Katrina

“This little town, from which I hail, is bracing for the fourth hurricane in less than a year. Enough is enough. I don't know how much more this place can take.”

“Then move dude. You can't control the weather.”

“is the Sipsey going to get whacked _again_?”

“

steppenwolf buddy, I like this 0500 forecast a lot better.
Last night it was projected to make a dead hit on my house!
last edited: 8/27/05 8:22:01 AM”

“My Labor Day Smokies trip is starting to concern me.”

“The bad weather should be gone, dayhiker. The creeks will still be flooding.”

“Yep, and one of the main things we do is swim with the kids. We're planning on tubing this year now that Emma is a little bigger. It might be quite a ride.”

“Yhe nice thing about the Smokies creeks is they rise fast but they also fall fast.
The later part of the weekend might be more safe.”

“Year before last we swam on a place just east of the Y along Treemont. The next day the water was 1' higher and 10* cooler. Must've rained up high.

I really have to watch the kids in the water since they don't have any mass to them. Reece will have almost blue lips, but go nuts if you try and get him out of the water.”

“Katrina's HURRICANE GALLERIES The first album includes Street Kayaking In Miami and Flooding In Key West. ”

“Well, it looks like we may be dodging the bullet, but I do feel for the folks around Nawlins.”

“Where does Bateaux Diver or Driver or whatever his name is live? He's the only TTer that I can think of that is maybe from LA? (and I DON"T mean lower Alabama, Chili!! lol)”

“I can't help but think of what the vulcanologist said to the commanding officer of Clarke Air Force Base when Mt. Pinatubo blew... "You better put jam in your pockets, General, 'cause we're all about to be toast."”

“Yeah, this is gonna be bad...bad...for Nawlins.”

“I feel so sad about the Sipsey...”

“I'm in Arab, NE of Birmingham....and the predictions for MY Area are bad...

I filled all the vehicles with gas...cans too....even filled the riding lawnmower.

Bought bottled water, filled the 5 gallon water cans,

Bought more propane, checked the charcoal supply....

Put fresh charges on all the charger driven tools, phones, radios etc...

bought a few Tarps and plastic sheeting...

Bags of ice fill the freezers...

and the deep cycle battery and the inverter are ready to go.

WHY?...I got a bad omen this morning...Clear blue skies, no wind at all, cool, low humidity...outside with the wife potting plants and cleaning up the patio...and the tree next door gave a groan, and split down the middle...a thirty year old Pecan Tree just split and tumbled over....

and the weather prediction: Tropical Storm WARNING this far inland. I'll be on the North Eastern Edge of whatever remains of Katrina when she moves inland...
last edited: 8/28/05 8:37:45 PM”

“Yikes, ST. That's a negative prognostication there. Of course if I were there it wouldv'e landed on or near me. Good luck and stay safe.”

“That was too weird seeing ARAB on the board Supertroll! I'm not used to any other tt'ers living in Arab!!!”

“Sounds like good preps ST. Be safe.”

“Okay, why did the radar map stop updating?”

“Well, my brother who lives in Pembroke Pines (near Ft Lauderdale) got this one first. One brother in Ocean Springs, MS has evacuated. My brother in Baldwin County, AL (across the bay from Mobile) is riding it out. My mother has gone to Baldwin County (from Hattiesburg). Now it looks like my brother in Clarksville, TN (north of Nashville) and I will get substantial rain from this.

So far a complete family affair from one storm.”

“NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Hurricane Katrina left at least 55 people dead Monday, 50 of them in one Mississippi county, according to The Associated Press, and the toll was expected to climb following one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the northern Gulf Coast in a half century.”

“She's about here. The winds are picking up and the rain is steady now. Every kind of watch imaginable has been enacted. They're expecting 50 mph winds tomorrow morning. School is out. Got my flashlight by my bed and a glass of whiskey. Ready to ride it out in the dark. See y'all on the other side. Peace be with you and yours.”

