Hurricane Katrina

[theworm[$]]

I woke up this morning, watched the news of the hurricane and feel positively numb.

Melanie, I'm so happy for you. This really should bring you some rain and little else. For people in New Orleans and the surrounding coastal areas, this will be a major catastophy and I am watching TV and feeling positively impotent.

I am really praying for some miracle, but this storm is in the gulf and close to land and has no place "safe" to go.

Some of you are religious, some aren't, but PLEASE join me in sendning hope, good wishes, and prayers to the folks in the path of the storm, and please try to think now how we can all help once the storm passes. Many people are going to lose everything. They will need mostly money, but also clothing and supplies. Some of us don't have a lot of extra cash, but lets try to think of what we do have (clothing, soap, etc) that we can send to help the folks that will need the help.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

This is very scary.

[emeleel]

Yes, this really is going to be a bad one. Last I heard, it's just a smidge worse than Camille which hit that area in '69. And considering the fact that N.O. is basically under water to start with.... yikes.

[lynnzop[$]]

Holy smokes, from the satelite photo on CNN, it looks like it takes the entire Gulf!

[erik_kosberg]

http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/iwszone?Sites=:laz062

Wow. Scroll down to “DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED”

[lynnzop[$]]

Geez, it's giving me chills all the way here. I can't imagine reading that and living there.

What on earth would you do with your livestock? I can't remember if there is any farmland near New Orleans, but what about horses or cows? They can't be evacuated!

[taurusmoon]

Holy crap.

[thinkerlady[$]]

I've been watching all day on the weather channel and cnn. It is really scary. And the lines leaving NO. I hope everyone took the authorites seriously and left.

[cristina1]

I feel so bad for anyone in NO. We keep watching the news as well, and it just doesnt look good.

[magenta321]

One of my online friends is still there. I know you don't know him, but if you can send out good vibes or prayers or whatever for Vega_ it would be appreciated

His girlfriend is in West Texas and worried sick about him.

[theworm[$]]

Right now all we can do is pray.
I literally feel sick over this.

[brian_igo]

lynnzop said

Geez, it's giving me chills all the way here. I can't imagine reading that and living there.

What on earth would you do with your livestock? I can't remember if there is any farmland near New Orleans, but what about horses or cows? They can't be evacuated!

There is a lot of farming north and west of New Orleans. What happens here is the animals are ID tagged...and you hope they survive and can be found after.

[theworm[$]]

When we had bad flooding here a 5 years ago, it was a real problem for the horses. They had no dry land, and horses and cows were suffering hoof rot.

[pippadaisy]

This is the storm they've been fearing for years. Last estimates I saw thought that the entire city will be under 5 to 15 feet of water. Scary stuff.

Positive thoughts coming from here and I swear this year I am NOT going to complain about the snow. Much.

[erik_kosberg]

I heard an interview with an researcher from Louisiana who's been doing computer models for years about what a Catagory 5 hurricane might do to New Orleans. He was trying to remain calm and professional but I could hear fear in his voice.

He mentioned that there are several hundred thousand people there who don't own cars. Some of them will have gotten rides from friends, relatives or neighbors by the time the storm hits, but many thousands will be stuck in the city.

[pippadaisy]

Ack. I hadn't even thought of that!

[theworm[$]]

The people without cars - many homeless people, poor people, elderly people, are being bussed to the sports dome. It will be crowded, hot, and miserable. I hope they'll have food. I hope they'll be able to stay high up out of the water, but low enough to be safe in the wind.
This is so frightening.

[lynnzop[$]]

The ones who are stranded are heading to the SuperDome. It will be their only safe haven, but I shudder to think of being in it when the storm hits. I don't think I'd feel safe, and the electricity and AC will go out.

It looks like Mobile is going to be affected too. Is that where Andy is?

[theworm[$]]

I think that Andy is further north in Birmingham. If I'm right, he'll be ok. I hope I'm right!

