BB reader oberuhito in Lake Charles, Louisiana says:
Still no reports that the water has stopped rising in much of New Orleans, although I've heard things are draining outside of the "bowl"
on the West Bank, as well as around Algiers Point. Gov. Blanco said all refugees in N.O. shelters are definately going to be evacuated, and the Superdome will be evacuated within the next two days. That's at least 20,000 people, with pretty wild estimates ranging from 30,000 to 60,000. Nobody's officially said it, but after failing to patch the breached levee once and losing more water pumps, that's a terrible sign – they may be preparing to abandon the entire city, at least for several weeks.The word I've been hearing on ideas and plans to patch the levees:
choppers dropping huge concrete barriers into the breach, then topping them with 50 2,000-to-3,000 pound sandbags; weighted cargo containers dropped into the breach; and, I'm assuming the last idea, sinking one of those big barges up against the levee wall.Tulane Univ. Hospital is evacuating by air, using 20 helicopters from their parent company and lifting one or two patients with some staff each trip and carrying them to triage centers outside of the city.
Several hundred patients and staff remain in the hospital at last word; the water's much faster rise, somewhere between 2-to-4 feet per hour, has knocked out their fixed generators, and they're running essential equipment on portable generators.
Here in Lake Charles, our main shelter is full at between 1,700-to-2,000 evacuees. 400 are on their way from Houston after being booted from hotels, either for lack of money or – unconfirmed, but overheard – to make room for people with reservations. A lot of plans, from before the storm hit but after the evacuation orders were made, called for gradually moving evacuees closer to New Orleans as time passed. However, many of our evacuees here aren't just looking for shelter – they're asking for jobs. Those mostly lived paycheck-to-paycheck, and with N.O. gone, there's no more paychecks.
These people may never go back, no matter what's done to rebuild.
