Any media happening upon this site, please read and respond:

9:30 cdt
   There are well over a 1200 people still in the
Tenet Memorial Hospital on Napoleon in New Orleans.
Predictions are that flood waters will continue to
rise to another 9 feet tonight.  Latest info is that
they have started helicoptering out people, but very
small numbers, less than 100 since 1 pm.  Giving you
this update because we may have no electricity before
long.  Our phone numbers are 504.897.4531 and
 504.897.4530, we cannot call out.  Feel free to call
us or give numbers to media to call us.  They are
estimating that it may take several days to evacuate
these people - water electricity food security all
will be gone by then.  Please help by notifying the
press and the government.  People are hoping that
friends around the country can help out. Thanks for
giving people hope.  Peace, Bill Quigley

This message was forwarded to me from a friend. Apparently they can accept phone calls. Please alert the authorities if you can. Thanks.

Apparently the first attempt to plug the breach in the 17th Street Canal failed. The water level is expected to rise 3-4 feet in the next several hours. There was another breach of a levee near the pumping station that has failed on the east bank, which means "the bowl is now being filled up," as the mayor just said on CNN, and that the areas that were once dry may be covered in 8-10 feet of water by morning. The governor has issued a mandatory evacuation and is putting together a plan to get everyone out, but the mayor has just said that people in the Superdome should expect to be there another week, which sounds impossible to me given the sanitation problem there.

It's sad that the news is trying desperately to make the story about looting and "lawlessness." Looting! Who cares!!! CNN is showing the same images of looters carrying out diapers and bottled water from the same store over and over again and talking about the "public safety" crisis. The crisis is there are nearly 100,000 people trapped in a city where toxic water is rising, where there is no potable drinking water (and therefore no sanitation services, like flushing toilets), and no fresh food. How will they be evacuated and to where? That is the crisis. If a few TVs are stolen (and where are they going to be taken to, let alone plugged in, when most houses are under water and none have electricity?), if residents steal food and water and diapers, does it matter? There is no drinking water and there is no food, and no homes. What will happen to the stuff if it's not stolen? It will float in the lake that has become New Orleans like everything else. I can imagine there are more important things for NOPD officers to do than to arrest desperate thieves.

I talked to my friend Rebecca in Houston, who was supposed to leave for Nigeria today for a year. She has cancelled her trip because she sublet our apartment and she thinks she should stay around to see what happens to the city. She has been calling to volunteer with the Red Cross. Hopefully they will accept her help. She has worked as head of mission for Doctors Without Borders for the past ten years in some of the worst disasters and wars in western Africa. We talked about the amount of refugees, the threat of disease, and the logistics necessary to get the situation even somewhat under control, and she lamented the fact that the military is being used when it is humanitarian workers who are needed. She told me there are literally thousands of cars with Louisiana plates driving around Houston. We talked about where New Orleans evacuees are going to stay, now that it seems they will be unable to return to the city for at least a month (and even then, return to what?). Apparently there are some Houstonians who are offering their spare rooms to stranded strangers. Some on Craig's List are offering space too.

It boggles my mind to think about the over 1,000,000 refugees this disaster has created, all of my friends who are staying with relatives and at hotels right now included. I have been trying to call them but haven't been able to get through to the friends who have cell phone numbers from New Orleans as none of the calls can go through. These refugees have no homes and no jobs. They have nothing. The same is true for the tens of thousands who are still stuck in New Orleans right now, unable to get out. Theirs is a race against time as the waters continue to rise and the hazards created by toxic water and the lack of food, water and sanitation worsen. Rebecca told me that one of the people from her and my husband's graduate program decided to stay in the city. No one has talked to him since Sunday.

I think it is hard for most people to grasp the magnitude and gravity of this disaster. The city is flooded, yet there is no drinking water and no water to flush toilets with, a recipe for the spread of disease. And now it is night. No light, no phone service. No way to communicate with each other or to know what is going on, and no way for us to know what is going on either. My weather widget has a question mark next to the name "New Orleans." Is it raining? Earlier today one journalist said it had started to sprinkle. We have no idea.

Even if the breaches were fixed tomorrow, it would take a month or more to dry the city out, let alone get the infrastructure back to the point where people could move back into the city (assuming they still have houses or apartments to move back into). Meanwhile, all of these residents are without income and without homes and basic necessities.

