quote: Again, I’ll take the critics seriously when one of them shows me footage or paper that demonstrates that they knew and gave warning that the levee would break, and nobody listened.
quote: Because much of New Orleans is below sea level in a basin, a complex levee system is New Orleans' only protection from major flooding. Chief Joseph Matthews of the Office of Emergency Preparedness tells CBS News that if the levees wind up underwater, the resulting floods could take as long as two weeks to drain.
Dr. Walter Monsour, director of emergency management in the New Orleans area, says the city is "going to experience a significant tidal surge" and is asking evacuees to stay out of town until well after the storm - to give authorities time to assess the expected damage.
Page two.
quote: New Orleans hasn't been this concerned about a storm since Hurricane Betsy blasted the Gulf Coast in 1965. Flooding approached 20 feet deep in some areas, fishing villages were flattened, and the storm surge left almost half of New Orleans under water and 60,000 residents homeless. Seventy-four people died in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
For years, forecasters have warned of the nightmare scenario a big storm could bring to New Orleans (video), 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 flooding that could overrun levees with the potential to turn many neighborhoods in New Orleans into a 30-foot-deep toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, and waste from ruined septic systems.
A 4pm hurricane warning says: "Maximum sustained winds are near 165mph with higher gusts. Katrina is a potentially catastrophic category five hurricane... "
Ivor van Heerden, director of the Louisiana State University Public Health Research Centre: "This is what we've been saying has been going to happen for years... Unfortunately, it's coming true." New Orleans "is definitely going to flood."
Jeff Hingle, Placquemines Parish Sheriff, refers to Hurricane Betsy, a category two hurricane that struck Louisiana in 1965: "After Betsy these levees were designed for a category three... These levees will not hold the water back."
quote: A computer model run by the LSU Hurricane Center late Saturday confirmed that. It indicated the metropolitan area was poised to see a repeat of Betsy's flooding, or worse, with storm surge of as much as 16 feet moving up the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet and topping levees in Chalmette and eastern New Orleans, and pushing water into the 9th Ward and parts of Mid-City. High water flowing from Lake Pontchartrain through St. Charles Parish also would flood over levees into Kenner, according to the model.
Also flooded would be much of the north shore below Interstate 12, including Slidell, Madisonville, Mandeville and Lacombe, according to the model.
And the model doesn't take into account the 5- to 10-foot waves that would be on top of the surge, which could top levees all along the south shore of the lake.
Also, I was bothered by some of your comments in your review column.
quote: And given the sorry state of “intellectuals” and, for that matter, “art” these days, that usually means that it will be suffused with bigotry and arrogance and, above all, hatred for ordinary Americans.
You know, this sounds mean and derogatory in and of itself. As if you hate "intellectuals." I imagine that this is a lot like what goes on in the black community. You know, where being too smart is "acting white" and not being "black enough." Where they actually celebrate ignorance and try to keep people down.
Is that what you are trying to do with Conservatives? Or Republicans? If so, don't let me stop you. The more ignorant they are, the better, I suppose.
Or maybe you are just trying start your own little hate group? I can't figure it out. But your continual attacks on "intellectuals" is getting old.
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Just a nitpick... there is a difference between projecting that the levees will be overrun by surge waters (your sources) and predicting that they will actually suffer massive breaches (what really occured).
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Interesting story, a coworker has a friend who collects antique documents. He picked up a geographic survey from New Orleans in the late 1800's that advised against building the levy's...
Posts: 1480 | Registered: Dec 2004
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