From LSU...

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" Conditions 'on the ground' are actually worse than what you see on CNN, etc. On local news last night, one of Louisiana's congressmen predicted there would soon be 100,000 "refuges" from the flood and devastation deposited in Baton Rouge. Many of them will be accommodated on LSU's campus (at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center [basketball facility, known locally as the "PMAC"], old Fieldhouse, natatorium, etc.). No one is being allowed back in New Orleans. Baton Rouge is the closest major metropolitan area. People who made it to Texas or farther west or north, will travel back through Baton Rouge only to find that they will not be allowed very far down I-10. So, they will come back to Baton Rouge. Others who left New Orleans stopped here first. Motel and hotel rooms in this city were thus filled two days before the Hurricane hit. Baton Rouge hospitals are accepting the overflow of patients from New Orleans, even for routine treatments (radiation therapy, etc.).

Classes will not resume at LSU and at other university campuses in this region until after Labor Day, at the earliest. Schedules (concerts, plays, doctoral exams) will be affected. We must adopt a flexible approach to moving through the rest of the fall semester.

I don't wish to make light of any of this, because it is absolutely devastating. But, to give you an idea of the seriousness of the situation, the opening LSU football game was postponed. Part of the reason for this decision was that many of the football players are from the New Orleans metropolitan area. Their families had to evacuate the city and environs. Many are living with their sons/football players in the latters' dorms, eating with them in the cafeterias. It is difficult to focus on strategies for "the game" when your family has lost everything it has ever owned.

The enormity of the grief and displacement is just beginning to settle in.

... (personal names)... . I can only hope they got out before the storm hit. It is useless trying to contact anyone. Cell phone service is unreliable. Land lines are down. Internet service is spotty. We were advised yesterday to stay off the cell phones so that emergency personnel could use them. Sending text messages is a possibility.

There are 4,000 power line men and women moving into South Louisiana, by the caravans. We are advised to stay off the major thoroughfares so that these energy trucks and tree removal teams can move about unimpeded. Hundreds of thousands of people are still without power. Some South Louisiana parishes are totally under water. The water continues to rise in New Orleans because of breaks in the levee, allowing Lake Ponchartrain to flow unchecked into the city. It's a mess!

To give you one graphic, many of the people being rescued from housetops and attics in New Orleans are being air-lifted or bussed to LSU. They are being deposited outside the PMAC on sheets and blankets until shelter can be found. The downtown River Center (convention center) is also being used as a temporary shelter. No one has a clue how long these conditions
will persist or how much more severe they will become.

It will be months, even years before the State of Louisiana recovers from this storm. Some individuals, businesses, and agencies will never recover.

Thanks for inquiring about our plight."