NEWS: Thousands Likely Dead in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS - With thousands feared drowned in what could be America's deadliest natural disaster in a century, New Orleans' leaders all but surrendered the streets to floodwaters Wednesday and began turning out the lights on the ruined city — perhaps for months.

Looting spiraled so out of control that Mayor Ray Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and focus on the brazen packs of thieves who have turned increasingly hostile.

Nagin called for an all-out evacuation of the city's remaining residents. Asked how many people died, he said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."

With most of the city under water, Army engineers struggled to plug New Orleans' breached levees with giant sandbags and concrete barriers, and authorities drew up plans to clear out the tens of thousands of remaining people and practically abandon the below-sea-level city. Most of the evacuees — including thousands now suffering in the hot and muggy Superdome — will be moved to the Astrodome in Houston, 350 miles away.

There will be a "total evacuation of the city. We have to. The city will not be functional for two or three months," Nagin said. And he said people would not be allowed back into their homes for at least a month or two.

If the mayor's death-toll estimate holds true, it would make Katrina the worst natural disaster in the United States since at least the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, which have blamed for anywhere from about 500 to 6,000 deaths. Katrina would also be the nation's deadliest hurricane since 1900, when a storm in Galveston, Texas, killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people.

skankzor said:
Hopefully, when they rebuild, they attempt to make sure it will never happen again.

In San Francisco, they enacted new building codes.


Hopefully they figure out a way to make sure no natural disaster can ever do this to NO again.

podsix said:

good plan, but the problem with natural disasters (especially widely scalable ones like hurricanes) is that there just isn't a whole lot you can do in some locales. the fact that NO is 6 ft. below sea level means even if you build tough buildings and levees, they can still end up underwater. they could maybe use those giant breakwalls like they have been constructing in SE Asia, but I doubt that they would be very effective against hurricanes. another problem is that NO is a poor city that requires a lot of cheap housing. cheap housing, by definition, is not going to do so well under cataclysmic weather conditions.

Daphnee said:
i actually heard on cnn that they are questioning rebuilding. simply because its in such a illogical location, below sea level and sorounded by water on three sides.

i mean who would want to put a bunch of work into something that could be ruined ... again... and again...

One_Pure_Thought said:
Apparently this was the worst case senario.

Meanwhile I have a friend who goes to tulane. I hope to hell she's okay. God knows if there's even a school for her to go back to.

In the meantime, nearly all of our students have been relocated to their home communities or other safe locations under our supervision. All of our residence halls are secure and the contents appear intact. I know all of our students are anxious about our re-opening date; again, in the next few days we will be able to speak more confidently about a start date for the fall semester.

Cigarette said:

I have an acquaintance there who has already headed home.

From tulane.edu: