Hurricane thoughts

Parent Cafe
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<p>There seems to be very little news out of the Garden District, or maybe I just don’t know which parish it is, so I can’t figure it out. But maybe some of you are more familiar.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/[/url]”>http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here are some excerpts from the above site: </p>

<p>In many neighborhoods, people waded through more than water waist deep, sometimes carrying food. Late Monday, a party of five adults waded along Tulane Avenue between Canal and Broad Streets, towing five toddlers in a large plastic tub…</p>

<p>Meanwhile, Katrina’s winds split homes, collapsed buildings and uprooted trees across a vast area. The famous oaks along St. Charles Avenue and its Uptown side streets were shattered. The avenue was made impassable by thickets of downed trees, many entangled with downed utility poles and criss-crossing power lines. Parked cars were smashed; many trees fell onto houses they once shaded.</p>

<p>Katrina cut power service to an estimated 770,000 people, including 700,000 who form Entergy’s entire customer base, said utility spokeswoman Amy Stallings. Stallings warned 700,000 electrical customers to be prepared to go without power for a month or more.</p>

<p>The storm damaged every element of the power grid, from big generating plants to transmission lines to smaller feeder lines connecting to homes and businesses, she said.</p>

<p>She called the damage the worst ever seen in Entergy’s four-state territory. Terry Ebbert, director of homeland security for New Orleans, said it could be two months – twice Entergy’s estimate – before electricity is restored to all of the city. He said Entergy will send 4,500 workers to the region and house them on barges on the Mississippi River.</p>

<p>Katrina struck a nearly empty city. Given the gift of a full weekend to evacuate, hundreds of thousands fled as far as Dallas, Little Rock and Memphis. Officials urged them to stay away until further notice.</p>

<p>Blanco said people who attempt to return to the city will be stopped.</p>

<p>“You will be turned back. Only official emergency personnel will be allowed in,” Blanco said at an early afternoon news conference at the state Office of Emergency Preparedness.</p>

<p>State Adj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau said that it is too early to say when people will be allowed to return to the city. He said civil authorities haven’t even begun to make initial assessments of the damage. </p>

<p>O’Brien-Molina, the Red Cross spokeswoman, said state officials shut off interstate highways re-entering Louisiana to keep people from returning to flooded areas.</p>

<p>“I-10 is completely closed down,” she said. “No one can go back in and we have to find a place for them to stay.”</p>

<p>Officials are telling the public to expect no one will be allowed to go home for at least two days, O’Brien-Molina said.</p>

<hr>

<p>The picture that accompanied this on the website was heartbreaking: an older woman near what appeared to be a front door, up to her shoulders in water, being helped by 2 policeman, who were also up to their shoulders. </p>

<p>My S, who had Tulane as his first choice for a long while (but ultimately chose Univ of Miami) has many friends who were to be starting or continuing at Tulane this fall. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected. May you all stay safe and dry.</p>

102

<p>There is a new and sobering letter from Scott Cowen on the emergency website.</p>

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<p>August 30, 11:45 a.m.</p>

<pre><code>Dear Tulane Faculty, Staff, Students and Friends:

As you all know by now, New Orleans and the surrounding parishes were severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The physical damage to the area, including Tulane’s campuses, was extensive.

Unfortunately, conditions in the city continue to deteriorate, making it virtually impossible to begin recovery efforts. On a very positive note, in Tulane’s case, we are very thankful that all of our people are safe, including all the students and staff who evacuated to Jackson, Mississippi.

We have started the process of assessing the condition of our campus facilities and determining how long it will take us to reopen. This assessment process will take days because many of the answers will be determined by how quickly the city and its services become operational. The situation is further complicated by the fact that there is no power in the city, water levels continue to rise, all city roads are blocked, and the vast majority of our workforce had to leave the parish as part of the mandatory evacuation order. It is unclear at this time when people will be allowed to return to the city.

Given the uncertainties, we cannot determine at this time when employees and students should return to campus. We will do the best we can to keep you appraised of our situation and progress.

Also, I want to remind you that the university’s main website is not operating at this time and we do not know when we will be able to bring it back on-line. Due to this, the Tulane email system is not functioning. However, this website (emergency.tulane.edu) will continue to have the most up-to-date information about university operations and the Tulane Alert Line at 1-877-862-8080 and 1-504-862-8080 will also have the most current information available. These communication vehicles are the best source of information about Tulane since phone and cell service are unreliable.

