Day 4, Part 2: New Orleans On The Brink
Originally I was planning to do daily updates on the storm but breaking news has compelled me to do a mid-day update as the fate of the city of New Orleans itself is in the balance at this very moment.
Governor Kathleen Blanco has declared a mandatory evacuation of everyone...including the evacuees who are huddled in the Superdome, from New Orleans. The domed stadium has suffered two tears in its partially unpealed white painted roof, has been without power for many hours and is the temporary home for over 10,000 refugees. A reported suicide took place in the Superdome when a distraught evacuee hurled himself off the balcony to the concrete floor. As of now, the water in downtown New Orleans is estimated to be between 2-3 feet deep.
Despite the spate of looting, police and others charged with keeping the peace are focusing their manpower of saving lives and not chasing after the bipedal vermin that is plaguing places of commerce. More later on that subject.
The breaking of the 17th Street Canal levee on the Orleans Parish side has flooded the city with unprecedented water. Now the portions of the city that had been seemingly spared by the merciless hurricane are now at risk of being totally covered with water from the brackish Lake Pontchatrain.
Water in New Orleans has been declared unpotable due to the severing of the city's primary water main as the water levels in downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter continue to rise.
Government workers are furiously trying to close the gashes in the 17th Street Canal dike, though it is unknown when the hole will be patched. The fissure has the potential to destroy uptown, downtown and the French Quarter, which had experienced little water damage from Katrina.
The historic Vieux Carre, which in English means "Old Square" is the historic heart of New Orleans. Established by the French decades before the birth of the United States, the city was destroyed by a massive fire in the 1790's when the Spanish were the governing authorities of Isle de Orleans (the New Orleans area east of the Mississippi River and south of Baton Rouge) and all of the expansive Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi River. The Spanish received New Orleans and western Louisiana as compensation for Madrid's loss of Florida to the British after the French and Indian War.
All structures were destroyed save for the Ursulines Convent, which still stands in the heart of the Vieux Carre. The Spanish rebuilt their colonial possession, hence the area known as the French Quarter consists almost totally of Spanish architecture. Since then, the French Quarter has endured two invasions (the British failing at the end of the War of 1812, the Federals succeeding at the beginning of the Civil War), yellow fever epidemics, and a host of other floods and powerful storms.
Could one of the most historic neighborhoods in the world now fall victim to a levee break?
As of now, it appears the cradle of historic New Orleans could share in the catastrophic misery that has been experienced by her neighbors.
Keep praying. More miracles are needed for the city that care forgot.
Governor Kathleen Blanco has declared a mandatory evacuation of everyone...including the evacuees who are huddled in the Superdome, from New Orleans. The domed stadium has suffered two tears in its partially unpealed white painted roof, has been without power for many hours and is the temporary home for over 10,000 refugees. A reported suicide took place in the Superdome when a distraught evacuee hurled himself off the balcony to the concrete floor. As of now, the water in downtown New Orleans is estimated to be between 2-3 feet deep.
Despite the spate of looting, police and others charged with keeping the peace are focusing their manpower of saving lives and not chasing after the bipedal vermin that is plaguing places of commerce. More later on that subject.
The breaking of the 17th Street Canal levee on the Orleans Parish side has flooded the city with unprecedented water. Now the portions of the city that had been seemingly spared by the merciless hurricane are now at risk of being totally covered with water from the brackish Lake Pontchatrain.
Water in New Orleans has been declared unpotable due to the severing of the city's primary water main as the water levels in downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter continue to rise.
Government workers are furiously trying to close the gashes in the 17th Street Canal dike, though it is unknown when the hole will be patched. The fissure has the potential to destroy uptown, downtown and the French Quarter, which had experienced little water damage from Katrina.
The historic Vieux Carre, which in English means "Old Square" is the historic heart of New Orleans. Established by the French decades before the birth of the United States, the city was destroyed by a massive fire in the 1790's when the Spanish were the governing authorities of Isle de Orleans (the New Orleans area east of the Mississippi River and south of Baton Rouge) and all of the expansive Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi River. The Spanish received New Orleans and western Louisiana as compensation for Madrid's loss of Florida to the British after the French and Indian War.
All structures were destroyed save for the Ursulines Convent, which still stands in the heart of the Vieux Carre. The Spanish rebuilt their colonial possession, hence the area known as the French Quarter consists almost totally of Spanish architecture. Since then, the French Quarter has endured two invasions (the British failing at the end of the War of 1812, the Federals succeeding at the beginning of the Civil War), yellow fever epidemics, and a host of other floods and powerful storms.
Could one of the most historic neighborhoods in the world now fall victim to a levee break?
As of now, it appears the cradle of historic New Orleans could share in the catastrophic misery that has been experienced by her neighbors.
Keep praying. More miracles are needed for the city that care forgot.
posted by BourbonConservative at 3:07 PM
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