Two people have died inside the Super Dome.... wtf is going on?

[expatriot]

From WDSU "Blog"

8:15 a.m.: Evacuees Grow Restless In Superdome
Outside, the Louisiana Superdome is surrounded by 3 feet of water. Inside, refugees from Hurricane Katrina are taking what they can get, even if it's just a breath of fresh air. Dozens of them slept on a walkway surrounding the Superdome as conditions inside worsened and frustrations grew. National Guardsmen made sure they didn't leave. National Guard General Ralph Lupin said everything possible is being done to keep people comfortable, which mostly means keeping things from getting worse. Right now there's no air conditioning, bathrooms are filthy and trash is overflowing. There are no details but officials say two people have died. -- Associated Press

10:25 a.m.: Superdome 'Miserable' The Superdome is filthy. Garbage bins are overflowing with trash and the bathrooms are filthy. In addition, the plumbing does not work. City officials say conditions are "miserable." -- WDSU chief meteorologist Dan Milham

[Horse with no Name]

1. My guess would be it was some of the ill ones who were

transported there from the hospitals.

[SmokingJacket]

8. Or nursing homes.

Three elderly people died in a bus being evacuated.

It doesn't take much to push a fragile person over the edge.

[Horse with no Name]

20. Nope.

It's only the tip of the iceburg for this fragile population that will die being moved.
There is good reason that you can only transfer patients that are stable to other facilities.

[babylonsister]

2. There were many sick people sent to the Super Dome

for lack of anywhere else to put them. I'm not surprised some succumbed. :(

[Henny Penny]

3. and this is just day two!

:cry:

[JHB]

4. Could be anything: heart attacks...

...or any number of medical problems too severe for what they have there. "No details" isn't much to go on.

[liberal N proud]

5. No plumbing, WOW, I hadn't given that much thought

but where would it go?

They need to be rescuing the people in the super dome as well as those trapped in their homes.

[China_cat]

23. That's a problem we have here in Charleston

without a hurricane. With a heavy rain and high tide, downtown floods and the sewers back up. During Hugo, with the power out for 21 days, the pumping stations weren't working so our plumbing depended on the time of day (low tide) as to whether it would work or not.

[Bob3]

6. Those could be heart attacks.

I hope the water isn't rising in their area. That they don't need.

[mtnsnake]

7. It's probably just a numbers thing. There are enough people in there to

fill any village or small city, so it's not surprising (although unfortunate) that a small number would pass away, as with any population of that size.

[theboss]

9. The hospital was evacuated there yesterday

They were evacuated hospital patients.

[question everything]

10. You would think the superdome bathrooms should be able to handle

those ten of thousands of people

[RPM]

12. not when there is no running water

i would imagine that water and sewage service are down.

[mcscajun]

13. They would...if the city's sewage system were working.

It isn't.

No sewage, no water, no gas. No nothing. New Orleans is closed.

[justabob]

16. no water to flush

and no sewer to accept it

[politicat]

19. The water is off...

No electricity, no power for the pumps, no pumps, no water pressure, no water pressure, no running water.

This would happen in virtually any city in the US if the power was off for more than 24 hours. Even cities with water towers would have this problem after about 48 hours.

And the Superdome doesn't have bathtubs of water to flush....

[question everything]

21. You are correct. Was thinking of the superdome in times of peace.. (nt)

[ptolle]

40. utilities

Not to be cold or anything, but the people in New Orleans now know somewhat how the people of Baghdad live from day to day. Except the iraqis might welcome the water they'd probably gin up a means of boiling it to disinfect and keep on keeping on.If nothing else it's got to show some people just how little our technological development actually insulates us from the realities of nature.That said I empathize with those who've lost virtually everything and face the enormous cleanup and rebuilding tasks.

[fujiyama]

47. I would bet ya though

that most of New Orleans' poor and black residents, of whom the Superdome is fiilled with, never supported the war.

[Guaranteed]

26. Also, the New Orleans sewer system runs on electricity,

and apparently it's not working.

[WilliamPitt]

11. I'm confused

There are 10,000 people in a building designed to hold 60,000. How is the garbage out of control so quickly?

[RPM]

15. he trash cans are designed for 60k people for 4 hours

that's 240,000 man hours of garbage

if you only have 10k people, the cans have enough capacity for 24 hours...

i dont think trash service is available to come and take the garbage away at this point...

[geomon666]

17. It's closer to 30 thousand actually.

MSM is under reporting it as usual.

[ohio_liberal]

18. Maintenance normally moves it out very quickly

There's two days of garbage sitting in a stadium that's only normally used for a few hours at a time.

[Dora]

25. All the food they brought with them was probably packaged.

I understand that people were asked to bring food supplies with them. I bet most people brought food ready-to-eat and packaged accordingly, plastic, cardboard, paper, etc.

That makes a lot of garbage.

[theboss]

34. As somone who emptied gargave in an arena

Those cans are emptied on an average of every two hours during an event. The bathrooms are cleaned on a similar cycle. And they can get pretty horrifying in that time period.

Also, the toilets are probably not flushing and water is probably not running.

In other words, people are probably using the trash for bodily wastes.

I would not want to be there in 48 hours.

[DoYouEverWonder]

38. Your talking 60,000 just sitting in seats for a game

Not up to 20,000 trying to live there since Sunday. You would be amazed at the amount of garbage people create in just a few days of normal living, plus all the stuff that's getting ruined because of the leaks and the water. It's going to be a huge mess. That's why they never should have used the Superdome has a shelter to begin with. Too many people in one place within the city limits which they knew was likely to suffer severe flooding.

