Wednesday, Aug. 31

Transcription

Wednesday, Aug. 31

S e r v i n g
P a s c a g o u l a ,
O c e a n
S p r i n g s ,
M o s s
P o i n t ,
G a u t i e r
a n d
L u c e d a l e
THE MISSISSIPPI PRESS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005
www.gulflive.com Our online affiliate
25¢
DEAD CALM
Katrina kills 10 in county
Katrina
‘totally
destroyed
lives’
■ Five deaths confirmed in
Ocean Springs with more
expected as search and rescue continues
By CLAIR BYRD
The Mississippi Press
William Colgin/The Mississippi Press
Little remains of the drawbridge from Ocean Springs to Biloxi after Hurricane Katrina swept away sections of the span
Monday.
With discovery of new destruction
comes a rapidly rising death toll
By PAUL SOUTH
and JOHN SURRATT
John David Mercer/Mobile Register
This aerial view, taken Tuesday, shows the U.S. 90 bridge linking Ocean Springs to Biloxi after it was destroyed by Hurricane
Katrina Monday. Several highways and bridges in South Mississippi were engulfed by the storm’s floodwaters.
PASCAGOULA — While the
wicked Category 4 winds of Hurricane Katrina were long gone Tuesday, the cataclysmic storm’s legacy
of death and destruction intensified across the Mississippi Gulf
Coast.
On Monday, only one confirmed
fatality was reported, that of a 4month-old Pascagoula infant. But
the light of Tuesday brought news
of more deaths in Jackson County,
including nine people killed in the
Gulf Hills and Porteaux Bay areas in
the St. Martin community of extreme
west Jackson County.
Five deaths were reported Tuesday by Ocean Springs Fire Chief
Mark Hare.
Authorities were investigating
reports of two deaths in Pascagoula
and four deaths in Gulf Hills.
With a number of people reported
missing, Mississippi Emergency
Management Agency officials moved
to combine local law enforcement,
the National Guard and search
teams in a massive search-and-rescue effort, said Kelli Hamilton of
MEMA.
“To get people who are unable, who
are trapped in their areas, they are
putting the people first,” Hamilton
said.
She said the search and rescue
team is from Florida. One team from
Jacksonville, Fla., was spotted in the
county Tuesday. Other law enforcement from the Sunshine State is also
headed for the Coast.
LOCAL, 2-A
Biloxi residents fought for life
in swamped apartments
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Meanwhile, as Mississippi National Guard troops rescued residents
from rooftops and tried to untangle a
snarl of downed power lines, trees
and debris in a search for the missing, other locals tried to survey the
damage to their homes, businesses,
churches and schools.
In Moss Point, St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church and its neighboring elementary school were persecuted by Katrina. Brick walls on
the front of the school were torn
away, as was the front of the church
sanctuary, leaving pews exposed to
the heat and humidity.
At Oak Park Elementary in Ocean
Springs, four classrooms were laid
bare to the elements after walls were
sent tumbling down by Katrina.
Damage was also reported at Moss
Point, Pascagoula and St. Martin.
Across Jackson County, an unscathed
business, home, or house of worship
was a rare sight.
At the Ocean Springs Harbor,
nearly all the boats once floating
there adorned tattered oak trees like
Christmas ornaments.
As motorists approached
Fontainebleau by bridge, houses
were standing. But Katrina left
behind a cruel surprise.
In the picturesque waterfront community, Katrina ripped away homes,
leaving behind only stone slabs or
cracked foundations.
The homes, however, disappeared
with few traces, save scattered
belongings like china and crystal as
the only clues that a family once lived
there.
OCEAN SPRINGS — The city of Ocean
Springs is just starting to realize the extent
of Hurricane Katrina. Five deaths have
been confirmed, with more expected, according to one city official.
“There’s been a number of loss of life,”
said Civil Defense Director and Fire Chief
Mark Hare. “Search and rescue is still going
on and search and recovery will begin shortly.”
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd confirmed nine deaths in the Gulf Hills and
Porteaux Bay areas, with four still missing
from Gulf Hills.
Attempts to reach Jackson County Coroner Vickie Broadus to confirm the exact
number of deaths were unsuccessful, in part
due to sporadic telephone service.
Across the city, bare wood and insulation
glared from gaping holes in roofs, a stark
contrast to the shingles left behind. Amid
the homes were trees, some kept out of the
street by downed power lines, some snapped
in half and others simply uprooted.
“A hurricane called Katrina came in here
and totally destroyed lives,” said Mary
Thompkins, as she attempted to clean up
the debris in her yard near the end of Beach
View Road in Gulf Park Estates.
She pointed to a yard across the street
See OCEAN SPRINGS, Page 8-A
Carisa Anderson/The Mississippi Press
The St. Andrews lighthouse water tower
was lifted from its foundation by Katrina
Monday. The fallen tower offers a glimpse
of the havoc wreaked by the storm.
