Patience, y’all…….
I know it’s easy to get panicky when you’ve not heard from a friend or loved one in the New Orleans area or elsewhere. I’ve got a house and a business there and I’d pay dearly to talk to anyone who has the slightest indication as to their physical condition.
But that’s simply not going to happen today. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not for another week or more (at least). The telephone system is in a shambles and the entire power grid is gone. Water is lapping at the eaves of houses, while their occupants are stranded on rooftops. The water level continues to rise and, as yet, there’s no way to stop it. As frustrated as we are and as desperate as we are for ANY information, I can only try to imagine how much worse it is for those who are actually there and facing an enormity far too large to get one’s arms around. As already evidenced by today’s suicide in the Superdome, it’s more than some can handle.
Latest word from police is they are trying to fill the breaches in the levee with thousands of sandbags. Let’s hope it works as quickly as possible.
Related posts:
the weather channel blog has a list of hard-hit areas and damage, that may help someone worrying about not hearing from friends or relatives down there–it mentions a lot of communications impossibilities (not just difficulties) on top of everything else going wrong.
Craig,
As of a couple of minutes ago, my mother at Jackson and Prytania was still dry, and planning to stay. If you’d like to drop me a line off-line I’ll see if she’ll take a walk/drive to check out your place for you. I’m sure she’s going to get antsy in the next few days wanting to be able to do something.
Thanks,
Peter
I have set up message boards based on Orleans parish regions. If you have information on any of these regions, please post in the comments.
ken
I’d like to know about conditions in the neighborhood around Parasol’s (Third and Constance). Thanks.
Craig,
We’re neighbors. I live on Third a few houses off of Constance, downtown/river side of the streets. If you hear anything via email, please let me know.
laura@maxderbes.com
However, Ken, martial law has been declared in Orleans Parish so if she is seen walking around they are gonna put her in lock-up.
Thanks,
Laura
Sorry, I meant Peter.
Laura…
Thanks and will do.
Once we’re back, the first round is on me.
I am just trying to get information about a co-worker in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Her name is-Susie Freeman Sellers
How did they make out in Hattiesburg?
Hattiesburg fared much better, I’m told, with downed trees and some high water.
any word on Tulane/Loyola campus and dorms and houses on Broadway
Disobedient individuals who do not heed hurricane warnings should not be rescued. They are selfish individuals that are a cancer on the spine of the already strapped resources of emergency personnel. The individuals in NOLA who chose to ride out the storm inside their homes and had to climb on top their roofs because of their own poor decisions should do so at their own peril. I think a solution to all of this would have been for New Orleans to state that individuals who disobey the mandatory evacuation order would not be rescued. This may sound archaic or harsh to some however, this practice has been done in other localities in recent memory. The only mitigating circumstance to disobeying an evacuation order is if an individual is infirm or disabled and cannot get out. Unfortunately, people in this condition normally are the first casualties, making rescuing them a moot point (because they will usually perish before rescue efforts can commence). Understand that I fully endorse using rescue personnel to rescue these individuals. I would at the same time state that anyone else should not be rescued. I feel whole heartedly for people who have psychological disorders however; disorder or not, if one is capable of following instructions and they do not, then they should suffer the consequences. Rescue personnel should be synergized to care for the injured, feed the hungry, and restore municipal services. If it is not done in this manner, the greater whole will suffer for the disobedience of a few. The suffering of the masses for a few is categorically unfair and should not be allowed to occur.
Eve,
You are 100% correct. If those people are too stupid to leave when they were given fair warning, than the hell with them.
I am trying to get information about Poplarville i have friends there anyone know anything?
I’m from the area and I know it’s so easy to say that people were just stupid to stay, and that probably was the case with the risk takers who had the means to get out. But the thing is, lots of those people could not get out. They didn’t have money, cars…some hadn’t been paying attention to the news and didn’t even know something was coming. I know that was particularly true for a friend of mine who was busy celebrating an anniversary and just had been too busy to catch the news. Also, there were several who thought they were safe to ride it out until they woke up early Sunday morning, saw it was a cat 5 and couldn’t get out fast enough even with the contraflow in effect. Not everyone there was still there by choice. I guess that’s what I’m trying to say.
About the rescue efforts…they are doing the best they can. I can’t imagine anyone involved(all the way up to DC) is just sitting around picking their noses watching this all gone on in front of them…it just all takes time, money and planning. And as chaotic as all this is, it cannot be easy. As far as blaming lack of planning, there’s not a whole lot anyone can do about this now except learn from it. I also feel for those trying to help in the situation are getting nothing but flack…I can’t imagine the stress those people are under. I know it’s easy to say when you’re not sitting on your roof top waiting to be rescued, but they’re doing the best they can.
The truth is that all of us have opinions, but not one of us can possibly see the complete picture. There’s just always so much more to a story than what we as individuals can see and hear.
Hosting refugees in Texas, moved from the area less than a year ago,
Kristy