Katrina: This is our tsunami

2005-09-02 15:24

Biloxi - "This is our tsunami" said AJ Holloway, shell-shocked mayor of Biloxi, Mississippi, after a storm surge churned up by deadly Hurricane Katrina swallowed up his city.

The deadly tide up to 10m surged into glitzy casinos, homes and plush hotels already shredded by the storm's wrath.

Authorities said at least 50 people were known to have been killed in Biloxi, population 48 000, alone.

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour said that the death toll in wider Harrison County could be as high as 80.

At least 30 of the dead were in a Biloxi apartment complex demolished by the storm.

"We are still in the search and rescue mode," said Holloway, adding that it would be days before the full toll, in lives and economic losses, would be known.

Rescue teams, desperate to reach stranded residents, were virtually paralysed early on Tuesday, the day after the storm hit, as communications systems were snapped and roads were swamped.

Reinforcements

Overwhelmed and exhausted local emergency teams awaited anxiously for reinforcements from the state and federal government.

Along the seafront, waters destroyed businesses and homes, prompting Holloway's reference to the Asian tsunami disaster last year which killed an estimated 217 000 people.

Personal goods and treasures drifted along residential streets submerged in 1.5m of water and debris poured out of businesses in an area known for its shrimping and fishing as well as its gaming industry.

Five immense Gulf-side casinos in Biloxi, which pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the state economy, were wrecked, the mayor said.

A massive "world's largest" guitar over the nearly-completed Hard Rock Casino was poignantly one of the only things left standing over an obliterated building.

The Grand Casino Biloxi was washed across the highway.

"It's something like I've never seen before," said Holloway, noting that the floodwaters surged higher than August 1969's Hurricane Camille, which wiped out the region taking 144 lives.

Further west, along the coast in Gulfport, sailboats floated crazily in city streets where they had been swept by the storm and hundreds of homes, businesses and condominiums were destroyed.

Many dead washed away

The south Mississippi Gulf Coast was one of the worst-hit areas by Katrina, which barrelled ashore on Monday packing winds of up to 240km/h.

Officials said that a large chunk of the casualties were concentrated on Point Cadet, on the southeastern tip of the Biloxi peninsula, where a morgue was being set up to handle bodies.

Rescuers warned, however, that many of the dead may have been washed away in the raging floodwaters.

"We'll be trying to determine a total fatality count," weary assistant police chief Rodney McGilvary said early on Tuesday, "if we ever have one".

Mississippi was hit by the eye of the storm, which carries the most powerful gusts and rain.

- AFP