Surviving Hurricane Katrina - My Story

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Survivors of Hurricane Katrina share their experiences, highlighting the impact of the storm, which was a Category 1 at landfall but caused significant damage, including downed trees and power lines. Many areas are flooded, and there are widespread power outages, with the power company struggling to restore electricity. The discussion emphasizes the importance of evacuating vulnerable areas as the storm intensifies, with warnings of potential Category 5 conditions. Participants express concern for those unable to evacuate due to financial or transportation issues, and the potential aftermath of the storm raises fears about the recovery process. Overall, the conversation reflects the urgency and challenges faced by those in the storm's path.
dduardo
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Hey guys, I survived the storm.

This is the first time I've experienced a direct hit from a hurricane. I'm glad it was just a Category 1 storm. Right now I've got a gasoline generator powering my computer. There are some areas that are flooded in knee deep water. In my area particularly there are a lot of down trees and power lines. A giant tree is laying on top of my roof and the fence on the west side of the house collapsed. Also, most traffic signals are not working and there is a shortage of gasoline.

The power company says they will try to get 90% of people's power back by friday, but I don't think they'll make that deadline. Alot of transformers blew up during the storm. You could tell whenever a transformer blew because the night sky lit up in a blue-ish green color.

Anyway, I have to go clean up some more. I'll try to poke my head in whenever I get a chance.
 
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Good to hear that you are ok, stay safe.
 
Storms, the one reason I won't live in Fla. Glad to hear your ok and have a generator! Hope the big tree didn't do any damage to your home. I've seen news clips of the flooding, one showed a kitten swimming for its life{yes it was rescued}.
 
whoa, that must have been scary, glad to hear you are ok!
 
Glad to hear you're okay dduardo! Okay, so if you're not on for a bit, we'll understand...if you have to go at least a week on generator power with low gasoline supplies, don't waste the electric on us.
 
Yeah, stay safe! :smile: Most fatalities occur after the storm, you know. Hope you manage to keep electricity. That was the worst part of any storm that I've been through - no power for a week is torture, especially during the summer in FL.
 
Today I worked with my neighbors to cut down all the down trees with chainsaws. The electricity is slowing coming up around town and the internet is more stable. More gasoline stations are opening up as the electricity is being restored. Hopefully things will be back to normal by the end of the week.

If anyone is living in Louisiana you should look into evacuating. Katrina is currently a Category 3, but could easily go up to Category 4 or 5. I would definitely not want to be around there when the storm strikes after seeing what happened here.
 
That reminds me... http://www.wunderground.com/ is the best weather site I've ever found for the US (just enter your zip code, and you're good to go). It's great to have access to during a storm.
 
Some interesting tropical cyclone information.

The most intense storm on record was Typhoon Tip in the northwestern Pacific Ocean in 1979, which had a minimum pressure of 870 mb and maximum sustained windspeeds of 190 mph (305 km/h). Fortunately, it weakened before striking Japan. Tip was also the largest cyclone on record, with a circulation 1,350 miles (2,170 km) wide. The average tropical cyclone is only 300 miles (480 km) wide.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/Typhoonsizes.jpg
Tip does not, however, hold alone the record for fastest sustained winds in a cyclone; Typhoon Keith in the Pacific, and Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Allen in the North Atlantic currently share this record as well, although recorded windspeeds that fast are suspect, since most monitoring equipment is likely to be destroyed by such conditions.
Camille was the only storm to actually strike land while at that intensity, making it, with 190 mph (305 km/h) sustained winds and 210 mph (335 km/h) gusts, the strongest tropical cyclone of record to ever hit land. For comparison, these speeds are encounted at the center of a strong tornado, but Camille was much larger and long-lived than any tornado.

A gust caused by Category 5 Super Typhoon Paka over Guam in 1997, was recorded at 236 mph :bugeye: :eek: (380 km/h); however, this reading had to be discarded, since the anemometer was damaged by the storm. Had it been confirmed, this would be the strongest wind ever recorded at the Earth's surface. (The current record is held by a non-hurricane wind registering 231 mph (372 km/h) at Mount Washington in New Hampshire.)

If I heard on the radio the wind speed was 235 miles per hour, I would have been sure I was going to DIE :eek: . The tiniest thing, moving at 235 miles per hour could easily injure a person. I sure am glad I was living in Michigan at that time.

I did more research on the Mount Washington thing and found that Mount Washington literally has some of the worst weather in the world. It holds the record for land-measured wind-speed at 231 mph (372 km/h), recorded in 1934, and regular winter temperatures of -47°F (-44°C). Snow storms at high altitudes are routine in every month of the year. Buildings at the summit are designed to withstand 300 mph (480 km/h) winds; some are literally chained to the mountain.

Ironically, Guam has some of the best weather and cleanest air in the world. Everyday is beautiful, except for the ones where we're in the eye of a supertyphoon.
 
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  • #10
  • #11
arildno said:
I suppose Katrina made a lot of Waves..
http://www.katw.com/
It's times like this that I really wish we had a groan smiley.
 
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  • #12
honestrosewater said:
It's times like this that I really wish we had that groan smiley. grumpy:
yes, it was worth a couple of groans.
 
  • #13
arildno said:
yes, it was worth a couple of groans.
Oh, sorry, I'm not really a groaner. :shy:
 
  • #14
When I left New Orleans on Friday (..by chance, for a wedding), I thought the track was back to the Florida panhandle. To my surprise on Saturday morning, I saw the new track and it now looks like a direct hit for us :frown: .

I changed my return flight from Sunday night to Tuesday night.
Hopefully, there will be a place to land. :confused:

In case anyone is interested, here is a projected flood map (projected by folks at LSU) http://www.nola.com/hurricane/content/katrina_projected_flooding082805.pdf
and here is a graphic with the height-profile of New Orleans
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf?/washingaway/goingunder.html .
 
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  • #15
robphy said:
When I left New Orleans on Friday (..by chance, for a wedding), I thought the track was back to the Florida panhandle. To my surprise on Saturday morning, I saw the new track and it now looks like a direct hit for us :frown: .

I changed my return flight from Sunday night to Tuesday night.
Hopefully, there will be a place to land. :confused:

In case anyone is interested, here is a projected flood map (projected by folks at LSU) http://www.nola.com/hurricane/content/katrina_projected_flooding082805.pdf
and here is a graphic with the height-profile of New Orleans
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf?/washingaway/goingunder.html .

Oh, I hope for your sake that your flight is canceled if it hits...it would be much better to be someplace else until order is restored. On the weather report this morning, there's still a chance it could hit New Orleans as a Category 5. If it doesn't start weakening soon, it could be the second worst hurricane to hit the US according to the news (or maybe that's second worst to hit New Orleans...I was still waking up while it was being reported :redface:).

The residual rain and thunderstorms are supposed to hit here Tuesday afternoon, so I'm really hoping it slows down just enough for the movers to get most of my stuff out of the house before it hits...I just don't want to think about everything being carried out in pouring rain! :cry: As it is, I'll be driving with it. Why oh why can't I ever move without any precipitation around?!
 
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  • #16
Moonbear said:
Why oh why can't I ever move without any precipitation around?!
You must have angered the Flying Spaghetti Monster by not wearing your pirate attire. :rolleyes:
 
  • #17
honestrosewater said:
You must have angered the Flying Spaghetti Monster by not wearing your pirate attire. :rolleyes:

Its not too late ! At least put the hat on and maybe a dagger! This also may make the movers hustle a bit more :smile:
 
  • #18
Hey dduardo, I'm glad that you made it through okay. Florida has been a scary place these last few years.
 
  • #19
Yeeash! Now its a Category 5, about to slam Louisiana!
 
  • #20
Holy http://www.wunderground.com/global/Region/g1/IRSatellite.html! :bugeye:
 
  • #21
Top winds are 165 mph. The pressure has dropped to 902 mb, the 4th lowest on record in the Atlantic Basin. Typhoon Tip, the strongest one on record, was 870 mb.
 
  • #22
hypatia said:
Its not too late ! At least put the hat on and maybe a dagger! This also may make the movers hustle a bit more :smile:
:smile: :smile:


Okay, I'm not going to complain about the possibility of moving in the rain anymore...I just read the latest news story on New Orleans evacuations and preparations for this hurricane and it's WAY too serious sounding to be worrying about residual thunderstorms (but they can probably blame me for the timing). The news report sounded like something out of a movie! The highways are packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic, and they have all 6 lanes of the interstates open one-way to evacuate. There are a lot of city residents who have no transportation and no place to go, so they are being bused to shelters. High rise hotels have been exempted from the evacuation orders so people can evacuate "vertically" to escape flooding!

