From the evening of June 6 to the morning of June 7 2008, Central Indiana was pounded by severe thunderstorms and heavy rain. Amounts of nearly 11 inches were recorded in some areas. This rain quickly led to record-breaking flooding in some areas during the week after.

These storms were produced when strong winds above the ground interacted with an outflow boundary left over from the storms that produced severe weather earlier in the day of June 6. This left the region with too much water, mud and debris, which ultimately resulted in catastrophic damage, destruction and devastation around Columbus, Indiana and its surrounding counties.

Across the nation, people learned about the City of Columbus, possibly for the first time. While many didn’t realize there was a Columbus, Indiana, those who live there were experiencing flooding that had not been seen in about 100 years. Travelers stranded by rising, swift-moving floodwaters learned of Columbus as they became stranded on Interstate 65 and roads leading to and from the city.

Photo: American Red Cross

With all of the national coverage, however, nothing did the flood’s power justice. Nothing can quite prepare you for the sight of such devastation. Areas never known to flood were suddenly submerged in several feet of water and once quaint neighborhood streets and avenues were reduced to boat-only travel.

It wasn’t until the flood waters began receding that Mother Nature’s true force and devastation could be seen. What was left in the wake of this flood made many areas of the town virtually unrecognizable. Driving or walking through neighborhoods that had been completely saturated and submerged under tons of fast-moving, dirty river water was like moving into another time or place into what looked like a battle zone.

As I-65 South became passable again, major water trouble became apparent quickly. Excessively high levels of all the creeks and rivers leading into Columbus were found. Farmer’s fields were soggy with standing water. For many of these farmers, their livelihoods were drenched and showed no signs of drying out. Many of these crops were completely or partially lost.

Mud, dirt and river debris covered virtually every road and highway affected by the flood. Remnants of the flood were everywhere. Random objects sat in fields, including propane tanks from a local fuel company. Cars and trucks floated away during the flood and got scattered in fields waiting to be discovered by their owners.

Photo: American Red Cross

Life’s everyday-items were strewn about. Laundry baskets, grills, furniture and trash bags littered the county’s waterlogged corn and soybean fields. 

As the water continued to recede, many businesses were considered a total loss and too-numerous-to-count homes were completely destroyed. Business, like Burger King, McDonalds and several gas stations were closed and had their inventory in their parking lots to see what, if anything, could be salvaged.

But the most sobering sight, by far, was traveling through the streets of Columbus and surrounding communities severely affected by the unforgiving, record-breaking flood waters. In some neighborhoods, piles of debris began appearing in front of every home.

The amount of ruined personal possession was staggering. It was an eerie sight to see peoples’ lives destroyed and piled up, just waiting to be hauled off the to the landfill. Photographs, cloths, toys, tables, chairs, beds, computers were everywhere. Just about anything found in a typical American home was lining the streets of Columbus following this epic flood. The devastation was overwhelming.

As it turned out, the June 2008 Midwestern United Stated floods were part of an on-going flooding event that had profound affects on a large portion of the Midwest. After several months of heavy rainfall, a number of rivers and creeks crested and overflowed their banks for numerous weeks at a time. Levees were broken at several locations and flooding continued into July.

The midwestern states affected by the flooding included Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri. During this flooding crisis, the American Red Cross came to the aid of tornado and flood victims and the National Guard was mobilized to assist in disaster relief and evacuation efforts.

In Columbus, as the food waters rose, marines temporarily stationed at Camp Atterbury were called to assist in rescue and evacuation efforts.

During this period, flooding continued for about two weeks with central Iowa and Cedar Rapids hardest hit. In Missouri and Illinois, estuaries drained massive amounts of floodwater into the river. This devastating flood left 13 dead and damage region-wide, which was estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.

As for Indiana, central and southwestern Indiana was particularly hard hit with damage costs expected to make the flood of June 2008 the costliest disaster in the history of the state. Commencing on June 4, rain saturated parts of south-central Indiana leading to initial floods in and around Bloomington.

On June 7, additional rain brought the worst of the flooding to larger portions of south-central and western Indiana. The highest recorded rainfall amount was in the small town of Edinburgh, which saw 10.94 inches (278 mm) of rain in a short seven hour period. Another Indiana town, Paragon, saw 10 inches (250 mm) of rain in just a few hours, which left 90% of the town underwater.

