Times-Picayune newsblog reports:
Monday, 3:07 p.m.
Terry Ebbert, director of homeland security for the city of New Orleans, said Monday afternoon he is positive there are casualties resulting from Hurricane Katrina, based on the number of calls to emergency workers from people trapped in trees and attics.
In some of those cases, authorities lost communications with those pleading for help.
"Everybody who had a way or wanted to get out of the way of this storm was able to,'' Ebbert said. "For some that didn't, it was their last night on this earth.''
Police are currently fanning out across the city in squad cars, trucks and boats to assess the damage and rescue people where possible.
Ebbert said the city has 100 boats currently stationed at Jackson Barracks on the Orleans-St. Bernard parish line.
Authorities are trying to get a good look at the situation before dark.
The hardest-hit areas of the city appear to be the Lower 9th Ward, eastern New Orleans, Treme and Lakeview near a levee breech.
Ebbert said it could be two months before electricity is restored to all of the city.
He said Entergy will send 4,500 workers to the region, who will be housed in quarters barges on the Mississippi River.
Though damage is extensive, Ebbert said if the storm had passed just 10 miles west of its track, the city would have been inundated with 25 feet of water.
Lower 9th, Treme and Lakeview sort of surround the French Quarter -- Lower 9th is just east, Treme is immediately NW, and Lakeview is the far NW corner of town.
Here be maps. |