[lynnzop[$]]

Brian Williams is reporting from the SuperDome, they are estimating 30,000 people having to seek shelter in there.

The satelite photos are just eerie. I don't remember ANY of the last crop being that humungous.

[erik_kosberg]

The researcher mentioned the superdome but said that it's not what the Red Cross considers to be a safe shelter, that it's considered to be a "shelter of last resort".

The walls are concrete and the roof is spray foam over a steel superstructure, but I have no idea what kind of winds it was designed to withstand.

[theworm[$]]

Yeah - we just saw the shot of the people lining up at the Superdome. With the high winds and the storm surge, I hope its safe for them. This is going to be a LONG night for all of them.

[pippadaisy]

lynnzop said

Brian Williams is reporting from the SuperDome, they are estimating 30,000 people having to seek shelter in there.

The satelite photos are just eerie. I don't remember ANY of the last crop being that humungous.

One meteorologist I saw said that if there was such a thing as a Cat 6, this would qualify. It's THAT far bad on the range of Cat 5 badness.

[Donnie013]

I was in New Orleans this past April visiting some old friends. N.O. has been sinking for years and the entire area, especially the surrounding areas of Burbon St. are riddled with termites. The city put down insecticides weekly but the policewoman I spoke with said it's still not enough. With all the damage from those bugs and already damaged areas from the always shifting land, I can't even imagine the catastrophic disaster Katrina will cause. I can visualize my friend's house being completely washed away. I have chills just thinking about it and pray I'm wrong.

[Prepoia[$]]

I'm praying for them all too. First, the people left behind and those who hope to return and secondly, for the loss of history that is sure to occur. What a disaster for all the states involved.

[emeleel]

That SuperDome thing scares me. I looked up the history today, and construction began just two years after Camille - not really enough time, I would think, to truly plan construction that would be truly safe against a storm like this. And was it even thought of as a possible shelter at the time?

30,000 people packed into a place like that, what happens if the constuction fails?

[phoenixx[$]]

Yes, the stadium is meant only as a place of last resort:

Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation for the city’s 485,000 residents and opened the Superdome as a shelter of last resort, bluntly warning those who stayed that they would be at the mercy of Katrina’s high winds, 28-foot storm surge and 15 inches of rain that threatened to overwhelm the city’s protective levees.

and in the face of this magnitude of danger, the rapidly dwindling gas supply as evacuees stream out of the area, the inability of many to leave a city where you can live without a car so easily, etc - there truly is no where else to go. we must hope for the best for them.

People who did not get out Sunday are now unable to get out - the elevated road system traversing Louisianna swamplands is scheduled to be closed during the storm.

New Orleans faces the loss of historical structures, lives and homes. More troubling is the potential health contamination from the expected flooding of sewer systems, water supplies, the soon-to-be floating coffins, crushed mausoleums, backlogged waste etc. that are all part of a city surviving so long below sealevel.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the Waterford nuclear plant about 20 miles west of New Orleans had also been shut down as a precaution.

Some compare this to Betsy in '65:

New Orleans has not taken a major direct hit from a hurricane since Betsy blasted the Gulf Coast in 1965. Flood waters approached 20 feet in some areas, fishing villages were flattened, and the storm surge left almost half of New Orleans under water and 60,000 residents homeless. Seventy-four people died in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

Want to help?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending food, water and other supplies to the region. In addition, the American Red Cross has opened a telephone hotline for donations from citizens. The number is 1-800-435-7669. Other information on Red Cross emergency programs is available at the Red Cross Web site.

[phoenixx[$]]

Think Katrina won't affect your state? Think again - she is going right for your wallet:

With crude oil prices already near record levels, Hurricane Katrina targeted the heart of America’s oil and refinery operations Sunday, shutting down an estimated 1 million barrels of refining capacity and sharply curbing offshore production in the region.

and

Last September, Hurricane Ivan also swept across the region causing heavy damage and reducing the region’s output for months.

Katrina’s 165-mph wind was fiercer.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

How ironic - a war doesn't get us to take steps like carpooling to conserve energy but in the end, an act of God might.

