Mississippi Expects 'Grim' Body Count

[Clio]

Link:http://www.thejacksonchannel.com/weather/4916125/detail.html

Emergency Workers Expect Grim Body Count

Mississippi Officials: More Than 80 Dead

POSTED: 3:00 pm CDT August 30, 2005

UPDATED: 3:54 pm CDT August 30, 2005

JACKSON, Miss. -- It's clear the death toll on the Mississippi Gulf Coast will rise sharply in the days to come.

One Hurricane Katrina survivor after another told stories Tuesday of friends and loved ones who floated off or disappeared as the floodwaters rose around them.

American Medical Response Operations Supervisor Mark Williams said paramedics on the scene said the devastation is so great that they won't quit counting bodies for days.

AMR operates ambulances along the Mississippi coast.

The only evidence of the Quiet Water Beach apartments in Gulfport is a concrete slab. Officials say as many as 30 people died there. Red bricks which were once its walls are scattered around the area, which is located just across U.S. Highway 90 from the beach.

In the debris is a crushed red child's play wagon, jewelry and clothing.

Behind the slab, a wall of debris is washed up against homes. The nearby U-S 90 is buckled and covered with debris -- twisted boards, pieces of wall, bricks and the possessions of those who lived there.

People are digging through the rubble, looking for any possessions that survived.

Casinos Want Emergency Legislation

A top casino executive is calling on the Mississippi Legislature to enact emergency legislation to keep the state's coast gaming industry alive.

Treasure Bay Casino President and CEO Bernie Burkholder said Tuesday most of the casino hotels on the coast survived the hurricane, but several gambling barges suffered extensive damage.

Reconstruction could take years, Burkholder said.

State law doesn't allow land-based casinos, so lawmakers would have to draft legislation that would allow casinos to operate on land.

Burkholder today walked around the Treasure Bay property in Biloxi, surveying the damage. He said it would take about $100 million to replace what was lost.

Also in Biloxi, the President Casino was swept from its beach moorings and tossed across U.S. 90 into the parking lot of the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.

Military Bases Damaged

Widespread flooding and high winds from Hurricane Katrina damaged Keesler Air Force Base and Camp Shelby.

Keesler suffered extensive damage to base housing, training facilities and industrial areas from raging flood waters that were up to four feet deep.

There are no injuries reported at the Biloxi base.

Flooding and downed trees also battered buildings at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida.

Army officials were en route to Camp Shelby in Mississippi, where power had been knocked out, and fallen trees and flooding had done some damage. The base wasn't evacuated, and there were no early reports of injuries.

Navy officials are still evaluating the damage to bases and facilities in the area, including Naval Station Pascagoula in Mississippi and Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. Two Navy frigates were moved from Pascagoula before the storm hit, and were still out at sea.

Looters Run Rampant

An Assosiated Press reporter on the beach in Biloxi says it "looks like a free-for-all," as looters come running out of souvenir shops, loaded down with merchandise.

He saw two men riding go-carts taken from an amusement park near the beach.

Two men were pushing a large plastic garbage can with wheels -- so full that it took both of them to drag it down the street.

There's a similar scene in downtown New Orleans, where looters are floating garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street.

One man walked down Canal Street with a pallet of food on his head. His wife insisted they weren't stealing from the nearby supermarket -- and said, "It's about survival right now." She said she had eight grandchildren to feed.

Battling Blackouts

Three out four four Mississippi residents are now without power, and 97 percent of Jackson is in the dark, WAPT reported.

Southern Company officials say power was out to all of its 195,000 customers in south Mississippi served by Mississippi Power Co. Farther north, Entergy Mississippi officials reported power was out to 260,400 customers. Tree trunks, downed power lines and trees, and chunks of broken concrete in the streets hampered rescue efforts. Swirling water in many areas contained hidden dangers. Crews worked to clear highways. Along one Mississippi highway, motorists themselves used chainsaws to remove trees blocking the road.

Jackson Evers International Airport is closed at least until Friday. The facility has no power and its roof is seriously damaged. Airports in New Orleans and Gulfport are also closed.