Not only were the East Fork of the White, the Driftwood and the Flat Rock Rivers rapidly rising above their banks, all creeks and streams were also on the rise. Haw Creek, which snakes through the city rose so rapidly and unexpectedly that the only hospital in town was flooded and had to be evacuated. 

In fact, the major flooding in Columbus came from Haw Creek, which overflowed its banks following the torrential downpour encompassing central Indiana. Columbus, isolated by floodwaters, was shutdown because many city streets were under water.

During this flash flood along Hawcreek as well as the steady rise of all local rivers and streams, many people had roughly 15 minutes to evacuate from their homes and businesses. Most people had no time to gather their belongings and had to wade through rapidly rising, murky water and debris.

Many Indiana counties saw flood levels exceeding the records set in 1913. On June 9, President George W. Bush declared 29 counties in central Indiana a major disaster area opening up the region to receive federal aid and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance.

IMPACT

At this time, the county hospital remains closed and many businesses and homeowners are still in the process of recovering from this disaster. It will be months before many people can move back into their homes and before business will reopen. Some homes and business, however, have been condemned and will likely be bulldozed.

Governor Mitch Daniels estimates and expects total damages to top $1 billion.

Surprisingly, only two deaths were reported as a direct result of the flooding in Columbus, Indiana.

Texas A&M University in College Station Texas,¹ has been conducting research into so-called “select agents,” i.e. biological agents that the government thinks can be turned into biological weapons. The university’s efforts are part of an $18 billion federal program to develop vaccines.

On April 20, 2007 the Centers for Disease Control — the CDC — issued a cease-and-desist order for Texas A&M’s work with the Brucella bacterium.² On June 30, the order was expanded to include all work with select agents and toxins.³ The CDC then conducted a five-day comprehensive inspection of the A&M labs and issued a report⁴ on August 31 listing numerous flaws in oversight, working conditions, and security, including missing vials of select agents, unauthorized research with recombinant DNA, access to the lab by unauthorized personnel, and exposures of lab workers to bacteria that cause brucellosis and Q fever that went unreported to the CDC.

Based on the comprehensive inspection, the CDC has extended the suspension of all select agent and toxin work at A&M until all the issues identified in its 21-page report are addressed.

On September 6, Texas A&M’s interim president, Eddie Davis, held a press conference to address the report.⁵ As to how the universities “select agent” program got into trouble, he said:

“I would tell you that it is our assessment that it we have not had the level of expertise in terms of plants and the complex processes required to run such a select agent program and we’re putting that in place with new personnel.”

On the eve of the press conference, the Sunshine Project, a small non-profit organization based in Austin, Texas, that is dedicated to biological weapons control, released documents it had just obtained through a Texas Public Records Act request.⁶ The documents indicated that a flood had occurred in one of the labs on campus.

In a phone interview, Edward Hammond, Director of the Sunshine Project, described what he knows so far about the incident:

“It was obviously a serious flood that happened. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of information. But what we know was that on the twenty-second of February, a biosafety level [BSL] 3 lab that was handling biological weapons agents flooded at the university. It flooded so badly — the water came from above — that the integrity of the lab was clearly compromised. A number of seals were broken. Water infiltrated into the lab from outside.

What’s really perplexing about this is that although the flood occurred on the twenty-second of February, there’s no record of any safety inspection of the lab until seven weeks later, the 16th of April, which probably not co-incidentally was the same day that federal agents arrived on the Texas A&M campus to probe their research program. So we have this nearly two-month delay between a flood that compromised the integrity of a laboratory handling biological weapons agents and any apparent action to assess the damage and get about the business of fixing it.”

University President Davis indicated at the press conference that he was hearing about the flood for the first time then and there.

Davis’ ignorance was no surprise to Marylia Kelley, Executive Director of Trivalley CAREs⁷ in Livermore, California, whose organization has sued to keep the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from opening its own BSL-3 facility.

“This is both a national problem and a specific problem at Livermore Lab,” she said in a telephone interview.

“Historically, the manager for Livermore Labs has been the University of California and historically, the University of California has known very little about what actually goes on at the laboratory. I would not be surprised at all to find out in the future that the [new] UC-Bechtel management is in the same position vis-a vis the Livermore biofacility that the Texas A&M President was in respect to the Texas A&M lab, which is they don’t know.”

Representatives of the CDC declined to be interviewed for this story. But in email to this writer, CDC spokesman Von Roebuck wrote that “[a]s part of the select agent rules, labs or entities that are certified are required to immediately report any potential lab exposures, releases or loss of a select agent. Historically, the entities in the program have alerted the CDC to these.”

