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2001
The foretelling of a deadly disaster in New Orleans
FEMA ranked hurricane scenario highly likely in '01
By ERIC BERGER
Editor's note: This article was originally published on Dec. 1, 2001, in the Houston Chronicle. Because of its relevance to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, it is being republished.
New Orleans is sinking.
And its main buffer from a hurricane, the protective Mississippi River delta, is quickly eroding away, leaving the historic city perilously close to disaster.
So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country.
The other two? A massive earthquake in San Francisco, and, almost prophetically, a terrorist attack on New York City.
The New Orleans hurricane scenario may be the deadliest of all.
In the face of an approaching storm, scientists say, the city's less-than-adequate evacuation routes would strand 250,000 people or more, and probably kill one of 10 left behind as the city drowned under 20 feet of water. Thousands of refugees could land in Houston.
Economically, the toll would be shattering.
Southern Louisiana produces one-third of the country's seafood, one-fifth of its oil and one-quarter of its natural gas. The city's tourism, lifeblood of the French Quarter, would cease to exist. The Big Easy might never recover.
And, given New Orleans' precarious perch, some academics wonder if it should be rebuilt at all.
It's been 36 years since Hurricane Betsy buried New Orleans 8 feet deep. Since then a deteriorating ecosystem and increased development have left the city in an ever more precarious position. Yet the problem went unaddressed for decades by a laissez-faire government, experts said.
"To some extent, I think we've been lulled to sleep," said Marc Levitan, director of Louisiana State University's hurricane center.
Hurricane season ended Friday, and for the second straight year no hurricanes hit the United States. But the season nonetheless continued a long-term trend of more active seasons, forecasters said. Tropical Storm Allison became this country's most destructive tropical storm ever.
Yet despite the damage Allison wrought upon Houston, dropping more than 3 feet of water in some areas, a few days later much of the city returned to normal as bloated bayous drained into the Gulf of Mexico. The same storm dumped a mere 5 inches on New Orleans, nearly overwhelming the city's pump system. If an Allison-type storm were to strike New Orleans, or a Category 3 storm or greater with at least 111 mph winds, the results would be cataclysmic, New Orleans planners said.
"Any significant water that comes into this city is a dangerous threat," Walter Maestri, Jefferson Parish emergency management director, told Scientific American for an October article.
"Even though I have to plan for it, I don't even want to think about the loss of life a huge hurricane would cause."
New Orleans is essentially a bowl ringed by levees that protect the city from the Mississippi River to its south and Lake Pontchartrain to the north. The bottom of the bowl is 14 feet below sea level, and efforts to keep it dry are only digging a deeper hole.
During routine rainfalls the city's dozens of pumps push water uphill into the lake. This, in turn, draws water from the ground, further drying the ground and sinking it deeper, a problem known as subsidence.
This problem also faces Houston as water wells have sucked the ground dry. Houston's solution is a plan to convert to surface drinking water. For New Orleans, eliminating pumping during a rainfall is not an option, so the city continues to sink.
A big storm, scientists said, would likely block four of five evacuation routes long before it hit. Those left behind would have no power or transportation, and little food or medicine, and no prospects for a return to normal any time soon.
"The bowl would be full," Levitan said. "There's simply no place for the water to drain."
Estimates for pumping the city dry after a huge storm vary from six to 16 weeks. Hundreds of thousands would be homeless, their residences destroyed.
The only solution, scientists, politicians and other Louisiana officials agree, is to take large-scale steps to minimize the risks, such as rebuilding the protective delta.
Every two miles of marsh between New Orleans and the Gulf reduces a storm surge — which in some cases is 20 feet or higher — by half a foot.
In 1990, the Breaux Act, named for its author, Sen. John Breaux, D-La., created a task force of several federal agencies to address the severe wetlands loss in coastal Louisiana. The act has brought about $40 million a year for wetland restoration projects, but it hasn't been enough.
"It's kind of been like trying to give aspirin to a cancer patient," said Len Bahr, director of Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster's coastal activities office.
The state loses about 25 square miles of land a year, the equivalent of about one football field every 15 minutes. The fishing industry, without marshes, swamps and fertile wetlands, could lose a projected $37 billion by the year 2050.
University of New Orleans researchers studied the impact of Breaux Act projects on the vanishing wetlands and estimated that only 2 percent of the loss has been averted. Clearly, Bahr said, there is a need for something much bigger. There is some evidence this finally may be happening.
A consortium of local, state and federal agencies is studying a $2 billion to $3 billion plan to divert sediment from the Mississippi River back into the delta. Because the river is leveed all the way to the Gulf, where sediment is dumped into deep water, nothing is left to replenish the receding delta. Other possible projects include restoration of barrier reefs and perhaps a large gate to prevent Lake Pontchartrain from overflowing and drowning the city.
All are multibillion-dollar projects. A plan to restore the Florida Everglades attracted $4 billion in federal funding, but the state had to match it dollar for dollar. In Louisiana, so far, there's only been a willingness to match 15 or 25 cents.
"Our state still looks for a 100 percent federal bailout, but that's just not going to happen," said University of New Orleans geologist Shea Penland, a delta expert.
"We have an image and credibility problem. We have to convince our country that they need to take us seriously, that they can trust us to do a science-based restoration program."
Berger is a Chronicle reporter.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3335758
August 25, 2005
Weak Katrina makes landfall south of Fort Lauderdale
Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Katrina dumped sheets of rain, kicked up the surf and blew strong winds ashore today, toppling trees and driving sand across waterfront streets as it made landfall on the state's densely populated southeast coast.
Katrina's maximum sustained winds increased from 50 to 80 mph today, making it a Category 1 storm as it hit south of Fort Lauderdale, said hurricane specialist Lixion Avila with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. An estimated 5.9 million Florida residents were in Katrina's projected path.
Category 1 storms have maximum sustained winds of 74 to 95 mph, and wind damage to secured structures is usually minimal. Weather officials said Katrina was mostly a rain event, with flooding the main concern.
Before the slow-moving storm hit land, Floridians wary of Katrina prepared by putting up shutters, stacking sandbags in doorways and stocking up on supplies.
At a supermarket in Hollywood, Cassandra Butler hefted two five-gallon bottles of water as well as a 24-pack of smaller bottles into her shopping cart today.
"It's not that I'm worried. I've been in south Florida all my life," Butler said. "But this is a feature of life down here, and you are smart to deal with it."
Gov. Jeb Bush urged residents to prepare because Katrina was expected to bring "tremendous rain" to Florida. "In essence, this is a very dangerous storm. It's important to take this seriously," Bush said.
The storm's path appeared centered on the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, but forecasters warned that the storm could swing north or south before landfall. Flights were canceled at Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports.
Rain fell steadily in much of Miami-Dade and Broward counties ahead of the eye's arrival, and tropical storm force gusts up to 64 mph were felt along the coast. Seas were estimated at 15 feet as the storm approached.
Water management officials lowered canal levels to avoid possible flooding, and pumps were activated in several low-lying areas of Miami-Dade.
"Ever since Hurricane Andrew, I always prepare for hurricanes," said Icel Diaz, 29, a resident of the flood-prone city of Sweetwater in Miami-Dade, as she gathered some sandbags for her home. "Sometimes I overprepare, buying too many supplies."
Category 1 storms have maximum sustained winds of 74 to 95 mph, and wind damage to secured structures is usually minimal. Weather officials said Katrina was mostly a rain event, with flooding the main concern.
Dozens of surfers and spectators lined beaches from Palm Beach to Miami-Dade counties to take advantage of the big waves on the normally placid seas, and long lines didn't seem to be a problem at most area gas stations, supermarkets and hardware stores.
"This is the best of both worlds because it'll bring great waves, but it is not at all dangerous," said surfer Kurt Johnston, 22, of Davie.
At 4 p.m. CDT, Katrina was centered about 15 miles east-northeast of Fort Lauderdale and was moving west at about 6 mph. If Katrina continues on its current track, it would be the first direct hit on Broward County since a destructive Category 4 storm with a recorded gust of 155 mph struck in September 1947.
Katrina would be the second hurricane to hit the state this year — Dennis hit the Panhandle last month — and the sixth since Aug. 13, 2004. Katrina formed Wednesday over the Bahamas and was expected to cross Florida before heading into the Gulf of Mexico.
A hurricane warning was issued for the southeast Florida coast from Jupiter Inlet south to Florida City, as well as inland Lake Okeechobee. A tropical storm warning was issued for all the Florida Keys, from Florida City around the peninsula to Longboat Key on the west coast, and from Jupiter Inlet north to Vero Beach on the east coast.
After crossing the peninsula, the storm could turn to the north over the Gulf of Mexico and threaten the Panhandle early next week, forecasters said. Bush encouraged residents of Florida's Panhandle and Big Bend areas to monitor the storm.
Katrina is the 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. That's seven more than have typically formed by now in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane center said. The season ends Nov. 30.
--from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3324151
--and: http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=99595
August 26, 2005
12 platforms evacuated in Gulf as Katrina blows in
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Twelve petroleum production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico had been evacuated today as Hurricane Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico, but the flow of oil and natural gas was uninterrupted, a federal agency said.
In addition, eight drilling rigs had been evacuated in the face of the storm, the Minerals Management Service reported.
In July, three Gulf storms interrupted some production as energy prices skyrocketed.
But oil prices fell more than $1 a barrel today as traders took profits from recent record highs even as worries lingered that Katrina might disrupt supplies.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell $1.36 to settle at $66.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract settled Thursday at a record $67.49 after touching $68 earlier in the day.
Last month, Hurricane Emily delayed production of 240,024 barrels of oil and 1.58 billion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the MMS. Hurricane Dennis delayed 5.29 million barrels of oil and 23.3 billion cubic feet of gas. Tropical Storm Emily delayed 312,127 barrels of oil and 1.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
The Gulf normally produces 547.5 million barrels of oil and 3.65 trillion cubic feet of gas a year.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3326890
and: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9089281/
August 27, 2005
Louisiana Residents Ordered to Pack Up
Hurricane Katrina Heads for Coast
From Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS -- Highways were so jammed that it looked like the worst rush hour ever. Lines at gas stations spilled onto nearby streets and stretched for blocks. Hotels 150 miles inland were booked up. Stores shut down so workers could go home and board up houses.
