Free Republic

Empire and 10 other towns spread over 57 miles are now under 10 feet of water. "They're gone. They don't exist anymore," Deputy Sheriff Arceneaux said Wednesday as he guided a Reno skiff over oil-fouled waters — the only way into Empire and points south. His journey took him by his former trailer, which he couldn't see because it was submerged in churning floodwaters. This string of fishing and oil towns was the first inhabited area on the Gulf Coast to be hit by Hurricane Katrina. The parish took the full brunt of the storm, with thousands of homes and...

BELLE CHASSE -- The only building left standing in Empire is St. Ann Catholic Church. Looking north on La. 23, the houses are shattered, covering the area with debris and shredded wood. The civic center is destroyed, the post office is reduced to cinder block rubble, and all that's left of the houses are partial floors, roofs or frames. Half of a mobile home trailer landed in the middle of a nearby bridge, and a burst line down the street continues to forcibly emit natural gas. South and north of this little high ground at the Doullut Canal Bridge,...

Several people have requested a thread JUST for images of the storm. Post them here, please.

It could take months for maritime commerce in south Louisiana along the Mississippi River to return to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels, said the director of the Port of New Orleans. “In Plaquemines Parish, they can’t even tell where the ship channel was,” said Gary LaGrange, head of the New Orleans port. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is so busy trying to repair the levees around New Orleans that they can’t release the personnel to go out to Southwest Pass and map the channel.” LaGrange, who was temporarily working out of the Port of West St. Mary Wednesday, said he...