Superdome question plz

[OxQQme]

I just did a 'fly-over of NO using googlearth and it lloks like the dome is actually below ground level. Is this a correct representation ?

[Bluebear]

1. They told people not to go on the field or the first tier

as the field would be underwater, so perhaps the upper tiers of seats are above sea level?

[KeepItReal]

2. The base (on Poydras St.) is below sea level, like much of N.O.

The interior rises well above that (where the evacuees are).

[Dogmudgeon]

3. How will they get them out?

If the dome is flooded -- possibly flooded with garbage-, sewage- and human waste-laden waste water -- and it takes a week or more for the waters to recede or be pumped out, how will they handle that?

--p!

[LosinIt]

4. You don't think that they really CARE do you ?

these people aren't white people. Did you see Natalee in that crowd? Was Laci there? The bare minimum was done to protect these people. We should be ashamed as a nation. I heard on the news before I came to work that the Red Cross was setting up shelters at locations in all of these outlying areas. Where is the Red Cross for these people??? Do they not deserve the same level of compassion? Oh, that's right. CNN says they 'opted' to stay in New Orleans.

[gatorboy]

6. The Superdome thing is frightening

A Red Cross worker said earlier on the news that they weren't even involved with the Superdome aid. Plus, reporters have been banned from going inside.

[Garbo 2004]

11. I've seen news TV reports from reporters inside the superdome. n/t

[gatorboy]

12. Recently?

Because a reporter from CNN just said in the last half hour that they weren't allowed into the Dome anymore.

[Horse with no Name]

17. My guess is that they aren't allowed by their network

They don't want the liability if the reporters get killed.
I highly doubt it is something the city set forth.

[Garbo 2004]

24. Maybe they weren't letting anymore in. The reporter I saw was from a local

station and he said that he was moving away from other reporters who were sleeping (so as not to disturb them?). This was a few hours ago. Sounded like he (and presumably the others) were there for the duration. I was streaming a local NO station. That's all I know.

[gatorboy]

26. It's possible that there are reporters in there at the moment.

I'm just re-reporting what CNN had said.:)

It is curious though why they haven't reported from the inside of the Superdome recently though.

[Garbo 2004]

31. WDSU had audio report live from their guy inside around 2 am PST fwiw.n/t

[OxQQme]

8. So the dome is totally below sea level.....OMG n/t

[Fleshdancer]

9. CNN just asked about the high temps if the dome floods

said the people would have to relocate but didn't say HOW. The other newscaster is talking about how the warnings for people in their homes include telling them to have a means to hack through the roof if they're stuck in the attic. Obvously this can't be the plan for the people in the dome. No answer given to your original "what it?" question sadly enough.

[Horse with no Name]

14. The Red Cross will not set up shelters in New Orleans

because they have long ago deemed that there isn't a safe shelter in that city, and by implying shelter--they were implying safety.
They didn't want to give the residents hope that they would be safe when they would not be.
This is more the city of New Orleans fault than it is of the Red Cross.
This is why the city calls these "shelters of last resort"...implying that this is where you go when you got no place to go.
Again...this isn't the Red Cross's fault.

[NYC]

20. Which brings us back to evacuation.

Knowing there was no safe shelter in the city, there should have been a heroic effort to evacuate people.

[Horse with no Name]

21. Yes.

And Fema was put under Homeland Security who spent all the money on terrorism instead of natural disasters.
Public safety was outsourced to corporations for profit.
This was not a failure of the city of New Orleans. I believe they did the best they could with both hands tied behind their backs.
This comes back to an administration who has spent every cent our country has on chasing boogeymen halfway across the world as a cover for robbing the country blind.

[NYC]

23. I fully agree.

I've been posting the link to IEM privatization here and there throughout the evening. Also, an occasional link to the disaster mitigation funds reduction.

[melody]

25. Plenty of people care and will be there to help

The people filing in looked like a cross-section of the population.

There will be lots of people - of every color - who'll be there to help out, including a lot of National Guardsfolk who are there right now.

[Fleshdancer]

5. Good question. I haven't heard the answer yet. n/t

[NYC]

10. Last resort.

A spokesman for the Superdome, Bill Curl, said it is a shelter of "last resort". It was not meant to be a shelter.