Hurricane Katrina was on its way.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a test. This is the real deal," New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin warned the city. "Board up your homes, make sure you have enough medicine, make sure the car has enough gas. Do all things you normally do for a hurricane but treat this one differently because it is pointed towards New Orleans."
Katrina was expected to strengthen to Category 4 monster with winds of at least 131 mph before hitting the Gulf Coast early Monday. A hurricane watch extended from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, but forecasters are predicting that it will come ashore in the New Orleans area.
"At this juncture, all we can do is pray it doesn't come this way and tear us up," said Jeannette Ruboyianes, owner of the Day Dream Inn at Grand Isle, Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island.
The storm formed in the Bahamas and ripped across South Florida on Thursday, causing seven deaths, before moving into the Gulf of Mexico. It was expected to grow in strength over the gulf because surface water temperatures were as high as 90 degrees -- high-octane fuel for hurricanes.
Katrina could be devastating to New Orleans because the city sits below sea level and is dependent on levees and pumps to keep the water out. A direct hit could submerge the city in several feet of water.
Making matters worse, at least 100,000 people in the city lack the transportation to get out of town. Nagin said the Superdome might be used as a shelter of last resort for people who have no cars, with city bus pick-up points around New Orleans.
"I know they're saying 'Get out of town,' but I don't have any way to get out," said Hattie Johns, 74. "If you don't have no money, you can't go."
Owners of gas stations in and around New Orleans were forced to direct traffic as lines to the pumps stretched down surrounding streets. Gas stations were running low on gas by midafternoon Saturday.
"I was in line at the bank for an hour and have been waiting for gas for 30 minutes," said John Sullivan. "If it's anything like they say its going to be, we don't want to be anywhere close to the city."
Louisiana and Mississippi made all lanes northbound on interstate highways. Mississippi declared a state of emergency and Alabama offered assistance to its neighbors. Some motels as far inland as Jackson, Miss., 150 miles north of New Orleans, were already booked up.
By 5 p.m. EDT Saturday, the eye of the hurricane was about 380 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 240 miles west of Key West, Fla. It was moving west at nearly 7 mph, the hurricane center said.
"We know that we're going to take the brunt of it," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. "It does not bode well for southeastern Louisiana."
Some tourists heeded the warnings and moved up their departures, and lines of tourists waited for cabs on New Orleans' famed Bourbon Street.
"The problem is getting a taxi to the airport. There aren't any," said Brian Katz, a salesman from New York.
Others tried leaving but couldn't get a flight.
"We tried to move it up, but they told us they were all booked up," said Terry Evans of Cleveland, whose flight was supposed to leave Monday morning. "We may end up sleeping at the airport."
New Orleans' worst hurricane disaster happened 40 years ago, when Hurricane Betsy blasted the Gulf Coast. Flood waters approached 20 feet in some areas, fishing villages were flattened, and the storm surge left almost half of New Orleans under water and 60,000 residents homeless. Seventy-four people died in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Katrina was a Category 1 storm with 80 mph wind when it hit South Florida on Thursday, and rainfall was estimated at up to 20 inches. Risk modeling companies have said early estimates of insured damage range from $600 million to $2 billion.
South Florida utility crews were still working Saturday to restore power to 733,000 customers, down from more than 1 million. Residents plowed through flooded streets without traffic lights and waited in lines that stretched for miles to reach centers distributing free water and ice for those without electricity.
Florida has been hit by six hurricanes since last August.
Katrina is the 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. That's seven more than typically have formed by now in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane center said. The season ends Nov. 30.
White House asks coastal residents to heed hurricane warnings
Associated Press
CRAWFORD — The White Housetoday asked residents along Louisiana's southeastern coast to heed authorities' advice to evacuate as Hurricane Katrina headed for landfall.
President Bush, vacationing at his ranch, was being regularly updated about the storm, which is expected to hit land early Monday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency continue to coordinate with state authorities in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, and have prepositioned supplies in areas expected to be affected, he said.
Authorities told residents of low-lying coastal communities to head for higher ground. The storm was expected to strengthen as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico and could become a Category 4 hurricane with wind of at least 131 mph.
"We urge residents in the areas that could be impacted to follow the recommendations of local authorities," McClellan said.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3327968
August 28, 2005
Experts expect Katrina to turn New Orleans into Atlantis, leaving up to 1 million homeless
By MATT CRENSON Associated Press
When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.
Experts have warned for years that the levees and pumps that usually keep New Orleans dry have no chance against a direct hit by a Category 5 storm.
That's exactly what Katrina was as it churned toward the city. With top winds of 165 mph and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28 feet above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people homeless.
"All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario," Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.
The center's latest computer simulations indicate that by Tuesday, vast swaths of New Orleans could be under water up to 30 feet deep. In the French Quarter, the water could reach 20 feet, easily submerging the district's iconic cast-iron balconies and bars.
Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city's houses will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless.
"We're talking about in essence having — in the continental United States — having a refugee camp of a million people," van Heerden said.
Aside from Hurricane Andrew, which struck Miami in 1992, forecasters have no experience with Category 5 hurricanes hitting densely populated areas.
"Hurricanes rarely sustain such extreme winds for much time. However we see no obvious large-scale effects to cause a substantial weakening the system and it is expected that the hurricane will be of Category 4 or 5 intensity when it reaches the coast," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Richard Pasch said.
As they raced to put meteorological instruments in Katrina's path Sunday, wind engineers had little idea what their equipment would record.
"We haven't seen something this big since we started the program," said Kurt Gurley, a University of Florida engineering professor. He works for the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program, which is in its seventh year of making detailed measurements of hurricane wind conditions using a set of mobile weather stations.
Experts have warned about New Orleans' vulnerability for years, chiefly because Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of coastal wetlands in the past seven decades. The vast patchwork of swamps and bayous south of the city serves as a buffer, partially absorbing the surge of water that a hurricane pushes ashore.
Experts have also warned that the ring of high levees around New Orleans, designed to protect the city from floodwaters coming down the Mississippi, will only make things worse in a powerful hurricane. Katrina is expected to push a 28-foot storm surge against the levees. Even if they hold, water will pour over their tops and begin filling the city as if it were a sinking canoe.
After the storm passes, the water will have nowhere to go.
In a few days, van Heerden predicts, emergency management officials are going to be wondering how to handle a giant stagnant pond contaminated with building debris, coffins, sewage and other hazardous materials.
"We're talking about an incredible environmental disaster," van Heerden said.
He puts much of the blame for New Orleans' dire situation on the very levee system that is designed to protect southern Louisiana from Mississippi River floods.
Before the levees were built, the river would top its banks during floods and wash through a maze of bayous and swamps, dropping fine-grained silt that nourished plants and kept the land just above sea level.
The levees "have literally starved our wetlands to death" by directing all of that precious silt out into the Gulf of Mexico, van Heerden said.
It has been 40 years since New Orleans faced a hurricane even comparable to Katrina. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy, a Category 3 storm, submerged some parts of the city to a depth of seven feet.
Since then, the Big Easy has had nothing but near misses. In 1998, Hurricane Georges headed straight for New Orleans, then swerved at the last minute to strike Mississippi and Alabama. Hurricane Lili blew herself out at the mouth of the Mississippi in 2002. And last year's Hurricane Ivan obligingly curved to the east as it came ashore, barely grazing a grateful city.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3328724
and: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082800780.html
Poor, homeless, frail flock to the safety of Superdome
By MARY FOSTER Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — For thousands of this city's poor, homeless and frail, just getting into the massive Louisiana Superdome and hunkering down was the hardest part.
The sickest among them didn't flee the 160-mph wrath of Hurricane Katrina on Sunday as much as they hobbled to safety on crutches, canes and on stretchers. Others lined up for blocks, clutching meager belongings and crying children as National Guardsman searched them for guns, knives and drugs.
"We just took the necessities," said Michael Skipper, who pulled a wagon loaded with bags of clothes and a radio. "The good stuff — the television and the furniture — you just have to hope something's there when you get back. If it's not, you just start over."
Then Katrina's rain began, heavy and steady, drenching hundreds of people still outside, along with their bags of food and clothing.
Eventually, the searches were moved inside to the Superdome floor, where some people wrapped themselves in blankets and tried to sleep. In the designated medical area, people in wheelchairs lined the corridors. Hundreds of others sat on the loading docks, their possessions around them, waiting to be taken elsewhere.
Gen. Hunt Downer of the National Guard estimated 25,000 to 35,000 refugees were in the dome, though arena official Doug Thornton said it was closer to 9,000 in the stands, with more on the floor.
Mary Francis Brooks had been there since 7:30 a.m., just waiting to get in. "I don't think the storm can be much worse than the buildup here," she said. "This has been a nightmare."
New Orleans' most frail residents got priority for placement in the makeshift Superdome shelter, by far the most solid of the Big Easy's 10 refuges of last resort for the estimated 100,000 city residents who don't have the means, or strength to join a mandatory evacuation. By nightfall, an estimated 25,000 to 35,000 heeded the call.
The dome, with its bare floor and stadium seats, is likely to end up their home for the next few days as the hurricane hits and the region deals with its aftermath.
"They told us not to stay in our houses because it wasn't safe," said 76-year-old Victoria Young, who sat amid plastic bags and a metal walker. "It's not safe anywhere when you're in the shape we're in."
Curtis Cockran, 54, a diabetic who recently had hip surgery, sat in his wheelchair on a loading dock at the dome while nurses, emergency technicians and doctors attended to refugees' needs.
"I just want a place I can be quiet and left alone," he said. "I don't know if I'll have a place to go back to, but there's no reason to worry about that now. For the time being I just want to be safe."
More serious cases had to be taken to other cities in Louisiana for medical care.
