Let me start by saying I rewrote the headline about 5 times and I still don’t like it. Kevin wrote earlier today, New Orleans Avoids Total Destruction. That was sort of a reverse Mark Twain moment. Late news (midnight EDT) tells us a different tale.
Mayor Nagin sat down with WWL television and gave them a sobering report tonight. I’ve watched it twice and since it is about 30 minutes long, I’ll try to hit the highlights.
Let’s start with the biggie. 80% of the city is underwater – in some places it is 20 feet deep. People are spending the night on their roofs waiting to be rescued. (New Orleans proper has a population of about 500,000)
Both Airports are underwater.
An oil tanker is aground and leaking oil – 3 more “big boats” are aground.
MAJOR levee break on the 17th street canal flooding both NO and Metairie.
The Southern Yacht Club burned and is completely destroyed.
The High-rise bridge got hit by a barge and they don’t know if it is safe.
All of Slidell under water (population ~110,000)
Most of Metairie is under water. (population ~200,000)
About 50% of the “lower Northshore” (Mandeville etc) is under water (population ~150,000)
Gas leaks all over the city, many burning.
and one of the biggest…
The Twin Span bridges are completely destroyed.
as an added bonus they don’t know about the safety of the Causeway.
Basically the dooms days scenario was 20 feet of water across the whole city… Instead it looks like 5 feet of water (on avg) across 80% of the city. Not a whole lot of difference.
Go watch the video on http://www.wwltv.com/ this is all data given to Nagin from FEMA officials who had flown over the city.
Was “New Orleans Nearly Completely Destroyed” by Katrina? It was in my book.
I feel so bad for those people. I usually say “hey, that’s what you get for living there”…but this disturbs me. How could you ever go back?.
Paul,
Glad that you and yours are safe. We’re still trying to get information about my wife’s mother. She was trapped in a Metairie nursing home (one-story, of course) recovering from a fractured pelvis. We haven’t been able to get hold of anyone and neither Homeland Security nor the State Police have any information about the area.
We’ll pray for your mother-in-law, Matt.
It’s only completely destroyed if it isn’t rebuilt. And it may well be too early to determine the final damage as with the levee broken, there may be another wave of flooding in a few days when Katrina’s rainwater from inland flows out to the Gulf.
The destruction is incredible.
I ask a series of tough questions today on my site about whether we should re-build the city or not. After all the dirty little secrete is that all the experts KNEW this was going to happen. It was just a question of time. I know that is of little consolation to those who have lost loved ones and all they own, but I feel a serious look into the future is warranted.
Wonderkraut,
Of course it’s worth it to rebuild. You gonna be run off by an event that’s happened once in the 350 year history of the city? At any rate, it’s all about location. We need a port at the mouth of our largest river. Being in that position means being vulnerable to tropical weather. It’s not like farm towns in the Mississippi River’s midwestern flood plains. You can truck produce to a shipping terminal while living on higher ground. You can’t do massive break-bulk operations that way.
And Paul, the twinspans are GONE? Holy Mother of ****er!
It’s hard to say that New Orleans was “lucky” after seeing what the city looks like in the aftermath of Katrina, but judging by what the Mississippi coastline experienced, New Orleans may truly be lucky in escaping total devastation by only a few miles.
I followed the WWL and WDSU feeds all day and night and was astonished by what they were showing last night. They had reporters out in boats as rescuers broke through rooftops to pull people out of their attics. In some areas it looks like they will have to remove all of the buildings and start over. South Plaquemines Parish seems to be totally wiped off the map.
New Orleans has always been one of my favorite places to visit. Seeing it like this is truly sobering.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all who’ve been affected.
NO is a historical site. As such, it should be rebuilt. Even though everyone knew this might happen, it has and will happen again. That the city has been rebuilt numerous times cannot be denied. I only hope that this great city can recover quickly.
I was last in New Orleans in July 2005, and before that in September 2004. Walking down Royal street, and driving through Metarie are two joys I will never forget. Everywhere we went, you could not only see, but you could feel the history of this place. I gained 5 lbs both times I visited this great city, as the food is fantastic. I am deeply saddened that so many have lost so much. I have never met a more friendly group of citizens. Gods blessings on everyone in the Big Easy.
