Hurricane Katrina and Me...

[P38 Pilot]

Damn those people who are looting and causing crimes!

[Parmigiano]

Hi Les,
was away for some days and spotted this thread just yesterday.
Nothing much I can say or do, I join the others in being happy that you are OK and being sad for what happened.
Only one word: New Orleans will rise again, like all cities hit by earthquakes or floods. Now it is time for depression and grief but soon will be time for reconstruction and hope.
Sandro

[lesofprimus]

Thank you for ur thoughts... This whole experience has changed my life, and the lives of thousands of others...

I would assume, as do most down here, that New Orleans will turn into another Las Vegas... There is going to be alot of prime real estate coming up on the market once they bulldoze all those flooded poor neighborhoods...

[Erich]

the reality is when if anything is going to happend during the flood stages. Insurance companies cannot even assess without flying over. the cruelity is seeking those lost in their homes wherever they are in the death stage and several of us know first hand what water does to a dead body for any length of time.

Correct me if I am wrong Les but all I have is the slight coverage here in Oregon from the air; the bulldozers are clearing out the roads so the homeowners can come back and see if anything is left. The real pain to me is seeing the homes right on the shoreline just pushed back looks lie, 100 yds or more or as Les has stated visually there is just nothing but a foundation and busted up sticks. almost like the homes internally exploded.

this is definatley a time for the Biloxi citizenry to bind together as never before. Les as to sending cash, check, money orders and whathaveyou and since the postal service seems out of commission where is best to send a letter with the funds ? or should we all wait for another week or so ?

Erich ~

[lesofprimus]

Just wait for now until things calm down alittle bit... They are trying to establish postal routes as we speak, so hopefully things will get going soon....

Ill let u guys know when things can get done, mail-wise...

Thank you all once again for ur kindness and graciousness.... It is greatly appreciated......

Dan

[the lancaster kicks ass]

just out of curiosity, and i'm really sorry if this's innapropriate my last wish is to offend you, but as new orleans is below sea level how're they gonna get rid of the water?

[evangilder]

They are currently using pumps to pump the water out. The last shot on the news showed a 31 inch pipe pumping water out.

[P38 Pilot]

Yeah along withe help of the Army Corp Engineers! Hooah!

[Erich]

that waste of swill they are pumping supposedly back into the huge lake outside of N.Orleans. indeed once dried out they need to burn N.O. to the ground to decontaminate the whole area. No one and I mean NONE should be allowed back there.

just to follow up brother Les's comments in his aea devastated, this scene drawn from an aerial serach along the Mississippi coast line is grim just as Les has stated :


a detailed aerial description of the utter devastation that befell the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Since I spent the first six months of my twenty-two year USAF career right there in Gulfport/Biloxi back in the early Sixties, I can envision well the scene. This report has been forwarded to me through my chain of Air Force friends.

Bondo Phil


On Mon, 5 Sep 2005 15:35:12 -0500 "Jo Atkins" writes:
This is from a friend's friend after he flew over his home and down the
coast in Mississippi.

"I just got back from a 3.5 hour flight over the Mississippi Gulf Coast
from Bay St. Louis to Pascagoula.

I have no words--I'm not sure there ARE words--for what I just saw. I am
in shock. The destruction of the Gulf Coast was of a level that
Hurricane Camille only began to begin to approach.

Personal. Janet's and my house is gone. An oak tree from the east side
is lying on top of what looks like a section of the roof. Whatever else
is left is in a pile of debris at the CSX railroad tracks to the north,
along with every other house in the neighborhood, save the one house next
door (Archie & Margaret's). Theirs is a spanish-southwestern style built
in 1925, and it used to stand out against all the other homes. Now it IS
the only other home. The windows are all out, and it looks pretty bad.
Grasslawn, an antibellum home on the other side, is gone.

Going down the coast from east to west...

Ocean Springs has heavy damage along the beach. I don't know how far
back it goes.

Biloxi. Point Cadet is gone. The Hwy 90 bridge is gone. The old hwy
bridge is gone. The railroad bridge is gone. All spans are down--every
last one of them--except for the drawbridge in the middle. The Biloxi
Casinos are mostly standing, but the barge from the Grand is north of hwy
90 now. Mary Mahoney's Restaurant is standing, but most of the
surrounding buildings are gone.

The Seashore Manor Methodist retirement home is the only structure
standing on that stretch of beach. The windows are even unbroken. The
Broadwater Marina is gone. What's left of the President Casino barge is
north and west, and across Hwy 90. Edgewater Mall is standing, but it
has large holes in the structure, high, all along the south side.
Edgewater Village strip mall is gone. Everything south of the railroad
tracks has severe damage, if it's still standing. I didn't see the Back
Bay area.

Gulfport. The Legacy Condominiums are standing, and apparently did quite
well. Nearly everything around them is gone. The VA hospital complex
did well. Most of the homes on either side of it are gone. The water
went beyond the railroad tracks in multiple places near there. There is
a continuous debris pile pushed up against the tracks all along what used
to be Second Street. Almost every house there is gone. Downtown is
mostly standing, but there has been water up to the tracks. The roofs of
most of the buildings have visible damage.

The Hancock Bank building and the MS Power Co building seem to have
fared the best. The Baptist and Presbyterian churches looked good. I
couldn't see the GPT Methodist church. The new courthouse appears to be
undamaged, including the windows. The harbor is mostly gone. The roof
of Marine Life is down. The shipping terminal warehouses are there, but
they have debris on the roofs, indicating that they were underwater. The
Grand Casino hotel (and Oasis) did very well, but the casino barge is
blocking Hwy 90 to the west. The homes in West Gulfport did better than
on the east side, but only for a space. Approaching Long Beach it gets
worse quickly.

Keesler AFB and the Gulfport CBC. One hangar at Keesler looks bad. The
rest of those structures look intact from where we were flying.

Long Beach. Everything from about 1000' south of the RR tracks is gone.


The Baptist Church is standing, but gutted. St. Thomas has parts
standing, but it is mostly gone. USM Gulf park looks pretty good, and it
is the only structure on that section of Beach. The Methodist Church is
standing, and the New Life Center looks good. The roofs look good.
Water came up as high as the house next door to the Associate Pastor's
parsonage. Everything south of Magnolia Street is gone. North of
Magnolia Street, there is heavy damage up to about 1000' of the tracks.
On my old street of Buena Vista Dr., my old house is the first one
standing. It appears from the air to have had water up to the second
story. The High School, Middle School, and Reeves Middle School appear
undamaged. Harper McCaughan is hurt, but I couldn't see how bad. It
probably had water, and it is about at where the survival line forms.
North LB did much better, but there was lots of roof damage. Pecan Park
seems to have fared the best. The Wolf River is flooded so badly I
couldn't see any structures above water. It is up to within a couple of
feet of the I-10 bridge--enough that I worry for the integrity of the
bridge. The harbor is gone. Every structure in the vicinity of the
harbor is gone.

Pass Christian. The Wal Mart is standing, but it has been underwater.
Some Downtown buildings are standing. St Anne's is there, but it has had
water over it. From the LB line westward, everything south of Second
Street is gone. The only exception was Scenic Drive, where about half of
the houses are standing. From Downtown west I saw nothing standing
anywhere in Pass Christian. The only houses I saw standing in West Pass
were the newer ones on the North Side, near the Bay of St. Louis, and
those two new millionaire acres-looking houses on the beach about halfway
to Pass Marianne. The Du Pont site is there, but we didn't fly north far
enough to assess.

The Hwy 90 bridge over the Bay of St. Louis is down. Every span. The
railroad bridge is down. Every span.

Bay St. Louis appears to have had water in the downtown area. Most of
the buildings are standing, but most have roof damage. All the homes
southwest of the downtown area, along the beach road, are gone. The
homes west of the beach road had the heaviest roof damage I saw anywhere
except in East Biloxi.

Waveland. We didn't fly all the way to Waveland, but I could see down
the beach road quite a ways, and I saw nothing standing.

Other. Hwy 90 is washed out in sections all along the coast, from Biloxi
to Bay st. Louis. Huge sand drifts obscure many more sections of
pavement. There is a lot more natural sand along the beach, maybe
another 500-1000'. Ship Island is mostly gone. There is a clump of trees
on a sand bar on the east, and there is a sand bar on the west. Fort
Massachusetts is there, but has sand berms about 15' high along the
southwest side. Cat Island has a new shape. It doesn't have "fingers"
any more. It is just a continuous stretch, like Ship Island used to be,
only with trees.

My estimates. Based on the debris lines and what I know of the geography
of the MS Gulf Coast, the tides were indeed in the 30-foot range, all the
way from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi. Based on the damage I saw to roofs,
and to structures unaffected by water, the winds would have had to be
greater than 100 knots, possibly as great as 140 knots. I couldn't see
looting/looters, but I could see the opportunity for it. The casualty
numbers, when they come in, will be staggering.

In closing. I have never seen any manner of destruction like this. It
is bad in Biloxi and Gulfport...as bad as anything I saw after Hurricane
Camille in 1969. The devastation of Pass Christian is indescribable.
The news reporting only scratches the surface. In my opinion, based on
my considerable life experience, the federal government should declare
martial law, and rush every possible measure of aid to this area.

Janet and I are praying for the survivors on the ground there. Please
join us. I will report more later. Please pass this report along to
others who have evacuated, and need to know."

Don.....

[evangilder]

Thanks for that report, Erich. I was stationed at Keesler for almost a year in 1984-1985 and remember the areas that are mentioned. That is a huge swath of land effected. Les is very fortunate to have gotten through this.

There has been immeasurable time on the news spwent on New Orleans, which is a distaster no doubt. But the devastation in Biloxi is huge as well, as we have seen from his pictures which he has so graciously shared.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

As he said, I dont believe there are words either.

[Erich]

still bitching about all the water and how they are going to rid themsleves of it in N.O. My answer again is burn it out, eliminate N.O. and then burn the lake. disease is going to be rampant and the evacs that have been sent out without proper med care will be like a plague ready to spring forth......look out Texas !!

gents i am hoping I am really wrong but this is looking really like a boiling pot ready to overflow on the stove

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

They tested and found E. Coli in the water already.

[evangilder]

Yep, like biological warfare gone bad. New Orleans is currently a cesspool of bacteria. I have heard the number, but don't remember the exact amount of ppm of a host of bacteria in the water that is there now. They said it was something along the lines of 22,000% more harmful than normal lake water. I considered volunteering to help out in NO, but after doing a little looking into the hazards, I had second thoughts. Plus with a pregnant wife and 4 year old at home, priorities have to be with my family.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Wise man.