The Texas A&M situation points out what can happen if the entity inadvertently or intentionally fails to report, and its managing institution –often a university is kept in the dark about what is going on at the lab.

Edward Hammond’s research has turned up similar problems at other labs. He cited a number of exposures to agents including anthrax, plague, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, at the University of New Mexico, the University of Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley.

At the press conference, Texas A&M President Davis said, “I think it’s fair to say that the review that was done at Texas A&M in July was very intense, very thorough and very deep. My expectation is that other institutions, under that same level of review, would probably have findings that could be reportable to the CDC.”

Marylia Kelley questions the need for all the high-containment biolabs that are sprouting up across the country, and says money is behind the building boom:

“This country is building way too much biowarfare agent research capacity at other sites in addition to Livermore Lab. Tri-Valley CAREs believes that what is needed is an overarching national assessment of our biodefense capabilities, to look at whether, in fact, we have any deficiencies in our capabilities. The Bush Administration has thrown about $36 Billion on the table and initiated what is in fact a multiagency feeding frenzy to get part of this $36 Billion to build all these facilities willy-nilly across the country.”

Texas A&M hopes to have its labs reopened by the end of 2007.

Sources

¹Google Maps

²A copy of the order is in the Texas A&M files of the Sunshine-Project at http://sunshine-project.org/

³Ibid.

⁴A copy of the report is in the Texas A&M files of the Sunshine-Project

⁵This writer attended by telephone and recorded the event.

⁶The documents are posted on the website of the Sunshine Project

⁷The Tri-Valley CAREs website

Much of the news coverage of the horrible devastation of Hurricane Katrina has focused on what many consider the almost irreparable demolition of New Orleans. This city, once a vibrant part of Louisiana’s rich history, now lays in ruins; however, Louisiana’s capital Baton Rouge, which experienced very little damage during the storm, is facing its own set of issues as it attempts to aid fellow Louisianans.

As New Orleans residents leave their homes, many have found their way to Baton Rouge, which has seen a population boom upwards of a quarter million people. This means traffic jams, overcrowding, and an overall increase in tension for native Baton Rouge residents. Grocery stores are running out of food, gas stations are fighting to keep up with long lines of customers, and, most alarmingly to residents, gun sales have increased dramatically.

“Baton Rouge is now the largest city in Louisiana, and I don’t think it will change for another five to 10 years,” said David Guillory, special assistant to the director of the Baton Rouge Department of Public Works.

On Friday, reports out of Baton Rouge rank the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (9430 Jackie Cochran Dr. Suite 300, Baton Rouge, LA 70807-8020) as the second busiest in the nation. Traffic that is already overflowing throughout the city has reached epic proportions in the areas surrounding the airport, leaving drivers and commuters at a loss as to how to get to work, school and home.

“It used to take me 30 minutes to get to work, and it now takes me two hours,” said Courtney Finnan, a resident of a nearby suburb who has always commuted to the city for work.

“My wife relocated her office here, and the other day it took her an hour-and-a-half to go 2 miles,” said New Orleans resident Charles Macalso; he frequently travels back to check on his home.

Shelters in the area have been filling up as soon as they open, with most of Baton Rouge’s Community Centers and High Schools pitching in to take on as many people as they can. With school starting last week for most of the country, Baton Rouge has had to find ways to accommodate the influx of school-aged children from New Orleans, as well as their native children, while still using schools as makeshift shelters.

One of the shelters that was first to take in evacuees was the Volunteers of America Shelter (827 America St, Baton Rouge, LA 70802). Normally a transitional shelter for adults in housing transition, the shelter has transformed into a makeshift triage and home for hundreds. The area around the shelter, as with shelters all around the city, is growing more congested by the day.

This intermingling of displaced New Orleans residents has led to a rise in already-existing tensions among the two areas; while New Orleans has always been a notoriously “fast” city, Baton Rouge dwellers have always considered themselves to lead a much “slower” existence. Never has that been more true.

Dealing with hundreds of thousands of Katrina evacuees has indeed slowed things down – traffic, especially near shelter areas and schools is gridlocked most of the time – however, the immediate need for housing has led not only to a housing boom, but to a building boom as well, with houses being rushed into production wherever possible.

“I’ve been in the business for 30 years, and we’ve never seen anything like this. The only other time I’ve seen something like this was when my daughter moved to Washington D.C.” said Lara Dupree, the owner of Dupree, Terrell, and Company, a family-run real estate firm. “Any space where builders can build is being taken up.”

