(no subject)

[austin_tycho]

I will admit that my dislike of the media in general means that I end up being less well-informed about current events, and that my main source of information is LJ and The Daily Show. They mentioned hurricane Katrina a few days ago, with attendant jokes about Katrina and the Waves. Now Brö writes an entry about how there will be water-skiing down Bourbon Street. So I am sad and worried; I have a friend in NOLA (stay dry, mysticknyght!) and I also have a soft spot for NOLA generally. It's a Scorpio town, and I've visited it a couple of times and really enjoyed it. NOLA at Halloween is quite fun! So, hang in there, NOLA.

I am wondering how long it will be before I hear the "well, that's what they get for living in a Gulf Coast town below sea level, the idiots." I bet it's been expressed a lot already. But everywhere humans live is fucked in some way. Tornadoes in Kansas, blizzards in the north, heat waves in the south (high temp yesterday, incidentally: 101°) earthquakes in California, whatever. So shut up about that. But having said that, I've been watching extreeeeeme weather shows on Discovery Channel and such for years that say "if there was ever a direct hurricane hit to NO, they would be severely fuxxored" with really cool graphics. I know they knew this was a possibility, and the next few days will show how well the area was prepared to deal with what was probably an inevitability.

Comments

[austingoddess.livejournal.com]

I was kind of hoping to go to Southern Decadence this year, and am now glad I didn't buy plane tix. I join you in hopes that Nawlins pulls through this as unscathed as possible. I shudder to think of all the lovely things there subjected to hard rain, but at least the people had enough warning to get important things off the ground level and themselves out of town.

[burgundy.livejournal.com]

but at least the people had enough warning to get important things off the ground level and themselves out of town.

Well, the people with cars, anyway. There are a lot of people stuck there. They've set up emergency shelters, but if the worst case scenario happens, I don't know if even that'll be enough, in terms of food and running water and sanitation. If they get hid head-on, a lot of people will die.

[austingoddess.livejournal.com]

They're taking up shelter in the Superdome and other sturdy places, though the water/sanitation issue will be a big one. There's also families and neighbors pitching in together to get out of town. It's a town of who you know, for the rich and for everyone else.
Still crossing my fingers that it comes through OK.

[woodowl.livejournal.com]

I heard a lot of the tourists are holed up in hotels on the upper floors to stay above the waters. I'm just afraid of what will happen when the high winds hit thos hotels.

[austingoddess.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The winds were bad enough to rip a couple of holes in the Superdome. :(

[onyxlynxx.livejournal.com]

Someone once told me that I should visit NOLA before it turned into a lake. I am supposed to go in October. I hope that I didn't wait to long.

I will be thinking dry, safe thoughts for them. Maybe it will help....

[mielikki.livejournal.com]

Man, it's not looking good. From the paper:

[the mayor says] "The storm surge will most likely topple our levee system."[...]For years, forecasters have warned of the nightmare scenario a big storm could bring to New Orleans, a bowl of a city that's up to 10 feet below sea level in spots and dependent on a network of levees, canals and pumps to keep dry. It's built between the half-mile-wide Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, half the size of the state of Rhode Island. Estimates have been made of tens of thousands of deaths from flooding that could overrun the levees and turn New Orleans into a 30-foot-deep toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, and waste from ruined septic systems.

And Brö said the Nat'l Weather Service has said:
MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.
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.

Yeesh. I think the good ju-ju machine needs to be cranked to full speed.

[woodowl.livejournal.com]

My heart goes out to the people in that area, and there are also a lot of beautiful old buildings in that area that are going to be ruined.

On another note, I believe one of my favorite authors Anne Rice lives in New Orleans. Hope she got out safely.