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August 30, 2005
Is this the end of New Orleans?
Frequent commentor James sends this:
From an emergency notice put on the TV station's web site, which mirrors a bulletin they just had on TV (I'm watching online):****ALL RESIDENTS ON THE EAST BANK OF ORLEANS AND JEFFERSON REMAINING IN THE METRO AREA ARE BEING TOLD TO EVACUATE AS EFFORTS TO SANDBAG THE LEVEE BREAK HAVE ENDED. THE PUMPS IN THAT AREA ARE EXPECTED TO FAIL SOON AND 9 FEET OF WATER IS EXPECTED IN THE ENTIRE EAST BANK. WITHIN THE NEXT 12-15 HOURS****>>As all of us native Louisianians know, the "entire East bank" constitutes all of New Orleans, Metairie, etc.The question of New Orleans' survival as a city was in some question an hour ago. Now, I think the question may have been answered. New Orleans will not be habitable for a very long time, and then only after the expenditure of unfathomable treasure.May God have mercy. Lord have mercy. I am out of words for prayer other than that. Lord have mercy.I think I am going to go cry now.
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
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» Breathtaking Katrina from The Anchoress
First - a little good news in the midst of all of this death and destruction, there is life.
Glenn Reynolds has a good list of Flood Aid Organizations and Truth Laid Bear is in the process of organizing a bloggers consortium of aid. Send him (or Gle... [Read More]
Tracked on Aug 30, 2005 10:45:24 PM
» KATRINA: HELL BREAKING LOOSE from Michelle Malkin
***scroll down for updates, more charitable relief info, looting/prison riot status, definitive clarification about reporting on "martial law," midnight update and declaration of tomorrow's Day of Prayer*** As I noted below, the Orleans Parish Prison i... [Read More]
Tracked on Aug 30, 2005 11:02:39 PM
Comments
I was born in New Orleans. I was raised in Metairie for my first 11 1/2 years. I remember people saying that they always knew there was a chance this day would come.
I pray that all parishes do what they can this weekend to help the affected areas, especially with food, potable water, and medical supplies.
Many people from Louisiana visit Western NC for a vacation or stay here for the summer. It is time for us to give back to people who have been geenrous.
Pray, also, that the anarchy and looting gives way to social order. May the police, the Coast Guard, and all emergency service people by protected and supported.
Posted by: Fr. Shawn O'Neal at Aug 30, 2005 7:44:46 PM
Please let this not happen.
Posted by: sj at Aug 30, 2005 8:09:41 PM
www.nola.com seems to have the latest news, which isn't good.
Posted by: sj at Aug 30, 2005 8:12:36 PM
As Rod put it: "New Orleans is lost."
Posted by: RC at Aug 30, 2005 8:24:54 PM
I was born in New Orleans and spent my childhood 'cross the Lake in St. Tammany Parish. I have family in the Algiers area (West Bank) which is said to be in better shape than most of the city. I don't know how they're fairing. But NOLA itself will never be the same, brave vows to re-build not withstanding. The texture of life in the city, its history cannot be put back.
It's breaking my heart to see the filthy water submerging those little shotgun houses. Unless you've seen it with your own eyes, you cannot grasp just how utterly poor "the poor" of New Orleans are--100,000 of them at the very least. They have nothing left. What government or charitable agencies can feed, house, and support such numbers for long months to come?
Yet the wailing of Ooooh Ooooh the Chastisement is already heard on the wind. How anyone can prattle on about God punishing sinful New Orleans and fail to shed a tear for the afflicted. Well, that's a brand of Catholicism I utterly reject. I hope the rest of you do, too.
Posted by: Sandra Miesel at Aug 30, 2005 8:26:54 PM
Sandra: What creeps have been saying that?
Posted by: James Kabala at Aug 30, 2005 8:36:09 PM
Yes, Sandra. Amplify, please.
Posted by: Nance at Aug 30, 2005 8:43:00 PM
I'm listening to Fox News (Hannity & Colmes) and they're interviewing EWTN's Raymond Arroyo, whose house evidently has been destroyed. His immediate family is fine, and he sounds fine as he relies on his faith. I'm sorry but I don't know where Arroyo lives. He described the scene he fled as "Atlantis."
Posted by: Christopher Fotos at Aug 30, 2005 8:49:55 PM
Well the New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas goes half way there (speaking about looting):
"I'm telling you, it's like Sodom and Gomorrah."
http://tinyurl.com/coacw
Posted by: Samuel J. Howard at Aug 30, 2005 8:51:51 PM
Does anyone have any suggestions as to the best organisations to whom we can give? I feel most desperately for those who had so little to call their own in the first place.
Posted by: anna domini at Aug 30, 2005 8:56:44 PM
I think this is the end of New Orleans too. I don't see how it can be rebuilt.
Posted by: Patrick Rothwell at Aug 30, 2005 8:56:56 PM
James/Nance/Samuel: Let's just leave that alone tonight. What we do know is that thousands need our prayers:
“Charity Hospital is in a crisis,” Nagin said. He estimated it would take as long as two weeks to clear out the floodwaters once the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fixes the levees.