See DEATH TOLL, Page 6-A
REGION, 7-A
In Alabama, floodwaters recede,
revealing more storm devastation
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2-A
Rescuers climb over dead
By BRETT MARTEL
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Rescuers
along the hurricane-ravaged
Gulf Coast pushed aside the
dead to reach the living Tuesday
in a race against time and rising
waters, while New Orleans
sank deeper into crisis and
Louisiana’s governor ordered
storm refugees out of this
drowning city.
Two levees broke and sent
water coursing into the streets
of the Big Easy a full day after
New Orleans appeared to have
escaped widespread destruction
from Hurricane Katrina. An
estimated 80 percent of the
below-sea-level city was under
water, up to 20 feet deep in
places, with miles and miles of
homes swamped.
“The situation is untenable,”
Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. “It’s
just heartbreaking.”
One Mississippi county alone
said its death toll was at least
100, and officials are “very, very
worried that this is going to go a
lot higher,” said Joe Spraggins,
civil defense director for Harrison County, home to Biloxi and
Gulfport.
Thirty of the victims in the
county were from a beachfront
apartment building that collapsed under a 25-foot wall of
water as Katrina slammed the
Gulf Coast with 145-mph winds.
And Louisiana officials said
many were feared dead there,
too, making Katrina one of the
most punishing storms to hit
the United States in decades.
After touring the destruction
by air, Mississippi Gov. Haley
Barbour said it looked like
Hiroshima after the atomic
bomb was dropped.
New Orleans Mayor Ray
Nagin said hundreds, if not
thousands, of people may still
be stuck on roofs and in attics,
and so rescue boats were
bypassing the dead.
“We’re not even dealing with
dead bodies,” Nagin said.
“They’re just pushing them on
the side.”
The flooding in New Orleans
grew worse by the minute,
prompting the evacuation of
hotels and hospitals and an
Rooftops and bare foundations sit surrounded by the debris of damaged and destroyed homes and businesses in Biloxi Tuesday, following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall along the Gulf Coast on Monday. Across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, more than one million residents remained
without electricity, some without clean drinking water Tuesday. In devastated Biloxi, areas that were not underwater were littered with tree trunks,
downed power lines and chunks of broken concrete. Some buildings were flattened.
audacious plan to drop huge
sandbags from helicopters to
close up one of the breached levees. At the same time, looting
broke out in some neighborhoods, the sweltering city of
480,000 had no drinkable water,
and the electricity could be out
for weeks.
With water rising perilously
inside the Superdome, Blanco
said the tens of thousands of
refugees now huddled there and
other shelters in New Orleans
would have to be evacuated.
She asked residents to spend
Wednesday in prayer.
“That would be the best thing
to calm our spirits and thank
our Lord that we are survivors,”
she said. “Slowly, gradually, we
will recover; we will survive; we
will rebuild.”
A helicopter view of the dev-
astation over the New Orleans
area revealed people standing
on black rooftops baking in the
sunshine while waiting for rescue boats. A row of desperately
needed ambulances were lined
up on the interstate, water
blocking their path. Roller
coasters jutted out from the
water at a Six Flags amusement park. Hundreds of
inmates were seen standing on
a highway because the prison
had been flooded.
Sen. Mary Landrieu quietly
traced the sign of the cross
across her head and chest as
she looked out at St. Bernard
Parish, where only roofs peaked
out from the water.
“The whole parish is gone,”
Landrieu said.
All day long, rescuers in boats
and helicopters pulled out shell-
shocked and bedraggled flood
refugees from rooftops and
attics. The Coast Guard said it
has rescued 1,200 people by
boat and air, some placed shivering and wet into helicopter
baskets. They were brought by
the truckload into shelters,
some in wheelchairs and some
carrying babies, with stories of
survival and of those who didn’t
make it.
Biloxi residents fought for life in swamped apartments
By HOLBROOK MOHR
BILOXI — Joy Schovest swam for her life,
fighting Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge and
its angry winds, brushing aside debris and
floating cars to reach higher ground.
Behind her, at least 30 of her neighbors in the
Quiet Water Beach apartments were dying,
trapped in their crumbling two-story building
as it was swept away with much of this Mississippi Coast community Monday.
“We grabbed a lady and pulled her out the
window and then we swam with the current,”
said Schovest, 55, breaking into tears. “It was
terrifying. You should have seen the cars floating around us. We had to push them away
when we were trying to swim.”
The tragedy at the apartment building represented the biggest known cluster of deaths
caused by Katrina.
Joe Spraggins, civil defense director for Harrison County, home to Biloxi and Gulfport, said
the county’s death toll was at least 100, and
officials were “very, very worried that this is
going to go a lot higher.”
