Connie Z - New Orleans - Hurricane Katie

[57pbass]

Lets all say a prayer for Connie Z the other Lders who are in New Orleans area..

 

Hurricane Katie is supposed to do massive damage to the area...

 

drop us a line and let us know how you are ....

[_Sweet Willie_]

Indeed Madame Z, please know that we wish you the best and hope that there is a change in the weather.

 

And, yes, please let us know how you are when you are able to make it here to the LDL.

 

Peace.

--Willie

[bottle12am]

God is pretty much setting up New Orleans for a 'do over'. It's looking like a direct hit. My parents and sis from the Crescent City are taking camp at my house (they live dead center in the path of Katrina; I'm a bit west and we should 'luckily' only get 50-70mph winds).

 

Our house in Cajun Country got nailed by Hurricane Lilly (a Cat 4) a few years back. The worst part was the aftermath -- police-enforced curfews, no electricity/phones for weeks/ waiting months for insurance adjusters and repairmen.

 

Still, we faired better than others in our area. A tornado went down our street during Lilly and picked a few select homes to rip open like Christmas presents. One house two doors down the street and another next door were two of the ones that the twister selected for complete destruction.

 

The only thing the tor did to us was tear off shingles and siding. We were lucky.

 

My 'rents, sis, and the wonderful Mrs. Z apparently get to go thru the same thing.

 

-----

 

***Special note about Katrina and my GAS habit --

Sad part is that last week I had a shipment of music gear sent to my parents' house -- paw co-signed for a credit app to enable my habit, and they shipped my GAS relief to his house. Dad forgot to pack the gear to bring it up here. So while I'm putting up with my refugees, my poor brand new GK800RB and Boss Bass chorus are left alone in the dark, fending off 165+ winds.

[rumpelstiltskin.]

we're so f'ed.

 

even up in meridian, i'm expecting some pretty bad effects. we got the weak side of ivan and it still tore up town. this is going to be much worse. i usually don't worry, but i'm not sure what to expect here. i'll probably lose power for a couple days. during ivan, some people lost power for three or four days.

 

i can only hope it doesn't decimate new orleans. the weather people have been saying this is the big one they've been worrying about for thirty years.

 

robb.

[doc taz]

You're in my prayers tonight, Connie. Hope y'all down there can come back soon.

[Bass_in_August]

Hey guys I will definatly be saying a special prayer for all of you guys, hope you find saftey

 

Godbless

[butcherNburn]

Be safe people.

I had a feeling this was gong to be a bad one when I saw how slow it was moving a few days ago. I'm glad we have the abilty to get early warnings with such detail now.

[Rick Hoffman]

Best of luck to all of you in that region, I hope you all pull through with minimal damages. This is really going to be a bad one they are saying, but hopefully it will die down considerably when it hits the coast.

[ATM]

Good luck, y'all. Gas stations will usually have gas in the mornings rather than later. Red Cross and Salvation Army personnel are geared up. Let us know you're okay when you can. Also, let us know if you need anything.

 

Tip, repair crews enjoy terry-cloth towels as well as Gatorade.

 

ATM

[Wally Malone]

Good luck Connie, let us know how things are down there.

 

Wally & Lady Bo

[Big Daddy from Motown]

God Bless and good luck to all down south this week.

[SpookyKid]

Connie and friends, I will say a special prayer for you. Be safe and let us know how you are soon.

[davio]

My prayers are with you all.

[Danzilla]

Praying safety and God's protective hand over you all during this storm and beyond. NOLA and Lafayette are some of my favorite places and hold a lot of memories for my; hope all goes well and has as little damage as possible.

[Nicklab]

I've been working on covering this for the past few days at my day gig. I hope everyone is okay.

[cornbread_medhotmail.com]

I'm praying all of the effected areas have something to come home to. All I know is, all the traffic of the people evacuating has made it impossible to get anywhere over here. I'm about 4+ hours west of New Orleans and it's unreal. There are about 40 Red Cross trucks here in town waiting for the sign to go to the worst hit areas to provide assistance.

[...]