"There are some conditions we just can't handle here," said Dr. Kevin Stephens, Sr., head of New Orleans' health department. "Like dialysis. We can't do that, and they'll be here three or four days, so they'll need it before then."
The 77,000-seat stadium, home to the NFL's New Orleans Saints, provided few comforts but at least had bathrooms for the refugees and food donated by several charities.
"They may be here for a while," said Gen. Ralph Lupin, the National Guardsman in charge of the shelter. "The electricity will be out after the storm; streets will be almost impassable. So once they get here, they'll have to stay for the duration."
Guardsmen made able-bodied people clasp their hands behind their backs while they patted them down, feeling the seams and hems of clothing, then ran metal detectors over them. The backpacks, suitcases and plastic grocery bags that held their belongings were searched.
Alice George, 76, a homeless woman wearing shorts and a T-shirt with the word "Love" on the front, was searched for almost 10 minutes.
"They took my cigarettes and lighter," she said. "I guess I'll do without."
Joey Branson wasn't worried. The 42-year-old breezed through the search with just a fresh apple pie and a paperback mystery.
"That's all I need," he said, smiling. "I'm set for the duration."
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3328730
and: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2005-08-28-katrina-homeless_x.htm
August 29, 2005
Texas reaches out to its neighbor
Houston medical officials share disaster expertise, and rescue teams head to Louisiana
By ERIC BERGER Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Spared so far during one of the most active hurricane seasons in history, Texas reached out to its neighboring state Sunday, sending medical advice and rescue teams to Louisiana in advance of landfall by monstrous Hurricane Katrina.
Sunday's efforts, local officials predicted, were just the first wave of help Texas would offer in what could potentially be the worst Gulf Coast disaster since the 1900 storm that struck Galveston.
Although one of New Orleans' largest hospitals, the Ochsner Clinic, had sought to transfer patients to Memorial Hermann Healthcare System on Sunday, by mid-afternoon the winds had become too high to safely land Life Flight helicopters there.
So Houston medical officials ended up sharing their reflections on Tropical Storm Allison, which caused widespread flooding and power outages in the Texas Medical Center. The Ochsner Clinic also expects to lose power, albeit for potentially much longer. Unlike with Houston's bayous, there's simply no place for the water to go in New Orleans. It must be methodically pumped out.
Sharing experience
Memorial Hermann's Tom Flanagan, an assistant vice president for emergency services, said Texans advised the New Orleans hospital on optimum staffing during crises and how to deal with long-term power loss. Memorial and other local care facilities, such as Methodist Hospital, said they had capacity for any New Orleans patients that might need care in the aftermath of Katrina.
"This is a prime example of health care working collaboratively," said Flanagan. "We're all here for patient care and patient safety."
Although patients did not come to Houston, some Texans did begin heading to Louisiana on Sunday to support rescue and clean-up efforts.
The city of Houston has sent eight search-and-rescue firefighters, said spokesman Frank Michel. Houston also has told New Orleans it will send heavy equipment for debris clean-up if needed.
Welcoming party
Texas also prepared for refugees from New Orleans as Louisiana and Mississippi hotels filled up Sunday. Officials with the southwest area Red Cross, headquartered in Houston, said several shelters had been set up in Texas to help evacuees.
Those centers included one shelter in Tyler, one in Beaumont, two in Orange, and one in Mont Belvieu.
There also were 16 shelters open in Louisiana and one in Arkansas, said Red Cross spokeswoman Margaret O'Brien Molina.
About 750 Red Cross workers were on the job Sunday, with an additional 2,000 Red Cross volunteers expected to move through the Houston area in the next few days, Molina said.
Molina said that the impact of Tropical Storm Allison is still being felt in Houston four years later, "And right now we are looking at a Category 5 storm. So we are very, very concerned about our funds and our resources."
Molina said that the Red Cross workers want to remind people that the enormous hurricane will have immediate and long-term effects.
"Try to stay patient," Molina said. "The next few days are going to be rotten. We are going to be able to get through it, but it is going to be a lot of work."
Chronicle reporters Anne Marie Kilday and Becky Bowman contributed to this report.
eric.berger@chron.com
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3329000
High winds punch holes in Superdome roof
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Katrina ripped two holes in the curved roof of the Louisiana Superdome today, letting in rain as thousands of storm refugees huddled inside.
Superdome and government emergency officials stressed that they did not expect the huge roof to fail because of the relatively small breaches, each about 15 to 20 feet long and 4 to 5 feet wide.
The holes were in an area of vents some 19 stories above the arena floor.
"We think the wind somehow got into the vents and got between the roof's (waterproof) membrane and the aluminum ceiling tiles," said Doug Thornton, regional manager of the company that manages the huge arena.
The dome was filled with the sound of metal rattling, which Thornton said was produced by the metal ceiling tiles.
"I could have stayed at home and watched my roof blow off," said one of the refugees, Harald Johnson, 43. "Instead, I came down here and watched the Superdome roof blow off. It's no big deal; getting wet is not like dying."
In addition to the two holes, water was leaking in through many other areas, including elevators and stairwells, as the wind forced water in through any small opening.
Refugees sitting below the tears in the roof were moved across the arena. "We wanted to keep them dry and we also wanted to make sure nothing fell on them," Thornton said.
Aside from the tear in the huge roof, the 77,000-seat steel-framework stadium, home of the NFL's New Orleans Saints, provided few comforts but at least had bathrooms and food donated by charities.
The wind that howled around the dome during the night was not heard in the interior of the building where the refugees were kept.
"Everybody slept last night. They didn't seem to have any problems," said Dr. Kevin Stephens Sr., in charge of the medical shelter in the Superdome. "They slept all over the place."
Power failed in the Superdome around 5 a.m. today, triggering groans from the crowd. Emergency generators kicked in, but the backup power runs only reduced lighting, not the air conditioning.
The inside of the Superdome quickly became very hot and muggy, and some floors became wet and very slippery.
"It's not very comfortable now and it's going to get more uncomfortable, but it is safe," Thornton said.
The Superdome opened its doors at noon Sunday, and New Orleans' most frail residents got priority. The stadium is by far the most solid of the Big Easy's 10 refuges for the estimated 100,000 city residents who don't have the means, or strength, to join a mandatory evacuation.
"They hadn't opened up and let us in here, there'd have been a lot of people floating down river tomorrow," said Merrill Rice, 64. "If it's as bad as they say, I know my old house won't stand it."
Residents lined up for blocks, clutching meager belongings and crying children as National Guardsman searched them for guns, knives and drugs.
Then Katrina's rain began, drenching hundreds of people still outside, along with their bags of food and clothing. Eventually, the searches were moved inside to the Superdome floor, where some people wrapped themselves in blankets and tried to sleep.
It was almost 10:30 p.m. before the last person was searched and allowed in. Thornton estimated 8,000 to 9,000 were inside when the doors closed for the 11 p.m. curfew.
More than 600 people with medical needs were inside. "And we sent another 400 to hospitals," said Gen. Ralph Lupin, who commands the 550 National Guard troops in the Dome.
"We've got sick babies, sick old people and everything in between," Stephens said. "We're seen strokes, chest pain, diabetes patients passing out, seizures, people without medicine, people with the wrong medicine. It's been busy."
Thornton worried about how everyone would fare over the next few days.
"We're expecting to be here for the long haul," he said. "We can make things very nice for 75,000 people for four hours. But we aren't set up to really accommodate 8,000 for four days."
Morris Bivens, 53, a painter, came to the dome with his wife, daughter and five granddaughters ranging in age from 1 to 9.
"I had to come," he said. "Not for me. I ride these out all the time. But I knew I couldn't save those children in this one if something happened."
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3329003
and: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/29/AR2005082900156.html
Katrina slams into Gulf Coast, leaving extensive flooding
'It's complete devastation,' Gulfport fire chief says
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Announcing itself with shrieking, 145-mph winds, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast just outside New Orleans today, submerging entire neighborhoods up to their roofs, swamping Mississippi's beachfront casinos and blowing out windows in hospitals, hotels and high-rises.
For New Orleans — a dangerously vulnerable city because it sits mostly below sea level in a bowl-shaped depression — it was not the apocalyptic storm forecasters had feared.
But it was plenty bad, in New Orleans and elsewhere along the coast, where numerous people had to be rescued from rooftops and attics as the floodwaters rose around them.
Jim Pollard, spokesman for the Harrison County emergency operations center, said 50 people were killed by Katrina in his county, with the bulk of the deaths at an apartment complex in Biloxi. Three other people were killed by falling trees in Mississippi and two died in a traffic accident in Alabama, authorities said. An untold number of other people were feared dead in flooded neighborhoods, many of which could not be reached by rescuers because of high water.
"Some of them, it was their last night on Earth," Terry Ebbert, chief of homeland security for New Orleans, said of people who ignored orders to evacuate the city of 480,000 over the weekend. "That's a hard way to learn a lesson."
"We pray that the loss of life is very limited, but we fear that is not the case," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.
A number of overpasses on Interstate 10 between New Orleans and Slidell have collapsed, said Gov. Blanco, and some spans on I-10 in Mississippi also are down.
Katrina knocked out power to more than three-quarters of a million people from Louisiana to the Florida's Panhandle, and authorities said it could be two months before electricity is restored to everyone. Ten major hospitals in New Orleans were running on emergency backup power.
The federal government began rushing baby formula, communications equipment, generators, water and ice into hard-hit areas, along with doctors, nurses and first-aid supplies. The Pentagon sent experts to help with search-and-rescue operations.
Katrina was later downgraded to a tropical storm as it passed through eastern Mississippi, moving north at 21 mph. Winds were still a dangerous 65 mph.
Forecasters said that as the storm moves north through the nation's midsection over the next few days, it may spawn tornadoes over the Southeast and swamp the Gulf Coast and the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys with a potentially ruinous 8 inches or more of rain.
