Noon Hour Recap

File Under: Hurricane Katrina

Here's a early afternoon update on Hurricane Katrina:

The Storm's Power
- It hit land as a category 4 storm, with 145 mph wind velocity. It is now a category 2 storm.
- Katrina reached it's peak Sunday as a category 5, with peak maximum sustained winds of 175 mph.
- It was downgraded to a category 3 at 11 am EDT, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph.
- Katrina hit landfall near the bayou town of Buras at 7:10 am EDT.
- Windows are being blown out of many New Orleans' hotels. One hotel advised guest to go into the interior hallways with blankets and pillows and keep the doors to rooms closed to avoid flying glass.
- Along U.S. 90, sailboats were washed onto the 4-lane highway. Other boats have slammed into buildings. There are downed trees everywhere in the wake of Katrina.
- The worst-hit areas in Mississippi appear to be a 15-mile stretch of coast, including Waveland, Bay St. Louis, and Pass Christian. The last time that area was hit by such a severe storm was the deadly category 5 Hurricane Camille in 1969.

People
- The Superdome, the "place of last resort" for 26,000 people had a few holes torn in the roof, springing leaks. There is no immediate danger for those inside.
- In Baton Rouge, 3 people from a New Orleans nursing home died during their evacuation to a church. They were among nearly 2 dozen people who were on a bus stuck in traffic for hours during the 80 mile trip.
- In suburban Jefferson Parish, a 911 call was recieved to say a building had collapsed along the west bank of the Mississippi River and people may be trapped. But due to the storm, deputies are unable to reach the scene.
- In Louisiana, officials predict that 80% of New Orlean's citizens had left. 97,000 were left still in town.
- Alabama's governor Bob Riley has declared a state of emergancy. Mississippi and Louisiana have already declared states of emergancy.
- Mississippi is anticipating between 250,000 and 350,000 evacuees from Louisiana.

Flooding
- There are reports of water coming over New Orlean's levee systems. One levee did break on the Industrial Canal near the St. Bernard-Orleans parish line, and 3 to 8 feet of flooding was possible.
- In Gulfport, Mississippi, 73 miles W of Mobile, canal's were backed up, roads flooded, and a nearby interstate highway is in danger.
- Though spared a direct hit, Max Mayfield (National Hurricane Center Director) warned that it can still take a pounding throughout the day and that the potential 15-foot storm surge, down from a feared 28 feet, could still cause extensive flooding.
- Highway bridges were swamped along the Florida panhandle.
- The Tennessee Valley could see a much as 15 inches of rain over the next couple of days, with up to 8 inches in the parched Ohio Valley and the eastern Great Lakes.
- The worst flooding was on the Mississippi coast, east of the eye. The highest storm surge recorded so far was 22 feet in Bay St. Louis.
- The eastern side of New Orleans has the worst flooding.
- Some small bayou towns have flood waters that are knee-deep.
- New Orlean's French Quarter has some water pooling in streets, but no catastrophic flooding.
- In uptown New Orleans, Lake Ponchartrain had already spilled over and flooding had hit the first stories of some homes, and had made some roads impassable.
- There is flooding reported on Alabama's Dauphin Island.

Utilities
- 317,000 New Orlean's customers have lost power, Entergy Corp. announced today. They expect that number to grow.
- In Mobile, Alabama (144 miles E of New Orleans), 200,000 people are without power.
- Katrina spawned a tornado near Brewton in Escambia County, AL. Coastal flood warnings were issued.
- At least 42% of dauly Gulf oil production, 20% of daily Gulf natural gas output and 8.5% of national refining capacity was shut down on Sunday, in advance of Katrina.

The full extent of damage and flooding won't be known till later, for 2 reasons. The first is that the storm is still raging. It is still a category 2, and that is still a very powerful storm. Remember, when Katrina first made landfall as a category 1, it left a ton of damage and destruction in it's wake. And today, Florida says that it blames 11 deaths on Katrina.

The second reason is that helicopters have not been able to get up in the air. Once they can do that, we'll have a much clearer picture of who was hit the hardest, where there's the worst flooding, ecetera. But for not having any of that yet, we've still got a bunch of information. I haven't heard of any deaths that occured DURING the storm yet.

I'll try to do a couple more updates throughout the day. Stay tuned to TDI and the linked news outlets for the latest news and information on Hurricane Katrina.