this hurricane is a monster

and New Orleans is not ready for this

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[Edited 8/28/05 13:12pm]

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[Edited 8/28/05 20:18pm]

Thought you meant ernie els

im always facinated by what people wont talk about

this hurricane is the worst ever

but nare a reply

oh well

note to self

this isnt the wheather forum lol

shausler said:

I was just looking for some news abt this in the p&r forum but nothing

I'm a little ashamed to say it, but I'm glad it didn't hit us.

Imago777 said:

not sure what that means but


tell it to an entire community thats about to get washed away


fodder my ass

shausler said:

,
[Edited 8/28/05 12:39pm]

.
[Edited 8/28/05 20:19pm]

This could get really ugly.

New Orleans Braces for Powerful Katrina: City Evacuated
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...=printable

Monstrous Hurricane Katrina barreled toward the Big Easy on Sunday with 175-mph wind and a threat of a 28-foot storm surge, forcing a mandatory evacuation, a last-ditch Superdome shelter and prayers for those left to face the doomsday scenario this below-sea-level city has long dreaded.

"Have God on your side, definitely have God on your side," Nancy Noble said as she sat with her puppy and three friends in six lanes of one-way traffic on gridlocked Interstate 10. "It's very frightening."

Katrina intensified into a Category 5 giant over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico on a path to come ashore early Monday in the heart of New Orleans. That would make it the city's first direct hit in 40 years and the most powerful storm ever to slam the city.

"I'm really scared," resident Linda Young said as she fill her gas tank. "I've been through hurricanes, but this one scares me. I think everybody needs to get out."

Rain began falling on southeastern Louisiana by midday Sunday, the first hints of a storm with a potential surge of 18 to 28 feet, topped with even higher waves, tornadoes and as much as 15 inches of rain.

"We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared," Mayor Ray Nagin said in ordering the mandatory evacuation for his city of 485,000 people, surrounded by suburbs of a million more. "The storm surge will most likely topple our levee system."

Conceding that as many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the means to leave and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the closing of the airport, the city arranged buses to take people to 10 last-resort shelters, including the Superdome.

Nagin also dispatched police and firefighters to rouse people out with sirens and bullhorns, and even gave them the authority to commandeer vehicles to aid in the evacuation.

"This is very serious, of the highest nature," the mayor said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event."

For years, forecasters have warned of the nightmare scenario a big storm could bring to New Orleans, a bowl of a city that's up to 10 feet below sea level in spots and dependent on a network of levees, canals and pumps to keep dry. It's built between the half-mile-wide Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, half the size of the state of Rhode Island.

Estimates have been made of tens of thousands of deaths from flooding that could overrun the levees and turn New Orleans into a 30-foot-deep toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, and waste from ruined septic systems.

Katrina's eye was expected to make landfall around sunrise Monday on the southeastern Louisiana coast, although Mississippi also was in danger, said Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Because Katrina was such a big storm with hurricane-force wind of at least 74 mph extending up to 105 miles from the center, areas far from the eye's landfall could still be devastated.

At 2 p.m. EDT, Katrina's eye was about 180 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm was moving toward the west-northwest at nearly 13 mph and was expected to turn toward the north-northwest.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the north-central Gulf Coast from Morgan City, La., to the Alabama-Florida line, the hurricane center said. Tropical storm warnings extended east to Indian Pass, Fla., and west to Cameron, La., a spread of about 480 miles.

Despite the dire predictions, a group of residents in a poor neighborhood of central New Orleans sat on a porch with no car, no way out and, surprisingly, no fear.

"We're not evacuating," said 57-year-old Julie Paul. "None of us have any place to go. We're counting on the Superdome. That's our lifesaver."

The Superdome, the 70,000-seat home of football's Saints and the New Year's Sugar Bowl, opened at daybreak Sunday, giving first priority to frail, elderly people on walkers, some with oxygen tanks. They were told to bring enough food, water and medicine to last up to five days.

In the French Quarter, most bars that stayed open through the threat of past hurricanes were boarded up and the few people on the streets were battening down their businesses and getting out.

Sasha Gayer tried to get a train out of town but couldn't. So she walked back to the French Quarter, buying supplies on the way, and then stopped at one of the few bars open on Bourbon Street.

