zuluking goes to New Orleans to help in rescue effort

[zuluking]

At work we have an old style military humvee in working condition and offered it up to Homeland Security as a possible rescue vehicle. They're desperate for help and quickly took us up on the offer. We tanked up, filled 4-10 gallon spare cans, and headed off to New Orleans, some 100 miles away.

I phoned my contact at Homeland Security when we were driving through Baton Rouge, and he directed us to go to the Superdome to pick up refugees. The traffic slowly thined as we got closer to New Orleans, and once we passed the State Police checkpoint at LaPlace, only emergency/rescue vehicles were on I-10 into the city.

What struck me first was the lack of traffic. 5 lanes going each direction, and only a handful of vehicles on what normally be a gridlocked interstate.

We arrived at I-10 and Causeway Blvd and had to stop because the interstate about 1-mile ahead was under 24 feet of water. I told the Sherriff's deputy that we were instructed to go to the Superdome and he gave us a "back way" to get there.

I-10 and Causeway had become a MASH type environment with Blackhawk helicopters landing on the interstate every few minutes, unloading refugees from downtown and the inner city. The sick and injured were immediatly put aboard an ambulance for a ride to Baton Rouge, while the uninjured waited for a bus ride.

We took Causeway Blvd toward Airline to get to the Superdome via Tulane Blvd. We crossed the now infamous 17th street canal and had to turn back at Airline due to high water. Down Old Metarie road we went and I would say that every other tree and powerline were down, with damage to every structure ranging from medium to total.

We saw our first group of people, some senior citizens bar-b-qing they're soon to be spoiled freezer food. We noticed an apartment building's front doors were open, so we pulled in and low and behold about a dozen people were there, having ridden out the storm. They were out of water, but had plenty of food. None of them wanted to evacuate, so we gave them some water and went on our way.

Again we crossed the 17th street canal, this time farther down and into Orleans Parish. As we crossed, I noticed the water level in the canal was right up to the top. Little did we know that the levee had broken about an hour before and water was pouring into the area we were traversing. But more on that later.

We came across a few more residents, offered assistance and water/food. Nobody wanted to leave the area, but some were grateful for the water. We saw no looting or roving gangs in the areas we were driving through. As we approached Tulane avenue, we were again stopped by rising water and had to turn around, about 2 miles short of the Superdome.

We headed back towards Old Metarie road and came up to the 17th street canal, when I saw something I'll never forget, water spilling out of the canal, rushing over the road ahead. It was a foot or two deep and rising fast, so I floored the hummer and barrelled through. On the other side of the water we ran into a guy heading back to his house, which was behind us and the water. Despite our protests, he waded through the water and back to his house. I have no idea what happened to him after that.

We picked our way back to Causeway, stopping at the apartment to make sure nobody needed a ride (nobody did), and saw more amazing sights on I-10. We stopped on the overpass and tried to count all the helicopters on the horizon, at least 20 at that moment. Down below, about 1,000 refugees were waiting for bus rides to Baton Rouge.

We took the cloverleaf down to the westbound lanes, and had to stop while 2 blackhawk, and 1 Red Cross helicopter, offloaded people. Amazing, Blackhawks landing less than 100 feet from us in the middle of a 5 lane freeway. It was something out of a bad made-for-tv-movie.

It was getting dark, Martial Law was going into effect, and our services would no longer be needed since they could not spare anyone with a gun to ride along with us. We headed back towards Baton Rouge in pitch blackness for the first 30 minutes of the ride, not a light to be seen, save the emergency vehilces passing by.

I experienced Hurricane Lilly first hand in 2002. I remember the damage I saw was awe inspiring. Lilly pales in comparison to Katrina, 100 fold, and thats no exaggeration.

I have to sleep now.