August 29, 2005
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When the Levee Breaks: Hurricane Katrina slams Louisiana coast
REUTERS FEED: By Rick Wilking 22 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coast on Monday with 140 mile per hour (224 kph) winds as the powerful storm came ashore from the Gulf of Mexico and took aim at low-lying New Orleans.
The coast, much of it lightly populated swamps, was being pounded with high winds and heavy rains while New Orleans, 55 miles northeast, braced for the worst of Katrina.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm, now Category 4 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, was not quite the monster it had been in the open Gulf, but still packed a powerful punch. It had been a Category 5 with 175 mile per hour (280 kph) winds.
EDIT: 9:24 a.m. pdt: Hurricane Katrina Rips La., Miss. Coasts
By ADAM NOSSITER, Associated Press Writer
39 minutes ago (edited by MFN)
NEW ORLEANS – Hurricane Katrina plowed into this below-sea-level city Monday with howling, 145-mph winds and blinding rain that flooded some homes to the ceilings and peeled away part of the roof of the Superdome, where thousands of people had taken shelter.
Katrina weakened overnight to a Category 4 storm and turned slightly eastward before hitting land at 6:10 a.m. CDT near the bayou town of Buras, apparently sparing this vulnerable city from the storm’s full fury.
National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield warned that New Orleans would be pounded throughout the day and that Katrina’s potential 15-foot storm surge, down from a feared 28 feet, was still substantial enough to cause extensive flooding.
Elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, the storm flung boats onto land in Mississippi, lashed street lamps and flooded roads in Alabama, and swamped highway bridges in the Florida Panhandle. At least half a million people were without power from Louisiana to Florida’s Panhandle, including 370,000 in southeastern Louisiana and 116,400 in Alabama, mostly in the Mobile area.
At New Orleans’ Superdome, home to 9,000 storm refugees, wind peeled pieces of metal from the roof, leaving two holes that let water drip in. People inside were moved out of the way. “The Superdome is not in any dangerous situation,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said..
Scores of windows were blown out at some of New Orleans’ hotels.
At 11 a.m. EDT, Katrina was centered 35 miles northeast of New Orleans, moving to the north at 16 mph. The storm’s winds dropped to 125 mph — a Category 3 storm — as it pushed inland, threatening the Gulf Coast and the Tennessee Valley with as much as 15 inches of rain over the next couple of days and up to 8 inches in the drought-stricken Ohio Valley and eastern Great Lakes.
Mayfield said at midmorning the worst flooding from storm surge was on the Mississippi coast, east of the eye, with the highest storm surge recorded so far at 22 feet in Bay St. Louis.
In New Orleans’ French Quarter, water pooled in the streets from the driving rain, but the city appeared to have escaped the catastrophic flooding that forecasters had predicted.
Associated Press reporters Mary Foster, Holbrook Mohr, Brett Martel and Allen G. Breed contributed to this report.
HEALTH AND WELFARE: STAYING HOME TODAY
This is the latest news as I sit at my computer this morning. I’m watching television and checking the Reuters Feed. I haven’t called in sick yet. It is 5:42 am and I usually get into the office by 6am and either I or John open up. I don’t like to leave “messages” when I call in, so I wait for 6am and I’ll call John on his extension and tell him I won’t make it in. I have had a cough now for over two weeks. I’m starting to get scared of bronchitis or something other than a cold, and since my cataract surgery is scheduled for the 7th, I have two pre-ops this week, and one is with my opthamologist and the other with a physician, so if the cough is still with me on Thursday, I’m asking for help from the doctor. I might have to have the surgery rescheduled, and my eyesight is not getting any better. I can’t even find a “sweet spot” on my left progressive lens anymore for reading, and actually close my left eye to read some internet sites. I have to write an email to our engineer. One project that was left hanging on Friday had some parts of the enclosure scheduled to be shipped to us in October, and the panel is supposed to ship on Sept. 12th, so there are some frantic phone calls to vendors that have to be made today. The customer is a new one, and the project is about $7,000.00 and I don’t want to lose this sale. I hope I feel well enough to get into work tomorrow. I planned to visit San Francisco on a Photo Expedition over the Labor Day weekend, and take a couple of vacation days off, sort of as something to do before my surgery, but I think I shall have to cancel those plans.
