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.
  • #61
Greg Bernhardt said:
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.
TRCSF said:
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.
 
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  • #62
Greg Bernhardt said:
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. :frown: Even the anchorpersons and state and local officials have had difficulty maintaining their composure at times.

Russ said:
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.
 
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  • #63
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. :frown:
 
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  • #64
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.
 
  • #65
russ_watters said:
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?
 
  • #66
One positive note, apparently the historic French Quarter is not under water.
 
  • #67
Ivan Seeking said:
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?
 
  • #68
Greg Bernhardt said:
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.
 
  • #69
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.
 
  • #70
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!
 
  • #71
Ivan Seeking said:
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
 
  • #72
TRCSF said:
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.
 
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  • #73
Ivan Seeking said:
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.

Ivan said:
One positive note, apparently the historic French Quarter is not under water.
Greg said:
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.
 
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  • #74
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.
 
  • #75
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.
 
  • #76
Kakarot said:
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. :bugeye:

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.
 
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  • #77
Mk said:
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
 
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  • #78
CNN just reported that witnesses claim 80-90% of two of the smaller Miss. towns is competely destroyed.
 
  • #79
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."
 
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  • #80
hitssquad said:
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 :rolleyes:
 
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  • #81
cronxeh said:
yea i wanted one like that :rolleyes:

Normally they don't install the power poles like that. :biggrin:
 
  • #83
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.
 
  • #84
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.
 
  • #85
Kakarot said:
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.
 
  • #86
I'm glad I don't own a business there, last night on the news it looked like a free for all.
 
  • #87
Kakarot said:
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!
 
  • #88
~10,000 dead in New Orleans.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=al3MzfTCiUAc&refer=us
 
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  • #89
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... :frown:

www.redcross.org[/URL]
 
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  • #90
Townsend said:
It wouldn't hurt to send a couple of bucks to help out.
That notion has been contested.
 

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