Times-Picayune...pushing aside the dead to get to the living...

[MnFats]

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/base/national-50/1125405843191800.xml&storylist=national

In New Orleans, water began rising in the streets Tuesday morning, swamping an estimated 80 percent of the city and prompting the evacuation of hotels and hospitals. The water was also rising perilously inside New Orleans' Superdome, and Blanco said the tens of thousands of people now huddled there and other shelters would have to be evacuated as well.
"The situation is untenable," Blanco said at a news conference. "It's just heartbreaking."
Because of two levees that broke Tuesday, the city was rapidly filling with water, the governor said. She also said the power could be out for a long time, and the storm broke a major water main, leaving the city without drinkable water. Also, looting broke out in some neighborhoods.
New Orleans lies mostly below sea level and is protected by a network of pumps, canals and levees. Officials began using helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags onto one of the levees, hoping to close the breach.
All day, rescuers were also seen using helicopters to drop lifelines to victims and pluck them from the roofs of homes cut off by floodwaters. The Coast Guard said it rescued some 1,200 people.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said hundreds, if not thousands, of people may still be stuck on roofs roofs and in attics, and so rescue boats were bypassing the dead.
"We're not even dealing with dead bodies," Nagin said. "They're just pushing them on the side."

[bj2110]

1. this is going to be bad... worse than 9/11 when it's all said and done...

[katinmn]

2. extremely sad

:-(

[KyndCulture]

3. oh how awful!!

They're gonna have to deal with them soon, that city is going to be an epidemic of disease in 90 degree heat and all that water very quickly...

[jackster]

6. if I remember correctly...

after the tsumani, ID docs discounted the theories that dead bodies cause disease. Of course, dead bodies are only part of the problem - oil, sewage, etc are going to be a problem...

[maxsolomon]

4. sounds like cholera is going to be a possiblity

in an american city in the 21st century. amazing.

[Eloriel]

5. As I watched the Coast Guard chopper laboriously rescuing

one person at a time on tape this afternoon, I was overcome with shock and concern. NO needs THOUSANDS of such choppers. THOUSANDS. It's hard to even see the people needing resucing in some cases.

We're going to have people dying of dehydration, I'm afraid. Or trying to drink that stuff, which will surely kill them too, tho maybe a little or a lot slower.

I wish I could be of some help.