Hurricane Katrina Makes Landfall in SE Louisiana as a Category 4 Storm

I just heard from my brother in Pascagoula. My hands are shaking so I don't know if I can write this.

The situation is very bad there and very bad along the entire coast.

He risked his life to go out to his patrol car to call me on the cell phone. While he was there the back window blew out. He turned the car around. We were only able to talk for a few minutes.

I tried to get as many details as I could from him and I'm trying to remember them all and type them in before I forget them.

He is at the sub station at St. Martin Jackson Cty right by I-10. The sub station is surrounded by water right now. The surge came quickly and water rose more than 10 feet in one hour.

He says it is rising there and they are going to try to get to another building. I asked him not to get trapped in the building by the water but to try for the roof and he said that wasn't possible, they are still getting sustained winds 100+mph and have been for some hours. He knows from the wind direction that the eye is over land becuse he said it went slowly around the compass and is from the SE right now.

OK they have an armored track vehicle. They have been going out for rescues like I had said. But they couldn't get to everyone; some people drowned in their home. They rescued 23 civilians and there are also 20 cops hunkered down at the sub station right now. Then the surge came very quickly and they barely got the ATV back to the sub station. He said cars were floating everywhere. He said that the wind has smashed the glass on all the cars. That you could not survive if you were out in the water right now, because of the high winds and everything blowing and smashing things.

This is the worst thing I have to tell you. about 500 people were in the St. Martin school and it collapsed. They couldn't get to them. Shelters everywhere in the Jackson Co area, problems. Everyone in Pascaoula that was in the court house, that is the emergency center, are up on the third floor now. He says everything south of Hwy 90 (basically 90% of Pascagoula) under 10 ft water. He knows this because his wife works for the dept as well and is there at what was the emergency management center.

They are going to try to load the people some at a time now into the ATV and try for this other building. I don't have high hopes for that. They are on a tiny strip of land that is just about the only land in the county that would not be under water now. It is the strip that they build I-10 along and is I think about a mile long.

The only thing I can hope for is that the big part of the surge is over and that the water will only rise incrementally.

He had to go. Things were hitting his car and I was afraid he would be hurt trying to call me.

I don't know if he is going to get through this. But he is ok. He really loves his job at the sheriff's dept and he is totally happy helping people so he will be ok even if they don't get through this. I did not hear any panic in his voice, only awe. My mind froze and I couldn't think of things to ask him.

I hope I remembered everything he said.

Please disaster master can you get hold of someone at MEMA and let them know everything I've told you.

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Katrina's Surge: http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/Katrinas_surge_contents.asp

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