General Chat

My cousin and his wife live in Nworlins (as they pronounce it). Hope they'll be OK, looks like a biggie! CB >|<

Just heard on CNN that the roof of the Superdome has started to peel off and there are about 10,000 peiple sheltering in there!

It does sound a bad one - hope everyone is safe out there. If it's gonna hit the Bahamas too, I hope my cousin and her family are safe. My Aunt is already here on holiday, thankfully. Jan xx

Jan...it has already passed the Bahamas... it went passed there on Wednesday...little damage is reported. Jacquie xxxx

New Orleans is going to be devastated. The entire city is completely below seal level and relies on pumps, sandbanks and marshes to keep the water out of the city as it is. As a category 3 storm Katrina dropped 15 inches of rain over Southern Florida in just a couple of hours, it's now a category 4/5. Michigan and the Great Lakes area is braced for 'heavy thunderstorms' and 'severe rain' starting this Wednesday, before it moves into Ontario. It's worth bearing in mind that although this storm is really bad, it's actually not as bad as Hurricane Andrew that hit Florida in 1994. Scary stuff. RG

according to sky news tv its been downgraded to a cat 3 hurricane. Alough on sky news online its put at cat 4. E x

One of the pumping stations in New Orleans has just failed… but the good news is that Katrina has moved slightly Eastwards, thus sparing the city from a dead hit. It’s now the Western edge of the storm, and the weaker edge that is over the city, but it’s still going to be bad. Parts of downtown are already under 8 ft of water. Further East in Mississippi, the main coast highway is under 7ft of water. As soon as it hits land it starts weakening, the further over land it gets the weaker it gets. RG

For Mary Anne whose son is in Baton Rouge. If you are still looking in. Go to www*2theadvocate*com or wafb*com for news and hurricane info. coming directly from the area. Patty x

Situation in New Orleans is bad, about 80% of the city is under water. There have been at least 80 deaths, there are about 10,000 people sheltering in the Superdome, with no electricity or running water, in temperatures in the 90s. There are people in the hotel here in Dallas from the stricken area, goodness knows what they will find when they go back. There's not a lot we can do faced with wind and water on this scale. My thoughts go out to all those affected.

From BBC news site: Up to 80 killed in US hurricane A huge rescue operation is under way along the US Gulf Coast after a hurricane killed up to 80 people in a single county and swamped New Orleans. Harrison County in Mississippi bore the brunt of Hurricane Katrina as it slammed into local towns Biloxi and Gulfport before heading inland. Mississippi media earlier recorded a death toll of 54 for the state. Thirty people are said to have died in one block of flats in Biloxi which was hit by a 9m (30ft) water surge. The town's actual death toll may be 'in the hundreds', municipal spokesman Vincent Creel told Reuters news agency. nell

That poor chap on tv news who couldn't hold on to his wife any longer and has lost her - he will have nightmares for the rest of his life I should think, and his children too if they saw it happen. I got hold of my friend in N. Miami Beach earlier and she and her family are ok thank goodness. How cruel life is to people who don't deserve it. Losing all you possess including your home must be the most difficult thing to deal with.

It is certainly one of the most difficult Petunia...we are coming up to the year anniversary of Ivan and there are still people here with no proper home or tarpaulin still covering the roof!! Of course Grenada isn't America!!! Jacquie xxxxx

I second that Veronica as one who knows what it is like! We didn't get electricity back for 6 months!! We did have water back after a week which was lucky as we had run out of saved water! The roof, well, we got that back just before Christmas last year. Hope you don't have too much rain up there Veronica..stay safe! Jacquie xxxxx