They've Got To Get The Water Out Of New Orleans

Water from Lake Pontchartrain has stopped pouring into New Orleans over hurricane-damaged levees but nothing has been done so far to fill the mammoth breaches.

Officials were hoping repair work would begin later Wednesday with Army Chinook helicopters dropping 15,000-pound bags of sand into the 300-foot wide break in the levee.

Helicopters were to be used because the site can’t be reached by land or barge.

Experts from the Army Corps of Engineers were on the scene, assessing ways to repair the two breaches in levees on canals connected to Lake Pontchartrain.

"We're attempting to contract for materials, such as rock, super sand bags, cranes, and also for modes of transportation like barges and helicopters, to close the gap and stop the flow of water,"

They can't begin pumping the floodwaters out of New Orleans until the levee breaches are repaired.

If the levees can't be secured, stabilized, and repaired, New Orleans will be lost.

Martial Law

WWLTV: Disgusted and furious with the lawlessness of looters, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared Martial Law in the city and directed the city's 1,500 person police force to do "whatever it takes" to regain control of the city.

Martial Law means that officers don't have to worry about civil rights and Miranda rights in stopping the looters.

It also means that many of New Orleans citizens prefer to add to the devastation of Katrina by raping their own communities during an emergency -- while others try to save their lives.

Thousands Likely Dead
Health Emergency Declared
Everyone Must Leave New Orleans

Houston, TX Aids Hurricane Katrina Victims

"Up to 23,000 refugees from New Orleans' Superdome will board buses and head to Houston's Astrodome, leaving behind a city that's deteriorating by the hour....the refugees are expected to arrive as early as tonight and the last within 40 hours....American Red Cross spokeswoman said evacuees may stay in the Astrodome for months....People may not be able to rebuild."

The Red Cross has opened 12 shelters in the Greater Houston area to help disaster victims forced from their homes by Hurricane Katrina.

Also a Red Cross information Hotline number regarding locations of shelters is available for Hurricane Katrina victims. Call Red Cross 1-(866) GET-INFO.

Houstonians open homes and hearts to evacuees.
Many people here have called the American Red Cross, offering to open their homes.

A large family have ended up in the Westlake Volunteer Fire Department in Katy, a suburb of Houston. About 63 family members from New Orleans are now camped out on the fire station's floor.

Texas schools open doors to refugee students and began preparing today to accept masses of newly homeless children whose families fled Louisiana and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

How to help the refugees coming to Houston.

Local CBS affiliate, KHOU TV, has launched a hurricane relief fund telethon. To donate call 713-284-8877. Phones are currently being staffed by Houston employees of Shell Oil. Shell Oil corporate headquarters has made a donation of $2 million, and with match up to an additional $1 million in donations.

Personal donations for victims of Katrina can be made through the American Red Cross and Salvation Army.

Instapundit has a growing list of charities accepting donations.

Technorati tags: flood aid and hurricane katrina.

--LynZee

Update: Via Michelle Malkin -- TTLB has set up a registration page for bloggers who want to participate in the Hurricane Katrina Blog Relief Day fundraiser.

Update: Sept. 1 -- The state of Texas agrees to triple to 75,000 the number of evacuees being taken in from Louisiana. Some are being housed in Houston's Astrodome, others are relocating to San Antonio or Dallas.

Katrina -- New Orleans

--LynZee
AP Photos

Katrina -- Biloxi, MS

--LynZee
AP Photos

Katrina -- Gulfport, MS

--LynZee
AP Photos

Katrina -- Slidell, LA

--LynZee
AP Photos

Wipe Out

For all intents and purposes, New Orleans; Gulfport, MS; Biloxi, MS (and all points in between) are wiped out.

Hurricane Katrina has become the worst natural disaster in US history.

New Orleans is underwater: breached levees pour rising floodwaters in from Lake Pontchartrain. There is no uncontaminated water, no electricity, no phone, no bathroom, scarce food, widespread looting, lawlessness, no jobs, no homes, people stranded and rescued from rooftops. LA Governor Blanco has said the entire city must be evacuated. The city is gone. Thousands sheltered at the Super Dome will be bused to Houston's Astrodome.