If we have any members living around there and you're still there to read this, HEAD NORTH! This one is going to be really bad. I'll keep my fingers crossed that something takes the edge off this storm before it hits land, but at Category 5, even if it lessens some, it's still going to be bad.
 
  • #23
I always feel badly for the animals, there is a lot of live stock in that area. I mean I feel badly for people too, but not so much for the ones who refuse to leave. Its the aftermath, coming back to wrecked homes, fouled wells ect. that has to be the ruffest part.
 
  • #24
hypatia said:
I always feel badly for the animals, there is a lot of live stock in that area. I mean I feel badly for people too, but not so much for the ones who refuse to leave. Its the aftermath, coming back to wrecked homes, fouled wells ect. that has to be the ruffest part.
I don't feel sorry for people who refuse to leave either. They made their own decision and will have to live or die with it. I am concerned that there are a lot of people who would evacuate if they could, but have no means to do so. There are a lot of dirt poor people living in New Orleans, plus a lot of stranded tourists who can't leave because the airport is closed.
 
  • #25
eh Gads they are even expecting{pre1960's} coffins to be wash up to the surface. The newer ones are cemented in. I recall they had that problem befor.
 
  • #26
hypatia said:
eh Gads they are even expecting{pre1960's} coffins to be wash up to the surface. The newer ones are cemented in. I recall they had that problem befor.
Oh, I forgot about that problem. Creepy, huh?
 
  • #27
hypatia said:
I always feel badly for the animals, there is a lot of live stock in that area. I mean I feel badly for people too, but not so much for the ones who refuse to leave. Its the aftermath, coming back to wrecked homes, fouled wells ect. that has to be the ruffest part.

Most who don't leave are those who can't. They are the old, the handicapped, and most of all, those without transportation or the finances to cover it.

KM
 
  • #28
from what I've been hearing, they don't even know if the superdome can take those winds, yet they pack 20000-30000 people into it. of course, what else could they do, tell them to swim?
why would you even want a city by the sea to be below sea level, protected by leeves that will only hold in the water once it flows over?
Also, New Orleans is a big port city, which takes in and refines a lot of oil.

I could go on, but you're all smart people.

Fibonacci
 
  • #29
Yeah, I read that they're worried that the city is basically going to turn into a bowl filled with toxic soup if this storm hits as expected. I was wondering about the SuperDome too. I don't even know what those hotels can take. Hopefully people in them will be advised to remain in the corridors away from the windows and off the top floors unless the water drives them upward. A lot of streets in that city flood from just ordinary rainfall (last time I was there, it took an extra half hour to get to the airport from my hotel because the usual routes were blocked by flooding, and the rain wasn't really that heavy).
 
  • #30
I love it when they give a hurricane or a tsunami a woman's name. Sort of like "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" :biggrin:
 
  • #31
Yes, this looks like its going to be terrible! There was a recent documentary that virtually doomed New Orleans under exactly the conditions now approaching the city. This could reeeeeeeeellly be bad. :frown:
 
  • #32
Moonbear said:
The news report sounded like something out of a movie! The highways are packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic, and they have all 6 lanes of the interstates open one-way to evacuate.

To make things worse, some parts of the evacuation routes can be flooded, like this stupid dip on I-10, leading out of New Orleans: http://www.nola.com/traffic/cams/cam8.ssf (it looks like the camera is not current). There is a vertical ruler on the center column which tells drivers about the true depth of any flooding on the road. I recall a photo of a bus that was almost fully submerged there.
 
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  • #33
yea they said the town will be under water for weeks and maybe months. the pumps that empty the water will all be underwater themselves so depending on the water that falls it might very well be months.
 
  • #34
Storm tracker

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT12/refresh/AL1205W+gif/205423W_sm.gif
http://www.stormtracker.noaa.gov/stormtracker-katrina.htm

It looks like a direct hit. I guess the only thing that could be worse would be if it was approaching from the SE. Maybe the northerly course will reduce the tidal surge along the delta.
 
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  • #35
Remember that the hurricane causing the greatest disaster ever in the United States hit Galveston, Texas around 1900, killing 6,000-10,000 people. Although they were less prepared for evacuating than the millions around New Orleans, their storm winds were 30 mph less, and their storm surge was 5 feet vs a predicted ~20 feet for hurricane Katrina. I looks as though many historic sites and human lives shall be destroyed.

Prepare to be generous in the wake of the storm.
 