The only remaining evidence of the Quiet
Water Beach apartments was a concrete slab
surrounded by a heap of red bricks that were
once the building’s walls. A crushed red toy
wagon, jewelry, clothing and twisted boards
were mixed in with the debris. The four-lane
road that separated the building from the
beachfront was buckled and covered with rubble.
“This is all that’s left of my house,” said nearby resident Jack Crochet, 56, shaking his head
and looking at the rubble. “It’s never going to be
the same. It’s over.”
The storm also inflicted a punishing blow to
Biloxi’s waterfront casinos, down the beach
from the apartment building. At least three of
the floating barge casinos were tossed from
their moorings by the storm’s 25-foot wall of
water, their barnacle-covered hulls coming to
rest up to 200 yards inland.
Aerial footage showed the Grand Casino
landed on the side of a busy highway. “I think
it will have to be cut into pieces simply to be
moved out of there,” Gary Loveman, chairman
of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., told CNBC.
At the Treasure Bay Casino, people examined
the slot machines to see if they still contained
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coins, and looting broke out in other areas of
Biloxi.
“People are just casually walking in and filling up garbage bags and walking off like they’re
Santa Claus,” said Marty Desei, owner of a
Super 8 motel in Biloxi. “I haven’t seen anything like this in my whole life.”
The lucky ones in the Quiet Water Beach
apartment building and other vulnerable areas
of Biloxi described a scene of pandemonium
as they fled the rising water. When asked why
they ignored evacuation orders, some said they
did not think the storm would be that bad;
others would not give a reason.
Apartment tenant Landon Williams, a 19year-old construction worker, said he and his
grandmother and uncle ran from the crumbling building as the storm hit. As they later
swam through the swirling water and debris,
“we watched the apartments disintegrate. You
could hear the big pieces of wood cracking and
breaking apart.”
He said the winds flung two-by-fours and
drywall.
“I lost everything. We can’t even find my
car,” he said. “I’m looking through this wreck-
age to see if I can find anything that’s mine. If
not, I’m moving on. I think I’ll move on to
North Carolina and do some work over there. I
can’t take it here anymore — not after this.”
Williams said six of his neighbors in the
building who remained behind also survived.
“As the second story collapsed, they climbed
onto the roof and part of it floated away and
they floated to a house that made it,” he said.
Paul Merritt, 30, surveyed the damage in
Biloxi with his 18-year-old wife and their 3month-old son, Brandon. He said the water
rose to the second story of his townhouse, which
is less than a block off the beach.
“I’ve never seen destruction of this magnitude,” Merritt said. “You see this stuff on TV
and you hope that it never happens to you.
Everything’s gone.”
Ida Punzo rode out the storm with a friend
and two neighbors in her 130-year-old home on
the beachfront in Biloxi. The first two floors of
the old house were almost completely gone,
but she survived.
“It was a miracle,” Punzo said. “This place is
held together with God’s spit. We’re not supposed to be alive.”
BRIEFS
Navy sending three ships to Gulf Coast
WASHINGTON — The Navy
is sending three ships to the
Gulf Coast with water and other supplies for those hit by
Hurricane Katrina, but officials
are urging service members
not to try to return to their military bases in New Orleans.
Navy bases in Gulfport,
Miss., and New Orleans were
evacuated and suffered heavy
flooding and wind damage.
Officials are gearing up to fly
over the bases to get a
detailed assessment of the
damages.
Meanwhile, Rear Adm.
George Mayer, commander of
Navy Region South, issued a
statement extending the evacuation for Naval Air Station
New Orleans and the naval
support base there, saying
only personnel specifically
contacted for the recovery
effort should go back to the
city.
The two bases were flooded,
with as much as three feet of
water, and there was no power
or utilities.
In Gulfport, many of the
buildings were damaged.
The three amphibious ships
will be leaving from Norfolk,
Va., in the next few days. The
Pensacola Naval Air Station in
Florida will be a base for the
relief effort.
Hurricane Katrina forces
Tulane-Southern Miss
postponement
IRVING, Texas — The
Tulane-Southern Mississippi
game that was supposed to be
played Sunday in Hattiesburg,
Miss., has been moved to the
Saturday after Thanksgiving
because of the problems
caused by Hurricane Katrina.
“We have been in contact
with the administrators for both
universities and we all agree
that the focus of our attention
should be on the continued
safety of the student-athletes,
coaches and the lives of those
affected by this storm,” Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said Tuesday.
“Playing a football game is not
our highest priority at this
time.”
Tulane and Southern Miss
were scheduled to end their
seasons Nov. 19. Now, their
opener will become their finale
on Nov. 26.
ESPN2, which was to carry
Sunday's game, told the conference it will still try honoring
those plans.
— From Wire Reports
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3-A
Christy Pritchett/The Mississippi Press
A boat named ‘Camille’ lies on the foundation where a home once stood at the end of Enger Street in Pascagoula Tuesday afternoon. Hurricane Katrina left
devastated homes all along the Gulf Coast.