Judy Burkett, president of the Greater Baton Rouge Assn. of Realtors, said that prior to the storm, Baton Rouge had 3,626 homes listed for sale – over 75% of those have sold already. Prices, however, have risen significantly, with some estimates at 20% or more. Adding to the confusion are downed communications, which have prevented some recording of sales.

“The families go out to them and they’ll just snap them up — they’ll just snap up anything they can,” Burkett said.

As with the Southern California’s current housing market, buyers in bidding wars account for the major price increases. With so many people, both native and evacuee, vying for places to live, houses are springing up everywhere.

“If there’s lots, we’re putting slabs on them as soon as possible,” Burkett said.

High Res Images

“Everyone keeps asking if we’re going to comply with the mandatory evacuation order. We’re exempt.”

The good people at directnic.com are still hosting and name-serving from New Orleans. In addition to not letting customer servers or vital internet connectivity go down thoughout the crisis caused by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee failure and flooding of New Orleans, they had time to write about it. It’s really incredible to see what it takes to maintain 24/7 internet service though a national disaster.

“Sometime around midnight, a squad of 82nd Airborne guys accompanied by a US Marshall busted into our Data Center with their M4-A1s to investigate the lights and movement. Personally, I know they were just bored — there’s no way they honestly thought there was some kind of threat up here just yards away from several huge military and police presences. Anyway, they came up and demanded to account for us all.” mgno.com

“Many buildings appear to have well-armed private security forces around them. One Shell Square, for instance, has several guys patrolling around the clock. Bell South does too. These guys look a lot more professional than the Federal Police Force around the Boggs building – professional in the sense that even though they’re just as well armed, they’re not interested in bullying and intimidating anyone.

The homeless people are disappearing one by one. We’re back to one resident under the overhang at the Pan Am Life building.” mgno.com

“There are three different squads patrolling. One squad seems very formal. When they patrol they’ve got 4 guys on one side of the street, 2 guys in the middle, and 4 guys on the other side of the street. Another squad patrols in a tight column of two, while the last squad just kind of bunches up and walks around very informally. Mostly they look into broken windows, check doorways, and watch for trouble. They take the same route every time.” mgno.com

“We pulled 3 servers, a switch, and a firewall from down the street and we’re gonna be racking them up in just a bit. It’s important to get companies both their web presence back and access to their important info. You know, these companies have payroll to make and stuff like that, so think about all the individuals affected as we close out the second week of this catastrophe.”

Many More Photos

• Of people
• Fires and troops

Now, a week after the devastating forces of Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the coastal regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, the floodwaters remain. The monumental job of removing the remaining standing floodwater will likely take weeks — at least.

Some estimates are between 30 to 60 days before the water is pumped out, however this will depend on the area and the degree of flooding. For those in some of the hardest hit areas, it could be much longer before the tepid water is removed. Meanwhile, for the many hurricane survivors who remain trapped, the filthy, contaminated water is their only road to safe, dry land.

In Louisiana alone, 80 percent of New Orleans and its surrounding suburban communities remain flooded and steeped in a rancid brew consisting of bacterial-ridden raw sewage and waste, decaying human and animal corpses, and petrol fuel and toxic chemicals. This nasty concoction is like a time bomb just waiting to go off as the potential for outbreaks of typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis and bacterial infections are a real possibility.

Along with the threat of bacterial-born diseases, the standing, stagnant floodwaters and oppressive heat are now setting the stage for an ever-increasing hazard of mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria, West Nile virus, and dengue fever. And, even though some health officials believe that outbreaks of diseases like cholera and typhoid are fairly unlikely and that the decomposing human and animal bodies do not present a huge disease threat, they all agree that mosquitoes will likely present the greatest threat to the survivors who are still trapped by the floodwaters or are now refusing to leave their homes.

In the aftermath of natural disasters like hurricanes, mosquitoes are presented with an excellent breeding ground. The rancid flood waters allow the mosquitoes the opportunity to grow and harvest to epic proportions.

It has been estimated that mosquito populations will probably grow dramatically over the next seven to 10 days. Because of the many stagnant pools of water left behind by Katrina, the mosquito problem will most likely be worse in the flooded rural areas rather than in the bigger urban areas, like New Orleans. In effect, it is projected that the mosquito population will become an insidious annoyance that will make life a lot harder for the search and recovery workers and volunteers as well as for those still living along the path of Katrina’s destruction.

