'No Good News To Share'
Aug 30, 2005


The storm is blamed for at least 67 deaths and that toll is almost certain to rise. Mississippi officials said at least 54 people were killed there, including 30 who were killed in an apartment complex near the Biloxi beach. Alabama reported two deaths. The storm killed 11 people last week when it made its initial landfall in Florida.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says his city is in a state of complete devastation.

"I have no good news to share," Nagin told a local television station in New Orleans.

Nagin said that parts of New Orleans is under 20 feet of water and that there are still individuals on roofs awaiting rescue. He also said that the Twin Span Causeway Bridges are totally destroyed.

Among the other items of bad news Nagin shared: Three boats have run aground; an oil tanker is leaking; the levy at 17th Street Canal has broke and the Yacht Club has totally burned.

Nagin urged those that evacuated during the storm to stay away. He told citizens that conditions are not right for people to be coming back into the city yet because there is almost no power (which is expected to be out for potentially several weeks), and the water systems are contaminated.

The storm is blamed for at least 67 deaths and that toll is almost certain to rise. Mississippi officials said at least 54 people were killed there, including 30 who were killed in an apartment complex near the Biloxi beach. Alabama reported two deaths. The storm killed 11 people last week when it made its initial landfall in Florida.

Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast just outside New Orleans on Monday, submerging entire neighborhoods up to their roofs, swamping Mississippi’s beachfront casinos and killing at least 55 people.

Katrina, which was downgraded to a tropical storm Monday evening, was not the apocalyptic storm that New Orleans has been dreading all these years. But it was still a nightmare for the city and a 200-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast.

Some neighborhoods in the Big Easy were submerged up to their roofs. Floodwaters gushed into Mississippi’s flashy beachfront casinos. Sailboats were flung across a highway like toys. Dozens of people had to be rescued from rooftops and attics as the water rose through their homes.

Katrina May Have Killed 80 in Miss. County Katrina's Full Wrath Still Being Felt As Body Count Rises Along Gulf Coast

By HOLBROOK MOHR Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

GULFPORT, Miss. Aug 30, 2005 — Rescuers in boats and helicopters searched for survivors of Hurricane Katrina and brought victims, wet and bedraggled, to shelters Tuesday as the extent of the damage across the Gulf Coast became ever clearer. The governor said the death toll in one Mississippi county alone could be as high as 80.

"The devastation down there is just enormous," Gov. Haley Barbour said on NBC's "Today" show, 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.

In New Orleans, meanwhile, water began rising in the streets Tuesday morning, apparently because of a break on a levee along a canal leading to Lake Pontchartrain. New Orleans lies mostly below sea level and is protected by a network of pumps, canals and levees. Many of the pumps were not working Tuesday morning.




Officials planned to use helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags into the breach.

Barbour 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. 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," the governor said. "I hate to say it, but it looks like it is a very bad disaster in terms of human life."

Along the Gulf 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.

Officials said it could be a week or more before many of the evacuees are allowed back. They warned people against trying to return to their homes, saying their presence would only interfere with the rescue and recovery efforts.

"What we're doing is trying to make the best of a bad situation, and we need people to cooperate," New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass said.

More than 1,600 Mississippi National Guardsmen were activated to help with the recovery, and the Alabama Guard planned to send two battalions to Mississippi.

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.

Damn, that SUCKS :(

It'll be years before those people's lives are close to back to normas, and the cities will never be the same again.

Just another reason why I'm thankful that we live in Middle GA...we get the rain and the wind, but we've never had to suffer the full fury of a hurricane... 6u6e56n