[LINK] New Orleans

[rfmcdonald]

Doug Merrill at A Fistful of Euros has summarized the extent of the catastrophe fairly succinctly.

Imagine the entire population of Munich, of Lyon or of Copenhagen evacuated because of a natural disaster. That’s the situation now in the New Orleans area.

As I write, it’s the dead of night over there, and it is not clear whether the levee breaks, particularly the one near 17th Street that had been keeping out Lake Ponchartrain, have been plugged.

Reports are conflicting -- the local newspaper evacuated yesterday and has become essentially a blog; the blogs of local radio and tv stations give differing accounts -- on whether water is still pouring into the city or not. WWL reports (scroll down to 8:04pm) that helicopters scheduled to drop tons of sand into the breach did not show up; other media say they did.

Until that gap -- estimated at 150 meters in width -- is plugged, New Orleans on the east bank of the Mississippi River will remain a tidal estuary of Lake Ponchartrain. Our Dutch readers will appreciate the scale and severity of the problem. Water will pour into the city until it reaches the level of the lake, which will mean what the world knows as New Orleans will be under three to four meters of water. (The West Bank will be dry, as will a few isolated areas.)

I’ve written about hurricanes and New Orleans before, ending, “Eventually, they say, a major hurricane will inevitably hit New Orleans; I just hope it isn’t this one [Ivan].” One year later, “inevitably” turned into today; Katrina was the Big One.

Making Light has a lot of coverage of the New Orleans situation, in case you're interested in more news from the blogosphere.