Oil refiners said damage to their equipment in the Gulf region appeared to be minimal, and oil prices dropped back from the day's highs above $70 a barrel. But the refiners were still assessing the damage, and the Bush administration said it would consider releasing oil from the nation's emergency stockpile if necessary.
Katrina had menaced the Gulf Coast over the weekend as a 175-mph, Category 5 monster, the most powerful ranking on the scale. But it weakened to a Category 4 and made a slight right-hand turn just become it came ashore around daybreak near the Louisiana bayou town of Buras, passing just east of New Orleans on a path that spared the Big Easy — and its fabled French Quarter — from its full fury.
In nearby coastal St. Bernard Parish, Katrina's storm surge swamped an estimated 40,000 homes. In a particularly low-lying neighborhood on the south shore of Lake Ponchartain, a levee along a canal gave way and forced dozens of residents to flee or scramble to the roofs when water rose to their gutters.
"I've never encountered anything like it in my life. It just kept rising and rising and rising," said Bryan Vernon, who spent three hours on his roof, screaming over howling winds for someone to save him and his fiancee.
In the past four hours, more than 200 people have been rescued in New Orleans and parishes southeast of the city, Blanco said.
``There are thousands of people out there who are stranded,'' said Dwight Landreneau, secretary of the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Across a street that had turned into a river bobbing with garbage cans, trash and old tires, a woman leaned from the second-story window of a brick home and pleaded to be rescued.
"There are three kids in here," the woman said. "Can you help us?"
Blanco said people are being plucked from rooftops and cut out of their attics. Rescues are being performed from north of Lake Pontchartrain southward through New Orleans and to the coast, she said.
Those rescued were being taken to higher ground, where local emergency workers were taking them to shelters.
In some areas, the water was 12 feet deep where people were being rescued. Blanco said people were so desperate for rescue that many were jumping into the water and swimming to the boats.
``We're finding a mighty lot of people,'' she said.
She again asked that people not try to return home until the all-clear signal is given.
Landreneau said rescue crews would continue seeking stranded people until it was no longer safe to do so. They will start again as early as possible, he said.
Elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, Mississippi was subjected to both Katrina's harshest winds and highest recorded storm surges — 22 feet. The storm pushed water up to the second floor of homes, flooded floating casinos, uprooted hundreds of trees and flung sailboats across a highway.
"Let me tell you something, folks: I've been out there. It's complete devastation," said Gulfport, Miss., Fire Chief Pat Sullivan.
In Alabama, Katrina's arrival was marked by the flash and crackle of exploding transformers. The hurricane toppled huge oak branches on Mobile's waterfront and broke apart an oil-drilling platform, sending a piece slamming into a major bridge.
Muddy six-foot waves crashed into the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, flooding stately, antebellum mansions and littering them with oak branches.
"There are lots of homes through here worth a million dollars. At least they were yesterday," said a shirtless Fred Wright. "I've been here 25 years, and this is the worst I've ever seen the water."
It was Katrina's second blow: The hurricane hit the southern tip of Florida as a much weaker storm Thursday and was blamed for 11 deaths. It was the sixth hurricane to hit Florida in just over a year.
Calling it a once-in-a-lifetime storm, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had issued a mandatory evacuation order as Katrina drew near. But the doomsday vision of hurricane waters spilling over levees and swamping the city in a toxic soup of refinery chemicals, sewage and human bodies never materialized.
Forecasters said New Orleans — which has not been hit directly by a major storm since Category 3 Hurricane Betsy struck in 1965 — got lucky again.
"The real important issue here is that when it got to the metropolitan area, it was weaker," said National Hurricane Center deputy director Ed Rappaport, who estimated the highest winds in New Orleans were 100 mph. "They were fortunate in that they were on the west side and the winds may not have been quite strong enough to top the levees."
A 50-foot water main broke in New Orleans, making it unsafe to drink the city's water without first boiling it. And police made several arrests for looting.
At New Orleans' Superdome, home to 9,000 storm refugees, the wind ripped pieces of metal from the roof, leaving two holes that let water drip in. A power outage also knocked out the air conditioning, and the storm refugees sweltered in the heat.
Katrina also shattered scores of windows in high-rise office buildings and on five floors of the Charity Hospital, forcing patients to be moved to lower levels. White curtains that had been sucked out of the shattered windows of a hotel became tangled in treetops.
In the French Quarter, made up of Napoleonic-era buildings with wrought-iron balconies, the damage was relatively light.
On Jackson Square, two massive oak trees outside the 278-year-old St. Louis Cathedral came out by the roots, ripping out a 30-foot section of ornamental iron fence and straddling a marble statue of Jesus Christ, snapping off the thumb and forefinger of his outstretched hand.
At the hotel Le Richelieu, the winds blew open sets of balcony French doors shortly after dawn. Seventy-three-year-old Josephine Elow pressed her weight against the broken doors as a hotel employee tried to secure them.
"It's not life-threatening," she said as rainwater dripped from her face. "God's got our back."
Chronicle writer Dale Lezon contributed to this report.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3329006
Government poised for rapid post-storm response
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Baby formula from the Agriculture Department, communications equipment and medical teams from the Defense Department and generators, water and ice from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are among the assistance ready for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
As the Category 4 the storm surged ashore just east of New Orleans today, FEMA had medical teams, rescue squads and groups prepared to supply food and water poised in a semicircle around the city, said agency director Michael Brown.
While federal, state and local agencies were poised to help, recovery could be a slow process.
Former Army Corps of Engineers commander Robert B. Flowers said a major hurricane striking near New Orleans is a worst-case scenario.
"I couldn't even begin to estimate the billions of dollars in damage that are going to result. You could have water several feet deep in the city for days before the pumps can discharge it," said Flowers, now CEO of HNTB Federal Services in Arlington, Va.
Speaking from Baton Rouge, just upriver from New Orleans, Brown told NBC's "Today" show his agency had "planned for this kind of disaster for many years because we've always known about New Orleans' situation." Much of the city is below sea level, making it extremely vulnerable to storm flooding.
The potential damage of such a storm striking New Orleans has long been a worry of federal agencies including the National Weather Service, FEMA and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
"We're still focused on Louisiana right now, but I gotta tell you this afternoon as this thing starts making landfall and makes that turn to the north and northeast, I'm very concerned about Mississippi," Brown told Fox News Channel. "We're going to have the flooding in New Orleans and then we're going to have the storm as it moves through Mississippi with additional flooding and tornadoes and downed power lines and all of that. This is going to be a big storm in terms of our response, because of the geographical spread of it."
In other storm-related moves:
— The EPA dispatched emergency crews to Louisiana and Texas, because of concern about oil and chemical spills. The agency has set up facilities for checking on the damage, but won't be able to quickly assess the region's needs until it can safely send more people into the field.
Sam Coleman, a regional director for EPA's Superfund toxic waste division in Dallas, said an employee standing by in Baton Rouge will oversee the agency's after-storm review of petrochemical, wastewater treatment and drinking water plants.
"Once that rapid assessment is done, then we go into full force," Coleman told AP. "We don't want to put everybody too close to the storm until we figure out exactly what to do."
"We have the equipment standing by, an aspect plane for surveillance that can see petrochemical spills from the air, but it's not cleared to fly in high winds or dangerous weather," he said.
— The Coast Guard closed ports and waterways along the Gulf Coast and evacuated its own personnel and equipment.
More than 40 Coast Guard aircraft from units along the entire Eastern Seaboard, along with more than 30 small boats, patrol boats and cutters, were positioned around the area to be ready to conduct post-hurricane search and rescue operations and to do waterway damage checks and begin any needed repairs.
— The Agriculture Department said it will provide meals and other commodities, such as infant formula, distilled water for babies and emergency food stamps, through its Food and Nutrition Service.
Its Natural Resources Conservation Service has an emergency watershed protection program. Its Rural Development office offers housing assistance to keep people from being delinquent on housing payments. The Farm Service Agency has state emergency boards with members who will help assess damage to agriculture and help decide the type and amount of recovery aid available in areas where disasters have been declared.
Also, the Forest Service, which is part of the department, has an incident command team that will coordinate with FEMA and the Red Cross.
— The Federal Aviation Administration said airports were closed in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La.; Biloxi, Miss.; Mobile, Ala.; Pensacola, Fla. and at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Airlines have moved their equipment away from the stricken areas and canceled all flights, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. Many air traffic control facilities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are closed.
— The Defense Department dispatched emergency coordinators to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi to provide a wide range of assistance including communications equipment, search and rescue operations, medical teams and other emergency supplies.
Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said the states have adequate National Guard units to handle the hurricane needs, with at least 60 percent of the guard available in each state. He said about 6,500 National Guard troops were available in Louisiana, about 7,000 troops in Mississippi, nearly 10,000 in Alabama and about 8,200 in Florida.
The First U.S. Army, based at Fort Gillem near Atlanta, has 1,600 National Guard troops that were there training to go to Iraq, and they will be available to assist the states or evacuate Camp Shelby in Mississippi, if necessary.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3329522
and: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/29/AR2005082900599.html
National Guard says plenty of forces available
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Though thousands of National Guard personnel from Louisiana and Mississippi are serving in Iraq, officials say more than enough personnel were available for disaster duty today as Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore.
"Only about half of available forces are mobilized in Louisiana and forces are available from neighboring states if needed," said Lt. Col. Mike Milord, a spokesman at National Guard headquarters outside Washington.
Some 3,500 Army National Guardsmen from Louisiana were deployed to help hurricane victims and another 3,000 were on standby.
About 3,000 members of Louisiana's 256th Combat Brigade already are in Iraq. Six members were killed by a bomb on Jan. 6 and another two died in a blast four days later.
In Mississippi, the Guard had 853 troops on hurricane duty, preparing to remove debris and provide security, Milord reported, a small slice of the more than 7,000 available National Guard troops in the state's ground and air components.
