First off, I now live here near Birmingham in Central AL, about 2/3 the
way up the state. we lost power here for about 20 hours from Sun evening
to Tue afternoon, due to some trees which had fallen over into overhead
distribution lines. No damage to our place here, and no trees or large
limbs down on our lot, just a lot of leaves and small tips of branches
down all over the place.

This spring, we had a family wedding in N.O., and I was able to get
together with Matt for a good visit, so I have some familiarity with
his neighborhood and the surrounding area.

Matt's place is near and on the east side of the 17th Street Canal, where
the levee broke near Lake Ponch, flooding large areas east and south of
the breach.  I read that Lake Ponch average level is about +1 ft. Mean
sea level, so now many areas (most of N.O.is below sea level)are now
flooded with some tidal flow in and out from Lake Ponch.  BICT, this is
why some of the airphotos we have seen show water flowing out from nearby
developed areas into, rather than out of the canals.   The west side levee
of the 17th St. canal was not breached, and AFAICT, towns like Metarie are
not flooded.

One msn story talks about the neighborhoods which have flooded - -
"The breach sent a churning sea of water from Lake Ponchartrain coursing
across Lakeview and into Mid-City, Carrollton, Gentilly, City Park and
Neighborhoods farther south and east."

Matt's neighborhood is between Mid-City to the NW and Carrollton to the SW.
Anyone interested, I have saved some before and after airphotos of the area,
and I'll fwd them as an email attach if you write - - jim.holsonback{at}juno.com.

I called him on the phone Sunday afternoon, and he intended to "ride
it out"
there at home, keeping his two gas pumps going, which keep his house from
flooding.  His neighborhood is flood-prone, and he has to use at least
one of those pumps, even for regular summer heavy rainstorms. To the
north of him, closer to the breach, is the West End area, which is not
mentioned above, but that is one area where some reports have said that
water has/had been standing up to 20 ft. deep.

As of Sun afternoon, Matt's daughter and SIL had relocated their
computer-related business operation to Baton Rouge, which is maybe 75 miles
NNW of downtown N.O.  Matt said that the topography there is much less prone
to flooding problems, and being that direction from the eye path, they
probably didn't get nearly such high winds and rainfall amounts as N.O.
Indeed, that is one of the places where evacuees have been going, both
before and after this current disaster.  Newspaper here today said its
population is expected to double, from 400,000 to 800,000, perhaps on a
permanent basis, and as of today, it is the most populous city in LA.

So Matt may have made his way to join them by now, or I know he also has a
Sister who lives there, I'm not sure where she lives now, but I know that she
was at one time the mayor of Harahan, which is on the Metarie side of that
canal with the breach.  So maybe he has made his way there, but no power,
phone or computer to send an email.  As of Sunday afternoon, he had
intended to send an email by maybe 3PM on Mon. to say how he had done
with it, but I didn't get one, so I assume things were bad in his
neighborhood even before that levee was breached late Monday night.

Matt's place is about 3.5 miles south and slightly east of the point near
Lake Ponch where the levee was breached, so I'm hoping he was still awake
and got warning of the breach with enough advance warning to make it to
higher ground or structure.

Matt is a pretty resourceful fellow.  I can pretty much guarantee that
unless he got injured, he is busy doing for himself, and not one of
those we have been seeing on TV, standing by roadside whining or
yelling about how little help he has received so far.  He is also in
pretty good physical condition - - his daughter and SIL have a pool, and
he swims there regularly for exercise. I had asked him by phone on Sun
afternoon if he has a "Pre-planned bug-out Route", and he told of a
bridge over a nearby canal which has good elevation.  I have his phone
No. here, as well as his daughter and SIL's.  As of a short time ago,
telco still says "all circuits are busy", but no doubt there is no phone
service there at all, among other missing amenities.

That's about all I know for now.

- - -  JimH.
 
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