'It's absolutely obliterated'
2005-09-02 14:01
Washington - Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said on Tuesday that 90 percent of buildings in the worst-hit area of the Gulf Coast in his state are "totally just gone" after Hurricane Katrina.
"Between the beach and the railroad ... every house is just gone," Barbour told NBC television. "Ninety percent of the structures are totally just gone. Debris (is) knee deep, waist deep, hip deep."
"It is indescribable," he said. "You'll see blocks and blocks and blocks where there are just no houses left. I mean, nothing."
He noted that he had witnessed powerful Hurricane Camille and its aftermath in 1969, but he said this storm is worse.
Touched
"There are places that weren't touched by Camille where there's total devastation today. You can go 25, 30 miles along the Gulf Coast and it's just absolutely obliterated."
In terms of recovering from the storm, Barbour said: "We've turned the first corner," as search-and-rescue teams and emergency supplies have managed to make their way into the devastated areas through mountains of rubble, "but there are a lot of corners left to go."
Hurricane Katrina is expected to trigger the biggest humanitarian assistance operation the American Red Cross has ever organised in the United States.
Vincent Creel, a city spokesperson at Biloxi, Mississippi, estimated that hundreds of people might have been killed along the Mississippi coastline from Pascagoula to Gulfport, including Biloxi.
Authorities have refused to provide even a provisional death toll from the hurricane on Monday.