HURRICANE KATRINA 2005
Debris and personal possessions from homes fill the
roadway on Enger Street in Pascagoula Tuesday after- Laura Thompson, left, and her mother-in-law, Margery Thompson, sort through family photos amid the debris of the
noon.
Thompsons’ home on 2604 Washington Ave. in Pascagoula Tuesday afternoon.
Jonna Jones Windham stands in the debris at the home of her parents, John and
Kay Jones, at 707 Enger Street in Pascagoula as she looks at a family photo.
Charlene Prassenos, left, Eileen Marino, center, and Josh Goff salvage Barbara
Wood’s belongings at the site of her destroyed home at 611 Martin in Pascagoula
Tuesday.
4-A
Damage to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino along U.S. 90 in Biloxi is shown Tuesday after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall Monday along the Gulf Coast. The $235 million hotel
and 50,000-square-foot casino was scheduled to open in early September.
Katrina’s storm surge busts casinos
By JAY REEVES
BILOXI — Hurricane Katrina picked up several Gulf Coast casinos and hurled them hundreds of yards inland, crippling the region’s gambling industry for months and potentially even
years.
At least three of the floating barge casinos in
hard-hit Biloxi were tossed from their moorings by
the storm’s 25-foot wall of water, their barnaclecovered hulls coming to rest up to 200 yards from
the shore.
At the Grand Casino, the walkway visitors
once took from the lobby to the poker rooms and
blackjack tables was now an open hole into the
bay. All the windows were blown out. The mast of
a sunken sailboat stuck up from where the barge
once was.
Gary Loveman, chairman of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., the world’s largest gambling com-
pany, told CNBC the casino was “probably
ruined.” Aerial footage showed the ravaged barge
had washed ashore and landed on the other side
of a busy highway.
“I think it will have to be cut into pieces simply
to be moved out of there,” Loveman said.
At the Beau Rivage, Biloxi’s most opulent casino, the first and second floors were blown out.
Mattresses, chairs and yellow insulation were
in piles on the once-manicured landscaping.
Bernie Burkholder, president and chief executive of Treasure Bay Casino in Biloxi, told The
Associated Press the casino was “a total loss” in
excess of $100 million.
He estimated losses would be even greater at
many of the other coast casinos. Statewide damage estimates were not available, and efforts to
reach Mississippi Gaming Commission director
Larry Gregory on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
The first two gambling floors at the Hard Rock
casino were blown out by Katrina. The casino
hadn’t even opened to the public yet — that was
supposed to happen Sept. 8.
“We had worked hard to put this place together,” Hard Rock employee Debra Harville said as
she surveyed the damage. “It was so beautiful. I
don’t know what I”m going to do now. A lot of people ain’t got nowhere to go.”
An official with Harrah’s said the company’s
Grand Casino Gulfport also was swept inland,
and damage was comparable to its sister property
in Biloxi. Video aired on CNN showed that the
Copa Casino in Gulfport was likely destroyed.
Others along the Gulf Coast were more fortunate. Boyd Gaming spokesman Rob Stillwell said
only one of its three properties in Louisiana, the
Treasure Chest casino in a New Orleans suburb, had been affected by Hurricane Katrina,
though damage information was unavailable.
Harrah’s New Orleans sustained "very little
damage," Loveman told CNBC. "We’ve been very
fortunate there."
JP Morgan gambling analyst Harry Curtis
said Tuesday in a investor’s note that casinos in
Biloxi could "either be severely or permanently
impaired."
The effect on the Mississippi economy could
be severe. About 14,000 people work in the dozen
casinos along the Mississippi coastline. Each
casino has a land-based hotel.
The hurricane damage could cost Mississippi
some $400,000 to $500,000 a day in lost gambling
taxes. Last year, the state’s casinos generated
$2.7 billion in revenue.
Loveman said his company intends to pay the
8,000 employees of the Grand Casino, Harrah’s
New Orleans and the Grand Casino Gulfport for
up to 90 days. All three properties closed Sunday
before Katrina struck.
Tears, hopes and fears surge in wake of storm
By BRAD CROCKER
PASCAGOULA — Angie Finkley
cried as she cradled her 6-day-old
daughter, Tamara at Pascagoula
High School Tuesday, not knowing
when more food or milk were coming their way.
“Everybody doesn’t have any
answers,” said Finkley, who was one
of several dozen people National
Guardsmen transported to the high
school, which was opened as an emergency shelter.
Dedric Reese, 33, left his 26th
Street apartment to save a neighbor
who was in a wheelchair and near
drowning in the midst of Hurricane
Katrina.
“He was crying, screaming for help
and nobody was even going to get to
him,” Reese said.
Like tens of thousands of other
Jackson County residents, people in
Pascagoula came home to witness
firsthand the catastrophic and in
some accounts, “biblical” sights they
saw.
In addition to their homes, neighborhoods and communities being
destroyed, those who left vehicles
behind for the storm to swamp, literally lost everything.