Galveston never recovered from the 1900 hurricane. It is doubtful that New Orleans will recover from Katrina. Rebuilding a city that is six feet below sea level does not have a high probability.

Gulfport and Biloxi have been devastated by Katrina's storm surge -- 25 feet in some areas. $500,000 a day in casino tax revenues lost. Thirty miles of Mississippi coast obliterated. Unlike New Orleans, the floodwaters are receding.

--LynZee
Related:
Katrina -- Lake New Orleans
Katrina -- Hell On Earth
Echoes Of Camille

Katrina -- Lake New Orleans

WWLTV: Break in 17th Street Canal Levee is now 200 feet wide and slowly flooding the City of New Orleans. Huge sand bags are being airlifted to try to stem the rush of water in that area. The expectations are that the water will not stop until it reaches lake level.

"We probably have 80 percent of our city under water; with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet. Both airports are underwater," Mayor Ray Nagin told a radio interviewer.

The historic city of New Orleans was steadily filling with water from nearby Lake Ponchartrain on Tuesday after its defenses were breached by the ferocity of hurricane Katrina.

The Crescent City will never be the same.
-- LynZee

Maya, Is That You?

No -- that's not Maya Angelou in the picture. It's none other than Al Sharpton getting on the bandwagon and bonding with Cindy Sheehan Sunday in Crawford, TX.

No doubt, it's part of their staged media event (via LGF).

Al's moral obligation to stand with Cindy led to a heck of a quick get-away.

A car carrying the Rev. Al Sharpton led sheriff's deputies on a nine- mile chase weaving in and out of traffic before state troopers stopped the vehicle and arrested the driver.

The car was clocked doing 110 mph in a 65 mph zone on the interstate south of Dallas.

"That nine-mile chase is news to me," Sharpton told The Associated Press. "All I know is that the police pulled us over because they wanted to talk to the driver about speeding."

"Sharpton caught a lift from a passing driver and made his scheduled flight to New York."

Al to Cindy -- Eat my dust!
--LynZee

Splish Splash.....

.....I was taking out the trash!

Katrina -- Hell On Earth

Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast like a ton of bricks, wreaking havoc and widespread flooding and destruction from New Orleans to Pensacola, FL with direct hits on Slidell, LA; Gulfport; MS, Biloxi, MS; and Mobile, AL.

Making landfall about 7 a.m., (downgraded from category 5 to 4, then 3) she hooked to the northeast, her eye squeaking by a direct hit on New Orleans. But there was plenty of destruction and flooding in New Orleans where the roof of the Super Dome was ripped off and the metro area experienced "total structure failure".

"Hell on Earth" and "complete devastation" in Gulfport, MS.

More info from Michelle Malkin here and here.

More here.

Mississippi was subjected to both Katrina's harshest winds and highest recorded storm surges -- 22 feet.

Gulf Coast petroleum output disrupted, energy markets rattled. Royal Dutch Shell PLC said on its Web site that two of its drilling rigs equipped with tracking devices had "drifted off location."

-- LynZee
Related: Echoes Of Camille

Echoes of Camille

Category 5 hurricane, Katrina, barrelling toward New Orleans packing 165 mph winds and a potential 28 feet storm surge.

Mandatory evacuations, traffic gridlock, fearful residents, Super Dome shelter, inadequate levees, oil refinery production curtailed, 15 inches of rain expected.

New Orleans is six feet below sea level.

Potentially extreme flooding could "turn New Orleans into a 30-foot-deep toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, and waste from ruined septic systems".

Katrina had a central pressure -- a measure of a storm's intensity -- of 902 millibars, which would make it one of the four strongest storms on record.

Rough days ahead for the Big Easy.
--LynZee

Instapundit has a roundup.

Update: Catastrophe Looms.