“We were lucky here. Only high winds and much rain, but not as bad as Ivan and Dennis. My heart goes out to the folks in Missippi and Louisiana, knowing how it feels to have your home ripped apart. I know their fire/rescue and police are worn out. I wonder where Stovey took shelter.”

“bionicear, not sure where you are at in Tenn but Nashville only had a 10-15 mph winds and some moderate rain. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“I had higher winds with this one than with Ivan. Ivan was more of a constant wind. Katrina was total silence then huge gusts.”

“God bless and keep you all down there.

Doug”

“Another reason to live in Canada.......nice winters and summers and no hurricanes.”

“I'm in north Alabama and living on the bluff of a mountain at 1600ft. We have had constant high winds since 6:30pm yesterday. The power has been out for 8hrs now and there are trees down all over the mountain. My family got up in the dark this morning and left for school and work. I heard on the way into work that the sun may pop out here this afternoon...jeezzzzz.

Hope the power is on when I get home !!”

“The Pentagon is considering the military taking over and being in charge of the rescue and recovery of the hurricane ravaged areas. Reported on CNN.”

“Chalmette, LA

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last edited: 8/30/05 11:15:14 AM”

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“bit - what do I type?”

“<img src="http://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/1125380695760_ORIGINAL_100_0861.jpg" width="450">

Ends up like this:

”

“Ahh, thanks.”

“http://www.wwltv.com/

Yep, martial law in two parishes so far, more expected.”

“Water Continues to Rise in New Orleans By HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press Writer
23 minutes ago



GULFPORT, Miss. - Rescuers in boats and helicopters struggled to reach hundreds of wet and bedraggled victims of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast on Tuesday, while New Orleans slipped deeper into crisis as water began rising in the streets because of a levee break.

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The magnitude of the disaster — and the death toll in particular — became clearer with every tale of misery. Mississippi's governor said the number of dead in one county alone could be as high as 80.

"At first light, the devastation is greater than our worst fears. It's just totally overwhelming," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the morning after Katrina howled ashore with winds of 145 mph and engulfed thousands of homes in one of the most punishing storms on record in the United States.

Bill Lokey, an official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called Katrina "the most significant natural disaster to hit the United States."

In New Orleans, water began rising in the streets Tuesday morning, swamping an estimated 80 percent of the city and prompting the evacuation of hotels and hospitals. The water was also rising perilously inside New Orleans' Superdome, and Blanco said the tens of thousands of people now huddled there and other shelters would have to be evacuated as well.

"The situation is untenable," Blanco said at a news conference. "It's just heartbreaking."

Because of two levees that broke Tuesday, the city was rapidly filling with water, the governor said. She also said the power could be out for a long time, and the storm broke a major water main, leaving the city without drinkable water. Also, looting broke out in some neighborhoods.

New Orleans lies mostly below sea level and is protected by a network of pumps, canals and levees. Officials began using helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags onto one of the levees, hoping to close the breach.

All day, rescuers were also seen using helicopters to drop lifelines to victims and pluck them from the roofs of homes cut off by floodwaters. The Coast Guard said it rescued some 1,200 people.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said hundreds, if not thousands, of people may still be stuck on roofs roofs and in attics, and so rescue boats were bypassing the dead.

"We're not even dealing with dead bodies," Nagin said. "They're just pushing them on the side."

National Guardsmen brought in people from outlying areas to New Orleans' Superdome in the backs of big 2 1/2-ton Army trucks. Louisiana's wildlife enforcement department also brought people in on the backs of their pickups. Some were wet, some were in wheelchairs, some were holding babies and nothing else.

Nevertheless, it was clear the death toll would rise sharply, with one survivor after another telling of friends and loved ones who floated off or disappeared as the floodwaters rose around them.

"I talked with paramedics that are on the scene and the devastation is so great that they won't quit counting (bodies) for a while," said Mark Williams, operations supervisor for an ambulance service along the Mississippi coast.

Along the coast, tree trunks, downed power lines and trees, and chunks of broken concrete in the streets prevented rescuers from reaching victims. Swirling water in many areas contained hidden dangers. Crews worked to clear highways. Along one Mississippi highway, motorists themselves used chainsaws to remove trees blocking the road.

