Many Jewish New Orleanians wait out storm in Utica, MS camp, says Smason

Alan Smason writes:

Lila,
I got out of New Orleans at the very last moment, just as the dark clouds associated with Gustav came rushing into the deserted city. I'm at Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Mississippi.

Smason writes in a blogpost titled "Where the Jews Are" that he's with

"about 150 Jewish New Orleanians living at Jacobs Camp for the next few days (they hope no more than that). ... Incredibly, the camp has Internet services as well as digital TV that is permitting visitors to be able to view WDSU-TV 6 in the relative safety of the camp. Several of the younger set have been occupying themselves by singing Karoake, something Jonathan Cohen, who likes to go by the nickname "J.C.," humorously calls Evacuroake (pictured below)

Although Gustav did not hit New Orleans head on and had lost some of its strength when it did make landfall, New Orleans has been holding its breath and watching the levees, which as of a few minutes ago, seem to have withstood the hightest waters. From the NY Times:

The water gauges on the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal show that the water level is beginning to drop, which means that this crunch against the west wall could be ending.

“The gauges are dropping,” Col. Lee told Lt. Gen. Van Antwerp in the emergency operations center at corps headquarters here.

Lt. Gen. Van Antwerp smiled broadly. “Good–that’s what we want to see” from the beleaguered floodwalls, he said. “I’m glad they performed, but let’s not overdo it.” The winds, could continue to rise, driving more waves over the top of the walls before the surge recedes further.

Mississippi river is rising rapidly, and is up by seven and a half foot rise at Bonnet Carre. But Lt. Gen. Van Antwerp said that those river levees could take much more water before becoming a concern.

This photo from the New York Times shows a flooded road near the Industrial Canal in New Orleans (credit: Stephen Morton/Getty Images)

Technorati tags: blogging, Cleveland Jewish community, environment, Hurricane Gustav