President Promises Help

President George W. Bush is pledging extensive assistance for hurricane victims, and the government has put a massive emergency assistance programinto effect that includes rushing baby formula, communications equipment, generators, water and ice into hard-hit areas.

As the storm surged ashore just east of New Orleans yesterday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had medical teams, rescue squads and groups prepared to supply food and water poised in a semicircle around the city.

In addition, President Bush verbally made emergency disaster declarations for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The difference between these declarations and preliminary ones issued over the weekend was that the new declarations allow for the drawdown of federal funds in disaster relief and recovery.

The Environmental Protection Agency has dispatched emergency crews to Louisiana and Texas because of concern about oil and chemical spills. And, the Coast Guard closed ports and waterways along the Gulf Coast while positioning craft around the area to be ready to conduct post-hurricane search and rescue operations.

The Defense Department dispatched emergency coordinators to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi to provide a wide range of assistance including communications equipment, medical teams and other emergency supplies. And, Health and Human services has deployed nearly 40 doctors and nurses to Jackson, Mississippi, to be used where needed, as well as medical supplies.

Storm Impacts Elections

Two special Mississippi House elections have been delayed a week because of Hurricane Katrina, the secretary of state's office said. The first delay is for the race in District 86, which includes parts of Clarke, Perry and Wayne counties. The other delay is in southwest Mississippi's District 96, which includes parts of Adams, Amite and Pike counties and all of Wilkinson County. Those elections are now set for Sept. 6. Runoffs, if necessary, will be Sept. 20.

[Clio]

Link:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167781,00.html

Excerpt - Most of the rest a repeat...

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Rescuers in boats and helicopters struggled to reach hundreds of wet and bedraggled victims of Hurricane Katrina (search) along the Gulf Coast Tuesday, while New Orleans slipped deeper into crisis as water began rising in the streets because of a levee break.

The magnitude of the disaster — and the death toll in particular — became clearer with every tale of misery. Mississippi's governor said the number of dead in one county alone could be as high as 80.

"At first light, the devastation is greater than our worst fears. It's just totally overwhelming," Blanco said the morning after Katrina howled ashore with winds of 145 mph and engulfed thousands of homes in one of the most punishing storms on record in the United States.

Bill Lokey, an official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (search), called Katrina "the most significant natural disaster to hit the United States."

In New Orleans, water began rising in the streets Tuesday morning, swamping an estimated 80 percent of the city and prompting the evacuation of hotels and hospitals. The water was also rising perilously inside New Orleans' Superdome, and Blanco said the tens of thousands of people now huddled there and other shelters would have to be evacuated as well.

"The situation is untenable," Blanco said at a news conference. "It's just heartbreaking."

Because of two levees that broke Tuesday, the city was rapidly filling with water, the governor said. She also said the power could be out for a long time, and the storm broke a major water main, leaving the city without drinkable water. Also, looting broke out in some neighborhoods.

New Orleans lies mostly below sea level and is protected by a network of pumps, canals and levees. Officials began using helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags onto one of the levees, hoping to close the breach.

All day, rescuers were also seen using helicopters to drop lifelines to victims and pluck them from the roofs of homes cut off by floodwaters. The Coast Guard said it rescued some 1,200 people.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said hundreds, if not thousands, of people may still be stuck on roofs roofs and in attics, and so rescue boats were bypassing the dead.

"We're not even dealing with dead bodies," Nagin said. "They're just pushing them on the side."

National Guardsmen brought in people from outlying areas to New Orleans' Superdome in the backs of big 21/2-ton Army trucks. Louisiana's wildlife enforcement department also brought people in on the backs of their pickups. Some were wet, some were in wheelchairs, some were holding babies and nothing else.

Nevertheless, it was clear the death toll would rise sharply, with one survivor after another telling of friends and loved ones who floated off or disappeared as the floodwaters rose around them.

"I talked with paramedics that are on the scene and the devastation is so great that they won't quit counting [bodies] for a while," said Mark Williams, operations supervisor for an ambulance service along the Mississippi coast.

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