Tag: hurricane

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Puzzled Over

Compare And Contrast

> Evelyn Turner cries alongside the body of her common-law husband, Xavier Bowie, after he died in New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Bowie and Turner had decided to ride out Katrina when they could not find a way to leave the city. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

> President Bush plays a guitar presented to him by Country Singer Mark Wills, right, backstage following his visit to Naval Base Coronado, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Bush visited the base to deliver remarks on V-J Commemoration Day. (AP Photo/ABC News, Martha Raddatz)

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Disliked

Real Wrath-Of-God Type Stuff

Look, I know there’s a handful of people that may be reading this – mostly VJ Army users – that live in New Orleans. My advice after reading the Urgent Weather Warning from the NOAA is to run like hell.
I quote the level of destruction estimated, because I get the feeling the sheer insanity of the text will eventually disappear – emphasis is mine:

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...
PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL 
CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL 
GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.
THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME 
NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF 
FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING 
APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...
INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.
HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY 
DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL 
WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.
AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE 
HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT 
VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL 
BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL 
DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO 
THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.
POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES 
WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER 
SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN 
STANDARDS.
THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR 
UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE 
TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT 
EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.
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Disliked

Just My Luck

Katrina a top-strength hurricane, aims for U.S

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (Reuters) – Shopkeepers sandbagged galleries and stores in the French Quarter of the vulnerable Gulf Coast city of New Orleans and workers boarded up city hall as Hurricane Katrina strengthened dangerously on Sunday into a top-ranked storm.
Officials in the low-lying city famed for its Mardi Gras parades urged residents to evacuate and stranded tourists to shelter on at least the third floor of their hotels as Katrina threatened to make a second and possibly more deadly assault on the U.S. coast after killing seven people in Florida.
“This hurricane has the potential to cause extreme damage and large loss of lives if they don’t take action very soon,” Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, told WSVN television in Miami.
Katrina grew into a Category 5 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale by 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT), with winds of 160 mph (260 kph) capable of causing catastrophic damage. The storm was around 250 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
The hurricane center warned it could come ashore with a storm surge of up to 25 feet, and douse the Gulf coast with up to 15 inches of rain in some area.

We were scheduled to go to New Orleans for a short but much needed vacation on the 9th. My fingers as crossed as tightly as they can be that this won’t fuck everything up.