I just got an email from a friend of a friend who lives in the New Orleans area. It was not a good email. The person in question is OK, but the story they told about the utter devastation is heartbreaking. I hope and pray that everyone is alright in that area. Material possessions are nothing to get concerned about in a time like this. Everyone being safe is what's important.

 

Connie. Everyone else. Check in as soon as possible. Please!

[...]

Here is the email that I got. I really hope that it isn't a precursor of really bad things to come.

 

EMAIL:

 

For 90% of the day I have been furiously calling anyone in New Orleans-St. Bernard for information, without much success.

 

By midnight New Orleans time, the cell phone transmitters in the area were mostly operational (with the exception of Verizon) and I was finally able to reach a member of the sheriff's office for an update. What he said sent chills down my back.

 

Almost all of St. Bernard was destroyed by the hurricane. The crevasse in the levee system led to the flooding as did the failure of several pumps in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Thanks to the Industrial Canal, the bane of St. Bernard commuters for almost a century because of its traffic interuptions when ships are traveling back and forth from the Mississippi River and the Intercoastal Waterway, the water had only one way to go: west to St. Bernard.

 

The Industrial Canal and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the legacy of the city fathers connected to the shipping interests- hearltess plutocrats who have toyed with the lives and property of St. Bernard and the lower Ninth Ward like the Duke Brothers in Trading Places...the same people who ordered the levees blown in 1927 to show the world that they had the power to amputate entire communities in order to protect their investments in New Orleans, paved the way for the total destruction of the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and my home parish.

 

Ironically, the Federal government is in the midst of a feasibility study on the outlet, commonly known as the MRGO, to determine its future. It was through the MRGO that the flood waters that drowned these unfavored parts of the New Orleans area rushed through in 1965. History repeated itself in 2005. If the government needs more items to study, I suggest a visit to St. Bernard, now a virtual lake where almost all of its 72,000 residents are now homeless and have lost their almost all of their worldly possessions.

 

I was informed by a sheriff's deputy that the water reached ten feet in all of St. Bernard and that very little was spared. The more affluent and those on the lower end of the economic scale lost their homes with the rushing tide coming from the levee breach.

 

I was also told that there were huricane related deaths in St. Bernard as one person reported seeing the corpse of his neighbor float past him. That ghastly story will likely be followed up with others to come.

 

All that I now own is what I was able to stuff in my suitcases and place in my car, barring looters swooping upon my modest conveyance like vultures on carrion.

 

Watching FoxNews I was able to make out sights from their aerial footage of the worst disaster to strike New Orleans in its history. The historic Southern Yacht Club, the second oldest in America, was aflame. The Clearview Shopping Mall in Metairie looked as if it had been bombed. The Oakwood Shopping Mall on the Westbank was totally surrounded by water.

 

The eastern part of New Orleans was submerged as well. The Chevron where I had filled my car's gas tank up en route to a Louisiana Republican State Committee meeting on Saturday that state GOP leaders refused to cancel, was almost totally under water.

 

As mentioned previously, it could be a month before power will be restored in south Louisiana. Weather permitting, the waters in St. Bernard should leave within a week's time but the scars inflicted on the parish's psyche will last forever.

[Graham Jacobs]

From the safety of the southern tip of Africa, my thoughts go out to all of you affected by Katrina. I've visited the Big Easy and it is one of my favourite cities in the US. Apart from the human tragedy, we're waiting with bated breath to hear what has happened to all those historical buildings and heritage sites in New Orleans and surrounding towns/cities.

 

We've been watching the coverage on CNN and it appears that things could have (so far) been far worse, but who knows how high the flood waters will still go.

 

For those who can, please continue to keep us posted on this thread.

[davebassman]

We're praying for you all down here as well.

[BenLoy]

As bad as things are, according to all news sources it really could of been a whole lot worse.

 

My prayers are with you all. Write us as soon as you have taken stock of everything that's more important!

[Tedster]

Prayers with you Connie Z, Gabriel E, and all our forum members down there.

[Steve Force]

Our thoughts and prayers to everybody affected by the hurricane.

 

I love New Orleans so much I am aching.

 

I sincerely hope Connie Z. is safe and with her loved ones.

 

God bless you all.