I emailed S about this and my email was returned, of course, because it was his university email and his university is now submerged under water. I sent it to his military email address but haven't heard anything back yet. I think he is out on a week-long mission, as he told me he might be when I talked to him on Sunday. Tulane was the largest employer in New Orleans. What will survive? Will there be a city at all, or is New Orleans and all that was a part of it no more?

For more up-to-date info, visit Idyllopus. She is gathering information from a number of sources.

The Washington Post has an excellent article about the flooding and the most recent evacuation order.

Things are going from bad to worse.

The water continues to rise as thousands more go to the Superdome, where there is no running water and a collapsed sanitation system. Hundreds of evacuees at the Superdome are in need of urgent medical care. According to a nurse who is at the Superdome and managed to get through a call to MSNBC, they are working on evacuation methods to get the most sick to Baton Rouge. Some are diabetics and have run out of insulin. Some have come to the dome with injuries they received during the storm. Meanwhile, Tulane hospital is working out an evacuation plan for its over 1,000 patients because water is rising all around the building (over six feet so far). The threat of disease is acute and real throughout the city, as the flood water grows more and more polluted with sewer and chemical runoff, not to mention the bodies of dead animals and, most horrific, deceased New Orleanians. I fear that since there is little commuication within the city, many residents don't know the threat they are facing and are continuing to walk through the water, oblivious to the pressing need for them to take higher ground and get out of town.

There is little news coming out of the city because everyone is being asked to evacuate, including journalists. WWL is broadcasting on all bands of FM now according to Fox News. The mayor is sending messages to the press who then try to get the word out to residents. There are many residents who no doubt have no idea what is happening around them, because they do not have electricity and no battery-operated radios. They only know what they can see around them. Looting is taking place, which is probably good. If residents can get food and drink to sustain them for a while, that is better than going without.

This is a disaster of epic proportions. It will be months before the city is a city again, and even then it will be changed. There are so many lives at stake right now.

Matt at Tattered Coat and Idyllopus are both continuously updating their sites with information about this disaster.

I have not been able to get in touch with the women from my poetry workshop. Please, Beverly, Kay, Becky, if you read this, email me and let me know that you are okay. If you need anything at all, please contact me. My house is open to you.

Take care, everyone.

Update, 3:30 p.m. Central Time: I just heard a press conference by Gov. Blanco, Sen. Landrieu, the Army Corps of Engineers representative, and the FEMA representative. The army corps is devising a plan to plug up the levees right now, and hope to begin the project either late this afternoon or tomorrow morning. The representative talked about their desire to come up with a plan that will hold, to avoid having a temporary fix only to face worse problems if it were to break again. The FEMA representative said they were bringing in food and supplies to the Superdome, which is where most of those who've been rescued are being brought. The generators there are under strain because of the rising water. All of the officials talked about the communication problem. There is limited cell phone access and no land lines. They are in the process of putting together an emergency communication system. They urged everyone who has evacuated to stay out of the city. They were asked by a journalist whether or not there were evacuation efforts, and Blanco said there were, though only one sizable road out of the city was usable and they were reserving it for emergency and rescue efforts.

I saw images of the I-10 twin spans to Slidell. It's unbelievable. The bridges zig zag with massive sections simply gone. It's horrendous.

Update 5:30 p.m.: They've decided they must evacuate the Superdome because of the deteriorating condition of the place and the rising number of people taking refuge there. I've not heard any news about how they're going to evacuate them.

It is just so distressing. Hundreds of thousands of city residents fled, and now face a completely uncertain future. Will there be any city to go back to? And if there is, will there still be jobs, infrastructure of any kind? Thousands and thousands of people are now stranded. No city, no home, no job, and therefore no income. This is a tragedy of previously unfathomable magnitude. We are looking at years of recovery.

Sadly, New Orleans was not spared.

Yesterday one of the levees in Lakeview was breached, and the water levels continue to rise in the city, especially in Mid-City, Carrollton, Gentilly, and City Park. The army corps of engineers has a plan for repairing breaches during recovery periods, but they don't know how long it will take. Meanwhile, the waters of Lake Pontchartrain are flooding into the city. This is absolutely devastating.

The Times-Picayune has evacuated their offices this morning because the building is flooding and it is too dangerous for them to stay. Hopefully others will evacuate too. The storm may have passed, but its after-effects are proving to be more damaging than most had imagined was possible.

Again, if you found your way to this site looking for information about your neighborhood, the Times-Picayune has a forum on their website for exchanging information. They also have pictures, but it seems as if there will be no new information from them for a while as the staff has had to evacuate.

Take care, people of New Orleans. Please stay safe. We're thinking about you.