I Wish You All the Best. (Off-topic)

[Anonymous]

Not to change the subject matter but I hope our government and other disater agencies can learn from this and have some better plans in place for the terrible and unforseen future that could be in store for some of us in the US and even British cities from all the potential terrorism attacks that could end up being equal to the scale of New Orleans, Biloxi and surrounding areas.

I don't watch TV but do listen to the radio and grab news off the Internet, but just seeing those pictures and descriptions of the damage is tremendous [:(]

[dave9999]

After watching the fly over video of Biloxi, we were in disbelief. The is a town that we have
visited so many times... In the video we could see so many things that we reconized, destroyed.
The footage of Casino Magic on the opposite side of the street was amazing. This storm
moved the entire casino more than 200 yards.

And the houses that we had driven by were just piles of lumber and glass. The lady who had
returned to her apartment building only to find it leveled was sad. To make things worse, she
had left her dog a home. It's the personal stories that I hear that really make this a tragedy.
One young girl, I think she was 20, said she was so concerned with saving her expensive
posessions(tv, dvd player) but now she just wished she had saved her photographs.

The people digging through the rubble just trying to find any of their personal belongings really
hit home. Where are the people of Biloxi and New Orleans going to go? I know that there is
already a housing shortage here in Pensacola. And citys like Mobile Al and Jackson Ms can't
hold them all. I mean, they are evacuating the ENTIRE city of New Orleans... These folks have
to go somewhere. It was also surprising how many people chose to stay in the city. Now they
have to get them out.

Did anyone see the Nightline special last night... sad. Good luck, Dave

[jacon12]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rexhea

Finally got power back. 26 hour outage wasn't bad considering all the downed lines in West Alabama (62,000 households still without power in this area alone). Amazing how so dependent we are on electricity. We have a lot of trees down all over Tuscaloosa and to the West and they don't expect to get our area completely restored until the weekend.

I know we didn't catch half of what the coast did, but fellows, it still was really rough. I have tree limbs down all over the yard as big around as your leg. Some hit the house and the depot, but I don't think it hurt the roofing.

My Brother-in-law is a Deputy Sheriff in Biloxi and we still haven't been able to contact him or his family. He lives about 5 miles from the water.

Screw political correctness: Lets all pray for those that have suffered so greatly.

REX

Rex, glad to see you made it through ok. When I saw it was still a hurricane even after it got a piece inland I figured you were going to really catch it. Even this far to the east (middle Georgia), we had tornados. Two touched down about 15 miles to my west and several storms came through with tremendous straight line winds. I can't EVEN imagine riding out a Cat 5 hurricane. Don't even want to go there!
Jarrell

[Anonymous]

Yea, the looting is nuts -- what are they going to do with TVs and stereos? And what's even more nuts is the attempted car-jackings -- where the h$$l do they think they're going to go in the car? It's a shame that in times of extreme adversity, a small minority of folks just become no better than animals, making us forget all the good people risking life and limb to save and help out others.

[selector]

A terrible event to live through. I can remember my Grandma telling me of the great New Liskeard fire when she was a teenager (1920's, northern Ontario). hundresd of square miles of forest burned, and she and her sisters had to huddle in a lake with wet blankets over their heads for several long hours.

Anyway, I agree that New Orleans and environs will not return to normal, perhaps ever. People will adapt to a new way of doing things to some extent.

I was dismayed to see all the looting. If one is afraid and fears starving, or has no water, I could see taking what I needed. But the looting in the French Quarter with all of the 'high-end' stuff being ripped off is simply opportunism with its best foot forward.

I hope the Red Cross gets what it needs in the way of resources.

[rexhea]

Finally got power back. 26 hour outage wasn't bad considering all the downed lines in West Alabama (62,000 households still without power in this area alone). Amazing how so dependent we are on electricity. We have a lot of trees down all over Tuscaloosa and to the West and they don't expect to get our area completely restored until the weekend.

I know we didn't catch half of what the coast did, but fellows, it still was really rough. I have tree limbs down all over the yard as big around as your leg. Some hit the house and the depot, but I don't think it hurt the roofing.

My Brother-in-law is a Deputy Sheriff in Biloxi and we still haven't been able to contact him or his family. He lives about 5 miles from the water.

