droxford, nice finds... The Palace Casino in Biloxi's coordinates on GOOGLE EARTH: 30.396846,-88.858473
My good friend that I work with has both her parents living near NO. She finally heard from her Mother yesterday but has yet to hear from her Father. She's been trying his cellphone but obviously there hasn't been any service. I keep telling her that no news is good news. Today, she finally got through but only got his voice mail and still hasn't heard back from him. If the service is down, is it possible to still get someone's voice mail? She is really starting to worry and so am I. Maybe, since there's no power, he just hasn't recharged his phone? I'm running out of positive things to say. Any suggestions?
This is seriously bad, and everyone in the country will be affected in some way when it is all said and done. Pray.
I think the message greeting is probably stored somewhere with the cellphone co. and automatically comes up, like when you call and someone just has their phone switched off. Perhaps this voicemail wasn't coming up before b/c the cellphone service itself was down. I hope everything turns out okay for her family
It is just mind blowing to watch such a historic American city being slowly destroyed. It will never be the same both physically and culturally. New Orleans was the first old city that I ever visited. It was amazing to me the contrast to Houston. I don't think the full story will be known for weeks. The loss of life may turn out to be worse then anyone can imagine.
This is all very close to home for Houstonians and I can tell that we're doing a lot to help. What's the coverage of this like in the North East or in California? Is this getting the kind of press that it deserves?
It may turn out to be staggeringly worse than anyone imagined: New Orleans mayor says thousands may be dead NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The mayor said Wednesday that Katrina probably killed thousands of people in New Orleans — an estimate that, if accurate, would make the storm by far the nation's deadliest hurricane in more than a century. "We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water," and other people dead in attics, Mayor Ray Nagin said. Asked how many, he said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands." The frightening estimate came as Army engineers struggled to plug New Orleans' breached levees with giant sandbags and concrete barriers, while authorities drew up plans to clear out the tens of thousands of people left in the Big Easy and all but abandon the flooded-out city. There will be a "total evacuation of the city. We have to. The city will not be functional for two or three months," Nagin said. Federal officials declared a public health emergency Wednesday for the entire Gulf Coast, calling life in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina "very dangerous." They rushed food, medicine and water to the victims as part of a wide-ranging government rescue-and-relief response. (Related story: Congress poised to send billions) Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said his agency is concerned about potential disease outbreaks and was sending medical experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He urged residents of the coastal area to boil water and follow food safety precautions as well as to avoid situations that might lead to carbon monoxide poisoning from electricity generators. He also said that mental health personnel were being sent to the area. Most of those storm refugees — 15,000 to 20,000 people — were in the Superdome, which had become hot and stuffy, with broken toilets and nowhere for anyone to bathe. "It can no longer operate as a shelter of last resort," the mayor said. (Related story: Astrodome is readied) Nagin estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people remained in New Orleans, a city of nearly half a million people. He said 14,000 to 15,000 a day could be evacuated. The Pentagon, meanwhile, began mounting one of the largest search-and-rescue operations in U.S. history, sending four Navy ships to the Gulf Coast with drinking water and other emergency supplies, along with the hospital ship USNS Comfort, search helicopters and elite SEAL water-rescue teams. American Red Cross workers from across the country converged on the devastated region in the agency's biggest-ever relief operation. (Related story: Floodwaters rise) The death toll from Hurricane Katrina has reached at least 110 in Mississippi alone. But the full magnitude of the disaster had been unclear for days; Louisiana has been putting aside the counting of the dead to concentrate on rescuing the living, many of whom were still trapped on rooftops and in attics. (Related story: Miss. calls storm 'our tsunami') If the mayor's estimate holds true, it would make Katrina the nation's deadliest hurricane since 1900, when a storm in Galveston, Texas, killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people. (Exclusive video: FEMA rushes to save lives) A full day after the Big Easy thought it had escaped Katrina's full fury, two levees broke and spilled water into the streets Tuesday, swamping an estimated 80% of the bowl-shaped, below-sea-level city, inundating miles and miles of homes and rendering much of New Orleans uninhabitable for weeks or months. "We are looking at 12 to 16 weeks before people can come in," Nagin said on ABC's "Good Morning America, "and the other issue that's concerning me is we have dead bodies in the water. At some point in time the dead bodies are going to start to create a serious disease issue." With the streets awash and looters brazenly cleaning out stores, authorities planned to move at least 25,000 of the New Orlean's storm refugees to the Houston Astrodome, 350 miles away, in a vast, two-day convoy of some 475 buses. Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the situation was desperate and there was no choice but to clear out. "The logistical problems are impossible and we have to evacuate people in shelters," the governor said. "It's becoming untenable. There's no power. It's getting more difficult to get food and water supplies in, just basic essentials." Around midday, officials with the state and the Army Corps of Engineers said the water levels between the city and Lake Pontchartrain had equalized, and water had stopped rising in New Orleans, and even appeared to be falling, at least in some places. But the danger was far from over. The Army Corps of Engineers said it planned to use heavy-duty Chinook helicopters to drop 20,000-pound sandbags Wednesday into the 500-foot gap in the failed floodwall. But the agency said it was having trouble getting the sandbags and dozens of 15-foot highway barriers to the site because the city's waterways were blocked by loose barges, boats and large debris. Officials said they were also looking at a more audacious plan: finding a barge to plug the 500-foot hole. "The challenge is an engineering nightmare," the governor said on ABC's Good Morning America. As the sense of desperation deepened in New Orleans, hundreds of people wandered up and down Interstate 10, pushing shopping carts, laundry racks, anything they could find to carry their belongings. Dozens of fishermen from up to 200 miles away floated in on caravans of boats to pull residents out of flooded neighborhoods. On some of