Time for the Big (un)Easy?

[Mule]

Originally Posted by rouxroux

Yep. My in-laws stayed put through Betsy & Camille, but Katrina was the "charm"...she played "3 Little Pigs" with their house, and my FIL died shortly after. There's a great parody song out of Monroe, LA by a guy named Chuck Redden based on "The Ballad of New Orleans" that points out the similarities of Katrina & this one as far as the gov't goes. If you want to hear it, check out Moon Griffon's show online tomorrow between 9-11 Central time. You'll hear it for sure.

I rode out Betsy & Camille& dozens of others. Lots of my friends rode out Katrina. Most left the next day when the flooding got bad. It's funny you have families that evacuate & those that dont. When I saw film of traffic stuck on the twin span with waves breaking against the bridge, I decided that evacuation was a no alternative deal.

[RWebb]

People don't necessarily do the smartest things - when I was a kid, we used to drive away when a big storm came up. Away - yeh - but not away from the storm. No, all us honor students used to drive away from home over to the levees so we could watch the river flood and the whip up waves. If the levee had ever breached near us we'd all have died.


sammy - Gov. Jindal would surely build the levees up if he could, BUT it is way too expensive for any state to do that itself - esp. La. The levees are a federal responsibility (most of them - everybody and every jd. in the US seems to won or care for various levees - but the big ones are federal).

Parts of the city are higher than other parts. The sinuous "S" shaped area right next to the river (the oldest parts of the city) are actually the highest. That's b/c the river used to overflow its banks every year and the sand, dirt and silt piled up there. Another higher area is the Gentilly Ridge - the Chef follows it - that's US Hwy 90 the Chef Mentour.

Both Japan and the Netherlands have done a lot of really smart design beyond levees that could be adapted to NoLa. That will be left to the next administration.

Other critical issues are that the huge buffer of wetlands that used to break the force of incoming storms has diminished greatly over the last 200 years. They need to be built back up. Buildings - esp. large ones - tend to sink into the wet much that passes for soil there. And to be honest, some areas of the City should never have been developed - mostly the last parts to be settled - they are among the lowest spots and most likely to flood.

One good thing is getting rid of Mr. GO - this little-used canal was a dagger pointed right at the 9th Ward.

[Mule]

Mr Go killed St. Bernard. The wetlands have been lost since the 30's, when the oil business began. LA gets a smaller percentage of the oil revenue than any other state, while easily sustaining more damage from it. Otherwise right on.

[RWebb]

BTW - Nagin flew back home.

[RoninLB]

NO needs $20B for a dyke. Manhattan needs more.

[rattlsnak]

Originally Posted by JeremyD

I still don't understand how FEMA can give me so much crap about remodeling my house (has to be 9' about mean sea water level or you can only improve 50% of what the structure is currently worth) and in the same breath allow NOLA to rebuild UNDER SL. Makes no friggin sense. Even Galveston Island got a clue and raised the whole island (and built a huge seawall) after the big one.

Depends on where in NOLA area. Houses on the Lakefront have to built 9-12' (I cant remember which) above sea level. Funny thing, now you cant get insurance on anything higher than 3' off the ground. So, no rebuilding going on unless you can afford not to insure it.

Anyway, just spoke to my family and some friends. Pretty much everyone is going to stay put unless it gets higher than a Cat 3. The bad thing about the trajectory is if the eye passes just west of the city, they will get a much worse storm surge. Katrina went east.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by RoninLB

NO needs $20B for a dyke. Manhattan needs more.

Why? They already have Hillary.

[RWebb]

22 dead so far in the Caribbean

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by Mule

I rode out Betsy & Camille& dozens of others.

Dayumm, Mule! You're larger than life!

I guess you'll make a bigger target for Gustav.

[Mule]

Originally Posted by rattlsnak

Depends on where in NOLA area. Houses on the Lakefront have to built 9-12' (I cant remember which) above sea level. Funny thing, now you cant get insurance on anything higher than 3' off the ground. So, no rebuilding going on unless you can afford not to insure it.

