Governor: Everyone Must Leave New Orleans

[TechBear_Seattle]

New Orleans is being abandonded:

Governor: Everyone Must Leave New Orleans

by BRETT MARTEL, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - The governor of Louisiana says everyone needs to leave New Orleans due to flooding from Hurricane Katrina. "We've sent buses in. We will be either loading them by boat, helicopter, anything that is necessary," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. Army engineers struggled without success to plug New Orleans' breached levees with giant sandbags, and the governor said Wednesday the situation was worsening and there was no choice but to abandon the flooded city.

"The challenge is an engineering nightmare," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "The National Guard has been dropping sandbags into it, but it's like dropping it into a black hole."

As the waters continued to rise in New Orleans, four Navy ships raced toward the Gulf Coast with drinking water and other emergency supplies, and Red Cross workers from across the country converged on the devastated region. The Red Cross reported it had about 40,000 people in 200 shelters across the area in one of the biggest urban disasters the nation has ever seen.

The story continues at Yahoo News.

[demo dutch]

1. I knew Sunday morning, that NO may get wiped of the map and it

looks like that may happen. When people after the storm concluded that "things weren't that bad" I told my husband, just wait, the storm has just passed and the nightmare will start to unfold slowly.

[Go Eagles]

5. This is really sad

I heard a program on NPR five years ago that predicted that a direct hit by a category 4 or 5 hurricane would flood/destroy the entire city, create the catastrophic scenarios we are seeing, how ill equipped the region is to handle it, and it wasn't a matter of if but when.

[mom cat]

7. And you can thank the Repukes for gutting funding for the levees.

Thanks George....and all of your puppet masters too!

[indepat]

8. And FEMA

[mom cat]

9. And our infra-structure in general.

[demo dutch]

10. Unfortunately not just GW deterioration has been going on for decades

Preventation is a dirty word in this country

[napi21]

2. That's probably the best answer right now!

They're very worried about disease spreading rampantly!

[havocmom]

4. That and they know there is no way to stop the water flow

The city does not have a chance.

[LostinVA]

3. Very often, the worst of a hurricane is after it hits

Especially flooding and structural damage. This is the best thing the Gov. can do. There's no way to keep people and property safe.

[yellowcanine]

6. The levee should have been strengthed BEFORE the hurricane. Thanks George

But at least I got my tax cut.

[gratuitous]

11. Take the displaced to Crawford

George has got a big ol' ranch just sitting there empty. Could probably accommodate a few hundred folks, anyway.