Some 780 Guard members from Florida are helping residents recover from the hurricane and 130 Guard members are on duty in Alabama.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3329524
and: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2005-08-29-katrina-nationalguard_x.htm?csp=34
August 30, 2005
EMERGENCY RELIEF
FEMA aims to improve record
Federal officials hope to avoid the criticism received after past storms
By MICHAEL HEDGES Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Hurricane Katrina may mark the moment when the Federal Emergency Management Agency finally avoids criticism for its response to natural disasters.
Since its creation by presidential executive order in 1979, FEMA has been a perennial whipping boy when public officials size up what was done wrong, or not done, to help catastrophe victims.
Foul-weather critics
Seeking to break the pattern, the agency moved quickly to assure the public that its response to Monday's storm would be swift and thorough.
"FEMA has pre-positioned many assets including ice, water, food and rescue teams to move into the stricken areas as soon as it is safe to do so," FEMA chief Michael Brown said before the storm hit Louisiana and Mississippi.
Despite such statements in the past, and an unquestioned record for providing critical disaster relief, the agency has been criticized when the winds abate and the floodwaters recede.
After years of criticism for moving too slowly to help disaster victims, FEMA got blasted last year for moving too fast after four hurricanes ravaged Florida.
Mistakes by inspectors
The agency was accused of paying dubious claims to people alleging hurricane damage.
"Taxpayers bought Miami-Dade residents thousands of television sets, air conditioners and other appliances," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, opening a Senate oversight hearing in May.
"The taxpayers also bought rooms full of furniture and new wardrobes (and) paid to replace 800 cars."
In Miami-Dade County, 12,600 people collected FEMA payouts totaling more than $31 million after Hurricane Frances.
The problem was, as lawmakers noted during a withering critique, the storm hit the greater Miami area with only a bad rain squall, doing most of its damage 100 miles to the north.
Many of the damage claims were fraudulent, auditors later found, citing mistakes by agency inspectors.
It was a familiar pattern for FEMA, which seems to be a convenient target in the political arena, even though it has defenders as well as critics.
FEMA spokesman James McIntyre said Monday the agency was proud of the help it has provided and constantly seeks to improve its response.
President Bush declared an emergency for Louisiana and Mississippi, allowing FEMA to position people and supplies, including generators, ice, food and baby formula, in a vast arc around the hurricane zone.
Waiting in the wings
Anticipating that many residents would not heed the call to evacuate, FEMA dispatched urban search-and-rescue teams from Tennessee to Texas to the afflicted area, a spokesman said.
Eighteen disaster medical assistance groups, including nine with a full complement of 35 members and nine smaller "strike teams," were waiting in Houston, Anniston, Ala., and Memphis, Tenn., to move in as soon as the storm passed.
michael.hedges@chron.com
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3330415
Cooped up Superdome refugees snatch fresh air
More people being brought to arena today
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Desperate for fresh air, dozens of refugees from Hurricane Katrina slept on the walkway surrounding the Louisiana Superdome as conditions inside worsened and even more people were brought to the huge arena today.
National Guardsmen let some of the 10,000 people sheltering inside the arena take their bedding out onto the concourse, where it was cooler and the breeze was welcome.
"Oh God, fresh air, it's so wonderful. It's the first time I've wanted to breathe all day," said Robin Smith, 33. "When you think what we could've gone through, it's not too bad in there. But it's certainly not as wonderful as this."
The bathrooms were filthy and barrels overflowed with trash. With the air conditioning off since power went out Monday morning, the bricks were slick with condensation.
Despite the conditions, the Superdome was a welcome refuge for people rescued from the rising water in the city today. National Guard troops brought refugees in their big 2 1/2 -ton trucks, and Louisiana's wildlife enforcement department brought more people by pickup.
Mary Stewart, 80, slid off the back of a National Guard truck with nothing but the clothes on her back, her purse and the shoe on her left foot.
"I was so scared I don't feel I have any entrails any more," said Stewart, who spent a harrowing night in the attic of a beauty salon in the city's flooded Ninth Ward.
Beauty salon employee Kioka Williams, 23, said they had to hack through the ceiling to reach the attic as the water rose.
"Oh my God, it was hell," she said. "We were screaming, hollering, flashing lights. It was complete chaos."
The eight people in the salon were rescued early today by a police boat.
"I almost died in the night water," Willie Anderson, 49, said as he arrived at the Superdome. He had spent the night in his attic in the inundated Ninth Ward.
A groan rose from a group listing to a newscast when the devastation was detailed and officials in suburban Jefferson Parish said residents wouldn't be allowed to return until Monday. One woman cried.
"We're doing everything we can to keep these people comfortable," Gen. Ralph Lupin, commander of the National Guard troops at the Superdome, said this morning. "We're doing our best. It's not getting any better but we're trying not to let it get any worse."
"I know people want to leave, but they can't leave," he said. "There's 3 feet of water around the Superdome."
The situation was especially difficult for those in wheelchairs, who were lined up in rows five deep along a wall. One patient's IV bag was attached to a stadium seating sign.
Officials were considering moving the patients to areas with better accommodations.
"This is just too hot, too primitive, too uncomfortable for the patients and too hard to work in for the medical people," said Dr. Kevin Stephens Sr., head of the medical shelter in the Superdome.
Two people had died, according to Doug Thornton, a regional vice president for the company that manages the 77,000-seat Superdome, of the NFL's New Orleans Saints. He provided no details.
Katrina ripped two holes in the curved roof, but Superdome and government emergency officials stressed that they did not expect the huge roof to fail.
"I was OK until that roof fell off," said 82-year-old Anice Sexton. "I was terrified then. Otherwise it hasn't been too bad. People are so nice and the people staying here have really been cooperative. But the washrooms are terrible."
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3331085
and: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9108975/
Congress poised to quickly pass disaster aid
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The question is not whether Congress will pass legislation to speed disaster relief to communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but how soon and how much.
The answers: real soon and a lot.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has $2.5 billion in funds available for immediate assistance such as emergency shelters, food, and medical care, said Scott Milburn, spokesman for the White House budget office. But longer-term assistance, such as help in removing wreckage, rebuilding homes, and repairing highways and federal facilities will require a major infusion of cash provided by Congress.
"This is going to be the most expensive natural disaster that's hit the United States in history. It's really quite phenomenal," said Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran. The powerful Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee vowed quick action when the administration sends lawmakers a request for aid. "We're going to do whatever is needed to help the people and local governments recover from this catastrophic event."
It will take at least a few days for FEMA to come up with a preliminary cost estimate and even then it is subject to being revised upward with new information or in case of additional storms.
But as a guide, the four separate hurricanes that pummeled Florida last year prompted Congress to pass a total of $13.6 billion via two separate bills, including a $2 billion measure that was sent to President Bush the very day lawmakers returned from their summer recess. Katrina could well cost more.
"It's truly been a catastrophic event," said FEMA Deputy Director Patrick Rhode.
Despite the partisan atmosphere in Washington, natural disasters invariably draw a sympathetic, bipartisan response from Congress — though it helps affected areas to be represented by lawmakers in powerful posts.
Florida had the advantage of being a key battleground in last year's elections and is home to then-House Appropriations Committee GOP Chairman C.W. Bill Young.
Though Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., is no longer Senate majority leader, Cochran's rise to the helm of the Appropriations panel virtually guarantees a generous congressional response.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3331417
Devastation in New Orleans: 'We have whitecaps on Canal Street'
From staff and wire reports
NEW ORLEANS - The historic city of New Orleans was steadily filling with water from nearby Lake Ponchartrain today after its defenses were breached by the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina.
Water began rising in the streets this morning after a levee broke along a canal leading to Lake Pontchartrain, and many of the pumps relied upon by New Orleans -- built below sea level -- have failed.
Officials planned to use helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags into the breach, but rising floodwaters were threatening the French Quarter, residents were plucked from the roofs of their homes, bodies were seen floating in the streets and rescuers searched the city in boats and helicopters.
Portions of the Interstate 10 high-rise bridge over the mouth of Lake Pontchartrain east of New Orleans have collapsed. Another bridge, the causeway running across the middle of the lake, has structural damage, and engineers are inspecting U.S. 11, which also crosses the lake, to determine if it is structurally sound.
"We probably have 80 percent of our city under water; with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet. Both airports are underwater,'' Mayor Ray Nagin told a radio interviewer.
New Orleans, a city that usually throbs with the life of its carnivals and the sound of jazz and blues, was in a "state of devastation,'' Nagin said.
Much of New Orleans, a city of some 500,000, lies in a bowl below sea level, bounded by the lake and the Mississippi River, which curves along the south of the city before discharging in the Gulf of Mexico.
"We always were afraid the bowl that is New Orleans would fill quickly," Walter Maestri, emergency management coordinator for Jefferson Parish, said in a radio interview.
"The water is rising so fast I cannot begin to describe how quickly it's rising," Tulane University Medical Center Vice President Karen Troyer-Caraway told CNN. "We have whitecaps on Canal Street, the water is moving so fast.''
The downtown hospital was surrounded by 6 feet of water and considering evacuating its 1,000 patients.
The New Orleans VA Medical Center began to evacuate this morning after the floodwaters disrupted its generators, endangering patients on ventilators.
"The devastation is greater than our worst fears," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said in a news conference. "It's totally overwhelming.''
Weather experts had predicted the city would be quickly overwhelmed by the impact of Katrina, which tore across the coast on Monday, but initially damage appeared less than catastrophic.
By today, however, the full impact was clear as the water rose and overwhelmed pumps, part of an elaborate system of walls, canals and other devices built to protect the city from just such a disaster.
Fears grew about pollution, with the water believed to be carrying sewage, spilled fuel and other pollutants from residential and commercial districts inundated in the flood.
Reporters said there was waist-high water round the Superdome, the huge covered football stadium near downtown New Orleans that had been used as an emergency evacuation center for thousands of residents.
Local television showed people and dogs sitting on rooftops, the houses below them invisible in brackish water. A hand was visible through a window in a house surrounded by chest-high water.
One man was seen using an ice chest as a flotation device. Another clung to metal scaffolding to escape the deluge, which ironically occurred in sunshine and blue skies today.