Tens of thousands of people will need shelter for weeks if not months, said Mike Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And once the floodwaters go down, "it's going to be incredibly dangerous" because of structural damage to homes, diseases from animal carcasses and chemicals in homes, he said.

An estimated 40,000 people were in American Red Cross shelters along the Gulf Coast.

Officials warned people against trying to return to their homes, saying that would only interfere with the rescue and recovery efforts.

Looting broke out in Biloxi and in New Orleans, in some cases in full view of police and National Guardsmen. On New Orleans' Canal Street, the main thoroughfare in the central business district, looters sloshed through hip-deep water and ripped open the steel gates on the front of several clothing and jewelry stores.

"The looting is out of control. The French Quarter has been attacked," said Jackie Clarkson, a New Orleans councilwoman. "We're using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue."

Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley said that in one case, a looter shot and wounded another looter.

More than 1,600 Mississippi National Guardsmen were activated to help with the recovery, and the Alabama Guard sent 800 of its soldiers to Mississippi as well.

In New Orleans, a city of 480,000 that was mostly evacuated over the weekend as Katrina closed in, those who stayed behind faced another, delayed threat: rising water. Failed pumps and levees apparently sent water from Lake Pontchartrain coursing through the streets.

The rising water forced one New Orleans hospital to move patients to the Superdome, where some 10,000 people had taken shelter, and prompted the staff of New Orleans' Times-Picayune newspaper to abandon its offices, authorities said. Hotels were evacuated as well as the water kept rising.

Downtown streets that were relatively clear in the hours after the storm were filled with 1 to 1 1/2 feet of water Tuesday morning. Water was knee-deep around the Superdome. Canal Street was literally a canal. Water lapped at the edge of the French Quarter. Clumps of red ants floated in the gasoline-fouled waters downtown.

"It's a very slow rise, and it will remain so until we plug that breach. I think we can get it stabilized in a few hours," said Terry Ebbert, New Orleans' homeland security chief.

Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi said there were unconfirmed reports of up to 80 deaths in Harrison County — which includes devastated Gulfport and Biloxi — and the number was likely to rise. An untold number of people were also feared dead in Louisiana. At least five other deaths across the Gulf Coast were blamed on Katrina.

"We know that there is a lot of the coast that we have not been able to get to," Barbour said on NBC's "Today Show." "I hate to say it, but it looks like it is a very bad disaster in terms of human life."

As for the death toll in Louisiana, Blanco said only: "We have no counts whatsoever, but we know many lives have been lost."

At the Superdome, someone died after plunging from an upper level of the stadium, Ebbert said. He said the person probably jumped.

The biggest known cluster of deaths was at the Quiet Water Beach apartments in Biloxi, a red-brick beachfront complex of about 100 units. Harrison County, Miss., emergency operations center spokesman Jim Pollard said about 30 people died there.

"This is our tsunami," Mayor A. J. Holloway of Biloxi, Miss., told The Biloxi Sun Herald.

Joy Schovest, 55, was in the apartment complex with her boyfriend, Joe Calvin, when the water began rising. They stayed despite a mandatory evacuation order.

"The water got higher and higher," she said, breaking into tears. "It pushed all the doors open and we swam out. We grabbed a lady and pulled her out the window and then we swam with the current. It was terrifying. You should have seen the cars floating around us. We had to push them away when we were trying to swim."

Teresa Kavanagh, 35, of Biloxi, shook her head is disbelief as she took photographs of the damage in her hometown.

"Total devastation. Apartment complexes are wiped clean. We're going to rebuild, but it's going to take long time. Houses that withstood Camille are nothing but slab now," she said. Hurricane Camille killed 256 people in Louisiana and Mississippi in 1969.

The hurricane knocked out power to millions of people from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, and authorities said it could be two months before electricity is restored to everyone.

Oil prices jumped by more than $3 a barrel on Tuesday, climbing above $70 a barrel, amid uncertainty about the extent of the damage to the Gulf region's refineries and drilling platforms.

