New Orleans in for it

[smallpackage]

I don't know if you guys have been watching the news lately, But a 175mph category 5 hurricane is headed right for the New Orleans, Louisiana. Just about everything will go wrong, including the canals & man-made seawalls breaking apart... Or so they say.

The city lies, on average, 6 feet below sea level. It's bordered by the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain on two sides. Those bodies of water ultimately feed into the Gulf of Mexico, which lies less than 100 miles from New Orleans. Besides being surrounded by water, the city is also marbled with canals and bayous that are essential to the city's daily functions.

Lake Pontchartrain forms New Orleans' northern boundary. The lake spans 630 square miles, but it's only 25 feet deep. Many experts say the lake is the city's greatest threat during a hurricane because of its relatively shallow depth.

As recent as 1998, when Hurricane Georges skimmed the city, gales pushed the water of Lake Pontchartrain over the man-made seawall and onto roads and yards that face the Lake. But, the city has not seen the worst devastation possible.

A hurricane approaching the city from the east, virtually at the mouth of the Mississippi River, "would drive the lake water southward into the city. So under the right circumstances, the flooding may be more severe coming from the lake than that coming from the Gulf (of Mexico)," said Jay Grimes, Louisiana State Climatologist.

The levees that protect the city from flooding are also a flood threat themselves. "The biggest threat that the city has is that of a slow moving Category 3, 4 or 5 hurricane, which would create a surge of water that could be up to 30 feet high. Now if this (high) water comes into the city, it will top the levees. It will go over the top of the levees and actually fill up the city," said Hijuelos.

He added, "Every drop of water that comes into this city has to be pumped out. We're below sea level... but when you get a situation of a surge, the pumps would be under water. The pumps would be useless in that situation."

Source & whole story: Source & Whole story Here

Edited August 28, 2005 by smallpackage

[+joc]

The following picture is one I made superimposing a radar image over a map.

New Orleans may become Lake New Orleans as it is 12 feet (4 meters) below sea level.

This is not going to be good.

[Daughter of the Nine Moons]

New Orleans Orders Mandatory Evacuation

By ERIKA BOLSTAD

ebolstad@herald.com

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin declared a state of emergency Sunday morning and ordered a mandatory evacuation as Hurricane Katrina drew closer as a deadly Category 5 storm that threatens to swamp the city with 15 to 20 feet of water.

With an equally grim Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco beside him, Nagin ordered his below-sea-level city evacuated. More than 1.5 million people live in the metropolitan New Orleans area.

''I am this morning declaring that we will be doing a mandatory evacuation,'' Nagin said. ``Every person is hereby ordered to evacuate the city of New Orleans.''

People must try to leave the city, Nagin said, but if they cannot, they will have 10 shelters available throughout the city. The Super Dome will also be available as a last resort emergency shelter.

If the Super Dome fills with refugees, the city of New Orleans also will have the power to commandeer private buildings for emergency shelters, as well as the ability to commandeer vehicles to help people move out quickly. Nagin sent out faxes to churches to ask them to help people leave.

''I wish I had better news for you but we are facing a storm that most of us have feared,'' Nagin said. ``It's my hope that most people will get out. The city of New Orleans has never seen a hurricane of this strength hit it directly.''

Blanco said she received a call from President Bush offering the support of the federal government and urging emergency officials to get people out of the city as soon as possible.

''There seems to be no real relief in sight,'' Blanco said. ``We have no reason to believe right now that it will alter its path. Right now it's important that we all get out as expeditiously as possible.''

Last night, Nagin was under considerable pressure by state officials and weather experts to evacuate the city, but he worried about the legality of ordering people out when New Orleans had few safe hurricane shelters for them to evacuate to.

Also, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield called Nagin at home last night and told him: get people out of New Orleans. Later, in an interview with television station WDSL, Mayfield said he wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing he didn't do all he could to warn people that this storm was the one everyone in New Orleans had feared for a generation.

Some people have no intention of leaving New Orleans, even in the face of the mayor's mandatory evacuation order.

''It's been there for a long time,'' said John Martin, 60, of the circa 1824 Creole townhouse he lives in on Dumaine Street in the French Quarter. Martin, a druid and voodoo priest, lives on the third floor of the building, which houses a voodoo museum on its first floor. The brick walls are nearly two-feet thick, Martin said, pointing to them from the tropical interior courtyard of the building.

