Hurricane Katrina

From Bill Houston on conditions in St. Tammany:

EVENING,
Tonight I spent almost 30 minutes listening to Sheriff Jack Strain on the radio - WWL around 12 Mid Night.
He is describing St Tammanny Parish as having experienced a total INFRASTRUCTRUE FAILURE. He estimates that 90% of the infrastructure in the Parish is non-existenent.
In short order:
The Eye passed directly over the Eastern Part of the Parish. As you know the twin spans are damaged.......Pieces of the Highway 11 Bridge structure are missing. He apologized for the lack of information but even advised that he had attempted to cross the Causeway into N.O. in order to speak to WWL but was advised that he couldn't because there is damage on the Causeway and not yet looked at by D.O.T..
Only one house is standing on (I am probably misssing the name "Rat Tail Rd?)
Edsen Isles, Lakeshore Estates FLOODED...........
All Car dealerships on O.S.T.,,,,,,,ALL CARS FLOODED.
Kings Wood and Springhill area.......totally under water.....
PALM LAKE - BAYOU LIBERTY........FLOODED......
He said he was on I-10 when the Lake spilled over and flooded the entire area to the Fremeaux Area.
His men are literally cutting big trees in half and zig zagging along the roads in a RESCUE mode right now.Over 200 people have had to be rescued as of this evening.......
The DEPUTIES made it down 434 today cutting trees as they went and will be into the Rigolets on tomorrow..........No fatalites in that area and only 3 to report as of now...
Hwy22 is a one lane jig saw to Bush. 59 has trees across also and the only way they can navigate the area is with a Chain Saw.
Airport Road area........4-5 Ft of Water but mostly trees down..........He thinks that maybe (I am not kidding) 1 million trees fell through out the Parish with the most in Slidell and the Eastern part of the Parish.....
The Slidell Police Dept. had to be rescued after water seeped into the SECOND FLOOR and flooded their headquarters and equipment.
He was very apologetic about the lack of communication but he had nothing to call on or use and is overwhelmed right now. He was calling from the Jail in Covington which just had some service restored late tonight. Also had to transfer 300 Prisoners to other Parishes and still looking for other jurisdictions to take more prisoners so he can get ALL of his deputies out working to make it safe again!
As of tomorrow (Wed - 8-31) there will be 4 Red Cross Stations set up in St Tammany, light company repair trucks are in place and the National Guard has arrived. He is very aware of the possible looting and says his men will be out in force.
Lastly, he asked the station to let everyone know that he shares your frustration and anxiety in coming back but says if you start showing up BEFORE rescues are complete, before water, lights, and stores are operating, you are only going to ADD to the problem. There is NO LIGHTS, GAS, WATER, or STORES to puchase them from.
He said at this point he and Kevin Davis(Parish President) are still in a RECOVERY AND RESCUE mode and will not make a decision until next week on returning to the Parish.
Bad thing is his best estimate is that it will be 7 to 10 days or longer before just basic services are semi-adequate.
F.Y.I.: The PARISH IS C L O S E D!!!!!!!!!!
I pray for all of your families and from a personal experience I never thought that I would build a house in Quail Ridge(of all places) and experince a Category 4 Hurricane passing through the Living Room.
Please be patient and most of all,,,,,,don;t risk putting the ones you love in peril because of your own selfishness.......
Sad but truly, "This is what it is"..........we can learn from it and be thankful we're alive"........We can always buy more STUFF............
PERSPECTIVE FOLKS.......that's all i'm trying to say......

GOD BLESS.......

BILL HOUSTON

I just sah a fire in new orlands, it looks like it is in the less flooded areas

These pictures are unbelievable, especially the boats, or maybe I should say ships, just moved around like nothing. These are from Plaquemines Parish, which I believe goes from very eastern NO down the Mississippi to the end of the delta: It experienced the first landfall on Monday morning. I would not want to have been there.

EDIT: I decided I shouldn't hyperlink, the last thing they need is us internet rubberneckers crashing their page, they have important life and death stuff going on. SO, go to www.wwltv.com, and click on "Pictures of devastating flood waters..." to see what I'm talking about.

history in the making.a large mark has been made in the south.there are reports of thousands dead by the mayor words.more help is needed. send boats in. food needed.shelter is needed.time is short for those still waiting to get out.......