Many asked “Where do I begin?”
or “How did this happen?” with pale
looks of disbelief and shock. Residents were caught off guard by Katrina’s devastating aftermath.
Melissa Wesley, 24, worked a 36hour shift at a nursing home before
trying to decide whether to try and
find her parents in Gulfport after not
Ken Steiner looks over a keepsake at his home at 4011 South Shore Drive in Pascagoula. The Steiner family returned home after Hurricane Katrina to find only a foundation where their home once stood.
speaking with them since Sunday.
“I don’t know anything and they
don’t know anything about me,” said
Wesley, who had moved to Pascagoula
from Gulfport a year ago. “I just want
them to know that I’m OK and know
they’re OK. This is really frustrating,” she said of the obliterated communications systems plaguing the
area.
Tractor-trailers packed with relief
supplies were heading from Alaba-
ma into Mississippi around 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday. Utility crews and debrisclearing contractors were spotted in
the area earlier in the day.
Pascagoula Mayor Pro Tempore
Mike Mangum said OpTech crews
and those with Crowder-Gulf Inc.,
the city’s disaster reconstruction contractor, would be bringing uprooted
gas and water systems back online.
The well pumps at water plants were
submerged by the more than 20 feet
of storm surges Katrina brought to
the Flagship City, a smaller swell
than many areas west of the city
endured.
“We’re trying to get as many assets
in as we can,” said Mangum, adding
that generators and mobile trailers
had been ordered to help meet immediate needs for ice and water and
other necessities.
“By (today) we should have more
things up,” Mangum said. “I think
you’ll start to see measurable differences (today) and (Thursday).”
Police were handling some reports
of looting but no major crimes had
occurred, officials said.
Milton Baudoin, owner of Community Roof, moved from Houma, La., to
Pascagoula and set up shop the day
after Hurricane Ivan last year. He
said his prices will stay the same
after Katrina and that he’ll have
plenty of work for at least two years,
even with other contractors.
“There’ll be work in Florida for at
least three years and more than that
in some areas of Alabama,” Baudoin
said.
He was in Lafayette, La., when
Hurricane Lily hit that city head-on
in 2000.
“There was a state of emergency
then, but it ain’t nothing like down
here. This is just unbelievable.”
“By (today) we should have more things up.
“I think you’ll start to see measurable differences (today) and (Thursday).”
— Mike Mangum, Pascagoula mayor pro tempore
5-A
HURRICANE KATRINA 2005
Too early to tell damage to oil rigs
By STEVE QUINN
Oil and gas companies surveyed the Gulf of Mexico by air
Tuesday for information about
how much damage Hurricane
Katrina inflicted on rigs and
platforms. They found rigs as
far as 17 miles from their original locations, and water where
drilling infrastructure once
stood.
“It’s still too early to say how
bad it really is,” said Sara
Banaszak, senior economist for
the American Petroleum Institute. “Some platforms have
visual damage and some did
not.”
Coast Guard Petty Officer
Bobby Nash said some rigs had
been knocked afloat and some
off-station.
“They’re not where they were
initially intended to be to drill,”
he said. “I know for sure of one
that’s sunk.”
Nash said the Coast Guard
saw some sheen on the water,
indicating at least a little oil
on the surface. Coast Guard
crews will keep watch for fires
or severe pollution, he said.
“We won’t have numbers and
extents of damage until the
companies get out to their rigs,”
he said.
Several Texas companies
released reports on their rigs,
including:
• Noble Corp. said one of its
semisubmersible rigs was found
17 miles northeast of its mooring. The company said it
appeared the rig suffered no
significant damage.
• Diamond Offshore Dril-ling
Inc. reported one missing rig
and another that broke free
from its moorings, but was
found about nine miles north
of its original location.
• Rowan Cos. Inc. located all
but one of its 22 rigs; they
appeared to have sustained
minimal damage.
• Global Santa Fe Corp.
accounted for all five of its rigs,
but said two of them were no
Chevron Pascagoula Refinery performs a routine burnoff Monday night after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Gas prices nationwide were expected to rise because of the storm.
longer upright and a third drifted to shallow waters near the
mouth of the Mississippi River.
• Newfield Exploration Co.
said one of its production platforms has disappeared. It produced about 1,500 barrels a
day.
Newfield’s missing platform
Utilities rush crews
to restore power
least 1,800 workers, with some
being told they will be gone at
Electric companies from least two weeks.
around the country began rush“We’re sending all the folks
ing crews to the hurricane-rav- we can spare,” said Melissa
aged South on Tuesday to help McHenry, an AEP spokesrestore power to an area so dev- woman.
astated that it could be weeks or
Some utilities already had
even months before the lights workers in Florida, where Katcome back on in many places.
rina knocked out power to 1.45
“It’s catastrophic. Working million customers last week,
conditions are hazardous. It’s and may send them to other
hot and humid,” said David stricken states. Other compaBotkins, a spokesman for nies were holding back workDominion Virginia Power, which ers in case of outages as the
sent 200 workers to Louisiana hurricane dumps rain and posand Mississippi. “The entire grid sibly produces tornadoes as it
system in these
moves north
areas is comand east.
