http://radar.weather.gov/radar/latest/DS.p19r0/si.klix.shtml Ya - I booked a flight Saturday, and apparently they cancelled every flight after 2pm and every Delta flight, so there was a huge crowd of people trying to get on the plane through standby. It was also impossible to get a cab - a lot of the cabs had taken people to Baton Rouge and evacuated themselves, many companies just shut down, so I almost didn't get a ride to the airport. I really hope nobody was dumb enough to stay withou going into the Superdome (staying in a hotel is stupid in a CAT5 hurricane). Let's hope the hurricane dies down to at least a 4 before it hits land. But this could take weeks, maybe months to clean up, no to mention the billions of dollars in damages - all of the great landmarks in new orleans are old buildings, etc., and I don't think those will stay intact. New Orleans might not be the same city 2 days from now.
Here is an article that mentions the computer model predicting 40,000 deaths. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/wetlands/hurricane1.html
I have a hard time believing 40K people might die from this. About the only fortunate thing about hurricanes is you can see them coming and evacuations have been going on for a few days now. So while NO might get destroyed I'm betting most of the people are out or in shelters.
There are an estimated 100,000 people who do not have the resources to get out. That does not include all the people who refuse to leave. There are only 30,000 in the super dome.
I hope your right, but I think you're going to be surprised how many people a hurricane like this can kill. I agree though - 40,000 is a lot, but 10-20k is in no way out of the question.
I saw one report that the Superdome, the primary shelter, hadn't been specifically designed to withstand Cat5 hurricanes. In other words, they are guessing in their belief that the primary shelter structure will withstand “the worst” that the hurricane can dish out. It's probably safe but nobody's ever tested it or simulated testing the structure under these conditions.
Looks like New Orleans might make it through, eye of storm hit 60 miles east.......Superdome no air conditioning now on back up power....Hurricane is now a category 4.....
Looks like it's heading just east of New Orleans which I should spare the city of water dumping into the city from both the river and the lake.
Last night they said eye landfall would be between 4-6am. Now it is 7:30 am and it looks like it is just happening.
Actually that is the worst case sinario. Once the eye passes NO the winds will be moving south over the lake pushing the water back into NO. If the storm moves far enough east that would be good. But how far is far enough?
Now they're saying a pretty sizable hole has opened up in the roof, and water has started pouring in... they can see daylight from inside the Superdome. Plus, the worst of the storm has yet to actually hit... that's only happening in a couple of hours. This is scary.
man...i just keep thinking how close of a call it has been for total destruction of NO, LA. if that thing doesnt take the turn right then who knows what is happening to the superdome and the whole city now.
I just heard on the news there's like a waterfall in the Superdome! I really hope that roof holds up.
With all this talk of NO being in trouble....it seems to be overlooked that Biloxi is gonna get slammed...it is on the NE quadrant of the storm. What a monster this has been. Tells you something about the unpredictability of forecasts...this storn was forecast to go up thru the panhandle of FLorida.....now look at it. I got only one thing to say to all the people fleeing NO along I-10.. QUIT DRIVING IN THE FAST LANE @ 50MPH!!! I came into work this morning from the EAst side into Channelview....and it took forever with all the LOU plates driving slow in the fast lane.
That was several days ago, and Florida is just over a hundred miles away from Biloxi. I think they've done a damn good job alerting everyone who is in harm's way.
Fox News is saying that, and they're also saying that the worst of the storm is hitting NO now. Meanwhile, CNN is saying that the worst of the storm is past NO. I'm not sure who is telling the truth, but somebody is clearly wrong.
ABC is now saying that two levees have given... They ar also saying that the eyewall will be brushing up against Boloxi in the next hour...so its hard to say that NO has seen the worst yet...it is still moving so slow. EDIT: just after I posted this...they mentioned that the eye is NE of NO...so it should be slackiing off for them in the near future. Pole, yea...but I havent been keeping track...was busy all weekend. I was just commenting on how even in these days of much better forecasts...a hurricane is still a very unpredictable entity...and the u-turn they were showing before it hit FLorida was pretty far from what it actually did.
CNN's site just reported - Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, on east side of city, under 5 to 6 feet of water after pumps fail, mayor says.
