If You Read This - You're hair stands up

[wetwilly]

Dr Lyons just put this storm into perspective. He compared it to Charlie from last year and this storm is much stronger and is about 3x bigger in size then Charlie and Katrina has 185mph winds, hurricane force expected for 140 miles in radius to the eye and the TS force wind cone is almost 400 miles wide at this point.

Catastrophic is what he called it. Cantore is in Biloxi and he said he is very suprised that people are still driving along the local roads, very complacent, and still trying to get gas and snacks for thier evac. He said they should be gone or at their place of safety by now in his opinion. Landfall is expected tomorrow mid morning but TS force winds and big rainfall over the next 10 hours starting now.

WOW.

 

[ladybug8876]

Reading this brings tears to my eyes, imagining all the destruction that could occur to where ever Katrina may hit.

 

[beachmouse]

We're starting to see evacuees in town here. I talked to a couple of them in the grocery store, and they expect it could be weeks before they're allowed back into the city to inspect damage.

 

[CastlesOfSand]

Man, my hairs did stand up and I have goosebumps all over! My thoughts and prayers go out to all in Katrina's path.

 

[Travel2Much]

There are many tourists who simply could not get out of town. No airplanes, no rental cars. They are vertically evacuating in hotels. I would be drinking in the quarter, too. This weekend was freshman orientation weekend at Tulane and Loyola universities--parents with their kids.

Again, I was there until 4 pm yesterday and this was taken very seriously from daybreak Sat.

I am listening to NOLA radio here in SoWal and about an hour ago there was a reference to procedures for handling dead bodies (along with MASH units, etc.). If I heard it on CNN I would have flipped, but the fact that it was a local station made it more digestable.

Don't know what to say, else.

 

[seagrovelover]

This is all very scary and I personaly feel so sad for all the people whose lives will be ruined from such a forceful storm. New Orleans is below sea level quite a bit, am I correct? It could hold water like a bowl and cause tremendous damage from a ton of rain. I just hope the folks have enough time to GET OUT!!!!

 

[Miss Kitty]

This is the biblical storm they have made movies about. I am in complete shock as are the rest of you. Just looking at this storm is surreal...it takes up almost the entire Gulf. May God bless everyone in the path of this storm. Unfortunately, we will be reading about the loss of those who stayed behind in many of the areas.

 

[Travel2Much]

This is all very scary and I personaly feel so sad for all the people whose lives will be ruined from such a forceful storm. New Orleans is below sea level quite a bit, am I correct? It could hold water like a bowl and cause tremendous damage from a ton of rain. I just hope the folks have enough time to GET OUT!!!!

About 70% of the city is below sea level. It varies. My house oddly is about 10 ft above sea level, and never floods (but I am expecting it to and simply now am hoping it is maybe there with just maybe one thing I can keep from my life when I am allowed to go back, say, in October), but houses 6 blocks away from me will flood in heavy rains. The LSU hurricane center does flooding estimates based on current projections and right now it is not good. Here's the most recent one:

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breaki...a_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html#074598

I cannot even tell what is where!

Even ordinary rain has to pumped out of the city. The doomsday scenario has always been a storm like this--the enormous storm surge plus rain plus wind causes the lake/river/gulf to breach the levies. Once water get into the city there is no way to get it out, even if the pumps work. The pumps most likely will fail in a storm like that. So, the water stays (and gets higher). It's not really the rain, it is the storm surge. Pushes the lake into the city.

The real problem areas are outside the levies. They were evacuated first (one reason for the later evacuation of NOLA), and that's where a lot of the damage, dramatic flooding will occur.

 

[Miss Kitty]

T2M...my prayers are with you and your entire state...if I missed it earlier, where are you now?

 

[JB]

My wife and I love New Orleans. Actually, we probably spend more vacation time there than we do in SoWal. I think of all the things I love about the city: The Moonwalk, Jackson Square, Chatres Street, the streetcar line, Audubon Park, the Garden District, the wonderful restaurants, etc, etc, etc. It is the most unique city in America.

The fact that much of it will cease to exist as a result of this storm is something I am having a tough time dealing with. There are structures in the Quarter that have been there since the Revolutionary War that will be completely leveled. As a whole, the Quarter could be completely decimated. Gone.

You could drop a nuclear bomb on the city and the end result would be about the same as what will happen if Katrina stays on its current path.

Godspeed to the Crescent City.