[Vision2020] Hurricane Katrina

[Joan Opyr]

Dear Visionaries:

Hurricane Katrina is now a Category 5, with winds topping 175 mph and 
gusts above 200.  As a North Carolinian, I've seen my fair share of 
hurricanes; there's nothing like them.  They spawn tornados, flooding 
-- they are disasters of Biblical (whatever translation you may use) 
proportion.  Hurricane Hugo blew Charlotte, NC, to bits, and that city 
is more than five hours inland from the coast.  New Orleans, as many of 
you may know, is below sea level, situated in the midst of the 
Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico, and Lake Pontchartrain.  Water, 
water everywhere, and a vast pumping system that doesn't stand a hope 
in hell of keeping the city dry.

For decades, disaster preparedness experts have feared what would 
happen if a Category 5 ever hit New Orleans.  The levees are designed 
to keep the water out of the city, but in a storm like this, they'll 
more likely serve to keep the storm surge in.  To put things in 
perspective, nearly 3000 people were killed on 9/11.  If Katrina hits 
New Orleans full force tomorrow, it could kill as many as 44,000.  Let 
us hope and pray that it does not.

Joan

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.com

 From the Associated Press:

Hurricane Could Leave 1 Million Homeless

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By MATT CRENSON AP National Writer

August 28,2005 | -- When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, 
it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast 
cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins 
released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.

Experts have warned for years that the levees and pumps that usually 
keep New Orleans dry have no chance against a direct hit by a Category 
5 storm.

That's exactly what Katrina was as it churned toward the city. With top 
winds of 165 mph and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28 feet 
above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of 
biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people 
homeless.

"All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario," Ivor 
van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University 
Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.

The center's latest computer simulations indicate that by Tuesday, vast 
swaths of New Orleans could be under water up to 30 feet deep. In the 
French Quarter, the water could reach 20 feet, easily submerging the 
district's iconic cast-iron balconies and bars.

Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city's houses 
will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people 
who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless.

"We're talking about in essence having -- in the continental United 
States -- having a refugee camp of a million people," van Heerden said.

Aside from Hurricane Andrew, which struck Miami in 1992, forecasters 
have no experience with Category 5 hurricanes hitting densely populated 
areas.

"Hurricanes rarely sustain such extreme winds for much time. However we 
see no obvious large-scale effects to cause a substantial weakening the 
system and it is expected that the hurricane will be of Category 4 or 5 
intensity when it reaches the coast," National Hurricane Center 
meteorologist Richard Pasch said.

As they raced to put meteorological instruments in Katrina's path 
Sunday, wind engineers had little idea what their equipment would 
record.

"We haven't seen something this big since we started the program," said 
Kurt Gurley, a University of Florida engineering professor. He works 
for the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program, which is in its seventh 
year of making detailed measurements of hurricane wind conditions using 
a set of mobile weather stations.

Experts have warned about New Orleans' vulnerability for years, chiefly 
because Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of coastal 
wetlands in the past seven decades. The vast patchwork of swamps and 
bayous south of the city serves as a buffer, partially absorbing the 
surge of water that a hurricane pushes ashore.

Experts have also warned that the ring of high levees around New 
Orleans, designed to protect the city from floodwaters coming down the 
Mississippi, will only make things worse in a powerful hurricane. 
Katrina is expected to push a 28-foot storm surge against the levees. 
Even if they hold, water will pour over their tops and begin filling 
the city as if it were a sinking canoe.

After the storm passes, the water will have nowhere to go.

In a few days, van Heerden predicts, emergency management officials are 
going to be wondering how to handle a giant stagnant pond contaminated 
with building debris, coffins, sewage and other hazardous materials.

"We're talking about an incredible environmental disaster," van Heerden 
said.

He puts much of the blame for New Orleans' dire situation on the very 
levee system that is designed to protect southern Louisiana from 
Mississippi River floods.

Before the levees were built, the river would top its banks during 
floods and wash through a maze of bayous and swamps, dropping 
fine-grained silt that nourished plants and kept the land just above 
sea level.

The levees "have literally starved our wetlands to death" by directing 
all of that precious silt out into the Gulf of Mexico, van Heerden 
said.

It has been 40 years since New Orleans faced a hurricane even 
comparable to Katrina. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy, a Category 3 storm, 
submerged some parts of the city to a depth of seven feet.

Since then, the Big Easy has had nothing but near misses. In 1998, 
Hurricane Georges headed straight for New Orleans, then swerved at the 
last minute to strike Mississippi and Alabama. Hurricane Lili blew 
herself out at the mouth of the Mississippi in 2002. And last year's 
Hurricane Ivan obligingly curved to the east as it came ashore, barely 
grazing a grateful city.

Salon provides breaking news articles from the Associated Press as a 
service to its readers, but does not edit the AP articles it publishes.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information 
contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, 
rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The 
Associated Press.
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