the few roads that were still passable, people waved at passing cars with empty water jugs, begging for relief. Hundreds of people appeared to have spent the night on a crippled highway. In one east New orleans neighborhood, refugees were being loaded onto the backs of moving vans like cattle, and in one case emergency workers with a sledgehammer and an ax broke open the back of a mail truck and used it to ferry sick and elderly residents. Police officers were asking residents to give up any guns they had before they boarded buses and trucks because police desperately needed the firepower: Some officers who had been stranded on the roof of a motel said they were being shot at overnight. The sweltering city of 480,000 people — an estimated 80% of whom obeyed orders to evacuate as Katrina closed in over the weekend — had no drinkable water, the electricity could be out for weeks, and looters were ransacking stores around town. Sections of Interstate 10, the only major freeway leading into New Orleans from the east, lay shattered, dozens of huge slabs of concrete floating in the floodwaters. I-10 is the only route for commercial trucking across southern Louisiana. In addition to the Houston Astrodome solution, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was considering putting people on cruise ships, in tent cities, mobile home parks, and so-called floating dormitories — boats the agency uses to house its own employees. A helicopter view of the devastation over Louisiana and Mississippi revealed people standing on black rooftops, baking in the sunshine while waiting for rescue boats. "I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour after touring the destruction by air Tuesday. All day long, rescuers in boats and helicopters plucked bedraggled flood refugees from rooftops and attics. Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said 3,000 people have been rescued by boat and air, some placed shivering and wet into helicopter baskets. They were brought by the truckload into shelters, some in wheelchairs and some carrying babies, with stories of survival and of those who didn't make it. "Oh my God, it was hell," said Kioka Williams, who had to hack through the ceiling of the beauty shop where she worked as floodwaters rose in New Orleans' low-lying Ninth Ward. "We were screaming, hollering, flashing lights. It was complete chaos." (Related video: Survivor makes painful choice) Looting broke out in some New Orleans neighborhoods, prompting authorities to send more than 70 additional officers and an armed personnel carrier into the city. One police officer was shot in the head by a looter but was expected to recover, authorities said. A giant new Wal-Mart in New Orleans was looted, and the entire gun collection was taken, The Times-Picayune newspaper reported. "There are gangs of armed men in the city moving around the city," said Ebbert, the city's homeland security chief. The governor acknowledged that looting was a severe problem but said that officials had to focus on survivors. "We don't like looters one bit, but first and foremost is search and rescue," she said. In Washington, the Bush administration decided to release crude oil from federal petroleum reserves to help refiners whose supply was disrupted by Katrina. The announcement helped push oil prices lower. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-08-31-katrina_x.htm What a nightmare.
they've moved a bunch of people near the baylor campus in waco. the shelters and churches here are filled up.
I just spoke to a friend who has two very close friends who work for the NOLA emergency services department - one a body identification expert and the other an EMT. She said they have told her that it is FAR worse that is even being reported on the news. They are just identifying houses where people are dead, marking them and moving on. They are saying several thousand could be dead at this point. The water isn't going down, but is actually going up in most places and there are fires across the city. Police are having to go in fully armed because it is utter chaos inside the city with looters and people out of control. They said entire sections of Bourbon Street and the downtown area are just gone - wiped out.
I've been sitting here thinking exactly what Jeff and Saint Louis alluded to : I honestly don't think people have grasped the magnitude of this disaster. I think it's far worse than we think in terms of lives and damage. It really didn't sink in with me until I saw the devastation of buildings and flooding via pictures and video. And despite that, I still don't think I've really grasped how bad this really is... like others have said, we won't know until the waters are gone. We're talking about an entire city of 1.5 million or so in the metroplex evacuated and wrecked.
I wrote in another thread that I never thought I would see a disaster like this in the U.S. It is an eye opening event. It something that makes you take stock of your life. And I agree with St. Louis, I've always been facisnated with New Orleans because it is an Old World city in the Southern U.S. where not too many others exist. Its truly a gem, one of the oldest cities in this country and to lose it in one fatal swoop is really a tragedy. Its a piece of American History, from before this was the United States, through the War of 1812 through the Civil through the birth of Jazz. One of America's strongest cities in terms of history. A lot of people make fun of it but I love visiting the city because its one of the only places in the South with that much tradition. Like St. Louis, I was truly amazed by its culture and its distiniction. I really hope they try to rebuild, but the way things look it has a real chance of becoming a ghost town. An official today said things are still getting worse.
Just heard from a friend that a big section of Bourbon Street is on fire, but they obviously can't do anything about it. Wow.
I agree that no one has really grasped what is going on in the city. I think everyone thinks that the water will go back down and everything will be okay like in any other city. They really don't understand that the water will only rise and never go down naturally. It will be a few weeks before people start to realize how bad this tragedy is and the magnitude of devistation and death that it brought upon the city.
pgabriel, What you said is what hits hard for me. Well, secondary to loss of life and property, of course. New Orleans is a city unlike any other in the US in terms of history, food being unique, culturally being so different, tradition being so deep, etc., and you really can't say that about many cities in the US. It's like a city some other time or culture plopped into the US soil and said "enjoy". I've only been there a couple of times, and yeah, it was dirty, but it was still something different.
You know, the one thing I cannot even bear to think about beyond the human loss of life and damage to the lives of families in NOLA is the loss of countless numbers of pets that undoubtedly had to be left behind. I've seen a few pictures of animals in trees or sitting on roof tops. That just breaks my heart.
Confirmed: Only one building on fire on Bourbon Street. Not great news, but better than the whole thing being on fire. With flooding staying there, however, who knows how much will be salvageable.