Screw political correctness: Lets all pray for those that have suffered so greatly.

REX

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dthurman
I realize the POP coming out of New Orleans, just odd that their ISP in Shreves Port which I think is a few hundred miles away wouldn't have a redundant line or POP from another area, though when I had a hosting company, 2 of our POPs were in Chicago, I dropped one and went with a company having a St Loius POP, just for that sort of problem.

Is all phone service also out in New Orleans?

Not really -- when I first hooked up with Speakeasy a couple of years back, my POP was 400 miles away in NYC. They only put up their DC POP about 3 years ago.

And from the latest reports, it looks like phones, power, pretty much everything will be out in NO for quite some time. Now they're talking about forced evacuation of the whole city. It's our favorite vacation spot, and it's really heartbreaking to see what's going on down there. I fear the death toll is going to be VERY high.[:(] And its going to take years for the city and its people to recover from this.

[dave9999]

David,
You are exactly right... in most cases. This one was no different. The north-east corner of
a hurricane is usually the worst. That is why Pensacola was "spared" during Dennis. The
storm took a quick turn to the east, hitting just to the east of town. We had a lot of damage,
but not as much as if it had hit to the west of town.

As for Biloxi, they are in pretty bad shape. We go over often for the weekend. I guess we won't
be going for awhile. The new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino was set to open next week... now
they have to totally rebuild. And the residents, a good many of them, are employed by the casinos.

A hurricane can damage more than property. They can change your entire way of life. The people
of New Orleans won't have a normal life for years to come. Kinda sad when you think about it.
Good luck to everyone who wasn't as lucky as some of us were. Dave

[Anonymous]

If I'm not mistaken, I just went to CNN, Buloxi is harder hit as from what a friend told me today, huricanes turn in a counter clockwise manner, so normally the east side of the huricane is the strongest (I don't know this as fact) and that Mississippi was hit hardest from all this. Reading some of the stories it is gut wrenching. Wow. [:(]

I will also add you folks into my prayers. God Bless...

[UPJohn]

My prayers go out to all who had to suffer through this hurricane. It is devastating to lose everything like thousands of people have now. I heard there is only one way in to New Orleans now and the water's rising.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

QUOTE: Originally posted by uspscsx

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

Ouch. Where was that taken, SpaceMouse?

uspscsx

Miami.

Miami, as in back when she was only a Category 1 or 2? Holy COW! There must have been a big gust, I've never seen a 1 or 2 do that before! Nice pic.


uspscsx

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by uspscsx

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

Ouch. Where was that taken, SpaceMouse?

uspscsx

Miami.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jsalemi

QUOTE: Originally posted by dthurman

I just spoke to a friend in Shreves Port, they are far enough away that they didn't get any damage, though he said that their DSL is out, since it comes out of New Orleans. Which is odd??

Not really -- DSL lines usually feed to a central PoP (Point of presence), which is their actually connection to the internet backbone. New Orleans has a couple of PoPs, and with the power and phones down, the PoPs are down.

I realize the POP coming out of New Orleans, just odd that their ISP in Shreves Port which I think is a few hundred miles away wouldn't have a redundant line or POP from another area, though when I had a hosting company, 2 of our POPs were in Chicago, I dropped one and went with a company having a St Loius POP, just for that sort of problem.

Is all phone service also out in New Orleans?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dthurman

I just spoke to a friend in Shreves Port, they are far enough away that they didn't get any damage, though he said that their DSL is out, since it comes out of New Orleans. Which is odd??

Not really -- DSL lines usually feed to a central PoP (Point of presence), which is their actual connection to the internet backbone. New Orleans has a couple of PoPs, and with the power and phones down, the PoPs are down.

[claycts]

Our company is sending our car carrier full of botteled water to LA, if it can bet there, if not we will make the drop at the closest relief center. (28ft carrier holds 350 cases of water all donated).
God speed to all in the area.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

Ouch. Where was that taken, SpaceMouse?

uspscsx

[SpaceMouse]

[Anonymous]

We have a tornado watch in effect 'til 9 tonight for us. Although, why bother, the last tornado we had as back in '80, although it was an F3. It injured 12, mainly because it stayed over rural areas.

uspscsx

[Anonymous]

It's getting harder to watch the news and hear all the stories. One woman in particular lost everything and added to that her father has a heart condition, all that remained of her home was the foundation. Sadly, I'm sure there will be reports of numerous others.

