The little jog to the east that often happens just before a hurricane's landfall has had a huge effect on the amount of damage New Orleans will take. It moved the eye over just enough to keep it from the city proper and put it on the "clean" side of the storm. Katrina also went down to a Cat 4, wonderful news.
Bad news in there for Biloxi.
Some Louisiana reporters are finally in a quiet patch, probably between rain bands. There's only one more of the bad rain bands to get through now and then the storm's power will be climbing down that slope instead of up.
Here's some initial news reports on damage - take them with a grain of salt, accuracy is dubious in these things:
A levee on Lake Pontchartrain has been breached, and three of the city's huge pumps are out. This may signal the start of the kind of flooding that can impact everything for many miles around.
A hotel in Harvey - across the Mississippi, south of New Orleans - has collapsed, and they think there were people sheltering there. Building collapses are widespread and debris is piling up in layers several feet high. Windows have popped out of most high-rises.
"The people in the Superdome have been having a really terrible day." --reporter
The roof of the World Trade Center is gone. I used to be a member there. I had the pleasure of photographing a beautiful historic building for the French ambassador to the US, who was interested in leasing it as the new French Embassy. At a reception in the World Trade Center I got to shake the guy's hand.
I'm not one to care much about stuff like that, but it's part and parcel of my life in New Orleans. Bit by bit, those places in my memory will be touched by the destructive force of this storm.
Better that than live through it.
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