Major Disaster Imminent in New Orleans
Charles Johnson
Sun Aug 28, 2005 at 8:10 am PDT • Views: 159
Hurricane Katrina has become a raging monster, with winds approaching 175 miles an hour, and it’s bearing down on New Orleans.
NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin ordered an immediate evacuation Sunday for all of New Orleans, a city of 485,000 people, as Hurricane Katrina bore down with wind revved up to nearly 175 mph and a threat of a massive storm surge.
Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort including the Superdome arena.
“There doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said, joining the mayor at a news conference.
The mayor called the order unprecedented, but said Katrina’s storm surge would likely top the levees that protect the city from the surrounding water of Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and marshes. The bowl-shaped city must pump water out even during normal times, and the hurricane threatened pump power.
“We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared,” Nagin said.
Frank says: