New_Orleans is left with no power, no drinking water and steadily
rising waters from
major levee breaches.
This photo taken Thursday morning shows the
flooding. The city east of the Industrial Canal was filled Tuesday
morning by water from Lake Borgne which over topped levees breaking
through in multiple spots. The center of the city, west of the
Industrial Canal flooded when two poorly designed drainage canal levees
failed Tuesday mid-morning slowly admitting Lake Ponchartrain into the
heart of the city. This caused waters to rise for 36 hours after the
storm, as the bowl filled.
The maximum extent of flooding was achieved late Tuesday. Mid-morning Wednesday the Corps of Engineers announced that water
was no longer flowing into the city because equilibrium with the lake level had
been reached. The water level in the lake continued to drop as waters flowed out through the Rigolets.
Efforts to limit the flooding
were unsuccessful
and forced authorities to try evacuating the people remaining in the
city. There was massive confusion about the evacuation. FEMA
promised buses then canceled the buses thinking they were going to use
helicopters. The state government commandeers buses across the state
and begins moving them toward the city then cancels them in favor of
the
FEMA buses. FEMA reschedules their buses which won't arrive until Thursday. Relief supplies
are turned away at FEMA checkpoints because
the city is being evacuated. Communications are out and it is one major
cluster.
The city's main public hospital, Charity Hospital, was no longer
functioning and was being evacuated. Memorial Hospital in midtown
is standing in 5 feet of water. The emergency generators
in the basement are flooded and conditions are horrendous. Tulane University
Hospital was evacuated. Helicopters moved many patients to the
airport. At Charity, workers reported gunfire at the helicopters.
Looting began. A police officer
was shot and wounded when he surprised a looter Tuesday. In Orleans the
police got conflicting orders about looters and the definition of
looting was fluid. Collecting food, some drugs and survival supplies
was not looting. Taking electronics, jewelery and setting fires was
looting. Police sometime helped people with the first type, sometimes
they turned people away. A couple of police got too enthusiastic. The
police took it upon themselves to replace their flooded patrol cars
with new Cadillacs from the Sewell dealership. In Jefferson the "shoot
to kill" order was unambiguous, but a few big malls were still looted.
The biggest
problem facing
authorities, they said, was their inability to communicate. Rescuers in
helicopters and boats picked up hundreds then thousands of stranded people in New
Orleans.
Bush cuts short his vacation to focus on the storm damage. He
schedules a fly-over in Air Force One on his way from Crawford, Texas
to Washington, D.C.