[Nicklab]

I've been in touch with a good friend who just recently moved to southern Louisiana. She had to evacuate her home and made her way west to Texas. Word is that she won't be able to return home for at least a month. And with word of a couple of the levees failing in New Orleans it looks like things are only getting worse. My thoughts are with all on the gulf coast.

[ATM]

USA Today :

NEW ORLEANS (AP) Rescuers along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast pushed aside the dead to reach the living Tuesday in a race against time and rising waters, while New Orleans sank deeper into crisis and Louisiana's governor ordered storm refugees out of this drowning city.

 

Two levees broke and sent water coursing into the streets of the Big Easy a full day after New Orleans appeared to have escaped widespread destruction from Hurricane Katrina. An estimated 80% of the below-sea-level city was under water, up to 20 feet deep in places, with miles and miles of homes swamped. (Related story: No quick fix for levees)

 

"The situation is untenable," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. "It's just heartbreaking." (Related video: New Orleans struggles)

 

One Mississippi county alone said its death toll was at least 100, and officials are "very, very worried that this is going to go a lot higher," said Joe Spraggins, civil defense director for Harrison County, home to Biloxi and Gulfport. In neighboring Jackson County, officials said at least 10 deaths were blamed on the storm.

 

Several victims in Harrison County were from a beachfront apartment building that collapsed under a 25-foot wall of water as Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast with 145-mph winds. And Louisiana officials said many were feared dead there, too, making Katrina one of the most punishing storms to hit the United States in decades.

 

After touring the destruction by air, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said it is not of case of homes being severely damaged, "they're simply not there. ... I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago." (Related video: Storm leaves Miss. in ruins)

 

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said hundreds, if not thousands, of people may still be stuck on 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."

 

The flooding in New Orleans grew worse by the minute, prompting the evacuation of hotels and hospitals and an audacious plan to drop huge sandbags from helicopters to close up one of the breached levees. At the same time, looting broke out in some neighborhoods, the sweltering city of 480,000 had no drinkable water, and the electricity could be out for weeks. (Related story: Congress poised to send billions)

 

With water rising perilously inside the Superdome, Blanco said the thousands of refugees now huddled there would be evacuated within two days. She said officials are working on a plan to get the people to other shelters.

 

The dome, which became a shelter of last resort for some 20,000 people, is currently without electricity and has no air conditioning. Broken toilets have also made for extremely unsanitary conditions, Blanco said.

 

"Conditions are degenerating rapidly," she said. "It's a very, very desperate situation."

 

She asked residents to spend Wednesday in prayer.

 

"That would be the best thing to calm our spirits and thank our Lord that we are survivors," she said. "Slowly, gradually, we will recover; we will survive; we will rebuild."

 

A helicopter view of the devastation over the New Orleans area revealed people standing on black rooftops baking in the sunshine while waiting for rescue boats. A row of desperately needed ambulances were lined up on the interstate, water blocking their path. Roller coasters jutted out from the water at a Six Flags amusement park. Hundreds of inmates were seen standing on a highway because the prison had been flooded.

 

Sen. Mary Landrieu quietly traced the sign of the cross across her head and chest as she looked out at St. Bernard Parish, where only roofs peeked out from the water.

 

"The whole parish is gone," Landrieu said.

 

All day long, rescuers in boats and helicopters pulled out shellshocked and bedraggled flood refugees from rooftops and attics. Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said that 3,000 people have been rescued by boat and air, some placed shivering and wet into helicopter baskets. They were brought by the truckload into shelters, some in wheelchairs and some carrying babies, with stories of survival and of those who didn't make it.

 

"Oh my God, it was hell," said Kioka Williams, who had to hack through the ceiling of the beauty shop where she worked as floodwaters rose in New Orleans' low-lying Ninth Ward. "We were screaming, hollering, flashing lights. It was complete chaos." (Related video: Bush promises help for victims)

 

Frank Mills was in a boarding house in the same neighborhood when water started swirling up toward the ceiling and he fled to the roof. Two elderly residents never made it out, and a third was washed away trying to climb onto the roof.

 

"He was kind of on the edge of the roof, catching his breath," Mills said. "Next thing I knew, he came floating past me."

