Well, it looks like NO dodged a bullet by the slimmest of margins. The eyewall of Katrina tracked along the east bank of the Mississippi, and all four parishes (= counties) along that side of the river are devastated. Water everywhere, most houses clobbered very comprehensively, etc. This includes a large chunk of the greater NO metropolitan area, which spread out to the east bank long ago. There are estimated to be several tens of thousands of people in those parishes who decided to stay put and ride it out. No-one has heard yet from those in the southern parishes, especially Plaquemines. I've traveled there a lot, in towns like Buras, Port Sulphur, Diamond, etc., and I well recall standing at the church in Diamond and watching an ocean-going ship sailing past
above my head - the levees along the river there are very high. If those levees collapsed or were overtopped by storm surge, those towns don't exist any more...
The western side of the river seems to have had a lot of wind damage and some flooding along the southern shores of Lake Pontchartrain, but the majority of the NO central urban area seems to have escaped with mostly wind damage (which is bad enough - thousands of windows blown out, roofs off, electricity out, pumps and drainage systems not working, etc.). As expected, the flooding that has occured has polluted the fresh water system, so a boil advisory is in effect, and will probably stay that way for several weeks. Fire-ant colonies that were drowned out are now swimming around, looking for anything solid to climb onto, and the same goes for snakes, etc. There are reports of some folks being admitted to hospital with really, really bad ant bites, as the fire-ants decided to climb the same structures the people were using for support. Ouch!
Up here in the Alexandria area, we definitely lucked out. The western side of the storm came within 20 miles, but didn't come overhead. Again, the eastward jog that Katrina took during the small hours of this morning saved us. It was wierd looking at local radar, seeing the solid band of wind and rain brushing right up against the eastern part of the metropolitan area, but staying just off to the side. We're all breathing a sigh of relief (or two, or three...).
My guests relieved me of responsibility for the kids late this morning, so I was able to sleep this afternoon. They're planning on raiding a local restaurant tonight, and will head back to the NO area tomorrow morning. I've warned them that they won't be allowed to go back, but they want to be closer than here (four-and-a-half hour's drive away), and plan on camping out near Baton Rouge, so that as soon as they're notified that they can return, they'll have less than an hour's drive. They're worried about looters plundering their homes (with reason - some looting has already been reported). Two families are well-armed to protect themselves, but others of the greater blissninny persuasion are not armed. They've asked me to loan them weapons, but since they have no familiarity, training or experience with them, I've had to refuse. If they'd stay on a day or two to let me teach them something, that would be different: but they won't, so I won't.
Thanks to all who prayed for us. The problems are only just beginning, in many ways, but I think we were spared a major catastrophe. If that eyewall had tracked just five miles further to the west...
Bless you and hang in there.
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