“The
entire
grid
pletely ruined.
“We need to
They’re start- system in these areas is make sure we
ing
from completely ruined.
have enough
scratch.”
people to keep
They’re starting from
Katrina hit
the lights on in
scratch.”
the Gulf Coast
New Jersey,”
on Monday,
said Karen
— David Botkins, Johnson,
packing winds
spokesman for Dominion spokeswoman
of 145 mph,
Virginia Power for Public Serkilling dozens
of people and
vice Electric &
swamping thousands of homes Gas, New Jersey’s largest utiliin one of the most punishing ty.
storms on record in the United
The full extent of the damStates. Nearly 2 million cus- age wasn’t yet known. Flooding
tomers were without power kept crews from getting to some
Tuesday in Louisiana, Missis- areas. The floodwaters will need
sippi, Alabama and the Florida to be drained before power
Panhandle.
crews can start to work.
“It looks like it’s going to be a
“We’re so early in the storm ...
massive undertaking,” said Jim that the hometown companies
Owen, spokesman for Washing- only themselves are in the earton-based Edison Electric Insti- ly stages of identifying where
tute, a group of 200 investor- the damage is,” Owen said.
owned power companies.
The utilities that need help
In a mutual aid arrangement, pay the bill.
companies are sending workers
In disasters, utilities concenby the dozens and the hundreds trate first on repairing transto assess damage, erect power mission lines and substations.
poles, put up lines, clear debris, Then crews restore power to
trim trees and arrange food and police and fire stations, hospihousing for fellow workers. A tals, sewage pumping stations
caterer volunteered to accom- and shelters before moving on
pany 125 workers from Tampa to the areas where power can be
Electric Co. who headed to restored to the largest number
Baton Rouge, La., on Tuesday. of people in the shortest time.
Columbus-based American
The tradition of utilities helpElectric Power Co., the nation’s ing each other during major outlargest power generator, has dis- ages dates back decades. Utilipatched 1,000 workers and con- ties in the South, for example,
tractors from its operating com- sent workers to Ohio to restore
panies, topping the 800 it sent to electricity in December when
Florida last year to help after an ice storm knocked out power
Hurricane Jeanne. North Car- to 275,000 homes for a week or
olina utilities contributed at longer.
By MARK WILLIAMS
had already survived damage
from Hurricane Ivan last fall
and was recently put back into
operation, company spokesman
Steve Campbell said.
“It was still new volume for
us,” he said. “We feel quite fortunate that of all the structures
we had in the eye of the storm
this is the only damage we can
see so far from the air.”
Banaszak said Katrina will
likely produce more flooding to
the onshore facilities, which
could take longer to restart.
“We expect damage, we just
don’t know how much,” Banaszak said.
“It was still new volume for us. We feel quite
fortunate that of all the structures we had in the eye
of the storm this is the only damage we can see so
far from the air.”
— Steve Campbell, Newfield Exploration Co. spokesman
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6-A
Death toll
From Page 1-A
On Porter Avenue, Ocean Springs officials used
a bus to block people from sightseeing at the
shattered Biloxi Bridge. Some pieces of the span
were stacked like dominoes. In other places, only
pilings were visible. Parts of U.S. 90 on the
Ocean Springs side of the bridge appeared to be
leaning on themselves.
Splintered trees littered roadways like strewn
toothpicks, making for hazardous driving. With
power out, few service stations were open. Those
that were selling fuel were greeted by long lines
of motorists.
Some houses that had weathered countless
hurricanes in the past were flattened by a merciless Katrina’s onslaught of wind and water,
leaving homeowners devastated.
Those whose homes were either lightly bruised
or severely battered, but still standing, returned
to find no electricity, no running water and sporadic telephone service.
Communication snags have been a concern,
not only for residents, but for authorities, Jackson
County Supervisor Frank Leach said.
Water and ice are on the way for Jackson County residents, but Katrina’s devastation delayed
delivery, Board of Supervisors President Manly
Barton said. In eastern Harrison County, Biloxi
residents in the Popps Ferry road area lined up
in the hot sun for ice and water Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a curfew remained in effect. In
Porteaux Bay, Gulf Park Estates, St. Andrews
and Gulf Hills authorities will require residents
to show proof they live in the area, Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said. “Sightseers will not be
allowed to go in,” Byrd said. Martial law has
been declared on Front Beach in Ocean Springs.
Meanwhile a damage assessment team from
the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) will be in the area soon to conduct a
damage assessment, Hamilton said.
