Beautiful but deadly - pray for them

[MagicMtnDan]

Katrina the monster hurricane - Category 5 - 160 MPH sustained winds with winds up to 200 MPH is bearing down on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
30,000 people will be holding up in the Super Dome. Let's hope that place can handle the winds.
http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/members/images/109664.jpg
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/FLOAT/IR4/20.jpg

[ColeTR2]

It’s going to be bad!

[Essex29]

Now is the time for ALL of us to step up and help out! People always talk about sending money for this and that, overseas and what not. We should all be looking for ways to send help either monetary or supplies. These people are going to need it and a lot of it. :frown:

[Not So Fast]

Just heard the estimate for homeless people in the aftermath could go as high as 1,000,000, hard to put that in perspective. God be with them!! :chi: NSF

[crf311]

My house is on the east side of new orleans. St.Bernard Parish . I took the family and buged out to TX yesterday. We have family spread out from dallas ,houston, jackson ms. and Fla. I don't think our home will be standing after the storm. Then if it is the water is going to keep us out for months unless they blowup the levee system which surrounds the city. This one is going to be real bad

[kgt]

They are in my prayers......

[ahhell]

thisradar site (http://radar.wrh.noaa.gov/radar/latest/DS.p19r0/si.kmob.shtml) is updated every 4 minutes....hope it dies down quickly :frown:

[Kindsvater Flat]

Check out buoy 42040...wave height is 32'
Click the boxes in the map
Maps (http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Florida.shtml)

[rmarion]

My 19 yr old son Wesley has been visiting his bud in New Orleans who is in the Air Force. He got there on Tuesday and has been trying to get out of dodge for the last 3 days. They had moved up his flight to today at 10am. The airline cancel his flight and said to evacuate New Orleans, but w/ what????????? They are not helping anyone. We got him a cab to transport him to Baton Rouge and a room at the Sheraton (100 mi west of Orleans). He will be riding out the storm there.
Please say an extra prayer for him tonight.

[Miss Perfect]

My 19 yr old son Wesley has been visiting his bud in New Orleans who is in the Air Force. He got there on Tuesday and has been trying to get out of dodge for the last 3 days. They had moved up his flight to today at 10am. The airline cancel his flight and said to evacuate New Orleans, but w/ what????????? They are not helping anyone. We got him a cab to transport him to Baton Rouge and a room at the Sheraton (100 mi west of Orleans). He will be riding out the storm there.
Please say an extra prayer for him tonight.
You got it! My prayers go out to him. Please keep us updated.

[JetBoatRich]

Looks pretty crazy :jawdrop:
http://radar.wrh.noaa.gov/radar/images/DS.p19r0/SI.kmob/latest.gif

[mmered8299]

Anybody know how high the flood gates are that army corps built for New Orleans?

[Moneypitt]

Best of everything to Wesley, maybe you relate his experiences here, in the form of an informative story. Question him after his experience, dig up all the little things that lead to his having to "hunkerdown" and ride this thing out.....MP

[Miss Perfect]

Anybody know how high the flood gates are that army corps built for New Orleans?
I don't know, but I'm guessing not high enough :frown:

[Rexone]

I heard earlier today that this storm may be the 2nd largest in US history. About the strength of Camille of 69 but much bigger, bigger than Andrew, bigger than all accept the Labor day storm of the 30's which hit the keys. Also that New Orleans has never taken a direct hit by a storm this large or cat 5, hurricane Becky was last one to hit directly in 65 was cat 3 and killed 250+. This thing has the potential to kill thousands (hurricane force winds almost 200 mi inland) and wipe New Orleans pretty much off the map with a direct hit as well as many other places. Many of us will likely not witness a storm of this magnatude again in our lifetimes. God bless those in its path.

[Moneypitt]

How far up river is this thing supposed surge? There is also alot of low lying areas way north of N O ......

[Rexone]

I dunno but I heard estimates earlier of surge from 22-28 feet. I think the dikes around N.O. are about 20 feet. This stuff could bust right through them not to mention over the top.