It's not easy for Martin to leave, anyway. He has four snakes, including a giant Burmese python, Eugene, who has gone into hiding. The snake senses something coming, Martin said, something horrific.

''I don't believe you're going to go until God takes you,'' Martin said. ``I've lived a good, full life and I'm not worried about it. You've got to take life as it comes.''

''Well, if you need any alcohol, just kick my door in,'' said neighbor Christy Franchi, 35, fleeing on a 5:30 p.m. flight to New York. ``I have plenty of wine.''

And some people must remain. Police and emergency workers will stay, and hospitals will remain open and ride out the storm.

''You're dealing with New Orleans attitudes here,'' said New Orleans Police Lt. Sandra Simpson, eating breakfast with fellow officers in a hotel on Rampart Street. ``It's not just resignation, it's just being ready and willing to face what comes before, during and after the storm.''

[Raptor]

A video of the mayors announcement can be found here. http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/28/hurr...rina/index.html

Newbie question: Supposing the whole of the area is flooded like in jocs image, how long would it take to dry up?

[Tommy]

Yeah we were watching this on the news this morning. It's going to be a rough ride for sure. The Mayor said something rather interesting this morning, along the lines of 'most American's don't realise this, but about 2/3rd of domestic oil goes through the district, and this will inevitably have to be shut down. Therefore we're likely to see further rises in oil prices in the future.'

I hope the whole place is evacuated in time.

[Daughter of the Nine Moons]

I think Man in Mudboots lives in Katrina's path. Hope you & your family stay safe M&M

Katrina gets stronger, New Orleans evacuates

By Russell McCulley

1 hour, 28 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents fled inland on Sunday as Hurricane Katrina strengthened into one of the fiercest U.S. storms ever seen and barreled toward the low-lying Gulf Coast city.

With Katrina expected to hit around sunrise on Monday, Highways out of Louisiana's largest city, much of which lies below sea level, were jammed and gasoline stations and convenience stores reported long lines for water and other supplies after city officials ordered 485,000 people to leave.

Mayor Ray Nagin warned the hurricane's storm surge of up to 28 feet could topple levees and flood the city's historic French Quarter when it makes a second, and more powerful, assault on U.S. shores after killing seven people in Florida on Thursday.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I wish I had better news for you but we are facing a storm that most of us have feared," Nagin told a news conference after reading out a mandatory evacuation order. "This is a threat that we've never faced before."

In the French Quarter, shopkeepers sandbagged art galleries and boarded up bars and restaurants in preparation for the storm. Police and fire officials took to the streets with bullhorns, alerting residents of the coming danger.

Those who could not join the exodus were advised to head to about a dozen shelters in the city, one of which is the Louisiana Superdome, home to the National Football League's New Orleans Saints.

Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, described Katrina as a "perfect" hurricane. It had grown into a Category 5 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson, with winds near 165 mph (270 kph) just before 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Sunday, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Katrina was about 150 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River and heading northwest at 13 mph (21 kph). Hurricane force winds could be felt 105 miles out from the center.

Katrina had a central pressure -- a measure of a storm's intensity -- of 902 millibars, which would make it one of the four strongest storms on record. The Labor Day hurricane of 1935 that hit the Florida Keys, killing some 600 people, was the strongest with a minimum central pressure of 892 millibars on landfall.

"The lower the pressure, the stronger the winds and that is exactly what is happening here with Katrina," Mayfield told

15 INCHES OF RAIN POSSIBLE

The hurricane center warned of destructive winds along the Gulf Coast from the Florida-Alabama border, through Mississippi and west into Louisiana, and said Katrina could bring up to 15 inches of rain.

Its track would take it through key U.S. oil and gas areas in the Gulf of Mexico, and Katrina seemed likely to affect already sky-high gasoline prices. Oil rigs were evacuated and casinos along Mississippi's coast were closed.

It also endangers the port serving New Orleans, one of the most important in the world, and could do billions in damage to the city's tourism infrastructure.

Tourists on the Gulf Coast scrambled to join the mass exodus but many were left trapped as rental cars were snapped up quickly. Authorities in New Orleans said they would commandeer vehicles and private buildings if necessary.

