I haven’t had much to say about the effects of Katrina over the last day or so, mostly because I’m a few hours removed from the damage. I’m seeing pretty much the same thing you are on the news. What I have seen, however, are the crowds of people pouring into Lafayette. Friends of my co-workers and people from the courthouse in New Orleans were here yesterday, and their houses are almost certainly gone. The Cajun Dome has been opened for refugees here, and driving to the post office yesterday I saw a few families setting up a makeshift home in a park nearby. The city of Lafayette has announced that the children of refugees will be able to enroll in school here starting next week. Houston has welcomed refugees in a similar fashion, opening the Astrodome and the schools. No one knows for certain how long New Orleans will be underwater, but judging from “these pictures”:http://www.wwltv.com/sharedcontent/breakingnews/slideshow/083005_dmnkatrina/1.html, it could be a very long time. Many of the communites on the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts in both directions from New Orleans are totally destroyed, and potential contamination from the refineries and chemical plants concentrated around the city will complicate any recovery. One thing is certain; it will be years before New Orleans, Gulf Port, and the surrounding areas recover.
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Sorry for the lack of updates. I went to work this morning to discover that we had no internet. Our connection is routed through the system in New Orleans, so we were pretty much toast until the tech guys can get things straightened out. Hopefully things will run more smoothly tomorrow.
Tom Kirkendall has an informative post on the potential impact of Katrina on oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. Also, he notes that Ernie the Attorney had to ride out the hurricane in New Orleans. Ernie hasn’t posted since about midnight, so I hope everything is okay. *Update:* Tom has more on the “energy situation”:http://blog.kir.com/archives/002345.asp. *Update 2:* Looks like Ernie “made it out”:http://www.ernietheattorney.net/ernie_the_attorney/2005/08/made_it_out_to_.html of New Orleans.
I guess brick isn’t always the best “building”:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050829/photos_ts/mdf47276 “material”:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050829/photos_ts/mdf47269 to withstand a hurricane. *Update:* If you’re searching for more Katrina pictures, check “my roundup post here”:http://www.brainwidth.net/blog/2005/09/03/roundup-of-sources-for-katrina-pictures-and-photos/.
I’ve just start a new group blog and discussion site at “LawTalk”:http://talk.brainwidth.net. LawTalk is intended to be like “MetaFilter”:http://www.metafilter.com/ or “Slashdot”:http://slashdot.org/, except focused on law-related issues. If you’re a law student, lawyer, law professor, or at all interested in legal news and issues, feel free to join and post. There’s not much there now, but I will be adding more content soon. For that matter, you can contribute, too!
Katrina’s eye is now well north of New Orleans, and so the worst has likely passed. New Orleans was lucky that Katrina’s path fell just east of the city, avoiding the nightmare flooding scenario that was likely to occur had the path been directly over the city or Lake Pontchartrain. Katrina skimmed over the far southeast corner of Louisiana, and then made true landfall at the Louisiana-Mississippi border, between New Orleans and Gulfport. Unfortunately for Gulfport, the most severe weather generated by the storm was east of the eye.
New Orleans has not escaped damage, of course. There are reports off 6 feet of water at Jackson Barracks in the Lower 9th Ward, as well as flooding along the Industrial Canal. Water should begin receding there soon, and there haven’t been any reports of significant flooding in the Uptown area. Although there was at least a 12-foot storm surge on the Mississippi at New Orleans, it looks like the levee held—at least for the most part—and kept the really dangerous flood waters at bay. The flooding in the Industrial Canal area is still cause for concern, and the Mayor of New Orleans announced that there had been a diesel spill, spread by the flood waters. Industrial contamination is a real concern, along with the almost certain contamination from the sewer system.
Lafayette, as far as I can tell, is unscathed. I’m sure the city and its residents will be sending resources east to assist in the recovery as soon as is safe.
Oil prices are already “over seventy dollars a barrel”:http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=agZKpVfB2rz0&refer=news_index this morning, and we still don’t know the extent of damage to the platforms, oil terminals, and refining facilities. ConocoPhillips, the biggest U.S. refining company, shut its Alliance refinery south of New Orleans, and Chevron Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. also closed refineries and evacuated staff.
The AP “reports”:http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/ap/2005/08/29/ap2194889.html that wholesale gasoline prices increased by 25-35 cents a gallon today based on reports that about 8 percent of U.S. refining capacity had been shut down ahead of the storm. One analyst said pump prices nationwide would likely average more than $2.75 a gallon by week’s end.
Reports of two separate levee breaches, one in the Quarter and one near the French market. Officials aren’t sure if the levees are broken or if water is coming over the top. Flooding is up to a couple of feet in some places. More from the “NOLA weblog”:http://www.nola.com/weblogs/nola/.
As of 9:30 AM, WWLTV is reporting two holes ripped in Superdome roof, visible from the facility floor. Worse, a levee breach has occured along the industrial canal. They expect at least 3 to 8 feet of water, including around Arabi and the 9th Ward. The two shelters in St. Bernard Parish are taking a heavy hit, both with broken windows and glass, and one losing its roof. So far at least 350,000 without power.
As you can see from the radar, Lafayette is on the extreme western edge of the storm right now. We’re getting decent wind gusts, but I don’t think enough to cause structural damage or significant flying debris. I can hear the gusts whistling outside the windows, though, and it’s a little disconcerting. Suprisingly, we’ve had very little rain. Looking to the south actually reveals a bit of clear sky. The local news is reporting that there are some downed power lines and trees, but we still have power here.
The eastern part of the state has not faired so well. I’ve heard reports of a hotel collapsing, trapping the guests, and part of the Superdome roof coming off. We’ve been very lucky here, and our thoughts are with those further east.