Resident's that have fled the Gulf Coast can now get a close-up view of the conditions of their homes and communities online. The detailed satellite images show an absolutely jaw dropping amount of destruction. I've never seen anything like this on our soil!
The NOAA now has satellite imagery of the destruction on the gulf taken from 17,000 feet on their website. Here
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/ They have posted approx. 350 close-up high res. photos that enables you to zoom in on your community. You can definitely get a good view of the condition of your home. That is, if your home even exists. Click on the graphic of the gulf to view the area you want to see, then click on the community you want, then when the image of the area you want to view downloads, click on the image again to zoom in! There is still a lot of area not posted yet, I didn't see any photo's of the West Bank, or Terrebonne, so hopefully they'll be adding more photos .
Even though a lot of the water has receded in these, I must admit, It's still completely shocking. There is no doubt in my mind now that I'm doing the right thing by going down to Mississippi and that every single able person needs to get down to the gulf and pitch in! I'm even leaning toward thinking that what has happened in the gulf would have overwhelmed this nation whether our troops are in Iraq or not. I know the south east of Louisiana like the back of my hand, as my family had a camp in Grand Isle that we spent our summers at, and it just looks devastated. I wish they had the same close up photos of some of the areas so that people can see just how much land and homes are just gone on the Louisiana. The Mississippi gulf is just unbelievable. The point/Waveland has been wiped clean. The homes look like they are approx. a half mile away 1/2mile away. There is no way the death toll is not going to be in the tens of thousands. It's just heartbreaking.