au revoir New Orleans

[squeek12]

oh damn (http://hurricane.terrapin.com/ATL-12A/ftrack.html)

[Chobohoya]

Yeah no kidding. I'm making this post, and getting the F outta here. Headed to Clinton, and you?

[mmbt0ne]

There have been approximately 1 billions hurricanes that were supposed to go straight up the Mississippi and destory NO. None have, and I'm holding to the belief none will.

[Ed Miller]

Damn, and I liked New Orleans too... /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

(I think everything will be fine.)

[Barry]

[ QUOTE ]
Damn, and I liked New Orleans too...

(I think everything will be fine.)

[/ QUOTE ]

So long as those 100 year old pumps keep working.

As Ed's folks and my in-laws live there, we're all hoping for the best.

[astroglide]

i heard some thing on npr a couple years ago about how there are these camps of people that live off the land basically (fisherman i guess) in the southernmost part of louisiana but their land is disappearing.

[Talk2BigSteve]

[ QUOTE ]
oh damn (http://hurricane.terrapin.com/ATL-12A/ftrack.html)

[/ QUOTE ]

Well that is one way to wash the piss smell off of Bourbon St.

Big Steve /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[MelchyBeau]

[ QUOTE ]

Well that is one way to wash the piss smell off of Bourbon St.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, That would be impossible

Melch

[LittleOldLady]

[ QUOTE ]
Damn, and I liked New Orleans too... /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

(I think everything will be fine.)

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope you're right. But it doesn't look good, and I'm packing to leave.

[Chobohoya]

[ QUOTE ]


I hope you're right. But it doesn't look good, and I'm packing to leave.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lastest radio reports say you're going to be on I-10 until it floods... I would leave right now if i were you.

I'm posting this from a holiday inn express. Ohhhh yeah.

[blatz]

Sticking it out here...spent the day helping some friends batten down their hatches. (My hatches are rented, so they need no battening)

We've been through a bunch of these warnings before, but when I was in the supermarket, everyone was so nonplussed it was eerie. It felt just like the pleasant scene in any movie right before the moment that the huge disaster strikes. People were stocking up on water, but their hearts were not into it. Seriously spooked me a little. Not enough, though, to sit in traffic for hours on end.

I have my water wings and camera ready and am hoping to have as much fun as possible without actually getting killed.

And wish the best to my fellow New Orleanians (and all Gulf Coasters, depending on where it hits, if it does), their families, pets, and houses. If things get desperate, I got plenty of canned tuna, enough for all of you.

[garyjacosta]

I live in Dallas now, but I grew up south of New Orleans and both my family and my in-laws still live in the area. I think the apathetic attitude can be explained by all the near misses in the past 2 decades. I can remember vacuating on several occasions as a child, only to have the hurricane change course at the last minute and head for wherever we had run off to!

I sure hope this one is a miss too. (Don't have room to put up the inlaws if their house gets demolished!) Stay safe guys.

[BreakEvenPlayer]

I know you've been through the warnings a lot, but this Katrina is a huge bitch. You should really consider leaving.

[BreakEvenPlayer]

This is going to be ugly.

[Benholio]

[ QUOTE ]
I know you've been through the warnings a lot, but this Katrina is a huge bitch. You should really consider leaving.

[/ QUOTE ]

Seriously. This thing just about fills the entire Gulf, and has strengthened from 115mph to 150mph winds at the core. (5 mph shy of category 5). I don't see how this thing could 'miss'.

[Lazymeatball]

Now a category 5 (http://www.weather.com/newscenter/tropical/?from=wxcenter_news)

also, this isn't anything new, but is anyone else pissed that they now alternate between male and female names for hurricanes. You wouldn't name a boat Steven, and there shouldn't be any hurricanes named Harvey.

[newfant]

Global warming is coming home to roost with this puppy. Take a look at this monster:


http://www.wunderground.com/data/640x480/2xg1_ir_anim.gif

[newfant]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/IronBallsMcGinty/2xg1_ir_anim.gif

LOL. You guys are screwed. The mayor (who sounds like an idiot) said something about being able to commadeere vehicles and property that it needs or something. God damn. I think think that means they can take your stuff or something.

[sprmario]

I was here in Miami for Andrew and just now for Katrina as a little Cat 1.

I just saw that the winds are up to 175mph sustained and 210mph gusts. I really hope people evacuate out of its way, because at those speeds pretty much nothing is going to be standing, if you are hit head on. Even if you have shutters on your windows, the doors can't take that sort of pressure and once a door gives it will just force air in the house and jut rip the entire roof right off.

The suggestion for folks during andrew was to find an inner bathroom and lie in the bathtub with a mattress on top of you.

Good luck to anyone in its path.

[astarck]

[ QUOTE ]
Good luck to anyone in its path.

[/ QUOTE ]

They're gonna need it. 200+ Gusts are no joke.

[Ed Miller]

[ QUOTE ]
I can remember vacuating on several occasions as a child, only to have the hurricane change course at the last minute and head for wherever we had run off to!

[/ QUOTE ]

We did that too. In 1985 we evacuated to Picayune for Elena only to have the eye go straight over us.

[Warik]

I was in Miami for Andrew 13 years ago. Florida is practically "DESIGNED" to handle hurricanes due to the sheer number of them we encounter each year, and even still Andrew was devastating. If you're in New Orleans, get the hell out unless you're a fish.

I am not kidding.

Now is not the time for optimism.

[blatz]

I was just in the French Qurter buying batteries, there are a fair amount of people sticking around, more than you'd think.

