The Shrine

Um, Eric, get the hell out of town, man.....

I'm sure he's far away from this storm by now.

I hope. The newsmen keep saying there are a lot of people that may not be accepting how bad this one could be. Pretty much everything I've read points to getting the hell out of Dodge as the best strategy.

Eric, if you're reading this and you're still in New Orleans, get inside the Superdome, ASAP.

From Wikipedia:

"Some areas of New Orleans city range from 1 to 20 feet (0.3 to 6 m) below sea level, and rain-water must be pumped out as fast as it falls to prevent flooding. The city's protective levees along Lake Pontchartrain only reach 14 feet (4 m) (levee maps). At landfall most of the city is expected to be heavily flooded due to the storm surge. In addition, the eye is forecast to pass to the east of the city. Should that occur, the wind will back into the north as the storm passes, forcing large volumes of water from Lake Pontchartrain into the city. It is expected that the storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain will reach 14 to 18 feet, with waves reaching seven feet above the storm surge. [4]

Therefore, Mayor C. Ray Nagin has ordered the first ever mandatory evacuation of the city (calling Katrina "a storm that most of us have long feared"). He has established several "refuges of last resort" for citizens who cannot leave the city, including the massive Louisiana Superdome, which, as of midnight on August 28, was reported to house over 30,000 people. The elevation of the Superdome is about three feet above sea level, and the forecasted storm surge could possibly cause flooding on that site; however, the Superdome has been used as a shelter in the past (in 1998's Hurricane Georges), and is built to withstand winds of up to 200 mph (320 km/h) and water levels of 35 feet (10.6 m). Power outages will last for weeks [5].

President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana two days before the hurricane made landfall [6].

On August 28, 1101 AM CDT, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a bulletin predicting catastrophic damage to the city. Effects include at least partial destruction of one out of every two well-constructed houses in the city, damage to most industrial buildings rendering them inoperable, the total destruction of all wood-framed low-rise apartment buildings, all windows blowing out in high-rise office buildings, and the creation of a huge debris field of trees, telephone poles, cars, and collapsed buildings.

Further predictions are that the standing water caused by huge storm surges will render most of the city uninhabitable for weeks, while the destruction of oil and petrochemical refineries in the surrounding area will spill waste into the flooding, converting the city into a toxic marsh until water can be drained. Shortages of clean water "will make human suffering incredible by modern standards," according to an NOAA bulletin. Some experts say that it could take six months or longer to pump all the water out of the city. Even after the area has been drained, all buildings will need to undergo inspection to determine structural soundness, as all buildings in the city are likely to be at least partly submerged. Damage and subsequent recovery efforts are predicted to cost the city of New Orleans in excess of US$100 billion. [7].

Various projections of an event similar to Hurricane Katrina (a category 5 hurricane directly striking New Orleans), made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisiana State University, local authorities, and the American Red Cross, have consistently predicted an unprecedented disaster, with extensive loss of life and property."

Wowee, folks. Sine, your article's writer doesn't seem to think the storm overflowing the main levees is a likely scenario, but the news sources do seem to think so, and whoever wrote this seems to agree as well...

I guess we can only wait and see.

Mental wrote:I hope. The newsmen keep saying there are a lot of people that may not be accepting how bad this one could be. Pretty much everything I've read points to getting the hell out of Dodge as the best strategy.

Eric, if you're reading this and you're still in New Orleans, get inside the Superdome, ASAP.

My mom works for the mayor dude I've been gone since Friday.

I figured as much. I didn't doubt that you were smart enough to get out of there. Don't know why all of the other people didn't go on a MANDATORY evacuation.