Posted on 09/10/2005 11:56:27 AM PDT by P8riot
It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.
When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.
"The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm at 72 hours before landfall that becomes a Category Four at 48 hours and a Category Five at 24 hours—coming from the worst direction," says Joe Suhayda, a retired coastal engineer at Louisiana State University who has spent 30 years studying the coast. Suhayda is sitting in a lakefront restaurant on an actual August afternoon sipping lemonade and talking about the chinks in the city's hurricane armor. "I don't think people realize how precarious we are," Suhayda says, watching sailboats glide by. "Our technology is great when it works. But when it fails, it's going to make things much worse."
(Excerpt) Read more at 3.nationalgeographic.com ...
-HURRICANE KATRINA- archive of links--
If only they had listened...
Thanks.
I've seen at least one thread on this before, but IMO it's one of those topics that overrides criticism of double posting. Some things are just as good the second time around! :)
Several dozen studies and/or reports have predicted such an occurance, yet the local government ignored them all and pocketed the $$$ for levee improvements.
Didn't Nostradamus predict this event?
The best "story" is Hurricane Betsy, a Cat 3 which struck in 1965 and was a smaller version of Katrina. The 9th Ward got similar damage. This was real, not just theoretical projections. This town lived through this and had 40 years to prepare for Katrina. They decided to improve the levees as a result of Betsy to handle a Cat 3 direct hit and this proved to be not good enough obviously.
Judging by what took place in the Superdome and Convention Center, they should call it "The City that Forgot to Care."
I don't know that technology made it any worse in NO, than what would have occurred if technology hadn't existed.
However, our reliance on Technology is both our strength and our achilles hill and our enemies know it.
We need trucks, busses and cars that will run if the electronics get taken out.
We need portable backup communication centers for cell phones.
People in flood prone areas and areas below sea level should have life vests and self inflating rafts in their home.
I don't know that technology made it any worse in NO, than what would have occurred if technology hadn't existed.
However, our reliance on Technology is both our strength and our achilles hill and our enemies know it.
We need trucks, busses and cars that will run if the electronics get taken out.
We need portable backup communication centers for cell phones.
People in flood prone areas and areas below sea level should have life vests and self inflating rafts in their home.
So, who reads National Geographic?
Seriously, though, this tragedy appears to be pure 'won't happen to me' apathy about likely hurtful outcomes. Same will be true for a quake tragedy in southern California, I expect. Not many are leaving because of that likely outcome.
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