[mcscajun]

14. When the Air-conditioning went, some fragile folk were probably

pushed to the edge.

The emergency power that kicked in inside the Superdome was only to run the lighting system.

[Jersey Devil]

50. and that place is tighter than a drum for AC purposes

In fact, as I understand it, they have to maintain a negative air pressure inside so that the doors don't blow out due to the air conditioning. What they should be concentrating on, if they are going to force people to stay there, is getting as much ventilation in there as possible. Bring in exhaust fans (assuming the generators will run them) and chop holes in the place wherever it is structurally safe to do it.

[Ready4Change]

22. 10-20,000 people in less than ideal conditions

I'd expect a few heart attacks or similar problems.

Re: filthy conditions. The regular crews who'd be there during an event, like a football game, to remove trash and maintain the bathrooms, are likely all evacuated.

I'd like to think that some of the people stuck there would pitch in and help maintain things. But there's probably a fair amount of mob mentality going on, too. Hard to predict/guide peoples behavior in those conditions. I'd call a lack of rioting a win.

[eyesroll]

24. Stadium cleaning does take an insane amount of power (both human and

electrical), so even "pitching in" isn't going to help. I'm sure there are people who are pitching in, but if the elevators aren't working and the trash compactors aren't working and there isn't enough light in most of the areas and no fresh air and no running water, you can't do much. No mopping, no toilets, and the trash stays where it is (because the trash containers they make for stadiums are enormous, and the bags are too heavy to get up/down stairs.)

[Ready4Change]

27. Good points. n/t

[rman]

28. Sadly that's bound to happen, in those conditions.

No water, no power, no plumbing.
No water, no food other then what people managed to bring with them.

The situation is stressful, and no doubt there are many elderly there.

There wouldn't have to be that many people there, in those conditions - if much more federal resources would have been dedicated to disaster management and -relief. But that would have been tax money spent on the common good, which would be a waste according to the RW.
Not cutting the NO disaster readiness budget by $70 million would have been a start, not sending the NO NG over to fight in a war on foreign soil also would have helped.

[LSK]

29. can someone tell me why we dont have helicopters getting people out

Oh yeah, cuz most of that stuff is in Iraq :banghead:

[Bridget Burke]

33. The available helicopters are still being used for rescue.

People stuck on roofs, up trees, etc.

It would take an awful lot of them to move all those people.

[tedzbear]

49. They have 14 helicopters max in the rescue effort.

What I want to know is why in this huge nation there are only 14 helicopters on the NO beat???

[mondo joe]

30. I'd think any time you got together thousansd of people - especially

knowing a disproportionate number are the infirm - for a few days you'd expect a couple of deaths even by entirely natural causes.

[fleabert]

31. sounds like there was no plan in place to make this place habitable

for longer than overnight.

I noticed no one was on the field...is there a good reason for that? folks were sleeping in chairs rather than on the grass/turf.

I hope they get the people organized to at least take care of the trash problem. I'd fill up the VIP and banquet rooms with garbage and start massive cleaning schedules.

[TheMightyFavog]

41. The turf is flooded, IIRC.

End of line.

[fleabert]

43. ah, makes sense, in the pic i saw it looked fine. I thought perhaps

it was above ground level, raised maybe.

thx

[applegrove]

32. They need to evacuate. I know they need to focus right now of the

people standed & in immediate danger. But Shouldn't they pull up a few battleships to the coast so they can evacuate all 10,000 asap.

[theboss]

35. You can't get a battle ship to the SuperDome

It's in the middle of an interstate

[applegrove]

45. Okay - Didn't know. Usually stadiums are in the downtown. I assumed that

would be near water.

[Rainscents]

36. Did you hear... Man JUMP off from Dome to his DEATH.

I just heard this on CNN!!! This is starting to take toll on people's mentally, my understanding, inside the dome condition is taking toll on people.

[Lex]

37. Yes, a guy commited suicide--I heard that on CNN just now.

.
The conditions are deplorable--hot, toilets overflowing, etc.

People are starting to unravel.

Where the hell is the large scale AID?

[DoYouEverWonder]

42. Exactly, get some friggin' boats

and helicopters in there now!

[Bozita]

44. I heard that too ... and not a word since

[bobbieinok]

39. stuck on train for 8+ hrs in middle of NE in Dec yrs ago...many very

upset over toilets not working (pipes frozen), running out of food and drink

this was bad......people starting to not take it well......and these were mostly well people' on vacation'

[politicat]

46. You too??

I got stuck on a train in the middle of Nebraska last february....

we were there from 2 am to nearly noon. Not pretty.

[REP]

48. I Heard Suicide

"Near-panic in the Superdome. People trying to leave, other people being brought in with severe injuries. Apparently it's ungodly hot in there, reeking of shit. Susan Roesgen of the local ABC station was just on CNN. She saw a man on the 2nd level of the Dome finish a game of dominoes, walk to the edge of the railing, tell the people below to watch out, and then jump to his death."
http://gutterboylive.livejournal.com/

[renate]

51. In the 3:23 post from 8-29, that blogger said Bush played golf

after his Social Security speech on Monday.

IS THAT TRUE?? :grr: :grr:

[REP]

53. I Know The Blogger; He is Reliable

[enigmatic]

52. This is going to be a potentially horrible situation

If they don't get those people out while the generators are still running. If the generators die, it's going to be chaos.