Re: Hurricane Katrina
- From: "chilly" <slarson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 18:40:12 GMT
<jarrells@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1125368722.407692.166240@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> I can't wait to hit my favorite fossilized shark tooth dive site. I'm
> sure Katrina unearthed a few teeth for me. :-)
>
Here's a post from a diver on another board:
>From a good friend of mine (who happens to be a rescue diver) in Baton
Rouge:
Thank ya'll for your concern. We were just allowed back downtown and am now
at work, but it is slow due to the circumstances. As a Hurricane Andrew
survivor, I was already prepared because I had beer and my manual can
opener. Even though we were on the west side of the storm (the good side) we
still suffered heavy wind damage (imagine your trees are horizontal). I am
counting every blessing I have. A tree snapped and brushed up against our
house, but no damage was done. I must have done something right with "The
Man" since the tree would have destroyed the front part of my house had it
snapped any lower. Right now I have A LOT of cleaning up to do. It will
probably take me about 3 days, but we are dealing with temps around 90 -100
and the mosquitoes who tested positive for West Nile virus are making their
presence known. I am blessed that it is all superficial and limbs and leaves
are the only thing that came down. My neighbors, Janet and Doug, and I were
talking in their horse field at 45 degree angles (yes, like all the other
fools that stand out in a hurricane going "WOW, look at the wind" as a roof
goes flying by. Unfortunately, their barn is totaled courtesy of the other
neighbor's tree. Janet quit beer and moved up to gin and tonic after that.
Charles and I were extremely fortunate we only lost power for 7 hours. There
are so many people with trees in their homes and still have power outages.
Phone lines are sketchy (many don't know where their own family members
are), live power lines are down and light signals are out all over the city;
travel is risky at best. Baton Rouge had 4 fatalities attributed to the
storm. 3 were elderly nursing home patients that did not survive the
evacuation and 1 gentleman was asleep in his home when a tree fell through
the roof and crushed him. There is no good side to this situation, but
overall Baton Rouge came out all right. We have had some places with
ventilation patients lose power and generators fail. We have a shortage of
medical personnel to help manually ventilate people and provide other care
for the special needs patients. Once again, I am counting my blessings. I
have been doing a lot of that lately. It could have been so much worse for
us.
Charles' company has been working on a disaster plan for companies for the
last year. It has been a success. Companies from New Orleans are able to
come to Baton Rouge and all of their data is safe. The company sets up work
stations that they can rent and continue to work. It comes with showers,
kitchen and some basic home comforts. This is nice since most people don't
have a home to go back to. The entire staff from the Times Picayune showed
up after an emergency evacuation. They weathered the storm, but the levee
broke and they building flooded. It took them 8 hours to find an exit from
the city. All 250 people were in the back of 3 small delivery trucks. They
were relieved that they were provided shelter (especially since no hotels
are available and shelters are mainly full). I cleaned out my closet and
sent the clothes with Charles so some of them would have clothes to wear.
The refugees literally escaped with the clothes on their backs.
Charles and I just helped my sister-in-law move to her house on St. Charles
Saturday. She is a doctor at Children's Hospital and was on call and couldn'
t leave. She was able to get out on Sunday when the mandatory evacuation was
issued. She is very concerned about her partners who are still in the
hospital with patients. The wife of one partner was evacuated by the Coast
Guard helicopter yesterday. She is picking her up as we speak so she will
have a place to stay. News reports are disturbing: looters are trying to
break into the hospital and there are 100 children who could not be moved in
there with staff. You may disagree, but the LOOTER'S RULE states that unless
you are looting food and water for survival, I think looters should be shot
on site and survivors should be shot again. These people have no access to
the news and don't realize they need to be finding a way out or else they
will die.