That is why I called the post “Some Tough Questions.” I do not know the answer. But I do think we need to rebuild it. Your point about NO being a historical site is true. But at what point do the cost, both dollars and lives, out weigh the desire to rebuild a great city?
I also know that disaster can strike anywhere. But one of the few things we cant prevent is Mother Nature. NO is sinking, has been forever. So do we build 100′ high levees? Maybe. But I guess my question goes back to at what point do we abandon it to the sea?
This is a very interesting question and I look forward to hearing the many varied answers to it. Which is right? Who knows.
errr… I have fat fingers today!!! Darnit. That was supposed to read: I DON’T KNOW if we should rebuild it.
Sorry for the mistake.
Cyber, I gather that the “twin span bridge” that got knocked out was the I-10 causeway to Slidell. When I first read this, I assumed he meant the GNO and had pretty much the same reaction as you.
As bad as things are, the damage is no where close to as bad as it could have gotten. Had the storm retained it’s early F5 strength, a direct hit on the city would have resulted in near total devastation. Right now there are buildings partially under water, but they are standing. Most of the older buildings in downtown NO would have been destroyed by the winds, and the storm surge could have easily gone another 10-feet higher. This would have totally overwhelmed the levees at all points.
Here is an image of Galveston, TX after the 1900 hurricane. There the damage was nearly total. True there is severe damage in some locations in New Orleans, but if this is typical, it looks like the city was mostly spared. (Leave it to the reporters to frame the only damaged building in blocks.)
I would say the answer is obvious: The city should be repaired, and the short-comings of the levee system should be addressed. In the long run that will be far less expensive than waiting until the “big one” arrives.
Paul Zrimsek,
Right, I-10 over the Lake is the Twinspan. The bridge over the River is the GNO or the Crescent City Connection, depending on how old you are. I was reacting knowing the I-10 over the Lake was gone. Anyone heard anything about the Huey P. Long bridge?
This looks like a dreadful tragedy both in terms of life and property. My best wishes go to all those caught up in Katrina.
All the best.
Peter from
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This won’t help.
http://ap.wwltv.com/dynamic/files/photos/L/LADP11108301631.html?SITE=WWL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=USHEADS.html
As far as I can recall, Shep Smith spent the weekend in the French Quarter reporting, onsite, throughout the landfall and thereafter.
I have cited your post on Katrina in a Special Edition of my Weekly BlogScan at Blogcritics.org. The special edition, titled “Blogging Katrina” can be read at http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/30/123719.php
I’m sitting pretty in Dallas right now, watching the WDSU and WWL coverage praying for a glimpse of my neighborhood and my mom’s to figure out if we have homes to go back to. But I’m also FURIOUS at the people who refused to evac. Valuable resources are now being used to rescue these idiots (and that group includes people I love dearly and hope to God they are being rescued, BTW) because they were too damn stubborn to leave. I know part of this is a stress reaction – like when you lose sight of your kid at the mall for a minute or two, and when you find him hiding from you in a rack of clothes, you simultaneously want to hug him because you’re relieved and slap him for scaring the crap out of you. I’m just MAD clear through at these idiots because they were told, repeatedly, loudly, for YEARS what would happen if a Cat. 3 or above hit the city. They have NO excuse.
You usually say “That’s what you get for living there?”
Where SHOULD we all live, Kansas? No, they have tornadoes.
Minnesota? Ice Storms.
Seattle? Anarchists.
California? Wildfires and Earthquakes.
Boston/NYC/DC? Terrorism.
Where’s the “right spot” where we should all – 300 Million of us – live?
OF COURSE we should rebuild New Orleans. Now the real issue is, how do we rebuild the lives that are destroyed?
RE: WunderKraut post (August 30, 2005 11:28 AM)
No doubt there are hard questions to be asked. I know you aren’t suggesting the abandonment of a port at the mouth of the Mississippi, and I think we all accept that as an absolute.