And, as the mosquito population grows, the threat of West Nile virus will also grow. So far this year, Louisiana has already had roughly 52 cases of West Nile virus. According to a recent CDC report, of these 52 cases, 40 have involved encephalitis or meningitis. Therefore, because of the increased virus threat, the CDC is working closely with officials in Louisiana in an effort to prevent or at least ward off a major mosquito outbreak.

For the time being and aside from the threat of mosquito-borne illnesses, a big concern involves raw sewage-tainted water. You may not necessarily get sick just by walking, wading, or swimming through the floodwater along the Gulf Coast, however it is definitely possible in many cases. Think of it this way – By moving through the spoiled floodwater, splashing occurs. If there is raw sewage in that water you will then be at risk of getting it on your hands, and then accidentally transferring the bacteria-laden water to your mouth.

Another pressing and immediate hazard is the possibility of developing gastrointestinal illnesses brought to the human population by the seriously contaminated floodwaters and a devastating lack of clean drinking water throughout hardest-hit, hurricane-ravaged areas along Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama’s coastal regions.

Some of the other, less-thought-about health risks that may be found in the wake of Katrina is illness as a result of eating spoiled, tainted food, ingesting the mucky floodwater (even for the sake of rinsing your mouth or brushing your teeth), and the real threat of seeing more common infectious disease spread quickly throughout the many packed refugee shelters. What symptoms you might have and how severe they may get will depend on the specific illness contracted and sick person’s current health. Some of the more common water-borne diseases found in the United States include: amebiasis, campylobacteriosis, cryptosporidiosis, giardiasis, hepatitis A, salmonellosis, shigellosis, and viral gastroenteritis (such as norovirus and rotavirus infections).

The good news is that pervasive, epidemic-type diseases rarely chase after the more recent United States disasters.

In the midst of the demolition brought by hurricane Katrina, the fear of an epidemic-spreading of infectious disease have only added to the worries and distress felt by the survivors and those helping with the rescue and recovery operations. While some fears are founded, many other worries and concerns remain on shaky ground. For example, while it is possible for an exotic disease such as cholera to develop in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it is actually extremely unlikely.

In reality, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirms that unless an illness is introduced into a disaster area from an outside source, the outbreaks that do occur will typically be directly related to diseases that were already present and thriving in the disaster-affected environment prior to the natural disaster – in this case, Hurricane Katrina.

There are many other health concerns that represent real and present dangers to many who have lived through Katrina’s assault. Many people suffered cuts and lacerations as a result of the hurricane. Of these people, many may have difficultly recovering from cuts and wounds due to an existing health condition, like diabetes. Due to a severe lack of medicine, bandages, and antibiotics, wounds can quickly become infected by the bacteria-infested floodwaters. The result, without proper and speedy medical care, can be badly infected, open sores that leave the body open to yet more disease and sickness.

Therefore, it’s very important to note that hurricane-related wounds may present vital risks for survivors of Katrina. Especially to those who have yet to receive the proper medical treatment and for those survivors who had to endure these wounds for three, four, or even five days while awaiting rescue. After a very few days, it doesn’t take long, an infected gash or abrasion can become very grave and even life-threatening due to the spreading infection. This is what many of Indonesia’s survivors had to cope with last December in the aftermath of the tsunami. Therefore, this risk needs to be considered realistic and taken seriously.

Floodwaters, by nature, are usually contaminated by raw sewage. Even with this pollution, remember that this tainted water is not necessarily going to be dangerous except for when a person drinks or otherwise ingests the dirty water or gets it in their untreated wounds.

And, once Katrina’s floodwaters have finally been pumped out or recede along the devastated Gulf Coast cities, towns, and parishes, the threat of water-borne disease and illnesses will remain. As most water-borne illnesses derive from consuming fecal matter-contaminated water, this threat will be present until the drinking water systems can be fully cleaned and disinfected.

There is clearly a long road ahead.

When the city’s high-powered pumps became innundated because of Katrina’s extensive and sustained winds of over 150 mph that battered the city on Monday, the end result was catastrophic in nature. The real flooding of New Orleans had begun.

This precise scenario was predicted in an article published in Scientific American in October 2001, entitled Drowning New Orleans.

