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

[Frozzy]

Probably at LSU's stadium.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by lightblue
Doesn't look good at all

As an interesting little tidbit of infomation i acquired today:

Apparently when the french built New Orleans it was significantly higher than it is now (above Mississipi level, and sea level), but they built on it fairly freshly laid sand deposited by the river, which over the decades settled and compacted to the level they got now.

I blame the French.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Its become a disaster of biblical proportions. The entire city of New Orleans is fast becoming uninhabitable. No drinking water, no power, no sewage, no food, no nothin. Its even difficult to leave since the major routes out are unpassable.

CNN: Officials opened one runway at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana on Tuesday to emergency flights for Katrina relief, according to a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Runway 19 opened for emergency services at about 1:10 p.m. Central," said Roland Herwig, an FAA spokesman for the southwest region that includes Louisiana.

Emergency flights will operate only during daylight, Herwig said.

[lightblue]

Should have let the Dutch colononise the whole lot, damn Brits... You jsut know the Dutch would've taken care of all that

On a serious note, is there any chance of New Orleans making a recovery from this within any kind of decent time frame? If not the US has half a million+ internal refugees on their hands. Don't think this kind of thing has happened in the West since 1953 when zeeland and parts of Zuid Holland got flooded in the netherlands, which resulted in the Delta Works.

[Boris Godunov]

This all comes from a diary on DailyKos, so I don't know how much of it has been verified. Still very sobering.

Tue Aug 30th, 2005 at 07:37:42 PDT
Shepard Smith on Fox News, who yesterday was overly optimistic from his reports in the French Quarter, appears to be the first on the news networks to actually get it:

IT'S OVER FOR NEW ORLEANS. Please donate.

Smith said martial law has been declared, and all journalists have been ordered out of the city (no other confirmation on expulsion of journalists, but authorities are likely too busy to arrest them yet anyway). The situation is getting exponentially worse, there are no resources, it is only going to become more and more "impossible to sustain life" in New Orleans. There are people dying there right now, trapped by the rising floodwaters -- up to a total of approximately 97,000 people, according to the mayor's own (obviously rough) estimate. The worst-case scenario is unfolding, and New Orleans will be uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

UPDATE: As posted in comments, WWLTV is reporting that Jefferson Parish and Plaquemines Parish are under martial law and the floodwaters are expected to rise to lake level.

UPDATE 2: The mayor has now ordered an emergency evacuation of the entire city. Important to note: Mayor Nagin estimated that about 80% of the city's 485,000 people evacuated before the storm. That has to be a very rough estimate and HOPEFULLY VERY LOW. If about 20% of the residents are still in the city, that's approximately 97,000 people. Up to 20,000 (see Update 6) or so are at the Superdome. That could leave about 77,000 trapped in homes rapidly flooding with toxic water, with no food or water or way to get out.

UPDATE 3: Bush is finally canceling his vacation and speeches in front of hand-picked audiences and returning to Washington as the enormity of this disaster becomes clear. Somebody apparently told him it's time to look like he's in charge again.

UPDATE 4: Conditions at the Superdome are drastically deteriorating. Local reporter on scene tells CNN a man intentionally jumped to his death from the second level balcony in the dome. Water is rising around the dome, as victims with serious injuries are brought to the dome where they could soon be trapped.

UPDATE 5: There are numerous reports of rampant "looting" in the city, but given the extreme life-or-death nature of these conditions, the vast majority of the thousands still in New Orleans are certainly just desperately grabbing any food, water and supplies they can get to stay alive.

UPDATE 6: Jeanne Meserve on CNN reports it is now estimated 15,000-20,000 people are at the Superdome. Rescuers are bringing victims to the dome, which is still above but surrounded by rising water. Hopefully the mayor was way off on his guess that nearly 100,000 people were in New Orleans when the storm hit yesterday.

FINAL UPDATE (diary is overbloated): WWLTV is reporting that Jefferson Parish President says residents will probably be allowed back in town in a week, with identification only, but only to get essentials and clothing. They will then be asked to leave and not come back for one month. I'd guess that the word "probably" is being used loosely and "asked" really means "ordered." Looks like wishful thinking. Please donate for those victims who have lost everything but their lives.

[lord of the mark]

Its now reported attempts will be made to drop sandbags from helicopters to stop the levee breach.

[Chemical Ollie]

Is Fez involved?

[Kuciwalker]

"sandbags" = che?

[lord of the mark]

"FEMA is preparing to house "at least tens of thousands of victims ... for literally months on end," he said."


US Coast Guard is taking lead role in rescue operations. Tens of thousands of National Guard, from as far away as DC will be going. Pentagon will probably set up a special command.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Water is now up to the base of the superdome...

[SpencerH]

My prediction is that there will be thousands of deaths within the next 2 weeks (mostly from disease and heat). The only natural disater that might beat this catastrophe is when LA falls into the San Andreas fault.

[Dis]

Originally posted by lightblue
Doesn't look good at all

As an interesting little tidbit of infomation i acquired today:

Apparently when the french built New Orleans it was significantly higher than it is now (above Mississipi level, and sea level), but they built on it fairly freshly laid sand deposited by the river, which over the decades settled and compacted to the level they got now.

Is that true?

If so, why are they putting skyscraper buildings and huge superdomes compacting the soil even more.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov




So we can say yet that Dis answered his own question with an affirmative?

It still has not killed tens of thousands of people. And that is what you posters here were predicting. I laugh at that number.

And the predictions were the entire city of New Orleans would be destroyed. This has not happened. Sure they are under water. But eventually the water will be pumped out. And the buildings will be cleaned up and ready to use again. The city is by no means destroyed.

[Dis]

Is this a good time to suggest that we move the city elsewhere? Why do we need New Orleans. Isn't it stupid to put cities on low ground?

[SpencerH]

Amazing. Fox just had some 'doctor' on talking about what precautions people should take to prevent disease.

1 problem. Who the **** is listening to this font of knowledge? There is no power along the gulf coast! How would they boil the water? Rub two wet sticks together and hope!

Then she mentioned possible problems from mold when people are able to move back (some unknown time in the future)

MOLD! Like anyone cares about mold in New Orleans!

Damn Yankees