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Locked on 08/28/2005 8:10:53 PM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason: |
Posted on 08/28/2005 2:38:16 PM PDT by NautiNurse
Extremely dangerous Hurricane Katrina is bearing down on the North Central Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans metro area. Thousands of people did not evacuate New Orleans. Outer bands of Katrina are reaching the Louisiana coast.
Due to the size and intensity of this storm, all interests in the North Gulf of Mexico should be in their safe locations.
The following links are self-updating:
Public Advisory Currently published every 3 hours 5A, 8A, 11A, 2P, etc. ET
NHC Discussion Published every six hours 6A, 11A, 6P, 11P
Three Day Forecast Track
Five Day Forecast Track
Navy Storm Track
Katrina Track Forecast Archive Nice loop of each NHC forecast track for both three and five day
Forecast Models
Alternate Hurricane Models via Skeetobite
Bouy Data Louisiana/Mississippi
Buoy Data Florida
Images:
New Orleans/Baton Rouge Experimental Radar Subject to delays and outages - and well worth the wait
Ft. Polk, LA Long Range Radar Loop
Northwest Florida Long Range Radar
Storm Floater IR Loop
Storm Floater Still & Loop Options
Color Enhanced IR Loop
Other Resources:
Hurricane Wind Risk Very informative tables showing inland wind potential by hurricane strength and forward motion
Central Florida Hurricane Center
New Orleans Web Cams Loads of web cam sites here. The sites have been very slow due to high traffic
New Orleans Music Online Couldn't resist--love that jazz
Golden Triangle Weather Page Nice Beaumont weather site with lots of tracks and graphics
Hurricane City
Crown Weather Tropical Website Offers a variety of storm info, with some nice track graphics
Live streaming:
WWL-TV/DT New Orleans (WMP) - mms://beloint.wm.llnwd.net/beloint_wwltv
WVTM-TV/DT Birmingham (WMP) - mms://a1256.l1289835255.c12898.g.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1256/12898/v0001/reflector:35255
WDSU-TV/DT New Orleans (WMP) - http://mfile.akamai.com/12912/live/reflector:38202.asx
Hurricane City (Real Player) - http://hurricanecity.com/live.ram
ABCNews Now (Real Player) - http://reallive.stream.aol.com/ramgen/redundant/abc/now_hi.rm
WKRG-TV/DT Mobile (WMP) - mms://wmbcast.mgeneral.speedera.net/wmbcast.mgeneral/wmbcast_mgeneral_aug262005_1435_95518
Category | Wind Speed | Barometric Pressure | Storm Surge | Damage Potential |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tropical Depression |
< 39 mph < 34 kts |
Minimal | ||
Tropical Storm |
39 - 73 mph 34 - 63 kts |
Minimal | ||
Hurricane 1 (Weak) |
74 - 95 mph 64 - 82 kts |
28.94" or more 980.02 mb or more |
4.0' - 5.0' 1.2 m - 1.5 m |
Minimal damage to vegetation |
Hurricane 2 (Moderate) |
96 - 110 mph 83 - 95 kts |
28.50" - 28.93" 965.12 mb - 979.68 mb |
6.0' - 8.0' 1.8 m - 2.4 m |
Moderate damage to houses |
Hurricane 3 (Strong) |
111 - 130 mph 96 - 112 kts |
27.91" - 28.49" 945.14 mb - 964.78 mb |
9.0' - 12.0' 2.7 m - 3.7 m |
Extensive damage to small buildings |
Hurricane 4 (Very strong) |
131 - 155 mph 113 - 135 kts |
27.17" - 27.90" 920.08 mb - 944.80 mb |
13.0' - 18.0' 3.9 m - 5.5 m |
Extreme structural damage |
Hurricane 5 (Devastating) |
Greater than 155 mph Greater than 135 kts |
Less than 27.17" Less than 920.08 mb |
Greater than 18.0' Greater than 5.5m |
Catastrophic building failures possible |
$2.57 here in Richfield, a southern suburb of Minneapolis.
I advised several friends and family members to top their tanks off too.
I can't see her. Therefore can't comment.