I think you’ll agree that the degree of reconstruction is what needs to be considered. Rather than create a vast, sprawling population center in such a vulnerable site, wouldn’t it be wiser to delay such “luxuries” and focus on rebuilding the industrial infrastructure we know we must have? Then, perform expedited engineering feats on grand scale to rebuild/redesign/reconstruct the flood and storm defenses of the mission critical city. Finally, establish new construction codes that can withstand the inevitable and repeated hurricane winds that will revisit this city (and ones like it).
Rather than rush in and rebuild everything on the cheap (relatively speaking), wouldn’t it make more sense to set up a longer-term, new millenium where more practical considerations are pressed to the fore over the desire for flash and entertainment? Focus on the city’s economically viable industrial engine and steer clear of the tourist one.
Rebuilding in these zones, and not just the Mississippi delta, is too short-sighted and expensive given the inevitable pressures of Mother Nature. These events are not random or unusual. When such predictable disasters are continually met with a desire to return to the way things were, these sites really become economic sinkholes. Is such a pattern a wise use of resources?
I know these are the hard questions you ask… and they are reasonable. I wonder how far the monies now necessary for clean-up at a price premium would have gone prior to natural disaster. I wonder how one puts a price on the pain and suffering of those whose lives were washed down the street temporarily if not completely away. I wonder if it’s wise to repeat the mistake and not remember that this will happen again. It may yet repeat this year… or in a hundred years. Should we gamble or should we present a better, more justifiable plan? Given the repercussions evidenced in the past few days and intermittently over the years, I’m not of the rolling-the-dice mentality.
AnonymousDrivel, I really think you nailed what I was trying to ask.
Yes there probably are better ways to re-build the city that would better protect from future storms. I have nothing much at add at all. I think you put it into words better than I did.
I am a Civil Engineer and looking at flooding issues and pumps and levees is a daily thing for me and the city I work for. I see money wasted here as well on areas that should be turned back over to Nature. But politics usually plays a BIG part in it all.
“Most” of Metairie? Paul- any word on your neighborhood?
I’m sorry, dude. I’m glad you’re safe, personally.
/praying.
Anything more specific on metairie — like Power Blvd at the lake — parents’ home one block south of the lake levee on Robeline Street. they’re freaked-out in Dallas — and trying to do a little searching for them
I think they should rebuild it all, as long as it’s done in the right order. Levees first, rework the pumping system to double or triple it’s capacity with backup power, and then restoration of the houses. Set up livable temporary housing for the homeless and do it right. If thewy try to half-ass do it and it gets hit again before they are even halfway done people will stop donating and supporting the project. The city needs to rebuilt, there’s no doubt about that, but doing it to preserve it for the history is useless if it isn’t done in a way to make sure it has a future.
I have a daughter that goes to school at Dillard.
She got home,but we are wondering about the condition of her apartment building. It is out in Metarie..The name of it is “The Crossings”.
If anyone has any news please let us know.
As bad as it is in New Orleans, the damage in Biloxi is just mind numbing. Much of Biloxi has been flattened to ground level.
Video from WLOX-TV here.
Everything that I’ve heard about Metairie’s condition is bad, I’m so sorry.
This site has links to local forum boards. My in-laws live in Mandeville/St. Tammany and we have gotten a lot of info on their neighborhood.
http://www.nola.com/weblogs/nola/
I hate to say it folks, but the worst suffering is yet to come. The next few weeks will be brutal.
I helped a friend after Andrew. He was well insured, upper middle class. He and his wife and two kids lived in a tent in their front yard for a month and a half. He requested, in order of importance, water filters (the kind hikers use), a gun, a generator, coolers, and handy wipes. Ice and limited food were generally available back then.
The gun request was the most shocking, because he was a hard-core lefty lib, totally anti-gun up to that point. I had to give him a crash course in shot gun use. The National Guard made occasional passes through his neighbor hood, but that was the only protection they had for a month. He felt a generator was useless without a gun to protect it.
The current situation is going to be a whole lot worse. Food can wait a couple days, but people will need fresh water very soon, and its going to be hard to come by. Hopefully, most will resist the urge to drink what comes out of their taps.
Please be prepared to open up your wallets to help.
Oddly enough, Hugo Chavez is offering water, food, and fuel…see the story on Yahoo.
Any word on Garden District neighborhoods? Loyola, Tulane, Xavier Universities? What about students and families situations? Anyway to help?
I hate to say it folks, but the worst suffering is yet to come. The next few weeks will be brutal.
That, sad to say, is a certainty.
My wife has been monitoring reports from Slidell and it doesn’t sound good. All kinds of wind as well as flood damage, though someone did report that the water has begun to recede there since it’s above sea level.
The hotel she and I stayed at on a visit three years ago, right by the Superdome, had about half the windows blown out. Our room was on the 15th floor, on the corner with windows on both sides, and the rooms are separated by an atrium that goes all the way up, with window glass facing south to the river and the Gulf.
Hearing and seeing the TV reports, and reading about it on the web, gives me a surreal feeling very much like I had on and for a few days after 9/11.
In no way do I wish to make light of what has happened…but I just read this quote…
“The first light of day today revealed what we had feared,” Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said at a morning news conference. “The devastation is greater than our worst fears. It’s just totally overwhelming.”
…and, I’m sorry, but there were way worse predictions being made. If the Governor was working from an assumption based on other information that the destruction would be less, there should have been more of an effort to communicate that…I think most people were planning on the complete flooded flattening of NO.
FYI ***YOU CAN HELP***
A NATIONAL DRIVE-OUT IS SCHEDULED FOR NOV. 1. THIS WILL HELP THOSE WHO NEED GAS IN THE AFFECTED AREA OF KATRINA. ON NOV. 1 DO YOUR PART. **DON’T DRIVE**
It looks like they are trying to evacuate the Superdome as well.
The real name of the hurricane is NOT Katrina, it is GLOBAL WARMING, and this is just the beginning of bigger and stronger storms that will be hitting all over the planet. Look at the news on floods and droughts and tsumanis … add hurricanes to the list. The earth is changing thanks to Global Warming.
Are there any numbers yet on the dead?
I keep hearing about all this total destruction but most of the pictures i’m seeing look very little like the pictures from the tsunami. Ive seen this sort of flooding along the Mississippi before, further up north. Most people survive and are rescued, the water goes down, people return to their lives.
I hope everyone is alright and those who are suffering have it relieved. I also hope sensation gets removed from the speeches and the reporting so that we get an accurate picture of what is taking place. Remember, politicians are going to make it sound as bad as possible so that they can get more tax dollars. The news shouldn’t fall for that.
In other words, i’m hoping things are a lot better than people are making it out in the short term.
As all this destruction is hitting the “Red States”…maybe there is a God, and he is not Pat Robertson’s twisted version of such.
There’s already some EU idiot blaming this on Bush. Whatever. There are 100 dead in Harrison Co MS already & will be more all over southern LA & southern MS before this is done. Just got done viewing a flyover of Gulfport MS on MSNBC. VERY sobering, looks like a giant vacuum cleaner went over the whole beachfront & just sucked everything up.
The picture that sums it up for me is the one from the flyover showing a pair of lovely antebellum columns with red bricked steps leading up to them… and a concrete pad behind it where the house was.
Please HELP !!! quote from mayor of Gulfport (i think? correct me if wrong)..
This is OUR tsunami…
Global warming. Yawn! Call the storm PEAK SUNSPOT ACTIVITY and you might have some scientific basis.
RE: Lucky’s post (August 30, 2005 07:40 PM)
The real name of the hurricane is NOT Katrina, it is GLOBAL WARMING…
Um, what?
RE: David’s post (August 30, 2005 08:18 PM)
As all this destruction is hitting the “Red States”…maybe there is a God…
Um, what, what?!
Are you folks for real, or is this a tag-teaming joke?
anyone know about this? heard there is a prison riot with children taken hostages as well, at Orleans Parrish Prison, from an ABC affiliate
Lucky,
That story was reported to the Prison Commissioner of Orleans Parish AND there were supposedly some prisoner riots during the transportation process, but there is currently no confirmation that the guard and family in question are being held hostage by prisoners.
Michelle Malkin (www.michellemalkin.com) and Brendan Loy (www.brendanloy.com) are two of the blogs covering that story as it develops.
David,
So you think that this is God’s revenge on Red States? That makes you better than Pat Robertson?
Wow. You are one twisted f**k.