I have lots and lots of water, and Im brewing a half gallon of coffee. I couldn't bear to be out of both power and caffeine at the same time.

The mood in the town is even keeled, jokes while people wait in line, and liquor and plywood are both selling fast.

I was house shopping last week, glad I didn't make any decisions yet.

[astroglide]

[ QUOTE ]
...but when I was in the supermarket, everyone was so nonplussed it was eerie. It felt just like the pleasant scene in any movie...

[/ QUOTE ]

nonplussed means bewildered, not unaffected

i would definitely leave if i were you, even though the experience of staying would sound like fun

[damaniac]

How much good is stocking up on provisions and securing houses going to be if it hits directly in full force? My understanding is if a 4 or 5 hits the city directly, the levees and pumps aren't going to be able to handle it and the city is going to be submerged in water, possibly for a long time.

[Blarg]

I grew up on Guam, a tiny speck of a flat island out in the middle of nowhere that got hit full force by typhoons like this all the time. To tell you the truth, these huge storms were some of the most exhilirating and intense experiences of my life, but the scary undertone sometimes leaped up right into your face.

We were told that the strongest part of the house is the plumbing when it comes to things like this, so you should go to the bathroom and grab on to the pipes connecting your toilet or the toilet itself. I remember many nights when it sounded like the whole world was going to explode that my entire family sat huddled in one bathroom in the dark with a candle or two. It was magical, terrifying, and a little weird.

I definitely wouldn't take a 175 mph hurricane lightly. The wind starts tossing cars and big pieces of houses around at that intensity. I read that parts of New Orleans are below sea level and that their levees are made to withstand at most a Category 3 storm, and this is a Category 5, and also that tornadoes can be generated on landfall. Some serious stuff, and major flooding. If you can get out and spend a couple nights in a hotel, do it.

As to the fellow above saying the water can hang around for a long time -- I remember one hurricane in Guam dumped so much water that it took six months for it all to drain away in some places. One part of the orchard next to our house had four feet and more of water in it for about that long.

[mosta]

I'm staying too. I could have left with friends for houston yesterday, but preferred to try to get more work done at home. May not happen. But I'm in one of the massive old warehouses in the w'house dist. I don't think there's any risk of major structural damage, but I really hope my windows don't get blown out. I face south, and I have all the GNO ramps right in front of me so hopefully that buffers wind which hopefully won't be right into me. If the windows blow, I'll just go to the hall. If the water comes up more than 20 feet, I'll just go to the third floor hall. A couple other friends staying will have their boat ready to ride, so I'll be able to exit by my window on Tuesday. We've got the week off for law school. and I guess maybe we'll have the whole semester off. too bad there's no way the building is going to board up the hundreds of huge windows. I wish I'd thought to do it from the inside yesterday.

[mosta]

[ QUOTE ]
Global warming is coming home to roost with this puppy. Take a look at this monster:


http://www.wunderground.com/data/640x480/2xg1_ir_anim.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't mean to debate either side of global warming, but I heard that the increased hurricane frequency had nothing to do with global warming--and not that that was even a subject of dispute. no? or are you just guessing?

[wacki]

You know how hurricanes got bad all of the sudden?

Well expect them to get worse

http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/~tk/glob_warm_hurr.html

[mosta]

[ QUOTE ]
LOL. You guys are screwed. The mayor (who sounds like an idiot) said something about being able to commadeere vehicles and property that it needs or something. God damn. I think think that means they can take your stuff or something.

[/ QUOTE ]

oh sht, are they going to come and take all my cds?! why do you say idiot? I've been gone for too long to keep up with politics, but my understanding is that Nagin was very highly regarded as a businessman, and is the most honest and competent mayor NO has had in ages.

[mosta]

[ QUOTE ]
You know how hurricanes got bad all of the sudden?

Well expect them to get worse

http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/~tk/glob_warm_hurr.html

[/ QUOTE ]

okay maybe I'm misremembering or heard wrong. without even reading your link, I know increasing ocean temperatures should be bad for storms. but still I remember being surprized just a few weeks ago when a neutral and informed news source mentioned that all these hurricanes were an expected cycle in the pattern independent of GW [kind of a pun...].

[wacki]

From my link:

According to this latest study, an 80 year build-up of atmospheric CO2 at 1%/yr (compounded) leads to roughly a one-half category increase in potential hurricane intensity on the Saffir-Simpson scale and an 18% increase in precipitation near the hurricane core.

http://www.climateaudit.org/wp-content/1000yearsco2small.jpg

[mosta]

[ QUOTE ]
oh damn (http://hurricane.terrapin.com/ATL-12A/ftrack.html)

[/ QUOTE ]

"<font color="red">a dieu </font> New Orleans"
fixed your post

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
I know increasing ocean temperatures should be bad for storms.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, warm ocean is the very fuel hurricanes feed off of.

[ QUOTE ]
but still I remember being surprized just a few weeks ago when a neutral and informed news source mentioned that all these hurricanes were an expected cycle in the pattern independent of GW [kind of a pun...].

[/ QUOTE ]

Reporters and science do not mix well. If you want a good source of information on this there is nothing better than NOAA. BTW, there is an independent cycle, but climate change will increase storm activity.

Murder rates have increased like 20 % since Nagin became mayor New Orleans.

[luckOverSkill]

[ QUOTE ]
Murder rates have increased like 20 % since Nagin became mayor New Orleans.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well... if the pundits are right about the path of the storm, I bet the murder rate will drop about 100% when all is said and done...

[lastchance]

Checking this out, I think this thread is definitely worth a bump.

Never gamble against the odds.