Mayor Ray Nagin ordered an immediate evacuation Sunday for all of New Orleans

[Jonny]

And let's not forget that Biloxi, Mobile and other places on the coast were hit really hard by this storm too... and we haven't heard as much about those places as we have about NO.

[Boris Godunov]

An AP report is saying there are at least 55 people known to be dead so far. That already surpasses Andrew's toll.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

It's going to get a lot worse than that. The CNN reporter sounds like she's about to crack...she was out with the rescue boats, but they couldn't get to a lot of people and they weren't even able to get to the worst hit areas yet.

[ajbera]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
An AP report is saying there are at least 55 people known to be dead so far. That already surpasses Andrew's toll.

I heard 30 alone were killed in one apartment complex in Biloxi.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
All you doom-mongerers should feel ashamed of yourselves - it wasn't exactly a 'storm in a teacup' but it certainly wasn't a major catastrophe either...

tempest.

[Pave]

No Newer Orleans

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by ajbera


I heard 30 alone were killed in one apartment complex in Biloxi.

That sounds an awful lot like the urban legend of Camile.

[Winston]

Well if it's just an urban legend, it's not that awful.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

CNN's confirming it...

edit: Not just from one complex, though, that's just the inital report from the area.

reedit: Yes, it was from one building.

Also just said that about 20 sq mi of city and suburbs near New Orleans was underwater...

[chequita guevara]

It's hard for me to believe this was the same storm.

I wonder if they need volunteers to help. It's not like I'm doing anything productive right now.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Tulane Univ. Hospital looks like it might be evacuated soon...water is currently rising at a an inch every 5 minutes, and once it hits the second floor they lose their generators...she just said there's over a thousand people there, and they'd all have to leave through the helipad.

There's a two-block long breach in the levy holding back Lake Pont...the lake is coming into the city. ****.

[DRoseDARs]

Seems CNN is now reporting a "2 block-long breach in Ponchartrain levee ..CNN 11:28 PDT"

Crap.

[DRoseDARs]

Here's a streaming vid of the NO mayor giving a not-very-sunny report:

http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.wwltv.com/082905mayor.wmv

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Ok, it's not a place I've ever been, so I don't know...but, given that Lake Ponchartrain is above sea level, and most of the city is below, is there anything that stops the lake from submerging everything north of the river with the levee gone?

(A on this map is the hospital I mentioned...)

[DRoseDARs]

I'm having trouble getting Google Earth to tell me where the "17th Street Canal" is exactly. The two spots I got are both well-inside the urban developement between the lake and the river. Either way, water has the nasty habit of widening levee gaps...