HIGH-RES DAMAGE ASSESSMENT PHOTOS OF THE GULF COAST

Here's an incredible new resource mostly for Mississippi residents who evacuated the coast. I don't think it's well known yet, but anyone living within approximately one mile of the coast can check on the current status of their home using these satellite images. For people who thought they would have to physically return to know anything about the neighborhood, check this first.

They have real slow index pages, but yet for some reason the large photos will load fast. Maybe someone (or another agency like FEMA) can mirror the indexes.

UPDATE: Google Earth users are trying to get the images to work with that program and Google is saying they expect to have more imagery available today. I suppose they're going to integrate the new NOAA imagery into their own. It should be much easier to browse.

Also, it turns out these images aren't from a satellite but a NOAA Cessna Citation aircraft.

UPDATE: NOAA just added a bunch of new Louisiana images covering lots of shoreline and New Orleans. Now the index page seems faster but the photos load slow. This link explains a bit more how to work with these images to find what you're looking for. It's easier when you toggle the hybrid feature in the Google Maps links to help orient yourself to landmarks.

And here's a different large high-res satellite photo of the entire city of New Orleans.