Hey Louisiana! Hey Mississippi!

If you're reading this,

GET OUT!

There's a category 5 heading your way named Katrina!

This one's gonna be bad.....winds up to 175+ MPH. There's saying this could be one of the top 2 or 3 worst storms to hit the United States.

Good luck and God bless the folks of that region

 

Yea. There are many issues with this. To those who think that this is far away from me. I feel for those people but I am safe. Safe is a relative word. Safe from the storm. Sure maybe. But safe from the effects.

Likely not. I am still researching this so I can not speak accurately on it yet, but there are a lot of Oil and Gas rigs and Refinerys too down there. After all I got one eye on the Wilders forest too.

Juice up your Buggies early and hold on to your wallets.

 

Over 450,00 (not a typo) have been ordered to evacuate New Orleans. This storm will bring sustained winds above 170MPH and wind gusts above 200MPH when it makes landfall early tomorrow. It has the potential to kill everything in its path. The storm surge will be as high as 20-25' above sea level. New Orleans sits 4 feet below sea level.

I predict this storm will be the most deadly storm to hit the US on record. And prehaps to go down as the "great one" that hit New Orleans.

May the Lord be with those that remain in New Orleans.

 

Going to hard for many to dodge this one..

 

Terrifying. I can't even imagine those kinds of wind speeds.

God bless all those effected....


snowbound

 

This is going to effect even those that don't live in the area. Most of the infrastructure for the Oil and Gas industry is located in Louisiana. This is going to shut down the rigs there for awhile.

Get ready for even higher gas prices and heating oil prices. The Oil futures market is going to skyrocket over this. This could be a event combined with other events that could help to create worldwide recession.



Starrob



Starrob

 

Very true....and even tho the winds will be real bad....New Orleans sits in the bottom of a bowl

Very true....and I'll be saying Hello to that S in your picture come Tuesday

 

For those who do not know or just forgot....

http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=11305

I was awe struck.

Also Marothon Oil last year I think was forever restarting one of theirs.

Imagine several like this and they were very concerned it would slip under the waves and be gone.

Your are right Strarrob if the damage is bad after the storm is long gone the price will sky rocket.

 

And I'll be seeing that S as it turns into a D in the wee hours of Wednesday morning as well

This is supposedly going to be one of the worst hurricanes to strike land in the U.S. ever! They are predicting "catostrophic" damage for New Orleans....a city which sits around 8 to 10 feet under sea level anyway....getting absolutely pelted and possibly being under 20 feet of water after Katrina has passed through! They're talking weeks, if not months, before water levels are back to normal and people are able to resume somewhat normal living activities. And Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and even into Tennessee and Kentucky will feel some pretty strong storms as a result of this one. Not looking forward to it, and I'm on the very back end of the path! Thankfully, most of the people evacuated that area, but God be with those who for whatever insane reason didn't feel the need to leave......

 

Yes indeed. Very sad. I am very concerned about these wind numbers. I heard yesterday or earlier today the fall back shelter of last resort was the Super Dome.

Someone correct me please if I am wrong. The big SD could resist winds of 200 mph. Creatures that is to close to what is being predicted.

I do not want to even think about it...

Edit: This same official was reluctant to speak but said when the power went out at the Super Dome it was a whole different matter...he meant as far as handling the critical situation. A mass of people with no power. I assume there will be generators somewhere but I am speculating. Turely a bad but historical event is about to occur. The weather people also said this will be in the text books for years to come. This indeed is the only good I know that can come out of it the knowledge that we can gain from this event. As our study equipment is far better then it use to be like in 1969 when Camille came through.

 

Huh!! Come again!!

Come on folks. It's the Hurricane season! Permanent signs should be erected in the S Eastern US urging everyone to leave in mid Aug and not return til mid Nov. As far as oil futures go, if someone takes a leak in N. Dakota causing a minor flood in S. Dakota, oil prices go up!

I have a Daughter living where Katrina came ashore so I do not take any of this lightly but when I get 3 ft of snow in Jan. the only happy person is the guy I hire to plow me out!

Thats life, big ed

 

Ed, when it hit Florida it had winds of only 80 mph (a light breeze if you will). The difference between then and now will be 10 killed and street flooding vs. 40,000 dead and the city demolished and under 20' of water.

The two are not the same. You must be smoking crack or have marbles in your head.

 

I used to live and work on this area. I used to work on oil field supply boats. I know just about all of the oil infrastructure in southern louisiana/texas.

