Speaking of tornadoes and hurricanes and windstorms......

[Rockin Robin]

Where has Dan Dan The Weather Man been lately??? You'd think he'd be throwing all his technical jargon at us!

[imgreat95]

he has been very busy lately. And SUPPOSED to be coming to Pa next week. Not sure if he still is or not, though.

[BPBlueSox]

I'm around every once in awhile.

The thing that gets me about Katrina is the idiocy of the media to focus on New Orleans. Nothing was said about the gulf coast of Mississippi around Gulfport and Biloxi even though all along it looked like they were going to get the worst (the northeast quad) of the storm. All the focus was on New Orleans and getting people out of there. Needless to say, there are probably hundreds dead along the Gulf Coast.

It's sad, it really is. I don't understand the lunacy of the people who decide to 'ride out the storm' just across the street from the ocean.

[Tigers#1]

Hundreds feared dead on storm-ravaged U.S. coast

By Rick Wilking

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Helicopters plucked frantic survivors from rooftops, debris-fouled water flooded historic New Orleans and hundreds were feared dead on Tuesday after Hurricane Katrina's rampage across the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Authorities made plans to remove thousands of storm refugees from the Superdome stadium and other shelters in New Orleans and drop giant sandbags to plug breaches in the city's protective levee system, which allowed water from Lake Pontchartrain to swamp the streets.

Looters struck the devastated city, rolling carts full of merchandise and carrying bundles from downtown stores.

Officials reported a 3-foot (0.9-meter) shark had been spotted cruising the flooded streets.

The economic cost of the hurricane could be the highest in U.S. history, as much as $26 billion, according to risk analysts' estimates.


"The dimensions are unfathomable," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. She advised residents to hold a day of prayer on Wednesday to "calm our spirits" and give thanks for survival.


As New Orleans coped with a flood, Mississippi grappled with the prospect that hundreds of people may have died when a 30-foot (9 meter) storm surge blasted ashore, a city spokesman said. Cadaver dogs were being brought in to help find the dead.


Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said there were reports of up to 80 dead in the Biloxi area, but U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the state's unofficial estimates were "probably way too low."


Biloxi spokesman Vincent Creel told Reuters "It's going to be in the hundreds."


Rescuers struggled through high water and mountains of debris to reach areas crushed by Katrina when it struck the Gulf Coast on Monday. The storm inflicted catastrophic damage as it slammed into Louisiana with 140 mph (224 kph) winds, then raged into Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.


PLUCKED TO SAFETY


Across the region, hundreds of people climbed onto rooftops to escape rising water that lapped at the eaves. They used axes, and in at least one case a shotgun, to blast holes in roofs so they could escape through the attics.


Police took boats into flooded areas to rescue some of the stranded and others were lifted off rooftops by helicopter. The Coast Guard helped rescue 1,200 in New Orleans on Monday night and thousands more all along the Gulf Coast on Tuesday.


New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reported bodies floating in the floodwaters, which may have measured 20 feet deep in places.


"What I saw today is equivalent to what I saw flying over the tsunami in Indonesia. There are places that are no longer there," U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu said after flying over the damaged area.


New Orleans is a bowl-like city mostly below sea level and protected by levees or embankments. The levees gave way overnight in at least three places, including a 200-foot (60 meter) breach that allowed the lake waters to pour into the city center.


The U.S. military planned to use helicopters to drop giant sandbags filled with gravel into the breaches, the worst up to 20 feet (6 meter) deep. Authorities were also considering plugging the gap with shipping containers filled with sand.


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


Governors in the stricken states called out more than 7,500 National Guard troops to help control looting, remove debris and deliver aid.


ABC News said the looters in New Orleans numbered in the thousands and carted away anything that was unguarded while a few overwhelmed police officers stood idly by.


In another area, a special weapons team showed up with machine guns prominently displayed in a show of force.


"This ain't no time for this kind of foolishness but people trapped, a lot of them hungry, they don't have no water, need medicine. I need insulin right now," a woman told ABC.


Four people were confirmed dead in St. Tammany Parish, east of New Orleans, a local official said.


Most of the deaths appear to have been caused by the storm surge, which swept as far as a mile inland in parts of Mississippi.


"From the destruction I've seen, I think there'll be some people we never find," Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway said after a helicopter tour.


Biloxi Fire Captain Michael Thomas said an entire apartment complex collapsed and officials believed there are many bodies in the building. At a nearby cemetery, coffins drifted out of mausoleums. "Caskets are everywhere," he said.


Hayes Bolton, 65, stood guard over the rubble of his Biloxi pawn shop, which was flattened by the storm. Nearby, the homes of his grandmother, mother and aunt were destroyed.


"It's hard to get a hold of this type of devastation. It looks like we've been nuked," Bolton said. "This is just a tragedy. It makes you want to crawl in a hole."


In Mississippi's Hancock County, emergency workers went from house to house and put black paint on those where people died, CNN said. They planned to return later to pick up the bodies.


PATH OF DESTRUCTION


Before striking the Gulf Coast, Katrina last week hit southern Florida and killed seven people.


It knocked out electricity to about 2.3 million customers, or nearly 5 million people, in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, utility companies said. Restoring power could take weeks, they warned.


The storm swept through oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico, source of 20 percent to 25 percent of U.S. production of the commodities. U.S. oil prices on Tuesday jumped $3.65 a barrel to peak at $70.85 as oil firms assessed damage.


Convoys of Humvees and military trucks streamed south on Interstate 65 through Alabama with loads of fuel and power generators. Special Forces boat crews were dispatched to conduct search and rescue operations in flooded communities.


(Additional reporting by Erwin Seba in Baton Rouge, La., Paul Simao in Mobile, Ala., Scott Disavino in New York, Charles Aldinger in Washington, Jane Sutton in Miami and Andrew Stern in Chicago.)
08/30/05 21:38


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