"This is a lot more fun than sitting at home listening to apocalyptic media reports," she said. "This is how you know it's a serious hurricane. You can't find a slice of white bread in the city, but you can still buy beer."

Airport Holiday Inn manager Joyce Tillis spent the morning calling her 140 guests to tell them about the evacuation order. Tillis, who lives inside the flood zone, also called her three daughters to tell them to get out.

"If I'm stuck, I'm stuck," Tillis said. "I'd rather save my second generation if I can."

But the evacuation was slow going. Highways in Louisiana and Mississippi were jammed as people headed away from Katrina's expected landfall. All lanes were limited to northbound traffic on Interstates 55 and 59, and westbound on I-10.

Katrina was "unmitigated bad news" for motorists across the nation because it shut down offshore production of at least 1 million barrels of oil daily and threatened refinery and import operations around New Orleans, said oil analyst Peter Beutel. He predicted crude oil could top $70 a barrel by Monday or Tuesday.

Hotels were spared from evacuation orders to give tourists and locals a place for "vertical evacuation."

Tina and Bryan Steven, a couple from Forest Lake, Minn., who came to attend a conference of emergency medical services, sat glumly on the sidewalk outside their hotel in the French Quarter.

"We're choosing the best of two evils," said Bryan Steven. "It's either be stuck in the hotel or stuck on the road. ... We'll make it through it."

His wife, wearing a Bourbon Street T-shirt with a lewd message, interjected: "I just don't want to die in this shirt."

Only three Category 5 hurricanes — the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale — have hit the United States since record-keeping began. The last was 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which at 165-mph leveled parts of South Florida, killed 43 people and caused $31 billion in damage.

New Orleans has not taken a major direct hit from a hurricane since Betsy in 1965, when an 8- to 10-foot storm surge submerged parts of the city in seven feet of water. Betsy, a Category 3 storm, was blamed for 74 deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

Rappaport warned that Katrina, already responsible for nine deaths in South Florida as a mere Category 1, could be far worse for New Orleans.

"It would be the strongest we've had in recorded history there," Rappaport said. "We're hoping of course there'll be a slight tapering off at least of the winds, but we can't plan on that. ... We're in for some trouble here no matter what."
[Edited 8/28/05 12:54pm]

It's way worse than you think:

http://www.wdsu.com/wxmap...etail.html
[Edited 8/28/05 12:55pm]

THATS FRITNING

DEAD SET CENTER COLLISION TO NEW ORLEANS
[Edited 8/28/05 12:59pm]

TonyVanDam said:

Oh dear, my thoughts are with them in need

http://www.wdsu.com/wxmap...etail.html

This is so worse than Andrew, Betsy, Mitch, & Camille

Is fact, I consider it Camille Part 2!!!

Name: Hurricane Katrina
Location: About 180 Miles South-Southeast of The Mouth Of The Mississippi River.
Lat/Long: 26.5N, 88.6W
Max Winds: 175 mph
Category: 5
Heading: Northwest
Speed: 13 mph
Pressure: 26.75 inches
[Edited 8/28/05 13:10pm]

SO MANY HOMELESS OVER THERE

TonyVanDam said:

they keep saying it will hit tomorrow but it looks like any minute to me

shausler said:

The eye will hit tomorrow.

shausler said:

Katrina is slow as Canadian moose piss! 13 mph is the average speed.

Impact time is 6:00 am CST Monday!

Stax said:

The Northeast side of ANY storm is THE far worse part!

And Katrina is packing!!

EDIT: Northeast, NOT northwest. Sorry.
[Edited 8/28/05 13:47pm]

thank you dr who

Katrina is pissed and is about to kick New Orleans ass...


just pray for the folks down there...

TonyVanDam said:

all im sayin is that its pretty friggin close right now and

its only 4:30 on a sunday

This is one badass storm... I have never been to New Orleans....and by the looks of this....there won't be anything left to see in a few hours

Mother Nature is pissed at us folks.... she's had enough and she is gonna have her way...earthquakes, psunami's, volcano's, hurricanes....

BUSH IS BLAMING IRAQ

shausler said:

There is mostly white & lite gray clouds right now.

shausler said:

FEMA money looks real good right about now!

TonyVanDam said:

it was a joke


[Edited 8/28/05 14:00pm]