The Haffner Report

Hurricane Katrina Observations from the Haffner Compound on Dog River
By Snatchy McPickles

From John "MyLifeWithChickens/Liam/Stefan" Haffner:

mom and dad said that the water came up higher than it ever has. not over the hill in the front - still never seen that - but it crept up the back way, from the canal, and made it all the way up past the tool house, over the driveway, and a little ways up the kitchen steps! unbelievable! so obviously, most of wharf and boathouse were underwater. thankfully, no trees on the house or anything like that. one bad thing though: dad was not able to get the Contender out of the boathouse before the river got high yesterday (sunday), so it was stuck in there for the storm. when i asked mom about it today, she said, "well, it's not sticking through the roof of the boathouse, so i guess it's all crushed up under there." and the water and debris were such that dad couldn't yet get to it see the carnage. but it sounds like it's in trouble. and that sucks. the Topaz was down at orange beach marina. don't know anything about that yet. dogs were safe at copeland's kennel.

also, chip's new house, the one they just moved into last weekend, down a little tributary just off the river - mom said that the water got within 2 to 6 inches of going into the house.

and she said that it was a helluva noise, even at dad's bunker-like office in town (where they stayed). loud and scary.


From The Mobile Register

Big green and blue dumpsters and a white ice-vending machine sailed like tubby boats down Water and Royal streets, past the submerged mail trucks at the city's downtown Post Office. Water submerged the first floor entrance of Mobile's Exploreum at the foot of Government, and the waves of Mobile Bay whipped the base of the RSA Battle House Tower, the city's half-completed signature skyscraper.

On Dog River, the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department's Swift Waters rescue team pulled at least 30 people to safety as sea water inundated homes along the banks of that river. Emergency workers fear they'll find hundreds of homes on Dauphin Island to be a total loss when the Gulf finally retreats to its familiar shoreline.

Katrina's storm surge, estimated to be somewhere between 11 and 12 feet at the Mobile state docks, was much higher than any recorded in Mobile's modern memory -- much higher than Hurricane Frederic's in 1979, and several feet higher than Hurricane Georges' wake, which pumped more than 8 feet of water into Mobile in 1998.