Surviving Hurricane Katrina - My Story

[Ivan Seeking]

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.

 

[robphy]

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.

 

[Kakarot]

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.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

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.

 

[Loren Booda]

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.

 

[Moonbear]

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.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

...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.

 

[Kakarot]

http://hurricanekatrinagp.ytmnd.com/ hehe, not too funny but you know

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Here's a nice link. Go to the local RADAR and get nearly real-time animated images.
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=New+Orleans,+La

 

[honestrosewater]

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.

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.)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

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.)

Sorry. I even saw that...

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

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.

 

[rachmaninoff]

Here's a nice link. Go to the local RADAR and get nearly real-time animated images.
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=New+Orleans,+La

Go to Expert Radar Types, and watch the radial velocity images. It looks like hurricane-force winds (upper-level) already in New Orleans. (it's gray because they're perpendicular to the line-of-sight of the radar)

 

[stoned]

Home Depot stock going to go up ! i should have bought some.

 

[dduardo]

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.

 

[BobG]

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).

 

[robphy]

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.

 

[Moonbear]

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).

 

[Astronuc]

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 - I don't think they prepared or evacuated.

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

I am waiting to hear from friends in Alabama too.

 

[robphy]

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).

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9130254/

The levee has been breached, unreal, NO is destroyed.

Click here to donate:
https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp

 

[robphy]

Here's a link to "breaking news" from the Times-Picayune at nola.com: http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/

It's hard to get information about the affected areas. I hope that someone takes a hi-res aerial photo so that we can see those areas.

It's also hard to call other folks from the area to see how they are doing or where they have evacuated to since the cell-phone service has been interrupted.

I guess I won't be taking my return flight anytime soon.

 

[TRCSF]

Just some information I gathered from several different news sources. As you can imagine, there aren't a lot of people reporting from New Orleans.

The levees were breached and the water is rising roughly an inch every five minutes in at least one location. One breech is two hundred feet wide and pouring fast. There are emergency efforts to seal the breeches via airdropped sandbags. I'm no engineer, but these efforts seem futile. I personally doubt the flooding will stop until it reaches the level of Lake Pontchartrain.

Low lying levels of New Orleans are under twenty feet of water. The French Quarter, actually one of the higher parts of New Orleans, is under several feet of water.

Hospitals are being evacuated. Those patients able to make it are being airlifted to Lafayette and Baton Rouge. Others are being taken to the Superdome.

The situation at the Superdome look grim. There are 20,000-30,000 people taking refuge in an arena designed to hold 60,000 people for four hours. With the electricity cut the interior temperature is 130 degrees farenheit. The plumbing as failed, including toilets. Garbage is piling up at an alarming rate.

Three people have died at the Superdome. Two, apparently, died from the conditions (quite possibly they were elderly and easily susceptible to bad conditions, not much information). One committed suicide. According to reports, he was quitely playing dominos for hours, stood up, told people below to move out of the way, then lept from an upper deck to his death. It's possible he was suffering from mental illness, it's possible he was not. Nevertheless, I suspect that seeing a man leap to his death will have a psychological impact on thousands of scared, angry, exhausted people crowded together in bad conditions.

A couple of hours ago the Superdome was surrounded by waist deep water. It is now surrounded by chest deep water and rising.

 

[Astronuc]

I have heard that 80% of New Orleans is underwater and its rising.

I would imagine a 200 foot gape in a levee is difficult to plug and dropping sandbags is just too slow. The flowing waters would possibly undermine the adjacent structure.

I personally doubt the flooding will stop until it reaches the level of Lake Pontchartrain.

That seems an unfortunately realistic assessment of the situation.

The levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane. Katrina was a Category 4 with heavy rains, and althought it wasn't a direct hit, it was close enough.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

So Engineers, what do we do? It seems to me that NO is basicly lost. Would it be a bad idea to rebuild NO further up north intead of rebuilding in an already bad area for a city?

 

[Math Is Hard]

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).

Hope your family is OK. I was furious to hear about the price gouging by the hotels. That's just evil! They are going to get in big trouble when this is all over.

I hope all the PF'rs and their animals that were in the path are safe and dry. I'm just like you, Hypatia. My heart breaks when I think about the animals. I could never leave mine behind.

