Katrina

[kalivor]

Greetings:

I wanted to touch base with the board. My family and I made it out of New Orleans. 16 Hrs in the car to get to Atlanta to higher ground. We got out with just what fits in the car. Me, the wife, the baby, the cat, dog and fish.

New Orleans is in real bad shape. Some parts of the city were spared but that is changing now.

6:41 P.M. - Efforts to stop the levee break at the 17th Street Canal have ended unsuccessfully and the water is expected to soon overwhelm the pumps in that area, allowing water to pour into the east bank of Metairie and Orleans to an expected height of 12-15 feet.

There is almost no news of the city or points south. I think we all have lost our houses, cars and more. I know my office is gone but my house may be at least standing, wet but standing.

If you are religous, pray for us. If you are not just wish us well.

Later I will be posting a thread about how to dry out scoring machines etc.

Richard: I posted this in another thread, but think it's better put here. If you want to see what neighbourhoods are flooded, this zoomable map seems pretty good:

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/neworl...ite/index.html

You can make out individual blocks, and flooded and non-flooded neighbourhoods look very different.

[umbrella]

Hi guys, and eric, it's good to hear from you people, I'm glad Richard made it out of the weather, did you all pack your foils? I trid calling New Orleans about a million times, finally I got in touch with Ochsner Hospital at about 11:000 pm their time. I talked with a switchboard operator who informed me that the area she was in was secured. It's a miracle. In 2002, I spent 10 months right next to the hospital in Jefferson/Orleans, and trained myself in running. I jogged the levee about 10-16 miles a day and noticed some breeches in the levee. I called the levee board but they didn't move on it. It's something that's hard to explain, but, the top of the levee is paved, in order to 'fix' the levee, you would have to tear up the asphalt, cover about 50 miles with topsoil, and re grass the whole thing, it's like a living entity, with wildlife growing on it. To me, if they need to rebuild the city, it needs real CAnals. Like make a Venice out of it. [what the heck, they have mardi-gras like the Carnival in Venice, might as well go all out].

We're in a whole new era: The coastlines, should been reserved for wildlife, not boatslips. Mangrooves and so forth - then, slowly build in canals, which gradually become streets. I should know, our family built Rome [my mother's maiden name], and we know what we're about.

I also located some other people who are alive, but they lost EveryThing.

I received an e-mail from Gav with his well-wishes, thanks, but I'm fine as well as my entire family.

I was gratified to see that Italy, once again, TROUNCED the UNITED STATES MenS" EPEE TEAM.

Epee rules,