  • #36
Loren Booda said:
Prepare to be generous in the wake of the storm.
Yes, I think a lot of people will be greatly in need after this storm.
 
  • #37
...and not to forget: ~1/3 of the nation's domestic oil comes from the gulf of mexico. So now is the time to sell your SUV. Market prices are expected to react tomorrow.
 
  • #40
honestrosewater said:
That reminds me... http://www.wunderground.com/ is the best weather site I've ever found for the US (just enter your zip code, and you're good to go). It's great to have access to during a storm.
:smile: It's so nice to be appreciated.

(You can zoom in on the images too - just make a box around an area and make sure 'zoom in' is selected.)
 
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  • #41
honestrosewater said:
:smile: It's so nice to be appreciated.

(You can zoom in on the images too - just make a box around an area and make sure 'zoom in' is selected.)


:smile: Sorry. I even saw that...

Okay, the eye is now on the local RADAR at Rose's wonderful link. :approve:

We use it all the time. It really helps when it rains as frequently as it does here. We can anticipate the rain starts and breaks almost down to the minute.
 
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  • #42
  • #43
Home Depot stock going to go up ! i should have bought some. :frown:
 
  • #44
Finally the power is back on in my house. There is still a lot of people without power though and they've canceled school for yet another day.

On a related note, I'm watching the news and they are saying the roof of the superdome is peeling off. They've cut off the power in the dome and it is now raining inside.
 
  • #45
Funny how it's hard for the average person to foresee how the scenario's going to play out. My parents live in Baton Rouge and I have a sister in Gulfport, Mississippi. My sister had planned on driving to my parents house yesterday and weathering the storm there.

Turned out she'd waited too long - they weren't allowing people to evacuate towards New Orleans and weren't even advising evacuation up I-55 (it was already filled to the point that getting gas was beginning to become a problem).

She wound up having to evacuate Northeast with her kids and some sleeping bags. With so many people evacuating, there's not much chance she found a hotel last night. I haven't called this morning yet to see how things are going, instead waiting for one of my other sisters to put out E-mails with the local news (we have a big family mostly scattered around the country and they don't need all of us calling in constantly).
 
  • #46
Here are some early Monday photos in New Orleans [as the storm was approaching]:
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/photos/gallery.ssf?cgi-bin/view_gallery.cgi/nola/view_gallery.ata?g_id=3658
More will probably appear here:
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/photos/ (Storm Photos)
All of the webcams at nola.com are down.
 
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  • #47
dduardo said:
On a related note, I'm watching the news and they are saying the roof of the superdome is peeling off. They've cut off the power in the dome and it is now raining inside.
I've heard that. How is the convention center holding up? Do they have any people sheltering there? I was thinking that could be another area to shelter a lot of people if it's weathering the storm any better, but it might be on too low of ground. Sounds like the hotels are being ripped to shreds too, but I've been only getting sketchy news reports, so I'm not sure if that's New Orleans or Mobile, AL where that's happening (we have a local emergency taking precedence on the news right now with several parts of our city being evacuated due to a train car that's leaking styrene gas into the air...the stabilizer that's supposed to keep it from reacting and heating to explosive temperatures has expired or is not working for some reason and all they can do is have an unmanned fire hose constantly spraying water on it to try to keep it cool so it doesn't explode and evacuate all the homes around it).
 
  • #48
It's bad. I am still waiting to hear from various friends. One is OK - he evacuated to northern MS (to a vacation home). I am afraid others may have lost homes in low lying areas. I have read 'much' of New Orleans is underwater, in part because 2 levees were breached.

Dozens are dead in Mississippi :frown: :cry: - I don't think they prepared or evacuated.

I have heard more than 40,000 homes underwater and that number may grow unfortunately. :frown:

I am waiting to hear from friends in Alabama too.
 
  • #49
Here are before and after pictures of I-10 @ Mound Ave (part of the "Evacuation Route" that has a dip in it).

The New Orleans airport is closed. From the news: Power is out. Many roads and homes are flooded. The water level is rising in some parts of the Central Business District... but no one knows why (i.e. where the breach may be).

As of August 29 at 1pm, http://emergency.tulane.edu/ says "classes will begin no earlier than Wednesday, Sept. 7". I expect that other schools have a similar plan. From the current news repots, I wonder if this will be pushed later.

More photos at http://www.nola.com/hurricane/photos/ (although it looks like some of the pages aren't working correctly).
 
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