoon)."

[SauronOfMordor]

From Ocean County Register:

How many have died in Louisiana and Mississippi? The number in hard-hit New Orleans is unknown. City officials say the figure could run into the thousands. In Mississippi, at least 147 people have died, mostly in greater Biloxi. Bodies also are being found in Gulfport and Hattiesburg. Emergency workers say Mississippi’s death toll could reach 1,000.

Now that it's a long weekend, the real numbers will start coming out

[SauronOfMordor]

How much of the nominally executive-branch controlled premanent government changes after an election? How much of our laws are actually policies formulated by this unaccountable permanent government? THAT is what the press kowtows to, not the Coke vs. Pepsi "political" battle

Look at it from the reporter's point of view. The name of the game is "sources"/ Your career thrives or perishes based on the number of fruitful sources you accumulate. If you piss off your sources enough, they won't be sources any more

[SauronOfMordor]

Very odd we're seeing so little on Mississippi

That's what gives me a feeling of foreboding. Independent witness reports are coming in from survivors (see post 2621 above from GOP_Thug_Mom) that paint an ugly composite picture:

I wanted to let you know that I just talked to a woman here outside of Houston who's father picked her and her two children up from Gulfport, MS, after the hurricane. She told me that they had to keep their kids from looking outside because they didn't want them to see all of the dead bodies floating around in the water...

There's no effort to try to minimize the death toll in NOLA, because it would be futile in the face of thousands of people getting out with stories of bodies in the water.

Also, NOLA is a bowl -- the drowned bodies are going to still be there when the waters subside. We will never know how many were washed out to sea in southern LA and MS on the storm surge.

Take a look at my post 2632. Those people only survived by wading thru the storm surge to some stable concrete. How many people in the houses around them didn't have the courage to try that and got washed out to sea?

[George W. Bush]

Thanks for the updates. Keep 'em coming and flag me.

[SauronOfMordor]

Times-Herald: "Benicia paramedic pitched in

Paramedic Patrick Keathley of Benicia happened to be in New Orleans with seven colleagues for an industry convention as a small storm called Katrina, off the coast of Florida, changed course and picked up steam.

"We didn't realize the storm was going to be as big as it was, or that it would turn and hit Louisiana," Keathley said.

"By the time we did, we couldn't get a rental car, even though we had one reserved, because everyone was fleeing," he said by rapidly dying cell phone as he made his way back to California.

The eight paramedics were forced to ride out the storm in their hotel on the Louisiana coast.

"It was like hell," Keathley said. "Completely black. We heard structural-sounding noises, and we went out to take a look and we saw debris flying. Palm trees."

Keathley said the men barricaded themselves with about 40 others inside the hotel for 12 hours as the storm raged around them.

"We thought we were going to die. And that was before the water started rising. We got out before the flooding, just as the city started to flood," Keathley said. "We met this little old lady with a car who wanted to go to Lafayette. So we piled into her VW and drove her there."

The men rented a car in Lafayette and drove to their firm's location in Baton Rouge where they volunteered to stay and help.

"We wanted to assist. It was Ground Zero in a place called Hancock, Mississippi. Half the town was wiped out. They had a 50-foot wave destroy the hospital. Cars were piled on top of each other. There were bodies in the trees. There were bodies littering the beach.

"This is catastrophic," he added. "We were just as much in shock as anyone. We set up like a M.A.S.H. station. People came in carrying dead people. They came in with broken bones, and we didn't have the equipment to help them. We could only give them something for the pain.

"People were fighting for food. It was just a mess. There are still 1,000 people missing from there."

Keathley told of a young boy, about 13, arriving at the makeshift hospital asking for a tetanus shot.

"We told him he needed parental consent, but he told us he didn't have parents. They floated off, he said. I worked in Oakland after the Loma Prieta quake, and that was terrible, but it was nothing like this. This is such a huge scale. It's just hard to explain," Keathley said.

Keathley and his colleagues have had little water, food or sleep for several days, and now that he's home, Keathley said he plans to rest.

"First, I'll see my wife. Then I'll take a nap and some time off," he said. "I can't go back there right now. It's just too much."

Looks like the article that started this thread was accurate

[saquin]

All you see is stuff about NOLA. I don't get that.

The reporters are all hanging out together in dry sections of New Orleans hoping to get more pictures of looters or shots of black people yelling "racism".

It's amazing. This is the biggest natural disaster to ever hit the U.S. Many thousands are likely dead. The death toll is probably at least triple that of 9/11. It's a huge national tragedy. The devastated region covers an area the size of the U.K. All we see are pictures of looters in the French Quarter and people holed up in the Superdome. That's certainly part of the story but there's a huge story out there that the news media is just glossing over.

[George W. Bush]

Looks like the article that started this thread was accurate.

Maybe so. I'm still waiting to hear any real updates on Mississippi. They're very slow releasing any counts.

I heard this morning that they had estimated over 1000 dead. That's the last thing I heard. They won't even release any new reports on official figures yet. There just have to be some official figures beyond the 150 dead they reported two days back.

I'm still waiting to see if the original report was accurate. I don't expect Gov. Barbour is going to hide bodies from us.

[JLO]

saddened deeply
Since Sep 2, 2005

"God is watching us all, and how we behave in this tragedy"

That includes you!
Here's the confirmation. Quit depending on CNN for news. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476483/posts