Date: Tue 8/30/2005 9:14 PM
From: "Vitter, David (Vitter)" To: "David Erwin" Hopefully yall are all evacuated, if you have access to email I thought
Please say lotsa prayers for everyone. If anyone has ideas, pass them on
Kenner -- Extensive flooding -- N kenner vets to the lake is probably
Metairie -- East jefferson - significant flooding - exceptions -- Old
Elmwood/ Harahan/ River Ridge -- dry -- but did not get too far in to
Lakeview -- water everywhere - up to the roof on most homes.
Mid City -- seemed wet and bayou st john where it began and ended was
Nola east -- totally underwater to the roofs
Uptown -- flooding near xavier, but up near the park and carrollton area
Algiers and west bank - looked ok
Dome -- had 3-4 ft of water around it. this is new development since
9th ward -- underwater to the roof of all houses.
St Bernard totally underwater.
Plaq - everything south of mrytle grove totally underwater. Port
Slidell - 60% of the area has severe flooding - neighborhood to
Northshore -- flooding in Mandeville near the lake and up to parts of
3 Major levee breaks -- 1 very serious on the orleans side of the 17th
Port Fourchon, Grand Isle, and the barrier islands to Venice. reports a
Grand Isle, heavy damage and destruction was observed across the island.
Emergency Crews for BP Thunder Horse- flew out to the Thunder Horse
Subject: info from several overflights of SE LA and conversations I have had
today.
I would pass on some info. While I dont have lot more then what is being
covered all over the news -- i thought I would provide as specific
updates as i know for everyone - this could be changing as we speak.
Most importantly over 1000 people have been rescued in NOLA East and
other parts of the city where folks are on roofs etc..this will continue
-- more choppers are on the way from other areas/ states/ agencies/
companies to help as well. We have 3 navy ships moving into the area to
provide additional food and medical attention. Each ship contains 12
fully-equipped operating rooms, a 1,000 bed hospital facility and a
helicopter deck capable of landing large military helicopters, as well
as side ports to take on patients.
-- some that may seem far fetched have worked today.
under 7 ft of water. South kenner is dry but may of had water in some
structures at some pt but overall looks good all things considered.
Metairie from causeway to Orleans and from the lake to Airline.
Clearview dry -- rest of east jeff is wet -- especially around east
jefferson hospital.
make a sure observation.
not discernable, but not as bad as the rest of orleans
not that bad.
yesterday.
sulpher, empire, buras, boothville, venice, pilot town.
neighborhood -- no more details of exact places.
covington -- basically flooding S of I-12, but not as bad as you get
closer to 12
street canal (if this is not addressed in the next 15 hours, could cause
much more significant flooding in NOLA tomorrow - NatlGuard is working
on dropping several sandbags now to plug the canal, 2 others near the
Industrial canal -- 500 ft on the st bernard side
number of sunken vessels in Bayou Lafourche from Golden Meadow,
Leeville, to Port Fourchon. No sunken ships were seen in the port but
substantial damage was seen to the port facilities like CPort. LA-1 has
heavy debris on the highway but is expected to be open to access the
port Wednesday. heavy shoaling and debris has impacted the port.
Grand Isle was overwashed during the storm by surge and were also hit
with high winds and high storm waves. The barrier islands to the east to
Venice were seen to be heavily damaged and overwashed. South Plaquemines
Parish near Venice appears to be heavily damaged.
platform to inspect. The platform is stable and not showing significant
damage. The recon field party saw many platforms damaged and toppled
offshore and especially on the Shelf. The flight went over Grand Isle
and also saw significant damage and destruction. The flight also
overflew south Plaquemines Parish from Venice, Empire, Buras and
Boothville. It appears that these areas were heavily damaged and
flooded. The river and ship channel appeared heavily damaged and out of
operation which will block any access to the Port of New Orleans and the
river based refineries and terminals.