Almost Silent Thread for New Orleans

[stevestojan]

If you're looking for a local persepctive, here is live streaming news from N.O.

 

http://mfile.akamai.com/12912/live/reflector:38202.asx

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nothing but static... .

 

[Frez]

nothing but static... .

 

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Try this

[Golden Wheels]

Some webcams still working here:

 

http://www.nola.com/bourbocam/

[gobilz]

nothing but static... .

 

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is there anybody out there?

[stevestojan]

Try this

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thanks... this is scary sh--...

[faderphreak]

I am so glad I convinced my sister-in-law and her husband to come over here yesterday. This is truly frightening when you look at the computer model predictions of what could happen.

[jester43]

here is a particularly troubling warning form the noaa. jesus, i hope joey has gotten the hell away from there:

 

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA

413 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

 

 

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE

MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA

 

DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

 

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT

LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL

FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY

DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

 

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.

PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD

FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE

BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME

WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

 

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A

FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

 

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH

AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY

VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE

ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE

WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

 

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN

AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING

INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

 

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY

THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW

CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE

KILLED.

 

(link to above warning)

http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/iwszone?Sites=:laz069

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

here is a particularly troubling warning form the noaa.  jesus, i hope joey has gotten the hell away from there:

 

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA

413 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE

  MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA

 

DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

 

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT

LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL

FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY

DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

 

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.

PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD

FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE

BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME

WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

 

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A

FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

 

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH

AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY

VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE

ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE

WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

 

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN

AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING

INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

 

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY

THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW

CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE

KILLED.

 

(link to above warning)

http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/iwszone?Sites=:laz069

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The caveat being that that's not for New Orleans, it's for the lower delta, about 90 miles away. And fortunately, that's mostly swampland, so there's not a hell of a lot there to be levelled (trees and such aside).

 

Even so...I had no idea NOAA would issue a warning worded like that. When I first read it, I thought it was a hoax.

[BuffaloSKEET]

My Aunt & Uncle just made it in from New Orleans. Old school South Buffalo types - just drinking away.

[stevestojan]

When I was waiting for Jeanne and Frances to strike, noaa was the site i relied on all the time. For them to make statements like:

 

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH

AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES

 

WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING

INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

 

is freaking unbelieveable...

 

 

This is gonna be awful

[Ghost of BiB]

The caveat being that that's not for New Orleans, it's for the lower delta, about 90 miles away.  And fortunately, that's mostly swampland, so there's not a hell of a lot there to be levelled (trees and such aside). 

 

Even so...I had no idea NOAA would issue a warning worded like that.  When I first read it, I thought it was a hoax.

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I guess they want people to take it seriously. And, whatever is left a week from now or so goes right through Buffalo, unless the projected track changes a lot. Y'all make sure you give it the finger when it comes by.

[Dwight Drane]

The caveat being that that's not for New Orleans, it's for the lower delta, about 90 miles away.  And fortunately, that's mostly swampland, so there's not a hell of a lot there to be levelled (trees and such aside). 

 

Even so...I had no idea NOAA would issue a warning worded like that.  When I first read it, I thought it was a hoax.

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There is a statement pretty much the same for NO linked on the Drudge Report. I agree that it is so strong and disheartning that it looks fake, but FOX has been quoting that bulletin all day. I don't get moved to pray very often, but reading that got me in a mental pew.

[Campy]

Obviously this will be The Big One that everyone's been fearing.

 

When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, 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.

 

Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of coastal wetlands in 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 floodwaters coming down the Mississippi, will only make things worse in a powerful hurricane. Katrina is expected to push a 28-foot storm surge against the levees. Even if they hold, water will pour over their tops and begin filling the city as if it were a sinking canoe.

 

After the storm passes, the water will have nowhere to go.

 

In a few days, van Heerden predicts, emergency management officials are going to 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," van Heerden said.

 

He puts much of the blame for New Orleans' dire situation on the very levee system that is designed to protect southern Louisiana from Mississippi River floods.

 

Before the levees were built, the river would top its banks during floods and wash through a maze of bayous and swamps, dropping fine-grained silt that nourished plants and kept the land just above sea level.

 

The levees "have literally starved our wetlands to death" by directing all of that precious silt out into the Gulf of Mexico, van Heerden said.

 

It has been 40 years since New Orleans faced a hurricane even comparable to Katrina. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy, a Category 3 storm, submerged some parts of the city to a depth of seven feet.

 

 

From HoustonChronicle.com.

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

When I was waiting for Jeanne and Frances to strike, noaa was the site i relied on all the time. For them to make statements like:

 

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH

AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES

 

WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING

INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

 

is freaking unbelieveable...

This is gonna be awful

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But again...that's for the extreme tip of the delta. There's got to be maybe three household appliances in that whole parrish.

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

Obviously this will be The Big One that everyone's been fearing. 

From HoustonChronicle.com.

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1000 years from now, with all that debris washed into the delta, that's going to be an archeologist's wet dream.

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

I guess they want people to take it seriously. And, whatever is left a week from now or so goes right through Buffalo, unless the projected track changes a lot. Y'all make sure you give it the finger when it comes by.

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Eastern Great Lakes and the Ohio River valley are projected to get 4"-8" of rain from this storm.

 

And of course, all that rain that falls in the Ohio ultimately finds its way into the Mississippi, hence to New Orleans. And probably floods it more.

 

Kind of makes you wonder if we're going to see a modern metropolis be abandoned completely...

[SDS]

the winds have died down from 185 to 160 MPH, yet no one is saying that it is weakening. Am I missing something? Pressure has gone up few bars too...