[Rod-64]

THIS IS SCARY---------------
Katrina may be 'our Asian tsunami'
(CNN) -- Flooding expected from Hurricane Katrina could wreak catastrophe on New Orleans, overwhelming its water and sewage systems, damaging its structures and leaving survivors in a bowl of toxic soup, a top hurricane expert said Sunday.
Landfall is expected early Monday. (Latest report)
"We need to recognize we may be about to experience our equivalent of the Asian tsunami, in terms of the damage and the numbers of people that can be killed," said Ivor van Heerden, director of the Louisiana State University Public Health Research Center in Baton Rouge.
Some 25 feet of standing water is expected in many parts of the city -- almost twice the height of the average home -- and computer models suggest that more than 80 percent of buildings would be badly damaged or destroyed, he said. (Watch a report on the worst-case scenario)
Floodwaters from the east will carry toxic waste from the "Industrial Canal" area, nicknamed after the chemical plants there. From the west, floodwaters would flow through the Norco Destrehan Industrial Complex, which includes refineries and chemical plants, said van Heerden, who has studied computer models about the impact of a strong hurricane for four years.
"These chemical plants are going to start flying apart, just as the other buildings do," he predicted. "So, we have the potential for release of benzene, hydrochloric acid, chlorine and so on."
That could result in severe air and water pollution, he said.
In New Orleans, which lies below sea level, gas and diesel tanks are all located above ground for the same reason that bodies are buried above ground. In the event of a flood, "those tanks will start to float, shear their couplings, and we'll have the release of these rather volatile compounds," van Heerden added.
Because gasoline floats on water, "we could end up with some pretty severe and large -- area-wise -- fires."
"So, we're looking at a bowl full of highly contaminated water with contaminated air flowing around and, literally, very few places for anybody to go where they'll be safe."
He went further.
"So, imagine you're the poor person who decides not to evacuate: Your house will disintegrate around you. The best you'll be able to do is hang on to a light pole, and while you're hanging on, the fire ants from all the mounds -- of which there is two per yard on average -- will clamber up that same pole. And, eventually, the fire ants will win."
The levees intended to protect the city vary in height, from as low as 10 feet above sea level to about 14 feet, he said. They too are vulnerable, because they are made of earth, he said.
Disaster waiting to happen
Previous studies have suggested a catastrophic toll in lives and property if a major hurricane were to hit the New Orleans area, where about 1.3 million people live.
Walter Maestri, the emergency management chief in neighboring Jefferson Parish, said Hurricane Georges in 1998 could have killed as many as 44,000 people had it struck the city directly.
"The way it's described, we describe it here, is Lake Pontchartrain has now become Lake New Orleans," he told CNN in 2004.
Van Heerden said levees built to protect New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain could be buffeted by waves from the lake, which is about 23 miles by 35 miles in area.
"You're going to have enormous waves develop on that lake, especially with as much as 14 hours of hurricane-force winds." Those waves will erode the levees, raising the possibility of their collapse, he said.
"This is what we've been saying has been going to happen for years," he said. "Unfortunately, it's coming true."
Rick Luettich, a professor at the University of North Carolina's Institute of Marine Sciences, compared Katrina's expected impact on areas far up the Mississippi to "grabbing the end of the bed cover and giving it a hard snap."
That snap will push "probably in excess of 10 feet" of floodwater up the river, he predicted. "It will propagate up the river like a wave," past Baton Rouge, more than 70 miles away, he said.
For 15 years, Luettich has been developing a hydrodynamic circulation model -- called AdCirc -- that he said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has endorsed to help emergency managers predict storm damage.
Apologizing for the possibility that his comment could be interpreted as somewhat ghoulish, he said, "This is, in some ways, a little bit exciting for us, because it's a real opportunity to test this technology we've developed and see how well it works."

[beyondhelpin]

They said the dike were built to 15' but likley have settled a couple of feet.

[SurfOnH20]

I read today those gates are about 16 feet..Dont think that will be enough..

[KACHINA KEN]

Just heard the estimate for homeless people in the aftermath could go as high as 1,000,000, hard to put that in perspective. God be with them!! :chi: NSF
I believe a better term for them would be refugees at this point. There are huge neighborhoods with the type homes that are predicted to be destroyed and most of these are inhabited by the citys poor black population. These folks wont have a pot to piss in when this is over. Totally sucks.

[H20 Toie]

We got out yesterday, we left at 9am and it took 20 hours to go the 350 miles to Houston, i feel sorry for the people that were trying to leave later and get stuck on the road. at one point it took 6 hrs to go 5 miles.

[Moneypitt]

The news crews are showing the aftermath of Katrina. Being compared to an atom bomb without the radiation. It is going to get worse as the rivers swell from rainfall all the way up into Tennesse. Watching the news sorta puts our pissy little daily problems into perspective. Any word from Hoss? Taylorman? We have ***boaters down there they may have lost everything, Just how high can the "***boat family" rise in their time of need? .......MP