I just hope that the Big Easy survives Katrina, and I am very worried. The levees that “protect” N.O. from the Mississppi when it floods, could become the city’s gravewall, as water coming in from the gulf will splash up against the levees and the whole city will start to fill up “like water running into a sinking boat” as one news story put it. Now the Superdome is leaking, and thousands of people were evacuated there yesterday.
The neatest thing that has happened to this blog since I created it has been my association with the Featured Grownups blogring, run by Denise and John Jr. The title above is a link to the blogring itself, and here is a link to the blog that supports the ring. My post from Sunday, “My Hometown: Los Angeles, CA”, hurridly constructed to take advantage of an “internet challenge” on the group boards, has received 29 comments last time I looked. I might be sicker than a dog, but I am really feeling fine that I found Denise and her blogring, and got involved with these guys. There are 250 some members of the ring, and EVERY site I’ve visited, including a few from “regular readers” of this blog, has been filled with interesting reading and images, so I’ve been complaining about the fact that I subscribe to over 70 sites and can’t seem to “keep up” with my readers’ blogs (I vowed I would never write about not being able to comment on blogsites on my own blog, and I’m doing it right now) but now I am finding 10 or 20 new blogs that I’ll probably subscribe to.
I haven’t given a “bucket of eprops” award in a long time, and I certainly have a lot of readers whose blogs deserve the “prize” but I wish to “award” Denise (p8indme) and John Jr. (DoWhaChaDo89) for their efforts.( And anyone else who helps run the ring) I will be writing some “hometown” themed posts this week in keeping with “Hometown Week” at Featured Content for Grownups. Everybody who hasn’t joined this blogring should do so now. You’ll meet lots of new friends really quickly. KUDOS and CONGRATS from this humble blogger. More “My Hometown” links can be found HERE. MFN 8/29/05
EDIT/UPDATE: 7:38 a.m. pdt
NEW BABY BOY ARRIVES
This Just In:
MsDezz is the proud mother of a baby boy. Kaiden Bradley Graham Mosher was born at 3p.m. on Sunday, August 28th, 2005- 7 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long. Congratulations to Dezz and proud papa Brad. Visit Dezz and wish her well, and wish Kaiden a “happy birthday.” I’ve been following this “story” for a while and she’s about 10 days early. Here’s a composite photo of a couple of her “belly pics” from her site.
Photos and article about Katrina were obtained from Yahoo News. “eprops” is a term associated with Xanga, the site on which this blog is hosted.
Comments (16)
Astounding how massive storms like Katrina can “veer” so unpredictably and wreak such havoc. Everyone’s prayers are with the folks down there, I know. Checked out that blogring and looks good–joined it. Thanks for the heads-up!
If there were an award for Best Commenter for this challenge you would win hands down! Thank you so much for all of your efforts in this!
I did get Twoberry’s site on the list. I was still asleep. I was up late following the challenge last night, and slept in because it’s the last day of summer vacation here…and I was tired.
I haven’t checked the new yet to see what’s going on in New Orleans. I will do that soon. I sure hope they don’t have alot of damage to deal with. I hope your feeling better, and if there are any ideas YOU would like to see happen with the Featured Grownups ring, by all means, feel free to mention them to me!
Have a great day Mr. Mike! ~Denise~
feel better soon… and why wait? go to the doctor’s today while you’re off!!!!!!!:nono:
Wow, great site and great entry!! I’m so glad your site took so long to load … it gave me a chance to get out of my jammies and get some lunch (at 1:07 p.m.)! Thanks! I just can’t get off this thing .. I’m so addicted. Keep up the great work and hope you are feeling better soon … but don’t waste your time going to the doctor … instead use your time effectively by reading (and giving props) to all the My Hometown entries!! :coolman:
Glad you are enjoying the Grown Ups With Content blogring! Denise is the best blogring leader ever
Welcome!
