Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Katrina
The name "Katrina" will most likely be removed from the list of hurricane names. She's that bad.
Today, New Orleans is a city underwater, a city drowning, slowly dying as the waters continue to rise relentlessly. Power is still out to hundreds of thousands of people, and will likely remain out for weeks.
Hospitals near New Orleans are operating at full capacity as the wounded survivors are brought in.
Looting is rampant, and someone yesterday shot a police officer as he attempted to stop looters.
Sandbags are being dropped from helicopters into the huge levee gaps that once held Lake Pontchartrain at bay. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are even thinking of finding large enough barges to simply plug the holes, or at least try to.
The waters swirling throughout the city (80% of which is underwater) are toxic, filled with oil, sewage, and God knows what else. Coffins from New Orleans' above-ground cemeteries have been seen floating past, as have bodies both new and old. Alligators from the swamps will no doubt soon make their presence felt, as well as deadly snakes. And that's leaving out the coming plague of mosquitos...
The pumping system has obviously failed completely, and it could be a month or more before the waters are finally cleared from New Orleans' streets. In the meantime, FEMA is considering housing refugees on their own ships.
Biloxi and Mobile have also been devastated, as has Gulfport, but those cities are not dealing with the water. There is grim devastation there, yes, but they do not have Lake Pontchartrain tearing at their throats. There is already speculation that New Orleans will not survive this. That it will be almost impossible to rebuild after the kind of destruction that has been seen there. And this is before the disease and the swamp animals really get going...
May God bless the Big Easy...
Today, New Orleans is a city underwater, a city drowning, slowly dying as the waters continue to rise relentlessly. Power is still out to hundreds of thousands of people, and will likely remain out for weeks.
Hospitals near New Orleans are operating at full capacity as the wounded survivors are brought in.
Looting is rampant, and someone yesterday shot a police officer as he attempted to stop looters.
Sandbags are being dropped from helicopters into the huge levee gaps that once held Lake Pontchartrain at bay. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are even thinking of finding large enough barges to simply plug the holes, or at least try to.
The waters swirling throughout the city (80% of which is underwater) are toxic, filled with oil, sewage, and God knows what else. Coffins from New Orleans' above-ground cemeteries have been seen floating past, as have bodies both new and old. Alligators from the swamps will no doubt soon make their presence felt, as well as deadly snakes. And that's leaving out the coming plague of mosquitos...
The pumping system has obviously failed completely, and it could be a month or more before the waters are finally cleared from New Orleans' streets. In the meantime, FEMA is considering housing refugees on their own ships.
Biloxi and Mobile have also been devastated, as has Gulfport, but those cities are not dealing with the water. There is grim devastation there, yes, but they do not have Lake Pontchartrain tearing at their throats. There is already speculation that New Orleans will not survive this. That it will be almost impossible to rebuild after the kind of destruction that has been seen there. And this is before the disease and the swamp animals really get going...
May God bless the Big Easy...