[JÂy RÛßeÒ]

holy !@#$

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

the winds have died down from 185 to 160 MPH, yet no one is saying that it is weakening.  Am I missing something?  Pressure has gone up few bars too...

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It's complicated. Pressure's about the same in the 11pm report (904 mb). But they're getting different wind readings from different sensors, and since they measure wind speed from a plane at altitude they have to adjust that to surface wind speeds...so until the storm hits land and surface instruments can directly measure, wind speeds are just an estimation, and there's questions about the adjustment factor in this case. Plus it looks like it's starting an eyewall replacement cycle, which typically weakens a storm temporarily (basically, it's taking a last deep breath, and can't blow as hard while it's inhaling).

 

So there's a lot that goes into wind speed...but pressure's a fairly consistent and independent measure of storm intensity, and the pressure hasn't materially changed, so they'll say it's maintaining its strength.

[Ghost of BiB]

It's complicated.  Pressure's about the same in the 11pm report (904 mb).  But they're getting different wind readings from different sensors, and since they measure wind speed from a plane at altitude they have to adjust that to surface wind speeds...so until the storm hits land and surface instruments can directly measure, wind speeds are just an estimation, and there's questions about the adjustment factor in this case.  Plus it looks like it's starting an eyewall replacement cycle, which typically weakens a storm temporarily (basically, it's taking a last deep breath, and can't blow as hard while it's inhaling). 

 

So there's a lot that goes into wind speed...but pressure's a fairly consistent and independent measure of storm intensity, and the pressure hasn't materially changed, so they'll say it's maintaining its strength.

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Pressure gradient.

[ExWNYer]

God bless everyone down there...this is not looking good.

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

Pressure gradient.

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Yes, pressure gradient.

 

Showoff.

[Zona]

Going to bed now. God bless all in mother nature's path right now.

[JÂy RÛßeÒ]

The projected path of this thing has it coming thru WNY.

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

The projected path of this thing has it coming thru WNY.

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It won't be a hurricane any more by then. Lots of rain, though.

[SDS]

It won't be a hurricane any more by then.  Lots of rain, though.

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gray clouds and rain in WNY... I'm sure it will be a refreshing change from the endless sunshine.

[JÂy RÛßeÒ]

It won't be a hurricane any more by then.  Lots of rain, though.

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Yep I know. Gonna have to gas up the cars and buy some supplies tomorrow. I lived in Birmingham AL in 1995 when Hurricane Opal came thru. It was only a Cat 3 and had already degraded to a tropical storm but that was lots and lots of rain.

[Campy]

gray clouds and rain in WNY... I'm sure it will be a refreshing change from the endless sunshine. 

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[SilverNRed]

Haven't read the whole thread but is anyone else worried that the SuperDome might not withstand 175 mph wind?

 

This person is worried:

For example, the Superdome's outer skin is composed of 500,000 square feet (146,500 square meters) of anodized aluminum

 

Lovely ... sheets of aluminum flying around in 160-175 mph winds.

 

But wait! It gets better!

 

Contractors building the Superdome also found that it required efforts and techniques that were a bit out of the ordinary, especially in the construction of its roof. For this building, the largest clear span steel structure in the world ... is literally held together by its roof. In its flying - saucer-shaped design , the walls of the Superdome literally hang (for want of more descriptive term) from the roof, with the force vectors at foundation level pointing away from the center.

 

So basically, the outside is riveted panels of aluminum suspended from the roof. The director of FEMA has already warned that even buildings design to withstand the force of a Cat 5 hurricane will NOT be able to withstand winds of 160+ mph.

 

The term "death trap" comes easily to mind here. Do we never learn?

 

Worst case scenario is tens of thousands are dead and this thing makes 9/11 look like a day in the park. We are in a world of sh-- right now.

[stevestojan]

Haven't read the whole thread but is anyone else worried that the SuperDome might not withstand 175 mph wind?

 

This person is worried:

Worst case scenario is tens of thousands are dead and this thing makes 9/11 look like a day in the park.  We are in a world of sh-- right now.

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Well, i'm off to bed. The sick thing is, when I wake up, many people that are alive right now won't be (which i realize happens every day, but it just weird seeing the cause of these deaths on a radar screen), many enormous structures that are standing will be fallen, and an area of land that is now just getting rained on will be completely under a toxic lake of water, human waste, and corpses. Damn....

[stevestojan]

3 people already dead. Deaths while evauating people from a nursing home...

 

 

and one last thing tonight... the Superdome has ONE generator... where is it located? On ground level of course... flooding could destroy it...

 

That should be a peaceful environment. A superdome with 40,000 people in it ... hot as hell, dark as night... flooding football field in the middle...

[Pete]

I am a weather junkie and this storm scares the sh-- out of me! New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida- you are all in my prayers. My heart breaks for you. Stay safe, please stay safe

[SilverNRed]

Now they're saying it should only be Cat 4 when it hits N.O. so that should help.

[MartyBall4Buffalo]

Now they're saying it should only be Cat 4 when it hits N.O. so that should help.

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National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said: "There's certainly a chance it can weaken a bit before it gets to the coast, but unfortunately this is so large and

so powerful that it's a little bit like the difference between being run over by an 18-wheeler or a freight train. Neither prospect is good."

 

 

My Prayers are with the people of the big easy

[Pete]

I am watching on the NOLA cams and it is getting pretty !@#$ing intense. There is very intense lightning and the winds and rain are really starting to pick up. I pray for you New Orleans

[Ramius]

its been reported (noaa or weather channel, i cant remember) that the levee was breached and 3-8 feet of water are flooding in in a part of NO...

[cåblelady]

Holy flooding pictures on Fox News.

[Ghost of BiB]

At least 54 dead in Mississippi.

 

So far.