New Orleans updates (wires 17-18 EDT)

[Solaris]

UPDATE 1-Floodwater inundates New Orleans after hurricane



August 30, 2005

(Updates with reports of looting, fires, expected casualties, evacuation plans, details of levee breach)

By Erwin Seba

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Floodwaters engulfed much of New Orleans Tuesday as officials feared a steep death toll and planned to evacuate thousands remaining in shelters after the historic city's defenses were breached by Hurricane Katrina.

With water from nearby Lake Pontchartrain rising throughout the city of 500,000 people [p]after an overnight break in at least two protective levees, rescuers plucked people from roofs, bodies were seen floating in the streets and the famous French Quarter was threatened.[/p]

"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 said in a radio interview.

Nagin added he expected the death toll to be significant.

"This is catastrophic," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.

She said a plan was being developed to evacuate tens of thousands of people in the Superdome -- the city's covered football stadium -- and other shelters.

"The first goal is to bring enough supplies in to sustain those folks until we can develop a network to get them out," Blanco told a news conference in the Louisiana state capital, Baton Rouge. "There's no power. It's hot. it's difficult to get food to them. There's water lapping at the foot of the Superdome now."

"We know many lives have been lost," Blanco added. "Those numbers will be forthcoming as the process clarifies, but these are very difficult times for Louisiana."


'STATE OF DEVASTATION'

New Orleans, a city that usually throbs with carnivals and the sound of jazz and blues, was in a "state of devastation," said Nagin.

Looting reportedly was widespread. Some thieves were seen taking necessities, while others grabbed clothing, athletic shoes and jewelry from shops in the tourist districts.

Smoke columns dotted the cityscape as fires burned out of control because of a lack of water pressure and manpower. Most of the area lacked potable water, electricity and reliable communications equipment. Natural gas leaks were reported.

Fears grew about pollution, with floodwaters believed to be carrying sewage, spilled fuel and other pollutants from residential and commercial districts inundated in the flood.

Natural dangers emerged, too. Authorities reported spotting a 3-foot shark cruising the city.

In many residential areas, TV pictures showed brackish water up to roof level after the surge caused by Katrina breached at least two sections of protective levees that hold out Lake Ponchartrain.

The military was planning to drop giant sandbags loaded with gravel to repair a major break in a protective levee that caused the flooding of most of New Orleans, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday.

The main puncture was 500 feet long, said Mike Lambert, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Transportation.

Much of New Orleans lies in a bowl below sea level, bounded by the lake and the Mississippi River, North America's biggest 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. "Now with the water rising today, it appears to be filling slowly," he said.

"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.

Weather experts had predicted the city would be overwhelmed by the impact of Katrina, which tore across the Gulf coast Monday, but initially damage appeared less than catastrophic.

By Tuesday, 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.

http://www.reuters.com


August 30, 2005 05:33 PM EST

[cjrciadt]

500ft does not sound like a puncture, more like a major breach leaving seems like to only option now.

[Solaris]

With looting and rising floodwaters, crisis deepens in New Orleans
AP Photos LADP102, 111, 116, LADM101, 110
By ADAM NOSSITER
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ Helicopters dropped sandbags on two broken
levees as the water kept rising in the streets. The governor drew
up plans to evacuate just about everyone left in town. Looters
ransacked stores. Doctors in their scrubs had to use canoes to
bring supplies to blacked-out hospitals.

New Orleans sank deeper into crisis Tuesday, a full day after
Hurricane Katrina hit.

"It's downtown Baghdad," said tourist Denise Bollinger, who
snapped pictures of looting in the French Quarter. "It's insane."

The mayor estimated that 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded,
while a countless number of residents were still stranded on
rooftops.

Hospitals were running out of power and scrambling to find
places to take their patients. At one clinic, broken glass littered
some areas and patients and staff had fallen on floors slick with
floodwaters.

"It's like being in a Third World country," said Mitch
Handrich, a registered nurse manager at Charity Hospital, where
nurses were ventilating patients by hand after the power and then
the backup generator failed. Some 300 patients had yet to be
evacuated.

"We're just trying to stay alive," Handrich said.

The historic French Quarter appeared to have been spared the
worst flooding, but its stores were getting the worst of human
nature.

"The looting is out of control. The French Quarter has been
attacked," Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson said. "We're using
exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be
used for search and rescue while we still have people on
rooftops."

As Sen. Mary Landrieu flew over the area by helicopter, a group
of people smashed a window at a convenience store and jumped in.

At a drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out
with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and
diapers. One looter shot and wounded a fellow looter, who was taken
to a hospital and survived.

Rescue teams were still picking up people throughout the city
Tuesday, leaving them on island-like highway overpasses and on a
levee to wait to be moved again. Eventually, they will end up in
the Superdome, where 15,000 to 20,000 people have taken already
refuge, said Louisiana National Guard Maj. Gen. Bennett C.
Landreneau. One man died in the Superdome after falling from a
raised walkway.

On a grassy hill in the Carrolton neighborhood, a group of
people watched the water quickly rising in the street, about a foot
an hour by some estimates.

William Washington had gone to bed in dry house Monday night,
well after the hurricane had passed. The water came up Tuesday
after the levee broke, and by afternoon his home was flooded.

"We're trying to get to the Superdome," Washington said as he
waited with neighbors. "We're waiting for the National Guard. The
radio mentioned that they would pick people up."

With hundreds, if not thousands, of people still stranded in
flooded homes, attics and rooftops across the city, rescue boats
were bypassing the dead to reach the living, Mayor C. Ray Nagin
said.

"We're not even dealing with dead bodies," Nagin said.
"They're just pushing them on the side."

The hospitals' patients were slowly being evacuated _ the babies
in intensive care had been flown out already _ and state officials
were weighing plans to evacuate the entire city.

A few more feet of water could wipe out the entire city water
system, said Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security chief.

The intestates are impassable, the bridges may be unstable and
no one knows if the buildings can withstand the damage brought by
Katrina, the governor said after flying over the region.

"We saw block after block, neighborhood and neighborhood
inundated," Blanco said, her voice breaking with emotion. "It's
just heartbreaking."

Sean Jeffries of New Orleans had already been evacuated from one
French Quarter hotel when he was ordered out of a second hotel
Tuesday because of rising water.

The 37-year-old banker _ who admitted to looting some food from
a nearby supermarket _ said the hotel guests were told they were
being taken to a convention center, but from there, they didn't
know.

"We're in the middle of a national tragedy," he said as he
popped purloined grapes in his mouth. "But I know this city. We
will be back. It may take awhile. But we will be back."

AP-ES-08-30-05 1814EDT

[Solaris]

DJ Some Police, Firefighters Among New Orleans Looters-Report


NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Some New Orleans police and firefighters have joined in the looting after Hurricane Katrina, The Times-Picayune reported on its Web site Tuesday. According to the newspaper, one policeman loaded a shopping cart with a computer and a 27-inch flat screen television. One officer was quoted as saying "we don''t have enough cops to stop" the looting and a riot would break out if police tried.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires 30-08-05 2220GMT

[StrongWind]

"Natural dangers emerged, too. Authorities reported spotting a 3-foot shark cruising the city"

[blueeyes_austin]

“It must be legal,” she said. “The police are here taking stuff, too.”

Sigh.

[Houstonia]

“It must be legal,” she said. “The police are here taking stuff, too.”

Sigh.

Wait a second... don't you want to shoot him? I mean, he's looting right? And shoot to kill, right?

I don't know.. I'm not really tring to be snarky - I just want some clarification. Would you shoot the police officer? Would you shoot the firemen?

Something is REALLY wrong - with the pay, the overload of work, the desperation, the frustration... something is wrong.

[Praxus]

Yeah I wonder if all those who are quick to advocate killing poor, 99% black
people for looting will jump in and say those cops and firefighters should be shot on sight. Somehow I doubt it.