By midday Tuesday, Katrina was downgraded to a tropical depression, with winds around 35 mph. It was moving northeast through Tennessee at around 21 mph.

Forecasters said that as the storm moves north over the next few days, it could swamp the Tennessee and Ohio valleys with a potentially ruinous 8 inches or more of rain. On Monday, Katrina's remnants spun off tornadoes and other storms in Georgia that smashed dozens of buildings and were blamed for at least one death.

According to preliminary assessments by AIR Worldwide Corp., a risk assessment company, the insurance industry faces as much as $26 billion in claims from Katrina. That would make Katrina more expensive than the previous record-setting storm, Hurricane Andrew, which caused some $21 billion in insured losses in 1992 to property in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.

Anne Anderson said she lost her family home in Gulfport.

"My family's an old Mississippi family. I had antiques, 150 years old or more, they're all gone. We have just basically a slab," she told NBC. She added: "Behind us we have a beautiful sunrise and sunset, and that is going to be what I'm going to miss the most, sitting on the porch watching those."”

“I heard from Divinty today. They made it through the storm with little damage. I am glad everything turned out okay for her and her man!!”

“BTW... Newfound Gap is closed due to down trees. The water is not up very bad. We have had alot of wind and not very much rain.”

“The power came on here last night. I'm guessing it was off about 24hrs. I spent 3.5hrs cleaning the pool last night. It was totally full of leafs and sticks. I'm hoping the water will recover because it's looking murky this morning.

Blah...I can't believe the destruction in New Orleans and the Miss. beach areas. Blah. I guess we were lucky here.”

“any word yet from the Sipsey?”

“I wondered that too HOI. My folks live about an 30 miles west of there and it got pretty bad Mon night. Lots of trees down.”

“

HARD TIMES COME AGAIN NO MORE
(Stephen Foster)

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh, hard times come again no more.

Chorus:
‘Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh, hard times come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh, hard times come again no more.

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.

‘Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
‘Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
‘Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh, hard times come again no more.

”

“For some hair-raising first-hand accounts, check out NPR's This American Life, episode 296, Sept 9... "After The Flood".

To get to the story, you have to click on "05" in the left column under "Episodes/RealAudio" then scroll down a little. Scan the synopsis and download the pdf... or listen to the RealAudio. It's very much like the website Ped posted earlier.”

“Oh the Irony. I am watching CSPAN2 and Rep. William Jefferson (D) La., is questioning FEMA and Homeland security in Congressional hearings on the lack of Federal response to Katrina. Jefferson is under investigation for misappropriating government equipment and personnel to remove personal items from his home during rescue efforts. Jefferson is attaching Michael Brown and FEMA for failing to take control of the situation before landfall. Mr. Brown is making mincemeat of this idiot.”

“Thank goodness the other committee members have a handle on the situation. Mr. Brown is looking like he just wasn't up to the task. All bureacracy no leadership.”

“


A Bone, a Bath and a Window Seat
Wealthy patrons are flying pets marooned in the hurricane area to California shelters.



By Richard Marosi and Donna Horowitz
Special to The Times
Originally published September 15, 2005
SAN DIEGO — Hundreds of dogs and cats left stranded by Hurricane Katrina are being flown by chartered commercial jets to shelters and homes in California by wealthy donors, including a dog-loving Texas oil billionaire and his wife.

Aboard the Boeing 737-800 "flying animal shelter," as one flight attendant dubbed a recent airlift, dogs and cats whimpered in crates strapped into the passenger seats. Some were given sponge baths, cuddled and allowed to trot up to the cockpit. One nervous dog sat in first class.
“It was the best flight I ever had … the first flight where I kissed and hugged all the passengers. They were so sweet and desperate for affection and help," said Kimberly Wnuk, one of six flight attendants and pilots who donated their time for the airlift.

Sunday's flight from Baton Rouge, La. — the first — brought 80 dogs and cats to San Diego and San Francisco. Another plane arrived Tuesday in San Francisco with 152 animals, and still another flight is expected to land later this week in Los Angeles.