I realize that you have many more questions than we have answers at this time. However, I’m sure you understand the complexity and difficulty of the situation we face. Nonetheless, we are determined to move forward as quickly as possible and make Tulane University an even stronger and healthier institution. We have been in New Orleans for 171 years and we look forward to another century in this great city.

Scott S. Cowen
</code></pre>

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<p>I would imagine that there are many students, perhaps my dd among them (I have learned never to speak for her!) who would be willing and even glad to spend the semester helping to put the city and campus back together, if housing and food and water could be found for them.</p>

105

<p>I may be a Pollyanna but isn’t it possible that more learning comes from this for the Tulane 09ers than any class man alone could have put together? That said, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone and am very glad all students are safe.</p>

106

<p>I agree, Alumother. A semester of service learning would be one of the most significant college experiences ever. Of course, I do realize that the administration has a few other things on its mind now beyond recasting the entire semester. Clean water before everything.</p>

<p>I came home for lunch to watch news reports. It is all so devastating and absolutely heartbreaking. I’ve never even seen NOLA – dh took dd for a visit last year and my work schedule precluded my going there this past week, so I was really looking forward to Parents’ Week-End. I already feel such affection for this city I’ve never laid eyes on.</p>

107

<p>New Orleans Uninhabitable–Office of Emeregency Mgt Director on NPR</p>

<p>Don’t come back anytime soon.</p>

<p>Not pretty at all.</p>

<p>Jeff Parish President. Residents will probably be allowed back in town in a week, with identification only, but only to get essentials and clothing. You will then be asked to leave and not come back for one month</p>

108

<p>Yep. Fox News is citing the mayor of N Orleans on emergency radio. Minimum two weeks to get the water out and even begin restoring services. They think it will be days before they can even identify and plug the levees. Until they do that, they can’t even begin pumping the water out.</p>

<p>Months for restoration of power – one month to even turn back on the main trunk lines.</p>

<p>Minimum two months before schools could possibly reopen.</p>

<p>This is very serious situation that is only going to get worse. I think the next step probably has to be a military operation to evacuate the city, many to refugee camps. The Red Cross can’t supply bottled water and food to a million people in a non-functioning city.</p>

109

<p>Martial law has been declared in New Orleans.</p>

<p>They can’t evacuate the city very well, because many people are stranded on roofs in flooded areas- with live power lines in the water. If the power lines wrapped around the propeller, the boatsmen who be electrocuted. Might they use helicopters instead?</p>

<p>It’s not just New Orleans that has been devastated, but Mississippi and Alabama as well. It might possibly be worse in these states, because people weren’t expecting the storm to come to them… Downtown Mobile is under water, and everything has been swept away from some of the places that got the storm surge, like Biloxi.</p>

<p>You can feed and clothe and house people, but how can you heal their emotional trauma? Like the man who had to let go of his wife and let her be swept away by the waters?</p>

<p>I should have known better than to be jubilant about how well the levees were holding. :confused: You’d think I’d know the laws of jinxes by now. However, they are dropping sandbags into the breaches, so it looks like they know which levees are broken…</p>

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<p>Mississippi got it “worse” in terms of conventional hurricane damage.</p>

<p>However, the situation in New Orleans is the big story due to the population density with zero communication, zero water, zero electricity, zero sanitation, zero transportation, zero health care, and no effective public safety resources.</p>

<p>The governor of Lousiana just said in a press conference that she is developing plans to totally evacuate N. Orleans. It is, and will be, uninhabitable.</p>

<p>From what I can see, the national leadership in this disaster has been non-existent to this point.</p>

111

<p>One of my siblings heard from my mom today- she is in Jackson,MI staying with people they met…doubting they have a home to return to. It was a small one-story on the water near Biloxi.</p>

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<p>So sorry to hear bout your mom, omni.</p>

<p>Watching the reporter standing on Canal Street in pitch black night, I could only imagine what is happening in the city with no communication and no effective law and order. </p>

<p>Developing plans? I heard the governor say she called for assistance from the Texas National Guard because most of the Louisiana Guard is in Afghanistan and Iraq–but she waited until AFTER the storm to do so? </p>

<p>Given that the physical damage is slightly less than expected, the plans to keep law and order seem ill conceived.</p>

113

<p>THe AP:</p>

<p>The situation was especially difficult for the frail and elderly in wheelchairs, who were lined up in rows five deep along a wall at the superdome…</p>

