Thanks Ninety, and good luck to your friends too.
Goddamn, just watching the news made me cry today. 
We’re still in Valdosta, GA. Trying to get info about my parents house on Lumpkin Road in Carriere Mississippi (one exit north of Picayune). We don’t know if the house is still standing. If it is, we may be able to go live there for a month or so until we can go home.
Oakwood Mall in Terrytown/Gretna is burning. They’re shooting at the firemen trying to put out the fire, so they’re letting it burn.
I was able to find out that my store is the ONLY one in the complex by the bowling alley in Gretna that didn’t lose the roof. Gretna Sports Bar, The Lock Clinic and the Vietnamese businesses in the back all had major damage.
My partner got out and the Gretna Police dept. have the town pretty secure, trying to keep the looters from coming across the river from New Orleans and into Gretna.
I’ll check in later. Where’s are the other refugees now?
Jason
My friend heard that their house in Picayune has survived the storm! So that might be good news for your parents’ house in Carriere, Jason.
Hope so. I’m trying to find aerial pictures of the high end of Terrytown where I live…near Belle Chasse Hwy off Terry Pkwy. And of the Carriere area off I-59.
I’ve been searching and found pictures, but nothing of either area. Can someone do a search for me who’s better equipped?
We moved to a LaQuinta Inn & Suites and got a suite for the same price of 2 rooms at the Motel 6…this place is like the Ritz-Carlton compared to Motel 6. And I don’t have to drive to the Krystalburger to get online now…just down to the lobby. But I"m still limited to a slow laptop and about 1 hour of battery time per attempt. Haven’t been able to do a thorough search. If anyone could post links, it would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jason
How far inland is it? Mama Tiger posted a link earlier to the damage along the Miss. Coast, she said more pics later of Louisiana . altho I here Plaquemine parish is no more…
jason, my friend is going to Picayune tomorrow to survey the damage and attempt to clean up. I’ll let you know more as I find out. AFAIK, they’ve only lost a couple of boats.
Any word yet? We’re waiting to hear from several people who are going to that area, but the cell phones don’t work most of the time. It’s hard to reach anyone.
Jason
I just saw a quick bit on MSNBC, people giving their names and where they were from and a quick message that they were ok. I can only give the names as I heard them. If anyone knows these people perhaps you could pass the word on.
Jill Otam (Odam?) from Park Forrest, IL said hello to her son Chris
Bonnie Van Durskey from Chicago, wanted to let her family and friends know she was ok
In that same segment:
- a woman from Scotland, but I couldn’t hear what her whole name was, first name sounded like Theresa.
- Clark Smith, who said Happy Birthday to his mother in New Town Square, Pennsylvania,
- Terrence(?) Sweeney
- ? Branch, and elderly black man who was looking for his wife Anna who was airlifted out
- a woman who didn’t give her name but wanted “Medilla(?)” to know she was alright
- Cornell Matthews, wanting to let his family know he’s ok
Unbelievable! having met you, though, I am not surprised you kept your sense of humor.
Rick and I are now living near Nashville. If you get out this way, email us. We would love to see you.
Ninety, tons of schools are making special provisions for displaced students. There’s an incomplete list here.
Jason, try this site:
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/090E29M_KATRINA.HTM
Not knowing exactly where you’re looking, to help you orient (because the photos aren’t geographically oriented to the map when you click down, and they don’t exactly match the boxed areas on the map in any case), the top end of Terry Parkway where Holmes splits off is in the seventh row down, sixth photo from the right. It doesn’t appear that the photos cover the complete area, but I can’t pick up the landmarks for your area, so I can’t tell if you’re in an area of minimal damage or not. As far as I can tell, up where we lived (Appletree), there’s only a couple of trees down and roofs are undamaged.
Ninety, I sent you two links, one to UF (go Gators!), and the other to University of Louisiana in Lafayette (if she wants to stay in cajun country).
Jason, I saw pics of their house in Picayune today. It held up really well! There are only a couple of pieces of siding off. Only one small leak in the house. The trees are a pretty big deal though. Lots of big trees down, one fell right between their porch/patio & their swimming pool! They had 3 boats. The one that was in the water is now on land. The one that was on land is now in the water. I think one of the boats survived. You can see a clear line where the water came up to. Their house is set above ground, but the water line didn’t reach the house anyway. (and it looks like the house is pretty close to the water) Good luck to your friend, & let us know when you hear anything.
We’ve determined that the house in Carriere is okay with trees down and blocking the driveway. We’ve located everybody. There are no aerial pictures on that NOAA site of Picayune. The closest they come is Waveland around I-10. I’ve seen overhead pics of our house in Terrytown and everything is exactly as we left it…can even see the cars parked.
Wer’re still in Valdosta for a few more days until it’s safe to return and thing stabilize.
Jason