I guess they won't handle it "well". If those people are trapped in the circumstances you describe, it is better than having died in their homes. That's it. It isn't much, but that's it.

I don't know about ventilation in the Superdome once the electricity goes off. New Orleans is somewhere near 85 or 90 degrees. Will people actually die of the heat in there?

What about lights? Is there some sort of emergency lighting? Will it survive the flood, and how long will it last? Will people actually be sitting in the Superdome in the dark?

Did you see the pictures of the people in the Superdome? Sitting in those seats must be very uncomfortable.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. This is piss poor emergency planning and response

I hate to say it, but we as a nation will pay for this...

[NYC]

13. IEM Privatization.

From 2004:

IEM Team to Develop Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana
June 3, 2004

IEM, Inc., the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane season which runs through November.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4480507

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. I am curious so when is General Defense

forming? Refernce to an RPG game, GenDef succesor to DoD... it is so presceint

[NYC]

18. What is RPG?

Rocket propelled grenade?

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. role playing game

if you can find a book called Armagedon 2089, more than once I have been tempted to send a copy to my congress critters... the brits who wrote it in 2001 seem almost prescient

[NYC]

22. Thanks. I'll add it to my list of

books to read.

[Horse with no Name]

16. As well we should

In the worst case scenario, the superdome will be a tomb for those people.

[jobycom]

27. Yeah, it should be easy to evacuate a major city in a few hours

[Horse with no Name]

28. They had 20 hours

The mayor was on TV Saturday night at 8'ish telling everyone that if he could legally issue a mandatory evacuation right then, he would.
He said it was only a matter of time before the attorneys could get hospital's exempted, which happened Sunday am.
He said himself that the head guy at the National Hurricane Center told him "This is the big one".
This was Saturday night around 8. It was repeated at 10.
They had time. I think the problem was they didn't have anywhere to take these people.
Here you have to wonder why other cities didnt volunteer their facilities for evacuees. At the very least they could have made refugee camps.
Anything would have been better than sitting in the Superdome.

[jobycom]

29. 20 hours is a few hours to evacuate a city that size. And no, not anything

would have been better than sitting in the Superdome. It's the most massive structure in the region, why do you think that's a bad idea? It won't collapse, it will provide shelter to people whose other option was to stay in a street level shack somewhere or to get stuck on the interstate during the storm.

The mayor and everyone else warned people to get out, and people began getting out as soon as the warning was issued. People wait until the last minute on these things. They pack their belongings. They round up the family from the neighbors. They catch the family dog. They make plans with other relatives to meet up someplace. They try to figure out where to go, so they aren't stuck in their car on a highway. And then they try to secure their house or apartment as much as possible. Then they leave, ten hours or more after they are told to. That's quick, but it means jammed roads, overfilled hotels, etc.

There aren't amny places to go, either. New Orleans is in the middle of a swamp. They can't head east, because the storm may head that way. There are limited roads north because there is a huge lake and swamp to the north. So most of them head west. But there was still a chance the hurricane could go further west. So people wait again until the last moment, to see where it will head.

I've been through a lot of these hurricanes. You never know where they are going to hit. It's almost like the old NASCAR adage--the one place you can be certain it won't hit is where it's predicted to hit. So people wait to be sure they aren't going to move right into the path of the hurricane, and be stuck in a boat or a poorly constructed shelter somewhere.

The Superdome was a refuge of last resort, along with 10 other buildings. If you think that was a bad idea, then go sit in your car in a swamp below sea level on the outskirts of town as a twenty foot storm surge heads your way. The SD was a fantastic last resort refuge. If it is washed away or flooded to the point where people start drowning, then you can be pretty sure that the alternative possibilities would have been worse.

[Horse with no Name]

30. Too many people were interviewed and said that they would have left if

they had the means.
IMHO, the means should have been provided.
Nobody that wanted to leave should have been left to ride out the storm. Is there any reason they couldn't have been bused to Houston and put in the Astrodome?
However, I sincerely hope you are correct.
I hope that when it is over, the Superdome was the best place to put those people. I hope it ends up being touted as a savior to these people and not their tomb.