Halliburton, Schumberger, Tidewater and who remembers George Bush's old company Zapata? http://www.mintruth.com/wiki/index.php?Zapata Offshore

I had worked on the supply boats that brought cement, food, liquid mud, fuel, drill pipe, drill casings and even the huge drill casing hammers http://www.casinghammer.com/specifications.htm

All the shipyards that build the supply boats, crew boats and oil rigs. All gone!! Many oil rigs destroyed in a time in which we need the rig count to grow.

The human costs will be huge but this is going to effect oil prices around the world. YOu live in Germany, China, Kenya, Brazil, the South Pole? It don't make a difference your fuel prices are now going up.

It will affect economies worldwide. Some including the USA could possibly go into recession depending on the devestation and other things going on in the world today.

I am sort of sad by this. I have friends in Louisiana. I used to live there. I must have been through every rinky-dink town in southern louisiana.....New Orleans, Metarie, Slidell, Lake Pontrachain, the Atchafalaya river, Morgan City, Intracoastal City, Lafayette, Houma, Thibodeaux, Fourchon, Baton Rouge, New Iberia (home of Tabasco), Abbeville, Lake Charles, Grans Isle, Venice, Raceland, Larose and even the infamous Golden Meadows (they love to give speeding tickets there).

I love cajun food....and I like the Cajun people.....All of this stuff is going to get wiped out. It will all be underwater. Watch the pictures on TV tomorrow....It will be devastating. I lived in this area....I know how much will be destroyed. It will be hard to look at....this place is one of my favorite places in the world and it will soon be wiped off the face of the earth. There is a lot of history in New Orleans and much of it will be gone. All the old structures built in the 1700's or 1800's will be gone. No more French Quarter......

I am saddened for New Orleans and sorry for the effects on the whole world......



Starrob

 

You ever been in a Hurricane? I have been in two. One was while I was on supply boat and another while I was in Lafayette. Both were "weak hurricanes". One was category 1 and the other category 2. Let me tell you there is no such thing as a weak hurricane.

Hurricane Juan was the one that I went out on s supply boat into the middle of it. We had to go out because they did not evacuate the oil rigs in time. We had to go out and be standby boat for the oil rig. To this day, I don't know why they sent us out there. If the rig had went into the water there was nothing we could do to help survivors. We were having a hard enough time staying afloat. You see the movie perfect storm? It was sort of like that....not quite as bad but 20 to 25 foot waves can be devastating if you are ever unfortunate to see them.

63 people died in hurricane Juan....a so called weak Hurricane http://www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/cohab/hurricane/juan/juan.htm

Louisiana is about the worst place a hurricane can land because a lot of the south coast of LA is below sea level. The only other place that I think is just as bad is Charlestown, SC which is also below sea level.

I don't think people appreciate the power of a Cat 5 hurricane. You want to see what a cat 5 does. Check this out:

http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hurricanecamille.htm


As for oil prices. Check out just how much oil production will get taken offline by this storm. A lot of US oil and gas production is in the Gulf of Mexico.....but no need to argue....proof is in the pudding.....in a few hours oil future markets will open. Watch what they do.



Starrob

 

Hi mercurie,

Yeah, the Super Dome is the place where those who were unable to leave the area (i.e. - no transportation or viable means out) have been ordered to congregate to. I think the reason is not only because of the structure (as you say, able to withstand winds up to 200 MPH), but also because it will accomodate close to 100,000 peaople, and also (MOST IMPORTANTLY) is supposedly 25 feet ABOVE sea level!

 

Pretty powerful pictures there, Starrob. It amazes me how ANYBODY could question the effects, and brush it off so easily.

True, oh so true. I just returned hom from filling up the car in anticipation of what's to come. The prices were as cheap here (greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky) as they have been in weeks...and my guess is that's because the oil companies and gas retailers realize that it's just a matter of days (or even hours) before those prices likely reach record highs.......

 

I was in a tropical storm one time in Florida--IT was terrifying.

A cat 5 hurricane is unimaginable.