"About all you can do at this point is pack the car with as much as you can carry, place the rest of your belongings as high in the house as you can and then get the heck out of here," said Cathe Jackson, whose house is one block from the water in Biloxi, a casino-resort town on Mississippi's coast.

President Bush declared an emergency in Louisiana and Mississippi and a major disaster in Florida, measures that allow federal aid to be deployed.

"We will do everything in our power to help the people and communities affected by this storm," Bush said from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. "We cannot stress enough the danger this hurricane poses to Gulf Coast communities."

The last Category 5 to strike the area was Hurricane Camille in 1969. Camille, which just missed New Orleans but devastated parts of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, killing more than 250 people. Hurricane Andrew, which destroyed the city of Homestead south of Miami in 1992 and ranks as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, also was a Category 5.

source

[The Skeptic Eric Raven]

My family, as well as my wife's, lives on the gulf coast of Mississippi. They have all left to go north to get away. I have been through 2 down there growing up , but this one is crazy strong.

[_Nyx_]

I have an aunt in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.....they're heading for my mom's place in Missouri....the last hurricane sent them to Dallas.....This one sounds far worse...

[The Skeptic Eric Raven]

I lived 12 mins. from Ocean Springs. Escatawpa. The last hurricane brought my inlaws to stay with us in Dallas.

[_Nyx_]

Small world, huh?

[The Skeptic Eric Raven]

For sure. By the way, I love your vamp pic. I am into vampire literature and such.

[Raptor]

For sure.   By the way, I love your vamp pic. I am into vampire literature and such.

814960[/snapback]

The whole slit wrist creeps me out; I much prefer your old avatar, Lila

[_Nyx_]

Ah well....can't please everybody......

[Conspiracy]

ya i just watched the news and they were talking about it and they said if the city isnt evacuated thousands would be dead o.O

[Babs]

Terrible Terrible. I'm watching nothing else.

[smallpackage]

The following picture is one I made superimposing a radar image over a map.

New Orleans may become Lake New Orleans as it is 12 feet (4 meters) below sea level.

This is not going to be good.

814394[/snapback]

Its actually 6ft below sea level.

[+joc]

Its actually 6ft below sea level.

Well, depending on your source...it is on average 6-8 feet below sea level and in some places as much as twenty feet below sea level. I didn't go measure it...just repeating what I heard on the news.

Today, parts of New Orleans lie up to 20 feet below sea level, and the city is sinking at a rate of about nine millimeters a year. "This makes New Orleans the most vulnerable major city to hurricanes," says John Hall of the Army Corps of Engineers. "That’s because the water has to go down, not up, to reach it."

source

The city lies, on average, 6 feet below sea level.

Source

Strange, but true: the Big Easy is, on average, eight feet below sea level.

Source

I had forgotten all about Man in Mudboots....hope you are okay dude! Where ever you are.

They say that the cemetaries may give up there dead and bodies will be floating everywhere.....

Edited August 29, 2005 by joc

[Essan]

If anyone's interesting in following developments, there are a number of threads concerning Katrina on the UKweatherwold Tropical Storms forum]

I trust given the severity of this storm, the Mods etc won't me posting a link to a forum on my own website

It looks like being a CAT 4 as it makes landfall - round about now I just hope everyone still in the city, or stuck on the highways, are okay. But it doesn't look good....

Edited August 29, 2005 by Essan

[Essan]

Live New Orleans webcame

[indeed]

Live infra-red loops of the Gulf of Mexico

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/gmex-vis-loop.html

I hope anyone who hasn't got out is in a safe place

[Guest Lottie]

175mph !! Thats frightening, poor people.

Here is the latest weather news if anyone interested...

Nowcast as of 4:00 am CDT on August 29, 2005Now

At 4 am...National Weather Service radar indicated the center of Hurricane Katrina approximately 90 miles south-southeast of New Orleans. Winds of 70 mph with gusts to 90 mph...very heavy rainfall of two inches per hour and scattered tornadoes are possible with squalls as they move inland through 5 am. Winds will begin to increase rapidly along the coast to 95 mph with gusts to 115 mph through 5 am.

p.s Man in boots, hope you're ok!

Edited August 29, 2005 by Lottie

[Erikl]

Katrina could turn New Orleans into a giant cesspool

August 29, 2005

BY MATT CRENSON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans today, it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.

Experts have warned for years that the levees and pumps that usually keep New Orleans dry have no chance against a direct hit by a Category 5 storm.

That's exactly what Katrina was as it churned toward the city. With top winds of 160 m.p.h. and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28 feet above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people homeless.

"We could witness the total destruction of New Orleans as we know it," Ivor van Heerden, director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said as he ticked off the threats New Orleans faces from the ground, ocean and sky.

Emergency officials say they fear that nearly 287 years of history could be destroyed in hours. The newly homeless could be stranded for weeks outside the city as emergency authorities attempt to pump out the water.

The nightmare scenario gets worse: sewers could back up, spreading disease like malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, West Nile Virus and dengue fever, all of which pay calls at one of the nation's biggest and oldest ports. Coffins could pop out of the shallow ground. And toxic chemicals could join the mix if petrochemical plants to the west break up.

The center's latest computer simulations indicate that by Tuesday, vast swaths of New Orleans could be under water up to 30 feet deep. Estimates predict that 60% to 80% of the city's houses will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless. "We're talking about in essence having ... a refugee camp of a million people," van Heerden said.

Aside from Hurricane Andrew, which struck Miami in 1992, forecasters have no experience with Category 5 hurricanes hitting densely populated areas.

"Hurricanes rarely sustain such extreme winds for much time. However, we see no obvious large-scale effects to cause a substantial weakening" of Katrina, National Hurricane Center meteorologist Richard Pasch said.

A Category 5 hurricane causes 500 to 1,000 times the damage of a Category 1 storm, scientists say, because the power of a storm increases exponentially as wind speeds grow.

Experts have warned about New Orleans' vulnerability for years, chiefly because Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of coastal wetlands over the past seven decades. The vast patchwork of swamps and bayous south of the city serves as a buffer, partially absorbing the surge of water that a hurricane pushes ashore.

Experts have also warned that the ring of high levees around New Orleans, designed to protect the city from Mississippi River floodwaters, will only make things worse in a powerful hurricane. Even if the levees hold against an expected 28-foot storm surge, water will pour over their tops and begin filling the city as if it were a sinking canoe.

The water will be almost impossible to remove, considering the pumps will be swamped and shut down. Some of the city's pumps sit in houses made in the 1890s, said Stevan Spencer, the Orleans Levee District's chief engineer.

In a few days, van Heerden predicts, emergency management officials will be wondering how to handle a giant stagnant pond contaminated with building debris, coffins, sewage and other hazardous materials: "We're talking about an incredible environmental disaster."

SOURCE

When my cellphone company sent me yesterday a news text saying: "a whole city in the United States has been evacuated", I thought "oh well that's bad...", but when I came home last night, and watched the midnight news edition on TV, and they said it's New Orleans, I went "Holy sh** no!!!" .

One of the most famous American cities and my cellphone company says "a city"?!

[Guest Lottie]

City empties as hurricane nears (bbc news)

Thousands of people are sheltering in the Superdome stadium.

Hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents have fled as Hurricane Katrina closes in on the city.

Highways were jammed as people obeyed Mayor Ray Nagin's order to leave the Louisiana city for higher ground.

Those unable or unwilling to leave have been queuing to get into shelters - including the 77,000-seat Superdome.

Although the storm has been downgraded from category five to four, forecasters predict it could strengthen again as it hits land at about sunrise (1100 GMT).

Sustained winds are reaching 155mph (250km/h).

In the Gulf of Mexico, oil production has been hit, with capacity of over 650,000 barrels per day closed down, along with seven refineries and a huge offshore terminal.

In Asian trading on Monday, oil prices jumped nearly $5 to touch a high of $70.80.

'Once in a lifetime'

Issuing his unprecedented mandatory evacuation order, Mayor Nagin said the city - which sits some 6ft (2m) below sea level - was at risk of serious flooding.

The post-hurricane surge could reach 28ft (8.5m) toppling the barriers that protect the city and its historic French Quarter, he warned.

"We are facing the storm that most of us have feared," he told the city's 485,000 residents.

"This is a once in a lifetime event."

People were having to drive for hours to find vacant accommodation

A series of barriers and pumps protect the bowl-shaped city from the Mississippi River on one side, and Lake Pontchartrain on the other.

