Scariest thing: We’ve seen and heard almost nothing out of southern Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes. Those are the low-lying areas near the mouth of the Mississippi where erosion was already eating away big chunks of land. They’re closer to the coast, and they’re even more vulnerable in a lot of ways than New Orleans.

On the WWL-TV feed online, they just said all of Plaquemines is under 15 feet of water. Which means anyone who stayed there is probably dead.

Horrifying tale from a Plaquemines school teacher who got away in time.

“Tanya went on to say what she worried about most — her students at Buras High, where she taught eighth grade English and literature. As an educator, she knew that many of the families had no mode of transportation…’[M]any of my students have never ever even been to New Orleans. They walk everywhere. They are poor, so poor,’ she sobbed.”

30 August 2005

Comments

30 August | 16:53 | Leia

This is incredibly sad stuff.

I'm sure you're reading it, but T-P just updated their breaking news blog with a story about a flyover of Plaquemines area - http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/. Search on the page for "Notes from a plane flight" (their permalinks don't seem to work well).

30 August | 17:50 |

Here is the First paragraph:

LOWER PLAQUEMINES PARISH -- Metal buildings twisted beyond recognition. Neighborhoods almost completely destroyed and submerged, the only clue that humans once lived there being the telephone lines that rise above the floodwaters.

30 August | 19:59 | Glenn Fleishman

I can't seem to find out what happened to Grand Isle, which is a miracle barrier island that's survived many, many previous attempts by nature to destroy it. By all accounts, it took the first hit -- is it gone? A backbone of oak trees is apparently all that holds it together, I've read.

31 August | 2:13 | Samantha

That appears to conflict with our story, which said 80 percent of the homes there had been washed away. I hope our story was wrong.

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Joshua Benton

Joshua Benton is the director of the Nieman Digital Journalism Project at Harvard University, among other things. Before that, he was a staff writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News. (More.)