Rita and Corpus Christi

[CosmicCowboy]

It's Bush's fault. If he had only authorized the use of the transporters in time...

[Manu20]

Water Pours Into New Orleans' Ninth Ward
By MIC E ROBERTS and BRETT MARTEL, Associated Press Writers
11 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Water poured over a patched levee Friday, cascading into one of the city's lowest-lying neighborhoods and heightening fears that Hurricane Rita would re-flood this devastated city.

"Our worst fears came true. The levee will breach if we keep on the path we are on right now, which will fill the area that was flooded earlier," Barry Guidry with the Georgia National Guard.

Dozens of blocks in the Ninth Ward were under water as a waterfall at least 30 feet wide poured over a dike that had been used to patch breaks in the Industrial Canal. On the street that runs parallel to the canal, the water ran waist-deep and was rising fast.

The impoverished neighborhood was one of the areas of the city hit hardest by Katrina's floodwaters and finally had been pumped dry before Hurricane Rita struck.

Mitch Frazier, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said water is rushing over part of the levee that previously was breached.

[Spurminator]

"Spruce Goose", I think.

You're right... I was thinking of the Simpsons version...

[spurster]

I agree no plan is going to get everyone out in an hour or a day. However, everything they try to help seems to be reactive, little anticipated.

If you have an evacuation, you will need to switch all/most lanes outbound. That was not anticipated.

Gridlock on the major highways is horribly inefficient. You want a steady rate of speed. They needed to control the number of vehicles getting on the highways. That was not anticipated. Well, they probably knew gridlock would happen; they didn't do anything about it.

Basically, we have a lot of blather about homeland security and keeping us safe, but when it comes to actual events, a lot of things suck. Fortunately, in this case, it was just a major pain in the butt because of the warning well in advance, but if a terrorist attack required a orderly, efficient evacuation, we are screwed.

The kind of at ude that says you can't expect or do any better is plain old defeatism. We can and ought to do better if we really take terrorism seriously. If we are not going to take it seriously, I guess that at ude is ok.

[Vashner]

Houston is gridlock.. if you live there you know that. I am not joking that for no amount of money in the world would I ever live or work there...

[SWC Bonfire]

Houston is gridlock.. if you live there you know that. I am not joking that for no amount of money in the world would I ever live or work there...

...Amen.

[Vashner]

9th ward levee breech being reported in NO.

[SpursWoman]

Gridlock on the major highways is horribly inefficient. You want a steady rate of speed. They needed to control the number of vehicles getting on the highways. That was not anticipated. Well, they probably knew gridlock would happen; they didn't do anything about it.

They evacuated in sections...and increased courtesy patrols to supply gas, etc., which is the best you can realistically do.

You can't protect everyone from everything all of the time. It is not even remotely possibly. People choose to live in densely populated areas, in areas prone to natural disasters......what, exactly, can you realistically expect?

As far as evacuating from acts of terrorism, that's a completely different argument...and would probably be better served in the political forum.

[Vashner]

Don't worry NBADan has a Rita thread ready to go Political as soon as the body count starts racking up...

This is more of a technical thread without the bickering.

/group hug

[Marcus Bryant]

I agree no plan is going to get everyone out in an hour or a day. However, everything they try to help seems to be reactive, little anticipated.

If you have an evacuation, you will need to switch all/most lanes outbound. That was not anticipated.

Gridlock on the major highways is horribly inefficient. You want a steady rate of speed. They needed to control the number of vehicles getting on the highways. That was not anticipated. Well, they probably knew gridlock would happen; they didn't do anything about it.

Basically, we have a lot of blather about homeland security and keeping us safe, but when it comes to actual events, a lot of things suck. Fortunately, in this case, it was just a major pain in the butt because of the warning well in advance, but if a terrorist attack required a orderly, efficient evacuation, we are screwed.

The kind of at ude that says you can't expect or do any better is plain old defeatism. We can and ought to do better if we really take terrorism seriously. If we are not going to take it seriously, I guess that at ude is ok.

Some of the lanes had to be maintained as inbound up until a certain point for emergency services.

I don't believe its possible to have an orderly evacuation of two million people. It's not defeatism, it's just reality. How do you set up a rapid response unit that can appear on a moment's notice to evacuate millions of people?