UPDATE

-10,000 national guardsman orders to effected areas.
-About 75% of Mississippi is out of electricity.
-Fire in building (New Orland’s).
-Thousands expected dead.
-Clean up began in Gulf Port.
-3,000 National Guardsman on coast.
-Civilians moving do Astrodome.
-Looters and armed gangs continue to spread across the city.
-Mississippi: 90 degrees, no power, no water.
-Bush to speak to Nation in less than half an our (‘5PM Pacific Time. Speaking for ten minuets, no questions. Cut short vacation, very sad.

Go to CNN and click on For Slidell, very bad bump in road. News coverage on Slidell.

This nation has undergone another 9/11 event with Hurricane Katrina. It is going to affect the entire country. The magnitude of this will be far reaching and affect us all.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
August 31, 2005,
UPDATE

Bush’s Speech to US Nation concerning Hurricane Katrina and devastated areas. (Ruff Draft)

IN NOTE QUOTES:

"The vast majority of the Mississippi is under water, ten of thousands of homes are under water, it has been the worst natural disasters in nations history. The people expect the government to work together. (Names list of people who will help and assigns jobs) Mike Brown will work in the Federal response and recovery in the field. They will work close with the police (etc). This reconstruction will take a long time, in fact it will take years.

We have three mane priorities:

1st Priority
To save lives, and evacuating the city. I would like to thank Texas (and other states) Medical teems will come from across the entire country to help. Cost guard conduction search rescue missions have rescued 2000 people. The national defense is deploying a baton, with eight rescue teems.
(Looks nervous)

11000 guardsmen are sent to help. We have been repairing breaches and levees.

2nd Priority
To sustain lives, food water, etc, more than four hundred trucks with 5.4 million meals and 14.4 million (?) of water are being sent. We have put 78000 people in shelters. We are distributing medical supplies.

3rd Priority
Our third main priority is restoring power communication. And repairing bridges and transportation.

I flew over the destruction. We are repairing the infrastructure. We have commenced a nation wide waver for fuel blends, making for fuel and gas for the country, but the American people must understand that this storm has disrupted making gas and distributing gas. Folks and officials will work together in this reconstruction. The sights were devastating. States are working together.

I would like to thank the American red cross. The effected Areas will be overwhelmed when they realize how many Americans want to help them. You can call 1-800-HELP-NOW because the red cross needs our help, and we are urging cities to contribute.

This is going to be a difficult road and the challenges we face are unprecedented.
But, make no doubt that we will succeed, and I am confident that we will get life back in order and back on It’s feet. This disasters will make America a stronger place and a better place.

May god bless you…"

(Walks back into office)


[edit on 31/8/05 by The Surrealist]

[edit on 31/8/05 by The Surrealist]

Recently on CNN there was a call which ended as a plea for help from a nurse in Charity Hospital, saying that they're having to scrounge up diesel every two hours to keep their single generator running life-support systems, patients are laying in their own feces, the staff is quickly becoming as sick as the actual patients themselves - many of whom are on IVs themselves...battling dehydration and malnourishment...

What a very surreal and desperate situation those people are in.....

[edit on 8/31/2005 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

So Its back to earths resorces, see how we allways come back and pleade to the ones we kill?

[edit on 31/8/05 by The Surrealist]

Posted pics of Slidell here.

Renegade Bus arrives in Houston. Apparently, a 20 year old driver led the way to the astrodome with a bus full of refugees. For the moment, they are letting them stay at the stadium. Wonder how the public would react if they decided to turn the bus away.

Not really sure how I stand on this issue. Part of me says survival of the fittest. But then the other part says he/someone stole a bus and the astrodome is specifically for the people of the stadium...

On a side note, sort of annoying they focused on the drivers age....

Do you have a source for that information? Television, radio, internet? Anything?

Interesting story, I'd like to read more about it. That kid is strong with the Mad Max spirit.

I was trying to find a link for the story but there is/was TV Coverage on CNN.

The "Renegade" bus story is on CNN now. Doesn't seem to be posted on their news site.

[edit on 1-9-2005 by SourGrapes]

Still no word from Mizar and others?

WW - any news at all?

NOLA Sat. Images

I must have dialed that number hundreds of times by now, I know it by heart already. Unfortunately I am still unable to get hold of Mizar. I don't think the cell phone towers have been fixed as of yet, and even if it was, Mizar probably has lost whatever power he had remaining on his phone.

Brings up an interesting point...adding something to the Hurricane Supplies thread...

Oh no,
I just heard that Fats Domino (Musician) is among the missing...




Edit: Found link

BBC: Fats Domino among Katrina missing

[edit on 2005/9/1 by Hellmutt]