"they still haven't gotten a grip on the fact that a gallon of gatorade is more expensive that a gallon of gasoline..."
How about Starbucks at $40/gallon.
The uniqueness of the Superdome's roof, designed by Binkley Engineering Company of St. Louis (formerly Roof Structures, Incorporated) is its "lamella" configuration, which is nothing more than a series of overlapping triangles building out from a ring in the center. This gives stability against any downward forces. The Superdome's 75-ton, 124-foot-diameter (38 meters), gondola handing from the center of the roof, gives it a stability against upward forces as well.
To build the 9.7 acre, 680-foot-diameter (205meters) clear span roof hanging (American Bridge Division of U.S. Steel Corporation was the contractor) required the use of 37 scaffolds in concentric circles, as well as mobile cranes.
The entire Superdome was designed with the intention of making everything in it capable of contributing to the stability of the structure. Its superstructure has four main column lines as the perimeter of the building to support the building and the seat bents and meeting room spaces. The columns supporting the tension ring are on 22-foot (6.6 meters) centers, arranged in a perfect circle. The columns for support of the seat bents cantilevering 65 feet (21 meters) are set in two separate rows that make up the "Squircle" pattern (the interior of the building is slightly elliptical in shape). An outer row of columns frames the convention room area.
Wind bracing is placed between the seat bent columns and Superdome columns, alternating between the three rows of columns and places where it doesn't interfere with the concourses or lobbies.
The roof had to be analyzed separately because of its unique construction. First of all at the building's perimeter, K bracing extends out from the Dome columns to provide additional wind bracing and also to accommodate the rain gutters surrounding the Superdome' s 2,200 foot (660 meters) perimeter. The upper arms of the K's support the 96 sections of the gutter, each 22 feet (6.6 meters) long by 10 feet (3.1 meters) by 4 feet (1.25 meters) deep.
Atop the 96 Superdome supporting columns rests the tension ring on 4-inch diameter (10 centimeters) rocker bearings. The bearings allow movement of the entire ring due to temperature contraction and expansion of about 3 inches (7.7 centimeters) in either direction from the column center ring.
The 9-foot (2.8 meters) ring consists of top and bottom chords and diagonals of 14 inch wide (36 centimeters) flanges.
Principal framing of the roof consists of 12 main rings at 30 degree intervals spanning from the 5-foot (1.5 meters) crown block to the tension ring. The ribs are connected by five concentric interior rings about 56 feet (17 meters) apart. Secondary trusses fill in and span from the intersection of main ribs and interior rings to the perimeter tension ring.
American Bridge Division's efforts were crowned on June 12, 1973, a time that was referred to as the "most dramatic phase" in the Superdome's construction. It got underway at 6 o'clock in the morning, and was considered completed at 3:20 p.m. that afternoon, the Superdome's 680-foot roof (210 meters), the largest steel dome in the world was in place standing without support.
But in the words of Thomas M. Sutter, resident manager for the Superdome's design team of architects and engineers, it wasn't quite that simple.
As he put it later, "We didn't know for sure whether the roof would stand on its own until that moment." There were two men on top of each of the 37 towers used, and on top of these towers were hugh jacks. One by one, the jacks were lowered, inch by inch, until at last there were none supporting the roof.
Much of the ribbed steel roof deck was raised from the ground by helicopter which often make modern builders wonder how they did it when the dome of St. Peter's in Rome was built. Of course, that took more than 150 years, whereas, the Superdome, begun on August 11, 1971, was opened on August 3, 1975.
Topping the steel roof deck of the Superdome is an inch thick layer of polyurethane, and topping that is a thin layer of hypalon, which is a synthetic waterproof covering.
The hypalon is a Dupont product and technically the name for it is chlorosulfonated polyethylene. A good description of the material would be that it's "elastomeric," which means that it has the capability of elongating under a load and recovering quickly from release of that load, much like a carpet.
The hypalon covering, actually a liquid which has to be sprayed under pressure and then let dry because it is extremely sticky, was sprayed on the Superdome's roof under protection of special nylon bubbles (cocoons) which were erected to protect the spray from wind and the sun's ultra-violet rays as well. This entire roof covering procedure took 162 days. The cocoons were 110 feet (34 meters) wide by 200 feet (61 meters) long by 50 feet (16 meters) high. They were also used to apply the polyurethene.
