Surviving Hurricane Katrina - My Story

[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.

 

[russ_watters]

So Engineers, what do we do? It seems to me that NO is basicly lost.

I don't know that I'd go that far quite yet. The information we have is thin enough that I don't think we have a good handle on the extent of the problem.

One thing that may seem a little bizarre, but no matter how much damage is inside a building, as long as it has 4 walls and a roof, it is cheaper to renovate it than to rip it down and build a new one. And many of the larger buildings will have little more damage than just flooded-out parking garages.

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

It seems a rough choice of words, but there is some luck involved in the storm losing roughly 35% of its winds (wind energy is a square function of velocity) and making an unusually sharp right turn just before landfall. Had either of those things failed to happen in the 12 hours prior to landfall, it wouldn't have mattered if the levees had held: the hurricane itself would have flooded the entire city solid.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

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?

At some point insurance companies are going to cry uncle. I wonder what the price of flood insurance will be for a home in New New Orleans.

This is so terrible. Even the anchorpersons and state and local officials have had difficulty maintaining their composure at times.

One thing that may seem a little bizarre, but no matter how much damage is inside a building, as long as it has 4 walls and a roof, it is cheaper to renovate it than to rip it down and build a new one.

Not according to the insurance representitive interviewed on CNN this morning. He said it can go either way depending on how long, and of course how deeply the building is submerged.

The governer announced that the entire city is going to be evacuated. I would bet that compliance is fairly high this time.

 

[Astronuc]

And it gets worse - Hundreds feared dead on storm-ravaged U.S. coast

BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - Helicopters plucked frantic survivors from rooftops of inundated homes on Tuesday and hundreds were feared dead along the U.S. Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina sent a wall of water into Mississippi and flooded New Orleans.

The economic cost of the hurricane's rampage could be the highest in U.S. history, according to damage estimates.

"The devastation is greater than our worst fears," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco told a news conference. "It's totally overwhelming."

An overnight breach in New Orleans' protective levee system allowed water from Lake Pontchartrain to flood most of the city.

In the Mississippi coastal city of Biloxi, hundreds may have been killed after being trapped in their homes when a 30-foot (9 meter) storm surge came ashore, a city spokesman said. Cadaver dogs were being brought into help find the dead.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050830/ts_nm/weather_katrina_dc_65

Many buildings will have 1 or 2 stories flooded. I think several friends (and the other residents of NO) have lost just about everything they ever owned.

I think many, if not most, buildings, which have been flooded, will have to be demolished. Mold is going to be a significant problem and its often just cheaper to demolish and start from scratch.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I expect the final number to be in the thousands; maybe even 5 digits. So many areas were unprepared and probably not evacuated...but no one knows for sure yet. Until they can reach some of these Mississippi coastal communities, which average between 6000 to 17000 people each... we can only hope and pray. According to some reports, most people probably did not evacuate many of these areas, some of which were hit by a 25+ foot storm surge.

 

[TRCSF]

It seems a rough choice of words, but there is some luck involved in the storm losing roughly 35% of its winds (wind energy is a square function of velocity) and making an unusually sharp right turn just before landfall. Had either of those things failed to happen in the 12 hours prior to landfall, it wouldn't have mattered if the levees had held: the hurricane itself would have flooded the entire city solid.

It is flooded solid.

Would you rather get run over by a freight train or an 18-wheeler?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

One positive note, apparently the historic French Quarter is not under water.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

One positive note, apparently the historic French Quarter is not under water.

Last update I heard they were up to 9 inches and counting. Is there a new development?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Last update I heard they were up to 9 inches and counting. Is there a new development?

I don't know. I had just heard that on CNN within the hour.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

There are people alive in Long Beach, but the devestation is complete along the first three blocks or more from the beach. The same is being reported from others people who have seen surrounding towns.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Wow, get this,! A CNN reporter who just arrived at Gulfsport saw a large Casino that was damaged but appearted to have mostly survived the storm. Then he realized that it used to be located half a mile to the east!

 

[Kakarot]

Wow, get this,! A CNN reporter who just arrived at Gulfsport saw a large Casino that was damaged but appearted to have mostly survived the storm. Then he realized that it used to be located half a mile to the east!

i just saw this, but i think he's crazy. that was an entire solid building there. there's no way that could be possible.


btw, they said the levee thing is going to break apart more with the waters flowing through it and it already has a hole that is a hundreed feet long or something

 

[russ_watters]

It is flooded solid.