 

Reported from New Orleans:

Party's over in the French Quarter

It takes a mean, mean storm to shut down the hurricane party at Molly’s at the Market, but Katrina did it, at about 6 p.m. Sunday.
The French Quarter bar, notorious for staying open during hurricanes despite dire warnings and curfew calls, was the last in the French Quarter to close, said Jim Monaghan, Jr., owner of the bar at the corner of Ursulines and Decatur streets.
“I thought about it long and hard,” he said. “But I don’t want 100 people in here if something happens.”
In the past, the bar has remained open and usually chock full of regulars defying the storm and soothing their nerves with drink.
“We would have stuck it out if it was a category two or three, but there’s 175 mph winds out there, and I don’t want to be liable if somebody does something stupid in here tonight,” Monaghan said. “And there’s a bunch of drunks wandering around here.”
At nearby Cafe Lafitte, Tip Andrews knew it was time to leave when he saw the green shutters on the mustard-colored building close.
“When they close, you KNOW it’s bad,” the Bourbon Street resident said Sunday as he took his two dogs, Gigi and Dijon, for a last walk before heading north. “They NEVER board up.”
The sickly sweet “hurricane” punch drinks that normally flow right up until landfall were nowhere to be seen as city workers did a last sweep of spent plastic cups and party debris. Purple, green and gold balloons fluttered forlornly on gas lamps in front of shuttered bars in the growing afternoon breeze.
“Where’s everybody going?” Edward Heyman shouted along an empty street. “It’s just a little storm.”
But despite his bravado, Heyman was leaving, too.
(additional reporting by The Associated Press)

 

My heart goes out to the individuals of this area. Any way you slice it, this one does not look good.

I was at Keesler AFB Miss. in 1971, that was two years after the big one, the area was still being repaired. They say this one will be worse, in fact they are saying that this will be the worst hurricane to have ever hit the U.S.A.

If anyone has not yet headed out "please do so immediately", don't try and play cute with this one, "you wouldn't stand a chance".

Thanks
Wildman

 

The NWS bulletin of this morning summarizes some of the potential -actually probable- results of Katrina. I have also read that 1,000,000 people might be left homeless. Sewage, coffins unearthed, etc. etc. all will result in a situation of incalculable biological conamination - no established procedures to deal with anything of this magnitude.
I was in Houston in 1962 when Carla hit Houston & is the most recent local storm of comparison for many natives. But it was nothing like this!
In 1900, 5,000 were killed when the great hurricane hit Galveston headon. Even that will pale in comparison to this one.
Any movement of Katrina to the west will worsen the effect on New Orleans

Rob


Urgent Weather Message from NWS New Orleans

WWUS74 KLIX 281550NPWLIXURGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA

1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005


DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

HURRICANE KATRINAA 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. ATLEAST 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 CREATEADDITIONAL 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. FEWCROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BEKILLED.AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEARHURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE..

 

Yes, I see nothing good standing straight after this one's passed.

Leaving is of course the best to do.
But what about the ones that may not be able to move away, for certain reasons ??!

I don't even want to mention the stubborn ones, not willing to leave.

 

i'm afraid that i agree

 

Headed more now towards gulf port but still...


Immense Hurricane Roars Toward New Orleans
Aug 28 10:23 PM US/Eastern


By ALLEN G. BREED
Associated Press Writer


NEW ORLEANS


A monstrous Hurricane Katrina barreled toward New Orleans on Sunday with 160-mph wind and a threat of a 28-foot storm surge, forcing a mandatory evacuation of the below-sea-level city and prayers for those who remained to face a doomsday scenario.

"Have God on your side, definitely have God on your side," Nancy Noble said as she sat with her puppy and three friends in six lanes of one- way traffic on gridlocked Interstate 10. "It's very frightening."

Katrina intensified into a Category 5 giant over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico, reaching top winds of 175 mph before weakening slightly on a path to hit New Orleans around sunrise Monday. That would make it the city's first direct hit in 40 years and the most powerful storm ever to slam the city.

Forecasters warned that Mississippi and Alabama were also in danger because Katrina was such a big storm, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 105 miles from the center. In addition to the winds, the storm packed the potential for a surge of 18 to 28 feet, 30-foot waves and as much as 15 inches of rain.

"The conditions have to be absolutely perfect to have a hurricane become this strong," National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield, noting that Katrina may yet be more powerful than the last Category 5 storm, 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which at 165 mph leveled parts of South Florida, killed 43 people and caused $31 billion in damage.

"It's capable of causing catastrophic damage," Mayfield said. "Even well-built structures will have tremendous damage. Of course, what we're really worried about is the loss of lives.

"New Orleans may never be the same."

By evening, the first squalls, driving rains and lightning began hitting New Orleans. A grim Mayor C. Ray Nagin earlier ordered the mandatory evacuation for his city of 485,000, conceding Katrina's storm surge pushing up the Mississippi River would swamp the city's system of levees, flooding the bowl-shaped city and causing potentially months of misery.

"We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared," he said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event."

As many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the means to leave and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the closing of the airport, so the city arranged buses to take people to 10 last-resort shelters, including the Superdome.