Able Danger Owned

Captain's Quarters owns the Able Danger story.
Check out his categories -- select 9/11 Commission.
-- LynZee

Bush Rally In Crawford

Over 3,000 Bush supporters turned out in Crawford yesterday for a pro-Bush rally. The "You Don't Speak For Me" caravan amassed in the football stadium, Fort Qualls, Camp Reality to outnumber and show opposition to the Cindy Sheehan camp. Lots more at The Buzz.
--LynZee

Bush Supporters Come To Crawford, TX

My husband and I were in Crawford, TX this past weekend, Aug 19 - 21. Signs and banners abound in support of President Bush and in opposition to the Cindy Sheehan camp.

The following posts contain photographs of the sights, sounds, and experiences of our weekend visit. And yes, we rang the liberty bell in front of the Yellow Rose gift shop in "downtown" Crawford.

Keep scrolling for more pics, including Fort Qualls.

-- LynZee

Cindy Sheehan -- Second Campsite

Law enforcement were out en masse.
After passing the first barricade on Prairie Chapel Road, we veered left on Mattlage Road, then took a right on Canaan Church Road. Canaan Church Road intersects the other end of Prairie Chapel Road, where a second barricade is set up. This is the site of the second Cindy Sheehan camp on a lot provided by one of the Mattlage cousins.

The first thing we noticed was a sign urging, "No Alcohol, No Drugs". This site is much closer to the Bush ranch. One of the activists told me we were a "mile away from the most dangerous man in the world". Radical to the point of stupidity.

On Saturday, we did see a motorcade with a black limo, police escort -- maybe 6 vehicles in all -- further down Mattlage Road. It wasn't the President, and I didn't find out who was using this back exit. When I asked one trooper if he knew who was in the motorcade, he said, "it was probably one of their animals", and smiled. O.K., I can take a joke.

By Sunday, Aug 21, the Sheehan activists had put up an array of crosses in front of their circus tent.

A Visit To The Cindy Sheehan Camp

We took these shots of the Cindy Sheehan camp on Sat, Aug. 20. Amidst the macabre surroundings of crosses, coffins, photos of fallen heroes, the Sheehan crowd were grilling up veggie burgers to the tune of lilting flute music.

Bikers Support Bush

American Legion Riders show their support for Bush along a stretch of Prairie Chapel Road approaching the Cindy Sheehan camp. Signs and banners proclaim, "Prairie Chapel Plight", "Troops Volunteered", and "Freedom Is Not Free".

HOGs In Crawford, TX

Bikers, bikers, everywhere. 350 bikers who are critics of the peace movement and critics of Cindy Sheehan arrived in Crawford on Sat, Aug 20 and roared their support for President Bush.

The Coffee Station restaurant was swamped filling orders in the dining room and in the parking lot.

These dudes are with The North Texas Harley Owners Group -- HOGs.

Bush Supporters In Crawford, TX

Everywhere you look in Crawford, TX, there is widespread support for President Bush. Almost every house on Prairie Chapel Road has a sign of support. There are also no trespassing signs and driveways are fenced off.

The Texas Military Family Foundation set up an awning in the Coffee Station parking lot.

People congregate in a ditch across the street from the Cindy Sheehan camp in a show of support.

Trip To Crawford, TX

We arrived Friday, Aug. 19, and drove out Prairie Chapel Road. The Cindy Sheehan encampment is at the top of an inclined part of the road lined with crosses. A sign designates it "Arlington at Crawford".

Prairie Chapel Road veers to the right of the camp. A short distance away on the winding road, further access is denied by barricade. President Bush's ranch is about 3 miles past the barricade. To the left of the barricade is Mattlage Road.

Crawford Peace House

Approaching Crawford, TX on Hwy. 185, before the
railroad track and before Crawford's solitary blinking stoplight, sits Crawford Peace House.

This leftist activism center was set up to protest the Bush administration and was running in the black until jumping on the Cindy Sheehan bandwagon. Donations have enlarged their coffers to over $100,000. They are affiliated with the American Muslim Alliance, Code Pink, Moveon.org, among other extreme left-wing groups.

They have erected The Labyrinth, a somewhat spiral shaped rock meditation garden, shown in the last photo above.