Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 10:11:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Drew Bittner <drewbitt at yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: thank you all
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

--- "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com> wrote:

> At 07:59 AM 8/31/05 -0700, Drew Bittner wrote:
> >Thanks to everyone who's expressed concern for and
> >sympathy about my mom in Gulfport.
> >As Mike pointed out earlier, it'll be a very long
> time
> >(measured in weeks, hopefully, not months) before
> some
> >of the basic infrastructure is together enough to
> get
> >word out. My brother intends to head for
> Mississippi
> >tomorrow if we don't have word by then, but I don't
> >know how far he'll get; I'm assuming the National
> >Guard has the ingresses blocked off.
>
> According to a report I heard yesterday about
> Biloxi, there's only one road
> into the area that's been cleared enough to get
> through, and they are
> restricting that to rescue workers and other
> necessary folks.  I suspect
> the only way he'll get in in the near future is to
> volunteer with the Red
> Cross or join the National Guard.

** Hwy 49, the north-south axis from Jackson to
Gulfport, is likely clear but liable to be blocked by
National Guard. I don't know if going there is a
feasible plan but I can't talk him out of it. There'd
be no way to get there from due east because all the
bridges are out and parts of Rt 10 are impassible; Rt
90, along the beach, is out of commission for a long
time to come as well.

> As one reporter in N.O. this morning said, there is
> *nothing* there to
> support anyone...it all has to be brought in...food,
> water, gas, medical
> supplies.  The reporter was sleeping in his car, and
> drove in from Florida
> with everything needed to survive there.

** It's true, there's nothing. Oddly, though, my mom
got a cell signal awhile ago and called my sister to
say she was all right. You never know when a miracle
will happen.

> >New Orleans will never be the same, even if they do
> >rebuild. Portions of the city may have to be
> declared
> >uninhabitable for many years to come, while others
> >will be redlined and uninsurable for flood or other
> >disasters. In any event, we may be seeing the death
> of
> >a major city playing out in real time.
>
> I don't know the geography there well enough, but is
> there some place not
> too far away where they could relocate?  It's still
> a major port for
> transshipping from the Mississippi to oceangoing
> vessels and that will be
> needed somewhere in that area.  Perhaps a little
> farther upstream?
>
> There are reasons New Orleans is located where it
> is, and some of them
> still apply...though power craft have changed things
> somewhat in the last
> few hundred years.
>
> -- Mike B.
> --
> I'm not tense, just terribly, terribly alert.

New Orleans is a vitally important shipping center,
and I'm sure it will continue in that way, but the
actual city around it may be reduced or relocated.

Drew

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