We've left Memphis for North Little Rock, Arkansas. Don't know when we'll be home. I live in St. Bernard Parish which took a direct hit. 40,000 homes in St. Bernard are under water. My Mississippi home also took a direct hit and as it's a double-wide trailer I don't hold out much hope for either property. Most homes have been flooded to their roofs and people are stranded in their attics and are having to be chopped out with an axe and rescued by boat. It's a real horror story.

I really don't know what to think at this time as damage info is just now beginning to come out of New Orleans but not much from St. Bernard. I'm just happy that my family and dogs are safe with me but I think I've lost everything else.

recent reports coming out of new orleans say that one of the levees along the lake has failed, and an area (i don't know which area) is being evacuated. all the other levees are ready to fail too. they even had to evacuate a hospital. this is getting worse and worse as time goes on, even though the actual storm is gone.

Oh jesus, that's horrible. Glad to hear you're safe...but it'll take years to get your lives in order after this I'm sure...

I saw the pictures from the flooding and I was horrified...it's far worse than any hurricane I can remember, even Andrew from '92.

far worse than even andrew, and the area affected by andrew is still rebuilding to this day, more than 10 years later

Please tell us that you were able to get your Trans Am out of harm's way!

The main thing of course is that your family is safe.

I couldn't even imagine. Keep strong.

I was listening to CNN on Sirius on my drive home tonight. One of the levees has a 200ft break in it. Forgot which one. I was actually thinking about you on the drive home wondering if things were okay. I hear Arkansas isnt the best place to be right now

damn, shit got fucked up.

You mean it was at some time?

Word nigga.

No, really though, that sucks. Glad you're okay though.

I don't know about the Trans Am. I left it in my garage and the Buick in my driveway as we piled into our Odyssey. I'm expecting the worst so if anything is left I'll be pleasantly surprised. The Trans Am and everything else is insured so that's not really a worry. The Trans Am is covered by Haggerty and has agreed value coverage at $25,000. If it's totaled that's what I'll get. I filed online with FEMA last night so that process is at least started.

The broken levee is on the 17th Steet Canal that separates Jefferson Parish from Orleans Parisn and the city of New Orleans. It leads to Lake Pontchartrain. I saw some aerial footage a few minutes ago of homes and warehouses surrounded by water that were on fire. I'm so glad that we got out.

Thank you all for the kind words. They are a comfort. The important thing is that my family is safe. Everything else is just stuff.

By the way, it's sunny and mild in Arkansas today. Very pleasant. This morning Dawn, Tyler and I walked the dogs in the park across the street from our hotel.

i have only lived through 1 tropical storm that was really a life threat and i can say ... it will scare you shitless.... glad your family is safe and sound.... your TA will be missed though

How ironic that you would post that particular picture. That's Chalmette. I live in Chalmette. I didn't recognize it until I saw it on a local tv station website. The orange roof in the upper right is a Home Depot. That will give you come indication of how extensive the flooding is.

They are trying to fly huge sandbags to the 17th Street Canal levee break. If they don't stop it the city will slowly flood to lake level. This shows the area of the breached levee. That's the lake in the upper part of the pic. I was trying to find a cross section diagram of the city but can't. If you stand on the levee by the lakefront on any normal day and look down at the water on one side and the homes on the other it's very apparant that the lake level is above the homes.

Here's a labeled shot of the above posted pic. In the bottom left you can see my wife's cousin's house.

jeez, shit REALLY got fucked up.

SHIT! I was going to be going to New Orleans to see one of the best neurosurgeons in the world, but I guess I will not be doing that soon. That or walking comfortably.

More pics.

The levee breach on the 17th Street canal that's flooding New Orleans now.


The levee breach that flooded the 9th ward and parts of Chalmette.



The I-10 Twinspan between New Orleans East and Slidell. This is the way I go to our property in Mississippi.

^ Sheer craziness.

We expect what remains of Katrina to pass over southern Ontario tonight and into tomorrow morning. Heavy rains are expected but wind speeds will be greatly diminished.

Oh shit, the ponchitarian causeway is out!!!

Man, that sucks. Hope you are doing ok and I hope you can recover from all of this.

Tonight? Around what time and even more rain? It's already 9:21pm and as dry as my ass.

Try a product called "Astroglide."

BLOODY HELL! I would hate to be in that situation, hopefully all of your stuff will make it through.

God damn!

how many months will it take before you can go back to normal? wow..

you'll be weeks without work until they can sort this mess out, and I'm sure you insurance claim will be slow since of the huge amount of call they'll get...

best of luck to you, glad to see you got your priorities straight

Family is first!

Things are just going from really bad to really fucking bad...

From CNN: "Reports of shootings, carjackings and looting in the area near the Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, a policeman tells CNN. More soon."

the water level is supposed to rise by 15 feet in a few hours, attempts to patch those levee failures were unsuccessful

Typical low-lifes capitalizing on the misfortunes of others.

^
Yeah, you have to be really desperate or a real jerk-off to be doing that in a time of crises.

Green, I am glad your family is safe. But too bad about the TA...

How do you steal a car in all that water?

one guy commited suicide at the superdome, he calmly jumped from the balcony to his death.

Exclusive Helicopter Footage...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/h...4813487.wmvfile

I've heard reports from a relative near our Mississippi place that all may not be lost there. No flooding just heavy winds and rain. Heavy as in 120mph heavy. Our house is a double-wide trailer 32 by 80 feet with many tornado tie downs supposedly rated at 200mph so I have hope there.

The entire east bank of Orleans and Jefferson are under a mandatory evac now with the levee breaks. They say they may let Jefferson residents with ID back in to get clothes and essentials in a week or so then they gotta go again and expect to be gone for at least a month. They say the entire east bank of Orleans and Jefferson will be under 9 to 12 feet of water. Some parts of St. Bernard saw 20 feet.

I'm sure the claims process will be very slow. We're going to a meeting with FEMA and Red Cross in the morning. I've already filed online with FEMA.

The fucking looters all need to be shot. One shot a cop wounding him and another shot a fellow looter. Unfortunately that pussbag lived. Don't know of you've seen the videos of the looters but it's just insane.

I'm done with this city. I owe $70K on my Chalmette house so I'll pay that off with the insurance and do what I can in Mississippi. The trailer is only a few years old so we owe a good bit on that too. I kinda hope it's wiped out because the insurance will pay it off for us. We'll take what we get and try to build a strong fucking house there since the land is paid for.

I just noticed something interesting about the Chalmette picture that I posted. What I thought was the Mississippi river... isn't. 'nuff said.

I'm guessing that we'll head to Oklahoma to stay with my family in a few days as living in a hotel is expensive, uncomfortable and no fun. At least Tyler is enjoying the pool.

I've been staying busy and occupying my mind posting here and other message boards and answering emails. I guess it's like therapy to keep my mind off losing my home. I was thinking about the Trans Am earlier and was on the verge of tears. I don't dare let Tyler see me cry as he's on the edge as it is and very worried about all his toys. I know that in the short term I'll have a ton of important stuff to spend the Trans Am insurance money on so I doubt that I'll ever get another one. That car was my dream car since I was 12 years old in 1973. But in the end it's all just stuff. Having Dawn, Tyler and the dogs safe is all that's important.

Anyway, thanks for letting me bore you with all this crap and for reading my attempts at therapy.

I consider you all my friends and I truly appreciate the support.

Don

Well isn't that ironic...

From the rest of the things you said, it sounds like it realllyyy sucks. I couldn't even imagine losing all that stuff.

Umm, not trying to correct you, but I heard that it would be 9-12 deeper than it is now.

What is the difference? Either way it sucks.

The worst part about the flooding is the sewage, rotting bodies, gas, oil, chemicals from the refineries, displaced alligators, rats, snakes and the fucking fire ants. Anything that is alive in the flood is extremely pissed off and determined to survive at your expense.

I know some people are just plain fuckin dirtbags about it, but some people need to loot to survive. I seen one woman with a bunch of diapers on the TV, others with food only. IMO, that's justifiable. Sure there's probly some idiots robbding gun stores, liquor stores, and shit but if I was a cop I would look the other way.

Do you think any looters getting rich stealing from Jewelery stores?

Holy SHIT.

DANG .

Scuba gear?

I can understand the people looting for food & dry clothes...but WTF to the people looting electronic stores & such? Talk about stupid...your house will probably be bulldozed when the water recedes and you won't have electricity for weeks so why bother?

It looks like emptying the New Orleans "bowl" is going to take a lot of time and every day under water means more damages to the houses. So I think you'll be not the only one making that decision. Very sad for you and all the other people - I wonder if N.O. will ever recover to its former state. I hope it but at the same time doubt it.


Yep, noticed that too when I tried to identify the standpoint of the photographer in Google maps.

Here in Houston we have about 100-200 students from New Orleans who enrolled in my school today. One of my friends wants a cajun day here. He loves his gumbo.