No deaths were officially confirmed, but Nagin said bodies were seen floating.
State Sen. Ann Duplessis, who owns a home in eastern New Orleans, said she had reports from neighbors in the gated Eastover subdivision of bodies floating in the floodwaters.
Officials went on television to urge people not to try to return to their homes yet. "You need to get used to where you're at right now because this may take us some time.'' said U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal.
"There will be neighborhoods where people just can't get back into their homes for weeks, if not months," said Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Even if they wanted to, New Orleans residents would have a difficult time just getting back to their hometown.
Much of Interstate 10 is closed on either side of New Orleans. Some sections of Lake Ponchartrain's I-10 twin span — a lifeline between the south and north shores of the lake — are missing; others have shifted position but are still standing.
"We know that the I-10 twin span has blown over, is no longer with us," said Mark Smith, spokesman for the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
"This will be the story for some time to come,"said Lt. Lawrence J. McLeary, spokesman for the Louisiana State Police.
Many roads and highways south and north of New Orleans are either flooded and impassable or have been closed by state police to keep people from entering damaged areas until emergency workers can rescue stranded residents and other crews can make damage assessments.
Blanco said 700 people had been rescued so far, but she said it was still too early to count the casualties.
"We have no counts whatsoever," she said, "but we know many lives have been lost."
Chronicle staffer Dale Lezon and Reuters New Service contributed to this report.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3331422
Looters take advantage of New Orleans' flooding
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — With much of the city flooded by Hurricane Katrina, looters floated garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street in a dash to grab what they could.
In some cases, looting today took place in full view of police and National Guard troops.
At a Walgreen's drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers.
When police finally showed up, a young boy stood in the door screaming, "86! 86!" — the radio code for police — and the crowd scattered.
Denise Bollinger, a tourist from Philadelphia, stood outside and snapped pictures in amazement.
"It's downtown Baghdad," the housewife said. "It's insane. I've wanted to come here for 10 years. I thought this was a sophisticated city. I guess not."
Around the corner on Canal Street, the main thoroughfare in the central business district, people sloshed headlong through hip-deep water as looters ripped open the steel gates on the front of several clothing and jewelry stores.
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 filled industrial-sized garbage cans with clothing and jewelry and floated them down the street on bits of plywood and insulation as National Guard lumbered by.
Mike Franklin stood on the trolley tracks and watched the spectacle unfold.
"To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," he said.
A man walked down Canal Street with a pallet of food on his head. His wife, who refused to give her name, insisted they weren't stealing from the nearby Winn-Dixie supermarket. "It's about survival right now," she said as she held a plastic bag full of purloined items. "We got to feed our children. I've got eight grandchildren to feed."
At a drug store on Canal Street just outside the French Quarter, two police officers with pump shotguns stood guard as workers from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel across the street loaded large laundry bins full of medications, snack foods and bottled water.
"This is for the sick," Officer Jeff Jacob said. "We can commandeer whatever we see fit, whatever is necessary to maintain law."
Another office, D.J. Butler, told the crowd standing around that they would be out of the way as soon as they got the necessities.
"I'm not saying you're welcome to it," the officer said. "This is the situation we're in. We have to make the best of it."
The looting was taking place in full view of passing National Guard trucks and police cruisers.
One man with an armload of clothes even asked a policeman, "can I borrow your car?"
Some in the crowd splashed into the waist-deep water like giddy children at the beach.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3331427
Power going out at New Orleans' VA hospital
By LEIGH HOPPER Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Rising water in New Orleans is disrupting power at New Orleans' VA hospital today, prompting an evacuation as the medical center prepares to lose electricity completely.
Water from a break on a levee along a canal leading to Lake Pontchartrain began filling New Orleans streets this morning and apparently affected generators at the New Orleans VA Medical Center, said Bobbi Gruner, spokeswoman for the Michael DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston.
A complete power loss was expected by early afternoon, and the hospital is focusing on evacuating patients, including nine people on ventilators.
The crisis is remniscent of 2001's Tropical Storm Allison, when power outages and flooded streets immobilized much of the Texas Medical Center, forced the evacuation of Memorial Hermann Hospital and disrupted power to ventilators and other life-support devices.
"I'm really worried about the medical infrastructure in New Orleans," said Dr. Kenneth Mattox, the chief of staff at Ben Taub General Hospital who saw the facility through the Allison crisis. "They tell me they cannot communicate across the street to their sister hospitals because the local phones don't work ... I really think with the levee breaking they need outside help, like the military coming in."
Gruner said plans are being made to move the ventilator patients to another facility within New Orleans or air evacuate them to another VA hospital. There are 154 patients at the New Orleans VA hospital, and about 700 people who have sought refuge in the building. The building is surrounded by water, Gruner said. VA officials are working to coordinate military aircraft support.
Tom Flanagan, director of Life Flight emergency transport at Memorial Hermann Hospital, said a patient in need of a liver transplant was on her way to Houston from Oschner Hospital in New Orleans this morning.
"They have lost all utilities and are operating on emergency power," Flanagan said.
Flanagan said he did not know if a donor liver is available in Houston, but said the patient's condition was deteriorating so doctors wanted her moved to another transplant center.
Flanagan said Life Flight is trying to coordinate other patient pickups today from elsewhere on the Gulf Coast.
In Biloxi, Miss., the VA Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System was accepting civilians and minor trauma patients. Additional supplies and fuel are being trucked from Jackson to Biloxi.
The VA in Jackson is operational, Gruner said, and has received calls for help from the Mississippi Veterans State Homes which are all without water and power.
The Houston VA continues to make preparations to receive patients from the hurricane-affected areas. Its list of emergency response team volunteers grew to more than 75 with the addition of several engineers and police officers, Gruner said.
Overnight, the Houston VA admitted at least two veterans from the storm-struck area, one to the spinal cord injury unit and one for chest pains, Gruner said. The VA is also housing the first patient's family of five and the second patient's wife in the VA's "courtesy quarters." Gruner said the Houston hospital had seen several more veterans as outpatients for assistance with medications and shelter.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3331369
'I've never seen anything like this'
Gulfport, in the line of fire, takes a severe beating
By THOMAS KOROSEC Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
GULFPORT, MISS. - Halfway up Woodward Avenue, a flotilla of loose shipping containers and a forest of cut lumber washed ashore with the waters of Hurricane Katrina.
The lumber and containers — metal boxes designed to ride on freight ships or railroad cars — instead rode the storm surge, scouring away the first four or five houses by the Gulf.
In the next one was Charlene Cuccia. "I floated half out the window in the backyard from 8:30 'til 4," she told a two-man rescue team from the Gulfport Police Department.
"My dog is dead. I was sure I was going to die, too."
Others did die Monday as Gulfport, situated on the intense, northeast side of Katrina's landfall, suffered some of the storm's most powerful fury.
Before they could reach Cuccia, Gulfport Police Detective Duane Merrill and Sgt. George Chaix had to wade up a submerged street over 10-foot-tall piles of lumber, furniture, industrial-size rolls of paper and a dead cat.
They axed their way through one door and kicked down another before they found Cuccia, who said she was in her 50s, in a back bedroom of the small frame house.
The detectives made up one of 10 police search and rescue teams. They figured the lumber and containers washed off a set of piers about a mile and a half east, moved in the grip of the hurricane, then became destructive battering rams as they washed through the neighborhood.
"We watched those containers float up the street and knock down the houses," said David Andre, 62, who lives a little farther from the Gulf than Cuccia.
"Hurricane Camille came to here," Andre said, showing a level at the house's foundation touched by the waters of the mighty 1969 storm. Katrina's waters rose at least 7 feet higher, he said.
Andre and his wife, Kay, said they stayed behind to save their possessions, but the storm's intensity took them by surprise.
They said they crawled into the attic as the waters rose. Then the wind began blowing holes in their roof. "A gust would come and we'd pray the house would hold," Kay Andre said.
Riding it out
An elderly man, who declined to give his name, rode out the storm at the Andres' house after a container slammed into his. A red Ford Focus, turned on its nose in a pile of wood debris, was all that held up the front porch of his house.
As the storm made its early-morning assault, Merrill, Chaix and other officers holed up in a temporary command post set up in the Harrison County school administration building, helpless to respond to 911 calls while winds raged at more than 100 mph and waters rose outside.
It was about 2 p.m., and winds still were at 80 mph, when Merrill and Chaix set out on their rescue mission. When their 5-ton military surplus truck broke down, they returned to the station and picked out a small police bus to make their rounds.
Before their first stop, they climbed through the broken window of a downtown hardware store for supplies: Crowbars, bolt-cutters, sledgehammers and other tools.
"We're not looting. We're commandeering these," Chaix said. "We'll pay later."
As they drove through Gulfport's downtown core on their way to several addresses from which dispatchers had taken emergency calls, they were struck by the devastation.
A sailboat had been tossed eight or nine blocks north from the downtown marina. Most windows had been knocked out of the southern side of the Hancock Bank building, one of the tallest structures in town.
Mystery mounds of debris
On some corners, there were only piles of rubble. "That was a bookstore," Merrill said, pointing out one indistinguishable heap. On Central Street, giant bundles of lumber and steel containers borne by the floodwaters had leveled several blocks of houses, three apartment buildings, a trailer park, a Chinese restaurant and several other businesses.
What was left of the neighborhood — scraps of elaborately carved chairs, broken televisions, a sandal, a set of self-defense instructional tapes — was scattered in the wind.
Chaix maneuvered the bus through piles of office furniture, downed trees and fallen power lines. As he moved into the residential area, a shirtless man flagged him down.
"There's an 800-pound seal in my front yard. I think it's hurt," the man told him.
"We're looking for people right now," Chaix told him. "Not animals."
Chaix and Merrill were working from a sheaf of notes scribbled earlier by 911 operators, who reverted to paper because their computers were down.
Most read, "people in attic" or "roof blown off."
The house at one of the addresses was nowhere to be found. The officers radioed in and said the job would require bulldozers, and perhaps cadaver dogs.
"I've been at this a long time," said Merrill, standing on a tin roof that had been separated from its structure and lay on the ground. "I've never seen anything like this."
thomas.korosec@chron.com
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3330583
Emergency teams deployed to help victims
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Medical disaster assistance teams from across the country were deployed to the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The Red Cross sent in 185 emergency vehicles to provide meals. And President Bush cut short his vacation today to return to Washington to focus on the storm damage.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president will chair a meeting Wednesday of a White House task force set up to coordinate the federal response and relief effort.
"We have a lot of work to do," the president said of the storm FEMA director Michael Brown has termed catastrophic.
"This hurricane has caused devastation over a wide area," Brown said.
His agency said medical specialists from Washington state were joining similar teams called in from Massachusetts, New Mexico, Ohio, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Florida to assist people in damaged areas.
Katrina came ashore Monday between New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., inundating large areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
FEMA's emergency medical teams are designed to be self-sufficient, being able to triage and treat as many as 250 patients over 72 hours. The teams bring their own supplies, including food and medicine.
The teams can handle trauma, pediatrics, surgery and mental health problems. Two Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams are also included to handle pets and rescue dogs.
The American Red Cross, meanwhile, reported it had about 40,000 people in 200 shelters across the area.
Red Cross said it had 185 emergency response vehicles on the scene or en route. These trucks provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to storm victims. Some 2,000 Red Cross volunteers from across the country were joining workers in the area.
FEMA said it has 500 trucks of ice, 500 trucks of water and 350 trucks of military meals ready to eat scheduled for distribution over the next 10 days.
The Coast Guard received hundreds of calls for help and has assisted in the rescue of more than 1,200 people, spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Carter said today.
He said the Coast Guard had received reports that seven mobile offshore oil drilling rigs were adrift, and was working with companies on recovery and salvage plans.
The Coast Guard was conducting search-and-rescue missions and damage assessments by air and water, and was flying supplies to affected areas, Carter said.
In addition, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff — whose agency oversees the Coast Guard — has authorized the callup of 550 Coast Guard reservists to help in recovery operations, Carter said.
In other developments:
— The Department of Health and Human Services reported it had sent 27 pallets of medical supplies to Louisiana. These include basic first aid material such as bandages, pads and ice packs as well as blankets and patient clothing, suture kits, sterile gloves, stethoscopes, blood pressure measuring kits and portable oxygen tanks.
— The storm shut down oil and natural gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, representing about 8 percent of U.S. refining capacity or about 1 million barrels, further driving up gasoline prices. The president is considering tapping the emergency petroleum stockpile to provide refineries a temporary supply of crude oil to replace interrupted shipments from tankers or offshore oil platforms affected by the storm.
— The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent out Navigational Response Teams to survey ports and waterways for damage and to work with the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers in getting ports open again. New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., are two of the nation's most active commercial ports.
— The National Geodetic Survey prepared to launch aerial surveys to assess for damage from erosion along levees and major evacuation routes.
— The Coast Guard asked the public in the hurricane-damaged area to report any oil spills or releases of hazardous materials. The response center phone number is (800) 424-8802.
— The Postal Service has shut down operations in New Orleans and in nearby storm-damaged areas. Some local post offices were reopening in Mississippi, but more than 200 lacked electricity, officials said. Mississippi postal officials said in locations where offices are closed plans are being developed to make first-of-the-month checks available at designated sites.
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3331648
and: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2005-08-30-bush-cuts-vacation_x.htm
August 31, 2005
Levee breach brings more chaos
Corps scrambles to make repairs a day after storm
By ERIC BERGER Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Early Tuesday the Big Easy had reason to breathe easy. It had, more or less, just survived the third-most-intense hurricane ever to pound U.S. shores.
Then disaster struck — for the second time.
An hour or two after midnight, along a three-mile canal cut into the northern edge of New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain, a 15-foot levee made of earth and concrete began breaking apart. The initial breach was probably small, perhaps just 10 feet.
If stragglers in the area noticed the water gushing into their homes, few had power or telephones to report it. Not until later that morning, when the breach had widened to more than 200 feet, did public works officials take notice.
At that time they were puzzled by the fact that, nearly a full day after the storm passed through, waters across much of New Orleans were still rising.
An effort to drop large sandbags into the breach Tuesday afternoon failed. By late Tuesday, Mayor C. Ray Nagin declared that much of the city would have to be evacuated because the breach at 17th Street Canal, which straddles Jefferson and Orleans parishes, could not be immediately closed.
The decision came after water in the canal, about 10 feet above sea level, poured for hours through the breach into land 6 to 10 feet below sea level.
"What you had, quite simply, is a waterfall," said Joseph Suhayda, retired director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute.
Filling containers
After its initial attempt failed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scrambled to conceive and execute a broader plan to close the breach. Tuesday night they put the plan into action. They were filling 3,000-pound cargo containers with sand, rock or other heavy materials. They intended to fly these containers and 180 concrete barriers by helicopter to the site, and place them into the breach.
Succeeding will be difficult from the air alone, engineers said. And, after the corps drops each cargo container and concrete barrier into the breach, water will flow through the remaining hole faster and with more force.
The stakes for fixing the breach quickly, though, are high. It makes little sense for the city to begin pumping out water until this breach is closed and the flow of water into New Orleans ebbs. Additionally, the corps does not want to gate off the entire canal from Lake Pontchartrain. A pumping station lies at the end of the three-mile canal, and without it the city won't be able to clear several square miles of flooded terrain.
Prior to Tuesday's breach, some areas east of New Orleans had flooded, Suhayda said, as well as low points west of the city near the airport. Much of this flooding was caused by storm-surge-driven water overtopping levees, or other, smaller and less critical, breaches.
Without the 17th Street Canal breach, it's likely New Orleans would have a much more manageable situation on its hands today, Suhayda said. Instead, the city is talking about further evacuations and, perhaps for a month or more, its residents will be barred at gunpoint from returning home.
Possible causes
Engineers developed several possible scenarios for what might have caused the catastrophic breach in a levee, which is essentially an earthen berm topped by several feet of concrete.
Corps of Engineers officials said their analysis indicated that a limited amount of water washed over the top of the levee in waves, scouring and weakening the foundation on the levee's dry side.
Suhayda said that's possible. But another possibility is that, during the half-day floodwaters built up in Lake Pontchartrain and the canal, water may have percolated through the earthen part of the berm, undermining it. That effect, combined with the cumulative pressure over time, may have caused a breakthrough.
"There's no question that those kind of conditions might have just reached the limit of what that particular levee could handle," said James "Bob" Bailey, a flood and wind hazard risk expert with ABS consulting in Houston. It's also possible the levee was older and had degraded, he said.
A final possibility is that a massive chunk of debris struck the levee at some point during the night, causing a breach.
Tuesday's breach came after New Orleans had, almost miraculously, survived a hurricane many engineers feared would send water gushing over the long, 15-foot levee that protects the city's north shore from Lake Pontchartrain. But Hurricane Katrina moved so quickly its powerful winds did not have enough time to push Gulf of Mexico water into the lake, filling it high enough to crash water over the levee and into bowl-shaped New Orleans.
Katrina's winds moving from east to west — and filling the lake — were soon replaced by winds moving from west to east as the storm moved inland, said Hassan Mashriqui, an assistant professor at Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center.
"A slow moving storm would have caused much more damage," he said.
Like many, Mashriqui thought New Orleans was lucky when he went to bed Monday night, having dodged the very worst. Unfortunately, like everyone else, he was mistaken.
eric.berger@chron.com
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3332482
Tales of trapped and dying patients emerging
By LEIGH HOPPER Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Tales of nursing home residents trapped without medication and hospital patients who died after power outages ended life support are painting a dire picture today of New Orleans' medically fragile population.
One woman e-mailed the Houston Chronicle Wednesday about her parents, both physicians, who are trapped inside a Louisiana State University hospital.
"I've spoken with them a few times, and they have limited information on when they will be evacuated," she said. " Apparently there has been a large loss of life within the hospital because with no power, many of the life-saving and life-sustaining machines have gone out so they have lost many patients. I am also concerned because my Dad is diabetic, and they have run out of food."
Inspired by memories of Tropical Storm Allison, the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System launched a large-scale rescue operation overnight to move an estimated 40 to 50 hospital patients out of New Orleans today. During Allison, Memorial Hermann evacuated 540 patients during two days without any injuries or deaths.
Early this morning, Memorial Hermann dispatched six ground ambulances, two Life Flight air ambulances and two specially equipped airplanes to a Baton Rouge staging area.
From there, Life Flight will fly to Oschner Hospital in New Orleans, land on a parking garage, and pluck patients two at a time and take them to Baton Rouge. From Baton Rouge, they'll be brought to Houston.
Early this afternoon, aircraft carrying six children arrived at Hobby Airport, to be transferred to Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital. Memorial Hermann officials said they are working with Texas Children's Hospital to disburse patients. For now, parents are being left behind due to limited room on aircraft.
In other Texas Medical Center developments:
• Baylor College of Medicine physicians will provide medical care for evacuees housed at the Astrodome. Physician Tom Gavagan, associate professor of family medicine, will direct the initiative. Baylor President and CEO Peter Traber is asking Baylor doctors to volunteer for shifts.
• The Methodist Hospital is expecting as many as 160 nursing home patients, arriving by bus, from New Orleans within the next few hours. The patients will be evaluated at Methodist's emergency room, and housed in available hospital space, said Methodist spokeswoman Gale Smith.
• The Harris County Hospital District officials are working on plans today to help evacuees, many of whom are expected to seek medical care in local clinics and emergency rooms.
• Approximately 80 veteran inpatients from the New Orleans VA Medical Center are expected to arrive at Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center via military transport within the next 12 to 48 hours, the Houston VA said Wednesday. The New Orleans VA was ordered closed Tuesday because of flooding and power outages. All 154 patients from the hospital are being evacuated to other VA facilities in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
While some elective surgeries have been postponed at the Houston VA while the hospital focuses on incoming patients, all outpatient clinics remain operational, the VA said.
