electric mist

Katrina, more information

I'm back and thank you all for the good wishes for my dad. He's going to be okay.

Mark said this in the comments section, and it breaks my heart:

I just spoke to a good family friend who has a son doing search and rescue operations in Slidell as we speak. The reports of bodies floating around is sadly very true. He stated that there were dozens around his flat bottom boat. I will post more once I have more information.

The news is so devastating coming out of there. I watched one of the local radio DJ's on the news early this morning -- John McDougall (I believe is his name, I can't find info on him to confirm yet) -- and he ended up in tears telling of what he'd gone through the night before. If you've seen the photos of the Hyatt -- he was in the building directly in front of it, and they broadcast all night. There was no phone service in the entire city, but for some reason, the radio station had phone available. The people who were stranded on their roofs couldn't get through to the police station, so they would call the radio station and tell them about being trapped in their attics or on top of their roofs. Since John also couldn't get through to the police, he'd broadcast these people's phone calls and addresses and the police, who were monitoring the radio station, would then know where to go find the people. John said one of the most upsetting phone calls he had was a young(ish) woman who said she was in her attic with her two year old, her two month old, and her grandmother. The water was chest high and they had no way to break through the roof to climb out. When she was giving her address, the cell phone went dead, and John couldn't get her back online. He said this morning he still doesn't know if the police were able to find her from the beginning of the address she'd broadcast.

There are many many stories of voluntees and all of the first response team who are bringing their own boats and going out to rescue... and when another shift comes on duty, they stay. They won't go home, they're still hard at it, trying to save as many lives as they can.

Here in Baton Rouge, there are thousands and thousands of refugees, and we're putting them up in churches, schools, civic centers, and many many personal homes. There are homes where there are thirty people there because the friend told all of his New Orleans friends and acquaintances to come. If he had a sliver of floor space, they were welcome to it.

Most of these people have lost everything. Every. Single. Thing.

Many of them don't yet know where their loved ones are. And we have no way of finding that out because the phone service is completely down in those areas. Tens of thousands of people won't have jobs to go back to, because their jobs are gone -- the buildings are gone and even if they made it through the storm, there won't be any customers to buy any goods or services.

Luke drove out to Hammond today. Of the part he could see, including out by the airport, there are powerlines tossed all over the place and there is no phone service in a great portion (almost all) of that parish. There are a ton of trees down and some wind damage to buidings, but it doesn't look like they've had anywhere near the type of water / flooding that is evident in other parishes, like St. Tammany.

The conditions above are essentially the same for Covington from what Luke and Amanda could see; we have heard Mandeville is essentially the same. We have heard, but have no confirmation, that these three places haven't had the type of water damage feared.

There are at least two levee systems compromised, according to the local news, and the water continues to rise in New Orleans. I have just heard two different but similar plans to try to block the water. One plane was that the Army Corps of Engineers was going to lower three-thousand pound sand bags onto the broken levee and build it back up. Another was that they were bringing in thirty-thousand smaller bags, presumably to fill in the smaller breaks. I'll update this as I hear any specific confirmation.

Right now, they must stop the water from coming in and then get some of the water out before the rescue efforts can get in full swing. All of those big trucks and convoys with supplies only have one tiny way into the city. The city has to get at least one major thoroughfare in to be able to bring in the water and supplies and to get the rest of the evacuees out.

The biggest focus, however, is to save lives. I have heard on the radio that there are estimates of 70,000 lives lost, with projections that this number will go much much higher. The water these people are in is contaminated: some gas lines have broken, some oil lines, all of this is floating on the water.... also, there are snakes and hundreds of clusters of red ants, pretty vicious because they're floating and looking for something or someone to cling to, and they cluster in the hundreds when they float... so if someone tries to swim and swims through them, they'll be bitten multiple times.

Senator Mary Landrieu said all of St. Bernard Parish is under water, save roof tops. That's how bad it is -- they didn't see dry land. Homes, refineries, etc. Same with Placquemine Parish.

If you want to help, I urge yout to donate to The American Red Cross. Many people only brought a few things when they evacuated; the thousand who were rescued from their attics or roofs have only the clothes they had on. The need is huge. Your prayers are mose appreciated.

Posted by toni at August 30, 2005 07:25 PM