Reply With Quote
Yeah, it's sounding like NO is going to be flooded out anyways, regardless of where the eye made landfall.
Who says it won't anyway?If it had come ashore 60 miles to the west NO would have become part of Lake Ponchatrain...
Yeah, it's sounding like NO is going to be flooded out anyways, regardless of where the eye made landfall.
Superdome...
Gulfport, Mississippi
The worst storm surge is always east of the eye...If it had come ashore just west of NO they would have had the storm surge AND the 140 mph winds coming directly east to west down the lake and would have had 20 foot waves breaking directly on the levee destroying it...A breach in the levee is different from losing the levee completely...at this point the water is just filling up NO...imagine 20 foot waves rolling through downtown and you can see the difference...This may be bad but New Orleans lucked out...
Gulf Shores, AL
Yeah...Missippippi and Alabama are getting the worst of the surge...Mobile is in deep ...
We arent even close to through the thick of it.
THe mississippi river levees are breaking. As it travels north, it is raining in the Mississippi River Basin, which will flow through those broken levees.
Agree Cosmic, with the storm moving right last night, it looks like it might have saved the city of New Orleans from becoming a total beach.
Let's be honest here, it won't take much in the way of flood waters or 'water speed' to wipe out a large number of structures in NO. And you'll still have NO submerged under a lot of water with nowhere to go.
Source: National Science Foundation
Date: 2005-08-29
URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0829081636.htm
Hurricanes Growing More Fierce Over Past 30 Years
Hurricanes have grown significantly more powerful and destructive over the past three decades, according to atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Ins ute of Technology.
In his new analysis of tropical hurricane records, which he reports online today in the journal Nature, Emanuel finds that both the duration of the storms and their maximum wind speeds have increased by about 50 per cent since the mid-1970s. Moreover, this marked increase in the energy release has occurred in both the north Atlantic and the north Pacific Oceans.
Unlike previous studies, which have focused on whether hurricanes are becoming more frequent, Emanuel's study is one of the first to ask whether they are becoming more fierce.
"It's an innovative application of a theoretical concept, and has produced a new analysis of hurricanes' strength and destructive potential," says Jay Fein, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s climate dynamics program, which funded the research. And that analysis, in turn, "has resulted in an important measure of the potential impact of hurricanes on social, economic and ecological systems,"
Indeed, as Emanuel himself says, "the near doubling of hurricane's power over the period of record should be a matter of some concern, as it's a measure of the [future] destructive potential of these storms."
Also of concern, he says, is that the increases in storm intensity are mirrored by increases in the average temperatures at the surface of the tropical oceans, suggesting that this warming is responsible for the hurricanes' greater power. Since hurricanes depend on warm water to form and build, Emanuel warns that global climate change might increase the effect of hurricanes still further in coming years.
In addition, he says, recent research suggests that global tropical hurricane activity may play a role in driving the oceans' circulation, which in turn has important "feedbacks" to regional and global climate.
Fluctuations in tropical hurricane activity "are of obvious importance to society," he adds, "especially as populations of affected areas increase. Hurricanes account for a significant fraction of damage, injury and loss of life from natural hazards, and are the costliest natural catastrophes in the United States. As the human population in coastal regions gets denser, the damage and casualties produced by more intense storms could increase considerably in the future."
Editor's Note: The original news release can be found here. http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104325
If the levee system does break down they should seriously consider just throwing in the towel and abandoning the below sea level areas of New Orleans...everything that made it "special" will be gone anyway...the quarter, the garden district, etc. will be completely destroyed...after weeks or months under sal er the entire town will have to be torn down and rebuilt...every bit of vegetation will be dead and the whole area will be a hazardous waste dump..
Over 100 people on their roofs in the 9th Ward trying to avoid the flood waters. Emergency crews will not be able to get there in time.
Saw this before. Camille and Carla were more than 30 years ago... but the number of hurricanes has increased. I think there is actually a cycle of 30 years or so in the number and intensity of hurricanes. This is nothing new.
Someone posted a chart of Hurricanes since 1900...it showed this trend.
BTW, are they saying that the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and Carla weren't category 5? They are only referring to Labor day 1935, Andrew and Camille.
This is downright Biblical.
Worst is a relative thing here. They had 80 foot waves, with sets at 60 feet, rolling into Lake Borgne, which rolls into Pontchartraine, pushing surge in with it.The worst storm surge is always east of the eye...If it had come ashore just west of NO they would have had the storm surge AND the 140 mph winds coming directly east to west down the lake and would have had 20 foot waves breaking directly on the levee destroying it.
Then you've got the counterclockwise winds pushing that water into/over the levees.
It's still gonna be a mess, we just don't know how bad yet.
Note they didn't think any of the Mississippi levees would go (figured it would be Pontchartraine), and said if they did things would be even worse. Well, two levees on the mississippi have failed, I'd say the "worse" is coming through.
Time heals all wounds...let's not give up on NO yet.
Damn that's gotta suck.Over 100 people on their roofs in the 9th Ward trying to avoid the flood waters. Emergency crews will not be able to get there in time.
I don't know about abandoning. New building codes, lower level parking garages, maybe filling in the low areas with land to build on (I know it will sink eventually, but still...), definitely.
They need to start figuring out how to re-deposit some of the sediment between NO and the coast that the levees have prevented from being deposited in the past 30 years - contributes to the erosion problem, flooding, and less ground between NO and the ocean when hurricanes come on shore.
yeah...this is a case of the numbers being manipulated to show an upward trend instead of recognizing that hurricanes run in cycles... he only took thirty five years of data out of context and made predictions based on that limited sample...pretty bad science there...
I saw Port Lavaca as a kid after Carla...it was unbelievable...I remember seeing an oil tanker several hundred feet long laying out in a farmers cotton field miles from the coastline...
I was just thinking of this - I wonder if the coastal areas of LA will collect sediment or erode further. This is getting to be a big problem.
I am told that the Atchafalaya Basin used to only be flooded part of the year, instead of year-round like it is now.
This does not look good at all.
Tyrell Willis fights his way through about 70 knot winds as he tries to make his way to the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina batters the Crescent City on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2005. Willis's home was damaged by the storm, forcing him to walk to the Superdome where officials are providing shelter from the hurricane. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
Hurricane winds shred an American flag in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana as Hurricane Katrina passes over the Crescent City on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