 

Across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, more than 1 million residents remained without electricity, some without clean drinking water. An untold number who heeded evacuation orders were displaced and 40,000 were in Red Cross shelters, with officials saying it could be weeks, if not months, before most will be able to return.

 

Emergency medical teams from across the country were sent into the region and President Bush cut short his Texas vacation Tuesday to return to Washington to focus on the storm damage.

 

Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown warned that structural damage to homes, diseases from animal carcasses and chemicals in floodwaters made it unsafe for residents to come home anytime soon. And a mass return also was discouraged to keep from interfering with rescue and recovery efforts.

 

That was made tough enough by the vast expanse of floodwaters in coastal areas that took an eight-hour pounding from Katrina's howling winds and up to 15 inches of rainfall. From the air, neighborhood after neighborhood looked like nothing but islands of rooftops surrounded by swirling, tea-colored water.

 

In New Orleans, the flooding actually got worse Tuesday. Failed pumps and levees apparently spilled water from Lake Pontchartrain into streets. The rising water forced hotels to evacuate, led a hospital to boatlift patients to emergency shelters, and drove the staff of New Orleans' Times-Picayune newspaper out of its offices.

 

Officials late Tuesday began the process of using helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags and dozens of giant concrete barriers into the breach. Maj. Gen. Don Riley of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said officials were also looking for a barge to plug the hole.

 

Riley said it could take close to a month to get all the flood water out of the city. If the water rises a couple feet higher, it could also wipe out the water system for whole city, said New Orleans' homeland security chief Terry Ebbert.

 

A clearer picture of the destruction in Alabama became to emerge Tuesday: cement slabs where homes once stood, a 100-foot shrimp boat smoldering on its side, people searching for swept-away keepsakes. The damage in some areas appears to be worse than last year's Hurricane Ivan.

 

In devastated Biloxi, Miss., areas that were not underwater were littered with tree trunks, downed power lines and chunks of broken concrete. Some buildings were flattened.

 

The string of floating barge casinos crucial to the coastal economy were a shambles. At least three of them were picked up by the storm surge and carried inland, their barnacle-covered hulls sitting up to 200 yards inland.

 

One of the deadliest spots appeared to be Biloxi's Quiet Water Beach apartments, where authorities estimated 30 people were washed away, although the exact toll was unknown. All that was left of the red-brick building was a concrete slab.

 

"We grabbed a lady and pulled her out the window and then we swam with the current," 55-year-old Joy Schovest said through tears. "It was terrifying. You should have seen the cars floating around us. We had to push them away when we were trying to swim."

 

Said Biloxi Mayor A. J. Holloway: "This is our tsunami."

 

Looting became a problem in both Biloxi and in New Orleans, in some cases in full view of police and National Guardsmen. One police officer was shot in the head by a looter in New Orleans, but was expected to recover, Sgt. Paul Accardo, a police spokesman.

 

On New Orleans' Canal Street, which actually resembled a canal, dozens of looters ripped open the steel gates on clothing and jewelry stores, some packing plastic garbage cans with loot to float down the street. One man, who had about 10 pairs of jeans draped over his left arm, was asked if he was salvaging things from his store.

 

"No," the man shouted, "that's EVERYBODY'S store!"

 

Looters at a Wal-Mart brazenly loaded up shopping carts with items including microwaves, coolers and knife sets. Others walked out of a sporting goods store on Canal Street with armfuls of shoes and football jerseys.

 

Outside the broken shells of Biloxi's casinos, people picked through slot machines to see if they still contained coins and ransacked other businesses.

 

"People are just casually walking in and filling up garbage bags and walking off like they're Santa Claus," said Marty Desei, owner of a Super 8 motel.

 

Insurance experts estimated the storm will result in up to $25 billion in insured losses. That means Katrina could prove more costly than record-setting Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which caused an inflation-adjusted $21 billion in losses.

 

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, with the potential to dump 8 inches of rain and spin off deadly tornadoes.

 

Katrina left 11 people dead in its soggy jog across South Florida last week, as a much weaker storm.

I was watching it as it passed over Florida. Over the Everglades at 70mph winds, then when the eye hit the Gulf, it immediately gained strength. When that happened, I knew it was going to be Cat 5.