For those workers who must fix the stadium's field lighting and hoist TV gondola equipment, all of which are in the eight foot space between the roof and the top of the steel lamellas, there are four catwalks, each about three feet (.6 meters) wide, so that the workers can get close to the necessary fixtures.
For example, there are 520 smoke and heat detectors throughout the Superdome itself, along with 70 fire alarm stations and 32 switches to automatically report to a constantly monitored master control panel the occurrence of a fire to the locations of a sprinkler head or fire hose in use.
All meeting room areas and restaurants have sprinklers, and hydrants are also located around the stadium floor. The largest entrance gate at the South end allows the largest fire equipment to drive right on to the arena floor if necessary.
For further protection, the Superdome has a rather novel rooftop ventilation system, that also is designed to play a role in emergencies. Upon a signal from any unit in the smoke detector system, pressurized hatches in the roof pop open.
The air conditioning (or heating) will be turned off and huge fans will turn on to draw fresh air along the ramps and concourses into the stadium proper, at the same time, drawing 3 million cubic feet of air out through the roof.
Smoke would thus exit through the top of the building and spectators leaving the Superdome would have fresh air coming into their faces and know they are heading for safety. The fans will move the equivalent of a wall of air one block wide, ten feet high, and moving at 10 mph in this operation.
There are 354 lightning rods on the roof.
Two concealed fire hydrants are installed at field level to provide ample hose streams to quickly extinguish any fire that might occur.
A total of 157 fire hose stations are located throughout the Superdome. These are equipped with a connected one and a half inch hose, as well as a hand fire extinguisher. A total of three miles of hose are used in these fire stations, which are located in such a way that any point in the building can be reached with spray from 100' of hose, or less.
To provide pressure for the sprinkler system and other firefighting equipment, two diesel power pumps are unaffected by electical outage. Each is capable of pumping 1,500 gallons per minute, providing water at 125 pounds per square inch of pressure.
http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050828/NEWS05/50828024
Evacuees say local hotel wouldn't honor paid reservations
Kayla Gagnet
kgagnet@theadvertiser.com
Janice Dean is very worried about the roof on the Superdome... and I suspect Shep being in the French Quarter.. and just doesn't want to say it.
Yeah, he was great. He also explained that when these 'canes come in perpendicular that the eye tightens and the wind speeds then increase. I hope they go back to him. He seems to know his stuff.
She blamed Bush Yesterday VIA the LONG Stuck in Iraq
Brilliant, really a brilliant solution!!
Are you a chocolate sociopath? If not, you should offer your services to those of us who are.
I am going to allow him some right after I remind him that his diet seems to be making him unduly handsome and thin to young women. Then I am going to ask him if he wants a couple. Of hersheys I mean, not young women.
Not that I know shiite from shinola but that sounds like causes and effects are being misaligned.
WHERE do expect future investments in O&G to come from? The government? It comes from supply and demand...and if we have CHINA bidding against us each time a tanker is about to depart from a foreign port...my dear YOU WILL feel the pain at the gas pump.
The futures on gasoline, natural gas and oil are BASED on future DEMAND! Those commodities has the same effect on your wallet as does currency traading...you just aren't looking at the WHOLE picture...
You aren't one of "them" who really believes O&G are evil people...it is BUISINESS and businesses need to make profits to invest into their FUTURE infrastructure.
HAHAHAHAHA. Oh baby.
I thought it could hold 70,000 people; is that all that showed up?
That would be great were it not for the environmentalist wackos. Then we could be free from buying from the Arabs and other assorted enemies.
Thank you for the sun cooking oven idea. I had never heard of them before. Good to know and now have the plans (don't understand them, but I have them LOL).
Well it didn't stop me from trying.
I actually managed to harvest a patheticly small crop of cherry tomatoes.
But it wasn't worth the effort: their poor little hides were waaaaay too tough.
They tasted OK, but too tough.
And there was barely enough for a decent family-sized salad.
Yeah, that's the same story they just covered on KLFY. Shocking!
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