The boxes are stacked eight feet high and line the walls of the large, windowless room. Inside them are new body bags, 10,000 in all. If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. “As the water recedes,” says Walter Maestri, a local emergency management director, “we expect to find a lot of dead bodies.”       read the rest

As Katrina’s fury passed, chaos began to reign freely throughout New Orleans. Looting, carjacking, gunfire, and lawlessness were becoming prevalent.

The firearms department of a Wal-Mart superstore in New Orleans was one of the first places to be raided by strategic thinkers. Canal Street’s tourist district did not escape the looting crowd either as clothing and jewelry stores were ransacked for anything of value. Even the Children’s Hospital became inundated by marauding gunmen whose apparent goal was to take anything and everything they could take from it.

Biloxi and Gulfport, two of the hardest hit towns in Mississippi, also did not escape the ransacking and violence associated with the looting crowd as demolished casinos were invaded with hopes of finding some cash inside the slot machines. Stores and homes were broken into in search of anything of use, substance, or importance.

Like food, water, flashlights, anything.

Throughout the demolished coastal cities, the police and the National Guard made small attempts to intercede in the violence and looting. This, however, prompted several gunfire exchanges, one resulting in the shooting of a policeman. At this point, all uniformed officers and troops were still under direct instructions to keep survivor rescue and care as their main focus. It was not yet a war zone.

Therefore, in a lot of cases of rampant looting and further destruction, the police and Guardsmen had to choose what they would and would not react to – the looters or the helpless, dehydrated, and desperate hurricane survivors.

For the city of New Orleans, in order to put a stop to the ever-rising floodwater, the key task for city officials and members of the Army Corps of Engineers has been to repair the broken levee walls which have been allowing the waters of Lake Pontchartrain, to the north of New Orleans, as well as another breach located along the 17th Street Canal, at the eastern end of the city, to gush out in record proportion. Concrete barriers and sand bags have been dropped at strategic places, but there is still so much more that has to be done, and done quickly.

As many already know, New Orleans is approximately 12 feet below sea level which obviously put The Big Easy at a great and constant risk of Gulf of Mexico flooding. But, what you might not realize is that the city of New Orleans is also at least 20 feet below the surface of Lake Pontchartrain. The incredible risk that this causes is that, if the levee is ever breached or seriously fractured, the basin (New Orleans) will actually fill up like a giant soup bowl.

The water will pour from the lake and fill the basin between it and the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans becomes the New Atlantis.

By Wednesday, August 31st, flood levels in the lowest areas of New Orleans had already hit 20 feet. Additionally when the tide began to rise, reports of swamp critters, such as alligators and venomous cottonmouth snakes, as well as sharks that came in with the rising tide began to surface. And, as the tide continued to rise, areas that were previously spared much of the tidal devastation, especially the historic French Quarter, were starting to see escalating water levels. It seemed as though the water just would not stop.

New Orleans is a wild land once again.

Approximately one million people are believed to have escaped the New Orleans area shortly before Katrina made landfall. However, it is also estimated that as many as 200,000 did not. The people who left were the people who had their health, money, or a car. They left.

Thus the ongoing rescue effort focuses on saving the lives of the very people who should have been evacuated from their respective parishes first: the old, the sick, and the poor.

A massive rescue and recovery maneuver has been coordinated with about 30,000 National Guard members, with support from every possible local, state, and federal organization. The federal government has sent five ships with helicopters, hovercrafts, eight maritime rescue teams, as well as much needed relief supplies including MRE’s (military-issued “meals ready to eat,” necessary medical supplies including MRE’s, clean drinking water, and well the list just goes on and on. Many civilian agencies, such as the American Red Cross, are in the process of preparing to care for the massive influx of displaced refugees. The number of surviving refugees is estimated to be well over one million, although it could end up being closer to double that amount. Additionally, the Department of Transportation has supplied 400 water trucks, generators, tarpaulins, mobile homes, and forklift trucks.

Help is on the way, but due to the mounting health threats and escalating looting, the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, finally had to issue a total evacuation of the city Wednesday, August 31st, emphasizing that it might be weeks or even months before New Orleans will be safe for human life again. Until then the area will be effectively off-limits, and under martial law. “Shoot to kill,” said the governor of Louisiana. “Zero tolerance for looters,” said President George W. Bush.

Nagin emphasized that he believed that the looting began with people seeking food and water.

So, the evacuation of the remaining desperate residents began as buses were brought in and the migration from the Superdome, the make-shift refuge for what continues to grow to well over 60,000 frantic souls, got underway. This should be a good sign as it means that Katrina’s survivors will soon be getting the food, water, and other help they need as they are bused to another giant sports stadium in Houston, Texas – the Astrodome.

