This is exactly what I was afraid of – the storm will pass, but our levees will not hold. All of Lakeview, City Park, Mid-City is home to a torrent of water that threatens the CBD. My friends who live and own property in these areas must be wrecks; I’m certain they are wise enough to have left. For reference, this set of neighborhoods sits in the deepest part of the bowl that is the city of New Orleans.
A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee … gave way late Monday morning … after Katrina’s fiercest winds were well north. The breach sent a churning sea of water from Lake Pontchartrain coursing across Lakeview and into Mid-City, Carrollton, Gentilly, City Park and neighborhoods farther south and east.
… the water was still rising in the city, and nobody was willing to predict when it would stop … the American Red Cross was mobilizing for what regional officials were calling the largest recovery operation in the organization’s history.
Police officers, firefighters and private citizens, hampered by a lack of even rudimentary communication capabilities, continued a desperate and impromptu boat-borne rescue operation across Lakeview well after dark.
As a frequent visitor of the places listed below, I cannot fathom the destruction and terror there right now. This cannot be happening.
… residents … were stranded between the flooded neighborhood on their right, and the flooded City Park on their left … pleasure boats were stacked on top of each other like cordwood in the municipal marina and yacht harbor. The Robert E. Lee shopping center was under 7 feet of water.
It is rumored that “the total projected cost for this, likely the worst natural disaster in US history (financially speaking), will be something around the cost of four months of the war in Iraq.”
With officials asking remaining residents to leave the city if they still can, it doesn’t look like we evacuees are going home any time soon. If you’re involved in forming a volunteer effort back home starting next week, please email me.