Amid the devastation Tuesday, a Shetland
pony — apparently rescued from a low-lying
area in the Franklin Creek community —
munched feverishly on high grass along U.S. 90
East.
Tara Claffey salvages what she can from the remnants of her home on Belle Fontaine
Belle Fontaine Road in eastern Ocean Springs is impassable as sections of the road Road in eastern Ocean Springs. Her family’s home was obliterated by Hurricane Katrina Monday. She was able to recover some unbroken pieces of china and crystal.
were stripped away by the powerful forces of Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge.
The Palace Casino lays in ruins along the Bay of Biloxi Tuesday morning after Hurricane Katrina plowed across the Gulf Coast.
Ocean Springs residents walk amongst the ruins along Front Beach Drive, facing Sailboats were torn from their moorings by the gale-force winds and raging surf of Huracross the water from the Biloxi’s damaged casinos Monday.
ricane Katrina, which flung them onto adjacent streets and yards.
7-A
Remnants of a beach house on Dauphin Island, Ala., are seen in this aerial view Tuesday. Dauphin Island, a
vacation and weekend retreat off the Mobile County coast, has a population of about 1,200 and was mostly
deserted during the hurricane.
AP
A sailboat is shown beached near the USS Alabama
Tuesday in Mobile after being pushed ashore during
Hurricane Katrina. The battleship is leaning to the port
side.
Floodwaters
recede, reveal
devastation
By GARRY MITCHELL
MOBILE, Ala. — Floodwaters that engulfed the Alabama coast receded Tuesday, laying bare the stark extent of
human misery brought by
Hurricane Katrina: Cement
slabs where homes once stood,
people picking through woods
for keepsakes, soaked furniture drying in the sun.
Katrina’s punch might have
been the equivalent of Hurricane Ivan’s in places. About
800,000 homes and businesses were without power before
crews began lowering the numbers, meaning many families
would be struggling to cope for
days or longer.
Once more, after a third hurricane in a year, Alabama was
in a recovery mode.
There were eye-popping
signs of Katrina’s strength:
Scores of yachts and fishing
boats scattered across woods
and swampland, carried by
floodwaters from marina
berths in south Mobile County.
An oil drilling platform
beached at Dauphin Island. A
100-foot shrimp boat, smoldering on its side in the channel
and steel-hulled vessels in a
jumble at the Bayou La Batre
shipyard.
Amid the wreckage Tuesday,
the owner of the smoldering
shrimp boat, Dale Wade, surveyed the damage to homes
and businesses in the bayou
town.
“It’s over for a lot of people
here,” he said. “We’re going to
need some help.”
Soaked furniture and clothing was spread out in the sun
in front yards at Bayou La
Batre, where homes and businesses were flooded, some left
in wreckage with blown out
window fronts and ripped siding and roofs.
Sarah Durham, whose family had a vacation home on the
bayou for 10 years, was left
with nothing but a concrete
slab and the 18 posts that had
held up the house. A cabinet
and two rockers were located.
She looked through the woods
for dishes, silverware and other keepsakes.
As tears welled in her eyes,
she recalled what the house
meant. “It was bought for us
to enjoy, and we sure did,” she
said.
“There is no water, no electricity and no gas,” said Khan
Toum, a shipyard welder who
stood with friends as his bayou
house dried out. “It’s worst
than Ivan.”
But with the death toll rising
on the nearby Mississippi
coast, there was an upside
despite the hardship.
“We’re all alive,” said Wade.
“That’s all that really matters
to us.”
Two deaths in a car accident
in heavy rain in Washington
County were the only reported
fatalities related to Katrina.
At Dauphin Island, where an
oil drilling platform washed
ashore, the storm surge flattened dunes and almost
breached the island’s remote
west end.
The pounding by Hurricane
Katrina on Monday left an
Arkansas couple shaken. Linda
Litchfield and her husband
became stranded when their
car broke down and they were
unable to leave the island
home of her husband’s mother.
“We don’t want to live down
here,” she said. “We’ve had a
bad experience.”
The Alabama National
Guard sent 800 guardsmen to
Mobile and Baldwin county to
assist local recovery teams and
another 800 to help in Mississippi.
Gov. Bob Riley flew over the
coastal and southwest Alabama
areas hardest hit by Katrina,
with federal disaster aid in the
pipeline. Riley said Dauphin
Island was the worst-hit area
to his eye.
“Houses have been absolutely demolished,” he said. “A lot
of the beach is gone.”
At its peak, about 800,000
homes and businesses were
without power, according to the
counts of municipal utilities as
well as Alabama Power and the
rural electric association. That
was close to the state record of
1.1 million set by Hurricane
Ivan last September.
The number had dropped to
about 531,000 on Tuesday
afternoon. It was expected to
continue to drop, but some
rural or seriously devastated
areas could be out of electricity
for several days or longer.
With power out and gas supplies disrupted, many stations
in hard-hit areas were unable
to sell gas. Long lines formed
around those with working
pumps.
