:sad: 25,000 bags ordered for NO

[nbcrusader]

Fewer Bodies Than Expected Found in Sweeps

NEW ORLEANS - Authorities said Friday that their first systematic sweep of the city found far fewer bodies than expected, suggesting that Hurricane Katrina's death toll may not be the catastrophic 10,000 feared.

"I think there's some encouragement in what we've found in the initial sweeps that some of the catastrophic deaths that some people predicted may not have occurred," said Terry Ebbert, New Orleans' homeland security chief.

Ebbert declined to give a new estimate of the dead.

Authorities shifted their attention to counting and removing the dead in a grid-by-grid search after spending days persuading and cajoling the living into leaving the shattered city because of the danger of fires and disease from the filthy, corpse-laden floodwaters.

 

[elfyx]

That is much better news than expected! It's hard to put into persepctive...

 

[verte76]

I'm glad the death toll isn't going to be what they feared. I just visited the site of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The whole site is dedicated to news of the relief effort, tracking down priests and deacons, news about which parishes are running, the operations of the seminary (it had to move to a temporary location), and so on. They are doing many really cool things to help the people, Catholic and non-Catholic. Of course New Orleans and the environs are heavily Catholic. I forget the numbers but Catholics are in the majority.

 

[U2Bama]

Archdiocese of New Orleans.

I'm glad St. Louis Cathedral is relatively unharmed. It is a beautiful cathedral and an important New Orleans landmark.

~U2Alabama

 

[verte76]

I'm glad St. Louis Cathedral is relatively unharmed. It is a beautiful cathedral and an important New Orleans landmark.

~U2Alabama

We are very relieved that the Cathedral is in such good shape. It only has minor damage. This week in our diocesan newsletter there is a picture of soldiers patrolling the cathedral and it looks good. The population of Baton Rouge has doubled since the hurricane due to the influx of refugees, according to the report. It is indeed a beautiful cathedral and important to the City; it dates from the eighteenth century, and in 1987 Pope John Paul visited the place.