[lynnzop[$]]

Heard the ominous wordon my way to work this a.m.: Landfall.

I'm praying for those folks down there. It's got to be terrifying.

[emeleel]

Landfall was 6:10 this morning, but thankfully she slowed down a bit - down to "just" 140, enough to bring it down to a Cat4. It's still going to be very, very bad.

[mtomm[$]]

lynnzop said

What on earth would you do with your livestock? I can't remember if there is any farmland near New Orleans, but what about horses or cows? They can't be evacuated!

You open the corrals and gates and hope that you get them back.

I'm praying this turns out better than the predictions.

[emeleel]

Ut oh - NBC is giving live coverage right now - Superdome has sprung a leak. There are about 9,000 people in there, and the roof tiles are peeling back off and on, and one came completely off so that you can see sky and it's raining into the stands.

[theworm[$]]

OMG!!! This is nightmarish!!
I'm absolutely horrified.
And when I got to work this morning (after a 2 hour commute) my meteorologist boss is being a p$^&k about the hurricane. I hardsly slept last night, and I'm ready to take it out on someone, so I'll just sit here and stew. I'm so upset.

Melanie - did the jog it took make things worse for you? I hope you're still ok!

[emeleel]

Not as far as I can tell. Standard tornado warnings from being on the edges, but we're not even getting rained on at the moment. Had a little bit of rain last night, but nothing yet this morning. They are expecting a fair amount of rain here, but I don't think anything unusual for the season.

The online news is saying that the MS coast is actually going to get the brunt of the storm, but I think NO is going to get hurt the worst because of the physical realities of the area.

[theworm[$]]

Resident Chris Robinson said via cellphone from his home east of downtown that “I’m not doing too good right now.”

“The water’s rising pretty fast,” he added. “I got a hammer and an ax and a crowbar, but I’m holding off on breaking through the roof until the last minute. Tell someone to come get me please. I want to live.”

With all the warnings, there are still folks that didn't evacuate.

[wivabef]

New Orleans, though still in great danger, is safer than was expected...but Mobile and Biloxi...wow!

I have a friend who's a paramedic, and she was talking about people who don't evacuate. While the wind is above 40 mph sustained, they cannot go out to help people...fire equipment will tip over in the wind, and that won't help anyone. She said a couple of times when they've had hurricans (Isabel is one recent example) her heart ached because they kept getting calls they could not respond to. All they could do was advise them on how to handle it until help could be sent.

When people are told to evacuate and ignore orders, they not only cause problems for themselves, but for those who's duty it is to rescue stupid people who ignore orders.

[lynnzop[$]]

wivabef said

When people are told to evacuate and ignore orders, they not only cause problems for themselves, but for those who's duty it is to rescue stupid people who ignore orders.

I hate to be cold, but you are right on, Elyzabeth. I feel for the folks who are left behind (would never wish ill on ANYONE stuck in that situation), but they really are bringing it on themselves. Why don't they just listen???????

[wivabef]

You're not being cold (at least, I hope not, because that would make me cold). But I think of my poor friend, out there trying to rescue people because that's what she does, waiting anxiously for the winds to die down enough to help some family who called in because someone's having a heart attack in their home that is flooding (as expected) and there's nothing she can do.

It's bad enough for the people who were caught unexectedly (like when Katrina first hit Florida and surprised them).

[theworm[$]]

I agree. When you're told to "GET OUT" and they were - in no uncertain terms - they can't expect rescue workers to risk their own lives to save them. It's heartbreaking for the people who now realize how dangerous it its and for the rescue workers. The police, paramedics and fire fighters put themselves in too much danger. They can't evacuate with their families. They have to stay in shelters through the storm so they are available as soon as its safe for them to be out. People like that man very well could become victims in the storm, and while it breaks my heart, it's their own fault that they find themselves in this situation.
I haven't seen pics of Mobile and Biloxi, but I can imagine.