Louisiana is set to be *smacked*

[fett527]

Update: My parents are fine. They're cut off in their homes without power or running water, but they expected that, so they planned ahead. My brother's National Guard unit got mobilized, and he's headed to New Orleans soon to help with rescues. I'm sure in a week or so he'll be clearing debris and corpses.

Man.

I'm glad they are safe, ForceUser.

 

[fett527]

On the front page of this site is a link to aerial footage of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Again, my family lives (or lived) in the Gulfport area only about a mile from the beach.

http://www.wlbt.com/

Make a note of all the barge casinos that were lifted out of the water and deposited on top of buildings across the highway.

(This is also some of the same footage they are showing on MSNBC and msnbc.com)

And still no word from my family.

 

[jgbrowning]

On the front page of this site is a link to aerial footage of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Again, my family lives (or lived) in the Gulfport area only about a mile from the beach.

And still no word from my family.

I don't know what to say fett. I hope and pray that they are ok.

joe b.

 

[ForceUser]

And still no word from my family.

Thanks for the kind words. One can only hope that your family is far away from Gulfport.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

The broken levee system isn’t going to fix itself is it?

That's when you need Make Whole.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Crap weasels, Fett. The professor for my methods class is from there and her son is among those doing rescue work in Gulfport, so she was a barrel of nerves for the 1/3 of the class that she made it through.

Again, my best thoughts and prayers, and let us know when you've heard something.

 

[RyanL]

Mayor Ray Nagin has announced that the attempt to plug a breach in the
17th Street canal at the Hammond Highway bridge has failed and the
rising water is about to overwhelm the pumps on that canal.
The result is that water will begin rising rapidly again, and could
reach as high as 3 feet above sea level. In New Orleans and Jefferson
Parish, that means floodwaters could rise as high as 15 feet in the next
few hours. Nagin urged residents to try to find higher ground as soon as possible.

From bad to worse, man I heard they're expecting 9 feet on St. Charles Ave. That's insane. If that part of the city goes under water, it doesn't look good for the rest.

My family members seem to be scattered, but safe. I still haven't heard from my dad, but he can't be killed by conventional weapons, so I'm trying not to worry too much. Most of the guys in my gaming group seem to have evacuated safely. I still haven't heard from two in particular that live down in St. Bernard Parish. It's troublesome, because the downriver areas are probably in really bad shape. I hope they got out.

As bad as the situation is in New Orleans, the images coming out of the Mississippi gulf coast are just unreal.

-Ryan

 

[Prince of Happiness]

I was stationed for two years at Keesler AFB in Mississippi. This is very, very upsetting to me. I have fond memories of Biloxi/Gulfport and NOLA. To think of many places that I liked to go to wiped out is very unsettling to me, not to mention the homes of my friends and their families.

 

[orbitalfreak]

Yeah. And in some places, the water is *rising*! Not going down as one would think....

That's the problem with New Orleans. It lies in a series of depressions, all below sea level, with the surrounding River and Lake actually being above the city. There is nowhere for the water to go. There doesn't exist a "downhill" for the water to flow to. Biloxi, Gulfport, Mobile, etc. fare better in this regard (though MS got slammed as far as tidal surge goes), as their water will recede in a matter of hours or a few days. For N.O., it will take 120 days to construct a pump to start pumping water out before they can get to the pumps already there that are submerged. Before that happens, though, they have to reconstruct or reinforce the levees so that the pumped out water will not just flow back in.

Think of it like this: Get a glass. Pour water in it. Wait for the water to flow away or evaporate, or to be sucked out by a straw. That's New Orleans.

 

[fett527]

Interesting tidbit:

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12517707.htm

Posted on Tue, Aug. 30, 2005

'Destruction here is worse than the tsunami'

By MELISSA M. SCALLAN

Sun Herald
Some people are saying the destruction is worse than Hurricane Camille. Others aren't saying anything, staring in wide-eyed wonder at the total devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

Just last Thursday, Katrina hit South Florida as a Category 1 hurricane. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, she moved through the Gulf, slowly gaining strength and growing larger until she became a Category 5 with winds of 175 mph.

Monday morning, she hit Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana, then moved slowly north, slamming into the Louisiana-Missisppi line as a Category 4 storm and causing destruction of buildings and homes along the Coast and in southeastern Louisiana.

"Catastrophic is an understatement," one resident said.

South Mississippi isn't exactly the ideal tourist spot right now, but the hurricane has drawn journalists from all over the world who want to cover what could be the most costly and deadly natural disaster in U.S. history.

Kim Riseth is one of those journalists. He works for a newspaper in Norway but is based in New York City. He has covered the war in Iraq, as well as the tsunami in Sri Lanki.

He and a photographer flew to Florida on Monday and droveto South Mississippi early Tuesday to write about the damage wrought by Katrina.

Riseth found his way to the Harrison County Courthouse after walking around surveying damage for several hours.

"The destruction here is worse than the tsunami," Riseth said at the Emergency Management Agency. "It's exactly the same thing I saw in Sri Lanka. The houses were smaller and not as strong as the ones here, but this place is totally destroyed about three blocks from the beach."

When asked if the pair planned to travel to New Orleans to cover the hurricane's damage to one of America's most famous cities, Riseth said no.

"The better story is here."