Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For New Orleans

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

There is a huge underclass in New Orleans - lots of poverty. Those are the people I'm worried about. They don't have the resources to evacuate and, while the Superdome will probably keep them alive during the hurricane, they could still go home and discover that they've lost everything.

I hope FEMA is gearing up.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

Geez, that's one fiery-looking nipple. Good luck to folks in low-lying areas.

Commentary: Do you think the folks along the Gulf Coast are buying into Global Warming?

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

If this hits NO directly it will be like a nuke going off, there will be little left. I like visiting NO, but it going to take a long time to rebuild.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

Probably not. Galveston has seen this or worse a few times, I believe in the last 100 years.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

True, but at the recent frquency?

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

So, a little update.

Interstate 10 out of New Orleans is a parking lot. My wife got on a bus at 9am NOLA-time, and has only gone 10 miles. But it sounds like the National Guard is moving in - she said a dozen ambulances and army trucks just drove by going INTO New Orleans.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

Hang in there. I know I'd be frantic in your situation, so I'm sure that you are.

The good thing is that she's getting out before the storm hits.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

Global warming may be a reality, but the other reality is that hurricane frequency was abnormally low from ~1960 to ~1995.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

I doubt that. This is one of the top 3 most powerful storms ever to threaten/strike the U.S. But you are probably right at least about the end result. I'd be more worried about what is left of NO than any potential long term damage to the oil industry.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

CNN talks a bit about the oil:
http://www.cnn.com/money/2005/08/28/news/economy/katrina_oil.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

But like you said, what is more worrisome is the already existing impoverished areas that will be devastated - Louisiana, but also southern Mississippi and Alabama.

I hope everyone and their loved ones stays safe.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

CNN International has been updating all day on the storm and you can really sense the tension and worry when it comes to what might happen to NO.

Worst case scenario is if this thing hits head on, sending the brunt of the storm surge against city defenses, they simply cannot hold back the water. A 20 to 25 foot, maybe more, storm surge would leave the city submerged in meters of water that, they say, could take months and months to pump out again. The pumps existing now that would do the job would be submerged and lost, brilliant. New ones would need to be constructed which they mentioned would take 120 days or so. On top of that the search for bodies and survivors would tie up enormous resources. Economically it would be a total disaster as we are talking about the entire city being submerged for half a year or more in meters of water.

How many structures would survive? How many homes would be lost? Lives? Just hope this thing loses intensity and slides one way or the other that would spare NO the worst of the storm surge. None of that is looking likely at this point, but hurricanes do all kinds of crazy sh!t, there is always hope.

Good luck all you BS'ers in the area. Stay safe.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

Prayers go out to everyone in New Orleans area.

Looks like a really bad one. I hope everyone who gets out is okay and those who do stay, I hope you can live to tell us about it.

Let's hope it dissipates rapidly when it hits land.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

i'm still not sure what this has to do with st louis... maybe he meant bay st louis, mississippi

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

It hit us head on at 85 mph and caused a lot of damage. Good luck to the folks in NOLA.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

He could not.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

My girlfriend's parents left St. Charles Parish at 8:30 local time to go to a relative's house in Lafayette, normally a 2 1/2 hour drive, and they haven't gotten there yet.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

And if it does flood and the sewers overflow, the area might not be habitable for months.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

Have you heard of any attempts to speed things up? Like opening both sides of the 10 to get things moving?

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

According to MSNBC, that was done this morning, and it is till bottlenecked. I think they are getting the national guard in to get traffic moving.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

They've been doing it all day and it's still crawling.

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

According to the Washington Post story, that has already been done (and it sounds like it's still a mess). Here's the link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082800146.html

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

Back to my hurricane Opal story, because the evacuation order came out so late things were a total disaster on the roadways. We headed north before heading east to stay with family. The first leg of the trip, a normal half hour drive, took over 2 hours. The weather was deteriorating all around us and things were just plain scary until we finally got to I-10 and headed east.

************ ************ ************ situation

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

Does anyone know how many Louisiana national guardsmen are deployed to Iraq? Will there be enough left stateside to deal with this nightmare?

 

Re: Katrina: Now Cat 5/Doom For St. Louis

Here's the NWS New Orleans statement (as posted on Drudge-- Sorry, it's where I saw it).

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm

(posted whole thing since it's a press release-- mods remove if in violation)

DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

HURRICANE KATRINAA MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969. MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. ATLEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED.


CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE. HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT. AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATEADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...


AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK. POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...


BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEWCROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BEKILLED.AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEARHURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE..