Anyone heard from Barnacle13?

[ladymako71]

The boy lives in Baton Rouge Louisiana and while they got spared a direct hit from Katrina, they still got smacked around pretty hard. Here's hoping he and his are alright.

[DelBubs]

Isn't Ed Northcott from the same area? I'll join with you Jo, hoping that all's well.

[syvalois]

No, Ed's from Canada and I don't remember well from where, but it's in Ontario. As for Tom, I hope he is well with is little family.

[DelBubs]

Maybe I'm mixing Ed up with Mr Skinner from the mailing list.

[Barnacle13]

Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated! We had one hell of a wind event here in Baton Rouge! It rivaled what we saw when Andrew passed right over us! New Orleans, coastal Mississippi, Slidell....utter devastation! I'll start with Mississippi. A tidal surge about 25 feet high hit Biloxi and Gulfport like a freight train. The impact there is similar to what you might have seen from the tsunami last year. Houses are matchsticks and rubble there. Already there are 80 dead reported there. I'm certain those numbers will climb over the next weeks. Slidell saw a similar fate. Just east of New Orleans, it's a bedroom community for New Orleans. Lots of commuters there. They took a 20 foot wall of water. Lots of rubble, lots of flooding! They still haven't been able to get communications with the Office of Emergency Preparedness there. So the damage is largely unknown. Deathtolls I'm sure will mount the as the week passes. New Orleans! By now I'm sure most of you have been inundated with pictures and stories on every news channel. Water continues to climb in New Orleans. Wind damage was severe, but we knew it would be. The flooding is the bigger issue there. Levees and canals have been breached and water flows into the great bowl that is New Orleans. At perhaps the lowest geographical point in the city lies the Superdome. This is currently the home of about 20000 refugees. Why didn't they leave everyone asks? The answer is New Orleans is largely an impoverished city. These folks couldn't get out of town before the storm hit. I'd imagine a major rescue effort will be launched today to rescue them. Water this morning was at 15 feet around the Dome and rising. South of New Orleans, well there used to be a south of New Orleans. Much of Plaquimines Parish is under water and will probably never see sunlight again. The bigger issue though is the 1.5 million displaced people. They have no homes, no jobs, and many have no savings. So, I implore everyone here to be the heroes you love to read about, and help out your common man as much as possible. Many of the displaced in New Orleans and south Louisiana owe their ancestry to Canada, so you guys do what you can as well. Red Cross will be here for a long, long time. Clothes, food, essentially everything is needed. And somehow we'll have to figure out how to house all of these refugees. It's not a pretty picture, and won't be for quite some time to come.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Tom

[ladymako71]

I am so glad you and yours are alright Tom! Thanks for the local insight as well.

I haven't been able to check this board of late because I'm searching for one of the thousands still missing in New Orleans. A mate of mine from the anime community hasn't been heard from since Sunday and I'm beginning to border on 'slightly nervous' meaning I'm going nuts over here in cali hoping to find her and her family. Thankfully I know all of her pertinent information like name, addy and DOB, so that's been quite helpful but I don't know at this point...I'm going on almost a week now since I've heard from her.

[Julesville]

Woe to us. America has witnessed it's worst disaster ever, just plain ever, we've never had anything so bad, woe...

It leaves me a little shacken, being from Puerto Rico, we always get hurricanes.

THere was George in 1998, that put all the electricity on the island out, and took out a lot of agriculture, the neighborhood where I live now was complelty underwater. However, that was nothign compared to Katrina.

We haven't had a Class 5 since there 1930s, but they've said we may get one this year. So... pray for me.

You Canadians are so lucky, you don't get Hurricanes, all you get is, um... blizzards... and avalanches... forget I said anything.

Barnacle!!! Brother of the Struggle!!! You need anything let me know!!!

[cmdrkoenig67]

I'm glad to hear you're alright too, Tom. I can't imagine what folks are going throught there(In New Orleans, Miss, etc...). Kurt and I have been very concerned for a friend we haven't heard anything from....I hope he's okay.

I'm beside myself with rage at our president's "efforts"(flying over new Orleans to survey the damage....in a climate-controlled Air Force One. That son of a....!). I guess he doesn't want to get his feet wet...he's lucky that he has a choice...the people below him didn't have that luxury. I'm sorry, but the man makes me sick to my stomach....and people there need help(that he isn't providing enough of).

Dana

[birdygirl]

Tom, I'm glad to hear that you and your family are safe! I've been watching the news, and can see the horrible time you must have gone through. You, (and the other folks in and around New Orleans), will be in my prayers.

[Mokole]

Things will get better. the american "president" isn't much of a leader. Too bad. But good things are happening, the premie babies got helped, a lot of people have been rescued, the water's going down. Just need to get the bad guys caught so the fire department et al can do their jobs and avoid Beirut circa 1985.

