Day 4 This Is Not Insurmountable: From The Ohio Outpost

Until Tuesday after Labor Day weekend, VatulBlog will report on The News Out Of New Orleans from its Columbus, OH office. Call it a combination of uncontrollable claustrophobia and giving txyankee a break.

The latest:

• A sad report from Bayou St. John via my friend, Joel, in Bloomington, IN: “The Penfields didn’t fare as well. Their B&B, and everything in it, was swallowed by the Bayou St. John.” Joel and the Penfields of Moss St. are good friends.
• A report from the Garden District by Matt Kirkham (Prytania, just off of Jefferson):“On the apartment front, my place was virtually untouched. According to my landlord’s son who stayed in the building, there was a small puddle under my door and my screen door blew away. This was as of 3:00 yesterday, but then the levee broke… Fortunately for me, I live[d] Uptown by the university, Audubon Park and Zoo, and Audubon Place (a private street where the richest people in NOLA live) and, whether by coincidence or design, when they refer to 80% of NOLA being underwater, I’m in the 20% that’s not. As of 3:00 yesterday there wasn’t even a puddle. I’m also at least 7 feet above the road.”
• Now, this could all change rapidly, but Wolf Blitzer is still saying “virtually” all of NOLA is underwater, so there is still hope. Also, the fact that we haven’t heard ANYTHING about the University is also an encouraging sign (Tulane University hospital is nowhere near the University itself) since they usually don’t air the good news.
• A note from Uptown (via the nola.com forums): “… walked Napoleon from Tchoupitloulous [sic] to St. Charles and went over as far upriver (west) as Valance and downriver as Marengo. He meandered almost every block within this area. Nowhere did he see any significant damage, apart from downed trees (only 1 downed live oak) and a couple of small power lines. Absolutely no violence, vandalism or looting of residences (not even on St. Charles in that section). No flooding in this area at all. There is flooding from Jackson to Napoleon as far down as St. Charles. A police officer reported that the water was 5-6 foot deep at Baptist Hospital on Napoleon and Willow. Right now they are ferrying people up and down St. Charles and from the neighborhoods by airboat and they’re staging them for evacuation at Copeland’s at St. Charles [and] Napoleon. It seems to be running very smoothly, although some people look shell-shocked. Most of the people remaining in this area want to stay if they are allowed and are fairly optimistic. He says that people from this area shouldn’t worry about their houses. They’ll be fine after a good cleanup.”
• Keep checking in at New Orleans Metroblogs for their excellent coverage and perspective.
• The death toll in MS has officially climbed to 200 according to one CNN reporter, but Governor Haley Barbour continues to maintain it at 110. The number for New Orleans is going to be heartbreaking once the looters actually let rescue and cleanup workers do their jobs.
• Speaking of looting, it has become “increasingly hostile” and Mayor Nagin has turned 1500 police officers away from their search-and-rescue duties to put a kibosh on the crime. Carjacking and outright thieving continue, but this is not widespread. Let’s hope it stays localized.
• A Chalmette project building is on fire. Cause of fire as information trickles in.
• If one more CNN TV reporter puts on a fake-concerned look and compares this to 9/11 three times in a sentence … well, I’ll just have to come up with something creative in the punitive department.
• One TV personality reports on utter tragedy: “All Gibson has eaten for three days is potato chips.” Ummm, that was my daily diet in college. Can we get some real stories of loss and hunger here? Would a request for more and non-conflicting statistics be asking too much?
• No, Larry King, this is not “insurmountable.” Thanks for the infusion of hope, asshat.

Tomorrow, drywalling of the Ohio office begins. Perhaps it will dissipate some of this ready-to-bolt, coiled-spring feeling.

Oh, and HALLOWEEN IN THE QUARTER AND MARDI GRAS WILL HAPPEN. Because I said so.