For years, forecasters have warned of the nightmare flooding a big storm could bring to New Orleans, a bowl-shaped city bounded by the half-mile-wide Mississippi River and massive Lake Pontchartrain.

As much as 10 feet below sea level in spots, the city is as the mercy of a network of levees, canals and pumps to keep dry.

Scientists predicted Katrina could easily overtake that levee system, swamping the city under a 30-feet cesspool of toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins that could leave more than 1 million people homeless.

"All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario," Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard said some who have ridden out previous storms in the New Orleans area may not be so lucky this time.

"I'm expecting that some people who are die-hards will die hard," he said.

Katrina was a Category 1 storm with 80-mph wind when it hit South Florida with a soggy punch Thursday that flooded neighborhoods and left nine people dead. It strengthened rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico as it headed for New Orleans.

By 8 p.m. EDT, Katrina's eye was about 130 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm was moving toward the north-northwest at nearly 11 mph and was expected to turn toward the north. A hurricane warning was in effect for the north-central Gulf Coast from Morgan City, La., to the Alabama-Florida line.

Despite the dire predictions, a group of residents in a poor neighborhood of central New Orleans sat on a porch with no car, no way out and, surprisingly, no fear.

"We're not evacuating," said Julie Paul, 57. "None of us have any place to go. We're counting on the Superdome. That's our lifesaver."

The 70,000-seat Superdome, the home of football's Saints, opened at daybreak Sunday, giving first priority to frail, elderly people on walkers, some with oxygen tanks. They were told to bring enough food, water and medicine to last up to five days.

"They told us not to stay in our houses because it wasn't safe," said Victoria Young, 76, who sat amid plastic bags and a metal walker. "It's not safe anywhere when you're in the shape we're in."

Fitter residents waited for hours in the muggy heat and then pouring rain to get in, clutching meager belongings and crying children. By nightfall, at least 8,000 refugees were safely inside, seated in the stands because of fears the field could flood.

In the French Quarter, most bars that stayed open through the threat of past hurricanes were boarded up and the few people on the streets were battening down their businesses and getting out. But a few stragglers remained.

Tony Peterson leaned over a balcony above Bourbon Street, festooned with gold, purple and green wreathes as Katrina's first rains pelted his shaved head.

"I was going to the Superdome and then I saw the two-mile line," the 42-year-old musician said. "I figure if I'm going to die, I'm going to die with cold beer and my best buds."

Airport Holiday Inn manager Joyce Tillis spent the morning calling her 140 guests to tell them about the evacuation order. Tillis, who lives inside the flood zone, also called her three daughters to tell them to get out.

"If I'm stuck, I'm stuck," Tillis said. "I'd rather save my second generation if I can."

But the evacuation was slow going. Highways in Louisiana and Mississippi were jammed all day as people headed away from Katrina's expected landfall. All lanes were limited to northbound traffic on Interstates 55 and 59, and westbound on I-10. At the peak, 18,000 vehicles an hour were streaming out of southeastern Louisiana.

"I'm expecting to come back to a slab," said Robert Friday, who didn't bother boarding up his home in suburban Slidell, La., before driving north to Mississippi. "We may not be coming back to anything, but at least we'll be coming back."

By Sunday night, most major highways were cleared out and state police warned that late escapes would be impossible after high winds hit elevated expressways over the surrounding swamps.

Evacuation orders were also posted along the Mississippi and Alabama coast, and in barrier islands of the Florida Panhandle, where crashing waves swamped some coastal roads.

Mississippi's floating casinos packed up their chips and closed. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the Waterford nuclear plant about 20 miles west of New Orleans had also been shut down as a precaution.

New Orleans has not taken a major direct hit from a hurricane since Betsy blasted the Gulf Coast in 1965. Flood waters approached 20 feet in some areas, fishing villages were flattened, and the storm surge left almost half of New Orleans under water and 60,000 residents homeless. Seventy-four people died in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

Tourists stranded by the shutdown of New Orleans' Louis Armstrong Airport and the lack of rental cars packed the lobbies of high-rise hotels, which were exempt from the evacuation order to give people a place for "vertical evacuation."

Tina and Bryan Steven, of Forest Lake, Minn., sat glumly on the sidewalk outside their hotel in the French Quarter.

"We're choosing the best of two evils," said Bryan Steven. "It's either be stuck in the hotel or stuck on the road. ... We'll make it through it."

His wife, wearing a Bourbon Street T-shirt with a lewd message, interjected: "I just don't want to die in this shirt."

___

On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

 

Then here come the next one.. it is going to be a wicked season I think until Nov this year.


http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at3 shtml/030801.shtml?5day