The airlifts — each costing about $45,000 — were sponsored by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and his wife, Madeleine, part of a larger effort by animal welfare groups to find homes across the country for animals in crowded shelters in Louisiana and Mississippi.

More than 2,000 animals, including 1,300 dogs, 400 birds and several hundred cats, are at the main shelter in the New Orleans area. Rescue crews are picking up several hundred more daily. Officials say as many as 50,000 may still be stranded.

Though some pets have been reunited with their owners, the space crunch for those who haven't has forced animal welfare groups to seek shelters elsewhere. Not enough families in Louisiana are able to adopt the animals, officials say.

"We want to move as many animals out of state as possible," said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United State s, which is managing the disaster relief efforts for animals.

So far, more than 150 animals have been trucked to Houston. Hundreds more are scheduled to be transported to South Florida and Michigan.

The largest operation — dubbed Operation Orphans of the Storm, Pet Rescue Katrina — is being run with the Pickenses' assistance.

Madeleine Pickens said she was inspired to act by seeing television images of abandoned animals, dogs paddling futilely in the flooded waters and evacuees being forced to leave their pets behind.

Her husband, she said, has given $6 million to the American Red Cross for general disaster relief efforts. The aid for animal welfare will bring joy to the evacuees who were pet owners, she said.

"There's a lot of people saying, 'Gosh, I hope someone is taking care of my dog,' " she said.

Bill McLaughlin, a Marin County real estate developer who has been seeking donors for more airlifts, said not enough was being done to save the animals.

"This was just driving me nuts and I didn't see anybody doing anything," he said. "People there have lost enough. The only lifeline they have left is the pets."

Like other rescue operations, the pet lifts have met with delays.

The relocations have been stalled by health considerations — animals must be vaccinated and checked for diseases. And officials in some Louisiana parishes want to keep the pets in the state for at least 30 days in hopes of reuniting them with their owners.

Faced with deteriorating conditions, however, some parishes, including Orleans Parish, this week authorized the relocations. Owners will still be given 30 days to claim their pets from families offering temporary shelter, and the animals' photographs are being posted on such websites as http://www.petfinder.com .

To prepare the planes, crews from Continental Airlines covered the floors and seats with plastic sheets for the four-hour flight from Baton Rouge to California. In the kennels were beagles and hounds, pit bull mixes and Labradors, German shepherds, a golden retriever and gaggles of puppies and kittens.

"Believe me, it was a very odd scene to see all the seats on a Continental 737 filled with dogs and cats," Pacelle said. "It was quite amusing, but also very gratifying."

After takeoff, attendants took some of the dogs and cats out of their crates to let them stretch their legs. Many were flea-ridden or suffering from dehydration and wounds. Flight attendants cleaned some kittens.

Some of the dogs barked and whimpered when first brought in the cabin. But most calmed down as they frolicked in the aisles or were swept up in the arms of crew members. "It's like they owned the joint. It was like a breath of fresh air for them," said Wnuk, the flight attendant.

Some dogs were taken to greet the pilots, including one black and tan dachshund. "He jumped up and put his paws up. I could tell he was an aviator at heart," said Larry Stephenson, a co-pilot on Tuesday's flight. "I'm going to adopt him if I can."

The operators of animal shelters in San Diego and Marin counties said they have many people willing to take in the animals, either for adoption or foster care, but are seeking more willing to help.

"They've been jostled around and bounced and flown and put in crates for hours at a time, and when they got here they were neat, sweet, loving and obedient," said John Van Zante, a spokesman for the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe, which took in 50 animals. "They just couldn't give enough kisses and be patted on the head enough."”

“It's absolutely terrible that people were forced to leave their pets behind, I can't even imagine. What a great thing to do for these critters!

A friend of mine volunteers on weekends at a no kill shelter. She says they have two Katrina dogs, one she would like to adopt herself. The other has "food issues" and she got bit for the first time in 7 years of working there.”