August 29, 2005

6 foot holes open in the Superdome.

With 9,000 people inside waiting out the hurricane.

7 comments:

ALH ipinions said...

Indeed. But I wouldn't mind seeing wind gusts blow away one of those bonzo reporters who seem to think it's necessary and heroic to expose themselves to hurricane conditions to report the obvious. (Their flirtations with mother nature always seem so farcical.) And, isn't it a bit silly when their reporting packs more gale force winds that the hurricane itself...

goesh said...

- the most dire of predictions has coffins popping up from the flooding. What a jolt to the senses, you bury Aunt Gertie, come back home from the flood and there she is sitting on the living room couch..

Beth said...

I am reading livejournal blogs from folks who stayed and it's looking like the worst may have passed, without the direct hit scenario occuring. There's no news from neighborhoods, but the center of the city is in better shape than we'd hoped for. It looks like Gulfport is taking the brunt of it.

The dome is okay; the leakage isn't bad. There are bathrooms working still, and food from the National Guard. But there is a levee break in a low-income neighborhood, and people on top of their houses needing rescue. Better to be in the Dome, I think. Well, our NFL team has been pressuring for a retractable roof stadium. I don't think this is what they meant.

Freeman Hunt said...

Thank goodness the hurricane turned and softened a bit. I couldn't sleep last night due to worrying that the Superdome wouldn't hold.

Pretty sweet that some of the bathrooms still work. I figured they'd all be out.

Any word about the people who were stuck in traffic jams on the highways?

Beth said...

I think the roads are clear now, but that's a guess. I want to shout out big time to blogging and bloggers. We're getting the only scraps of news about actual neighborhoods from the blogs. There's one guy in an ISP company in downtown New Orleans who is able to post still; they have their own generators and power. Most of the local bloggers are now without power and phones so they've gone silent. We're desperate to hear from a friend whose house is near ours, on the river; her last voice post was at 8:30 a.m. I'm hoping Sprint and Verizon et al are able to restore service to the 504 and 985 area codes sometime soon, so we can start getting in touch.

If you're interested, the CBD blogger is here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/insomnia/599039.html

FEMA is saying it could be weeks before we can get home. I sure hope not.

Anyway, blogging rocks. Media is in our hands, and that's a good thing.

Beth said...

One more thing; my admiration for bloggers is no smear on some of the reporters and camera people for the regular news. Jeannie Meserve of CNN is out there in the neighborhoods, and I think she's doing good work. I left the city, but they're there, doing their jobs. Some of them, sure, seem to revel in going out their hotel door and saying "wow, look at me being blown in the wind (Harrigan on the Hunt comes to mind; we kept thinking he was going to be decapitated by flying debris and then we realized that was the point--he's Harrigan, On the Hunt! See him evade danger!) but others, like Meserve, are doing what I need--providing news, of meaning to the many locals who are wondering what the hell is going on, at risk to themselves. I'm grateful to them as well.

Monty Loree said...

Hurricane Katrina shows a huge amount of organization cooperation amongst the people of Louisiana and Mississippi. From what's been shown on the news so far, there doesn't seem to be many casualties of this catastrophic event.

This fore thought and planning and advance notice really helped out!

I wish all the folks in New Orleans and Mississippi area all the best in this hugely trying time.