Thousands of people may have died in the great gulf hurricane
Katrina
with winds clocked up to 200mph upon landfall in Louisiana
and
over 100 mph from New Orleans to Biloxi Mississippi. The
storm
surge of 20 feet inudated the towns and levees broke, in
a diaster
unparralled in modern times.
The storm ranks in the magnitude of the Labor Day Hurricane
of 1935, Hurricane Andrew, Camille and the Galeveston Hurricane
of 1900 which killed over 9000 people in a storm surge.
The hurricane intensified in the warm 89 degeree gulf waters
and ravaged the coastal towns with hurricane conditions
250
miles in a radius all the way into Tennessee. The diaster
unfolded
with deep flood waters in all the coastal towns along the
Louisiana coast, New Orleans and up thru Biloxi and Gulfport
Mississippi.
Electricity is out to thousands if not millions of people
and there
is vast structural damage to buildings, boats smashed and
pushed
ashore.
The plight of millions of people rests in red cross relief
efforts and
and government help; the relief effort could take years
-- "one of
our worst natual diasters" as President Bush stated yesterday.
Oil
prices increased dramatically with prices jumping in response
to oil rigs afloat and closed.