Hurricane Katrina [Awaiting our Guests], uploaded by slight clutter

However the focus on the beloved city of NO must not take effort away from the huge area of coastal Lousiana and Mississippi, where thousands are stranded without food, clean water, electricity, or medical attention.

As Wednesday progressed, the looting and violence seemed to progress too. In the evening, a medical evacuation helicopter attempted to set down at a hospital in Kenner, a nearby town, the pilot stated that close to 100 people were on and around the landing pad. Some had guns and the pilot was too afraid to land. The frequency of gunfire aimed at the Chinook helicopters, which are there to help, has apparently increased as the days have worn on. Also on Wednesday, a National Guard troop was shot while serving in the Superdome arena, which has become the main collection site for refugees and whose conditions are steadily declining. As many as 60,000 people sought refuge at the Superdome during and in the wake of the ferocious hurricane.

The scene along Mississippi’s coastline was not much different than New Orleans. Many of smaller settlements are just simply gone – nothing left to prove these were once thriving coastal areas. The high-water marks left by Hurricane Katrina are much higher than those marks left by the devastating Hurricane Camille of 1969. Camille, up until a few days ago, was considered the region’s most horrific natural disaster. There are areas which used to be home to block after block of homes and buildings; however, now there are 10 to 20 block patches where there is nothing left.

Haley Barbour, Mississippi’s governor, reported on Tuesday that about 90 percent of all structures in certain areas are gone. They have just vanished as if they never existed.

The evacuation of the Superdome, however, was temporarily and unexpectedly interrupted Thursday, September 1st, after a gun was reportedly fired at a U.S. Chinook helicopter. Although no injuries were reported, evacuation operations were suspended until those in charge could regain control of the Superdome. The National Guard was able to continue loading and busing hurricane refugees to Houston’s Astrodome.

It is also important to note that the Superdome is not the only place in the New Orleans area that is experiencing such strife, violence, and need for rescue. The Convention Center in New Orleans and area hospitals where doctors and nurses are working with flashlights trying to keep patients alive are just a couple of places that need evacuating. In fact, at the Convention Center alone, there was but one nurse to be found among the greater than 15,000 person refugee population.

The sick are in need of evacuation before the healthy, and there are at least seven area hospitals that must be evacuated due to the extensive flooding and power outages. This, although understandable and necessary, slows down the migration process and seems to be hampering other relief efforts.

Of course, not all of New Orleans’ sick people were in hospitals during Hurricane Katrina. Many people who have serious health problems, such as heart conditions, diabetes, need daily monitoring and/or medications, are now without their necessary medication and without access to a physician. In the Superdome alone, medical professionals and volunteers are attempting to treat a wide range of health problems, including kidney failure, heat stroke, diabetic shock, and dehydration.

In the very near future, the public health workers along the ravaged southern coastline will also have to contend with common difficulties that occur after all hurricanes. Some of these problems include car accidents resulting from no power for traffic lights, injuries resulting from falls from roofs, trees, railings, and carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of running gas-powered generators indoors.

In the meantime, the first herd of buses caring the initial wave of Superdome refugees arrived early Thursday at Houston’s giant Astrodome. Here these tired, hungry, and thirsty refugees will be sheltered, be given a cot to rest upon (until they run out), and be supplied with “comfort kits” which contain various toiletries and a meal.

The process of evacuating and caring for the displaced hurricane survivors has begun; however, it has just begun and will take a lot of time and extra amounts of patience from everybody involved. It will take even longer for the floodwaters to recede and power supplies to be restored. And, even during this time, the floodwaters will quickly be turning into an extremely toxic soup of consistently churning and mixing ocean water, human and animal fecal matter, industrial chemicals and petrol, along with decomposing bodies and a whole host of potentially deadly bacteria.

This infectious saltwater cocktail of contaminated water, a general lack of cleanliness, and the still hot southern temperatures are capable of prompting the spread of a several dangerous bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. These infectious waters could also be a carrier of epidemic-causing illnesses such as typhoid fever, cholera, and leptospirosis. While these diseases are quite possible under the conditions wrought by Hurricane Katrina, it is believed that a more serious risk will quickly become mosquito-driven ailments such as West Nile virus, malaria, and dengue fever.

