Since there are so many New Orleans expats and aficionados in Brooklyn, here’s a few updates on the chaos that’s spreading through the city. Funny, people were almost celebrating last night that the city dodged a bullet…
The breach in the 17th Street canal levee (on the lakefront) is “football-field sized” and they are trying to sandbag it. In the meantime, all of downtown is filling up with water. No news on the airport that I’ve heard, but many of the roads out are now underwater since the levees broke. CNN is reporting that 80% of the city is “under water” now–that can’t be right, can it??
The report on CNN a few hours ago was that there are about 10,000 people stuck in the Superdome and the authorities won’t let them out yet, mainly because there’s nowhere for them to go, and many of the roads out are pretty much blocked. EMS personnel are delivering injured persons to the Superdome.
The tension in the Superdome is getting pretty extreme, and one guy just deliberately jumped to his death – he got up from a domino game, said “look out” and threw himself over a balcony.
Now, there are fires breaking out in several places. Refugees are flooding toward the Superdome right now, because the water is still rising. The area around the Superdome has gone from knee-deep to waist-deep and is expected to go even higher.
Finally, just saw footage of Canal Street looters – the stores are all being completely pillaged! People are stopping in the street to try on Nikes and make sure they get the best fit.
No word on Jacques-Imo’s and uptown in general, but downtown, I imagine the French Quarter is starting to fill up…
UPDATE: Jefferson Parish is under martial law. It’s going to be at least a month before anybody is allowed back in!
New Orleans Flooding: Discuss in the Message Boards