New Orleans: The View From The Ground

Here's a guy with a web log reporting on events in New Orleans from New Orleans. Several pictures, phone intrviews with locals, etc.

h/t Steve Huff

Also tons of AP Photos here ... simply incredible. Incredibly sad.

Other News: Astrodome Declared Too Full to Accept Any More Hurricane Katrina Refugees

HOUSTON (AP) - After accepting more than 11,000 Hurricane Katrina refugees, officials said the Astrodome was full and began sending buses to other shelters in the Houston area Thursday night. "We've actually reached capacity for the safety and comfort of the people inside there," American Red Cross spokeswoman Dana Allen said. She said people were "packed pretty tight" on the floor of the Astrodome.

See below for much more.

From comments section - an excerpted reader email:

Wednesday August 31

Honestly, the magnitude of the destruction in New Orleans has just begin to sink in. Although, I have not been able to return home and I can give you a brief rundown of all the information I have begun to receive

-The scope of death is just beginning to filter down. Sadly, It will not surprise me to find totals approaching 5000 or more victims in N.O and surrounding parishes. I have heard reports from oil hands heading offshore that canals in the city and lower parishes are teaming with bodies.

-The violence in the city is Out of Control. Every grocery store, Wal-Mart, etc. in the city has been looted completely. There are reports of armed gangs roving the city and taking all they can. Homes on St. Charles have been seen with windows destroyed and doors kicked in. ****** just spoke with 3 surgery residents who have been in the city. She was told that the Tulane Hospital pharmacy was taken over by a gang with assault weapons. There are bodies in neighborhood streets that have gunshot wounds to the head. The city has constant gunshot sounds as dark settles in. There is even reports that a gang attempted to raid children's hospital looking for drugs. The police are reported to be fending for themselves as all communication is down. It saddens me that such violence is occurring in a time that the city should be helping each other.

-It appears that the water levels have stabilized.

-The oil and gas infrastructure in the gulf is wrecked. Shell has lost the Bullwinkle platform in 800ft of water and all production has been blown off the MARS tlp. Diamond Offshore has lost a few rigs and one is aground (on) dauphin island beach...  some oil/gas crews in New Iberia this morning (said) there are real concerns about lack of equipment to make repairs and the time to get production back. Prepare for high heating bills and gasoline shortages.

... starting to bring patients up from New Orleans ... seeing gunshot wounds, lacerations, and dehydration. ...

... it could be months until we return. Reports her call for 30-50 days until the water is out. ... New Orleans cell phones are useless.

Here's one way to prepare for a disaster - I remember as a boy when the 68 riots broke out - almost every home on our street just outside Trenton, NJ became armed. SUburban America is actually a fairly well-armed place - after Katrina, it may become even more so.

From the NY Times:

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 1 - National Guard troops moved in force into this storm-ravaged city today as state and local officials struggled to reverse a growing sense of anarchy sparked by reports of armed looters, bodies floating untended in stagnant floodwaters, and food and water supplies dwindling for thousands of trapped and desperate residents.

Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana said that the death toll from Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath would be in the "thousands," based on reports that she was receiving from officials throughout the state, The Associated Press said.

In a televised news briefing, she said that 12,000 National Guard troops were to arrive in the area in the next several days, as well as police officers and sheriff's deputies from as far away as Michigan.

Comments

[!]

fyi...
New Orleans
By Jane Runyon

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1 New Orleans, Louisiana, has had a long and colorful history. Archeologists have found evidence that the area now occupied by New Orleans was inhabited as long as 7,000 years ago. The area around New Orleans seems to be blessed and cursed all at the same time and all for the same reasons.

2 If you were to look at a map of the river system in the United States, you would see something very interesting. The Mississippi River is the largest river in the U.S. Reaching out to touch the Mississippi is a vast number of other rivers. Each of these rivers drains into the Mississippi. They come from the Appalachians, the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains. Together they form one major river system.

3 At a time when the fastest and most important means of transportation was the ship, a port that could reach all along this river system became a must. New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi near the Gulf of Mexico, seemed the perfect spot for this important port. The French were so sure of this that they sent explorers from their settlements in Canada to secure the land. King Louis XIV of France sent Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, to explore the region which would become New Orleans. He staked a claim to the Mississippi River and all tributaries feeding into it. If you look back at your map of the rivers of the US, that's a lot of land. The French believed that they could keep the British settlements from spreading west from the east coast by claiming this land.

4 By 1720, Louisiana was becoming a thriving French colony. The fertile soil left on the banks by the Mississippi and the tropical weather made the area perfect for growing indigo, rice, and tobacco. The seafood from the Mississippi, Lake Pontchartrain, and the Gulf of Mexico couldn't be beat.

5 In 1762, after losing the French and Indian War, the French were forced to give the area they claimed to Spain. At about the same time, a group of French immigrants called Acadians were driven out of Nova Scotia in Canada. They decided to settle in the area near the mouth of the Mississippi. The Spanish did little to stop their migration. Today these people are known by the shortened version of their name, Cajuns.

6 In 1800, the Spanish rid themselves of the Louisiana Territory by giving it back to France. It didn't take long for Thomas Jefferson to realize its potential. He was able to work out an agreement with the French in 1803. He bought the whole Louisiana Territory for $15 million. That sounds like a lot of money. However, when you break it down, it is only about four cents an acre. Louisiana became the 18th state to join the union on April 12, 1812.

7 During the Civil War, New Orleans became a thriving port. The South was able to ship cotton and other products from the large port. That fact also made it an important target for the Union troops. The capture of the port in New Orleans crippled the economy of the South.

[gulfview]

I love(ed) New Orleans! The great food, the cool places, the history and the people. There is no place like the Big Easy! So it hurts me when I say, I feel that New Orleans should not be rebuilt. So much of the city sits below sea level this type of event will happen again and again and again. Maybe not tomorrow, but its going to happen.