My God-Thousands Could Die!

[earthside]

I'm seeing the mainstream news media once again failing to report the big story on Hurricane Katrina. I just saw thousands of people at the Super Dome--they're expecting to stay there! How can that be?

My God-thousands could die!

This sounds like a natural disaster so big that the entire U.S. economy could be seriously shaken.

I know the following has been posted before, but I have not heard anything approaching this reporting from the cable news channels.

Is the scope of this disaster just too big for the news media to tell us?

The City in a Bowl

DANIEL ZWERDLING: Maestri says consider this troubling fact: more than a million people live in this area, and they're stuck in a geological trap.

WALTER MAESTRI: New Orleans is, if you think about it, it's a soup bowl. Think of a soup bowl. And the soup bowl-- the high edges of the soup bowl-- is the Mississippi River. It's amazing to say, but the highest elevation in the city of New Orleans is at the Mississippi River.

DANIEL ZWERDLING: Maestri says, imagine what happens if a hurricane like Andrew comes raging up from the Gulf:

WALTER MAESTRI: The hurricane is spinning counter-clockwise. It's been pushing in front of it water from the Gulf of Mexico for days. It's now got a wall of water in front of it some 30, 40 feet high. As it approaches the levies of the-- the-- that surround the city, it tops those levees. As the storm continues to pass over. Now Lake Ponchetrain, that water from Lake Ponchartrain is now pushed on to that - those population which has been fleeing from the western side and everybody's caught in the middle. The bowl now completely fills. And we've now got the entire community underwater some 20, 30 feet underwater. Everything is lost.

DANIEL ZWERDLING: Remember the levees which the Army built, to hold smaller floods out of the bowl? Maestri says now those levees would doom the city. Because they'd trap the water in.

[Deja Q]

1. Fear is natural, but let's wait and see.

If it is the end, it'll be man vs man. Like the animals we are.

Won't happen though.

[TrueAmerican]

2. Well at least

Army EOD can blow those levees and drain the bowl. Wait, the Army EOD is in Iraq.

[iamjoy]

3. The Levees Will Not Trap The Water

My uneducated guess is this may be the one advantage to such powerful winds as opposed to say a weak but rainy storm like Allison in 2001 (Texas). The winds and storm surge will destroy the levees.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. A bit of perspective thanks to Walt Starr...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4484997

A portion of one of the posts..

The storm surge is 28 feet high. Imagine a wall of water tweny eight feet high hitting Chicago.

Worse yet, New Orleans is 25 feet below sea level in some spots.

So in effect, portions of New Orleans will be under 53 feet of water for a period of time. And when it's all said and done, those areas will still be under 25 feet of water because New Orleans will act like a huge bowl and all the water will run into it.

We could be looking at Lake Orleans for weeks.

[Kurovski]

8. CNN reported it could be a lake for 6 months.

And that the pumps to drain it will all be in that lake.

[maveric]

5. CNN's expert just said a direct hit may result in 44,000 deaths.

WOW!!

[buff2]

9. Aww........Geesus.......

This makes me sick. All we can do is pray for those people. I wish there was something we could do to help them out of this mess. Geez...

[TahitiNut]

6. Don't worry -- Smirk will always remind us of 9/11

Never mind that he's gutted FEMA and sent the National Guard to Iraq.

[Kurovski]

11. God forgive me, but I really am feeling hate for the administration

today.

It's just all become WAYYY too fucking much.

They are wretched human beings.

[Kurovski]

7. The Superdome idea---I just don't like it at all.

I just don't know enough to know if the folks in charge really think this will be safe, or if it is somehow a convenience in the aftermath?

I'm certain nearly everyone is hoping for the best. (save for our nutjobber minority.)

I've read that it is built to withstand alot, and that they will not seat at the lower levels.

It does seem that officials should have been evacuating with busses since yesterday, but--to where?

Any ideas where tens of thousands would (if they could) be bussed to?

[AuntPatsy]

10. Well listening the the NO mayor this morning, I didn't get the impression

that he thought it was all that safe either, he repeated himself a few times stating that the safest place would be out of the city, he continued to urge those that could flee to do just that..

[Kurovski]

14. It stands to reason that the mayor would encourage flight from NO.

He can't guarantee the Superdome.

The Superdome is sure to be an unfolding drama, no matter what.

the sewage issue alone. I think we will see the best come out as these folks are put together under great stress.

I'm envisioning group singing and prayer. (sorry to my atheist Friends)

Or maybe I'm just worried enough to start dreaming.

[izzie]

12. I do not think I would want to be in a place like that.

I am nor sure why it does not seem safe.

[Maru Kitteh]

13. Threshold/survivability engineering study INCOMPLETE on superdome

Heard that little jewel on CNN earlier. It's at least possible they could all die. Feeling very sick here. Very sick.

[Kurovski]

17. A news team from FOX NEWS is going to report from

the inside of the stadium.

It looks as though they will remain with everyone else.

I have to say, I'm impressed.

The stadium is on higher ground, and it has been repeated that the stadium has been built to withstand...a lot.

[enough]

15. This Zwerdling interview is frightening to read.

There are things there I don't even want to think about.

[Kurovski]

16. More from interview...

" The federal government has been cutting money from hurricane protection projects. Partly to pay for the war against terrorists.

DANIEL ZWERDLING: Do you think that the President of the United States and Congress understand that people like you and the scientists studying this think the city of New Orleans could very possibly disappear?

WALTER MAESTRI: I think they know that, I think that they've been told that. I don't know that anybody, though, psychologically, you know has come to grips with that as-- as a-- a potential real situation. Just like none of us could possibly come to grips with the loss of the World Trade Center. And it's still hard for me to envision that it's gone."