By "flooded solid", I mean flooded up above the top of the levees, through the entire city. Flood waters are rising and pouring in to the city, but it isn't anywhere close to flooded solid - and can't ever get there, since the lakes, rivers, and ocean held back by the levees have themselves receded. Had the hurricane made a more direct hit or been as strong as it was the day before, the ocean would have simply risen over the levees and engulfed the city. Water would now be pouring out over the top of the levees.

 

[russ_watters]

Not according to the insurance representitive interviewed on CNN this morning. He said it can go either way depending on how long, and of course how deeply the building is submerged.

Fair enough - my generalization proably should have been more general. I probably should have said "often..." It should then also be noted that sometimes buildings (particularly those with historical value, as many in NO have) are salvaged in significantly worse shape than just being gutted.

Astronuc is right, also - while a house can be flooded out completely and often still be salvaged, they don't last all that long completely submerged. Waterlogged wood beams start to lose strength, and even if they survive that, mold may do them in. A large fraction of those houses we see on the outskirts that are flooded up to their roofs and will be for quite a while, are not going to be salvageable.

One positive note, apparently the historic French Quarter is not under water.

Last update I heard they were up to 9 inches and counting. Is there a new development?

It depends on where you are, but yes, it is getting worse. http://www.usatoday.com/weather/graphics/hurricane/hurricane2005/flash.htm?strmName=Katrina&strmNum=strm12&tabName=a has a good flash thingie showing elevations - click the "why NO floods" part. CNN has a good video clip explaining the levee break and where the flooding is going (2:00pm) and ANOTHER of a reporter wading around in thigh-deep water on Common Street (the next street south of Canal) (1:00pm).

edit: the videos don't seem to want to load directly - they are in the story HERE.

 

[dduardo]

I just heard on the news that the sand-bagging effort has failed and that the pumps have failed again. They expect another 9 feet of water within the next 12 hours.

 

[russ_watters]

Here's a question - does anyone know the capacity of those pumps? Even after they stop the inflow, that's an enormous amount of water to pump out.

 

[russ_watters]

i just saw this, but i think he's crazy. that was an entire solid building there. there's no way that could be possible.

Yikes, that would be the Grand Casino - built on a huge barge.

edit: apparently, it isn't the only one. HERE is the story (no good pics). I know from when I lived in the area that the laws of the state outlaw gambling, but had a loophole for offshore gambling. So none of the casinos are actually on dry-land. Some are on stilts, some, apparently, on barges.

 

[hitssquad]

If I heard on the radio the wind speed was 235 miles per hour, I would have been sure I was going to DIE

If your home was built like this, you would not even realize a storm was going on outside unless you looked out the window:

monolithicdome.com

http://www.monolithicdome.com/plan_design/survive/pole-domex.jpg

 

[Ivan Seeking]

CNN just reported that witnesses claim 80-90% of two of the smaller Miss. towns is competely destroyed.

 

[hitssquad]

Katrina death toll predicted to rise to over 1000.

http://www.thederrick.com/stories/08312005-3006.shtml

CLARION - Clarion University professor Anthony Vega says his constant focus on the disaster in New Orleans is the result of two things - his expertise as a meteorologist and the fact his family lives there.

Vega, a New Orleans native, said Tuesday his parents, Alex and Carol, had left their home in a suburb of the city on Sunday.

Their home, as well as those of his brother, Nicky, and sister, Gina, are now inundated with water.

Vega said Nicky, a police officer, was stranded Monday on the sixth floor of a parking garage while Gina was in an apartment complex.

Both are safe, he said, and he continues to check in with his parents.

At this time, he cannot directly contact his brother and sister.

"This is unprecedented," he said of the debilitating effects of Hurricane Katrina. "Nothing approaches this . . . I would be shocked if the death toll is not 1,000 or more. Hundreds if not thousands of people are trapped in attics."

 

[cronxeh]

If your home was built like this, you would not even realize a storm was going on outside unless you looked out the window:

monolithicdome.com

http://www.monolithicdome.com/plan_design/survive/pole-domex.jpg

[/URL]


yea i wanted one like that

 

[Ivan Seeking]

yea i wanted one like that

Normally they don't install the power poles like that.