In an area like New Orleans, where swamp land is prevalent, mosquito-born diseases could materialize fairly easily; and, of course, the very young, elderly, and anyone with a compromised immune system will be at a significantly elevated risk of getting very ill if any of these illnesses do materialize.

The lasting consequences of Katrina’s destruction will likely be felt across the United States, since The Gulf of Mexico represents one quarter of the total oil output in the USA.

Katrina’s massive sustained winds, storm surge, and sheets of pounding rain resulted in the shutting down of an estimated 95 percent of the crude production and 88 percent of the natural gas output in the area. And, the result of this higher prices for everything as convenient energy becomes more dear.

It has been projected that the price may reach as high as $4 or more a gallon before it starts to go back down again. If it ever does.

As the days turn into weeks and the weeks eventually turn into months, the rebuilding and restructuring of New Orleans will begin. It is, however, going to be a very long time, a staggeringly long time, before anyone who has been severely affected by Hurricane Katrina to feel normal again. Safe again. To be able to return to New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport, or any other community hit hard by Katrina’s ferocity and be able to call these once lively, energetic places home.

So, as I’ve been watching the coverage from the safety of my couch, I can’t help but wonder what these people are really feeling. They have no way to hear the news.

As another day closes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I am moved by the very thought of all of those helpless people sitting in the dark waiting for someone, something, anything. And, although help is truly on its way, I wish they knew that it was coming.

"East of anywhere" has traditionally meant the wrong side of the tracks. The prevailing winds blow fumes and objectionable odors in that direction. If they’ve got the choice, most people would rather be upwind. That’s one reason why I love the title of the book East Of Eden so much.

This is East St. Louis, and even without playing Simcity 4 you can see that it’s a bit of a neglected place. Until 1861, people called it Illinoistown. In 1917 it was the scene of one of the worst race riots in United States history. The U.S. Government report on the incident wasn’t declassified until 1986.

The period of 1865-1900 is referred to as the "golden age of St. Louis."

By the 1970s, most of the business had moved away.

The industrial boom for East St. Louis began in 1868 when the railroad trunk lines made the city into a commercial hub. Yet by 1920, of all cities with over 50,000 residents, East St. Louis was the 2nd poorest. The many companies in the region had settled outside of the city limits, making residential property the only tax base the city had to draw from.

A freeway and bridge system, which you can see part of above, makes it possible for middle class white collar workers to commute directly from the eastern suburbs into the city of St. Louis, bypassing East St. Louis completely.

From this height you can see the stadium and the Gateway Arch on the west bank of the river. The Gateway Arch was dedicated in 1968 and was mostly a gateway to companies leaving the region.

East St. Louis is located on a floodplain. They have needed to raise the streets in the town’s early development, and a series of levees built by the Army Corps of Engineers is still in place to contain the periodic rising of the Mississippi River. In fact, until they built the first dike in 1909 East St. Louis was plagued by devastating floods year after year.

Even today, flooding and drainage are still a problem.

In this image you can see the ridgeline of higher ground to the East. These hills are where the suburbs are. Ironically it is the draining of sewage from these sprawling communities that causes the worst problems for the lowland region of East St. Louis. Naturally, the suburbs that are creating the problem want the disadvantaged people on the floodplain to pay for it.

"The sewage, which is flowing from collapsed pipes and dysfunctional pumping stations, has also flooded basements all over the city. The city’s vacuum truck, which uses water and suction to unclog the city’s sewers, cannot be used be cause it needs $5,000 in repairs. Even when it works, it some times can’t be used because there isn’t money to hire drivers. A single engineer now does the work that 14 others did before they were laid off. By April the pool of overflow be hind the Villa Griffin project has expanded into a lagoon of sewage. Two million gallons of raw sewage lie outside the children’s homes."

"In May, another health emergency develops. Soil samples tested at residential sites in East St. Louis turn up disturbing quantities of arsenic, mercury and lead-as well as steroids dumped in previous years by stockyards in the area. Lead levels found in the soil around one family’s home, according to lead-poison experts, measure "an astronomical 10,000 parts per million." Five of the children in the building have been poisoned. Although children rarely die of poisoning by lead, health experts note, its effects tend to be subtle and insidious. By the time the poisoning becomes apparent in a child’s sleep disorders, stomach pains and hyperactive behavior, says a health official, "it is too late to undo the permanent brain damage." Jonathan Kozol

In this image you can see the entire sprawling region of greater St. Louis, and the mighty Mississippi River.