saraday Posted August 27, 2005 Share Posted August 27, 2005 please don't do as much damage as Betsy.. http://espocreative.com/espo/ scary article: 'Big Easy' a bowl of trouble in hurricanes By James West, USATODAY.com With the 2000 hurricane season entering its most fierce stage, should the "Big Easy" change its nickname to the "Big Worry"? Officials there who plan for hurricanes think so. The last time a major hurricane – with winds over 111 mph – came close to New Orleans was Hurricane Camille in 1969, says Paul Trotter, chief of the National Weather Service office in nearby Slidell, La. That storm came ashore about 55 miles east of New Orleans in Mississippi. Trotter says that there have been 12 or 13 major storms to hit within 85 miles of New Orleans in the last 120 years, or an average of one major hurricane occurring once a decade. "With Camille hitting over 30 years ago, we are well overdue for a major one," Trotter says. New Orleans, a city of nearly 1.4 million people, sits below sea level, as much as 8 feet lower than water in nearby Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River and its delta, where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. This in effect creates a "bowl" that floodwaters can settle into, like water headed for a stopped-up drain. To combat this unique problem, a system of levees surrounds the city to hold back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south, says Joseph Suhayda, director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The levee that holds back Lake Pontchartrain is 15 feet high while the one guarding against the Mississippi River is 20 feet tall. Suhayda says the 15-foot levee will protect the city from a minimum hurricane of Category 1 or 2 intensity and at best a fast-moving Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane intensity scale. "A slow-moving Category 3 or any Category 4 or 5 hurricane passing within 20 or 30 miles of New Orleans would be devastating," Suhayda says. The storm surge — water pushed into a mound by hurricane winds — would pour over the Pontchartrain levee and flood the city. A severe hurricane could push floodwaters inside the New Orleans bowl as high as 20-30 feet, covering most homes and the first three or four stories of buildings in the city, he says. "This brings a great risk of casualties." In this type of scenario the metro area could be submerged for more than 10 weeks, says Walter S. Maestri, Director of Emergency Management for Jefferson Parish, which encompasses more than half of the city. In those 10 weeks, residents would need drinking water, food and a dry place to live. Besides the major problems flooding would bring, there is also concern about a potentially explosive and deadly problem. Suhayda says flooding of the whole city could easily mix industrial and household chemicals into a toxic and volatile mix. Coupled with an estimated 100,000 tons of sediment, a cleanup could take several months. In the worst case scenario, the mix of toxic chemicals could make some areas of the city uninhabitable. "It could take several years for the city to recover fully, economically, from a strong hurricane," says Suhayda. To make residents aware of the dangers New Orleans faces, Maestri and his staff visit churches, professional organizations and social clubs almost every week of the year to discuss the risks. They distribute videos to schools, libraries and even to video stores for free distribution to the public. They also provide information to the commercial mass media to make the public aware. Maestri says that the public knows and understands the threat they face if a major hurricane was to strike near New Orleans. For instance, when Hurricane Georges threatened the Gulf Coast in 1998, an estimated 60 percent of the New Orleans population evacuated the city, Maestri says. It was the largest evacuation in U.S. history at the time, according to the National Weather Service. Even then, not everyone could get out, and the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans was used as a shelter for the first time. Fortunately for the city, Hurricane Georges, a Category 2 hurricane with winds near 110 mph, landed to the east in Biloxi, Miss. Despite the difficulty in getting everyone out, Maestri says evacuation is the best policy for a city under sea level and not fully protected from storm surge and flooding. But he is concerned that he still might not have enough advance warning to evacuate all of New Orleans. Improvements in hurricane predictions during the last 30 years have made it possible for the National Hurricane Center to issue hurricane warnings 24 hours ahead of when a storm hits. But, Maestri says it takes nearly 72 hours to fully evacuate New Orleans. This means that an evacuation order must be issued using a forecast that could have an error of 150 miles. While Maestri and his team are busy evacuating the city, the storm could be heading for Alabama and Mississippi to the east or the bayous of western Louisiana instead of New Orleans. An evacuation could create a ghost town unnecessarily and make people more complacent when the next hurricane nears the Gulf Coast. Maestri is also concerned that he could be placing evacuees in the path of danger if a storm struck along the evacuation routes instead of New Orleans. Besides getting everybody out, Suhayda says there are two alternate solutions that would protect people from potential flooding if a category 4 or 5 hurricane were to hit the city. The first would be to raise the levees, especially the one bordering Lake Pontchartrain. Raising the lake levee to the 20-foot height of the Mississippi River levee should give enough protection for the city. Another solution, the so-called "haven plan" by Suhayda, would involve building an internal levee that would protect the city's core; hospitals, government buildings and transportation as well as the electrical and water infrastructure would be safe from the ravages of a flood. But the two plans involving the building of new levees are massive and expensive public works projects, Suhayda says. They would take more than a decade to plan and build, he concludes, leaving the city with no improvement to its hurricane problem in the near future. "Residents will have to deal with a threat of flooding for at least the next 10-15 years." Contributing: Chris Vaccaro, USATODAY.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 27, 2005 Author Share Posted August 27, 2005 new orleans after hurricane camille Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREENOJOS Posted August 27, 2005 Share Posted August 27, 2005 hurricanes suck for real. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shameless self promotion Posted August 27, 2005 Share Posted August 27, 2005 Imagine the amount of bodies floating all around.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 gas prices are supposed to spike up again after this because this storm will be going right over most of the gulf of mexico's oil platforms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casekonly Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 it's gonna pee in your cereal sara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 what would dr. zaius do? we're all gonna die. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tough Love Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 and after all those hurricanes, ud think people would be smarter then living in such an area....go figure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 well the seasons have been worse for the past few years.. global warming, el nino, etcetc. i'm moving anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 well. it seems i'll be the only person posting in this thread. nonetheless.. the storm was upgraded from a category 3 to a category 5 overnight. winds were 111mph, now they are 160 mph. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREENOJOS Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 i hope new orleans doesnt get destroyed, so much history and cool buildings there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatalist Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 i feel for you saraday, we felt some of katrina lastnight! it fucking ruin the party Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty_habiT Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 I'm glad I never have to deal with anything crazy like that.... oh wait, yes I live in tornado area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty_habiT Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 With powerful and strengthening Hurricane Katrina headed straight for his city, the mayor of New Orleans today ordered the mandatory evacuation of residents. The Category 5 storm has maximum sustained winds near 175 mph and has already been blamed for nine deaths in South Florida. Looking ahead, Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center said: "It has the potential for a large loss of life." from.. http://www.cnn.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beardofzeus Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 I got some interesting shots of downed trees in the miami area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREENOJOS Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 any of you see those morons trying to surf out in the ocean? haha those idiots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 i'm about 120 miles west of new orleans.. so i should be cool.... they're only expecting about 70 mph winds where i'm located.. but new orleans is fucked. the weather channel keeps showing new orleans' mayor Ray Nagin.. they're freaking out. i'll be trying to take pics all day tomorrow of the storm (if i can).. expect a photothread. this place is a madhouse right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty_habiT Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 Yeah, that's freaking insane having to evacuate your city because of something like this. That's scary... and it really sucks knowing that all your stuff will be ruined when you come back... if it's even still there. I hope there's not alot of casualities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 scary........ DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED HURRICANE KATRINA A 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. AT LEAST 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 CREATE ADDITIONAL 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. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED. AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS. ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE OUTSIDE! LAZ038-040-050-056>070-282100- ASSUMPTION-LIVINGSTON-LOWER JEFFERSON-LOWER LAFOURCHE- LOWER PLAQUEMINES-LOWER ST. BERNARD-LOWER TERREBONNE-ORLEANS- ST. CHARLES-ST. JAMES-ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST-ST. TAMMANY-TANGIPAHOA- UPPER JEFFERSON-UPPER LAFOURCHE-UPPER PLAQUEMINES-UPPER ST. BERNARD- UPPER TERREBONNE- 1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poop Man Bob Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 Damn. This could get really, really shitty. I went there just three weeks ago for my bachelor party - I'll need to post the pictures before the places are unrecognizable. From saraday's article, this is nuts: A severe hurricane could push floodwaters inside the New Orleans bowl as high as 20-30 feet, covering most homes and the first three or four stories of buildings in the city, he says. "This brings a great risk of casualties." In this type of scenario the metro area could be submerged for more than 10 weeks, says Walter S. Maestri, Director of Emergency Management for Jefferson Parish, which encompasses more than half of the city. In those 10 weeks, residents would need drinking water, food and a dry place to live. And I echo your statement re: gas prices. Expect the oil market to go fucking apeshit tomorrow and push the price over $70/barrel. If you have any empty space in your tank, fill up now and save a bundle. I bet gas will hit $3/gallon for premium. Nuts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 29, 2005 Author Share Posted August 29, 2005 = http://fireantball.ytmnd.com/ ((the superdome is a gigantic evacuation shelter for people who are too poor or unable to leave the city)) latest news on local tv... the eye of the storm which is a GIGANTIC 30 miles wide is expected to cut directly through the center of downtown new orleans and then rip it's way straight through lake ponchitrain. scary fucking shit. i think this might be the end of the french quarter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isor357 Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 Dont build cities 8 feet under sea level God Bles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Quickwood Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 sheeit, i should have got some gas today Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawood Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 Wow, its enourmous. How many hits you gotta take to wake UP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fermentor666 Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 Big and scary, good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 29, 2005 Author Share Posted August 29, 2005 i'll be fine.. it's new orleans that's going to get screwed. the worst of what i will see will be within the next couple hours - noon tomorrow..... 40 mph winds with gusts up to 60 people living east of me will be dealing with 150 mph sustained winds.. gusting at even higher than that. i may lose power.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 29, 2005 Author Share Posted August 29, 2005 oh.. there's also a tornado ripping through st. bernard/orleans parishes (new orleans) as i type this there are at least 10,000 people who were too poor to evacuate sitting in the new orleans superdome right now. i hope they will be okay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beardofzeus Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 I left right in time. A few shots of miami springs damage. Mostly just downed trees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saraday Posted August 29, 2005 Author Share Posted August 29, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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