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Hurricane Katrina
(August 29th, 2005)
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A satellite image taken on Monday at 2PM ... shows Katrina on the move. |
Large swaths of New Orleans, and other Gulf Coast neighborhoods, were completely inundated. |
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Construction material ... being blown around. |
Storm surge waves threaten Bayfront Parkway as a motorist heads east. |
We had not even recovered from Hurricane Dennis ... when we got hit with this one. (Katrina)
I want to emphasize, in the strongest possible terms, that we (we = the Pensacola area) were only just brushed by the storm. The worst part of the storm hit LA and MS. (New Orleans, Biloxi and Gulfport have been impacted in a way ... that I almost do not have the words to describe.) Friends and relatives who live in Mobile, AL; are also seeing a lot of flooding and wind damage.
As bad as I ever want to hear ...
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- The news media is already calling this, "The worst storm to ever hit the U.S."
(It is also being called the most costly natural disaster ever ... in North America.) -
- About mid-day, I talked to a Doctor ... I am currently giving his son chess lessons,
mostly on the Internet. I told him that I feared hundreds of people might have lost
their lives in MS and LA. (Because of some of the initial reports I had heard.) His
initial response was that this was preposterous, when I asked him to name a
precise number, he said "Less than fifty." Shortly after 7 PM on Aug. 30th, I fired
up Internet Explorer, because I wanted to check chess news and events for the
month of August ... to see if their were any major events that I had missed. The
headline was: "Hundreds feared dead" in Katrina's wake. Unfortunately, with
so many homes flooded ... and so many structures destroyed ... we may not
know the full death toll until they pump out all the water from the whole of the city
of New Orleans ... and do a literal "house-to-house" search. And this process
could take weeks ... or even months. (Literally.) -
- Many parts of the city of New Orleans ... are covered by 10-15 feet of water.
---> The amount of damage - in and around this area - is just unbelievable. -
- The news reports are - now - saying that the system of levees, canals, and other
man-made structures ... that keep the water out of New Orleans ... has been
breached. As a result, many areas of that city are flooded ... and the water
continues to rise. (With no relief in site.)
(Wed. / 08,31,2005.) Now the news is that many of the levees have ruptured and the city is now
eighty percent under water. In places, the water is 10-20 feet deep!! The Mayor of the city has
ordered that the city be evacuated, especially all the affected parishes. It goes from bad to worse ... -
- Gulfport and Biloxi, MS ... have been severely damaged, it might take several
months to restore power ... and years to try and repair the catastrophic destruction. -
- I have a friend, whom I used to teach his son chess. He moved to Mississippi
a few years back. I sent him an e-mail, asking him to take precautions. He sent
me back a nonchalant sounding e-mail, telling me not to worry. He lived in a solid
home, and although he was in a low-lying area, he was nearly half a mile from the
water. He boarded up all of his windows, and had done a great deal of preparation.
He went on to say he did not anticipate any serious problems.
(He called last night to say they had over 10 feet of water in his neighborhood ...
and he was calling from the attic of his home.) -
- I would urge all readers of this web page ... to forget about the Tsunami victims
of the Pacific. There are people in your country who have been left nothing more
than the shirt on their backs. Give to relief agencies, such as The Red Cross! [donate]
I count my blessings, yet ...
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- We were without power for about 15 hours ... this is just an annoying inconvenience.
(The phones were also knocked out several times ... once for about 12 hours.) -
- This is NOT good for our area, many people still have not picked up all the pieces from the last storm. In some cases, people are still trying to rebuild after Ivan. (2004) (I have a friend in the construction business, a construction site gets murdered by a big storm like this.) Many people still have just tarps on their roof from Dennis ...
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- We had torrential rains, many local areas were flooded. (Moderate wind damage.)
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- We were not supposed to be impacted ... in any major way by this storm. (One local official said he did not expect any widespread power outages.) A friend, who only lives a few blocks away had ordered a weather kit from cable-TV channel. It included a wind gauge, which he attached to his roof. Before the wind ripped it off, he saw wind gusts in excess of 100 MPH! After Nine PM last night, the storm had <supposedly> already moved past our area. Yet as I was watching the Weather Channel, the local stuff was being flashed (or scrolled) across the bottom of the screen, (in text). Despite the fact that the storm was supposed to be over, the airport was still showing fairly strong wind gusts. (38-45 mph)
Naturally, I am counting my blessings. I thank the Lord that we were not really affected badly by the storm. Yet I cannot help but be concerned by the {severe} damage in neighboring states. (Say a prayer for these folks, please!)
A nice e-mail
Date:
Wed, 28 Sep 2005 09:13:42 - 0700 (PDT)
From: "ferd gonzales" <ferdgonzales@yahoo.com>
Subject: Katrina Tribute
To: LifeMasterAJ@yahoo.com
Really enjoyed you page on Katrina. I'm from the New Orleans area and it's great to see people doing things like this. I have a band and released a song about the storm called,
"We Will Survive." We're donating all proceeds from it to local musician funds. If you have a few extra minutes, I would
appreciate it if you could listen to it and maybe use it in some way or just pass the link on. We're just trying to get it out to people. Again great job.
Here's the link - www.desirestreetband.com.
Thank You
Freddy ' Ferd' Gonzales
Desire Street Band
We (Pensacola) dodged the bullet, as far as Hurricane Rita is concerned, however many parts of LA and TX were severely affected by that storm. All my prayers for these people. (donate!)
May 07, 2007: Here is a story ... that is already very old ... that states that the death toll for Hurricane Katrina was at 1193. The final number is hard to estimate, I called one Louisiana State service last Friday, the man who answered the phone said the number was now over 6,000! (six thousand) Anyone who knows of an official estimate is invited to contact me. (CNN's page on this storm.)
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(©) A.J. Goldsby, 1995 - 2008.
Copyright © A.J. Goldsby, 2009. All
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This page was first posted on my website on: Tuesday; August 30th, 2005. -----> It was last updated on: 07/14/2012 .