 

[hitssquad]

Wikipedia is providing amazing live coverage:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I just caught a report indicating that NO is escalating out of control. "People are taking over the hospitals and nurses are calling for help", "an ambulance has been overturned", emergency generator stolen, carjackings, some reporters were already ordered to stay out of some areas, people are reverting to mob rule.

 

[Kakarot]

i personally don't see anything wrong with looting food and stuf flike that. its going to become worthless and it probably arleady is. there are more important thigns to worry about atm.

 

[russ_watters]

i personally don't see anything wrong with looting food and stuf flike that. its going to become worthless and it probably arleady is. there are more important thigns to worry about atm.

Yeah, I think we can let that lady I saw with the case of diapers have a freebie.

 

[hypatia]

I'm glad I don't own a business there, last night on the news it looked like a free for all.

 

[BobG]

i personally don't see anything wrong with looting food and stuf flike that. its going to become worthless and it probably arleady is. there are more important thigns to worry about atm.

Stealing produce and other perishable food to survive is understandable. I'm wondering how essential a TV in a city that has no electricity is, though.

Worse yet, last night the MSNBC Nerd with a Tie (Tucker Carlson, is that his name?) showed a video where a couple of police were right in the middle of the looters stealing shoes. When the reporter started interviewing them and they realized they were on TV, they tried to fake their way through it, saying they were looking for looters. Some day soon they're going walking out the door of the police station with their pink slip whacking themselves in the head. Doh!

 

[hitssquad]

~10,000 dead in New Orleans.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=al3MzfTCiUAc&refer=us

 

[Townsend]

So far I have heard that Israel and the UK will be giving the US some much needed support. I hope more countries will try to help too.

If anyone here is interested in helping out you can donate money to the red cross for disaster relief efforts. It wouldn't hurt to send a couple of bucks to help out...

www.redcross.org[/URL]

 

[hitssquad]

It wouldn't hurt to send a couple of bucks to help out.

That notion has been contested.

 

[Townsend]

That notion has been contested.

Sorry, I missed it. I just skipped to the end of the thread...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It wouldn't hurt to send a couple of bucks to help out.

That notion has been contested.

What are you talking about?

 

[Math Is Hard]

Does anyone know of this organization? I was thinking about sending them a little money if they are a good charity:

http://www.noahswish.org

 

[hypatia]

If you want to help the animals do it via the ASPCA, and ear mark dontaions Katrina animal aid.
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer

 

[Math Is Hard]

If you want to help the animals do it via the ASPCA, and ear mark dontaions Katrina animal aid.
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer

Thanks, Hypatia. I'm also planning to send a little extra to our local shelter because I know they will get neglected this month.

 

[εllipse]

Yikes, that would be the Grand Casino - built on a huge barge.

edit: apparently, it isn't the only one. HERE is the story (no good pics). I know from when I lived in the area that the laws of the state outlaw gambling, but had a loophole for offshore gambling. So none of the casinos are actually on dry-land. Some are on stilts, some, apparently, on barges.

Here's some pictures of the casinos: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/weather/0508/gallery.casinos.katrina/frameset.exclude.html


http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/weather/0508/gallery.casinos.katrina/images/gallery.barge.jpg

Yes, that used to be floating in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

[robphy]

Finally, a hi-res picture of New Orleans I was hoping for...
before: http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/katrina/new_orleans_msi_march9_2004_dg.jpg
after: http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/katrina/new_orleans_msi_aug31_2005_dg.jpg
(A few more at: http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/katrina/ )

Here is another before-and-after picture:
http://edc.usgs.gov/Katrina.html

From these images and some ground photos from http://www.nola.com/hurricane/photos/ , it looks like the streets around my apartment are not flooded. I hope that the structure survived the wind, the rain, and (now) the looters.

Here is a useful site announced on CNN: http://www.gnocdc.org/hurricane.html

 

[Moonbear]

robphy, where are you currently? Do you have a place to stay, or are you at some airport hotel?

 

[robphy]

robphy, where are you currently? Do you have a place to stay, or are you at some airport hotel?

I've been in New York since Friday, visiting my parents and attending a wedding. Needless to say, I'm glad that this wedding was scheduled when it was.

 

[hitssquad]

Needless to say, I'm glad that this wedding was scheduled when it was.

Why? An evacuation was announced and most people heeded it. It's not like you would be there if there you had not instead been attending a wedding.