Basically correct. The i10 twin span in lake pontchartrain lost one span to storm surge. The causeway was closed to all but emergency vehicles. Returning on Laborious day I took the inland route from Florida, where trees were mowed down in ranks and power was out in Laurel, 200 miles from the coast.
I returned to my home via i55 to airline hwy, then to causeway which I took to river road, which took me to st Charles ave.
I would trade Katrina for sandy any day. Shoot, Isaac just this year hit me way harder than sandy hit most folks this week. Irresponsible,spoiled crybabies.
Add to that the surrounding metropolitan area that includes northern New Jersey, the lower Hudson River valley, Long Island, and southwester Connecticut ... and you've got another 10-15 million people and a disaster in the making. There simply isn't any effective way to do disaster preparation for that many people in an urban area, especially when you consider that the single most popular disaster preparation measure most people in this region took -- namely, the purchase of portable generators in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene last year -- is losing its effectiveness as fuel becomes scarce.
Personally, I think this is the flaw in any urban environment where constraints on space and the tendency to take things for granted really erode a lot of the survival instincts that humans should have.
We were without power in our home in LA (Lower Alabama) for about a week and a half but managed to make do with ice chests, and by periodically running the generator. We had twelve adults, two toddlers, six dogs, two cockatiels and too many cats to count. We spent a lot of time outdoors listening to radios trying to catch news on WWL. It wasn’t easy, but I was just thankful they heeded my urging to get out of Slidell before the storm.
My parents ended up staying with us for six months ‘til they got a FEMA trailer in their front yard.