[SpaceMouse]

A 200 foot section of Levee broke and you are right 80% of New Orleans is under water--or 44,000 homes flooded between 6-10 feet of water--and it is still rising.

[Anonymous]

I just spoke to a friend in Shreves Port, they are far enough away that they didn't get any damage, though he said that their DSL is out, since it comes out of New Orleans. Which is odd??

Also heard reports that New Orleans is 80% underwater or water damaged, something about the levys are over flowing. I also thought I heard of 25 foot swells??

[SpaceMouse]

I don't watch a lot of TV, but this morning I spent a few hours watching the video clips of the storm damage in the South. It looks like they got the begeezes kicked out of them.

My sincere wishes is that all of you down there are safe and comforatble and that if you were in the harder hit areas that you have a home to return to when you can.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Lister

I live rather close to Slidell LA which got hit rather hard. I evacuated to Opolousa yesterday. Things have been ok here. I am worried though that my house is either gone or about 6 feet under water. Not a good feeling. I'm probably going to try to make it back tomorrow. The layout I'm sure is destroyed but I'm more worried about the house and neighborhood. At least the family is safe. (I did bring a couple of my favorite locos with me too)
I have friends that I work with that live farther south in St Bernard around Chalmette, and supposedly they have around 6-10 feet of water there in areas. Also have a friend in Picayune MS. He left, but his house is probably levelled. Flooding is massive and wind damage is pretty horrible too. Not sure of the death count so far, probably not too high because the majority of people did evac. Good luck to any of you dealing with the same thing I am.

-Lister

I just saw them showing pictures of Slidell, and, there was no water? All I saw(and all they mentioned) was a lot of wind damage.

uspscsx

[Anonymous]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was just watching The Weather Channel, and, did I hear Stephenie Abrams say that the bridge from some place in LA to some place in MS(Or close to that)Was completely wiped out and a few casinos were on the wrong side of the road? Amazing.

uspscsx

[Anonymous]

The winds are down to 75 MPH, the pressure's 960. This thing's still kickin', though.


uspscsx

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by uspscsx

Dave-Ouch! That photo shows exactly why I choose to live inland.. Really glad to hear that you're alright! The best to you and yours.


uspscsx

??? [:)] Here in Central Illinois, we have some pretty nasty thunderstorms that will bend the trees almost horizontal, with flash flooding and power outages that can last for days. We have a little toen called South Pekin, was a division point for the old CNW that has been 30-50% wiped out a few years in a row by tornados. The picture Dave posted reminds me of some of those storms we get every now and then, what I wouldn't give for a little more rain in these parts, as we are still having a drought effect around here, only rained maybe 3/4 times this summer.

[rexhea]

Well, we just had our first tornado warning here in Tuscaloosa. There was one spotted about 5 miles north of my house. Rains are intermittently heavy with sustained wind at 25 and gust to 43mph. Suppose to get worst through the evening, but I believe the really bad winds will be about 50 miles West and beyond (unless she changes her projected path).

Lister: I sure am sorry that you were in its way. I hope things aren't as bad as you think.

DaveGator: Glad you are fine. Man, downtown Mobile is flooded out.

REX

[dave9999]

By the way, it may be awhile before we hear from Todd. They had said that Gulf Shores was
inaccessible... at least the southern most parts, along the gulf.

They also said that it could be a month to several months before power is fully restored
to New Orleans. Reminds me a little too much of Ivan! We were over two weeks without
electricity... Dave

[Anonymous]

Dave-Ouch! That photo shows exactly why I choose to live inland.. Really glad to hear that you're alright! The best to you and yours.


uspscsx

[dave9999]

I'm alright. We don't have power and the wind is still kicking... about 60 MPH with higher gust.
My DSL is also down, so I'm surfing the old dial-up connection.

New Orleans might have gotton lucky(all things considered, that is).The storm surge wasn't
as bad as predicted. Still, they were hit pretty hard.

Rex,
Watch out! I looks like it's coming your way. Batten down the hatches and stay safe.

Here's a photo that I took earlier in the day. Dave