Indonesian families travel 18 hours to escape Katrina

Indonesian families travel 18 hours to escape Katrina

Agencies, New York/Biloxi, Mississippi

Hurricane Katrina forced three Indonesian families in New Orleans
to travel for 18 hours for shelter at the Indonesian Consulate in
Houston, Texas, as floodwaters poured into low-lying New Orleans
and more than 50 people were reported dead in Mississippi.

Spokesman for the consulate, Rusman Utomo, said the New
Orleans-Houston trip usually took only four hours, but in this
particular week, the families had to race with the crowds of
residents rushing out of the city, known as the birthplace of
jazz.

"Ten people from three families traveled for 18 hours to come
to the consulate. They arrived early on Monday," Rusman told
Antara on Tuesday. "They thought of coming here after they
learned that hotels in the cities neighboring New Orleans were
fully booked."

There have been no reports of Indonesian casualties among some
300 Indonesian nationals living in New Orleans city in Louisiana,
he added. They are mostly students or employees at U.S. companies
like PT Freeport mining company. The company also has an
exploration unit in Papua province.

"Before the hurricane arrived, most of them had taken refugee
outside the town, either in hotels or with relatives and
friends," Rusman said. He praised the U.S. government for its
quick response before the disaster arrived.

Meanwhile, the death toll across Mississippi was expected to
rise as rescuers struggled through high water and mountains of
debris to reach devastated areas.

The killer storm inflicted catastrophic damage all along the
coast as it slammed into Louisiana with 224 kilometers per hour
winds, then swept across Mississippi, Alabama and western
Florida.

It left a trail of shattered buildings, broken boats, smashed
cars, toppled trees and flooded cities. Risk analysts estimated
the storm would cost US$26 billion, the highest in U.S. history.

The storm brought back memories of Hurricane Camille, which
hit the region in 1969 with winds up to 320 kph and killed 256
people. Before striking the Gulf coast, Katrina hit southern
Florida last week, where it killed seven people.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said bodies were floating in high
waters that covered most of the city.

"My heart is heavy tonight. I don't have any good news to
really share," he told television station WWL.

New Orleans is mostly below sea level and protected by levees
or embankments.

Nagin said the levees had given way in places to Katrina's
storm surge, including a 60-meter breach near the city center
through which waters from Lake Pontchartrain were pouring in.

So far, Nagin said, the historic French Quarter and central
business district had not been badly flooded.

Katrina knocked out electricity to about 1.3 million people,
in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, utility companies
said. Restoring power could take weeks, they warned.

On its way to the coast, the storm swept through oil and gas
fields in the Gulf of Mexico where 20 percent of the nation's
energy is produced.