 

A lot of people will probably be better off just moving elsewhere, as "back to normal" in three months is ridiculous. Over a year after Charley, without flooding, many parts down here are not close to "back to normal."

 

American Red Cross Donations

Salvation Army Donations

 

ATM

[mcbn]

I've actually been in Baton Rouge, LA for a few weeks. We got hit with some wind and a little rain, but nothing major. The power was out in the hotel I'm staying in for 12 hours but there was no major damage.

 

The looters are getting bad in New Orleans though. I've heard a few police officers were killed, they are trying to steal the rescue boats, and they are shooting at the helicopters that are flying over.

 

What I want to know is where is the rest of the world with aid to help us?

[zeronyne]

Guys, I'm getting really worried about Connie and her husband. I'm reading and seeing one horror story after another.

 

It's so humbling and frustrating to realize how helpless EVERYONE is against nature. Shouldn't every single helicopter and in the US start airport hopping over to N.O. until at least the roof-bound people are rescued?

 

Connie, we're all sending you good vibes. If anyone hears from her, please post right away.

[ATM]

Originally pm'd by Connie Z on 7/13/05:

Hi ATM!

 

The storms are a cinch, it's the darn evacuations that are HORRIBLE!

 

Actually... we didn't even get a taste of Dennis, for which I am very grateful. But, I have elderly and disabled Grandparents, who have to be evacuated to a "special needs" shelter because of health care issues, which complicates things very much for us.

 

The retirement apartment complex that they live in, was going to put everyone out by 12 noon on Saturday. The problem was that the evacuation shelters do not open until 30 hours before expected landfall, which was not going to be until later that evening.

 

My Grandmother is completely bedridden, and is usually transported by ambulance, whenever she has to go out to the hospital, which is the only time she is actually ever out of the building, other than some wheelchair rides now and then.

 

We were going to try to get her over to my house until the shelters opened, but it was going to cost about $500 for non-emergency ambulance ride. She cannot ride in a car at all sitting up.

 

The only other choice was going to be to put an aero-bed in the back of my SUV and lay her on that, which would have been very difficult and risky, cause we don't want to drop her!

 

Luckily, Dennis didn't come our way and the whole thing was made moot, but... there are supposedly four more coming soon!

 

The primary issue is that the rest of our family cannot evacuate until we get my Grandparents comfortably settled in to a special-needs shelter (which is actually housed in a hospital), so last year we ended up riding in stop-and-go traffic for 12 1/2 hours just to go a distance that normally takes 3 hours. It was very exhausting and dangerous because we were all too tired to drive, and there was no place to pull over to rest, cause it was like 100 degrees in the middle of the day. We drank about 20 bottles of Starbucks Frappucino!!

 

I am going to contact our local "Citizens With Disablities" association to see what they suggest about improving our situation.

 

Thanks for asking!

 

Now... how did you fare with Dennis the Menace???

 

... connie

Sounds to me like the Zimmermans are those that plan ahead for these things. I sure hope they are well and are at worst, without web access.

 

Anybody hear from robb yet?

 

ATM

[Flemtone]

Connie and all,

 

Godspeed in your move to safety. I haven't heard from my sister-in-law and her family yet - they live in Pass Christian, Ms. Last rumor was that they were going to try to get to Georgia, but that was Monday. No word since.

 

Isn't it amazing how insignificant some things become in the face of such devastation?

 

Praying for all in Louisiana and Mississippi.

 

-t from j

 

http://www.nola.com/images/toprail/logo.gif

 

New Orleans Online

[...]

I'm worried about people. I know it's stupid and irrational. But I'm worried.

 

The last thing I'd be concerned about doing in the event of something like this is posting to an internet forum, but man. I really hope that Connie and everyone else in the general vicinity of the Big Easy are alright.

 

click me to see some raw footage of the Big Easy

 

If you've ever been to New Orleans, you'll see some familiar stuff in that footage. The hotel I stayed at when my funk band played at the Superdome is in one of those videos. It looks like there is at least 20-30' of water there. Holy crap. It's hard to fathom how long it's going to take for that area to recover from all of this.