Friday, September 02, 2005

Chaos in New Orleans

I don't know the geography of the New Orleans area, but reading this blog gives a good idea that the problems are definitely wider spread than what we're seeing on t.v. The camera crews are pretty restricted.

I'm sort of surprised to read that people in the Algiers section have working phones.

We've all seen the signs hanging from some buildings asking for help. However, it seems some people in some buildings won't hang signs for fear of notifying the marauders that they're there.
My niece along with at least 15 others are trapped in their apartment building in New Orleans. They are mostly students at Loyola, Tulane, etc, who were not evacuated. There is at least one elderly couple in the building who may last much longer; my niece reported that they've stopped eating and they are very concerned. We have not heard from our niece since the hurricane, except as they were able to scavenge for food and water, they found a working cellphone, and that is how we know that for now, they are alive. They don't think that anyone knows that they are there. They cannot go out to get help, because there has been several incidents of shooting/looting in the area. My niece is not from the area, and has only been there for the last two weeks; she just started law school at Loyola. She reported to us that the building looks vacant, and they are afraid to hang signs out because of the looting.