[TheTruth]

Some of the lanes had to be maintained as inbound up until a certain point for emergency services.

I don't believe its possible to have an orderly evacuation of two million people. It's not defeatism, it's just reality. How do you set up a rapid response unit that can appear on a moment's notice to evacuate millions of people?

tubes...we should build underground tubes that go everywhere in the country...it'll be awesome.

[Vashner]

Widebody's... but you would need some kind of outdoor terminal so regular police could search people... also no check in luggage..

With some 747's.. 777.. c5's you could airlift out a load.. just land at Kelly and tell them to get out. then get more..

They would HAVE to be searched first.. we don't need what happend in NO again.. people getting on the planes with loaded guns. And let's keep that practical not political I know it was done to save lifes.

[Jelly]

I also get sick of people complaining about the evacuation/emergency system. It's called a disaster for a reason folks. I mean yeah, it's absolutely gonna suck to be on I-10 and 45 right now, but it's better than being dead, I guess. It's ridiculous for anyone to say nobody expected traffic jams and gridlock...BUT... I don't understand why I'm watching a jammed six lane Northbound highway next to an empty six lane southbound highway. Why can't at least three lanes be directed to the empty lanes. Is this physically impossible? Anybody know?

[travis2]

GFS has a Port Arthur landfall, curving up to Shreveport, and continuing on into Arkansas...

[Sonia_TX]

There has been death on the highway...

A bus caught on fire on the 45...it was transporting people from a nursing home out of Houston. They couldn't evacuate people in time and about 24 people died but they said that the death count could change.

So sad.

I don't know if you all can see the link since it's AOL... but here it is

[Vashner]

Argh like I said put some F***ing concrete on it.. noobs..

[Sapphire]

GFS has a Port Arthur landfall, curving up to Shreveport, and continuing on into Arkansas...

Where are you finding that? I keep looking at weather.com and it hasn't seemed to change in 3 days.

[Ishta]

FYI for anyone who cares to know..My Boss's husband spoke with a higher up at Valero about 10 minutes ago, and basically is fixing to hit the fan on the gas situation.With refineries being shut down in LA because of the levee breaks, and also Rita hitting Texas, He is predicting there will be no gas next week..Now, I am not one of those people going around freaking out about, or thinking worse case scenario on every little thing, but this is coming from VALERO..Make sure your cars are full, and you have enough supplies to last for at least a week..

Hopefully, this will not come to pass, but if it does..forwarned is forarmed..Can any of you honestly think of what you would do if there was no gas? I hope he is wrong, but I am going to do what I need to do JUST IN CASE..

[SpursWoman]

FYI for anyone who cares to know..My Boss's husband spoke with a higher up at Valero about 10 minutes ago, and basically is fixing to hit the fan on the gas situation.With refineries being shut down in LA because of the levee breaks, and also Rita hitting Texas, He is predicting there will be no gas next week..Now, I am not one of those people going around freaking out about, or thinking worse case scenario on every little thing, but this is coming from VALERO..Make sure your cars are full, and you have enough supplies to last for at least a week..

Hopefully, this will not come to pass, but if it does..forwarned is forarmed..Can any of you honestly think of what you would do if there was no gas? I hope he is wrong, but I am going to do what I need to do JUST IN CASE..

Does that mean CPS with no gas, either? Anyone know?

[Shelly]

Paging Scoot....

[Vashner]

Means fill up now.. there is gonna be a shortage soon here in town..

[Ishta]

Does that mean CPS with no gas, either? Anyone know?

I don't know,but if this happens it will suck big time.My husband does structural drying and uses his vehicle to make a living..

[SpursWoman]

Means fill up now.. there is gonna be a shortage soon here in town..

I got that part, but I was talking about City Public Service...where we get our gas/electricty.

[Vashner]

Coal powered.. don't worry. they keep a huge pile of coal for backup...

EDIT: Natural gas could go out but I doubt it.. would take a while to use what we have.. plus we are not cold so don't need it for heating at the moment.. You should have dry goods to eat.. IE can be eaten right out of the bag.

[grjr]

Argh like I said put some F***ing concrete on it.. noobs..

They want the water to overflow that way back into the 9th ward since that part of town was destroyed anyways. They're trying to protect the dry part on the west side of the canal. Naturally they can't mention this on TV since the 9th ward is the poor section.