Levee Breaks, New Orleans Devastated

CNN reports:

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- As the death toll from Hurricane Katrina reached at least 65, a levee holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain sustained a breach two blocks long overnight in the Lakefront area of New Orleans.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin confirmed the breach in a local TV interview. City fire officials said the break was about 200 feet long in the levee surrounding the 17th Street Canal.

"My heart is heavy tonight," Nagin said in the interview on WWL-TV. "I don't have any good news to share.

"The city of New Orleans is in a state of devastation. We probably have 80 percent of our city underwater. With some sections of our city, the water is as deep as 20 feet."

"It's dumping all the lake water in Orleans Parish," she said. "It's essentially running down Canal Street. We have whitecaps on Canal Street.

"We now are completely surrounded by 6 feet of water and are about to get on the phone with Federal Emergency Management Agency to start talking about evacuation plans," Caraway said.

"The water is rising so fast, I can't even begin to describe how fast it is rising."

She did not know whether any pumps had been turned on to pump the water but said, "They're not going to be able to compete with Lake Pontchartrain."

Michelle Malkin has more, as does Josh Trevino - who's done some work with the USACE before and has some links to levee maps and heights. What is significant about this, that I haven't seen anyone comment upon yet, is that the Mississippi river has actually been artificially held out of its natural channel by the USACE for years now. If this flooding causes it to revert to that natural channel, the devastation will be total - and beyond that, virtually irreversible - to not only New Orleans but numerous towns and hamlets upstream.

More updates as they become available today.

Comments

[Moochzilla]

SOFT TACO...does 65 dead qualify as a tragedy or not? Does your auto insurance come into play? Please do the math and let me know.

1878 now dead in Iraq. Is it a "war" in your estimation yet? Plug it into your spreadsheet and get back to me.

As for your parting shot on that last point, I learned something way back when as well...that when you punch a loudmouth bully upside the head they get quiet very quickly. When you dismantle the arguments of pseudo-intellectuals, they run away. Because they are cowards. But, whatever helps you to save face - tell yourself whatever you need to. If you'd like to think you came away a winner, great. You need it.

By the way, you owe it to future clients to not attend law school if this is how poorly you argue and how quickly you fold. You just might get someone a long stretch in the pokey what with your lack of a plan B. Gee, maybe that's why you support W the way you do!

[Moochzilla]

OH, and I'm usually right. read below...

Senior Iran cleric hails “Islamic state of Iraq”    Fri. 26 Aug 2005

Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26 – A senior Iranian cleric welcomed on Friday the establishment of an Islamic republic in Iraq and hailed the country’s new constitution as one based on “Islamic precepts”.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads the powerful ultra-conservative Guardian Council, told worshippers in Tehran’s Friday prayers, “Fortunately, after years of effort and expectations in Iraq, an Islamic state has come to power and the constitution has been established on the basis of Islamic precepts”.
“We must congratulate the Iraqi people and authorities for this victory”, he said.
Jannati, who is a top confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that all justice-seeking counties of the world “have no model other than the Islamic revolution in Iran to turn to”.
“Lebanese Hezbollah and the state of Iraq are not the only supporters of the Islamic revolution”, he said.
Referring to the West as Global Arrogance, the hard-line cleric said, “No matter how many stones they throw in our path, they cannot prevent the spread of the Islamic revolution in the world”.
“We are the winners in the nuclear issue, too”, Jannati said. “The way is paved for our progress and we just need to work hard”.
Jannati said the rising oil prices had placed Iran on a sound financial footing. “We still have problems, but less than before”.
In comments directed against other factions within the clerical regime, Jannati called on the new hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “purge executives who have been within our system, but who have been opposing our system and abusing people’s rights”.
“These executives must be purged as soon as possible”, the powerful cleric said.

[MachoNachos]

Moochzilla,

Congratulations. You've established that you have more free time than I do. And that having the last word on my blog is more important to you than it is to me. Whatever helps you to feel self-actualized, I guess.

[Moochzilla]

Thanks, I can afford to be gracious after all.

I admit it, I am addicted to this site! Your continuous backing down fascinates me. You have nothing left, and have just quit. And I suspect this has always been the case with you. But fear not, soon you'll have it back to 100% people who agree with you, because that is easier, isn't it?

I want to buy into the site, how much to underwrite an entire section where you just repeatedly take your ball and go away - making it seem like you really didn't care all that much about the stances you strongly took just days ago? Like my cat would tell you - if she could talk - it's fun to bat the rat around the barn ever so often.

We could sell subscriptions, I'm sure we'd do quite well. Whattaya say?

1879 now, are you there yet?

[Moochzilla]

1880

[MachoNachos]

For a really difficult question, you could ask yourself what comes after 1880, and how many more posts like this you'd need to reach the death toll from the Battle of the Bulge alone. I'm convinced you have the free time to sustain the effort, you understand, I'm just hoping you've got the sense to use that time more productively.

If you are interested to know what is currently vexing me, it is whether I should deal with you in accordance with Proverbs 26:4, or Proverbs 26:5? Or perhaps another passage from the preacher would be more appropriate (23:9?)

[Dwilkers]

Wow. And I thought Mooch was one of the ones trying to appear to be thoughtful that thread.

You let the mask slip Mooch.

[Moochzilla]

DWILKERS - Hey, when the response is "you're just making a big deal about my post because you have no life"...is that worthy of serious rebuttal? I can do it either way. People who want honest discussion will get that, people who just take their ball and run away will get called out on it. This is his site, the guy put out a controversial opinion (presumably) to get the ball rolling on some debate and discussion. Or maybe this is just Howard Stern-esque shock jock stuff with no substance.

SOFT TACO - Like I said, make of it what you will. The numbers will be posted. An honest question would be to communicate how you would feel if the numbers did get to the Battle of the Bulge? Would you even admit that the price was too high then? Looking at where approval ratings are now I doubt America would stand for that number.

And you never clearly stated how this war is not worth your personal time and life. Personally, I'm not sure this war is worth your or anyone's life - but you are the one advocating it...so let me have it with a well thought-out response. I'm waiting to be put in my place.

You may take the "go enlist or pipe down" line as an attack, and some people meant it that way. But we still have free speech in this country. It was only when you belittled the sacrifice of the dead soldiers that I took issue and asked you to defend your position. After the car insurance nonsense you were out of gas.

Seriously - I would just love to know, since there are a lot of guys over there that would like to rotate out. It's a fair question. And I'm not sure you've reflected on that topic at all.

I don't really take scripture quoting seriously unless I know the person. Typically they are just trying to borrow some moral highground. So, let;s play it like this - you can quote those passages (since the impact means nothing to me) and I'll keep updating the Iraq war dead (and hopefully one day that will mean something to you).

Unless you want your blog to just be a site where people agree with you all the time...and what fun would that be? And I know you don't want to give me the satisfaction of being asked to leave or blocking out my messages.