Feel better indeed. One cannot fight Mother Nature. She veers where she will. Thanks for the updated coverage. I knew I should check my Xanga before checking the news
Regarding comment on Featured Grownups: Just wanted to clarify for you: Denise is creator of Grownups With Content blogring, and the Featured Grownups site spun from that (can’t remember how- she could provide specifics). She owns that also, but gets help from time to time from loyal members. Since I am being a slacker today and yesterday, I decided to help out!
After last year’s quadruple back-to-back disasters, three of which made landfall within 30 miles of where we live, I am so glad we got off easy during Hurricane Katrina. We only lost our cable/internet connection for about 30 minutes and had strong winds and lots of rain. That was the full extent of our suffering. This time we were pretty well prepared though. I had 7 days worth of drinking water, lots of batteries, flashlights, lanterns, canned food and lots of ice for my insulin. So far we have been very lucky this year but we are now heading into the worst of “it” and there are two further cyclones already out there in the Atlantic. Will our luck hold? I feel badly for those in Louisiana and Mississippi. I think their single hurricane did far more damage than all of ours together from last year even though, at least in our area, quite a bit of the damage from last year has not even been repaired yet. Scary stuff these hurricanes. We have had quite enough of them, and Florida in general, and are working on finding a practical way of moving out west. My family lives in Spokane, Washington and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The two cities are pretty close together and we hope to be living in that area before the next hurricane season. However, that will take just as much luck as surviving this hurricane season will.
I hope all is going well for you!!! Have a great day, my friend!!!
Oops, I forgot to mention your eye problems and pending cataract surgery. I hope your cough goes away soon and that you feel better. I can really relate right now because it is the worst time of the year for me for allergies here in Florida. Every year at the end of August and beginning of September I get them quite badly and on many occasions, they completely incapacitate me. The feel a lot like a really bad flu. Unfortunately, I’m no longer allowed to take much for them because most cold and allergy medicines interfere with my other prescription medication that I now have to take. Anyway, I hope you feel better really soon. I’m also very glad you are being proactive on your cataract surgery, even if you have to postpone it for a short while. I know quite a few people who have had it and are so happy they had it done because of how well they can see afterwards. I know it must suck to think and worry about it now but once it is over, I’m sure your quality of life will improve dramatically. My father had it done less than a year ago and says he can see like he did when he was 18 years old again. He keeps commenting on how clear, crisp and vivid the world looks to him now after so many years on not being able to see very well. So hang in there. I’ll keep you in my thoughts.
:sunny::sunny::sunny::heartbeat:
Hi Mike…
The graduation I was at yesterday, was at UCLA but was actually a graduation for University of Santa Monica. Kris (my friend) graduated with a Masters Degree in Spiritual Psychology. I was so impressed my the elegance that I saw at UCLA, for this was my first time at the college.
I too have been following the events surrounding “Katrina”, my prayers are with those involved in any regard. It is so sad to see what we as a collective species have done to our beautiful planet.
Hi Mike! Thanks for taking the time to read some of my early entries … I try hard to make the inane things in my life funny … I can only hope that people are reading (and hopefully laughing) at my stories!! I hope you are feeling better … and by the way, I think bald men are sexy!!:goodjob:
Thanks for the tip on the blog ring Michael – I joined and look forward to it!
I will work on your interview questions tonight — you will be such a great participant!
Pam
i’m still missing contact with one of my friends that is in the hurricane path. well was cause it’s since past where she is. i wasn’t sure where she was though cause she hadn’t desided to leave or not at the time. just haven’t talk to her yet. their phones are out. but i’m not so worried… cause i haven’t heard anything on the news of her neighborhood or anything (sorry i think i’m voicing my own concerns here)
that other site i just opened last week. i’m surprised you found it. i was opening it for a few reasons. one to find out what exactly happened… things keep getting fuzzier and fuzzier around my brain. like i can’t retain anything lately. and as (well i just forgot my word, having problems thinking today i think it’s the rapid pressure drop with my headache but i’m not sure) a way to forgive myself for stupid things i did or thought of or something.
your eyes are very peircing.
You always have such wonderful entries! :coolman: Hope you’re feeling better soon.
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