Replies

My memory is a little hazy, but I beleive 2 years ago hurricane Lily was headed for Louisiana and dropped 2 full categories just before landfall. There is just no way to know what a storm will do so you plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Your memory is right. In fact we evacuated two weeks in a row for Isidore and then a few days later for Lilly. Evacuating is a nuisance and expensive if you stay in nice hotels. However, we all lived and were unhurt.

Last night on the local news a reporter demonstrated how high the water would be in downtown New Orleans if we got hit by a category 4 hurricane. She was standing by a window on the 4th floor of an office building!!!!!! She said the water would get that high!!!! Also, New Orleans is below sea level and has a levee all around it. Once the water gets in it can only get out by being pumped out. I live about 25 miles from New Orleans and we are surrounded by the Mississippi River, levees and Lake Pontchtrain, not to mention swamps. I insist on evacuating even if they only predict a category 1, anyone who stays around is pretty stupid, IMHO.

I'm an emergency manager in NOLA so I never evacuate, but I'm kept pretty busy. I guess that is why the storms all kind of blend together in my memory.

Yes, the flood water may top out a third story building under the right conditions. You can probably survive if you can make it to the 4th floor of some building or to the top of the I-10 in places. Being several feet below sea level really puts us at a serious disadvantage for severe storms, but for light storms, the levees provide tremendous protection.

Of course if we do get the big one, then you may have to wait days to be rescued, especially if you are trapped inside of a building and we can't see you from a boat or a barge. Take an axe or chainsaw with you if you are forced into your attic in case you need to get up onto the roof. We tell people that there will be places with 18 to 24 feet of water if the levees are topped and the pumps fail and they can't believe it, but it could happen. If the eye of the storm came up the river and backed up the river flow with an 18 foot storm surge on top of that and then crossed over onto the lake and pushed much of that water back into the city, we are going to have a very bad day. If the pumps go under water, they could be out of service up to 6 months. So that means the city is underwater for that entire time.

If you choose to stay in the city with a cat 3 or higher storm you have to be very cognizant of rapidly rising water. Head for high ground and be sure to take along a life vest and enough food and water to wait several days to be rescued by boat or barge. Our levees are rated for Cat 2, but even so there may be localized flooding of around 5 feet in some areas due to heavy rain alone. By the way, a storm surge could easily travel from the gulf all the way to Baton Rouge, so it is extremely important for those outside the levee system to evacuate even cat 1 and 2 storms.