GoTravel, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you didn't know anything about hurricanes. Knowing where you live, I'm sure you've had up-close-and-personal experience too often.

My point, which I clearly didn't make well, was that "mimimal" must refer to the fact that tropical storms become hurricanes when the wind speed reaches 74mph. I'm sure you know that, but others may not. So, a "minimal" hurricane would be one which barely qualifies as a hurricane. I would agree that "minimal" may not be the best choice of a descriptive word to use along with "hurricane" as it is open to misunderstanding. On the other hand, the damage potential of a cat1 storm is substantially less than the damage potential of a cat5 storm.

No apology necessary. My beef is that the word 'minimal' threw many people off kilter and as a result, most people from Miami to Key West were totally unprepared.

The meteorologists admittedly played down the hurricane and have public have stated they will no longer use the term minimal when refering to a hurricane.

I do see your point as a hurricane one is minimal on the hurricane chart but it is still a horrific natural disaster if coming your way.

GoTravel, right you are about that term "minimal". It caught many people off guard as well as the fact that at 3 PM, they were saying it "would make landfall late that night or early in the morning and somewhere near Ft. Lauderdale." My niece and grand niece were caught in the midst of the actual landfall as they arrived in Miami about 6 PM, driving from Naples and hoping to beat the storm. Sure enough, later they said "the eye came across Miami between 6 and 8 PM". They saw some very frightening things while driving it, but it was too late to correct their mistake and they had to keep going. Meanwhile apparently my great niece still has no power, phone, or even cell phone signal in Miami.

Latest I've seen is one of the levees in NO has failed.

Have friends from NYC who did not/could not leave NO. They are at the Intercontinental, not sure what street. If anyone out there knows how things stand in NO right now or specifically anything about the condition of the Interconti, please post!! I heard there were some building collapses!!

sorry.... TTT! We are very concerned.

Michelle, CNN has the very best coverage. They have reporters 'embedded' all over New Orleans.

Thank GoT. If anyone has specifics on the Interconti, please post. I've read/heard that NO did not take a direct hit therefore conditions are not as horrific as they could have been.

Joining the world in prayer and best wishes during the wrath of Katrina, including all the reporters in harms way. God bless them all.

ttt

For those who don’t know, unlike my name applies, I now live in Lafayette, LA, West of N.O., West of Baton Rouge. We had an uneventful night & day. Some wind and little rain. This is where people evacuate TO. That said, I pray tonight for Dan, Fairhope and others who were/will be in the path. I wonder how everyone is. Amazing how Fodors does that to you.

I'm sure you've seen some shots, but we just watched a video from a news helicopter showing Kenner, airport, Metairie, Veterans, I-10, Westbank, Downtown, etc. Just amazing. There isn't much that isn't flooded. Though, downtown doesn't seem to be. The wind got the most of it. I’m sure you’ve all seen pictures of the Hyatt next to the Superdome. No pre-party there for Saints games this year. The economic impact will be devastating. I am a banker and seeing the windows blown out of the banks downtown scares me. I wonder how you recover with loss of paperwork – don’t worry – most of this is focused on people, not money. Jobs will return and business will survive – though there will be some that won’t.

I had to work today and that was probably good. Sitting in front of the tv all day is just depressing. I loved my years in NOLA & can't imagine what I was just seeing. It will be weeks before some can get home and months before life gets even slightly normal.

There are no reports yet of loss of life (other than evacuations). The video we saw showed a rescue by helicopter in action. Chills and tears. The thought of people spending tonight in their attics or on their rooftops is unspeakable. Estimates are 150-200 people waiting to be rescued. Now, I feel sorry for them and pray for them tonight, but we were all warned. There is no excuse for staying in those areas. A woman is staying with her son in my complex here. Her brother stayed at his home in St. Bernard (south of NO). She said tonight she assumes she has lost everything but what she brought (her dog & some pictures) but she wonders if her brother is alive. He was staying no matter what. That is just pure stupidity in my opinion. There are many people who feel that way. This is not a time to be a hero. The state will now spend hundreds of thousands rescuing those people who could have taken a free bus to a free safe haven.

Now, the locals and visitors who spent the night in the Superdome and lost power, A/C and then had roof failure, I feel for them. I am thankful they at least took the opportunity to help themselves.

I also feel for our MS & AL neighbors who took on the most water. Those pictures are also just awesome as I have spent time vacationing in or driving through all of those areas. The rig against the bridge in Mobile. Wow.

I am thankful that I know my friends are family made it through and assume most of their homes did as well. I have friends who have not yet gone home. My Thibodaux friends and Houma family should be fine. It is a little more iffy for my friends from Grand Isle. From what we hear, it had 7 feet of water, but homes are on pilings. I’m just glad they all got out.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings tonight…

I finally heard from my Uncle in Gulfport, Mississippi, I probably know more about the devestation awaiting them once they emerge than they do at this time with watching it on tv, etc...They went through Camille, and many others, but admitted that this one surprised them, she really left her mark....I wish them a safe recovery...

In watching the further news this a.m. I am just sick. Apparently things are much worse than initially thought in many areas. My heart goes out to all those affected in any way by this monster. The devastation is just awful.

My mom finally got through to relatives in Houma and White Castle-- and they were indeed spared the worst, thankfully. Cousins of mine in Metairie and the Quarter were also able to get out of town.

I guess this is the time to remind everyone: DONATE TO THE RED CROSS. Give what you can. They will need money. They may need blood, but right now it's CASH. With a large contingent of the National Guard deployed overseas (let's not get into that), the Red Cross will be an important First Response Force.

No matter how horrible all those pictures on TV are, and how bad the devastation is, the thing that horrifies me the most are the tales of the looters. Did you see the couple entering their damaged homes with a camera crew to find their TV, computer, etc. stolen? And the Pawn Shop that was looted, including all the guns? Looters are the most miserably low of all creatures.

Well Patrick..after evey disaster like Katrina we see the looters. Even after 9-11 there were looters. These kind of events bring out the "best of us" and sadly the "worst of us". Hopefully, many of these people will be caught and delt with harshly. It's hard to imagine the mind set of anyone that would do something like that.

Wow... just devastating. We finally heard from our friends albeit very briefly. They said it is and was a horrific experience. That's all they got a chance to say before we lost the call. My thoughts to all enduring this.

My heartfelt wishes. Sitting safely at my computer words don't seem enough to express how sad my DH and I are for those that are affected by Katrina and her aftermath.

May everyone along the gulf coast know that we are thinking of you and sending our prayers.

Donate to the Red Cross, and may God watch over all, including those that volunteer to provide aid.

Actually, I think we should "get into" the National Guard issue.

We know that the National Guard troops, deployed to Iraq, have access to CNN and what is going on in the NATION they wanted to protect. Can you imagine what their morale must be like ? Those from the affected states must be desperately worried about their friends and families.

They have been asked to fight a war against terror.

It's my opinion, that the immediate terror exists here, in the USA, in the aftermath of Katrina.

I am writing to my Senators and Congressional Representatives, to urge that we help OUR country by bringing some National Guard forces home.

Marion

From the looks of things, they can sure use more military in New Orleans to stop all the low-life looters. It's just disgusting - people are actually trying on shoes and clothes in the streets so they can steal the right size.