Hurricane Katrina is about to hit New Orleans, and the city might not survive it. This is a thread for the rest of us gawkers who aren't currently busy getting the hell out of the city.
Article from earlier about the danger: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9754
Highway webcam: http://www.wdsu.com/wxcam/1475332/detail.html
More webcams: http://www.nola.com/bourbocam/
And finally, a particularly breathless weather alert, quoted in full below: http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/iwszone?Sites=:laz062
Best of luck to anyone in, or on their way out of, the city.
DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED
HURRICANE KATRINA
A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED
STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.
MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT
LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.
THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.
HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.
AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH
AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE
ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE
WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.
POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN
AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING
INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.
THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY
THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE
KILLED.
AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR
HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE
CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.
ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE
OUTSIDE!
LAZ038-040-050-056>070-282100-
ASSUMPTION-LIVINGSTON-LOWER JEFFERSON-LOWER LAFOURCHE-
LOWER PLAQUEMINES-LOWER ST. BERNARD-LOWER TERREBONNE-ORLEANS-
ST. CHARLES-ST. JAMES-ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST-ST. TAMMANY-TANGIPAHOA-
UPPER JEFFERSON-UPPER LAFOURCHE-UPPER PLAQUEMINES-UPPER ST. BERNARD-
UPPER TERREBONNE-
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005
>99
Gretna, LA is DQN
yep
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/topcompanies/0905/10bizkatcnn.html
(reg. req.)
CNN wins ruling on news coverage
"CNN obtained a temporary restraining order late Friday to prevent government agencies from restricting news coverage as victims are recovered in New Orleans and other areas hit by Hurricane Katrina."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/11/katrina/main832650.shtml
"[Katrina] could end up costing almost as much as two wars.
Although estimates of Hurricane Katrina's staggering toll on the treasury are highly imprecise, costs are certain to climb to $200 billion in the coming weeks. The final accounting could approach the more than $300 billion spent in four years to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq."
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,374268,00.html
"Last week, a German military cargo jet carrying 15 tons of food labored into the air bound for the United States. [] Refused permission to land, the plane was forced to turn around and head back to Cologne, still fully loaded. Food from other countries has likewise been banned.
Why was the aid not accepted? As it turns out, the US Department of Agriculture had rejected the rations [] out of fear they may be tainted with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) []
But officers at a US base in Pensacola -- where previous German aid planes had landed -- believe there was another reason. In reality, the critics said, the Bush government was trying to avoid embarrassing images of Europeans making food relief deliveries to the States.
After all, the meals had already been certified by NATO as BSE-free. Additionally, the same types of meals have been used in common deployments in Afghanistan, and they've also been consumed by American troops."
Bush Takes Responsibility for Blunders
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050913/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_washington
WASHINGTON -
President Bush for the first time took responsibility Tuesday for federal government mistakes in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and suggested the calamity raised broader questions about the government's ability to handle both natural disasters and terror attacks.
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at a joint White House news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
"And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility. I want to know what went right and what went wrong," said Bush.
Facing sharp criticism and the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, Bush scheduled a speech to the nation from Louisiana for Thursday evening. It will be his fourth trip to the devastated Gulf Coast since the storm struck two weeks ago.
It was the closest Bush has come to publicly faulting any federal officials involved in the hurricane response, which has been widely criticized as disjointed and slow. Some federal officials have sought to blame state and local officials for being unprepared to cope with the disaster.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/14/katrina/main842327.shtml
"Homicide charges were filed against the husband-and-wife owners of a nursing home where 34 elderly patients are believed to have died during Hurricane Katrina, the first major criminal case related to the storm's still rising death toll.
For Louisiana alone, the toll surged by more than half Tuesday to 423, and officials fear the numbers could climb as floodwaters recede and more of the city becomes accessible to search teams. Including deaths in four other states, Katrina's overall death count stood at 659."
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/12636484.htm
"HOUSTON - Three teenagers were hospitalized and five were arrested following a Tuesday morning fight at Jones High School that broke out after a student from Houston threw a soft drink can into a group of evacuee students, a school district spokesman said.
Officials said the resulting fight involved 20 to 25 students."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3352946
"Jones students said Tuesday that they'd tried to welcome the evacuees to their school, but they changed their tune when New Orleans students started threatening to take over the campus and the city."
""It's not working," 15-year-old Tracy Williams, a Houston sophomore, said. "We were doing good before they came here — for real."
Teens said they're frustrated that the evacuees are getting extra assistance and special attention.
"Nobody's giving us $2,000. When it floods here, we don't go over there," said Pedro Umana, 14, a freshman from Houston. "They started it, but we finished it. And it's not over yet."
Senior Treyvaun Jones, 18, said, "I'm scared to go back to my own school, and I'm a grown man.""
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-21T124625Z_01_SCH117391_RTRUKOC_0_US-KATRINA-LEVEES.xml
"Hurricane experts said Hurricane Katrina's storm surges were smaller than authorities have suggested and that poor design, faulty construction or a combination of the two were to blame for the failure of New Orleans' flood-protection system, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Scientists and engineers at Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center -- with the help of computer models and visual evidence -- concluded the levee system should have been sufficient to keep most of the city dry.
They also said Katrina's storm surges did not come close to going over the floodwalls, contradicting statements from the Army Corps of Engineers, which has said the surges sent water from Lake Pontchartrain over the top of the concrete walls."
"Ivor van Heerden, the Hurricane Center's deputy director, said the real scandal of Katrina is the "catastrophic structural failure" of barriers that should have handled the hurricane with relative ease.
"We are absolutely convinced that those floodwalls were never overtopped,""
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aZqO.iAcddLc&refer=us
"Ex-FEMA Head Brown Defends Katrina Response to [Congressional and Republican-led] Panel"
http://cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/27/brown.fema/index.html
"Brown serving as consultant to FEMA"
http://www.suntimes.com/output/hurricane/posts27.html
Board to investigate officers who left posts
"About 250 police officers-- roughly 15 percent of the force-- will be investigated for leaving their posts without permission during Hurricane Katrina and the storm's chaotic aftermath, a deputy police chief said Tuesday."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1164092
New Orleans police chief quits
"The police chief of New Orleans said on Tuesday he was retiring from the heavily criticized force, giving no reason for his decision"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/28/AR2005092800441.html
"On Tuesday, a combative Michael Brown blamed the Louisiana governor, the New Orleans mayor and even the Bush White House that appointed him for the dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in a fiery appearance Tuesday before Congress."
""I'm happy you left," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn."
""So I guess you want me to be the superhero, to step in there and take everyone out of New Orleans," Brown said.
"What I wanted you to do is do your job and coordinate," Shays retorted."