Television footage shows floodwaters flowing through New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, early August 31, 2005.
Posted on 08/31/2005 8:35:49 AM PDT by george wythe
NEW ORLEANS — As Jerry Rayes piloted his boat down St. Claude Avenue, the eerie screams that could barely be heard from the roadway grew louder as, one by one, faces of desperate families appeared on rooftops, balconies and windows, some of them waving white flags.
The scene wouldn't change for the next three hours, as Rayes and his son and nephew boated down St. Claude and deep into St. Bernard Parish, where water smothered two-story houses, cars, people and animals. The men had to duck to miss streetlights that towered over Judge Perez Drive, the parish's main thoroughfare.
The people he rescued all told the same story, already written on their stunned and shivering faces: The water, it just came up so fast. Waist deep in five minutes and neck deep in 10.
"I was talking to my mother on the phone at 8 in the morning, telling her everything was fine," said Joan Hanson, 52, minutes after Rayes pulled her from a boat sitting rooftop-level at a relative's house, to which she and her son had had to swim to survive. "Then, next thing you know, it's just gushing, gushing, gushing, and we can't open the door, and then the water was up to my neck.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Television footage shows floodwaters flowing through New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, early August 31, 2005.
Whe haven't they sent in the military to get these people out?
Is it a crime to ignore an evacuation order?
Could parents be charged with child endangerment as well?
The 2nd evacuation would be so much easier if they had to concentrate only at shelters, hospitals, and prisons.
The Coast Guard has been working since yesterday afternoon with rescue helicopters, and Navy supply, medical, and rescue ships from Norfolk and California are on their way as we speak.
Some people used their hands to break windows and escape, or a knife to cut a hole in the roof:
Hanson's 20-year-old son, Chris, had cuts all over his shaking hands when Rayes picked him up — from breaking the window that he and his mother swam from to safety. On their way to climb into a nearby relative's boat, they swam during the peak of the hurricane, dodging felled branches and pieces of their destroyed fence.In the Lower Ninth Ward, Felton Bercy and his wife, Marie, stood in the darkness of their home's attic for hours only to have the water rise past the first story in less than an hour and threaten to take over the attic. Bercy had no ax, only an 18-inch hunting knife. It took him an hour and a half to claw through his roof.
I just keep wondering if several months from now we are going to find out that these levees were not well maintained despite taxes being paid to certain persons to do so.
Any FReepers out there familiar with levee system, inspection and maintenanace in poor ol' New Orleans??
1. Quit devoting resources to short-term, isolated, benefits like rescues, and use them to haul sandbags to the levees. More people would be saved in the long run.
2. Martial law should have immediately been declared, and the traditional penalty, death on the spot, for looting should be carried out.
3. The Army Corps of Engineers is just what its critics charge--the most wasteful bureaucracy in government. A hurricane lifting water from Ponchartrain into N.O. would necessarily cause these problems. The levees breaking, after what we've paid for, is inexcusable. That being noted, I'm sure that the Corps will be rife with promotions, medals, and honors. That's how we do things when a government agency screws up.
My thanks.
......did they have any warning before this thing hit???
Nope. But I do have a brother in law that lived there (since moved) and he said the public works construction process was as corrupt as the UN. But hey, it's W's fault....
This woman is now consuming emergency services that could have been used to save someone less selfish and truly desperate. IMHO.
Boats are impractical for any number of reasons (including distance, navigation, capacity, and fuel). Also, the logistics are nearly impossible in just staging rescue efforts.
This is a hard lesson, but it WILL teach all of us that the term Mandatory Evacuation must be heeded from this point forward. I simply pray the those who failed to to do so this time will have time to be rescued before they succumb to exposure, dehydration, or disease.
Of course. People were told to get out last Friday by the local authorities. Some moved...many putzed. The President imposed mandatory evacuation on Sunday.
Some stayed behind to loot. Some just didn't want to leave home. Now they are in a giant toilet bowl.
Apparently not, the hurricane just snuck in without anyone noticing.
All I've heard is that the levee system is not designed to stand a Category-5 hurricane. It seems that it could not even stand a Category-3 storm either.
This is really sad and frustrating.
We have enough resources for both, and the people/resources devoted to one are generally unsuitable for the other.
2. Martial law should have immediately been declared, and the traditional penalty, death on the spot, for looting should be carried out.
For all practical purposes it has, but the law enforcement authorities are inadequate for the task at hand.
3. The Army Corps of Engineers is just what its critics charge--the most wasteful bureaucracy in government.
Well, that's not far off the mark...
Apparently not, the hurricane just snuck in without anyone noticing.
ROFL
Every year, the state police in NH have to rescue people off of Mt. Washington after they ignored the weather reports and posted warnings. NH now sends the rescued people the bill for the cost of the rescue.
I pretty much feel the same way here. Unless there was some extraordinary valid reason you couldn't evacuate (and there are some), send 'em the bill.
And there would have been literally miles and miles of levees and canals to shore up. Simply impossible. New Orleans is not unlike Pompeii resting blissfully at the foot of the volcano. Sooner or later, this was going to happen.
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