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What would happen if a major hurricane hits New Orleans?

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Maddy McCall Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 03:50 PM
Original message
What would happen if a major hurricane hits New Orleans?
THE BIG ONE
A major hurricane could decimate the region, but flooding from even a moderate storm could kill thousands. It's just a matter of time.

"A catastrophic hurricane represents 10 or 15 atomic bombs in terms of the energy it releases. Think about it. New York lost two big buildings. Multiply that by 10 or 20 or 30 in the area impacted and the people lost, and we know what could happen."

Joseph Suhayda
LSU Engineer



By Mark Schleifstein and John McQuaid
Staff writers

The line of splintered planks, trash and seaweed scattered along the slope of New Orleans' lakefront levees on Hayne Boulevard in late September 1998 marked more than just the wake of Hurricane Georges. It measured the slender margin separating the city from mass destruction.

The debris, largely the remains of about 70 camps smashed by the waves of a storm surge more than 7 feet above sea level, showed that Georges, a Category 2 storm that only grazed New Orleans, had pushed waves to within a foot of the top of the levees. A stronger storm on a slightly different course -- such as the path Georges was on just 16 hours before landfall -- could have realized emergency officials' worst-case scenario: hundreds of billions of gallons of lake water pouring over the levees into an area averaging 5 feet below sea level with no natural means of drainage.

That would turn the city and the east bank of Jefferson Parish into a lake as much as 30 feet deep, fouled with chemicals and waste from ruined septic systems, businesses and homes. Such a flood could trap hundreds of thousands of people in buildings and in vehicles. At the same time, high winds and tornadoes would tear at everything left standing. Between 25,000 and 100,000 people would die, said John Clizbe, national vice president for disaster services with the American Red Cross.

"A catastrophic hurricane represents 10 or 15 atomic bombs in terms of the energy it releases," said Joseph Suhayda, a Louisiana State University engineer who is studying ways to limit hurricane damage in the New Orleans area. "Think about it. New York lost two big buildings. Multiply that by 10 or 20 or 30 in the area impacted and the people lost, and we know what could happen."

Hundreds of thousands would be left homeless, and it would take months to dry out the area and begin to make it livable. But there wouldn't be much for residents to come home to. The local economy would be in ruins.

The scene has been played out for years in computer models and emergency-operations simulations. Officials at the local, state and national level are convinced the risk is genuine and are devising plans for alleviating the aftermath of a disaster that could leave the city uninhabitable for six months or more. The Army Corps of Engineers has begun a study to see whether the levees should be raised to counter the threat. But officials say that right now, nothing can stop "the big one."

Much more at:

http://www.nola.com/washingaway/thebigone_1.html
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 03:58 PM
Response to Original message
1. I remember hearing/reading that from last year's
hurricane season. Very scary!:scared:
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HereSince1628 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 03:58 PM
Response to Original message
2. I saw a video on the hurricane threat to New Orleans years ago
and now the first thing I look for when I hear a hurricane is in the gulf is how close it will pass. N.O.
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pscot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 04:11 PM
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3. Have they considered moving the city?
Might be the best solution to what was obviously a huge error in urban planning.
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KamaAina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 04:25 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. N.O. was not as low-lying when it was founded
the ground has subsided by several feet over the years, and not evenly, either. You might be in N'Awlins if... you open up the Yellow Pages and see a heading for "House Levelers", that is, workmen whose specialty is to jack up the lower-lying side of a house until the floors are again horizontal!
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Bossy Monkey Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 04:20 PM
Response to Original message
4. Also well covered in National Geographic last year
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KamaAina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 04:29 PM
Response to Original message
6. "Should we rebuild the city? The answer may be No."
During the run-up to Ivan last year, I actually heard the emergency manager for neighboring Jefferson Parish (Walter Maestri?) say that out loud. I wanted to reach into the TV screen and wring his neck! (ex-New Orleanian here, from the area Uptown presently occupied by Swamp Rat)

You can't just walk away from everything N.O. has meant to America for all these years. The French, for instance, say, rather snootily, that there are only two truly American art forms: the Western -- and jazz. Then again, one of their best-known painters, Edgar Degas, painted in N.O. for a year while visiting family in la Nouvelle-Orleans.
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lpbk2713 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 04:32 PM
Response to Original message
7. Tick - tick - tick - tick ......



It's just a matter of time (and luck).
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trof Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 04:33 PM
Response to Original message
8. The new Venice.
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leftofthedial Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 04:37 PM
Response to Original message
9. Mardi Gone
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KamaAina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 04:46 PM
Response to Original message
10. Don't look now, but N.O. better get ready to duck and cover
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT12/refresh/AL1205W_sm2+gif/205300W_sm.gif

Worse still, the strike point has been trending westward... :scared:

Digression: I once fancied a well-known activist down there. She had a daughter -- yup, Katrina. (They, too, have since left the area.)
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