Anyway, just spoke to my family and some friends. Pretty much everyone is going to stay put unless it gets higher than a Cat 3. The bad thing about the trajectory is if the eye passes just west of the city, they will get a much worse storm surge. Katrina went east.

Not exactly. Folks thought that the ultimate bad day would be a storm moving WNW heading for the mouth of the river. That pushes the surge fully into Lake Borgne (which is really a bay) and on into Lake Ponchartrain. Katrina was moving almost due north and crossed the river near Buras. The surge still pushed in. When the storm passed & the wind direction reversed, the lake, filled to the brim with surge water, was now pushed south by the north wind, stacking the water up against the levees & seawalls of the city.

A more westerly landfall is bad for the West Bank communities but vastly eases pressure on NO, Metairie (me), and St Bernard. Besides, this storm needs a major attitude change before it's going to be anything too serious.

[Mule]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

Dayumm, Mule! You're larger than life!

I guess you'll make a bigger target for Gustav.

Yep, me & a million or so others. But you are certainly entitled to your opinion, as long as Obama doesn't get elected.

[johnco]

the guy from my next job works for the area electrical provider. he came by today to check progress on my present job and told me his company info shows the hurricane projected to hit between Houma and Morgan City. I live in Morgan City.. wonderful! at least I got concrete poured today after 8-10 inches of rain in the last 2 or so weeks.

[Mule]

Gov Jindal was just on the radio. HOLY MACKREL! he went on for 10 minutes with the list of preparations. Military in bunkers, ready to fly as soon as possible to check the levees, barges loaded with rock, 1000 buses, military in NO for "crowd control," etc, etc, I've NEVER heard anything like this in my life! Jindal is the DUDE! If Katrina's bigger, badder, uglier big sister shows up we should be able to slap her back out into the gulf!

[Mule]

Originally Posted by johnco

the guy from my next job works for the area electrical provider. he came by today to check progress on my present job and told me his company info shows the hurricane projected to hit between Houma and Morgan City. I live in Morgan City.. wonderful! at least I got concrete poured today after 8-10 inches of rain in the last 2 or so weeks.

Bob Breck is THE BEST forecaster in NO. He called Katrina & the last 3 or 4 storms dead on. He says Houston.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

The worst thing that can happen is nothing. I mean let's be serious here - everyone is still kind of antsy about the prospect of a big hurricane hitting N.O. because of what happened with Katrina just three years ago. Let's say this thing heads juuuust a little bit west and N.O. gets a little rain, some minor gusts for a day and that's it. First time (this time) everyone will say, "well, it was good to have spent the money/allocated the resources just in case. Better safe than sorry". Next time (in a year or two) same thing happens. Now people start questioning if it's REALLY necessary to be so paranoid. Next time (maybe a few years later) it happens, people start grumbling about how much it's costing the government to "overreact" in this manner. Repeat a few more times over the next 15-20 years until you get what we all know will eventually happen - the same old "boy who cried wolf" reaction to a hurricane warning for N.O., nobody heeding it, a lackluster response by officials and a repeat of Katrina.

I see this as the most likely scenario actually. People are very stupid and have very short memories when it comes to catastrophes. We as a society are frightfully predisposed to repeating our mistakes over a period of time any greater than a third-grade attention span.

[JeremyD]

models are pushing it further west - I'll bet baytown/houston when it's said and done - cat 2 (lots of shear)

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by RoninLB

NO needs $20B for a dyke.

We could sell them one dressed in an orange jumpsuit ..... but we'd have to take a lot less than $20billion.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Mule

Bob Breck is THE BEST forecaster in NO. He called Katrina & the last 3 or 4 storms dead on. He says Houston.

Hmmm...our weatherman is talking about which bar will have the best Hurricane Party. We ain't all askeered like you NOLA folks.


Actually, our weathermen are talking hellfire like everyone else is

[BRPORSCHE]

Originally Posted by JeremyD

models are pushing it further west - I'll bet baytown/houston when it's said and done - cat 2 (lots of shear)

Great. I live on the water. I am certainly going to have to evacuate if it comes my way...evacuate to the nearest bar!

[bivenator]

I'm watching this one close. It seems Houston will be affected if the storm slows and La if it comes in hot. Always entertaining this time of year.