Along with dwindling bottled water supplies in New Orleans, E. coli has been discovered in the available city drinking water. A friend left the Lower Garden District for the home of relatives in the Northshore with her aged grandmother. The local police have stepped up their efforts to force the exit of remaining residents (military officially not involved, but seen on TV) . Owing to these factors and some emotional fatigue, Mac has finally decided to leave the confines of her holdout in the LGD.
- CNN – Fires; contaminated water; forced evacuation
- Great article in the International Herald Tribune – Get out; no toxic brew; contaminated water; four pumps working
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Flood Claims Home: The Jefferson Parish home of D’s colleague, Jay, has been destroyed in the flood. “It is a total loss. I cannot even begin to say how crushed I am. There is nothing to salvage here. We had a little over 2.5 feet of water / wind damage – now it is taken over by mold.”
Jay and his wife have three little children who have lost their home and most of their personal possessions and memorabilia.
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First Water, Now Some Fire: A few fires have broken out around the city. Whether it is arson or accidental is unknown at this time. Yesterday’s Garden District fires appear to be on the lakeside portion of St. Charles Ave. Now, firefighters and the military attempt to curb ones in the 7th Ward, Uptown, Gentilly and Bywater. Like I said, you can just forget that Orleans Parish re-entry at least for the next couple of weeks.
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Levees: The water level goes down as levees are patched and water is pumped out. Now for the decontamination, disease control, water purification, corpses and recovery.
Time and endurance – the former we have lots of, the latter we need.
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Survival Of New Orleans Blog: It turns out that a few people I know who run an ISP and data center in the CBD are holed up in their offices. They blog about the condition of our city as they focus on survival and rebuilding New Orleans. Here are pictures shot from their downtown hideout. Good on you, guys. Stay safe!
I just read on another blog that FEMA is planning to give out debit cards to evacuees with a minimum of $2000 on them. Don’t know if that’s realiable or not.
That’s what I read, too. I think it’s also on a case-by-case basis and one per household. They use satellite imagery and overlays to make sure that your house is flood- or wind-damaged, too. Again, D is out of a job and I can’t access my home for an unknown time period, so it’s as good as not there. Anything, mostly for D, will help.