Hurricane Katrina

[Guest Tigrinum Major]

At the risk of sounding unemotional, I have a question to ask.  Last night on Fox, they showed gas stations in Memphis with a 2-3 hour wait to get gas.  Is it like that in parts of Alabama?  I planned on coming to the game this weekend, but would rather not have to fight traffic like this to get there and back.

177045[/snapback]

Haven't experienced anything like that in the Birmingham area. I filled up this morning and prices have not started their upward climb yet.

Traffic will not be affected from St Louis to Birmingham and Auburn, I would not suspect. But I have been wrong before.

[AUJarhead 70]

Thanks, TM.

I didn't think it would be, but would rather make sure before I make a 10+ hour drive.

[lsuirish 0]

At the risk of sounding unemotional, I have a question to ask.  Last night on Fox, they showed gas stations in Memphis with a 2-3 hour wait to get gas.  Is it like that in parts of Alabama?  I planned on coming to the game this weekend, but would rather not have to fight traffic like this to get there and back.

Thoughts and prayers for all our families and friends.  I heard that my old highschool (Archbishop Rummel) had 5-8 feet of water in it this morning.  While my old neighborhood also had about 5 feet of water.  I'm afraid that the worst is yet to come.

Hope we hear from our  friends soon.

177045[/snapback]

Thanks for the kind words and Baton Rouge came out of this relatively ok. Trees and limbs are a problem and electricity is out in alot of places. WE WERE VERY, VERY LUCKY. Longest 24 hours that I would not wish on anyone. Cant even imagine what our brothers are going thru in N.O. Thanks again.

[BigSammyK 171]

A couple live feeds from New Orleans news stations:

http://www.wdsu.com/video/4909353/detail.html

http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/wmP...&props=livenoad

[Raven_tiger 5]

I know some people in Long Beach, MS. I hope that they are all safe.

[AUAlum 0]

How did Auburn fair in this? Up here, about 35 miles NW of Birmingham.. We had gusts atleast to 65mph or greater. Worse than Ivan around here with trees down everywhere. Winds actually increased after the rain.

177027[/snapback]

Talked with my son this morning (he's in school at AU) and he said things were fine in Auburn. They had some tornado warnings last night, but so far he hasn't seen any damage. Sounds like the Plains will be in good shape for this weekend.

[AUJarhead 70]

I really hate to keep bringing this up, but nola.com is reporting that the efforts to seal the levee have failed, and to expect 9-12 feet of water in East Jefferson and Orleans Parishes. Folks, please, please pray for everyone there and for everyone who lived there and got out, but will lose everything.

NOLA.com

More canal breach flooding predicted

Tuesday, 6:35 p.m.

Mayor Ray Nagin issued an urgent bulletin through WWL-TV at 6:30 p.m.

Nagin said efforts to stop the flow of water at the breach on the 17th Street Canal are failing, which means the floodwaters will rise again.

Nagin said the waters will soon overwhelm the pump, shutting it down. He said the water will rise to 3 feet above sea level - or 12-15 feet in some places of east Jefferson and Orleans parishes.

Nagin has advised residents who have not already evacuated to do so as soon as possible.

[Draven 0]

Power is back in Pensacola in areas, we had winds over 70 here and damage to go with it but all in all we made it ok but south mobile has a lot of water/ damage to deal with. I know you can see whats going on by cnn and fox but we have a number of New Orleans residents in the area they are saying this is far worse than the news even can imagine. They dont think N.O. will every be repaired.

[SLAG-91 1,483]

If this isn't the worst case scenario for New Orleans, it has to be very, very close...I can't imagine it being much worse. The effects of this storm will be long-lasting for them. A true tragedy...my heart goes out to them.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

I know some people in Long Beach, MS. I hope that they are all safe.

177060[/snapback]

We have close friends who live in Long Beach. Things don't look good on the TV videos. Thye are in a shelter somewhere north of Gulfport. I am leaving at 5am in the morning to try to get some things to them., Wish me luck!!!

These friends are big bama fans and have a daughter at bama now. Times like these make it easy to put aside the rivalry.

[quietfan 233]

Water still rising in New Orleans...efforts to patch levies fails:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9137280/

Nagin: Entire City Will Soon Be Underwater

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is "very upset" that an attempt to fix the breach in the levee at the 17th Street canal has failed, and he said the challenges that the city is facing have "escalated to another level." "The sandbagging that we had hoped would happen didn't materialize today, so the water continued to rise at that particular location," he said.

In an exclusive interview with WDSU anchor Norman Robinson, Nagin said the rising water has caused the generators to stop operating because the water got too high. Due to that, Nagin said he's been advised by the head technician at the sewage and water board that water in the east bank area of Orleans and Jefferson parishes will rise to levels equal to Lake Pontchartrain.

"It's going to rise to 3 feet above seal level. For example, St. Charles Avenue is 6 feet below sea level, there will most likely be 9 feet of water on St. Charles Avenue," Nagin said.

Also, if residents are in a part of city that is 10 feet below sea level, Nagin said the levels will probably rise to 13 feet of water.

He said the "bowl is now filling up" and the entire city will soon be underwater.

Nagin said the sandbagging was scheduled for midday, but the Blackhawk helicopters needed to help did not show up. He said the sandbags were ready and all the helicopter had to do was "show up." He said after his afternoon helicopter tour of the city, he was assured that officials had a plan and a timeline to drop the sandbags on the levee breach.

He said he was told that the helicopters may have been diverted to rescue about 1,000 people in a church, but he is still not sure who gave the order.

He advised people still trapped in New Orleans to evacuate to the west bank area if they can safely get there.

"If they can't, (they should) seek higher ground," the mayor said.

He said the water that is flowing out of the breach, which is about a 2-block breach at the 17th Street canal, will continue to flow "unimpeded at an accelerated level within 12 to 15 hours."

Nagin said the water will continue to rise overnight, making it very difficult for anyone to evacuate safely, including the thousands who have sought refuge in the Superdome.

"We're also shutting down City Hall because our generators will most likely get flooded, and that could be another challenge that the Superdome has," Nagin said.

He said right now, he doesn't have a solution for the estimated 15,000 evacuees in the Superdome.

The mayor said his 8- to 10-week timeline for recovery is now pushed back four weeks due to the delay in repairing the break.

Nagin also said that currently there is no martial law in the city of New Orleans, but he may order it on Wednesday.

I'm too numb to comment..