'It just kept coming' — Rita swamps Louisiana coast, stranding scores of p

[markus]

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1127572440146860.xml&storylist=hurricane">'It just kept coming' — Rita swamps Louisiana coast, stranding scores of people

ABBEVILLE, La. (AP) — Hurricane Rita swept ashore Saturday with a powerful surge of seawater that swamped coastal communities and vast stretches of farmland from the Texas line to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Rescuers scrambled into boats and helicopters to reach hundreds of stranded residents who chose to ride out the storm.

Floodwaters stood nine feet deep near this southern Louisiana town 25 miles inland and continued rising throughout the day. Farther west in Cameron Parish, sheriff's deputies watched appliances and what appeared to be parts of homes swirling in the waters of the Intracoastal Waterway.

...

Near Abbeville, water poured into Vermilion Parish from a canal lock intentionally left half-open by the Army Corps of Engineers on the Intracoastal Waterway. More than 600 square miles of low-lying marshes, farmland and crawfish ponds were flooded.


Why the hell, one might ask, did they leave that lock open.

The rest of the AP wire coverage sounds not very good for SW Louisiana. You wouldn't know this from the cable nets, all standing around in Galveston whistling Glen Campbell.

But the Acadians of SW Louisiana, like the blacks in NOLA, are only important as cogs the machine.

[TomInTib]

1. What the Hell- where is this from?

So that's what happened to Vermilion.

This canal lock issue is unreal.

Are they just trying to take the Gulf Coast wetlands completely out of the equation?

[madrchsod]

2. frenchies

http://www.acadian-cajun.com/hiscaj1.htm
ACADIAN-CAJUN Genealogy: Cajun History

[etherealtruth]

5. Thanks for the link ...

... the Cajun history is interesting and remarkable. It was nice to refresh my memory.

[NYC]

3. Your link isn't working for me. New link:

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1127572440146860.xml&storylist=hurricane

[Pirate Smile]

7. Thanks. It didn't work for me either but yours does.

[amandabeech]

4. Actually, CNN has been doing a decent job with this.

Anderson Cooper is in Abbeville, and he's getting as much as can be gotten right now. Things look pretty grim. It's just water with a few houses sticking out. The Coasties are trying to rescue people from their roofs even tonight. Boat rescues are going out even though the waters are dangerous, especially to non-locals. Waters are continuing to rise, however. Sugar cane fields are also inundated, perhaps with salt water.

Thank heavens that a very, very high percentage of people did evacuate. However, some started to come back today, only to see waters rise from the surge and high winds.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Lake Charles--that place looks really, really ragged. There are barges banging against I-10 and I-210 bridges.

If southern and western Louisiana had the same number of people are NO or Houston, there would be an amazing loss of life.

On edit: There may be problems at the Henry Hub natural gas distribution and storage point in Erath, Vermillion Parish. It is the most important natural gas distribution point in the country. News reports are very, very sketchy, however.

Southern winds have backed the Lake Ponchartrain surge waters up against its northern shore near Slidell, where the flooding may be up to 6' in some places. Eventually all that water has to find a way out of Lake Ponch. Let's hope that it is not through levees around NO.

[Pirate Smile]

6. At some point today, CNN figured out that the story was in SW LA

and Anderson is there. He has been doing a good job tonight.

The irony is that they show Bush in Texas with all the Repub Texas politicos with Bush talking about how the Feds are going to take care of "Texans".

Louisiana must really feel like "that part of the world" as Bush likes to put it.

[amandabeech]

9. When I saw * yacking, I turned to the Weather Channel.

They don't show photo-ops, which is all * does.

Texas, Texas, Texas. If they had been hit by a cat 5, half the place would've been blown around in their SUVs.

Louisiana has not bowed down to the great *, therefor, they do not exist to our Chimperor.

[NYC]

8. Picture of Slidell:

One of the few standing camps on Rats Nest Road in Slidell.
Taken by Mary Davis, NOLA.com user.

[daleo]

11. This looks like a dog, and quite an interesting one.

Maybe the wrong picture here?

[NYC]

12. What are you seeing?

It's a house on stilts. Hasn't changed for me. I still see the house on stilts.

Go to http://www.nola.com/katrinaphotos/ third column "Your Photos" to see it at their website.

[daleo]

16. Now I see the house on stilts.

Before it was a closeup of a dog - maybe a stray because of the storms?

[NYC]

17. At least that gave me a laugh.

I saw no dog of any kind where I picked up the picture. I have no idea how that happened. Strange.

At least we've both learned never to argue over a picture. Never mind subtle differences, we now know that people may be seeing entirely different pictures.

Whoever the dog is, I hope he was rescued.

[iamjoy]

10. Poor Governor Blanco

Of course, I feel bad for the people actually stranded, frightened, abandoned, etc. But unlike Jeb and Perry, it seems Blanco really takes the suffering of her people to heart. She felt really bad about Katrina, and now her state has gotten slammed again.

[malaise]

15. Blanco was on CSpan a short while ago

I do feel it for the people of Louisiana. Unbelievable damage again and you can bet the insurance companies will say it was flood damage.

[markus]

13. Apologies: I enmedded an http:// in my embedded link

for the second time.

I've learned my lesson, and will do it correctly next time.

I am completely flabergaster at why they would leave a lock partially open, flooding the interior. I can only imagine they did it to protect the CoE's infrastructure at the lock.

If that is the case, then the federal government should be 110% liable for all costs resulting from the flooding of SW La.

[Delphinus]

14. Does anyone know

why the lock was left open?