Schools remained closed in
Baldwin and Mobile counties
as well as in many places in
west and north Alabama
because of the loss of power as
the fierce remnants of Katrina moved up the state.
At Gulf Shores and Orange
Beach, people were being
allowed to return to their property in some places Tuesday,
but it could be later in the
week for others at Gulf Shores
because of downed power lines
and flooding that was far worse
than in Orange Beach.
It was not immediately clear
how much of the resort would
be back in business by Labor
Day weekend, but wind damage appeared minimal.
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8-A
Boats of all types and sizes sit on the ground near a waterfront neighborhood in Ocean Springs Tuesday, following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall Monday.
Ocean Springs
From Page 1-A
where a concrete foundation
is all Katrina left behind.
“That’s a family of four’s life
right there, devastated, totally devastated,” she said.
Storm surge was Katrina’s
signature in the Ocean
Springs area.
“Anything the tidal surge
touched is damaged,” Hare
said.
The water gutted most
homes in the Gulf Hills community in St. Martin and
reduced the Yacht Club on
Front Beach to pilings. Katrina even leveled an apartment
complex on Front Beach.
The wreckage from Ocean
Pointe Apartments stretched
from Front Beach to the intersection of Martin Street and
Cleveland Avenue.
“We lost everything,” said
Ruth Henry, who lived in
Ocean Pointe Apartments with
her husband, Ed, the complex’s maintenance man.
“They’re flat, there is no apartment,” she said matter-of-factly.
Scott Siegrest also lived in
the apartment complex, now
reduced to a sea of lumber,
appliances and clothes. Near a
white baby sandal and couch
cushion, he showed his mother the only thing left standing
from his apartment, a set of
stairs. Siegrest found only a
few of his belongs, but said he
was lucky when one of those
items was a file cabinet containing his insurance papers,
soaked, but intact.
Lora Payton Triplett and her
family were among many of
the sightseers out on the city
streets. They stopped near
Oak Park Elementary, which
had walls ripped from classrooms and their contents
exposed. The Triplett family
weathered the storm in their
homes on Rose Farm Road,
just as they have for every
other hurricane. However,
they won’t do it again.
“It’s awful,” Triplett said. “It
was so long and drawn out.”
Her mother, Judia McLaurin, said Camille didn’t rival
the likes of Katrina.
“I’ve been here all my life,”
she said. “Camille didn’t touch
this storm.”
Kevin Powell attempted to
evacuate with his family, but
got tangled in traffic on Interstate 10 and held out at the
Mississippi Welcome Center.
That wasn’t such a bad thing,
he said.
The house they were headed
for was blitzed by a tornado.
“We got lucky,” he said.
The Ocean Springs Elks
Lodge didn’t fare as well. Dick
Hobson, the lodge’s exalted
leader, first said the building
took on five to six feet of water,
until he stepped inside. Hobson saw mud in the light fixtures of the lodge’s eight-foot
ceiling and lines of sand a foot
from the roof ’s peak.
“That’s about 14 feet of
water!” he said. He also pointed out the small sail boat —
that he help moor — resting
sideways on a hill. The small
craft seemed to have switched
places with the lodge’s gazebo
roof that was immersed in the
water.
The Dollar General store on
U.S. 90 was also destroyed,
more by wind than water.
“This is sickening,” said Dollar General district manager
Tom Andrews. “The roof is
gone, I just can’t believe this.”
Andrews had been out surveying the damage to the
stores in the area.
“This is the worst I’ve seen
and I’ve been to Gautier,
Escatawpa and Pascagoula,”
Andrews said.
The storm left the city without power, sewer, water or
phones and lined the city
streets with a tangled mass of
downed power lines and tree
limbs.
According to Mayor Connie
Moran, restoration of water
and sewer are top priorities.
But restoring power is still an
unknown, she said. Since all
communication is down, the
city has not been able to contact Mississippi Power, she
said.
The city is under a curfew
from dusk until dawn and a
boil water order. Front Beach
is also closed under martial
law and trespassers will be
arrested, according to Police
Chief Kerry Belk.
The Federal Emergency
Management Agency will be
in the old Kmart parking lot
on U.S. 90 near the hospital to
dispense items such as tarps,
while water and ice will be distributed at Ocean Springs
High School on Government
Street. The Red Cross will be
setting up in the parking lot of
World’s Gym at U.S. 90 and
Bechtel.
Call (228) 875 -4236 for general information or to find
information about missing
family members or friends. For
police related non-emergencies, call (228) 875-2211.
The sailboat “Hoochie Mama II” lays in pieces at the foot of the bridge on Martin Road in Pascagoula. The remnants
of Spinnaker Point are visible in the background.
Classrooms at Oak Park Elementary School in Ocean Springs were reduced to rubble Monday by Hurricane Katrina.

Wednesday, Aug. 31

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