Wednesday, August 31, 2005


Death, damage, chaos strewn in Katrina's path - Yahoo! News

American Red Cross. Or, call 1-800-HELP-NOW.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Hellish scenes of death, damage, and chaos wracked the U.S. Gulf Coast on Wednesday as overwhelmed authorities tried to rescue the living and count the dead amid the destruction left by powerful Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans was filling with water after an initial attempt to stop a leaking levee failed, while police fought a losing battle to stop widespread looting in the stricken city.

In Mississippi, officials confirmed that at least 100 people had died in the killer storm and said the death toll was almost certain to go much higher.

"We're just estimating, but the number could go double or triple from what we're talking about now," a civil defense director told the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion Ledger.

Biloxi, Mississippi spokesman Vincent Creel earlier told Reuters of the death toll: "It's going to be in the hundreds."

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu told reporters she had heard at least 50 to 100 people were dead in New Orleans, where rescue teams were so busy saving people stranded in flooded homes they had to leave bodies floating in the high waters.

New Orleans at first appeared to have received a glancing blow from the storm, but the raging waters of Lake Pontchartrain tore holes in the levee system that protects the low-lying city, then slowly filled it up.

Mayor Ray Nagin said 80 percent of the city, much of it below sea level, was covered with water that was in places 20 feet deep.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local levee workers tried, but failed on Tuesday to stem the flow from a 200-foot- (60-meter-) long breach near the city center with 3,000-pound 1,360-kg) sandbags brought in by helicopter.

A looming problem for authorities was what to do with the growing number of evacuees who were left homeless by Katrina.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said a plan was being developed to evacuate the Superdome, which had no electricity, and other shelters.

Officials said there were 20,000 to 30,000 people now sheltered in the giant football stadium and they were growing restive because there was no electricity, no air conditioning, growing piles of trash and increasingly unsanitary conditions.

Imagine, if you will, in the face of a loss of a major American city, Bill Clinton grabbing a saxophone yesterday and playing at a speech. What would people's reaction be?



My reaction to this- no comment. The people of New Orleans are better off without his "leadership". He'll just fuck this up, too.

Oh, and just go read this. It will provide you all the facts you need to know about how and why the work that was needed on those levees wasn't completed. No comment on that, either. I think I'll just let history be the judge and jury here.