It is not global warming, if it was, you would see upticks in tropical cyclones not only in the Atlantic Basin, but in the Pacific as well. THis is the result of our being in a “calm” cycle the past couple of decades. In the 1890’s there were many more storms that hit the US and destroyed many towns, cities and the like. Difference is, there were no high rises and less population.
At the end of the day, if you build on the coast, you must be prepared for this.
wow i had no idea it was that bad. my aunt JUST moved out of new orleans a month ago!
As a victim of the Cedar Fire in San Diego County California in October of 2003. My heart goes out and I pray for the survivors. I know some of what they will have to endure. Another gentleman that was helping the Red Cross – who had lost his home 10 years earlier – told us “I would like to blow smoke up your butt and tell you things will get better. They will, to an extent, but from right now your life is divided; pre-fire and post-fire.” How right he was.
My wife made the analogy that the fire was a drink thrown in your face in a bar, the aftermath was being raped in the parking lot. I am still fighting with my insurance company two years after the fact and it will not be over until next spring, sometime – hopefully.
Survivors will have to have a thick skin. Well meaning people will be constantly asking them “what do you need.” These people will be literally in a state of shock, they don’t know what they need. They won’t know until they need it. Hopefully they will realize it before the rest of the world moves on. “What? That was six months ago. You haven’t rebuild yet?” “Your lucky you get to buy all new (insert items here)” I can tell you the last thing on my mind was shopping.
Then they will have to deal with the nameles faceless people behind the government and corporations they will have to deal with. “I’ve got GREAT news for you Mr. Natural-Disaster-Survivor, from this point on we can insure your house for $XXX” Honey you just don’t get it, it is a smokin hole in the ground. I don’t need insurance at the moment. I need you to honor the policy I had. And as an aside, when you start hearing about how Company “A” is writing big checks to its insured, not asking questions. They are saving money and getting good PR at the same time. Very likely the victims are too stunned to think straight and someone slides a 300-400 thousand dollar check under their nose and asks them to “sign for it.” They are greatful, but they just signed away any rights to further actions, this will become important when in nine months they realize they should have gotten another 100 or 200 thousand out of the company.
Initially the Red Cross came through for my family with about $1300. After that, I got a 300 dollar relief check from a local organization. Send your money carefully. There was something like 4 Million donated for our fire. The outpouring of support was literally overwhelming. But then the human animal takes over. Looters, scam artists, etc. there will be folks pretending to be victims to try and get money, food, clothes. There will be the “oh I wanted a matching set” instead of being grateful to have a “set.” Please understanding, love and compassion above all.
God bless all the victims, not just in New Orleans.
One agency that deserves special Kudos in my book, the Salvation Army. They hung around LONG after all the other disaster relief organizations left town.
Whether you are liberal or conservative: We can’t afford the Republican experiment 4 more years. We have to get back control of our country from the land of the rich and the richer.
First God Bless, everyone concerned……. and all of us who weave our ways in and out of this event….. Many expressions of thought have been voiced concerning Katrina and at this point… in my mind no discussion is valuable except the ones that deal with…… are YOU personally willing(if you have a home ) to step forward and house a family that needs shelter? Have we come to a place where we are willing and able to be a part of the solution on a intimate level instead of passing the BUCK…..while someone else is left to do the work…..even if you donated money….How much more could we do…to see big changes in the way people behave ( looting ) we’d have to do more than be judgmental perhaps that old “do Unto others” issue is a real deal right now and its not about $$$$ its about the uncomfortable stuff we all don’t want to look at. This Nation is a wonderful place, I’m proud to be an American and I am a vet as well…. so it comes to this, the opportunity for all of us to grow and heal and rebuild …..if you know of a web sight that is taking addresses of families who will host Katrinas many homeless families please forward it to me as my church and many of my friends want to help with more than our money.
Hmm… I wonder if a hundred thousand white people were trapped without food or water would the Federal Government start a massive military rescue mission… probably so. The Federal Government’s response or lack thereof to this is criminal. No, New Orleans should not be rebuilt in the same location. Find a small town with all the right attributes (nearness to interstates, trains, etc. Create a long range plan and develop it into the New New Orleans. If Brazil can create a capital city out of the jungle, surely we can recreate New Orleans in a better location.