New Orleans May be Gone Next Week

[TruBlueCowboy]

If Hurricane Ivan maintains strength (which it's not predicted to do) and stays on its NW path, New Orleans as we know it could disappear.

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/wetlands/hurricane1.html

"One of the things that's frustrating now for all of us in my business," explains Maestri, "is that if that Category Five Hurricane comes to New Orleans, 50,000 people could lose their lives. Now that is significantly larger than any estimates that we would have of individuals who might lose their lives from a terrorist attack. When you start to do that kind of calculus - and it's horrendous that you have to do that kind of calculus - it appears to those of us in emergency management, that the risk is much more real and much more significant, when you talk about hurricanes. I don't know that anybody, though, psychologically, has come to grip with that: that the French Quarter of New Orleans could be gone."

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/weather/

While the official track has Ivan moving near the Louisiana coast before curving northeast into the Biloxi/Mobile area, several major computer models show a track striking the New Orleans area. Such uncertainty late Monday led Mayor Ray Nagin and officials from other parishes to urge residents to begin evacuating. Across the metro area, schools and other facilities have closed Tuesday to allow residents to prepare for a possible hurricane.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

Do not know who to believe or if it is just a matter of nobody really knowing until it happens...however this morning the news was saying that Ivan was currently a Class 5 but by the time it made it's way to LA it should be a level 4.....either way it looks like it is going to cause some major damage.

 

[TruBlueCowboy]

Do not know who to believe or if it is just a matter of nobody really knowing until it happens...however this morning the news was saying that Ivan was currently a Class 5 but by the time it made it's way to LA it should be a level 4.....either way it looks like it is going to cause some major damage.

If you read that article, what will really kill New Orleans is the storm surge and flooding since the whole city is under sea level. The wetlands have been eroding away so they don't provide as much protection as they used to to buffer the city. And the levees were only meant to withstand a category 3 hurricane. This is the current path that the hurricane takes but these weather guys have been saying it's going to veer to the east for the longest time now. It just keeps going west.

 

[trickblue]

I sure hope this bastid loses some intensity...

I've been to New Orleans at least 40 times... love the city, but they have been living on the edge for years as far as catastrophy... I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping minimal damage occurs to wherever this storm hits...

 

[Yeagermeister]

Damn he's coming my way now

 

[TruBlueCowboy]

Looks like Nahleans is safe for now. The hurricane veered to the east at the last second and spared New Orleans from the worst winds and storm surges. It's headed directly for Mobile, Alabama. I wonder what they do about the ol' U.S.S. Alabama before a hurricane since it no longer sails the seas.