The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 21, 2005, Page 5, Image 5
STORmS • COflTinUCD FROIRI
Pontchartrain from swamping
New Orleans again. Although
engineers have left a large
opening in the wall to allow
floodwater to continue to be
pumped back into the lake, it
will have to be closed quickly if
Rita or another storm threatens.
Government engineers and
private contractors also worked
around the clock across New
Orleans to repair the damage to
the system of pumps, concrete
floodwalls, earthen berms and
canals that protect the below
sea-level city.
In addition, the corps had
800 giant sandbags weighing
6,000 to 15,000 pounds on
hand just in case, and ordered
2,500 more to shore up low
spots and plug any new
breaches. It was also putting
pumps and other materials
where they might be needed.
“If New Orleans was directly
affected by a Category 1, I
would be concerned — I would
pull my people out,” said David
Pezza, the top geotechnical
engineer for the Army Corps.
“These levees are gready
compromised.”
Rita’s threat to the levees
already forced the mayor to
suspend tjie phased reopening of
the city and order a new round
of evacuations. In some areas
where bars, restaurants and
shops were opening their doors
for the first time since Hurricane
Katrina, people were boarding
up windows and getting ready to
leave town again.
“I’m worried about getting
more rain,” Frank Wills said as
he packed up to leave his 150
year-old Creole cottage in
uptown New Orleans. “The
ground’s saturated, and a lot of
the storm drains are clogged up
with garbage. If we get much at
all, I think you’ll see flooding
where you never saw it before.”
Even residents who have
already been evacuated once
faced the prospect of being
uprooted again. At the Cajun
Dome in Lafayette, emergency
officials arranged to take the
1,000 refugees from the New
Orleans area out on buses if
Rita tracks north.
“Nobody here even wants to
hear the word 'hurricane’ right
now,” said Carlette Ragas, who
has not been back to her home
on Plaquemines Parish, south
of New Orleans, since Katrina
and has already enrolled her
children, ages 11 and 7, in a
Lafayette-area school.
The call for another
evacuation of New Orleans
came after repeated warnings
from top federal officials,
including President Bush, that
the city was not yet safe because
DESIGfl • COflTinUGD FROdl I
Students in the group affect
the way shared dorm rooms are
designed.
“When the Towers were
designed, gang bathrooms were
popular,” Sherry said.
Campus is gradually shifting
toward apartment-style dorms.
“There’s a difference in the
type of marketing, like apartment
style dorms that were aimed at
upperclassmen,” said Charlie
Jeffcoat, director of Campus
Planning and Construction.
Dorms are also being designed
with social events in mind.
“We have been doing
academic learning centers (in the
dorms). Also breakout areas
where students can get together
on the halls,” Jeffcoat said.
Dorm design might seem to
depend on the kind of dorm, as a
residence hall and honors college
have different needs.
But “there is no difference,”
Jeffcoat said.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu
Craig Litten / Daytona Beach News-Journal
Tanner Epperson, 8, of
Shawnee, Okla. plays in the
rough surf caused by Hurricane
Rita while visiting Daytona
Beach with his family on
Tuesday evening.
of the lack of full electricity,
drinkable water and 911
emergency service.
Nagin ordered residents who
had slipped back into still
closed parts of the city to leave
immediately. He also urged
everyone already settled back
into Algiers, the only
neighborhood now open to
returning residents, to be ready
to evacuate as early as
Wednesday.
Nagin said two busloads of
evacuees left from a staging area
at the convention center
Tuesday afternoon. He
estimated that 400 to 500
residents were left in the city.
The city decided to allow
people to continue cleanup
until dusk Tuesday and will start
to re-enforce the evacuation
order Wednesday, he said. He
did not give specifics on how
the order will be enforced.
To people who refuse to
leave, Nagin had this message:
“Were all adults. We really
don’t want to take people out
by gunpoint. We hope they see
the threat... and obey the law.”
If Rita does affect the city,
Blanco promised the emergency
response would be well
coordinated. “Now obviously
that’s a lot easier this time”
because emergency workers
already are in the area, she said.
President Bush made his fifth
trip to the Hurricane Katrina
zone on Tuesday to meet with
local business and political
leaders in Gulfport, Miss., and
received a briefing in New
Orleans on preparations for
Hurricane Rita.
Bush also appeared with
Nagin amid tensions between
the mayor and Allen over who
is in charge, and conflicting
information on whether people
should come or go. At one
point this week, Nagin said
Allen apparendy regarded
himself as “the new crowned
federal mayor of New Orleans.”
SURPLUS • COflTIIIUED FROIDI
lighting, different capital
projects to make the campus
better and safer for all
students, and we’ll be doing
the same type of things,”
Preston said.
Already, $10,000 has been
allocated to help the Russeh
House pay for renovations to
student senate chambers,
although, only about half of
that money was used in efforts
to keep the renovations as
cheap as possible, Preston said.
Williams will also speak
about the work he and his
administration have done
since their March
inauguration in areas such as
transportation, academics,
student life and - faculty
student relationships.
He said SG has disproved
the idea that things can’t be
done around campus, listing
the continuation of the
readership program, the
parking lot behind the Strom
Thurmond Wellness &
Fitness Center, the turn lane
into the Greek Village, and
the bus from South Tower to
sorority and fraternity
meetings in the Greek Village
on Mondays as some of the
many, achievements of the
past year.
“SG has been very busy and
the people we’ve been helping
are very happy,” Williams
said.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamccocknews@gwm. sc. edu
AMECOCK
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