New Orleans

In case anyone hasn't heard, they're evacuating New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina's approach.

Jim M passed along a warning from the National Weather Service (that's a long page of warnings; you can search in the page for "1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005" to find this bulletin):

...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...

[...]

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. [...]

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. [...]

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

[...]

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 NOAA provides a three-day hurricane path prediction.

Scientific American published an article in October 2001 titled "Drowning New Orleans" that discussed possible consequences of a major storm there. (Link gives only the first couple paragraphs of the article.) Chilling.

There's some discussion on the Eastern US Weather Forums; a few people are saying there's still a chance the storm could miss New Orleans, but it sounds like chances of that are relatively low.

I hope those of you in affected areas are safe and well, and remain so throughout the coming days. It sounds like it will be a very rough time. Keep us posted if you can (though I imagine you won't see this for a while), and take care of yourselves.

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