 

[BobG]

Having the levee break after it seemed the worst was over has to be frustrating (actually, it would have been worse to have it break during the middle of the hurricane). The main concern was water coming over the top of the levee. It looked like New Orleans had barely escaped a nightmare until the levee gave way.

 

[Astronuc]

It seems it will get worse before it gets better - if it will get better anytime soon.

I understand two spans the I-10 causeway over Lake Ponchatrain have been destroyed. I don't know if its one direction or both.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050830/sc_afp/usweatherneworleans_050830162048

NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - Helicopters plucked victims from roofs and rescuers dodged submerged live power lines and spewing gas pipes as still rising floodwaters turned New Orleans into a disaster zone.

Local television reported that as conditions worsened, martial law was imposed in two areas, Jefferson Parish and Plaquemines Parish, a day after murderous Hurricane Katrina slammed into the city.

Police were halting anyone trying to get into the city, WWL-TV said.

Authorities said New Orleans, with highways submerged, bridges washed out and even elevated expressways unsafe, was effectively cut off, and waters were devouring more and more real estate after a storm surge breached a levee.

WWL-TV reported, quoting unidentified local officials, that flood waters were still coursing into the city, and were beginning to threaten areas in the historic French Quarter and downtown which were on higher ground.

Another local station, WDSU, warned viewers that the Louisiana Superdome, which welcomed at least 10,000 evacuees on Monday, was now surrounded by three feet (one metre) of water.

Evacuees sat tight in the massive sports arena, which itself bore Katrina's scars after having much of its outer dome ripped off.

Communications with New Orleans were largely cut off and around 700,000 people were without power. Some victims had been stuck on the roofs of their homes for nearly 24 hours in a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

Water was unsafe to drink in many areas, if available at all, as the Red Cross swung a massive relief operation into action to aid a city metropolitan area population of 1.4 million.

"Our city is in a state of devastation," Mayor Ray Nagin told WWL-TV "we probably have 80 percent of our city under water."

"With some sections of our city, the water is as deep as 20 feet" (seven metres).

With live power lines, gas pipes and debris including submerged cars floating below the surface of foul waters, it was too dangerous for rescue workers to use boats in some areas, meaning helicopters were the only choice.

 

[BobG]

Hope your family is OK. I was furious to hear about the price gouging by the hotels. That's just evil! They are going to get in big trouble when this is all over.

I hope all the PF'rs and their animals that were in the path are safe and dry. I'm just like you, Hypatia. My heart breaks when I think about the animals. I could never leave mine behind.

My parents live in Baton Rouge and escaped the worst of the storm. My sister and her family live in Gulf Port, but can stay with my parents for a while (they still live in the same house as when they had seven kids, so there's a few empty bedrooms), but who knows what's left of her stuff when she finally goes back home.

Edit: I agree about the price gouging. That's as serious as looting, and even more so in some cases.

 

[TRCSF]

Having the levee break after it seemed the worst was over has to be frustrating (actually, it would have been worse to have it break during the middle of the hurricane). The main concern was water coming over the top of the levee. It looked like New Orleans had barely escaped a nightmare until the levee gave way.

From what I heard it was actually breeched during the storm but has greatly expanded due to erosion, as all levee breeches do.

The widespread media reports of New Orleans "dodging a bullet" seem to have been premature and overly optimistic.

A poster above suggest abandoning New Orleans and rebuilding it somewhere else. This seems a ridiculous notion, until one considers the situation.

New Orleans is below sea level and it will always remain that way. The levees could be repaired and the water could be pumped out. But that's an effort that will take, this is a rough estimate by engineers, a whole six months. And that's just to get rid of the water. Most of the structures will be completely destroyed and need to be demolished and rebuilt. That will take far more time. In the mean time, there's 1.3 million people without a home, and they're not going to be just sitting in a Motel 6 until New Orleans is ready to get back to normal. And even after the years and hundreds of billions (trillions?) spent on reconstruction, the whole thing's still susceptible to another hurricane.

It's one hell of a mess.

Latest news: Superdome is being evacuated. Fires are breaking out all over the city.

 

[Astronuc]

The reconstruction in 6-months does not account for another hurricane, which is possible.

This year, the Atlantic Ocean has been it's warmest, and apparently we should expect several more, and possibly as energetic, hurricanes during the next two months!

There are already two more systems out there in the Atlantic.