Also, Municipal Yacht Harbor burned to the ground. And looting has become so widespread that it's sometimes taking place in full view of police and other emergency workers who are busy searching for any survivors in need of rescue. Drug addicts have been looting pharmacies, Nagin said.
There are no official death tolls, but it's expected to be steep. At this point, “Rescue workers are not even dealing with dead bodies. They're just pushing them to the side,” Nagin said.
Posted by: Rich Leonardi at Aug 30, 2005 8:57:23 PM
Amy,
I think you're right.. does anyone know how the Archdiocese faired? N.O. has some of the most beautiful parishes and amazing architecture. Praying for miracles on this end..
Posted by: Yvonne at Aug 30, 2005 8:59:22 PM
Anna, Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has a superb list of charities including everything from Catholic Charities and the American Red Cross to Mercy Corps, which I know is thought well of by Mark Shea. I am sure Amy will have her own recommendations if she hasn't posted them already (apologies in advance, Amy, I'm surfing a bit too rapidly.)
Posted by: Christopher Fotos at Aug 30, 2005 9:06:42 PM
Jesus already has an answer for the doomsdayers: "Unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."
Posted by: Jason at Aug 30, 2005 9:08:23 PM
New Orleans will never die.
Geez, we're Americans! We love big projects! We need to think big.
1. How could you dry out a whole city _quickly_? Don't they have those big sopping-up rice things for oil spills and stuff like that? This might also help slow down the flows through levee breaks, if you used it as a sort of little Dutch boy's thumb.
We should also be shipping New Orleans that underwater cement stuff, that can harden even underwater. That'd make a really good temporary dam where needed, I'd think.
2. Couldn't we make pre-fab houses that looked like the ruined ones? I mean, there's no rule that says a pre-fab house can't look Victorian, or Napoleonic, or whatever. This would also be an opportunity to put really nice small houses in place of the shotgun shacks. This could help all of the damaged towns along the coast, especially poor Biloxi. If Sears did it last century, we can do it better and cheaper now.
The insurance companies are facing massive payout problems. If they banded together, they could almost certainly fund a project like this, and that would allow them to control and reduce costs.
3. Massive emergency DDT spraying against the mosquitoes. I'm sorry about the birds, but human health comes first. We do not need massive malaria, sleeping sickness, etc. spreading throughout the United States this fall on top of all our other problems. DDT works.
4. "Remember the Promises in the Attic. Never Again." A Dayton-like over-engineered levee and drainage system, because we don't want to go through this again! And maintain them every year against settling, even if that's just a new load of dirt and sod. And this sounds stupid, but couldn't the city be raised a little higher? On piles or floating cement and such?
Anybody else got some ideas?
Posted by: Maureen at Aug 30, 2005 9:09:05 PM
Good heavens. I suppose it's safe to say that the day so many people have feared is finally here. I pray that the city is spared complete destruction.
Posted by: julian at Aug 30, 2005 9:14:08 PM
I am not sure how much insurance companies have to pay since most don't cover flood damage. I am betting that would be the case here. They clearly live in a flood plane.
Posted by: Father Todd Reitmeyer at Aug 30, 2005 9:14:16 PM
Here's the Catholic Charities USA link:
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/news/katrina.cfm
About "God hates New Orleans": Catholics and non-Catholics alike can be prone to this stuff. We had a 3.8 earthquake just north of Asheville last week. Was that divinely-inspired punishment?
For those who link disasters with divine retribution far too readily, I recommend Luke 13:1-5.
Posted by: Fr. Shawn O'Neal at Aug 30, 2005 9:16:55 PM
Thank you Fr. Shawn and Christopher.
Posted by: anna domini at Aug 30, 2005 9:20:40 PM
"What nature doesn't do to us
will be done by our fellow man."
-Tom Leherer
Posted by: Nancy at Aug 30, 2005 9:21:32 PM
FEMA's web site has a long list of charities involved, including Catholic Charities USA. Web links not provided, but phone numbers are.
http://www.fema.gov/news/
newsrelease.fema?id=18473
Posted by: Peggy at Aug 30, 2005 9:23:04 PM
Fr. Todd is right. Private insurers do not provide coverage for damage caused by flooding. Flooding is covered under the FEMA Flood Insurance Program.
The little town of Columbia, Virginia, of which I was Mayor until recently, knows all about being wiped out by hurricane-induced floods - Camille hit in 1969 followed by Agnes in 1972. Two 1000-year floods within 3 years of each other.
Posted by: Jay Anderson at Aug 30, 2005 9:27:44 PM
Has anyone heard from Father Bryce Sibley (the well-remembered Saintly Salmagundi guy)?
Posted by: katymalone at Aug 30, 2005 9:27:56 PM
I saw on Nola.com that as of 4:30, the authorities sent out a call for anybody with a boat, especially a flatboat. It's a bit late tonight, but it sounds like they may still need a whole flotilla of rescue boats come daylight.
So I'd say anyone living in a nearby state who wants to do like Dunkirk should maybe think about driving the boat over tomorrow....
Posted by: Maureen at Aug 30, 2005 9:29:18 PM