Good luck to all.

[Barnacle13]

Yeah people here have been pretty pissed. Tension have definitely been mounting. Today was a welcomed relief. Finally the National Guard has shown up on the ground and given the people in New Orleans food and water. FEMA seems to moving very slowly and the real victims can't reach the Red Cross. With the gunfire in the city they will not enter. Baton Rouge has been about as close as they've gotten until today. There's finally some hope. They are flying folks out of the airport and bussing them out of the city as well. Some of the lesser damaged areas of Jefferson Parish are actually getting power restored. There are a lot of questions floating around about how government has responded. Local government was overwhelmed. Police couldn't hope to contain the mayhem. They were in survival mode also. State government didn't have the resources needed to address the situation. And the feds, well the mobilized slowly. I'm not knocking the National Guard or active troops. They have been remarkable at rescuing folks from their roofs. Our neighboring states have mobilized National Guard units quickly. I just don't understand why no one was on standby on Monday evening after this thing wiped through the region.

Anyway, don't get too discouraged about not having contact yet. Communication in this region is still very poor. Cell phones and land lines are both extremely busy, so the circuits get overloaded most of the day. If your loved ones are in shelters, they probably don't have access to Internet or phones. Red Cross is starting to process the info on the survivors in shelters, but many of the folks are in hotels, staying with friends and family members, or are still stuck in New Orleans. Give it a little time. Organization seems to be moving very slowly with this disaster thus far. Hopefully today's events will help to speed up the timelines.

Keep praying for them! If refugees end up in your area, show them compassion and kindliness. They've earned that much after their ordeal. Help however you can.

Regards,

Tom

[ladymako71]

*falls over in relief* Found an Aunt of my friend and found out that she and her dad and brother went to the Superdome to evade the storm. This means she is either already in Texas or on her way, and me anime mates are ready and waiting to help her and her family out. The Aunt and I are both ready to call each other the second we hear anything from them so it's just a matter of time now.

[Barnacle13]

I'm glad to hear she's finally out, but it sounds like she had quite an ordeal in the Dome. Things were crazy there from what I've heard. Some truly unbelievable and inhumane stuff. I won't go into details. Hopefully she just had to deal with the poor sanitation and lack of food. It's extremely hard to believe we left those people in there for so many days. Hopefully FEMA will learn from this disaster. You'd think National Guard troops would have been staged on Monday to move in on Tuesday and maintain control and begin the rescue operations. Response was a t least 48-72 hours late. The lawlessness is slowly being squelched, but it is still going on. The really bad part though is just beginning. They've begun recovering bodies this weekend. The loss of life is going to floor everyone. I fear the numbers will be in the tens of thousands. It's estimate 110,000 were still in the city when the storm hit. Thus far 35,000 or so have been rescued. I'm sure many more will be saved, but you can see the difference there is quite large. And then as the mourning begins, so also does the difficult task of rebuilding this unique city. If you've never visited New Orleans, you have missed it. New Orleans will be back, but it'll take years to recover from this disatser. Biloxi is in no better shape. It took 30 years to recover from Betsy and now they have to start back at square one. New Orleaneans have been scattered to all corners of the country this week. I fear many of them will never return. It's been an overwhelming week. The only thing that keeps everyone going is the kindness coming from all corners of the globe. It's kept the sparks of hope alive in these people. They are strong and will weather this storm. Keep the prayers coming!

Tom

[ladymako71]

I found my friend! A full week from the last time anyone heard from her but she's okay! Her dad and brother are alright too. I talked to her brother on the phone and he said that while they had a nasty time heat, lack of food and water wise at the Superdome, they were pretty much okay. They were among the last to leave the dome on friday and spent a few days at the airport in Kenner before being sent to a shelter in Larose which is south of New Orleans... o.O I damn near fainted in relief though when I found them! I'm gonna go pass out now. Thanks all of you for your well wishes and thoughts! <3<3<3

Luv Jo

[cmdrkoenig67]

Glad to hear it, Jo. Our friend Dave is okay too...He showed up on our doorstep the other night and freaked us both out. He left New Orleans just before the storm hit...some of his friends from down there are still missing and the young lady he was seeing was one of the people who died. I'm glad he's alright...it's not something I'd want to go through.

Dana

[ladymako71]

oh geeze Dana, I'm sorry to hear about Dave's friend. I'm helping me mate's family track down one last cousin and am hoping that he doesn't end up on the deceased list. A lot of me mate's family live in that region and got hammered. I think with the exception of the aunty I found, they all live in the Gulf region. The Aunty lives in Colorado. I hope Dave finds his friends soon and that they're okay.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Me too...the whole thing is so awful...and could Bush be any more of an imbecile? Heavens, but I detest that #@*&$/!.

Dana