Now the plain truth: DO NOT READ IF YOU UPSET EASILY
New Orleans, the place of my birth, and some of the surrounding parishes to
be honest are not doing well. The levees are breaking, the pumps are
failing, and chaos is starting. The city is Atlantis and the body count I
feel certain will be high. Southern Plaquemines Parish has basically been
reclaimed by the Mississippi and the Gulf is about 40 miles inland. Mother
Nature is an awesome power to behold. People are drowning in their attics
because they didn't bring the tools they needed to bust out the ceiling,
animals are tangled in live power lines and being electrocuted, and over
time, disease, dehydration, and contamination will spread from the dead
bodies and animal carcasses floating in the city. Crews cannot enter the
city and fix utilities unless the water is removed which can't be done until
the water is stopped and the power to the pumps is restored. The water is
undrinkable due to seepage from the gasoline from station pumps and flooded
cars, sewage, and household chemicals in houses. There is a boil water
directive, but no one can do this because the electricity is out. Snakes and
other hazardous Louisiana critters are swimming around the city. Standing
water will pose a threat when the mosquitoes populate. Particularly nasty is
the Asian Tiger mosquito. Many either didn't leave because of the fear they
would trapped on interstate (the worst place you could be) like last year
during Ivan (it took friends 11 hours to go 20 miles), they didn't have the
financial resources to leave (many live paycheck to paycheck), tourists
couldn't leave because flights were canceled and there was not a rental car
to be found, or they just didn't. The Coast Guard and Army Reserves have
evacuated over 3000 from their rooftops and are working extremely hard, but
there are still so many, some I know they have not gotten to in time. Like I
said, many are drowning in their attics. People that evacuated have no homes
to return to. The emotional toll is starting. One man has jumped from the
roof of the Superdome. Looters shot a NOPD officer and his condition is
unknown and eventually there will be total chaos. Some are trying to break
into Children's Hospital where my sister-in-law's partners are currently
working. I am upset, but I am also thankful since she was supposed to be in
there and she isn't. Due to the flooding help from the police is not coming.
The city is under martial law. There aren't enough police to handle all of
the lawlessness and there have been prison breaks from the Orleans Parish
Prison. These prisoners (many in for murder and armed robbery = violent)
were not moved and eventually the jail flooded. I am aware of one guard who
is a hostage with his wife and 4 children. Yes, we just made movie of the
week. They have many volunteers with boats looking for survivors, but there
are just too many people and no where for them to go. I am currently on call
for "clean up" after the survivors are evacuated. It is not something I look
forward to, but it serves a greater good. The bodies cannot be collected now
for 2 reasons: the priority is finding the survivors first and currently,
there is simply no place to put them. If the bodies are not collected soon,
disease will eventually spread from the decay. Have you seen the pictures of
people wading/swimming in the street water? If they knew what I knew, they
wouldn't. The state is working hard to get as many people out as possible,
preferably before they die of exposure, dehydration, or starvation. I am not
trying to sound like a pessimist or portray the image that all hope is lost.
I am just telling you what is. I guess Ryan can call it the "dark place" in
the true sense of the word now. We can recover, but it will be a long uneasy
road. The body count is not in for our state, yet. I suspect it will be
higher than any one would like unless some miracle happens. That is also
assuming we can find all of them (washed away. Etc.) I have noticed everyone
but Europe and George Clooney has stepped up to help. Where is George by the
way? He is usually all over the telephone lines when this stuff happens. If
you could see the amazing goodness that is coming out of people, you would
be proud that good people are still in the world. I guess tragedies like
this bring out the best and may bring out the worst in people. For those
looking to take advantage of people's misfortune.see the looter's rule
above.
On a lighter note, The Jesus statue in front of the 248 year old St. Louis
Cathedral was spared when an Oak tree fell on him, the limbs straddling the
statue. Miraculously, Jesus only lost a thumb and forefinger and is expected
to make a full recovery.
People here are still going and hanging on to their senses of humor. I know
I am. Sometimes it is all you have.
If anyone feels the need to do something and wants to help, I know that the
Red Cross is taking donations and so is the Baton Rouge Area Foundation
(www.BRAF.org). I know they are desperately trying to get supplies such as
food and water here to distribute to the refugees at the local shelters and
to the people in New Orleans.
I will be intermittently checking my email. But I will be trying to take
some time off since business will be slow to clean up the damage at my
house.
Again, I count my blessings one day at a time.
Thank you for your concern and hopefully I have answered many questions. The
news/history is happening faster than I can keep up with, but I will keep
you posted.
Kaye
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----
Last night I welled up, as I watched a reporter interview a man who was in
shock. He'd been in the attic of his house with his wife, when the waters
broke it in two. He fought to hold her as she was being swept away. She
told him to let her go and take care of their children and grandbabies.
Good luck with your shark teeth.
.
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