Experts fear the city's defences could be overwhelmed by floodwaters, inundating New Orleans with chemicals from refineries, and human waste from damaged septic systems.

Businesses and homes have been boarded up and sandbags stacked up in doorways as rain and wind lashed the city.

The BBC's Alistair Leithead in New Orleans says many people have headed to hotels in higher areas. Car parks are full.

The most frail have been given priority in the city's Superdome stadium, the home of the NFL's New Orleans Saints and now a makeshift shelter.

States of emergency

The neighbouring states of Mississippi and Alabama are also braced for the storm, which is now swirling over the Gulf of Mexico.

US President George W Bush has issued a state of emergency in Louisiana and Mississippi, freeing the path for federal aid for those affected.

Some 21 oil platforms on the Gulf of Mexico, which produces about a quarter of US domestic oil and gas output, have been evacuated.

The storm, which formed in the Bahamas, lashed South Florida on Thursday, killing nine people, uprooting trees, downing power lines and causing extensive flooding.

Katrina is the sixth hurricane to hit the Florida coastline since last August.

If Katrina strengthens again, it could be only the fourth category five storm to hit the US since record-keeping began.

The last to strike the Louisiana area was Hurricane Camille in 1969, which killed more than 250 people.

[Talon]

Hurricane set to lash New Orleans

New Orleans is bracing itself as one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the US surges towards the city.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the low-lying southern city, or taken shelter on higher ground, amid fears of major flooding.

Although the storm has been downgraded from category five to four, sustained winds were still reaching 155mph (250km/h) as it reached the coast.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall over Grand Isle at about 0600 (1000 GMT).

Winds of up to 71mph (114km/h) have already been recorded in New Orleans.

Even before the storm reached Grand Isle, off the Louisiana coast, gusts of up to 91mph (146km/h) were recorded there.

Hurricanes are extremely unpredictable, but forecasters said the storm could still strengthen as it approaches New Orleans.

Mayor Ray Nagin has said he believed 80% of the city's 485,000 residents have heeded his order for a mandatory evacuation of the city - which sits some 6ft (2m) below sea level.

The post-hurricane surge could reach 28ft (8.5m), toppling the barriers that protect the city and its historic French Quarter, he warned.

Highways were jammed on Sunday as residents fled. Those unable or unwilling to leave spent the night in shelters - including the 77,000-seat Superdome stadium, home of the NFL's New Orleans Saints. "We are facing the storm that most of us have feared," Mayor Nagin said. "This is a once in a lifetime event."

A series of barriers and pumps protect the bowl-shaped city from the Mississippi River on one side, and Lake Pontchartrain on the other.

Experts fear the city's defences could be overwhelmed by floodwaters, inundating New Orleans with chemicals from refineries, and human waste from damaged septic systems.

There was some hope though, as the storm approached, that the worst of the hurricane might not directly hit the city. Forecasters said the storm had turned slightly eastward, which would put the weaker side of the hurricane over New Orleans.

The BBC's Alistair Leithead in New Orleans says many people have headed to hotels in higher areas.

Businesses and homes have been boarded up and sandbags stacked up in doorways.

In the Gulf of Mexico, oil production has been hit, with capacity of over 650,000 barrels per day closed down, along with seven refineries and a huge offshore terminal.

In Asian trading on Monday, oil prices jumped nearly $5 a barrel to touch a high of $70.80.

States of emergency

The neighbouring states of Mississippi and Alabama are also braced for the storm.

US President George W Bush has issued a state of emergency in Louisiana and Mississippi, freeing the path for federal aid.

The storm, which formed in the Bahamas, lashed South Florida on Thursday, killing nine people, uprooting trees, downing power lines and causing extensive flooding.

Katrina is the sixth hurricane to hit the Florida coastline since last August.

If Katrina strengthens again, it could be only the fourth category five storm to hit the US since record-keeping began.

The last to strike the Louisiana area was Hurricane Camille in 1969, which killed more than 250 people.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/worl...cas/4194698.stm

[smallpackage]

Okay guys, Not EVERYONE has to post a news story, Wheres the discussion at?

nd the city is sinking at a rate of about nine millimeters a year.

I didn't know that, Maybe the weight of the water will speed up the process slightly.