From CNN.com:
Following is a rundown of the situation in the states most affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Louisiana
Deaths: The mayor said the hurricane probably killed thousands of people in New Orleans -- an estimate that, if accurate, would make the storm the nation's deadliest natural disaster since at least the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Relief crews put aside the counting of bodies to concentrate on rescuing the living, many trapped on rooftops and in attics.
An estimated 80 percent of New Orleans is under water, up to 20 feet deep in places. Water is still rising as engineers struggle to plug two breached levees along Lake Pontchartrain with giant sandbags.
Buses carrying evacuees from New Orleans began arriving at Houston's Astrodome overnight as Louisiana officials began clearing out the hurricane-ravaged Superdome.
Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said 3,000 people have been rescued by boat and air.
Sections of Interstate 10, the only major freeway leading into New Orleans from the east, are destroyed.
At least 713,000 customers estimated without power.
BellSouth Corp., the region's dominant local phone provider, estimated that about 750,000 lines may be out of service in the most heavily damaged areas.
Looting broke out in some New Orleans neighborhoods. Thieves took guns from a Wal-Mart. One police officer was shot in the head by a looter but was expected to recover. Looters also used a forklift to smash open a pharmacy. City officials themselves commandeered equipment from a looted Office Depot. During a state of emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and buildings for their use.
Quote: "You know, it's not like people are just there because they want to be there. They're there because they're trapped in the city." -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco on ABC "Good Morning America"
Mississippi
Deaths: At least 110.
More than 236,000 customers are without power.
Hundreds of waterfront homes, businesses, community landmarks and condominiums have been obliterated.
Casinos built on barges along the coast are damaged or destroyed, some floated across beach onto land.
More than 1,600 Mississippi National Guardsmen have been activated.
Major bridges were damaged in three coastal counties, including those linking Biloxi with Ocean Springs and the connection to Bay St. Louis.
Looters picked through casino slot machines for coins and ransacked other businesses.
Quote: "It is indescribable -- blocks and blocks and blocks of no houses. Ninety percent of the structures are gone. I saw Camille and the aftermath in 1969 and this is worse than Camille." Gov. Haley Barbour on NBC's "Today." Camille killed 143 and destroyed 6,000 homes.
Alabama
Deaths: Two.
About 325,000 homes and businesses are without power.
Flooding reached 11 feet in Mobile, matching a record set in 1917, according to the National Weather Service. Water got up to the roofs of cars in downtown Mobile and bayou communities. Piers were ransacked and grand homes flooded along Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay.
Major bridge over the Mobile River partially reopened; it was struck by oil drilling platform that floated away from a shipyard.
Florida
[Note: As I understand, these result from Katrina's first landfall last week. - Tyler]
Deaths: 11.
About 80,700 customers without power.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
"An American Refugee Crisis"
Austin Bay:
An American Refugee Crisis
Yesterday I saw tv footage of New Orleans residents huddling around the Superdome. I also saw footage of a family walking along a road in Mississippi. The family was fleeing their drowned suburb.
The Katrina victims’ evident anxiety reminded me of the worry and fear on the faces of refugees I enountered along the Uganda-Congo border in Fall 2002. Those refugees had fled fighting in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). If not for the UNHCR and western aid organizations (mostly US, British, and Canadian), and the willingness of the Ugandan government to allow them sanctuary, the refugees I saw in Uganda would have died.
I’m not drawing a one-to-one comparison between Katrina’s victims and central African refugees. War drove the Congolese into Uganda; Katrina is a natural disaster. The looting in New Orleans, while viciously criminal, is dwarfed by the anarchy and murder afflicting central Africa. In these Third World tragedies information usually moves on foot; Fox and CNN only show up if there’s combat. All too often there are no medical and food supplies, or relief is weeks away, at best. The human waves really have no place to go; they wash from one poor country to another. America has infrastructure, abundant supplies, logistical capacity, a plethora of means combined with the will to act. Forgive the pun, but our media have now flooded the disaster area. However, at the level of human suffering the comparison is apt, instructive, and illustrative.
We’ve a million people dispossessed and they are suffering. Critics grouse that the response to Katrina’s devestation has been abysmally slow. Compared to what? Slow compared to our expectations is the correct answer. Compared to every other nation on the planet, we’re moving at warp speed to address a natural disaster of extraordinary magnitude.
Watch what happens over the next week, as American aid organizations, religious groups, and willing individuals act. America’s great wealth is matched by its generosity. America is responding decisively to Katrina’s tragedy.
Hurricane Katrina - "Battle For New Orleans"
Lousiana State Police armored car rolls into New Orleans.
From The Drudge Report.
The news is ugly. Resources are starting to arrive and the flooding has stabilized, but disorder continues, and is hindering the rescue and evacuation of the remaining surivors in New Orleans. The death toll is promising to be high.
In hard hit Mississippi and Alabama, the situation is grim but apparently under control. The focus now is restoring road communications with all areas hit by the storm surge in order to allow relief efforts to arrive.
In New Orleans, chaos continues to reign. The struggle to evacuate survivors is now being hurt by a pressing need to restore order, as looters and thugs steal and kill in the waters flooding the city. Evacuation of the Superdome is being slowed by unknown gunmen who are firing at rescue and medevac helicopters.
One would think that this would be occasion to pull together. They would be wrong.
Interesting article in Slate:
New Orleans' early settlers also built artificial levees. At first they were little more than crude efforts to augment the natural riverbanks. But for more than two centuries, engineers steadily ramped up their project, and today the levees have grown so high that they loom over the city below. New Orleans has literally walled itself off from the Mississippi. This is all part of the effort to realize the promise of the city's situation while keeping at bay the forces that buffet its site. Of course, in its present condition, the city faces two truths: First, even today the levees are not impregnable. And second, the higher the defenses are built, the more difficult it becomes to remove water from New Orleans once it finds a way inside.
An unprecedented effort to help is under way. Thousands of Army and National Guardsmen are on their way, additional Navy and Marine personnel and equipment (including an aircraft carrier), and additional Coast Guard units are all streaming towards the Gulf Coast.
At the risk of running into melodrama, I can't help but wonder if we are watching the death of a modern American city. I'm not alone. But once the living have been saved and the dead counted, what else will we have lost? Much of New Orleans' music scene has been destroyed - the same scene that for many of us defines the city. New Orleans jazz, blues, cajun, and zydeco. How much of the decadent, unique Acadian atmosphere is gone forever?
More Information:
NOLA.com
WWL TV, New Orleans
MichelleMalkin.com
Satellite Imagery of New Orleans - Before and After
On Hurricanes and Oil Prices
There are reports of $6 per gallon gasoline in Atlanta (due to price gouging).
There is a possibility of a short-term shortage of gasoline in the eastern United States; this is due to a shutdown of pipelines that carried gasoline (among other refined products) into the East from New Orleans refineries. This shortage will be short-lived; there has been no damage to these pipelines, and they will be able to resume shipping as soon as they can again receive sufficient electrical power.
Oil and natural gas production (in other words, the wells and offshore platforms that drill for and collect raw crude oil and raw natural gas) has been hurt, and what's worse the Gulf fields are still recovering from damage incurred during Hurricane Ivan last year. Looking at oil industry news, it is hard to tell how much damage the oil fields sustained. Some companies are reporting no serious damage, while others are reporting major damage. Only time will tell. However, it seems that damage to the oil fields will not cause any serious damage or price pressure.
The problem is refineries. 10% of the United States refineries are located in and around New Orleans, and they have suffered serious damage, not to mention their workforces are now scatterered across three states as they and their families evacuated. And crude pipelines that supply crude oil from Gulf fields to Midwestern refineries are also shut down.
Almost all gasoline used in the United States has to be refined in the United States, both for economic reasons and in order to satisfy EPA emissions requirements.
So, from Econ 101: less supply coupled with constant demand will result in higher gasoline prices. As the extent of the damage is still being determined, and some of the market inefficiencies in the oil market (such as OPEC, environmental regulations, etc.), expect continuing functuations - and fairly big ones - in gasoline prices.
More info:
The Street.com
There is a possibility of a short-term shortage of gasoline in the eastern United States; this is due to a shutdown of pipelines that carried gasoline (among other refined products) into the East from New Orleans refineries. This shortage will be short-lived; there has been no damage to these pipelines, and they will be able to resume shipping as soon as they can again receive sufficient electrical power.
Oil and natural gas production (in other words, the wells and offshore platforms that drill for and collect raw crude oil and raw natural gas) has been hurt, and what's worse the Gulf fields are still recovering from damage incurred during Hurricane Ivan last year. Looking at oil industry news, it is hard to tell how much damage the oil fields sustained. Some companies are reporting no serious damage, while others are reporting major damage. Only time will tell. However, it seems that damage to the oil fields will not cause any serious damage or price pressure.
The problem is refineries. 10% of the United States refineries are located in and around New Orleans, and they have suffered serious damage, not to mention their workforces are now scatterered across three states as they and their families evacuated. And crude pipelines that supply crude oil from Gulf fields to Midwestern refineries are also shut down.
Almost all gasoline used in the United States has to be refined in the United States, both for economic reasons and in order to satisfy EPA emissions requirements.
So, from Econ 101: less supply coupled with constant demand will result in higher gasoline prices. As the extent of the damage is still being determined, and some of the market inefficiencies in the oil market (such as OPEC, environmental regulations, etc.), expect continuing functuations - and fairly big ones - in gasoline prices.
More info:
The Street.com
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