In addition, community members, who wish to show their support for the displaced veterans, should contact MEDVAMC Voluntary Services by e-mail at vhahouvolunteer@med.va.gov to find out about volunteer opportunities and donation needs, the Houston VA said.
leigh.hopper@chron.com
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3332352
Mississippi search crews pulling bodies from rubble
Heaviest loss of life appears to be from Biloxi building collapse
By THOMAS KOROSEC Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
GULFPORT, MISS. - Stunned residents emerged from shelters and homes Tuesday to start assessing the massive damage left by Hurricane Katrina as rescuers pulled bodies from crushed homes and apartments near the coast.
The death toll in this hard-hit county rose to more than 100, but officials believe that number will rise. "There's so much rubble, we won't know for a while. But I fully expect the number to be in the hundreds," said Jason Green, assistant to the Harrison County coroner.
In an auxiliary morgue downtown, hearses unloaded bodies uncovered by search-and-rescue teams.
"Several families have brought in their dead," Green said.
County Supervisor Connie Rockco said it appears the heaviest loss of life was in east Biloxi, where an apartment building collapsed and killed 30 people.
"But there are fatalities from one end of the county to the other," Rockco said.
Gulfport Fire Chief Pat Sullivan said most of those who died in Gulfport perished in the zone of the storm surge, which pushed up to a set of railroad tracks about six blocks from the beach.
"We begged, we pleaded, we demanded. We told them they had a good chance of dying if they didn't leave. But there's only so much government can do to protect people," Sullivan said. "Too many people tried to ride it out. We can't regulate good sense."
Thought they were safe
Sullivan said many homes that survived the catastrophic Hurricane Camille in 1969 were washed away by Katrina. "People in them thought they were safe, that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place," he said.
In Biloxi, at the Quiet Water Beach apartments, at least 30 people died when the two-story building crumbled in the storm Monday. One resident, Joy Schovest, told the Associated Press she swam for her life.
"We grabbed a lady and pulled her out the window and then we swam with the current," said Schovest, 55, breaking into 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."
All that remained of the apartment complex was a concrete slab surrounded by a heap of red bricks that were once the building's walls. A crushed red toy wagon, jewelry, clothing and twisted boards were mixed in with the debris.
Gulfport Police Lt. Michael Shaw said he and others in his search crew carried bodies across stretches of rubble that ran blocks from the beach.
"I've lived here all my life, and in some places we were, I couldn't recognize where I was," Shaw said.
The central part of the city, near the coast, looked as though it had been rocked by an explosion. At the waterfront, the blocklong floating Copa Casino had been heaved about 200 yards onto the shore. Its sides were blown to tatters, especially on the lower levels of the roughly six-floor structure.
The floating Grand Casino also was pushed aground and came to rest several blocks west of its former location.
On the beachfront U.S. 90, near the center of town, Hugh Keting surveyed where his law office used to be. The two-story stucco house had been scraped off its foundation, although a huge live oak next to it remained with hardly a damaged branch.
Dwight Harper's workplace was all but gone, too. He works for Dole, which runs a shipping operation on the docks. Some of the facility's two-story-tall unloaders and other heavy equipment were tossed about the edge of downtown.
Inside First Presbyterian Church, which faces the water about a block from the shore, waves had pounded away the plaster up to a line about 6 feet high across the entire back wall. The floor was covered with 3 inches of sand.
Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr said the beachfront shopping center that he and his father owned was destroyed, as were their homes.
Warr and his city staff met in the largely undamaged City Hall on Tuesday morning to choose locations for distribution points for the aid they expect to come in. He said he expected it to begin arriving early today.
"We understand the military trying to reach us was bogged down on U.S. 49," Warr said, referring to the main north-south highway into Gulfport. "I was told there were more than 100 big pines across the road in a two-mile stretch in the DeSoto (National) Forest."
City officials said they could not immediately re-establish water or sewer services. All land phone lines and most cell phone communications were out of service, they said, and crews were trying to repair a major gas leak downtown.
Tons of chicken parts, which had been stored for shipping in the port area, ended up scattered across dozens of blocks west of the city.
"That's going to become a biohazard in no time," said Sullivan, the fire chief. "We'll need fast help with that, too."
Police Chief Steve Barnes said there was an immediate need for portable toilets. "There's not one left standing along the whole (Mississippi) coast," he said.
Katrina's destruction was so widespread, Barnes said, that "all the emergency resources we need are being stretched."
Marine life facility gone
After several drug and grocery stores opened late in the day, lines quickly formed and parking lots filled. Some residents, including 67-year-old Norman Vancourt, said they were planning to leave the coast until basic services are restored. "I'll go as far north as it takes to get a hot cup of coffee," he said. His house in Long Beach, a town of about 17,000 just west of Gulfport, was demolished. "In a storm like this, you don't even board it up," he said.
Six bottlenose dolphins from Marine Life Oceanarium that rode out the storm in two motel pools will leave town soon, too.
"We were totally destroyed," said Moby Solangi, the aquarium's president. "We're planning to put them in another facility until we can rebuild."
Three of Solangi's sea lions that ended up in neighborhoods were recovered alive, he said.
"The birds and fish, they're free now," Solangi said, describing how the storm crushed several 30-foot-tall tanks.
thomas.korosec@chron.com
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3332485
U.S. to tap emergency oil reserve
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will release oil from federal petroleum reserves to help refiners affected by Hurricane Katrina, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said today.
The move, which was expected later in the day, is designed to give refineries a temporary supply of crude oil to take the place of interrupted shipments from tankers or offshore oil platforms affected by the storm.
The U.S. Minerals Management Service said today that 95 percent of the Gulf of Mexico's oil output was out of service. Oil prices surged back above $70 in European markets on Wednesday but slipped quickly to $69.56 after disclosure of the decision involving the release of supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Eight refineries were shut down due to Katrina — half of them producing gasoline.
The government's emergency petroleum stockpile — nearly 700 million barrels of oil stored in underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast — was established to cushion oil markets during energy disruptions.
The production and distribution of oil and gas remained severely disrupted by the shutdown of a key oil import terminal off the coast of Louisiana and by the Gulf region's widespread loss of electricity, which is needed to power pipelines and refineries.
Tapping the federal emergency petroleum reserves will "certainly help those companies and those refineries to function, whereas they wouldn't be functioning without a supply of crude oil," Bodman told The Associated Press in an interview. But he warned that the action may not ease the skyrocketing price of gasoline at the pump.
"Will it make a major difference in the price of gasoline? Based on the numbers that I see, probably not," Bodman told the AP. "It'll help some, but we have significant refining capacity that is dysfunctional, either because they don't have electric energy or because they're flooded, or both."
The Environmental Protection Agency, seeking to avert a severe supply crunch, announced it would temporarily allow the sale of higher-polluting gasoline in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi because those states can't provide enough fuel to consumers that meets Clean Air Act requirements.
The agency also said those states will be allowed to use motor vehicle diesel fuel with a sulfur content higher than the 500 parts per million standard for the next two weeks through ozone season.
President Bush, meanwhile, was returning to Washington on Wednesday to oversee the federal response to Katrina. He planned to chair a meeting of a White House task force set up to coordinate federal efforts, across more than a dozen agencies, to assist hurricane victims.
Bodman said the reserve was contained in five sites, four of which are operative. The site in New Orleans is not. He said it was too early to say how much oil would be released.
He said his department was dealing with inquiries from three companies about getting oil from the reserve. On Monday, Citgo Petroleum Corp. asked for 250,000 to 500,000 barrels to ensure that its Lake Charles, La., refinery doesn't run out.
"There is an issue with respect to getting electrical power so that we can operate the various pipe lines that supply fuel to the rest of the country," he said, noting that these facilities "deliver finished products, diesel and gasoline, to the Northeast and to the Southeast."
"Our job is to get the infrastructure going again," Bodman said. "To the extent that we have delays in getting these pipelines functioning, then were are going to have the potential for gasoline shortages." Bodman said the administration will "do everything we can do to get fuel available to the rest of the country."
Of tapping the SPR, Bodman said: "Technically it's called an exchange of oil that we deliver today and that we will get oil back plus some interest, if you will, in the future. We will be tapping that today."
Interviewed on the Fox News' "Fox and Friends," Bodman was asked if price gouging is taking place.
"I would like to believe that in this time of crisis that all of us are going to pull together to try to deal with this very difficult circumstance and situation that's confronting not just this region, but this country," he replied. "We're hopeful of that, but if we have some bad actors, we have a mechanism to deal with it."
from: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3332849
Recovery from storm will take years, Bush says
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Bush pledged today to do "all in our power" to save lives and provide sustenance to uncounted victims of Hurricane Katrina but cautioned that recovery of the Gulf Coast will take years.
"We're dealing with one of the worst national disasters in our nation's history," he said at the White House after breaking off his Texas vacation to make an aerial tour of the devastation and return to Washington.
With a vast federal relief effort grinding into operation, Bush also cautioned that the effects of the storm will be felt far beyond Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
He said he had ordered steps to cushion the impact on the storm on the nation's oil industry. At the same time, he conceded: "This will help take some pressure off of gas prices, but our citizens must understand this storm has disrupted the capacity to make gasoline and distribute gasoline."
Flanked by senior members of his administration, Bush recited some of the actions already taken to help victims of the storm — more than 50 disaster medical assistance teams and more than 25 urban search and rescue teams, both from the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
He said the Transportation Department has provided trucks to convey 5.4 million ready-to-eat meals, 13.4 million liters of water, 10,400 tarps, 3.4 million pounds of ice, 144 generators, 20 containers of prepositioned disaster supplies, 135,000 blankets and 11,000 cots.
"And we're just starting," he added.
He said buses were on the way to help take thousands of storm survivors from the overwhelmed Superdome in New Orleans to the Astrodome in Houston.
Bush said the Pentagon, as well, was contributing to the rescue and relief operations, and the administration would make road and bridge