Race against time to rescue trapped residents of New Orleans

[KyndCulture]

Lower Ninth, East N.O., Treme, Lakeview hardest hit


4:15 p.m - An unknown number of residents were trapped Monday afternoon in trees, attics and roofs in New Orleans' hardest-hit areas, and officials are positive that the devastating flooding from Hurricane Katrina is claiming lives.

Police/Emergency scanner traffic was busy Monday afternoon with reports of trapped residents, some calling and pleading for help as heavy storm conditions still limited efforts to rescue them. There were reports of buildings collapsing with people still inside. And officers reported some people slipping into the water.

Authorities were racing the clock at mid-afternoon, with hundreds of people trapped and buildings collapsing under floodwaters that reached to rooftops.
The hardest-hit areas of the city appear to be the Lower 9th Ward, eastern New Orleans, Treme and Lakeview near a levee breech.

Hurricane Katrina plowed into this below-sea-level city Monday morning, ripping holes in the roof of the Superdome, blasting out high-rise windows, knocking out power citywide, and leaving residents of flooded neighborhoods in their attics and on rooftops awaiting rescue.In some of those cases, authorities lost communications with those pleading for help.

"Everybody who had a way or wanted to get out of the way of this storm was able to,'' Ebbert said. "For some that didn't, it was their last night on this earth.''
--snip more at link --

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/weather/

[CottonBear]

1. This is awful. I wish they could have/would have evacuated

to the Superdome. Perhaps some people were worried about looting or flood damge and never thought they'd be in real danger.
:cry:

[geomon666]

2. That is utterly heart breaking n/t