<p>…The refugees spent Monday sitting in the seats of the 77,000-seat stadium or sprawled out on blankets and towels on the floor. Refugees were given two military-style meals in a pouch per day…" </p>

<p>The Superdome is to be evacuated. Or the people will be in there until Monday. Not sure what is going to happen.</p>

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<p>There is no way to keep law and order. There is no communication and no transportation. I’m stunned that there hasn’t been a more aggressive military deployment to begin an immediate evacuation of N Orleans. This situation is going to go downhill fast.</p>

<p>It is clear that the state and local disaster relief mechanisms are overwhelmed.</p>

<p>The FEMA official on site is talking in conventional terms: renting apartments, buying trailers, etc. that are simply not even on the radar screen for a long-term refugee population of a million or more people.</p>

115

<p>Geena - So sorry you did not get to see NOLA before this. It is a wonderful city with great people. I’m confident it will be again. People will come through for NO and the other devastated cities, as they did for the victims of 9/11 and the tsunami. </p>

<p>Count my son as another who would like to volunteer in relief and/or clean-up efforts. It would be great if something could be arranged with the students of the area colleges.</p>

116

<p>My son just called to say FEMA is keeping him and his TEMS colleagues in Baton Rouge to do triage as the evacuated hospital patients and others are taken out of New Orleans.</p>

<p>FYI, these “privileged” Tulane kids will NOT be rendering aid to other “privileged” Tulane kids. They will be dealing with the worst of the worty coming out of New Orleans – not matter their ethnicity!</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.wdsu.com/news/4915310/detail.html[/url]”>http://www.wdsu.com/news/4915310/detail.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/08/breaking-news-martial-law-declared-in.php[/url]”>http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/08/breaking-news-martial-law-declared-in.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Just wanted to restate my earlier comment about martial law being declared, as I guess people missed it.</p>

<p>That’s a good thing your son is doing, concerneddad, and I’m sure a lot of people will have reason to appreciate it in the coming days.</p>

<p>EDIT: I just saw this (<a href=“http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html)%5B/url%5D”>http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html)</a>. The attempts to dam the levees with sandbags have failed.</p>

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<p>I cannot see how anyone can think that there is no national leadership in the situation at hand - without national leadership there would be no assistance by the military - no assistance from fema, etc… As much as anyone could have ever planned for such a disaster as this - there is no way to actually KNOW the outcome until an event such as this actually happens. The military deployments have been or are being put into place as quickly as humanly possible - but where as there is only 1 remaining open road - in/out of NOLA - there are limitations as well in that respect. </p>

<p>THE primary concern does seem to be search and rescue at this point - and due to the unforseen circumstances that the leve’s were breached - it has become THE most important piece - to preserve life. Yes - many are and will suffer for a long time - and things do need to be put into place - but I really do believe that every effort is being made on the behalf of the people involved in this horrendous situation - and as quickly as humanly possible. THe decision to use the SuperDome was to preserve life - certainly that is what has been accomplished - now the planning to move/evac those that have survived will be initiated - somehow - but it can’t be done in the blink of an eye. </p>

<p>Law and order will be difficult but will be achieved - it is amazing what people really do in situations as this is - no matter what the disaster - human decision - or lack of - tends to rule some of those encased in events such as this. Many feel that their survival is dependant on things that others have left behind - that is a very sad state of affairs. </p>

<p>The human soul/spirit is an amazing piece of each of us - and the strength that comes from it can get many of us thru anything - but one part of that is trying to trust those who are trying to help - yet the not knowing what is to come can instill a deep fear in any of us. This incredible disaster is by far - more than was ever expected - and sadly it is going to continue on for a long time for many of these people.</p>

<p>I have much praise for those who are willingly involved in the processes that are now going on all across the region - they are true heros. The news out of NOLA is not good and will not be good for quite a while - if there is anything that any one of us can be doing to help at all - then we need to do it - and not critisize the ongoing efforts of what should or should not be done. This is beyond any ones senses to comprehend - they are doing the best that they can under horrendous circumstances.</p>

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<p>CONCERNEDDAD - KUDDOS to your DS and his team - they are truely heros - you must be very proud of him - having taught him well - this will not be an easy thing for him.</p>

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<p>Thank you JeepMom. It will either confirm in his mind and soul that he wants to be a physician, or it will turn him into an accountant! (No offense intended to any accountants out there LOL)</p>