Katrina

[Bravo]

Well I am finally weighing in here...(in the middle of the reply - the lights flickered...)

Sheeesh we are tired of these things!! And I live over 200 miles from the coast...It Does go to show you how very large and powerful hurricanes can be - when they have a profound effect on you 200 miles inland...this storm will go well up into the center of the U.S. as a big rainmaker over the next two days.

It's about 7:30 CDT how and I have spent a bit of today getting ready...I dragged out the generator at mid-morning and got gas at 3:00. This dude is passing west of me and we are lucky. If I lose power - it will be brief.

I have been to New Orleans a ton and the place was (largely) spared. A tiny shift to the east toward the Mississippi coast was a Godsend to the city.

As many may know, much of The Big Easy is under sea level...the question is asked - why build a community under sea level?

The French (Bienville and D'Iberville) originally settled it (and Mobile, Alabama) hundreds of years ago...and Louisiana filled with individuals who had fled France and settled temporarily in Nova Scotia before moving to South Louisiana... I guess they did not realize it was beneath sea level when the settled there. The predominance of French names is everywhere. My cousins from there are named Lanoux. Louisiana law is based on the Napoleonic Code.

Yes, most everyone thinks of it as only a tourist area but in reality, it is one of the world's largest ports - serving as the main ocean port for about one third of the U.S. And the petrol connection is huge...

New Orleans is as crazy as everyone says and I have tons of funny stories from there. I am so glad the levees worked and saved it from destruction. Not joking here - there have been predictions that a Direct Hit could cause as many as 40,000 deaths in the city - because once the water breached the levees that were supposed to hold it out - the water would stay in. Today, as of this writing, they held.

What a pattern of repeating tropical storms and hurricanes - which some have speculated is a result of Global Warming.

Let's turn this into a debate...

IS Global Warming for Real or is it just a figment of the imagination of overzealous environmentalists?

 

[spankdoggie]

New Orleans is as crazy as everyone says and I have tons of funny stories from there.

Please tell us one story.

 

[Kilted Arab]

What a pattern of repeating tropical storms and hurricanes - which some have speculated is a result of Global Warming.

Let's turn this into a debate...

IS Global Warming for Real or is it just a figment of the imagination of overzealous environmentalists?

Pretty sure there has to be something in it.

I don't think you can continually plough poisons into the atmosphere and hope they just go away and don't affect anything.

The ice caps...like the Wicked Witch, they're meltiiiinnnnnggggggggg.....

 

[Rockford35]

I asked the same thing today and one guys guess was that it might have been at or above at one time and underwater erosion might have brought it down. Sounds like it might work but if not i have no freakin idea.

This is true, the city has sunk (New Orleans). But, why build a city on a river delta in the first place? And, if you know the city is sinking, why continure to build there?

Moronic....

R35

 

[VtDivot]

This is true, the city has sunk (New Orleans). But, why build a city on a river delta in the first place? And, if you know the city is sinking, why continure to build there?

Moronic....

R35

New Orleans is sinking.... and I don't wanna swim.

 

[cabinessence]

This is true, the city has sunk (New Orleans). But, why build a city on a river delta in the first place? And, if you know the city is sinking, why continure to build there?

Moronic....

R35

Well, it's been around for a few hundred years and hasn't sunk into the ocean yet. There are natural levees that protect the land and have been made taller by man-made walls.

Why build a town on the tip of Florida where lots of hurricanes come? Why build Los Angeles and San Francisco on a giant fault where lots of earthquakes will happen? Why build a town near a volcano? Why did colonists originally settle in the Chesapeake, a nasty swamp that ended up a breeding ground for disease and destruction? People have to live somewhere, and there are lots of advantages for NO to be on the delta of the largest river in North America.

 

[Bravo]

Why build a town on the tip of Florida where lots of hurricanes come? Why build Los Angeles and San Francisco on a giant fault where lots of earthquakes will happen? Why build a town near a volcano? Why did colonists originally settle in the Chesapeake, a nasty swamp that ended up a breeding ground for disease and destruction? People have to live somewhere, and there are lots of advantages for NO to be on the delta of the largest river in North America.

Beautifully put...the fact of the matter is - when these communities were originally settled, nobody had any way of knowing what sort of natural disasters could occur.

It IS notable though, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has studied very specific cities relative to the type of disaster is likely to occur in that area. For example, a study has been done of San Francisco relative to the death and destruction that would likely occur if the worst earthquake in terms of magnitude and location happened. Miami relative to hurricane, etc, etc.

Of all these studies, a Direct hit on New Orleans dwarfs them all in terms of death and destruction because of it being below sea level.

Enough of the trivia.

Apparently, one of the Lake Ponchatrain levees broke last night and water is coming into the city. It will be interesting to watch today to see what the final outcome will be.

It is very very sad because there is no place in the world like New Orleans. The literal dictionary definition of Unique truly applies. It is crazy and zany and (frankly) filthy and nasty too....

 

[Quentin]

Moronic? We'll have to wait and see if the people down there will be even MORE moronic and try to rebuild everything where it lies...now that the levees have broken and the city is flooding.

If they do rebuild it where it lies, I will be stumped. Anyone have any good reasons why they should? I've never been there so excuse my ignorance.

Hope you're doing good down there Bravo.

~QQ

 

[Rockford35]

New Orleans is sinking.... and I don't wanna swim.

Yep, they've been singing about it for years...

I've heard death counts nearing 85. Surprising, since more than 20% of the population along the coast didn't leave.

I read a quote by a mayor or someone in the Emergency office stating that during the storm the "Diehards will die hard.". Somewhat fitting, I suppose.

Sometimes i think living in a place with almost no seismic activity, no volcanoes, no direct sea access, no real heat problems and tolerable winters isn't such a bad thing after all....

I hope that number stays at 85 and doesn't climb..

R35

 

[DaveE]

Sometimes i think living in a place with almost no seismic activity, no volcanoes, no direct sea access, no real heat problems and tolerable winters isn't such a bad thing after all....

R35

You need to receive an award for your tolerance.

-70 = tolerant? :biglol:

 

[Rockford35]

Well, it ain't -70 all the time. Just for a few weeks.

You know, tolerable.

You become climatized by then anyways. -30, -70. It's all the same after a while. So skin freezes if exposed for more than 20 seconds, big deal.

I'd take two weeks of -70 instead of 20 feet of water on my house or a volcano erupting in my backyard.

But that's just me.

R35

 

[DaveE]

I'd take two weeks of -70 instead of 20 feet of water on my house or a volcano erupting in my backyard.

But that's just me.

R35

Agreed, we're high enough that if my house ever floods everyone better have their ark built. I went through one hurricane in Houston and have no desire to do it again.

 

[spankdoggie]

Here in San Francisco, we haven't had an earthquake since 1989, what, 16 years ago? Earthquakes are overrated. Now this crap going on in Mississippi and New Orleans is ridiculous. Not to mention all the tards that live in Florida getting hammered by hurricanes year after year...

 

[DaveE]

Here in San Francisco, we haven't had an earthquake since 1989, what, 16 years ago? Earthquakes are overrated. Now this crap going on in Mississippi and New Orleans is ridiculous. Not to mention all the tards that live in Florida getting hammered by hurricanes year after year...

The last hurricane to make a direct hit on New Orleans was in 1965. I don't think that matters much to the people there now anymore than it's going to matter to you when SF falls into the ocean.

 

[Kilted Arab]

Just hearing that a police officer in New Orleans has been shot and injured while trying to stop looters...and looters have been stealing guns from local stores...


What a freaking world...