Extensive information on Hurricane Katrina.
I’m sure that anyone who reads this probably won’t get this until Monday morning or afternoon, but if you do get this in time, this is really fascinating.
CBS station WWL based in New Orleans is streamcasting a live news feed to track the hurricane destruction and news (and coverage has been continual for days). It’s very interesting watching the live broadcast as this hurricane makes landfall. In fact, since the hurricane is so strong and powerful, they closed the French Quarter site in New Orleans and are now broadcasting from Baton Rouge at LSU. I also see that sister station KHOU in Houston is helping with the streamcast.
It’s amazing how far along technology has come along, but I also realize that there’s still so much more to come. For instance, cell phone communications in the New Orleans area are extremely difficult to get good reception. Text messaging supposedly worked a lot better. If the hurricane blows down these towers, no more reception. And it could also affect the landlines as well. That’s pretty scary.
It seems that this storm is going to completely ravage the southeast side of Louisana. Can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow morning.
Edit 8/30/05: The news coverage for this hurricane devistation has been amazing. Not only are there are a lot of new media personnel in New Orleans, but there are bloggers covering it, NASA has released photos of the view from satellites, and there are so many other ways to get news! In fact, I’m watching WWL as I type this from the Internet!
In case you haven’t followed what’s happened, the levees have broken in New Orleans and the French Quarter and most of downtown is completely drenched up to about 3 feet or more of water. Supposedly, once the water receeds, they will only allow people back into the city to collect belongings but then have to leave for a month! I cannot even IMAGINE what they would be like if that happens to be true, which I now find out it is true.
High resolution photos of Katrina from space
They have declared Martial Law in the city as well. Martial Law is usually declared in areas that have no rule at all, such as war zones. The reason they declared this is because there’s so much looting going on that it’s almost like living in a war zone. Most of this looting occured last night and will probably be the same tonight when people are less likely to get caught.
One of the most dangerous aspects of being stuck with all of this water is the disease, snakes, gators, urine, vomit, and sewage that is mixed. This makes it not only unsafe but potentially deadly. And water levels continue to rise while the Corp of Engineers tries to plug the broken levees.
Does the city of New Orleans actually recover from something like this? Or should the people of this city just call it as it is and find another place to live?
2pm – Not too long ago, a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans was proclaimed. This means anyone who is still in New Orleans, which at this point is hundreds or thousands of people, will be forced from their homes and dwellings and forced to go elsewhere. I wonder how many people are going to try to stay behind?
8/31 8:30am – Since yesterday, flood waters never receeded and in fact kept rising. There are still possibly hundreds or thousands of people who need to be rescued. And now, they plan to transfer around 23,000 people from the Superdome to the Houston Astrodome. I have no idea how this is going to happen since almost all roads to New Orleans are closed!
It’s so weird how close to “home” this has happened. The fact that I went there a little over two months ago makes this even more real to me. Most of downtown New Orleans is fresh in my mind. I am here thousands of miles away and I still can feel everything as though it happened here.
I have donated to UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) today and I urge anyone who reads this to do the same with UMCOR or the Red Cross. I believe this is the least I could do in the name of humanity.
I URGE you to do the SAME!
WWL has kept a blog about ongoing news throughout the last 24 hours or so.
Another really awesome use of technology has been the forums on both WWL and Craigslist. So many people have posted on both of these sites asking for help to find loved ones and missing people.
9/1 9:30pm – I’m starting to get Google hits because people want to know more about New Orleans hurricane information.
Hurricane Katrina photos from USA Today
Photos from downtown New Orleans
Flickr photos of Hurricane Katrina
Houston has a huge task on their hand with the thousands of homeless who are staying in Houston. I hope they can handle it.
Mandatory evacuation doesn’t mean anything when you’re too old to get out of bed, or you don’t have a car to evacuate in. No way the NOPD is going to have the manpower (or the desire) to evacuate all the poor people with no transportation out of the city. My sister’s friend Steve’s parents are still there now for both reasons.
And yeah, the water’s bad – but I’m really kind of grossed out by all the AP reporting about fire ants and floating corpses and snakes, and I think that’s their intent. In all the reports I’ve read, it’s all “creepy crawly things in the water and people hanging on to trees submerged in this” and no stories of rescue. It leaves you hanging; you have to read more to find out if the people are okay. I guess that’s what media is supposed to do, though. *shudder* I really wish, for the sake of the dignity of those trapped in the city and for their relatives outside who are just imagining their kids and nephews and best friends holding on to lightpoles while fire ants fight them for the same safe place, that the reporters wouldn’t play up that angle. :(
The only media I’ve been able to watch is videos from CNN but mostly live feed from WWL in New Orleans. And I must say, their coverage has been excellent. They have shown many aerial views from a helicopter of parts of the city, explaining where they are and showing how submerged different areas are. They talk about stories of rescue, videos of people being saved, where and when, and continually ask city leaders and other important figures to call in so that they can report what’s going on in different areas.
Obviously, national news organizations will cover the angles which captivate most people, and unfortunately this is the grossest, nastiest, or saddest stories coming from the city. It’s about ratings.
All I can do is keep all those people in my prayers and thoughts and hope that my family and friends that chose not to leave are ok.